A Passion for the Possible, Second Edition: A Message to U.S. Churches / Edition 2

by William Sloane Coffin

Overview

A Passion for the Possible presents a vision for the future that challenges assumptions and deepens our understanding of the importance of social change. William Sloane Coffin deals with social issues that continue to face U.S. churches—war, the environment, racism, homophobia, abortion, and sexism. This second edition adds Coffin's powerful sermon preached after September 11, 2001 and a foreward by Martin Marty.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664228569
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	01/01/2004
Edition description:	2ND
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

William Sloane Coffin served as chaplain of Yale University and Williams College, was senior minister of Riverside Church, and is President Emeritus of SANE/FREEZE: Campaign for Global Security. He became famous while at Yale in the 1960s for his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was jailed as a civil rights Freedom Rider, indicted by the U.S. government in the Benjamin Spock conspiracy trial, and has been immortalized as Rev. Sloan in the Doonesbury comic strip. Both Union Theological Seminary in New York and Yale University have established scholarships in his honor.Included in his works are Credo and A Passion for the Possible, both available from WJK.

Table of Contents

	Foreword to the Second Edition	IX
	Introduction	1
1	A Vision of the Future	4
2	Beyond War	15
3	The Environment	26
4	Beyond Charity	34
5	Race and Class	45
6	Sexism	55
7	Homophobia	62
8	Abortion	69
9	Career Versus Calling	75
	Epilogue: A Word to the Preachers	84
	God Bless America	89

Editorial Reviews

Not everyone will agree with Coffin's solutions to controversial issues of war, environment, welfare, racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and careerism. But Coffin, formerly pastor of Riverside Church in New York, confronts these issues clearly, with compassionate understanding of both sides of an issue and with meditative reasoning steeped in both biblical and contemporary cultural understandings. An epilog encourages preachers, in the spirit of Thurgood Marshall, to realize that ``hope criticizes what is, hopelessness rationalizes it.'' This work is not only for clergy and churchgoers but also for anyone wanting to rethink these issues. Recommended for public and seminary libraries.

Library Journal