Explores the complexities of forgiveness from a personal and political perspective, conveying the author's belief that religion has offered many of the best stories and metaphors for understanding the act of forgiveness and how it can relate to current events. Original.

When citizens band together in a civil society organization to effect change for the better, they can be a tremendous force for good. This book is about how to channel people’s enthusiasm most effectively, so that pitfalls are avoided, and goals are attained. The book reviews the variety and different kinds of civil society organizations (CSOs) in operation, and what is within their powers to achieve. It follows the progress of enthusiasts through to professional development practitioners, setting out the processes of planning, resource mobilization, and developing links to governments, businesses and citizens, while still conserving the spark and fire that brings citizens to development work in the first place. It highlights the alternative vision that CSOs bring to their countries’ problems and how this can inspire effective service provision and advocacy, as well as holding government accountable for what has been promised but not delivered. It helps with the periodic maintenance problems of CSOs and how they can keep up their standards. Finally it addresses three dangers of CSOs – foreign donor dependence, possible irrelevance in larger strategic thinking, and the loss of organizational strength.This book is essential reading for staff of national and international development organizations; fieldworkers; and all those wishing to create a people’s organization to effect change.

Product Description: A powerful memoir with a strong meditative and philosophical heartAt the tender age of 14, Richard Holloway left his home town of Alexandria, north of Glasgow, and traveled hundreds of miles to be educated and trained for the priesthood at an English monastery...read more

Product Description: The absolutely poor, who are mostly rural people, are a large part of the developing world's population and their numbers are growing. Government development programmes, aided by the big donors, have made the poor poorer and have rendered them more powerless in relation to the rest of society...read more

Product Description: Is the art of preaching dead? This book belongs to a series of works which intend to show that, far from being moribund, the tradition of preaching is alive and well. Included in this text are readings on seasons in the Christian year, saints and occasions (including ordination of first women to the priesthood in the Scottish Episcopal Chruch), as well as a practical epilogue on preaching...read more

Product Description: Being human isn’t easy. Consciousness and free will give control over life, but the mind is an unpredictable place. People are susceptible to forces that are not fully understood. In his thought-provoking new book Richard Holloway holds a mirror up to the human condition...read more

 A forgotten and beautiful African American folk tradition reexaminedTogether Let Us Sweetly Live offers a rare look at the unique grassroots African American religious institutions called the Singing and Praying Bands. This folksong and ring shout tradition began in Chesapeake Bay country in the early nineteenth century, with a fusion of Methodist prayer meeting worship and African religious, danced song traditions. Although scholars have assumed ring shouts died out long ago, Jonathan C. David shows otherwise, ushering us inside tidewater communities of Maryland and Delaware where they continue to thrive.A traditional band service represents a cultural commitment to mutual aid, called "help," operating as a system of social reciprocity, as a performance aesthetic, and as the foundation of community spirituality. The book's nine chapters tell the story of the Singing and Praying Bands at these services through oral histories, each told by a different member of a group. Seventy-eight photographs along with various song notations bring the spirit of the culture to life. The author's introduction provides the historical and ethnographic context needed to understand the bands and their tradition. An accompanying CD of original field recordings provides an opportunity to hear the service as if you were there.A volume in the series Music in American Life

Furnishes an intimate meditation on the human quest for wholeness, healing, and spiritual meaning in the twenty-first century, at a time in which organized religion would seem to have lost much of its grip on humanity and yet people seek spiritual guidance as much as, if not even more than, ever before.

A collection of personal responses to biblical readings by a diverse group of contributors includes Charles Frazier's reflections on the Book of Job, Bono's discussion of the Book of Psalms, and E. L. Doctorow's considerations on the First Book of Moses.

Product Description: For the first time in his life, Joe hasn’t got a smart-assed answer. He’s always been hilarious, irreverent and even cocky—if a little unsure of himself—but this time he’s in “the B.T.—big trouble…” in college. His Dean of Students has told him he has to write the story of his life or face expulsion from school; all this just because he’s in love, and was making love with his girlfriend at the wrong time in the wrong place on campus...read more

Product Description: Doubts and Loves argues that it is better to use Christianity as good poetry than as bad science and although the author sets out to deconstruct its doctrines he does so because he is anxious to release the power of these great themes from the antiquated containers that convey them...read more

Product Description: It is hard to put grief into words, and many people turn to poems to speak for them at an intensely difficult time. This book is the result of years of experience in helping to find appropriate poems. Poems in Scots and Gaelic are accompanied by glossaries of unfamiliar words, or parallel translations in English, as appropriate...read more

If God is the author of our moral code, how can we challenge it? Has increasing secularism eroded traditional moral systems? Bishop Richard Holloway challenges our assumptions and offers provocative solutions to these questions.

Based on a BBC Scotland history series that explores the great good - and the great harm - that the people of Scotland have experienced in the name of religion, 'The Sword and the Cross' concentrates on four key episodes in Scottish history that have shaped the nation.

Product Description: Rare book: Price in USD

Product Description: 'Provides an excellent conceptual framework for the various approaches to resource mobilization.' Paiboon Wattanasiritham, Director General, Chief Executive Officer, Government Savings Bank, Thailand A clear and practical guide aimed at the managers of civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations, citizens' movements, co-operatives, trade unions and other grass-roots organizations primarily in developing countries, on how to mobilize funds and other resources and in doing so become financially self-reliant...read more

Richard Holloway's highly acclaimed analysis of contemporary morality has met with great success in the U.K., while causing a great deal of controversy with its broadminded and refreshingly unhypocritical and honest views on life in modern society. Godless Morality tackles issues that affect us all -- it is a book with which every member of our society should engage. "Holloway's language and style are engaging, his research conscientious and his conclusions thoughtful and frequently wise." -- The Sunday Times (London) "A passionate, provocative and commonsense challenge to easy cant." -- The Observer (London) "A Book of Morals for our brave new world, by a very wise man indeed. Inspiring. Fascinating. Full of hope." -- Fay Weldon "This is a courageous book for a bishop to write, and everything it says about morality is right...." -- Literary Review

Product Description: This text tackles the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, from the existence of God and the authority of the Bible to sexuality, suffering and a society growing ever more distant from daily church life. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: A Death in Jerusalem

Product Description: The poor of the developing world's population are seen to be increasing as a result of government development programmes aided by the big donors by backing what they see as possible success. This book explores those organizations - people's movements, religious or voluntary groups, universities who have often devised "alternative" development strategies whose programmes are specifically intended to empower the powerless and enrich the poorest, but lack funds and political punch to make much more than a dent in the situation...read more