My Books

Political and Spiritual: Essays on Religion, Environment, Justice and Disability

Political and Spiritual gather a variety of illuminating essays by an internationally known scholar of religion and ecology. New writings on technology, facing death, and an intellectual autobiography continue Gottlieb's unique ability to connect collective struggles for a just and caring society with personal strivings for wisdom and compassion. Read some of Political and Spiritual here.
"When Roger Gottlieb speaks, those who care listen. Political and Spiritual shows again why his voice is so significant. It's not that Roger has all the answers, but he asks penetrating questions that come out of his own personal journey and thoughtful reflection. His insights into a range of social, political, religious, and environmental issues not only mark our times, but open us to his prescient views of our changing world."-John Grim, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Yale Divinity School.
"In our day of canalized research, Gottlieb has no recognized location. He deals with many topics, but not in a way that accepts compartmentalization. Instead of value-free information so prized in the university, Gottlieb is a thinker, a true intellectual. In this book one can sample expressions of an underlying wisdom shaping reflection on numerous topics."-John B. Cobb Jr., professor emeritus, Claremont School of Theology.
"A landmark work. The best argument I have ever seen for Jewish engagement in ecological salvation. A sensitive, convincing look back at the Holocaust, for positive benefit to all humankind."-Jerome Gellman, Ben-GUrion University of the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Australian Catholic University.

Spirituality: What it is and Why it Matters

Spirituality is a unique account of spirituality from traditional religion to the present that reveals the common thread that joins Mahayana Buddhism and Hasidic Judaism, the Sufi Rumi and the Catholic St. Thomas a Kempis, people of all faiths and those who are "spiritual but not religious." Roger S. Gottlieb argues that spirituality is the simple but extraordinarily difficult attempt to face life's rigors and disappointments by becoming more mindful, accepting, grateful, compassionate, and lovingly connected to others. These virtues oppose both the social ego's attachment and arrogance, and any habitual, unreflective religiosity; and the path towards them can be shared equally by people inspired by belief in one God or many, the divinity of nature or the sacredness of life.
Spirituality examines the promises and perils of spiritual life as understood both within and outside of traditional faiths, explains the rise of the widespread spiritual detachment from institutional religion, and offers illuminating accounts of yoga, meditation, and prayer. There are also insightful studies of spirituality's relation to modern medicine, nature and the environmental crisis, and political activism.

Engaging Voices: Tales of Morality and Meaning in an Age of Global Warming

Our ecological dilemmas provoke powerful emotions and deeply contested views. How should we think about them? And how can we live together, or even talk together, when we cannot listen to people who think differently? In a lively and at times very funny book, Roger S. Gottlieb explores these questions in a collection of distinct but related philosophical short stories. Fictional characters with personalities, individual histories, and strong opinions wrestle with the meaning of life, the value of nature, animal rights, the roles of science and religion in environmentalism, and political choices facing environmental activists—as well as their own anger, fear, despair, and close-mindedness. Encountering forcefully articulated positions and engaging characters, readers will be moved to reconsider their own beliefs—and to examine personal barriers to truly listening to those "on the other side."
Buying details at Baylor Press "In a deeply polarized political climate, Gottlieb's book offers fresh insights of how we can save the planet and live together into the future with our moral and political differences. Timely and urgently needed, this compelling book challenges us to rethink political activism, spirituality, and community in new ways. I highly recommend it." —Kwok Pui-lan, President of the American Academy of Religion
"A highly imaginative, if also down to earth, appeal for better listening to each other, hopeful, fearful, ambivalent in the midst of our differences, and how such listening can bring us to better caring for our common Earth." —Holmes Rolston, III
"In these captivating stories Roger Gottlieb shows that fiction can still be a powerful way to engage with our most complex and pressing dilemmas. You will learn more philosophy by reading this one enjoyable and illuminat-ing journey through contemporary morality, politics, and spirituality than you would by taking any ten philosophy courses at most universities. This book is certain to both move and provoke you–challenging old ways of thinking and preparing us all for the challenges of the coming decades of the 21st century."
—Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine, author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right "In this heart-opening and beautifully-written book, Roger Gottlieb shares moving stories of profound difference that reflect the urgent challenge of creating a moral community. Engaging Voices invites us to experience how opening ourselves to what others have to say—especially those we fundamentally disagree with—tests our moral courage in ways that accelerate inner growth, and provide pathways for improving our collective lives." —Paul Wapner, Director of the Global Environmental Politics Program, American University

Religion and the Environment

This four volume edited collection serves as a comprehensive introduction, overview, and in depth account of worldwide religious environmentalism. The four volumes cover virtually every aspect of the field—from theological change and institutional commitment to innovation in liturgy, from new ecumenical connections among different religions and between religion, science and environmental movements, from religious participation in environmental politics to an account of the global social and political contexts in which religious environmentalism has unfolded.

The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology

This book serves as the definitive scholarly overview of the exciting new connections between religion and ecology. Part I explores traditional religious concepts of and attitudes towards nature and how these have been changed by the environmental crisis. Part II analyzes conceptual issues that transcend individual traditions. Part III examines religious participation in environmental politics. With essays by the leading scholars in the field, many of whom have been instrumental in the rise of religious environmentalism, this Handbook will be invaluable to anyone interested in religion, environmentalism, and the future of our planet.

A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet's Future

"Roger S. Gottlieb chronicles the promises of this critically important movement, illuminating its principal ideas, leading personalities, and ways of connecting care for the earth with justice for human beings." -- Oxford University Press
Roger S. Gottlieb has written a seminal book examining the emerging debate on environmental ethics among the world's great faith traditions and what that means for the future of environmental stewardship. -- Carl Pope, Executive Director, The Sierra Club Roger S. Gottlieb presents a comprehensive view of the nexus of religion and the environment. The specific stories of faith-based environmentalism provide a bright picture of the faith community's capacity for caring for God's creation. If we actively follow his lead, we will go a long way toward being more effective stewards of our fragile planet. -- Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA
Eminently readable, this book would make student discussions far more knowledgeable and sophisticated. It provides insights to religious environmentalists and helps broaden the views of the despisers of religion. Above all, this is a hopeful and wise book. -- Environmental Ethics
Gottlieb's beautifully written and carefully researched work is essential reading for people of faith, environmentalists, scholars and anyone who is concerned about our planet's future. -- Daily Star (U.K.)
An extended exercise in the practice of hope. -- San Francisco Chronicle
A Greener Faith is an exceptionally readable and informative history of religious environmen-talism, written by a scholar who has documented the movement from the early days, and who writes about it not only with clarity detail but also with empathy and hope. Review by Anna Pe-terson
Students and professionals with an interest in the intersection of environmental thought with virtually any discipline in the social sciences or the humanities will have their horizons expanded by reading A Greener Faith. Review of Policy Research Forum

Liberating Faith: Religious Voices for Justice, Peace, and Ecological Wisdom

This sweeping new anthology shows how religion has joined with and learned from movements for social justice, peace, and ecological wisdom. Liberating Faith surveys the entire range of religious social activism: from liberation theology and feminist religion to ecotheology and peace activism. It includes theology, social critique, position papers, denominational statements, manifestos, rituals, prayers, biographical accounts, and journalistic descriptions of real world struggles, beginning with a survey of ethical teachings from traditional sources.
What a treasure-trove Liberating Faith is. Reading it is both intellectually enriching and spiritually nourishing. It offers an alternative to 'repressive fundamentalism' and 'spiritless secularism.' Truly, it is a rich resource for the seasoned social activist and beginner alike.
-- Religious Studies Review Roger Gottlieb has done us all an enormous service by bringing together in this volume the words of the most inspiring and insightful thinkers of our time, from all over the world. We learn here, in passage after passage of surpassing eloquence, that political activism on behalf of peace and justice cannot live and grow unless suffused with spiritual powers. I hope this book will be widely read in classrooms all over the country, because it is a needed corrective for politics without heart, and religion without justice.
-- Howard Zinn Roger Gottlieb offers a splendid anthology of sanctity and hope. Religious and secular voices, in the best tradition of each, speak up, loud and clear. The sum is a synthesis of enlightened, courageous idealism. In a dark time, gratitude befits. -- Daniel Berrigan
This book can be of tremendous value to secondary school teachers dealing with issues of social justice, and it includes readings that would greatly serve students in a variety of ethics courses. The book is full of treasures, some timeless, some quite recent, most of which deserve the kind of slow savoring that allow the fullness of their thoughts to take hold. -- Religious Studies in Secondary Schools

This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment (Second Edition)

New York and London: Routledge, 2003. I welcome this second edition of This Sacred Earth, more comprehensive and inclusive than ever. The promise of religion is splendidly and urgently documented here. -- Hollmes Rolston, III
Roger Gottlieb has done a masterful job in covering the diversity of the spiritual response to the real roots of our ecologic crisis. It remains the textbook for college courses that focus on the link between religion and environment. -- J. Baird Callicott

A Spirituality of Resistance: Finding a Peaceful Heart and Protecting the Earth

Rowman & Littlefield, 2003
Gottlieb is able to speak to a wide audience, managing to stay away from religious dogma and speak directly to our heart. He questions the nature of how we define work, which generally forms a large part of personal identity, but is all too often under the control of bureaucracies that are contributing to the environmental degradation we all fear. He gives us the spiritual fuel needed to rekindle our desire to do what we can and not get discouraged. -- Faithalive.com
Will touch the reader's heart and move it to moral commitment. -- Elie Wiesel
Provides a bold new challenge for those who are serious about cultivating the spiritual dimension of life. In eloquent prose, Gottlieb demonstrates a mastery of both the pitfalls and possibilities for spiritual development in the face of the environmental crisis. -- Environmental Ethics
A brilliant and important challenge. -- Rabbi Michael Lerner
If you agree we have a global problem on our hands and you want to join the spiritual seeker and the political activist in yourself, this is the book for you. -- America

Joining Hands: Politics and Religion Together for Social Change

Roger Gottlieb has produced a profound and significant integration of spiritual and political concerns. Highlighting the spiritual strengths and weaknesses of the civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements, Gottlieb shows that world-making politics and religion can be partners as they inform and deepen each other. As he ponders his role as a father of a physically challenged child, eschewing a perpetually optimistic version of spirituality, Gottlieb forces us to rethinking our commitment to "rational autonomy" as central to human identity. Rather than the dogmatic confidence of the true believer, Gottlieb offers faith and hope that leads to individual and collective political action even in the face of sorrow and loss, and without the surety of success. -- Tikkun
Joining Hands presents an outstanding and critical analysis of the issues of politics and religion, and examines their existing and possible modes of interface in order to enhance "the full openness of religion and politics to each other's insights." It is difficult to quarrel with a book that is so well-written, so steeped in scholarship, and so good at anticipating and answering criticisms. -- Socialism and Democracy