In an era that oscillates regularly between nihilism and the erosion of moral vision, on the one hand, and pseudo-gnostic myths of self-apotheosis on the other, the classical Christian claim of human participation in the divine as the story of the transformation of human life in its physical, moral, spiritual, and eschatological dimensions takes on radical, counter-cultural color. It is an affirmation that offers hope and meaning for humanity secured by Gods participation in human life through Jesus Christ. The christological ground of this claim is crucial to secure and animate the argument of this text. The author performs, in this, a retrieval of the christological vision of the unification of the divine and the human in the single subject of Jesus Christ as the programmatic center point of human transformation and participation, articulated particularly by Cyril of Alexandria. The patristic pattern is used as a lens through which to examine and assess modern iterationsthose of Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar. In this, the author provides a critical updating of this vital classical theme, annotating a vision of divine life opened up for created participation that can foster hope in the climes of contemporary life.

This volume unravels the debates on the »Participation Age«: Instead of perpetuating visions of social »all-inclusion« or the »digital divide«, the collection reclaims collectivity as an effect of technological and historical conditions. Thinking of participation both as promise and duty, the contributions analyse the attractions and impositions connected to the socio-technical formation of collectivities. The constraints of participation are addressed by focusing on the mutual shaping of user practices and technological environments. It is hence a relational thinking that allows specifying the manifold interconnections of technology, practices and discourses.

Too often, the church hasn't done justice to its own gospel because it has neglected how much the New Testament message is about deep involvement in life with God. Senior New Testament scholar Klyne Snodgrass offers a corrective, explaining that the church will never be what it is supposed to be without a recovery of the gospel. This brief, accessibly written, and timely book shows that the biblical message is about attachment to Christ, participation in his death and resurrection, and engagement in his purposes. Snodgrass demonstrates that understanding and appropriating the gospel of participation conforms with what the church's great thinkers have emphasized throughout history and enables the church to recover its true identity. This book brings the notion of participation in the gospel to a wider church audience. While other studies on this topic focus mostly on Paul's writings, You Need a Better Gospel shows that participation is the emphasis of the entire Bible, including the Old Testament. The real gospel, which offers participation in life with God, is astounding in its beauty and its power for life.

Amitai Etzioni has made his reputation by transcending unwieldy, and even dangerous, binaries such as left/right or globalism/nativism. In his new book, Etzioni calls for nothing less than a social transformation—led by a new social movement—to save our world’s democracies, currently under threat in today’s volatile and profoundly divided political environments. The United States, along with scores of other nations, has seen disturbing challenges to the norms and institutions of our democratic society, particularly in the rise of exclusive forms of nationalism and populism. Focusing on nations as the core elements of global communities, Etzioni envisions here a patriotic movement that rebuilds rather than splits communities and nations. Beginning with moral dialogues that seek to find common ground in our values and policies, Etzioni sets out a path toward cultivating a "good" form of nationalism based on this shared understanding of the common good. Working to broaden civic awareness and participation, this approach seeks to suppress neither identity politics nor special interests in its efforts to lead us to work productively with others. Reclaiming Patriotism offers a hopeful and pragmatic solution to our current crisis in democracy—a patriotic movement that could have a transformative, positive impact on our foreign policy, the world order, and the future of capitalism.

Twenty-five leaders from the higher education and service-learning sectors provide insight into what works in building citizenship through civic engagement on their campuses and communities. From small colleges to large universities, these strong voices demonstrate that American democracy is very much active and prepared for the 21st century.

Reclaiming Participatory Governance offers empirical and theoretical perspectives on how the relationship between social movements and state institutions is emerging and developing through new modes of participatory governance. One of the most interesting political developments of the past decade has been the adoption by social movements of strategies seeking to change political institutions through participatory governance. These strategies have flourished in a variety of contexts, from anti-austerity and pro-social justice protests in Spain, to movements demanding climate transition and race equality in the UK and the USA, to constitutional reforms in Belgium and Iceland. The chief ambition and challenge of these new forms of participatory governance is to institutionalise the prefigurative politics and social justice values that inspired them in the first place, by mobilising the bureaucracy to respond to their claims for reforms and rights. The authors of this volume assess how participatory governance is being transformed and explore the impact of such changes, providing timely critical reflections on: the constraints imposed by cultural, economic and political power relations on these new empowered participatory spaces; the potential of this new "wave" of participatory democracy to reimagine the relationship between citizens and traditional institutions towards more radical democratic renewal; where and how these new democratisation efforts sit within the representative state; and how tensions between the different demands of lay citizens, organised civil society and public officials are being managed. This book will be an important resource for students and academics in political science, public administration and social policy, as well as activists, practitioners and policymakers interested in supporting innovative engagement for deeper social transformation. Chapter 11 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

The Gospel of John would seem to be both the “spiritual Gospel” and a Gospel that promotes Christian mission. Some interpreters, however, have found John to be the product of a sectarian community that promotes a very narrow view of Christian mission and advocates neither love of neighbor nor love of enemy. In this book for both the academy and the church, Michael Gorman argues that John has a profound spirituality that is robustly missional, and that it can be summarized in the paradoxical phrase “Abide and go,” from John 15. Disciples participate in the divine love and life, and therefore in the life-giving mission of God manifested in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As God’s children, disciples become more and more like this missional God as they become like his Son by the work of the Spirit. This spirituality, argues Gorman, can be called missional theosis.