Sharon D. Welch boldly continues to be a crucial liberative voice who refuses to embrace simplistic truth claims or gloss over Christian-based violence which leads many to hopelessness. She critically analyzes what it means to be a scholar-activist, forcing the rest of us who use such a label to question what our faith and actions rests upon. Cognizant of her privileges, she nevertheless focuses on the particular and moves forward in constructing a liberationist response attuned to a critical thinking paradigm which remains rooted in praxis. Maybe this theological shift might just save liberal Christianity? Regardless if it does, such a move positions Welch, and those who take her work seriously, to authentically stand in solidarity with different marginalized communities in resistance to social structures responsible for so much of today's global oppression." --Miguel De La Torre
What does it mean to be an American during this time of ongoing challenges of race and sex discrimination, of violence and gross disparities in economic opportunity? And where are the activists who traditionally rallied against the ills of America--the democrats, progressives and leftists--to seize upon these enemies? In Sweet Dreams in America, Sharon Welch charts a way for people in power to inspire others and themselves, even if the goals of a gradually improving society and of achieving social justice seem illusory. The author links political work to spirituality, showing how we can channel the sense of being connected to forces outside ourselves to a larger good.
What does it mean to be an American during this time of ongoing challenges of race and sex discrimination, of violence and gross disparities in economic opportunity? And where are the activists who traditionally rallied against the ills of America--the democrats, progressives and leftists--to seize upon these enemies? In Sweet Dreams in America, Sharon Welch charts a way for people in power to inspire others and themselves, even if the goals of a gradually improving society and of achieving social justice seem illusory. The author links political work to spirituality, showing how we can channel the sense of being connected to forces outside ourselves to a larger good.
How many times have we asked what would be an appropriate North American equivalent to the base communities and the liberation theology of Latin America? Now in Sharon Welch's fluent but solid book we have an answer. Drawing on a wide variety of philosophical and theological sources and viewing the whole from a critical feminist perspective, Welch suggests how subjugated forms of knowledge can be recuperated as human communities learn to support each other in resisting our socio-cultural death wish. A passionate and poetic book, which strikes a new chord in theology both in style and in substance."" --Harvey Cox, author of Religion in the Secular City ""In this book Sharon Welch contributes to a vital conversation, namely, in what sense feminist liberation theologians (for that matter, all honest theologians) must acknowledge both the relativist insights of their truth-claims and the ethically normative value of their work. This is a critical dialectic and Welch's theology helps sharpen it."" --Carter Heyward, Professor of Theology, Episcopal Divinity School ""Sharon Welch offers here not simply a feminist theology of liberation but a new way of doing theology as such. She brings together the resources of Christian faith, the creativity and passions of personal experience, and finely honed instruments of analysis found in Michel Foucault and Ernst Bloch. The results are exciting: 'dangerous memory, ' 'genealogies of resistance, ' 'poetics of revolution.' It would be difficult to read this work and continue to think in the usual ways about men and women, faith, power, theology, in fact, about anything."" --Edward Farley, Vanderbilt Divinity School ""Sharon Welch is the quintessential scholar/activist, one who has never let her devotion to the academy and signal accomplishments there preclude a profound commitment to changing the 'real world' in which we live."" --William F. Schulz, former Executive Director of Amnesty International USA and President of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee ""I think of Welch as the best kind of activist/academic, and consider her a role model. Her recent focus on alternatives to the binary ways of thinking about morality and war/peace initiatives, and her honest explorations of the amoral character of religion are truly exciting. That she refuses to romanticize religious traditions--even as she attends with utter seriousness to the possibilities for liberative and humane possibilities for global life--gives Welch a kind of realistic wisdom unusual for an academic."" --Dr. Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Associate Professor of Theology, Duke Divinity School Sharon Welch is a social ethicist who currently serves as Provost and Professor of Religion and Society at the Unitarian Universalist theological school in Chicago, Meadville Lombard. She has held positions as Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and Adjunct Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri from 1991-2007. She was assistant and then associate professor of Theology and Religion and Society at Harvard Divinity School from 1982 to 1991. Welch is currently a member of the Social Enterprise Alliance, the Unitarian Universalist Peace Ministry Network, and a Fellow of the Institute for Humanist Studies. In her work as Provost, Welch has led in the development of a contextual model of theological education that is grounded in deep immersion in both the social and natural worlds that surround us and sustain us. Welch is the author of five books and numerous articles in the field of social ethics. She is the recipient of numerous awards, many of which recognize her excellence in teaching. Among these are the Internationalizing the Curriculum Course Development Award (2002) and the College of Education, High Flyer Teaching Award (several years). She also received the Annual Gustavus Myers Award: Honorable Mention for her 1999 book, Sweet Dreams in
When the protests are over, a guide to creating long-lasting social change beyond the barricades From the Women’s March in D.C. to #BlackLivesMatter rallies across the country, there has been a rising wave of protests and social activism. These events have been an important part of the battle to combat racism, authoritarianism, and xenophobia in Trump’s America. However, the struggle for social justice continues long after the posters and megaphones have been packed away. After the protests are heard, how can we continue to work toward lasting change? This book is an invaluable resource for anyone invested in the fight for social justice. Welch highlights examples of social justice work accomplished at the institutional level. From the worlds of social enterprise, impact investing, and sustainable business, After the Protests Are Heard describes the work being done to promote responsible business practices and healthy, cooperative communities. The book also illuminates how colleges and universities educate students to strive toward social justice on campuses across the country, such as the Engaged Scholarship movement, which fosters interactions between faculty and students and local and global communities. In each of these instances, activists work from within institutions to transform practices and structures to foster justice and equality. After the Protests Are Heard confronts the difficult reality that social change is often followed by spikes in violence and authoritarianism. It offers important insights into how the nation might more fully acknowledge the brutal costs of racism and the historical drivers of racial injustice, and how people of all races can contain such violence in the present and prevent its resurgence in the future. For many members of the social justice community, the real work begins when the protests end. After the Protests Are Heard is a must-read for everyone interested in social justice and activism – from the barricades and campuses to the breakrooms and cubicles.
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