Search results for ""Author Ana Levy-Lyons""

Now includes discussion questions and contemplation exercises for individual study and reading groups.Ana Levy-Lyons, a public theologian who is equally at home in secular and religious worlds, offers a deeply perceptive reinterpretation of the Ten Commandments for our modern lives.The Ten Commandments are a spiritual resource for social justice. A politically and spiritually brazen prescription for living, the Ten Commandments would turn our world upside down if we actually followed them. Far from being only ethical norms on which everyone already agrees or a remnant of a bygone oppressive era, the Commandments are actually countercultural practices.Today the Ten Commandments are a divisive part of American culture. Religious conservatives champion them, even if they don't always practice them. Religious liberals and the nonreligious may bristle at what they perceive as antiquated moral restrictions. But, this ancient code still has vital contemporary relevance. Rev. Levy-Lyons explores ways the Commandments bring us meaning, illuminate our values, and help us navigate through the turbulent waters of social injustice, environmental crises, and societal inequity.No Other Gods looks at each Commandment in new ways, moving beyond interpersonal morality to the global economy and our hyper-connected age. From the first, You Shall Have No Other Gods Besides Me (Dethrone the Modern Deities of Political, Social, and Corporate Power), to the tenth Do Not Covet (Practice Your Liberation-You Have Enough, You Are Enough)-and all those in between-she underscores how the Commandments can produce a bold spiritual consciousness.Whether you are deeply religious or spiritual-but-not-religious, learn how the Ten Commandments can guide you to resist injustice, heal our earth, and find personal dignity amid the free-for-alls of modern life. "We don't have to invent a bunch of new practices for a meaningful way to live out our spirituality and social justice politics," says Levy-Lyons. "There is a perfectly good set of ten of them, all ready to go, with as much progressive firepower as any of us can handle, that has existed for some three thousand years."

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An insightful and fresh perspective of the Ten Commandments reveals how this ancient text is the underpinning for social justice, equality, and the foundation of society.Each commandment is expanded beyond interpersonal morality to encompass the global economy and our hyper-connected age. Stealing, for example, is recast as the difference between the fair trade price of a commodity and what we pay. Keeping the Sabbath is recast as resistance to consumer culture, having enough. The Ten Commandments are a resource for everyone, from the spiritual-but-not-religious to the deeply observant, who wants to resist injustice, heal our earth, and find personal dignity amid the free-for-alls of modern life. We don't have to invent a bunch of new practices to meaningfully integrate our spirituality and politics. There is already a perfectly good set of ten of them, with as much progressive firepower as any of us can handle, that has existed for some 3000 years.Introduction: The Ten Commandments Are Practices of LiberationThe First Commandment: You Shall Have No Other Gods Besides MeDethrone the Modern Deities of Political, Social, and Corporate PowerThe Second Commandment: Do Not Make for Yourself a Sculpted Image; Do Not Bow to Them, Do Not Serve ThemAccept No Substitutes for God's Power of LiberationThe Third Commandment: Do Not Take the Name of God in VainDefend the Goodness of God; Take Responsibility for Resistance and ChangeThe Fourth Commandment: Observe the Sabbath Day and Keep it HolySquander One Day Every WeekThe Fifth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Your MotherStay Accountable to Where You Came FromThe Sixth Commandment: Do Not KillRenounce Human and Ecological ViolenceThe Seventh Commandment: Do Not Commit AdulteryStay In for the Long Run, Reject Throw-Away CultureThe Eighth Commandment: Do Not StealPay What Stuff Really Costs in Fair Wages and the Planet's ResourcesThe Ninth Commandment: Do Not Testify Against Your Neighbor As a Lying WitnessSpeak and Demand Truth in Every Sphere - Home, Corporations, GovernmentThe Tenth Commandment: Do Not CovetPractice Your Liberation--You Have Enough, You Are Enough

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