Books

Growing up on the frontline of the culture wars forms you in a certain sort of way. In this book, I draw upon both my scholarship and my personal experiences growing up amid resurging religious fundamentalism to trace competing visions of what “freedom” means and how they are weaponized in today’s culture wars. I reframe the Exodus story to recast the meaning of “freedom” as understood in US culture and describe authentic Christian freedom as living in self-giving love for the sake of others.

Dutiful Love explores the distinctive relationship between self-sacrificial love and caregiving when that duty to care extends over the course of an entire lifetime because of social limitations placed upon people with mental illness. My interviews of siblings growing up in families affected by serious mental illness invite us to think about the concept of self-giving as an alternative to self-sacrifice. In the context of families impacted by mental illness or degenerative disease, healing is more synonymous with presence. Intentional presence involves self-giving, listening, contemplation, prophetic truth-telling, and walking with another so that isolation, stigma, and shame no longer define the social realities of people with mental illness, their siblings, or their larger families.

In her review in the Presbyterian Outlook, Amy Pagliarella says, “Hinson-Hasty deftly writes for both an academic and mass audience. This is the book I wish I had read in seminary; to be clear, it’s not a “how-to” manual for pastoral care classes (and I would be wary of any guide that aims to turn pastors into amateur psychiatrists!) It is, however, a useful addition to studies of biblical and theological ethics, and it’s a book that a pastor would carry with them, knowing they could offer it to colleagues or a church committee.”

What if we reconsidered our views on poverty and perceived it as a problem with the way we live with wealth? Approaching the issue from a theo­logical rather than a market-driven perspective invites an alternative social logic, informed by a much richer picture of human beings and our limits as we live in symbiotic relationship with the larger delicate web of life.

In The Problem of Wealth, Elizabeth L. Hinson-Hasty reframes the current discussion of wealth inequalities, poverty, and the exploi­tation of our natural environment from a progressive Christian perspective. She under­scores the need for social change advocates to emerge out of every context, including the middle class, and presents alternate visions for what it means to live by “an ethic of enough.”

Just Faith Ministries adopted The Problem of Wealth for study groups during the 2018-2019 year. If you become a member additional resources are available on the Just Faith website.

Reviews of The Problem of Wealth are available online at Reading Religion and Ecclesio.

Bellarmine Magazine featured an excerpt from the book which you can read on their website.

Dorothy Day is a theologian with street cred. In spite of having no formal training in theology, Day’s work and writing on behalf of people in poverty and oppressed bears eloquent testimony to the creativity and courage of her theological vision. Her journalism for the Catholic Worker and her advocacy for people in poverty, women, ethnic minorities, and others come together to form a consistent theology of the church and its ministry to the world.

Beyond the Social Maze is the first thoroughgoing exploration of Vita Dutton Scudder’s theological ethics. Scudder taught at Wellesley College for more than forty years and chartered new territories in both theoretical and practical aspects of movements for social reform. In this book, I explore the distinctive perspective Scudder brought to bear on the social gospel project. Her theological perspective differed from that of Walter Rauschenbusch, the most famous proponent of the movement. Like him, she aimed to rally Christian energies to work toward transforming society in light of a commitment to the Kingdom of God. However, unlike Rauschenbusch, who emphasized the teaching of Jesus and the prophets, an explicit trinitarian emphasis informed Scudder’s understanding of the Kingdom and her social outlook. She appealed to Divine Society as a model for justice and equality in her own context. Her distinctive vision integrated her Anglican theological convictions with an impulse toward practical reform.

Co-Edited Books

In honor of the one-hundredth anniversary of the 1908 Social Creed and the development of a Social Creed for the twenty-first century, Chris Iosso and Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty have compiled new prayers from well-known church and community leaders. This seminal volume includes the words from the new Social Creed and prayers reflecting social justice themes referenced in the creed, including poverty, economic justice, and care for the environment. Walter Brueggemann, John Buchanan, Tony Campolo, Katie Geneva Cannon, and Marian Wright Edelman are among contributors, making this an important resource for laity and congregational leaders in every denomination for the next century.

Encouraging Christians to call for public policies that benefit those most vulnerable in our nation, To Do Justice offers tools for studying complex domestic social problems such as Social Security, immigration, the environment, and public education, and serves as a guidebook to becoming involved in social action.

Rooted in Christian tradition, each essay analyzes a contemporary problem from social, biblical, and theological perspectives before providing directions for public policy. These engaged ethicists from across the mainline denominations provide concrete examples of how progressive-minded Christians can work for justice in response to these moral dilemmas. With discussion questions in each chapter, this book is an excellent resource for classrooms–both in colleges and in churches.

Select Contributions to Books

“Girl-Talk (Gossip)” for Encountering the Sacred, co-edited by Rebecca Todd Peters and Grace Y. Kao. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018, 105-118.

“Mentoring Toward a Humane Disposition, Attitude, and Imagination,” co-authored with Douglas F. Ottati in a book edited by Cameron Murchison and Dean Thompson. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2017, 195-210.