In this book, Paul Babie and Michael Trainor compare our contemporary preoccupation with ownership and consumption with the role of property and possessions in the biblical world, contending that Christian theology provides a valuable entry point to discussing the issue of private property--a neoliberal tool with the capacity to shape the world in which we live by exercising control over the planet's resources. Babie and Trainor draw on the Gospel According to Luke, arguing that this first century CE document offers a radical, challenging view of wealth and possessions that in the...

In contemporary society there are several issues making for a divisive atmosphere in regard to religion. The decreasing level of spirituality in the West it can be argued has created a wide divide between the 'faithful' and groups such as agnostics, atheists and those of mixed spirituality. In addition throughout the world where strong connections to religion remain a central part of nation's identities, these connections can and often are misused in the secular public sphere In such a divided world, both secular and non-secular 'forces' tend to lock themselves into positions of 'pure...