Books by Leonardo Boff

Virtues are values underlying human practices. We are at the dawn of a new era, an era of global ethics requiring some core virtues. These core virtues are hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality. Book 1 treats the virtue of hospitality that is a right and a duty of all, and which is still to be discovered and practiced unconditionally. Book 2 deals with the virtues of co-living, respect, and tolerance, which are important virtues if the peoples of the earth are to live together in peace in our common home, the planet Earth. Finally, Book 3 deals with the virtue of communality; this is a very important virtue because a large part of humanity experiences hunger and thirst, which is something scandalous in this day and age, and which demonstrates a lack of humanity, because we possess the technical means and political framework to resolve this situation. If these core virtues become a reality, they will transform human practices into something beneficial both to human beings and to the planet Earth, our common home.""Leonardo Boff touches on a theme which is central to human flourishing and is a timely reminder of the need for the implementation of the practical politics of human connectedness. The exploration of the necessary processes to achieve hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality is a key challenge of our age, and this book makes a positive contribution to that goal.""--Christopher RowlandDean Ireland Professor of the Exegesis of Holy ScriptureUniversity of Oxford""Leonardo Boff spins the spirituality of St. Francis into an ecological, cosmic, political--albeit human--vision of what our world could become if we are willing to practice hospitality, co-living, tolerance, respect, and feasting together. As a pastor whose church is earth-friendly and becoming green with solar panels, I found in Boff''s Virtues a credible, sustainable spirituality for all peoples of faith to meet the challenges of th twenty-first century. Very few theologians weave environmental and social justice into a unified holistic vision as Boff has accomplished here.""--Robert Shore-GossSenior Pastor/TheologianMCC in the ValleyLeonardo Boff was born in Brazil in 1938 and received a doctorate from the University of Munich in Germany in 1970. For the following twenty years, he worked as Professor of Theology at the Franciscan School for Philosophy and Theology in Petropolis, Brazil. During the 1970s, he and Gustavo Gutierrez helped to define liberation theology. Since 1993 he has been a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology. He is also a member of the international Earth Charter Commission. Boff is the author of more than seventy books, including Saint Joseph: The Father of Jesus in a Fatherless Society. In 2001 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (which is considered to be the ""alternative"" Nobel Prize) by the Swedish Parliament.Alex Guilherme teaches in the Department of Philosophy at Durham University.

In Saint Joseph Leonardo Boff seeks to provide a vigorous critique and theological analysis of Saint Joseph and in so doing attempts to undo historical misconceptions, misunderstandings, and cliches that surround the figure of Joseph. The book provides a comprehensive view of the topic as it takes into account biblical references, including the apocrypha, church tradition, papal edicts, liturgical expressions, and various viewpoints proposed by theologians. Boff is also concerned with updating the figure of Saint Joseph; his first step in this direction is to provide a clear understanding of the life of Joseph as an artisan, husband, father, and educator. He then deals with the issue of the importance of Saint Joseph for current issues concerning family and fatherhood. Lastly, Boff argues that Saint Joseph helps us to understand new facets of the mystery of God, and the author does this through his argument concerning the order of hypostatic union, where, according to his argument, there is a relation between Jesus and the Son, Mary and the Holy Spirit, and Joseph and the Father. Boff seeks here to fill a gap in the theological literature, given that theologians have concentrated their efforts on Jesus and the Son and Christology, and Mary and the Holy Spirit and Mariology; but these same theologians have, by and large, given very little time to the figure of Saint Joseph and the Father and Josephology.Leonardo Boff was born in Brazil in 1938 and received a doctorate from the University of Munich in Germany in 1970. For the following 20 years he worked as Professor of Theology at the Franciscan School for Philosophy and Theology in Petropolis, Brazil. During the 1970s, he and Gustavo Gutierrez helped to define Liberation Theology. Since 1993 he has been a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology. He is also a member of the International Earth Charter Commission. Boff is the author of more than 70 books, including Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time. In 2001 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (which is considered to be the ""alternative"" Nobel Prize) by the Swedish Parliament. Alexandre Guilherme, the translator, does research and teaches at the University of Durham, UK.

Description:Why the furor over this book? Why was Church: Charism and Power the subject of a Vatican inquiry? The reason, ironically enough, has little to do with its alleged use of Marxist thought, but rather with its critical understanding of the church in the light of the gospel. Church: Charism and Power is a provocative, devastating critique of the ways in which power, sacred power, is controlled and exercised in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a militant book, a radical book, but it is by no means defective in orthodoxy. In fact, with all its criticism it offers a brilliant defense of the historical claims of Roman Catholicism.Its central thesis argues that since the fourth century the church has fallen victim to a kind of power that has nothing to do with the gospel and everything to do with the dynamics of power with all of its inevitable abuses. This historical reality, enshrined in the monarchical model of the church, was undermined at the Second Vatican Council and replaced by that of the church as people of God. This ''laical'' model is closely allied in Boff''s exposition with the notion of the church as sacrament of the Holy Spirit: the church as "sign and instrument of the now living and risen Christ, that is the Holy Spirit." A pneumatic ecclesiology such as this would lead the church back to its primitive dynamics of community, cooperation, and charism. It would create a church in which everyone shared equally and where flexible and appropriate ministries conformed to needs as they arose. Is such a church possible? Is it not simply the utopian dream of idealists and sectarians down through the ages? No, says Father Boff, given the incredible growth throughout Latin America of comunidades eclesiales de base, base communities, where the people express and achieve their desire for participation and where the hierarchy divests itself of its titles and ecclesiastical baggage, creating a common desire for community and equality. This model of the church has acquired an unexpected historical possibility: the new church is in the process of being born. This church, the church being born from the faith of the poor, has rediscovered for itself--and for the church universal--the living presence of the dangerous memory of Jesus Christ.About the Contributor(s):Leonardo Boff was born in Brazil in 1938 and received a doctorate from the University of Munich in Germany in 1970. For the following twenty years, he worked as Professor of Theology at the Franciscan School for Philosophy and Theology in Petropolis, Brazil. During the 1970s, he and Gustavo Gutiérrez helped to define liberation theology. Since 1993 he has been a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology. He is also a member of the international Earth Charter Commission. Boff is the author of more than seventy books, including Saint Joseph: The Father of Jesus in a Fatherless Society. In 2001 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (which is considered to be the "alternative" Nobel Prize) by the Swedish Parliament.

Virtues are values underlying human practices. We are at the dawn of a new era, an era of global ethics requiring some core virtues. These core virtues are hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality. Book 1 treats the virtue of hospitality that is a right and a duty of all, and which is still to be discovered and practiced unconditionally. Book 2 deals with the virtues of co-living, respect, and tolerance, which are important virtues if the peoples of the earth are to live together in peace in our common home, the planet Earth. Finally, Book 3 deals with the virtue of communality; this is a very important virtue because a large part of humanity experiences hunger and thirst, which is something scandalous in this day and age, and which demonstrates a lack of humanity, because we possess the technical means and political framework to resolve this situation. If these core virtues become a reality, they will transform human practices into something beneficial both to human beings and to the planet Earth, our common home.

Description:In Saint Joseph Leonardo Boff seeks to provide a vigorous critique and theological analysis of Saint Joseph and in so doing attempts to undo historical misconceptions, misunderstandings, and cliches that surround the figure of Joseph. The book provides a comprehensive view of the topic as it takes into account biblical references, including the apocrypha, church tradition, papal edicts, liturgical expressions, and various viewpoints proposed by theologians. Boff is also concerned with updating the figure of Saint Joseph; his first step in this direction is to provide a clear understanding of the life of Joseph as an artisan, husband, father, and educator. He then deals with the issue of the importance of Saint Joseph for current issues concerning family and fatherhood. Lastly, Boff argues that Saint Joseph helps us to understand new facets of the mystery of God, and the author does this through his argument concerning the order of hypostatic union, where, according to his argument, there is a relation between Jesus and the Son, Mary and the Holy Spirit, and Joseph and the Father. Boff seeks here to fill a gap in the theological literature, given that theologians have concentrated their efforts on Jesus and the Son and Christology, and Mary and the Holy Spirit and Mariology; but these same theologians have, by and large, given very little time to the figure of Saint Joseph and the Father and Josephology.About the Contributor(s):Leonardo Boff was born in Brazil in 1938 and received a doctorate from the University of Munich in Germany in 1970. For the following 20 years he worked as Professor of Theology at the Franciscan School for Philosophy and Theology in Petropolis, Brazil. During the 1970s, he and Gustavo Gutierrez helped to define Liberation Theology. Since 1993 he has been a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology. He is also a member of the International Earth Charter Commission. Boff is the author of more than 70 books, including Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time. In 2001 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (which is considered to be the ""alternative"" Nobel Prize) by the Swedish Parliament. Alexandre Guilherme, the translator, does research and teaches at the University of Durham, UK.