Welcome to the March/April issue of Tikkun Magazine. In this issue we offer a special section called God and the Twenty-First Century, with writing from Arthur Green, John D. Caputo, Gary Dorrien, David R. Loy, Zaid Shakar and many others. Plus we note the passing and discuss the legacy of Howard Zinn. 

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Departments

 

LETTERS

THE CONTRARIAN: Avatar—the Soul in the Machine

Editorials

Obama and Avatar
The president and the movie have more in common than you’d suspect. Can we remember that “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for” to change the world?

Passing a Constitutional Amendment to Challenge the Supreme Court’s Obeisance to Corporate Power.
Nothing less will suffice to overturn the latest capitulation to corporate interests.

SPECIAL SECTION: GOD AND THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

The idea that our understanding of God transforms as we transform and grow as individuals and as a species has deep roots in contemporary theology in the Jewish and Christian worlds. Jewish thinkers put it this way: the God of Moses (the one who led us out of Egypt) is not the God of Moses Maimonides (the great Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages). Yet these ideas have yet to penetrate popular consciousness and reshape the way the majority of Christians and Jews think about, worship, and serve God. Nor have the "new atheists" responded to much of this thinking of the past two hundred years -- they prefer to attack the more ancient and hence more easily ridiculed versions of religious thought. So when Art Green -- my former schoolmate at Temple B'nai Abraham in Newark, New Jersey, and at the Jewish Theological Seminary, who has become one of America's most respected Jewish thinkers and has been a member of our editorial board since Tikkun began in 1986 -- sent me the manuscript of his forthcoming book Radical Judaism, I asked him if we could use some excerpts to start a new discussion about God for our readers. We then asked some of the world's most significant and creative religious thinkers to tell us how they understand God. I hope you'll read and respond not only to Art Green, but also to the other thinkers who have miraculously kept their pieces to the short amount of space we offered them! Please send responses to letters@tikkun.org. If you'd like to share your ideas about God or respond to the perspectives presented in this section, we'll try to post them in the letters section at www.tikkun.org.
-- Rabbi Michael Lerner  

• Sacred Evolution by ARTHUR GREEN
  
• The Gap God Opens by JOHN D. CAPUTO
  
• The God of a Talmudist by ARYEH COHEN
  
• The Lure of Love Divine by GARY DORRIEN
  
• God, in Whom... by DIANA L. ECK
  
• A Call for Sacred Biologists by PETER GABEL
  
• There Can Be No Universal Talk of God by JEFFREY KUAN
  
• The Testimony of Faith to the Ultimate Origin by HANS KÜNG
  
• The Future of God—and Secularism by BRUCE LEDEWITZ
  
• A Universe Struggling to Become Aware? by DAVID R. LOY
  
• Is "Radical Theology" Radical? by SHAUL MAGID
  
• Climate Change and the Question of God by SALLIE MCFAGUE
  
• An Evolving View of God by DAVID NELSON
  
• Sacred Pronouns by JUDITH PLASKOW
  
• A God We Could Believe In by ROSEMARY RADFORD RUETHER
  
• God's Timeless Names by ZAID SHAKIR
  
• God in the Age of Twitter by WENDY ZIERLER

 

Rethinking Religion

 

Notes on Silence by YAHIA LABABIDI
Silence is more than just an absence of words—it's a wisdom beyond words that remains largely undervalued.

Reaching for the Moon: A Children’s Book Author Challenges the Separation of Science and Religion by GRAEME WEND-WALKER
Does your child know that themoon is poetry as well as rock? That scientific and spiritual meanings can complement each other?

The Healing Power of Sacred Dance by MIRIAM MARON
The Jewish tradition recognizes the power and sanctity of dance—not to mention its ability to heal.

 

Tikkun 2010 Passover Supplement

 

Politics and Society

The Activist’s Dilemma: Reform or Radical Change by ALLEN D. KANNER
Which works best—to attempt small steps or huge leaps?

Cash for Credits: Education in a Time of Hardship by SVI SHAPIRO
We must not allow education to become just another commodity.

Healing in Community by LAUREN REICHELT
A poverty-stricken town racked by violent crime comes together to build a playground but ends up accomplishing much more.

A Spiritual Perspective on Family Courts by BRUCE PETERSON
Legal culture promotes combat. Stressed families deserve better than that. Let's invent a new system.

Long Live Zinn by FRED BRANFMAN
Historian Howard Zinn didn't just talk the talk—he put his body on the line in the struggle for justice.

 

 

Culture

Film

Hagiopics from Hollywood

• Avatar, Legion, The Lovely Bones, The Book of Eli

  Review by DAVID STERRITT

• Tunisia, 1942: Humanity Amid Inhumanity
  The Wedding Song
  
  Review by RALPH SELIGER

MUSIC

This Is Andalus!

• Siwan by Jon Balke,  Amina Alaoui, Jon Hassell,
  Kheir Eddine M’Kachiche, and Bjarte Eike
  
  Review by DAVID SHASHA

 

BOOKS

Kabbalah for Feminists

• On the Wings of Shekhinah: Rediscovering Judaism’s Divine Feminine
  by Rabbi Leah Novick

  Review by ALICIA OSTRIKER

Radical Media Renewal

• The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again by Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols

  Review by PAUL BUHLE

 

HUMOR

 

State of the Universe Address 2010 by SWAMI BEYONDANANDA

 

 

POETRY

 

Not For Long by PETER DALE SCOTT

 

 

 

Tikkun Recommends

Click here to check out what Tikkun Recommended in this issue

 

 

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