Ubuntu

by Ph.D. Michael Battle, Battle Michael

Overview

As defined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper selfassurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

The African spiritual principle of Ubuntu offers believers a new and radical way of reading the Gospel and understanding the heart of the Christian faith, and this new book explores the meaning and utility of Ubuntu as applied to Western philosophies, faith, and lifestyles.

Ubuntu is an African way of seeing self-identity formed -through community. This is a difficult worldview for many Western people, who understand self as over, against, or in competition with others. In the Western viewpoint, Ubuntu becomes something to avoid-a kind of codependency. As a Christian leader who understands the need, intricacies, and delicate workings of global interdependency, Battle offers here both a refreshing worldview and a new perspective of self-identity for people across cultures, and of all faiths.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596271111
Publisher:	Church Publishing, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.50(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword Archbishop Desmond Tutu vii

Chapter 1 A Fish Doesn't Know It's Wet 1

Chapter 2 A Christian Theology of Ubuntu 28

Chapter 3 How Ubuntu Can Be a Gift to the West 71

Chapter 4 How the West Can Be a Gift to Ubuntu 112

Chapter 5 Cultivating Ubuntu 138

Notes 155