Sider, Just Generosity

Share this:

Ronald J. Sider, Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America. Baker Books, 2007.

Referenced in:

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

This book is exactly what it claims to be. It is a hard look at the socioeconomic data on poverty in America, and a thorough, holistic, and non-partisan set of proposals to end poverty. He evaluates church missions as well as American social welfare programs, but operates from the foundation of biblical and prophetic teaching than resonates with his primary audience, the constituency of Evangelicals for Social Action, which Sider founded and now serves as president. Sider believes that both church and state are necessary in the fight to end poverty, and so he addresses the uneasy relationship between the two. He strongly encourages partnerships among faith-based groups, businesses, media, government, philanthropic organizations, and non-profits toward alleviating the needs of the poor. Typical of Sider’s respectful exchanges with liberals and conservatives, it is hard to peg his prescriptions as strictly left or right. For example, he argues for both universal health care and school vouchers, guaranteed government-funded jobs and the importance of spiritual and family-generated values of hope and personal responsibility. Sider provides numerous footnotes for further research, and a list of organizations for those ready to begin implementing his suggestions. Jim Wallis says this is “Sider’s most important book since Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.”

From the Publisher

“New, important, and provocative.”—Charles W. Colson and John J. DiIulio Jr., from the foreword

In this new edition of Just Generosity, Ron Sider, author of the bestselling Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, calls believers to care as much about the poor as Jesus did. Sider’s first edition was cited as a Christianity Today Book Award winner and as one of the Top Ten Books in Religion by Booklist. Here he updates his comprehensive yet accessible agenda of ways to reduce poverty in the United States. Using poignant stories to engage the heart and well-documented facts to convince the mind, Sider presents a nonpartisan corrective to poverty in the United States. These concrete suggestions will be an invaluable help to those who wish to understand and join political debates over poverty.

“Sider’s most important book since Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. I hope every Christian will read this book.”—Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief, Sojourners; author, God’s Politics

“Drawing creatively from both ‘conservatives’ and ‘liberals,’ Sider issues a powerful biblical call to end the scandal of widespread poverty in the richest nation on the earth.”—David Beckmann, president, Bread for the World

“Readers will find his discussion insightful and his proposals for change resonant.”—Library Journal

“Ron Sider knows how to lift up people in need, transform their lives, and liberate them from material and spiritual poverty. The answers are in this important and challenging book.”—John Ashcroft, former attorney general of the United States

“[An] honest assessment of … racism and the structural inequities which lock African Americans, Latino Americans, and minorities out of the ‘system.’”—Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago

“Every politician, Republican or Democrat, now espousing faith-based solutions to our social problems; every social justice activist, liberal or conservative, seeking to apply religious truths to our contemporary moral challenges, should start by delving into Just Generosity.”—Rabbi David Saperstein, director and counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

About the Author

Ronald J. Sider is the president of Evangelicals for Social Action and professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Palmer Theological Seminary. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including the well-received The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Just Generosity, and the bestselling Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.

***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***

See Other Resource Guides on Christian Social Ministry:

Related Ministry Resource Guides on LifeandLeadership.com:

See Resources on Over 100 Ministry Topics:

Ministry Resource Guides Index

Social Justice, Social Ministry