The interaction of power, freedom and responsibility is an overarching theme for many of the most demanding issues being faced in religious institutions and society at large right now. This edition of Thinking For A Change brings together a number of articles and resources that crystallise these concerns.
 
Our book recommendation, available through the online shop, is political theologian Richard Baukham's 'God and the Crisis of Freedom: Biblical and Contemporary Perspectives'. The crisis of which he writes is as much that of believers themselves as anyone else.

 

This Easter (which we reflect on as a period of change-agency as well as prayer in Thinking in Action) several prominent church leaders spoke of the need to live by example. One explicitly said that the church should not seek to impose itself on society by compulsion. Yet institutional religion struggles to live by this code, as Jonathan Bartley points out in his feature article, 'A challenge to the church's integrity'.
 
Re-thinking and re-engaging is called for at many levels. Our other featured article this week looks at how the Dalit struggle for dignity and freedom in India is being reconceived, politically, socially and religiously.
 
Meanwhile, following events in Moldova (which are also about calling power to responsibility through civic freedom), there has been a fresh media interest in cyber-activism. Our Research Focus is on those probing behind the headlines to look at how new information technologies and social networking tools are being used positively, as well as in the shadow side of such developments, so-called 'info wars'.
 
In relation to public events, we highlight the UK visit of a US based theologian who is opening up fresh thinking on Christianity and sexuality, not least in relation to the HIV-AIDS pandemic. And our selected quotations of the week return us to the question of freedom and responsibility at the personal and interpersonal level.