After Empire: The Art and Ethos of Enduring Peace

by Sharon D. Welch

A creative meditation on politics, engagement, and spirituality, Welch's latest work connects the personal to the political and the ethical to the historical stream in which we all live. At a time when many progressives feel disoriented and powerless, trapped in a narrative of unbridled assertion of U.S. power, Welch looks into the positive side of the American story, the struggles of peoples to act in concert for inclusive democracy, and hard-earned insights into civic and religious life. She finds the elements of a deep, vital, and hopeful spirituality there. Through chapters on virtuosity, ceremony, audacity, laughter, and risk, she recasts the shape and rationale of personal and political engagement with insights from Native American philosophy, social-contract theory, engaged Buddhism, and the new interreligious commitment to peace. For those who seek a way to affirm and embody a positive ethic in a time of conflict, war, and division, Welch offers this workbook for new human community.

237 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004