Synopses & Reviews
From social theorist and psychotherapist Rabbi Michael Lerner comes a strategy for a new socialism built on love, kindness, and compassion for one another. Revolutionary Love proposes a method to replace what Lerner terms the "capitalist globalization of selfishness" with a globalization of generosity, prophetic empathy, and environmental sanity.
Lerner challenges liberal and progressive forces to move beyond often weak-kneed and visionless politics to build instead a movement that can reverse the environmental destructiveness and social injustice caused by the relentless pursuit of economic growth and profits. Revisiting the hidden injuries of class, Lerner shows that much of the suffering in our society — including most of its addictions and the growing embrace of right-wing nationalism and reactionary versions of fundamentalism — is driven by frustrated needs for community, love, respect, and connection to a higher purpose in life. Yet these needs are too often missing from liberal discourse. No matter that progressive programs are smartly constructed — they cannot be achieved unless they speak to the heart and address the pain so many people experience.
Liberals and progressives need coherent alternatives to capitalism, but previous visions of socialism do not address the yearning for anything beyond material benefits. Inspired by Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Carol Gilligan, Revolutionary Love offers a strategy to create the "Caring Society." Lerner details how a civilization infused with love could put an end to global poverty, homelessness, and hunger, while democratizing the economy, shifting to a twenty-eight-hour work week, and saving the life-support system of Earth. He asks that we develop the courage to stop listening to those who tell us that fundamental social transformation is "unrealistic."
Review
"This visionary and hopeful book's argument for the fusion of love, compassion, and politics counters narrowly economistic progressivism, narcissistic spirituality, and the reigning forces of oppression. Its model of respect and care should be widely read, widely discussed, and--because it would work beautifully in the classroom — widely taught." Roger S. Gottlieb, author of Morality and the Environmental Crisis
Review
"Bringing together the critical with the theological in purposeful and humanitarian ways, this book benefits from Lerner's evident passion. It is sufficiently grounded in a number of the philosophical debates and does a very good job of proposing love as something that can have real and tangible effects." Brad Evans, coauthor of Histories of Violence: Post-War Critical Thought
Review
"Revolutionary Love is a much-needed antidote to today's hardball politics of cynicism and self-interest über alles. Drawing from Rabbi Michael Lerner's spiritual wisdom and lifetime of social activism, it provides a treasury of practical tools to counter the drift to domination and violence, and to build a more caring and sustainable society for us all." Riane Eisler, President of the Center for Partnership Studies, and author of The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics
Review
"In these times of rage and fear, when despair can so easily tempt us, Michael Lerner's voice of fierce compassion calls out to humanity to trust in the redeeming power of revolutionary love and wisdom as a way toward a different future." Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden
About the Author
Rabbi Michael Lerner is the editor of Tikkun magazine. He is the author of eleven books, including two national bestsellers, Jewish Renewal and The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right. Lerner, who has PhDs in philosophy and social and clinical psychology, was chosen for the 2019 Humanitarian Award by the International Association of Sufism. He has also received Morehouse College's King-Gandhi Award for his work for peace and nonviolence.