Chapter 1 addresses the false belief that prejudice and discrimination are individual in nature and not systemic or institutional. Many people believe that racism, sexism, or homophobia comprise an individual’s negative feelings toward marginalized groups – a person has hate in their heart and discriminates against the relevant target. It is certainly the case that people can hate members of certain groups and that hate can manifest in discrimination. However, inequality is also refleted in insitutions. It is systemic and structural. That is, inequality is reflected in laws, policies, and practices, and is baked into insititutions such as health care, the criminal legal system, marriage, education, the military, and so on. Chapter 1 describes the key terms associated with systemic inequality, and describes the process by which systemic inequality is established and maintained. The chapter concludes with strategies to reduce systemic and structural inequality.

This chapter offers a description of the complex interaction between power and poverty in light of the portrayal of Jesus in the canonical gospels. His message of salvation, example of solidarity with the poor, and presence in the life of the church offer a direct challenge to impersonal systems of societal arrangement that promote injustice. The Gospels provide a striking testimony for and guide to the essential work of solidarity with the poor.

One of Isaiah’s most forceful messages concerns justice, and the sociopolitical conditions necessary to support it. In “The Ethical and Political Vision of Isaiah,” M. Daniel Carroll R. looks at the fundamental themes and vocabulary of the book’s moral vision and surveys approaches that seek to better understand the socioeconomic injustice and politics it condemns. These sins include the greed and malfeasance of governing elites in ancient Judahite society, systemic socioeconomic abuses of agricultural and trade systems, and decisions leading to catastrophic war. At the same time, this prophetic text looks forward to a messianic age of justice and peace under a Spirit-filled king/servant. In closing, Carroll R. looks at how Isaiah’s ethical messages have been received (and resisted) in the pursuit of justice, peace, and ecology.

When women complain about our lives are told we are ‘out of our minds’. That can mean three things. Written off as merely ‘crazy’ anyway and wasting others’ time. Simply driven to that point by the ways in which we are treated. Or our reaction on discovering that our mental health problems are apparently less important. We are NOT crazy when we need talk about the kinds of pain, suffering, abuse, violence and fear that women experience. Women continue to be oppressed in a multitude of different ways and this causes suffering. However, women also develop mental illnesses too and to deny that is to gaslight the women who are suffering. Women need expert help from professionals who also understand what oppression is and the trauma it causes. Our mental health problems are deemed less important by society so receive less investment. Feminism should not only be challenging the oppression of women but fighting for better treatment for mental illness which is real and not all caused by ‘trauma’. We need much better evidence about women’s mental health and illness, which has been chronically underfunded. We need to speak out about the need for more compassionate, women-centred care.

150 words: The books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah contain oracles that address problems in and around ancient Judah in ways that are as incisive and critical as they are optimistic and constructive. Daniel C. Timmer’s The Theology of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah situates these books in their social and political contexts and examines the unique theology of each as it engages with imposing problems in Judah and beyond. In dialogue with recent scholarship, this study focuses on these books’ analysis and evaluation of the world as it is, focusing on both human beings and their actions and God’s commitment to purify, restore, and perfect the world. Timmer also surveys these books’ later theological use and cultural reception. Timmer also brings their theology into dialogue with concerns as varied as ecology, nationalism, and widespread injustice, highlighting the enduring significance of divine justice and grace for solid hope and effective service in our world.

50 words: This volume examines the powerful and poignant theology of the books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Daniel C. Timmer situates these books’ theology in their ancient Near Eastern contexts and traces its multifaceted contribution to Jewish and Christian theology and to broader cultural spheres, without neglecting its contemporary significance.

20 words: This volume draws out the theology of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, attending to their ancient contexts, past use and reception, and contemporary significance.

150 words: The books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah contain oracles that address problems in and around ancient Judah in ways that are as incisive and critical as they are optimistic and constructive. Daniel C. Timmer’s The Theology of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah situates these books in their social and political contexts and examines the unique theology of each as it engages with imposing problems in Judah and beyond. In dialogue with recent scholarship, this study focuses on these books’ analysis and evaluation of the world as it is, focusing on both human beings and their actions and God’s commitment to purify, restore, and perfect the world. Timmer also surveys these books’ later theological use and cultural reception. Timmer also brings their theology into dialogue with concerns as varied as ecology, nationalism, and widespread injustice, highlighting the enduring significance of divine justice and grace for solid hope and effective service in our world.

50 words: This volume examines the powerful and poignant theology of the books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Daniel C. Timmer situates these books’ theology in their ancient Near Eastern contexts and traces its multifaceted contribution to Jewish and Christian theology and to broader cultural spheres, without neglecting its contemporary significance.

20 words: This volume draws out the theology of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, attending to their ancient contexts, past use and reception, and contemporary significance.

In this chapter, the subjection of the Israelites in Egypt and their later liberation from oppression is examined with extracts from the Hebrew Torah, and the Greek Septuagint. The vocabulary of servitude of both Hebrew and Greek is discussed through the account of Joseph’s service and disgrace in the house of Potiphar, followed by the suffering of the Israelites, the later descendants of Jacob. The oppression inflicted by the Egyptians and their pharaoh on the Israelites in Egypt is to be seen in their forced labour in making bricks and construction work. Liberation involved leaving the country together, under the leadership of Moses. A final section examines a few further literary texts dating from the Hellenistic and Roman periods that treat related Jewish subjects.

Critical action – action to dismantle oppression and seek justice – is often motivated by and in response to being subjected to racism. Indeed, critical action can be an adaptive coping response to racism, such that critical action might reduce the negative impacts of racism on the individual. Further, the goal of critical action, at its core, is to eliminate racism and its coconspiring forms of oppression, eradicating the root source of harm to marginalized individuals and communities. In this chapter, we provide an overview of current research that has examined how racism is related to critical action for racially marginalized youth. We consider racism as a system of oppression that manifests through culture, institutions, and individuals, along with stress responses to racism. We then provide recommendations for future research and practice to extend our understanding of if, when, and how experiencing racism motivates or detracts from youth critical action.

The literature on critical consciousness (CC) has seen rapid growth in the past ten years. However, the literature has given very little attention to CC in preadolescent children. In this chapter, we contend that the sociopolitical and civic elements of early to middle childhood development have been understudied. Emphasizing the familial, social, and educational systems that structure the lives of young children, we elaborate on the evidence that young children hold the capacity for understanding social inequities, becoming empowered to work for social change, and acting against injustice, and we provide concrete examples of how CC might be identified and measured at different stages of the early childhood developmental period. In addition, we show that the structural emphasis of the CC literature and related literatures (e.g., work on critical race theory) adds much-needed context to the study of bias and stereotyping in early childhood.

The concluding chapter highlights the contributions of this edited volume’s chapters in terms of advancing and expanding critical consciousness theory and measurement. We recap the two parts of the volume – one focused on issues relevant to theory and the other focused on issues relevant to measurement – and briefly review the ways in which each chapter appearing in the volume addresses key issues related to theory and measurement.

This introduction chapter provides an introduction to critical consciousness and articulates the rationale for why an edited volume on critical consciousness theory and measurement is needed. We highlight the structure of the book, which has two parts: one focused on issues relevant to theory and the other focused on issues relevant to measurement. A brief review of each of the chapters appearing in the volume’s two sections is provided. This chapter concludes with the presentation of a "schema" we provide to support navigating the contents of this volume – and other critical consciousness scholarship– and explicate how this schema represents some of the most complex and challenging issues faced by scholars working in critical consciousness theory and measurement today.

In this chapter, we briefly introduce critical consciousness and social empathy frameworks, which have both been used to analyze and address inequitable societal conditions, structural disparities, marginalization, and oppression. We then present an integrated framework that brings the two together. After introducing the integrated critical consciousness–social empathy framework – which may elucidate one means by which critical reflection–action–motivation praxis is enhanced or augmented – we present results from an exploratory study testing the framework with data drawn from a US national sample of adults. Study results suggest social empathy may moderate associations between critical consciousness dimensions, or at least the pathway between critical reflection and critical motivation, as tested here. We conclude by considering some implications of this new framework for future research and practice.

The work of Paulo Freire has had an enduring impact on the development of progressive, democratic pedagogies around the world. Freire’s ideas on democracy emerged from his experiences with impoverished communities in Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s. For Freire, democratic education is a part of the process of humanization: becoming more fully human through transformative, critical, dialogical reflection and action. From a Freirean perspective, democracy is not just a form of government but a mode of being: a distinctive approach to living, with others, in a world that is always dynamically in the making. Democratic life demands a willingness to live uncertainties and an acknowledgment of our incompleteness. Freire delineates a number of key democratic virtues, including humility, openness, tolerance, and a willingness to listen. He argues against both authoritarian and “anything goes” pedagogical orientations. This chapter discusses Freire’s views on democracy and education in the light of his wider ontological, epistemological, and ethical position, and considers the ongoing significance of his ideas in the twenty-first century.

Prudence is the ability to determine the right course of action for a given situation. The virtue is fundamentally concerned with what we should do to achieve a desired objective, rather than what we should believe. Prudence is also a translation of Aristotle’s concept of phronesis (practical reason), which the Nicomachean Ethics defines as an “excellence of deliberation” (VI.9.9). In his formulation, Aristotle emphasizes the rightness of the ends being pursued, unlike several premodern and modern theories focusing only on the ability to attain desired ends, and which develop a somewhat uneasy relationship between prudence and virtue. Shakespeare makes the ethical challenges of prudence integral to The Merchant of Venice, a play featuring many deliberations over the means to such ends as happiness, wealth, friendship, and love. Throughout the play, Shakespeare takes a largely Aristotelian approach to prudence: characters who “hazard all” to gain noble ends are depicted as the most prudent, while the “shrewd,” who deliberate well but for immoral objectives, inevitably fail. Still, Shakespeare adds a final constraint to the virtue, suggesting that prudence is not a static trait but a dynamic effort to uncover one’s blind spots – and thus a virtue that few can hope to master.