Make yourself a free person

Personal Struggle: Oppression, healing and liberation

by Dr Seán Ruth (Atrium / Cork University Press, €14.95)

The title may, for some, carry echoes of the 1970s. But in a sense the problems identified then by theologians and social activists have not gone away.

They have got worse in many respects (especially in Latin American). Worse the symptoms of oppression have moved to the more advanced economies where the homeless, the low paid, women, young people, and migrants continue to suffer.

They have entered also in the wider fabric of society, witness the treatment of many people in employment and dependent situations.

Here, however, Dr Seán Ruth suggests that a way forward can be found in leadership strategies applied not to society as whole, but to one’s self. The idea is to lead yourself to true freedom.

Destiny

Though aspects of this book imply a professional readership, it is in fact written for an independent general readership. The advice to take control of one’s own destiny is always timely – not always easy to do, of course, when aspects of society, even in a Christian setting aim at control and the exercise of power over individuals.

Lead yourself to freedom: that could be good intention for the New Year for nearly all of us.

This book appears in the ‘Mind Your Self’ series, edited for Atrium by Dr Marie Murray.