Download or read book Community Liberalism and Christian Ethics written by David Fergusson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-11-26 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores some current issues on the borderland between moral philosophy and Christian theology. Particular attention is paid to the issues at stake between liberals and communitarians and the dispute between realists, non-realists and quasi-realists. In the course of the discussion the writings of Alasdair MacIntyre, George Lindbeck and Stanley Hauerwas are examined. While sympathetic to many of the typical features of post-liberalism, the argument is critical at selected points in seeking to defend realism and accommodate some aspects of liberalism. The position that emerges is more neo-Barthian than post-liberal. In maintaining the distinctiveness of Christian ethics and community, the book also seeks to acknowledge common moral ground held by those within and without the church.
Download or read book The Public Forum and Christian Ethics written by Robert Gascoigne and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The communication of Christian ethics in the public forum of liberal, secular societies.
Download or read book A Community of Character written by Stanley Hauerwas and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected by Christianity Today as one of the 100 most important books on religion of the twentieth century. Leading theological ethicist Stanley Hauerwas shows how discussions of Christology and the authority of scripture involve questions about what kind of community the church must be to rightly tell the stories of God. He challenges the dominant assumption of contemporary Christian social ethics that there is a special relation between Christianity and some form of liberal democratic social system.
Download or read book The Ethics of Community written by Frank G. Kirkpatrick and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2001-05-25 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important and timely study, Frank Kirkpatrick draws on theology, political philosophy and the social sciences more generally to develop a Christian ethic of community.
Download or read book Christian Ethics and Political Economy in North America written by Peter Travis Kroeker and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 1995 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this religious and moral critique of liberalism, Travis Kroeker analyses how religio-ethical discourse is changed when it is translated into the economic policy discourse of North American liberalism. Focusing on influential representatives of contempo
Download or read book A Community of Character written by Stanley Hauerwas and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recognized as a leading theological ethicist, Stanley Hauerwas applies his theory of the narrative formation of Christian character to the field of social ethics. He advances his ideas by showing why any consideration cannot be divorced from the kind of community the church is and should be. He also challenges the dominant assumption of contemporary Christian social ethics that there is a special relation between Christianity and some form of liberal democratic social system.
Download or read book Christian Faith and Social Justice Five Views written by Vic McCracken and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-06-19 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Judeo-Christian tradition testifies to a God that cries out, demanding that justice "roll down like waters, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24). Christians agree that being advocates for justice is critical to the Christian witness. And yet one need not look widely to see that Christians disagree about what social justice entails. What does justice have to do with healthcare reform, illegal immigration, and same-sex marriage? Should Christians support tax policies that effectively require wealthy individuals to fund programs that benefit the poor? Does justice require that we acknowledge and address the inequalities borne out of histories of gender and ethnic exclusivity? Is the Christian vision distinct from non-Christian visions of social justice? Christians disagree over the proper answer to these questions. In short, Christians agree that justice is important but disagree about what a commitment to justice means. Christian Faith and Social Justice makes sense of the disagreements among Christians over the meaning of justice by bringing together five highly regarded Christian philosophers to introduce and defend rival perspectives on social justice in the Christian tradition. While it aspires to offer a lucid introduction to these theories, the purpose of this book is more than informative. It is purposefully dialogical and is structured so that contributors are able to model for the reader reasoned exchange among philosophers who disagree about the meaning of social justice. The hope is that the reader is left with a better understanding of range of perspectives in the Christian tradition about social justice.
Download or read book The Economic Order and Religion written by Frank Knight and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1998. In this highly fragmented culture of ours books are needed to integrate fields of interest ordinarily considered separately, to state their common problems and to deal with their differences in the light of other criteria than the separate functions and local loyalties of the special interests in themselves. This book was originated with that purpose in mind. Specifically this book deals with the practical dualism of our modern morals. With the traditional Christian ethic at one pole and the variegated, often contradictory assemblage of practices and precepts of our secular life at the other, it has never been co-ordinated or made intelligible from within.
Download or read book Toward a Christian Economic Ethic written by Prentiss L. Pemberton and published by Harper San Francisco. This book was released on 1985 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Inequality and Christian Ethics written by Douglas A. Hicks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-09-18 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2000 book provides a moral and empirical analysis of contemporary social and economic inequality.
Download or read book The Character of Our Communities written by Gloria H. Albrecht and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emphasis on "rugged individualism", which is so thoroughly a part of American culture, has come under scrutiny and criticism from a number of sides recently. Many have sought to reclaim a sense of community as the source of meaning and value in human life. In the theological realm, thinkers such as Stanley Hauerwas have asserted that Christian faith is necessarily communitarian in nature. These theologians have argued that being a Christian means not simply encountering the divine within the privacy of the individual heart, but investing one's loyalty in a particular community of faith, leaning its shared narratives, and being apprenticed to its specific religious practices. Gloria Albrecht, who shares this rejection of American hyperindividualism, questions whether the communities Hauerwas and others envision are or even can be liberative for those who have been marginalized by the rest of society. She applauds the concern that Christians be shaped, not by the values of the wider society, but by the distinctive stories and perspectives of concrete worshiping communities. Yet she asks a trenchant question: Who is telling these stories? Are they told in such a way as to subvert or support the predominant culture's denigration of certain of its members to second and third class status? In spite of their intention to be countercultural, Albrecht contends that the communities which these theologians conceive are in danger of adopting the very hierarchical character that defines the society at large. She insists that if our communities are to be the visible signs of the sovereign rule of God they claim to be, they must be characterized by inclusiveness and diversity.
Download or read book Church as Moral Community written by Michael D O'Neil and published by Authentic Media Inc. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book details the development and contours of Karl Barth's robust and lively vision of Christian and ecclesial life in the early years of his career. In this remarkable work Michael O'Neil investigates Karl Barth's theology in the turbulent and dynamic years of his nascent career, between 1915 and 1922. It focuses on the manner in which this great theologian construed Christian and ecclesial existence. The author argues that Karl Barth developed his theology with an explicit ecclesial and ethical motive in a deliberate attempt to shape the ethical life of the church in the troublesome context within which he lived and worked. O'Neil adopts a chronological and exegetical reading of Barth's work from the initial dispute with his liberal heritage (c.1915) until the publication of the second edition of his commentary on romans. Not only does this work contribute to a broader understanding of Barth's theology both in its early development, and with regard to his ecclesiology and ethics, it also provides a significant framework and material for contemporary ecclesial reflection on Christian identity and mission.
Download or read book Politics after Christendom written by David VanDrunen and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a millennium, beginning in the early Middle Ages, most Western Christians lived in societies that sought to be comprehensively Christian--ecclesiastically, economically, legally, and politically. That is to say, most Western Christians lived in Christendom. But in a gradual process beginning a few hundred years ago, Christendom weakened and finally crumbled. Today, most Christians in the world live in pluralistic political communities. And Christians themselves have very different opinions about what to make of the demise of Christendom and how to understand their status and responsibilities in a post-Christendom world. Politics After Christendom argues that Scripture leaves Christians well-equipped for living in a world such as this. Scripture gives no indication that Christians should strive to establish some version of Christendom. Instead, it prepares them to live in societies that are indifferent or hostile to Christianity, societies in which believers must live faithful lives as sojourners and exiles. Politics After Christendom explains what Scripture teaches about political community and about Christians' responsibilities within their own communities. As it pursues this task, Politics After Christendom makes use of several important theological ideas that Christian thinkers have developed over the centuries. These ideas include Augustine's Two-Cities concept, the Reformation Two-Kingdoms category, natural law, and a theology of the biblical covenants. Politics After Christendom brings these ideas together in a distinctive way to present a model for Christian political engagement. In doing so, it interacts with many important thinkers, including older theologians (e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin), recent secular political theorists (e.g., Rawls, Hayek, and Dworkin), contemporary political-theologians (e.g., Hauerwas, O'Donovan, and Wolterstorff), and contemporary Christian cultural commentators (e.g., MacIntyre, Hunter, and Dreher). Part 1 presents a political theology through a careful study of the biblical story, giving special attention to the covenants God has established with his creation and how these covenants inform a proper view of political community. Part 1 argues that civil governments are legitimate but penultimate, and common but not neutral. It concludes that Christians should understand themselves as sojourners and exiles in their political communities. They ought to pursue justice, peace, and excellence in these communities, but remember that these communities are temporary and thus not confuse them with the everlasting kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians' ultimate citizenship is in this new-creation kingdom. Part 2 reflects on how the political theology developed in Part 1 provides Christians with a framework for thinking about perennial issues of political and legal theory. Part 2 does not set out a detailed public policy or promote a particular political ideology. Rather, it suggests how Christians might think about important social issues in a wise and theologically sound way, so that they might be better equipped to respond well to the specific controversies they face today. These issues include race, religious liberty, family, economics, justice, rights, authority, and civil resistance. After considering these matters, Part 2 concludes by reflecting on the classical liberal and conservative traditions, as well as recent challenges to them by nationalist and progressivist movements.
Download or read book Social Selves and Political Reforms written by C. Melissa Snarr and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-09-20 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christian ethicists from a wide spectrum of methods and commitments come together in arguing for some kind of social conception of the self, noticing that convergence sheds new light on the current range of theoretical options in Christian ethics. But it also opens up an important conversation about political reform. Social visions of the self help ethicists comprehend and evaluate the moral work of institutions--comprehension that is especially important in a time of crisis for democratic participation. But not all visions of the social self are equal. Snarr's book explores and evaluates five different visions of the social self from five key ethicists (Rauschenbusch, Niebuhr, Hauerwas, Harrison, and Townes). It identifies insights and risks associated with each vision of the self and considers the adequacy of each vision for reforms that deepen democracy. The book concludes with a proposal for six core convictions about the social self that help form Christian political ethics able to respond to contemporary needs for democratic reform.
Download or read book Robust Liberalism written by Timothy A. Beach-Verhey and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concisely critiquing the internal contradictions and practical limitations of the social contract theory espoused by John Locke and John Rawls, Timothy Beach-Verhey presents a covenantal theory for political life based on H. Richard Niebuhr's theology of radical monotheism. Beach-Verhey challenges sectarian interpretations of Niebuhr's theology and cogently demonstrates that a properly understood, theocentric, covenantal social theory can unite a diverse people in a shared polity. In so doing, he shows how such an understanding of both liberal democratic practices and Christian norms can provoke both the moral vision and the virtues that are required for robust, open, and engaged public life. Robust Liberalism makes a powerful contribution to contemporary discussion of American public discourse.
Download or read book The Global Face of Public Faith written by David Hollenbach, SJ and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-09 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Global Face of Public Faith addresses the hotly debated question of the role religion should play in politics in both the American and international contexts. It engages the fears that public religion threatens American democracy and could lead to a global clash of civilizations and new wars of religion. It analyzes how Christianity can attain common ground with other religious communities, thus becoming a force for peace and human rights. The separation of church from state need not mean the privatization of religion. Religious engagement in public life can strengthen civic life by encouraging active citizen participation that promotes both justice and peace. The question of religion and politics should thus become an argument about how faith becomes public, not whether it does. Religious communities, Christianity in particular, should be vigorous advocates of human rights, democratic governance, and economic development worldwide. In so doing, they will also become peacemakers. David Hollenbach is a calm voice of reason in a chaotic world, with an eye that sees beyond national horizons to where human needs and human rights converge. He is convinced that religious traditions can find common ground—through the use of rights and rights language. The Global Face of Public Faith reinforces his commitment to confronting such issues as poverty and economic development, globalism, and interreligious dialogue. He focuses here on faith and the Catholic tradition in politics; the role of the church in American public life; and the wider issues of global challenges and ethics—in a search for a common set of moral standards and a international ethic through a commitment to universal human rights. While not denying the difficulties of forging such a consensus, he nonetheless sees the possibility for justice, and reasons for hope. And hope is something the world can always use.
Download or read book Politics and the Order of Love written by Eric Gregory and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-08-15 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Augustine—for all of his influence on Western culture and politics—was hardly a liberal. Drawing from theology, feminist theory, and political philosophy, Eric Gregory offers here a liberal ethics of citizenship, one less susceptible to anti-liberal critics because it is informed by the Augustinian tradition. The result is a book that expands Augustinian imaginations for liberalism and liberal imaginations for Augustinianism. Gregory examines a broad range of Augustine’s texts and their reception in different disciplines and identifies two classical themes which have analogues in secular political theory: love—and related notions of care, solidarity, and sympathy—and sin—as well as related notions of cruelty, evil, and narrow self-interest. From an Augustinian point of view, Gregory argues, love and sin constrain each other in ways that yield a distinctive vision of the limits and possibilities of politics. In providing a constructive argument for Christian participation in liberal democratic societies, Gregory advances efforts to revive a political theology in which love’s relation to justice is prominent. Politics and the Order of Love will provoke new conversations for those interested in Christian ethics, moral psychology, and the role of religion in a liberal society.
