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From the support given to Reagan and Bush's conservative economic agenda by the Religious Right, to the questioning of some features of American capitalism by the Catholic Bishops, Christians have been highly visible in the public forum during the last decade. In What Does the Lord Require?, Stephen Hart shows that the views on economic issues held by less vocal Christians are also grounded in deeply-held religious beliefs. For these grass roots Christians, Hart writes, faith lays the foundation for views that range from staunchly conservative to radical. Hart paints a rich portrait of how everyday Christians actually connect their faith to such issues as economic equality, government intervention, and the rights of private enterprise. Drawing on lengthy interviews, he makes a comprehensive analysis of forty-seven diverse Christians--Roman Catholics, Pentecostals, mainline Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others--who range from manual laborers to corporate executives, from conservatives to socialists. The results are sometimes surprising. On economic issues, Hart shows, evangelicals and fundamentalists are at least as liberal as mainline Protestants. One Missionary Alliance member, for example, bases her populist views on the ideas that we are all children of God and God favors the lowly. Many traditionalists come to liberalism through the belief that economic life should be governed by an ethical vision, not just market forces. Modernists, on the other hand, often desire an unbridled free market out of concern to maximize individual freedom. Hart identifies five themes from Christian tradition--voluntarism, universalism, love, thisworldliness, and otherworldliness--thatrespondents repeatedly draw upon when they think about economic justice issues. He shows how these themes are used to support both conservative and liberal views, arguing that Christianity is a terrain of debate with no single inherent set of political implications, let alone the monolithic conservative ones promoted by the Christian Right. In fact, he writes, the respondents tend to speak in more liberal terms when they articulate the social implications of faith than when they talk about economic issues in purely secular terms. Christian faith thus provides many Americans with a vision that can contribute to change in the direction of greater equality, community, and economic justice. Most Americans are members of Christian churches, and the last decade has shown the tremendous impact politically active Christians can have. In What Does the Lord Require?, Stephen Hart offers a new understanding of how faith shapes the capacity of grass roots Christians to participate in public debate about economic life.
Original essays by distinguished contributors from economics, religious ethics, and biblical studies.
Occupy Religion introduces readers to the growing role of religion in the Occupy Movement and asks provocative questions about how people of faith can work for social justice. From the temperance movement to the Civil Rights movement, churches have played key roles in important social movements, and Occupy Religion shows this role is no less critical today.
The new interdisciplinary field of Christianity and economics deals with the important and difficult questions that cluster at the boundary of these disciplines, drawing on contemporary theory and empirical findings in both fields, with roots in older discourses. This landmark volume surveys the field and advances the discussion. It deploys historical, economic, and theological analysis to search for answers.
This book is a philosophical examination of the relationship between religion and social justice. Its main thesis is that, since the primary purpose of religion is the moral and spiritual transformation of human nature, it ought not to be construed as a direct instrument of social justice on earth - as it is by Liberation theologians, for example, as well as by many liberal Christians and Jews. Indirectly, however, religion may well be a pre-condition of social justice. For it can be argued that, without the counteracting effects of the moral and spiritual values prescribed by religion, the liberal vision of individual rights and social justice may be self-defeating. Humanity is best served if this liberal vision is counterbalanced by the completely contrary utopia enshrined in the biblical idea of the kingdom of God, and its equivalents in the other great religions of the world.
American Christians today, says Michael Barram, have a signifi­cant blind spot when it comes to economic matters in the Bible. In this book Barram reads biblical texts related to matters of money, wealth, and poverty through a missional lens, showing how they function to transform our economic reasoning. Barram searches for insight into God’s purposes for economic justice by exploring what it might look like to think and act in life-giving ways in the face of contemporary economic orthodoxies. The Bible repeatedly tells us how to treat the poor and marginalized, Barram says, and faithful Christians cannot but reflect carefully and concretely on such concerns. Written in an accessible style, this biblically rooted study reflects years of research and teaching on social and economic justice in the Bible and will prove useful for lay readers, preachers, teachers, students, and scholars.
Applied Christian Ethics addresses selected themes in Christian social ethics. The book is divided in three parts. In the first section, “Foundation,” several contributors reveal their Christian realist roots and discuss the prophetic origins and multifarious agenda of social ethics. Thus, the names of Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich come up frequently. In the second section, “Economics and Justice,” the focus turns to the different levels at which economics has significance for social justice. These chapters discuss fair housing at the local level, the dialogue between Christians and Native Americans over property rights at the regional and national levels, and trade and international organization. In the third and final section, “Politics, War, and Peacemaking,” the content ranges from the existential experience of a soldier to that of a veteran of civil rights activism, from theorizing about peacemaking to commenting on the use of drones.
A collection of original essays exploring the history of the various American religious traditions and the meaning of their many expressions The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History explores the key events, significant themes, and important movements in various religious traditions throughout the nation’s history from pre-colonization to the present day. Original essays written by leading scholars and new voices in the field discuss how religion in America has transformed over the years, explore its many expressions and meanings, and consider religion’s central role in American life. Emphasizing the integration of religion into broader cultural and historical themes, this wide-ranging volume explores the operation of religion in eras of historical change, the diversity of religious experiences, and religion’s intersections with American cultural, political, social, racial, gender, and intellectual history. Each chronologically-organized chapter focuses on a specific period or event, such as the interactions between Moravian and Indigenous communities, the origins of African-American religious institutions, Mormon settlement in Utah, social reform movements during the twentieth century, the growth of ethnic religious communities, and the rise of the Religious Right. An innovative historical genealogy of American religious traditions, the Companion: Highlights broader historical themes using clear and compelling narrative Helps teachers expose their students to the significance and variety of America’s religious past Explains new and revisionist interpretations of American religious history Surveys current and emerging historiographical trends Traces historical themes to contemporary issues surrounding civil rights and social justice movements, modern capitalism, and debates over religious liberties Making the lessons of American religious history relevant to a broad range of readers, The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History is the perfect book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in American history courses, and a valuable resource for graduate students and scholars wanting to keep pace with current historiographical trends and recent developments in the field.
The problem is wealth, not poverty -- Introducing the problem of wealth -- The centrality of economics in Christian theology -- Economism and the ethic of scarcity -- When, why, and how? The boundary between economics and theology -- The current dominant forms of wealth creation and the ethic of scarcity -- Digging for roots to nourish an ethic of enough -- Social trinity, love, and the ethic of enough -- Extensive roots: ecocentric and theocentric visions of economy from a wider variety of the world's great faith traditions -- Increasing the theological and moral imagination of the U.S. middle class -- Real people embodying different values -- Parables for sharing -- Concluding observations and a call to action