Faith, Morality, and Civil Society

Front Cover
Dale McConkey, Peter Augustine Lawler
Lexington Books, 2003 - Political Science - 232 pages
In this rich collection of essays, editors Dale McConkey and Peter Augustine Lawler explore the contributions that religious faith and morality can make to a civil society. Though the level of religious expression has remained high in the United States, the shift from traditional religious beliefs to a far more individualized style of faith has led many to contend that no faith commitment, collective or personal, should contribute to the vibrancy of a civil democratic society. Challenging those who believe that the private realm is the only appropriate locus of religious belief, the contributors to this volume believe that religion can inform and invigorate the secular institutions of society such as education, economics, and politics. Drawn from a wide variety of religious and moral traditions, these diverse essays show, from many perspectives, the important contribution religion has to make in the public square that is civil society.
 

Selected pages

Contents

The Potential for Pluralism Religious Responses to the Triumph of Theory and Method in American Academic Culture1
1
NeoCalvinist Social Thought and Civic Education
17
The Principle of Subsidiarity and the Agrarian Ideal
37
The Varieties of Democratic Experience
65
The Changing Landscape of Religion and Politics in America The 2000 Presidential Election
87
Holy Books Not Pocketbooks Religious and Cultural Influences on the 2000 Presidential Election
105
Religious Civility Civil Society and Charitable Choice FaithBased Poverty Relief in the PostWelfare Era
127
Speech Not Religion The Dilemma of Religious Conservatives in the Public Square
145
Faith Tolerance and Civil Society
159
Aliens and Citizens Competing Models of Political Involvement in Contemporary Christian Social Ethics
197
Inverted Morality
209
From Virtues to Values Some Opening Thoughts
217
Index
227
About the Contributors
231
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