Max L. Stackhouse - Böcker

Globalization is a reality in today's world, and with it comes the universalization of the influence of certain Powers and Authorities. These Authorities--Education, Law, Medicine, Technology--distance people from, and sometimes override the duties of, familial and religious connections and have generated new spheres of loyalty and practice that are touchstones for modern life as a whole. The contributors claim that the Authorities of modernity depend upon spiritual themes and insights. However, they note, these authorities lack a conscious moral rudder because they are not only ignorant of their roots, but because they have often repudiated them, leaving these professions morally and spiritually vacuous. The essayists claim that theological and ethical resources--Christian in root, public in character, and universal in implication--can re-engage these Authorities and offer them guidance. Contributors to the volume include: Richard Osmer (Princeton Theological Seminary); John Witte, Jr. (Emory University); Allen Verhey (Hope College); Ronald Cole-Turner (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary); Jürgen Moltmann (University of Tübingen); and Peter Paris (Princeton Theological Seminary). Max L. Stackhouse is the Stephen Colwell Professor of Christian Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary and is the author of Christian Social Ethics in a Global Era. Don S. Browning teaches at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and is the author of Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies: A Critical Conversation in the Theology of Culture.

This is the fourth volume in the series God and Globalization, sponsored by the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, N.J. The 3 previous volumes were multi-authored. This volume is authored solely by Max Stackhouse, the general editor of the series, with a Foreword by the distinguished church historian Justo Gonzales. This final interpretive volume argues for a view of Christian theology that, in critical dialogue with other world religions and philosophies, is able to engage the new world situation, play a critical role in reforming the "powers" that are becoming more diverse and autonomous, and generate a social ethic for the 21st century.

Despite the predicted secularization of the world, religion continues to grow as a global influence, one that has the power to unify or to divide. Yet contemporary discussions of globalization rarely take religion into account. The contributors to this third volume in the God and Globalization series investigate what happens when we account for religion as a force that shapes our increasingly common life on earth. They look at the effect of religion within and across national borders and cultures: how the world is brought together by common ethical perspectives, and pushed apart by the different ultimate concerns of each religion. God and Globalization: Christ and the Dominions of Civilization offers fresh perspectives and interpretations on religion and the politics, economics, and culture of globalization. It points readers toward the pivotal factors that will determine the fate of our common human destiny. Max L. Stackhouse, coordinating editor of the God and Globalization series, is Stephen Colwell Professor of Christian Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, and author of Creeds, Societies and Human Rights: A Study in Three Cultures, Public Theology and Political Economy, and Covenant and Commitments. Diane B. Obenchain is Visiting Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Beijing University, and Fellow, The Casperson School of Graduate Studies at Drew University. She is the author of For China: Comparative Essays on Moral Leadership.

In the late 20th century, the world has grown increasingly smaller because of advances in technology and the erosion of the nation-state as a political paradigm. The process of globalization—with its promises of a common culture, a common currency, and a common government—offers a new political model for the world that fosters unity and community. At the same time, however, this process threatens to destroy the values, norms, and ideals that particular cultures have wrought and established and to thereby diminish the power of each culture's unique identity. As globalization occurs, society must decide which values will be normative and what roles that social institutions like religion and education will play in selecting and fostering these values. The contributors to this volume examine both the promise and the threat of globalization using the tools of theological ethics to understand and evaluate the "social contexts of life at the deepest moral and spiritual levels." This inaugural volume of a projected four volume series, Theology for the 21st Century: God and Globalization, examines five spheres of life—economics (Mammon), political science (Mars), psychology and sexuality (Eros), the mass media and the arts (Muses), and religion—that foster normative values for society. As the writers argue, their efforts attempt to determine whether "God is behind globalization in any substantive way." Contributors to the volume include: Roland Robertson, University of Pittsburgh; Yersu Kim, UNESCO; Donald W. Shriver, Jr., New York; William Schweiker, University of Chicago; Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, Eastern College; David Tracy, University of Chicago. Max L. Stackhouse teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary and is the author of Covenant and Commitments: Faith, Family, and Economic. Peter Paris teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Ethicist Max Stackhouse challenges libertarian and liberationist arguments that distort the nature and character of love, sexuality, and commitment. He seeks to recover a covenantal ethic, which would recapture the value of strong family relationships.The Family, Culture, and Religion series offers informed and responsible analyses of the state of the American family from a religious perspective and provides practical assistance for the family's revitalization.

This well-known Christian ethicist ably bridges the gap between theology and political economy, proposing a theologically informed view of modern economic life. He traces the emergence of modern Protestant and Catholic views of the economic order from anti-slavery movements to contemporary Ecumenical themes. He delineates the failures of socialist, liberationist and laissez-faire systems and retrieves the neglected contributions of such figures as Shailer Mathews and Walter Rauschenbusch, while showing the continued relevance of Max Weber's view of economy and society for Christian ethics. He concludes that Christian stewardship must cultivate and articulate a new public theology that will shape the structures and policies of public life. Originally published in 1987 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.