Luke Bretherton

Christianity and Contemporary Politics

The Conditions and Possibilities of Faithful Witness

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Through insightful case studies of faith-based organizations, Christian political activism, and welfare provision in the West, this innovative, informative, and wide-ranging book shows how Christians can engage politically in a multi-faith, liberal democracy. The case studies include assessments of initiatives such as community organizing, fair trade, and the Sanctuary movement. Bretherton integrates debates in political theology with analysis of policy and practice regarding religious social, political, and economic engagement in the USA, UK, and continental Europe, but avoids presenting an idealized archetype for church-state relations. Instead, he engages with the intricacies of contemporary politics while integrating systematic and historical theological reflection on political and economic life. The book delineates the ways in which "faithful witness" and the forging of a common good - at local, national, and global levels - emerge through a dynamic of listening, judgment, and proclamation between Christians and those of other faiths and of no faith. Rather than advocate withdrawal or assimilation, the book reveals how faithful witness can help prevent the subversion of the church - and even of politics itself - by legal, bureaucratic, and market mechanisms. Relations between religious and political spheres continue to stir passionate debates on both sides of the Atlantic. Through a combination of theological reflection and empirical case studies, Bretherton succeeds in offering timely and invaluable insights into these important issues affecting our society today.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley
• Seitenzahl: 272
• Erscheinungstermin: 2. Februar 2010
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 431g
• ISBN-13: 9781405199681
• ISBN-10: 1405199687
• Artikelnr.: 29474686

Autorenporträt

Luke Bretherton is Senior Lecturer in Theology and Politics, and Convener of the Faith and Public Policy Forum at King's College London. He has worked with a variety of faith-based NGOs, missions, and churches in several national and international contexts. He is the author of Hospitality as Holiness: Christian Witness Amid Moral Diversity (2006) and Reviews Editor for the journal Political Theology.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Introduction.
The Terms and Conditions of Political Life.
Religion and Postsecular Politics.
Theological Politics and the Ecclesial-Turn.
Summary of Aims and Methodology.
1. Faith-Based Organizations and the Emerging Shape of Church-State
Relations.
Introduction.
"Working Together": The Shaping of Relations between the State and
Religious Groups in a Multi-Faith Society.
Social Cohesion, Social Capital, and the "Salvation" of Civil Society.
Liberalism and the Continuing Requirements of Public Reason.
Theological Politics and the Question of What Constitutes Faithful Witness.
Ecclesiology and the Political Mission of the Church.
Summary.
2. Local: Augustine, Alinsky, and the Politics of the Common Good.
Introduction.
The Alinsky Approach: The Work of Broad-Based Community Organizing.
Eschatology, Politics, and the Mutual Ground of the Saeculum.
Christian Realism Redivivus?
A Thomistic Democratic Politics?
Reweaving Civil Society.
Politics without Piety Is Pitiless; Piety without Politics Is Pitiful.
Summary.
3. National: Christian Cosmopolitanism, Refugees, and the Politics of
Proximity.
Introduction.
Theological Politics and the Liberal Democratic Response to Refugees.
Refugees as Bare Life.
Bare Life and the Limits of Humanitarianism.
Hallowing Bare Life: A Doxological Response.
Hallowed Be Thy Name.
Sanctuary: The Practice of Hallowing Bare Life.
Summary.
4. Global: Consumerism, Fair Trade, and the Politics of Ordinary Time.
Introduction.
Defining Political Consumerism.
Consumerism and the Formation of Desire.
Political Consumerism as Apprenticeship in the Virtues.
Political Consumerism as Neighbor Love.
Fair Trade as Contradiction.
Fair Trade, Globalization and the Emergence of Political Consumerism.
Ordinary Politics and the Peace of Babylon.
Summary.
Conclusion: Toward a Politics of Hospitality and a Theology of Politics.
Epilogue.
Bibliography.
Index.

Rezensionen

"Over the past decade political theology has become one of the most energetic (and polemical) conversations in the field of theology. Bretherton (King's College London) makes a signal contribution to these debates as a voice characterized by critical charity. While the field has tended to line up in camps (e.g., Niebuhrians vs. Hauenvasians), Bretherton is eager to affirm what's right in both without shrinking from criticizing either. The great virtue of this book is that it moves the conversation from the abstract environs of national politics and "church-state" questions to the nitty-gritty environs of the municipal pursuit of the common good (or rather, as Bretherton emphasizes, goods in common). Changing the scope and scale of the question, the book provides a fresh analysis through a series of case studies that are attentive to place--considering, for example, the community organizing of Saul Alinsky (the space of Obama's apprenticeship) as a case of the church concretely impacting the shared space of common goods. Neither beset by worries about Constantinianism, nor motivated by pretensions to Christendom, this book deserves wide attention." (CHOICE, December 2010)"I cannot commend it highly enough." (Regent's Reviews, 1 October 2010)

Bretherton is one of the most helpful voices engaging culture in a way that results in robust witness and faithful Gospel proclamation. And so this book is enthusiastically recommended to all concerned with relevant Christian witness in ever changing Western political situations. (European Journal of Theology, 2010)"I confess I did not think this book could be written. But it can be done because Bretherton has done it. He has written this marvelous book that engages the complex theoretical issues necessary to develop a constructive theological politics without losing sight of concrete social challenges associated with community organizing, immigration, and consumerism. Bretherton has set a new standard in Christian political reflection."
--Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School

"Sophisticated, erudite, deeply insightful, and written with a passion born out of political engagement. Bretherton pushes the field of political theology into fresh pastures ... This book will serve many, not just political theorists and theologians."
--Gaving D'Costa, University of Bristol

"Luke Bretherton has provided us with the first fully-fledged theological theory of community-organising. It is a sparkling performance and heralds a new era in which communitarianism, virtue-ethics and faith-based social reflection are likely to make a real social, economic and political impact. Judging from the intellectual and practical energy displayed by this treatise, this new global phase may well have its fulcrum in London."
--John Milbank, University of Nottingham