Public Life And The Place Of The Church

The work of Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006, has been highly distinctive for the consistency of its engagement with contemporary society. It represents a model of the Church which is outward-looking, a Church which is as ready to learn from others as it is to offer its own wisdom and resources. This book reflects on Richard Harries' ministry in the 'borderlands' of society and Church, and engages deeply with the nature of modern society and the place of the Church within it. Taking Richard Harries' contributions as their inspiration, key figures, each of them major commentators on areas of pressing contemporary concern, probe the important questions which people are asking about a range of social issues. Arms and violence, the role of the media in public life, spirituality, multifaith Britain, sex, capitalism, the second chamber, and medical ethics are all discussed, building up a serious debate on the kind of society in which we live and making suggestive comments about the part which the Church might play. Contributors: Sabina Alkire, Michael Bourke, Melvyn Bragg, John Drury, Claire Foster, Jonathan Gorsky, Anthony Howard, Douglas Hurd, Eric James, Julia Neuberger, Edmund Newell, Christopher Rowland, Jane Shaw, Margaret Shepherd, Roger Wagner, Keith Ward, Rowan Williams, Shirley Williams and James Woodward.

As this collection of scholarly case studies reveals, religion once played a major public role in all aspects of Canadian society, including politics, education, and culture.

Since the 2000 presidential election, debate over the role of religion in public life has followed a narrow course as pundits and politicians alike have focused on the influence wielded by conservative Christians. But what about more mainstream Christians? Here, Steven M. Tipton examines the political activities of Methodists and mainline churches in this groundbreaking investigation into a generation of denominational strife among church officials, lobbyists, and activists. The result is an unusually detailed and thoughtful account that upends common stereotypes while asking searching questions about the contested relationship between church and state. Documenting a wide range of reactions to two radically different events—the invasion of Iraq and the creation of the faith-based initiatives program—Tipton charts the new terrain of religious and moral argument under the Bush administration from Pat Robertson to Jim Wallis. He then turns to the case of the United Methodist Church, of which President Bush is a member, to uncover the twentieth-century history of their political advocacy, culminating in current threats to split the Church between liberal peace-and-justice activists and crusaders for evangelical renewal. Public Pulpits balances the firsthand drama of this internal account with a meditative exploration of the wider social impact that mainline churches have had in a time of diverging fortunes and diminished dreams of progress. An eminently fair-minded and ethically astute analysis of how churches keep moral issues alive in politics, Public Pulpits delves deep into mainline Protestant efforts to enlarge civic conscience and cast clearer light on the commonweal and offers a masterly overview of public religion in America.

Since independence in 1963, Kenya has been a classic personalised patronage state, run by a corrupt elite for its own benefit, as became tragically evident in December 2007's stolen election and its aftermath. Kenya is also said to be 80 percent Christian. Under the bland label 'Kenyan Christianity', several different overlapping realities can be distinguished, and it is these which Gifford investigates in this book, relating them to the country's politics and public life. The politically engaged form that challenged the dysfunctional one-party state in the early 1990s is given due prominence, but Gifford contends that today the mainline churches, both Catholic and Protestant, are marked less by such political engagement than by their involvement in development, in which foreign missionaries and global networks play a huge role. The theology of Kenya's mainline churches is consciously focused on African culture, as a non-negotiable foundation, and the Catholic church has an additional agenda - to Africanise its religious congregations. Kenya is also noted for its rich variety of African indigenous Churches, all originating in a defence of Kenyan cultures, while in recent decades countless Pentecostal churches have also sprung up. They range from affluent middle class churches to refuges for the poor, but nearly all are characterised by a stress on power, success, achievement and prosperity that prioritises modernity rather than traditional culture. Gifford discusses their deployment of the media, crusades, organisation, theology and use of the Bible, and above all the economics that has made this phenomenon possible. Yet another distinct form is an enchanted Christianity in which demons or spiritual forces are deemed responsible for almost everything

Abortion. Physician-assisted suicide. Same-sex marriages. Embryonic stem-cell research. Poverty. Crime. What is a faithful Christian response? The God of the Bible is unquestionably a God of justice. Yet Christians have had their differences as to how human government and the church should bring about a just social order. Although Christians share many deep and significant theological convictions, differences that threaten to divide them have often surrounded the matter of how the church collectively and Christians individually ought to engage the public square. What is the mission of the church? What is the purpose of human government? How ought they to be related to each other? How should social injustice be redressed? The five noted contributors to this volume answer these questions from within their distinctive Christian theological traditions, as well as responding to the other four positions. Through the presentations and ensuing dialogue we come to see more clearly what the differences are, where their positions overlap and why they diverge. The contributors and the positions taken include Clarke E. Cochran: A Catholic Perspective Derek H. Davis: A Classical Separation Perspective Ronald J. Sider: An Anabaptist Perspective Corwin F. Smidt: A Principled Pluralist Perspective J. Philip Wogaman: A Social Justice Perspective This book will be instructive for anyone seeking to grasp the major Christian alternatives and desiring to pursue a faithful corporate and individual response to the social issues that face us.

The role in public life of religious organizations such as black churches has been a contested and heated topic, with their advocates calling for them to have a major place in public discourse and their critiques demanding their silence in public if not their total destruction. This book offers a creative and compelling way to think about this dilemma. Unlike some, it does not deny the effort on the part of such organizations to be involved in public discourse and public policy; instead, it argues this interest is insufficient. Drawing attention to the basic elements of organizations such as black churches theology, organizational hierarchy, and so on Pinn argues these churches (and other religious organizations by extension) are not structured in such a way as to allow participation in the public arena in ways that appreciate and nurture the diversity of that arena. Instead, Pinn calls for recognition of their value in the private life of some, but their failure to have usefulness within the public arena.

For more than twenty years, Bishop Tom Butler has related religious belief to the events of public life, both national and global, in regular contributions to BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day. Each 'Thought' is prompted by current events, without knowing how the news will develop, thereby illustrating how religion relates to contemporary life and how the insights it offers may develop over time. Here, Tom Butler explores themes ranging from The Gulf Wars and Terrorism via Science, Medical Ethics and Political Life to Religion itself. Drawing on (and incorporating) a selection of Thought for the Day scripts covering a twenty-year period, he charts the developing relationship between religion and public life and explores the Church's role of bringing religious values and insights to bear on topical issues and restating the public's hopes and fears in religious language.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America professes to be a public church constituted by God for its public vocation. Moe-Lobeda explores what it means for the ELCA to play a role in public life today. Sections focus on what it means to be a public church, obstacles to being a public church in public life, power for being public church, and providing public leadership. For the followers of Jesus, the ''way of living'' in public is a gift of God to the church. It is costly and dangerous, but yet gives life abundant, now and forever.