Tradition In The Public Square

Tradition in the Public Square collects key essays by David Novak, one of the world's leading contemporary Jewish thinkers. Novak's insightful writings in this reader address the inextricable relationship between philosophical and theological matters and present the implications of his philosophical theology for social ethics and theo-politics. "One of the marks -- perhaps the most important mark -- of a great thinker is the ability to respond to the conditions and problems of one's time by changing the terms of the conversation. By this standard, David Novak ranks as one of the great American theologians of our time. His work, a response to the primary issue confronting modern Judaism -- namely, what it means to be a part of Western culture yet separate from its secularized form of life -- has helped to make Jewish theology and philosophy thriving fields in North American university life." -- from the introduction

Provocatively argues that concealing Christian identity in American public life is the best way to maintain faithful witness and integrity.

What happens when a newspaper editor gives his primary editorial slot on Sundays to a pastor? In the case of Bob Cornwall, a pastor in Troy, Michigan, the result is a series of relevant, interesting, and challenging essays that go well beyond the local scene while still managing to be relevant to Americans in their local situation. Now extensively revised and organized as to theme, these essays form a coherent statement of progressive Christianity at work in the public square. At the same time they are seasoned with a look at how the public square influences the spiritual life of a Christian living in mid-America. The 52 essays in this collection go well beyond one place and time. You will find yourself, your community, your state, your nation, and your world in each. Can a person of faith be involved in the public square with integrity? Is public policy made better by this action? Can faith remain whole and genuine following the encounter? Read these essays to discover the answers, and perhaps find a new optimism for the future as you do. Anyone can benefit, but pastors and church leaders will find help in demonstrating their faith in the public square.

Today's political and cultural polarization has led to suspicion and animosity in our churches, our workplaces, and even our families. It has also led to a false sense of available options. But there is a better way. Shirley Mullen invites readers to claim the powerful, redemptive potential of the courageous middle. Far from being a place of bland averaging, moral cowardice, wobbling indecisiveness, or lazy indifference, the courageous middle is a place where thoughtful individuals work with urgency to foster attentive rather than dismissive listening in order to garner what is true and praiseworthy even from those with whom they disagree. Their Christian faith, which makes it impossible for them to align themselves fully with one side or the other, uniquely equips them to call their communities to imagine a more hopeful, grace-filled future. This book offers a Christian theological framework for the work of "middle space" drawn from the Old and New Testaments. It also includes practical advice on how to prepare for this work, examples of those who have called their communities to alternatives beyond binary options, and discussion questions.

Bioethical issues are rarely out of view in Western societies. New developments in areas such as human embryology continually raise new ethical questions, while more familiar issues frequently reappear in public debate. These are issues of central concern for Christians and for a wider public, because they raise questions about the value of life, the meaning of suffering and death and humanity’s place in the natural world.

The religion clauses of the First Amendment provide that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." In modern times the Supreme Court has frequently construes these clauses to create, in Thomas Jefferson's oft-quoted metaphor, a "wall of separation between church and state". The Court's decisions have precipitated substantial opposition and, in particularly since the election of Ronald Reagan to the Presidency in 1980, a concerted and partly successful effort to change its separatist constructions of the religion clauses. This volume summarises the doctrinal debates and shifts on the religion clauses that have occurred on the Court during this period. It summarises and examines as well the legal effect of each of the 56 decisions the Court has handed down concerning church and state since 1980.

"A vertitable feast of concise, useful, reliable, and up-to-dateinformation (all prepared by top scholars in the field), Nienhauser's now two-volumetitle stands alone as THE standard reference work for the study of traditionalChinese literature. Nothing like it has ever been published." --Choice The second volume to The Indiana Companion to TraditionalChinese Literature is both a supplement and an update to the original volume. VolumeII includes over 60 new entries on famous writers, works, and genres of traditionalChinese literature, followed by an extensive bibliographic update (1985-1997) ofeditions, translations, and studies (primarily in English, Chinese, Japanese, French, and German) for the 500+ entries of Volume I.

In our crowded, noisy world—too many people, too much crime, too many wars, not enough time—it seems almost impossible to locate and preserve the common ground where a civil society might flourish. Whatever happened to the civic virtue and community life that nourished true democracy? In this provocative, hard-hitting book, political scientist Benjamin Barber tackles these questions head-on and, in answering them, retrieves the ideals of "civil society" from the nostalgists who want to re-create old-fashioned (and discriminatory) small communities and from the free-marketeers who associate it with unfettered commercial activity. Commentators have been making a fashion of civil society, but they tend to mean many different things by the phrase: this bracingly clear book shows how diverse the various notions are and how best to think about them. Barber proposes practical strategies for making civil society real, for civilizing public discourse and promoting civic debate, and for affirming values beyond those of work and leisure, commerce and bureaucracy.

This book calls Christians to resist meanness, divisiveness, and dogmatism in the public square by enacting love, attending to moral ambiguity, and practicing theological humility - in other words, to transform politics by refusing to play politics.

Speculative science fiction, with its underlying socio-political dialogue, represents an important intersection of popular culture and public discourse. As a pop culture text, the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars offers critical commentary on contemporary issues, marking a moment of interplay whereby author and audience come together in what Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin called collaborative meaning making. This book critically examines the series as a voice in the political dialogues concerning human cloning, torture, just war theory, peace and drone warfare.