The One and the Many: America's Struggle for the Common Good (The Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Lectures on American Civilization and Government) - Hardcover

Marty, Martin E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674638271 ISBN 13: 9780674638273

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1997

Synopsis

E pluribus unum no longer holds. Out of the many have come as many claims and grievances, all at war with the idea of one nation undivided. The damage thus done to our national life, as too few Americans seek a common good, is Martin Marty's concern. His book is an urgent call for repair and a personal testament toward resolution.

A world-renowned authority on religion and ethics in America, Marty gives a judicious account (itself a rarity and a relief in our day of uncivil discourse) of how the body politic has been torn between the imperative of one people, one voice, and the separate urgings of distinct identities--racial, ethnic, religious, gendered, ideological, economic. Foreseeing an utter deadlock in public life, with devastating consequences, if this continues, he envisions steps we might take to carry America past the new turbulence.

While the grand story of oneness eludes us (and probably always will), Marty reminds us that we do have a rich, ever-growing, and ever more inclusive repertory of myths, symbols, histories, and, most of all, stories on which to draw. He pictures these stories, with their diverse interpretations, as part of a conversation that crosses the boundaries of groups. Where argument polarizes and deafens, conversation is open ended, guided by questions, allowing for inventiveness, fair play, and dignity for all. It serves as a medium in Marty's broader vision, which replaces the restrictive, difficult, and perhaps unattainable ideal of "community" with the looser, more workable idea of "association."

An "association of associations" is what Marty contemplates, and for the spirit and will to promote it he looks to eighteenth-century motifs of sentiment and affection, convergences of intellect and emotion that develop from shared experience. And as this book so eloquently reminds us, America, however diverse, is an experience we all share.

About this title

About the Author

Martin E. Marty is Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. His many honors include the National Book Award and the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his most recent works is the multi-volume Modern American Religion.

Reviews

Marty (Religion/Univ. of Chicago; The Glory and the Power, 1992, etc.) struggles to define a moderate position within an emotionally charged debate. In contemporary American society few tasks seem more obviously sensible yet doomed to fail than seeking the common good. Marty blames ``totalists'' and ``tribalists'' for this situation and wishes a pox on both their houses. The former want the values of a single group to be promoted by the government and thereby established as the dominant identity of the country; this is represented most prominently in arguments for an explicitly Christian democracy. The latter want to be recognized as an independent group denied their separate identity and thereby victimized by a dominant group; this is exemplified by identity politics that divide society along gender, racial, and religious lines. Although in constant conflict, totalists and tribalists share a crucial characteristic: By insisting on the unique (and usually superior) status of their own group, they promote an exclusivism that undermines any potential for seeking the common good. The current dispute over abortion provides a perfect example. Pro-life and pro-choice advocates point to moral imperatives that are incommensurate and absolute. Marty looks to the past for ways Americans have conceptualized the relationship of the individual or group and the larger community, focusing on the Constitution as a legal and mythical document to illustrate how seeking the common good can be facilitated by limiting its imposition through law. He favors a social association that, in his recurring image, would be like porcupines huddling together during a cold winter, maintaining the proper distance so that each is warmed by the presence of the others without being pricked by their quills. Unfortunately, recent experience suggests that humans may be more prickly than porcupines. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

On the back of a coin we read, "E pluribus unum"?out of many, one. But is it true anymore? Rev. Marty, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and an acclaimed commentator on religion and ethics in America, guides the general reader through the interplay of unity and pluralism?the striving for "community" amidst centripetal forces?to a broader understanding of "association" as motif and force in American culture. He shows how a cohesion of mind and affection emerges from shared experience, restoring the soul of the body politic. And he reminds us that this pluralistic phenomenon that is America is one experience we all share. A valuable study; for academic collections.?John R. Leech, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674638271
• ISBN 13: 9780674638273
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244