Religion as Social Capital: Producing the Common Good - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0918954851 ISBN 13: 9780918954855

Publisher: Baylor University Press, 2003

Synopsis

While Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone (2000) highlighted the notion of volunteerism, little attention has been paid to religion's role in generating social capital―an ironic omission since religion constitutes the most common form of voluntary association in America today. Featuring essays by prominent social scientists, this is the first book-length, systematic examination of the relationship between religion and social capital and what effects religious social capital has on democratic life in the United States.

About this title

About the Author:

CORWIN E. SMIDT is a professor of political science and director of the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the coauthor and editor of numerous books including The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy, Religion and The Culture Wars: Dispatches from the Field, and the forthcoming The New Religious Order in American Politics.

Review:

This is a rich collection that will reward the reader with a multitude of leads for unraveling the complex story of the place of religion in American civic life.

(Michael W. Foley, The Catholic University of America)

This volume is a valuable contribution to ongoing discussion about religion's place in civil society and its role in fostering social capital. These authors take religion seriously without romanticizing its potential or obscuring its limits. They challenge all of us concerned with the health of American democracy to do the same.

(Mark Chaves, University of Arizona)

The concept of social capital is under wide discussion in the contemporary sociology social sciences. It is formed by a vital civil society, and evoked and protected in democratic polities with a strong sense of a limited state. Most treatments of it recognize that religious communities play some role, but too few systematic studies have assessed the impact of religion and faith-based organizations in generating, sustaining, and shaping it. This fine collection of essays will be of interest not only to social scientists and political theorists, but it should also be of concern to all involved in the debates over faith-based social-service programs and to clergy of every stripe. The implications of what they do may be deeper and wider than they know.

(Max L. Stackhouse, Kuyper Center for Public Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary)

About this edition

• Publisher: Baylor University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0918954851
• ISBN 13: 9780918954855
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280
• Editor: Smidt Corwin E.