God and Globalization: Religion and the Powers of the Common Life - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 156338311X ISBN 13: 9781563383113

Publisher: Trinity Press International, 2000

Synopsis

In the late 20th century, the world has grown increasingly smaller because of advances in technology and the erosion of the nation-state as a political paradigm. The process of globalization-with its promises of a common culture, a common currency, and a common government-offers a new political model for the world that fosters unity and community.
At the same time, however, this process threatens to destroy the values, norms, and ideals that particular cultures have wrought and established and to thereby diminish the power of each culture's unique identity. As globalization occurs, society must decide which values will be normative and what roles that social institutions like religion and education will play in selecting and fostering these values. The contributors to this volume examine both the promise and the threat of globalization using the tools of theological ethics to understand and evaluate the "social contexts of life at the deepest moral and spiritual levels."

This inaugural volume of a projected four volume series, Theology for the 21st Century: God and Globalization, examines five spheres of life-economics (Mammon), political science (Mars), psychology and sexuality (Eros), the mass media and the arts (Muses), and religion-that foster normative values for society. As the writers argue, their efforts attempt to determine whether "God is behind globalization in any substantive way."

Contributors to the volume include: Roland Robertson, University of Pittsburgh; Yersu Kim, UNESCO; Donald W. Shriver, Jr., New York; William Schweiker, University of Chicago; Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, Eastern College; David Tracy, University of Chicago. Max L. Stackhouse teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary and is the author of Covenant and Commitments: Faith, Family, and Economic. Peter Paris teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

God and Globalization: The Spirit and the Modern Authorities, the second in a four-volume set, provides a lively dialogue between theology, ethics, and social theory. By examining advances in technology and communication and the breakdown of traditional political structures, this series explores the impact that globalization has on our lives, ideas, and culture.

As Globalization continues apace, a number of Authorities or Powers - Education, Law, Medicine, Technology - have established ethical guidelines and social values that the world has begun to accept as normative. In God and Globalization, Volume 2, contributors confront these Authorities and engage them in theological and ethical discussion. In his examination of contemporary education, Richard Osmer demonstrates that religious communities can play a new and significant role in public education. John Witte, Jr. explores the relationship between human rights and religion in the new global era. Probing the implications of globalization for medical technology and health care, Allen Verhey argues that ethical consequences of any advances in medicine must be a part of the conversation about the usefulness of such advances. In his analysis of the relationship between theology and science, Ronald Cole-Turner warns against making a religion of technology. As a response to the destruction of the environment, Jürgen Moltmann proposes a "divine ecology" and a "Sabbath of the earth." Finally, Peter Paris asks whether a common moral discourse is possible, and suggests a model of virtue drawn from the lives and work of contemporary Christian and political exemplars of virtue such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Desmond Tutu.

This volume of God and Globalization offers an important and useful resource for understanding the forces of globalization and for discussing significant ways that communities can confront the changes that accompany globalization.

Max L. Stackhouse is the Stephen Colwell Professor of Christian Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary and is the author of Christian Social Ethics in a Global Era.

Don S. Browning teaches at the Divinity School of University of Chicago and is the author of Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies: A Critical Conversation in the Theology of Culture.

Also in this series: God and Globalization Volume 1: Religion and the Powers of the Common Life, edited by Max L. Stackhouse with Peter J. Paris

God and Globalization Volume 3: Christ and the Dominions of Civilization, edited by Max L. Stackhouse with Diane B. Obenchain.

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About this edition

• Publisher: Trinity Press International
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 156338311X
• ISBN 13: 9781563383113
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Stackhouse Max L.