Social Ethics in the Making

In the early 1880s, proponents of what came to be called "the
social gospel" founded what is now known as social ethics.
This ambitious and magisterial book describes the tradition of
social ethics: one that began with the distinctly modern idea that
Christianity has a social-ethical mission to transform the
structures of society in the direction of social justice.

• Charts the story of social ethics - the idea that Christianity
  has a social-ethical mission to transform society - from its roots
  in the nineteenth century through to the present day

• Discusses and analyzes how different traditions of social
  ethics evolved in the realms of the academy, church, and general
  public

• Looks at the wide variety of individuals who have been
  prominent exponents of social ethics from academics and self-styled
  "public intellectuals" through to pastors and
  activists

• Set to become the definitive reference guide to the history and
  development of social ethics

• Recipient of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for
  2009 award

Auteur
Gary Dorrien is the Reinhard Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. He is the author of 14 books and over 200 articles that range across the fields of ethics, social theory, theology, philosophy, politics, and history.

Texte du rabat
In the early 1880s, proponents of what came to be called the social gospel founded what is now known as social ethics. This ambitious and magisterial book describes the tradition of social ethics: one that began with the distinctly modern idea that Christianity has a social-ethical mission to transform the structures of society in the direction of social justice.

This book describes the founding and development of social ethics as a discourse in the realms of the academy, church, and general public. It analyzes the three major traditions of social ethics, explains their revisions and offshoots, interprets evangelical and neoconservative alternatives, and delineates the various confessional and cultural standpoints from which religious thinkers have construed the social meaning of Christianity. Almost from the beginning, social ethics named a specific academic field and a way of thinking about Christian ethics that transcended the academy. Dorrien pays attention to both meanings, bringing together prominent academic voices and important exponents of social Christianity, including pastors, movement activists, and self-styled public intellectuals.

Engagingly written by one of the field's leading figures, this book is set to become the definitive reference guide to the history and development of social ethics.

Contenu

Plates x

Acknowledgments xiv

Introduction 1

1. Inventing Social Ethics: Francis Greenwood Peabody, William Jewett Tucker, and Graham Taylor 6

Becoming Francis Greenwood Peabody 7

Philosophies of Moral Philosophy 10

Beyond Moral Philosophy: Social Ethics 15

The Social Question, William Jewett Tucker, and Liberal Theology 20

Jesus and the Social Question 25

Up from Slavery: The Race Problem in the Social Question 29

Retreating to the Seminaries 32

Getting Peabody Right 35

Christian Sociology: Graham Taylor 36

The Social Gospel in the Classroom and Public Square 44

2. The Social Gospel: Washington Gladden, Josiah Strong, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Harry F. Ward 60

Good Theology and the Social Good: Washington Gladden 61

The Social Gospel Difference and the Challenge of Darwinism 69

Manifest Destiny and the Crucible of Race: Fiske, Gladden, and Josiah Strong 73

The Great War and the Social Gospel 79

The Socialist Kingdom of God: Walter Rauschenbusch 83

Asking the Social Question 87

The Kingdom as Political Theology 89

German America and the Wider Kingdom 92

The Social Crisis and the Social Gospel 94

The Social Gospel Ascending 97

Christianizing the American Order 99

The Great War and the Social Gospel 104

Social Christianity and Radical Reconstruction: Harry F. Ward 109

Ward, Reinhold Niebuhr, and the Soviet Spirit 120

3. Lift Every Voice: Reverdy C. Ransom, Jane Addams, and John A. Ryan 146

Becoming Reverdy C. Ransom 147

Mainstreaming the Black Social Gospel 158

Fostering Democratic Citizenship: Jane Addams 168

Democracy, Social Ethics, and Pragmatism 175

Social Doctrine in Action: John A. Ryan 185

Mainstreaming the Catholic Social Gospel 199

4. Christian Realism: Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, John C. Bennett, and Paul Ramsey 226

Becoming Reinhold Niebuhr 226

Rejecting Social Gospel Idealism 236

H. Richard Niebuhr, Liberal Religion, and Radical Monotheism 239

Christian Realism as Socialist Faith 244

Niebuhrian Realism, World War II, and the Cold War 259

The Niebuhrian Method and Legacy 271

Making Sense of Niebuhrian Realism: John C. Bennett and Paul Ramsey 276

A New Liberal Consensus? 287

5. Social Christianity as Public Theology: Walter G. Muelder, James Luther Adams, John Courtney Murray, and Dorothy Day 305

Socializing Personalist Theory: Walter G. Muelder 306

Moral Theory, Culture, and Christian Social Ethics 316

Personalism against the Current 320

James Luther Adams and Unitarian Christianity 324

Rethinking Religious Freedom and Pluralism: John Courtney Murray 334

The American Idea and the Catholic Presence 349

Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement 361

6. Liberationist Disruptions: Martin Luther King Jr, James H. Cone, Mary Daly, and Beverly W. Harrison 390

Martin Luther King Jr and the Beloved Community 391

James H. Cone and Black Liberation Theology 396

Beyond Patriarchal Religion: Mary Daly and the Rebirth of Feminism 411

Christian Feminist Liberation Ethics: Beverly W. Harrison 421

7. Disputing and Expanding the Tradition: Carl F. H. Henry, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, Michael Novak, and Jim Wallis 447

Carl F. H. Henry and the New Evangelicalism 448

John Howard Yoder and the Politics of Jesus 460

Thinking Christian Pacifism Through: Stanley M. Hauerwas 474

Ideological Americanism: The Neoconservative Reaction 488

Michael Novak and Democratic Capitalism 489

Interrogating Liberation Theology and the Catholic Bishops 503

Progressive Evangelicalism: Jim Wallis 512 **8. Dealing with Modernity and Postmodernity: Charles Curran, James M. Gustafson, Gibson Winter, Cornel West, Katie G. Cannon, and Victor Ande...