"From the earliest interactions of Christians with the Roman Empire to today's debates about the separation of church and state, the Christian churches have been in complex relationships with various economic and political system for centuries. Renowned theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether analyzes the ways Christian churches historically interacted with powerful systems such as patriarchy, racism, slavery and environmentalism, while looking critically at how the church shapes these systems today. This book is neither an attack on the relationship between Christianity and these systems nor an apology bur rather a nuanced examination of the interactions between them. By understanding how these interactions have shaped history, we can more fully understand how to make ethical decisions about the role of Christianity in some of today's most pressing social issues."--BOOK JACKET.

Is Britain a broken society? Written in accessible language that speaks directly into church, public sphere and also academy it enters the current political, economic and social policy/civil society debates concerning the values and directions of British society. It covers religion and the public square, wellbeing and happiness in the public square, the new economics, faiths and social welfare, a new political manifesto.

The Social Structure of the Early Christian Communities deals with a small number of topics which, in one way or another, have long attracted the attention of students of early Christianity. Above all, it is an attempt to investigate the social origins and the social positions of the early Christians. Recent studies are arriving at the conclusion, contrary to long-held views, that the primitive Christian communities, those which emerge after the first chapters of Acts, did not consist of the 'dregs of the populace'. However, in spite of the important work which is being done on the subject, few of the recent books concerned with such sociological issues go far beyond the New Testament age. What still requires investigation is the composition of the early communities from the first years of the mission to the Gentiles down to the age of Constantine, when large sections of the population, from all social classes, started joining the Christian churches.

Christian ethics has addressed moral agency and culture from the start, and Christian social ethics increasingly acknowledges the power of social structures. However, neither has made sufficient use of the discipline that specializes in understanding structures and culture: sociology. In Moral Agency within Social Structures and Culture, editor and contributor Daniel K. Finn proposes a field-changing critical realist sociology that puts Christian ethics into conversation with modern discourses on human agency and social transformation. Catholic social teaching mischaracterizes social evil as being little more than the sum of individual choices, remedied through individual conversion. Liberation theology points to the power of social structures but without specifying how structures affect moral agency. Critical realist sociology provides a solution to both shortcomings. This collection shows how sociological insights can deepen and extend Catholic social thought by enabling ethicists to analyze more precisely how structures and culture impact human decisions. The book demonstrates how this sociological framework has applications for the study of the ecological crisis, economic life, and virtue ethics. Moral Agency within Social Structures and Culture is a valuable tool for Christian ethicists who seek systemic change in accord with the Gospel.

The author contends that the traditional views of puritan social thought have done a great injustice to the intellectual history of the 16th-century. Margo Todd reveals the puritans to be the heirs to a complex intellectual legacy.

Christianity is a way of life centered on the person, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. As a religious way of life, Christianity is multifaceted, involving numerous beliefs and practices. This book explores many of the varied facets of the Christian faith, including its foundations in the story of Israel, the person of Jesus, the early Christian community, and the sacred text called the Bible. In turn, Robinson’s book examines Christianity’s core doctrines, ethical norms, and worship practices, rounding out the study by considering four key contemporary challenges faced by Christian believers—namely, the problem of evil, the relationship of Christianity to other religions and to science, and the role of women in church and society. Among the strengths of this book is that it addresses these multiple features of Christianity in a single volume: it is aptly titled Christianity: A Brief Survey.

The Japanese economy is currently at a crossroads and the embarrassing situation the country faces today is even worse than the Meiji restoration of 1868, the defeat after World War II in 1945 and the yen appreciation after the Plaza Agreements of 1985. Indeed, the traditional Japanese model is doomed to failure, mainly due to economic and industrial structures that are inappropriate towards increasing globalization, liberalization and deregulation. However, Japanese-style industrial capitalism is in this work compared to the economic and social models of other developed countries and this enables us to point out the path the Japanese economy may take in the 21st century in order to survive.

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