The church steadily weakens; the state, filling the void, steadily strengthens. Unbelief runs rampant; faith withers. The morality of the barnyard triumphs; decency and honour vanish in the mists. What lies behind the dominance of secular degradation, our cultural sickness unto death? Could it be the individualist mind-set infecting the church? In this sprightly work, the 19th century Swiss statesman Frédéric de Rougemont explores just this issue, right at the point of origin. His conclusion: revivalist movements spread individualism into the church, which went from there to society at large. In turn, this led to the radical separation of church and state and the consequent triumph of unbelief in and through the state. Rougemont’s exposé leads us right to the present day. He reminds us that through the church’s negligence, this miserable condition was allowed to arise. This means that that through the church’s faithfulness, it can be overcome. If only she would be faithful to her calling to the nations. This book is required reading for Christians who wish to understand the imperatives of the Christian life and the task of the church in modern society.

Among the political ideologies generally considered to be of continuing significance, anarchism alone has never been implemented. Perhaps its rigors are too strong and its advocates are too weak. That it is still considered worth studying is testimony to its intellectual credibility, particularly its single-minded emphasis on individual liberty. Obsession with liberty and skepticism of government are as alive today as they were in the nineteenth century. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to anarchism in the United States, revealing its historical roots and relevance to today's problems. The relationship between anarchy and individualism in the nineteenth century is well known. How this affected the larger system is what the bulk of the anthology is about. "Liberty "was a magazine featuring some of the outstanding anarchist thinkers in America at the turn of the century. This anthology offers a selection of writings spanning the magazine's twenty-seven year life and features some of its major writers: Benjamin Tucker, Victor Yarros, Steven Byington, John Beverley Robinson, and Gertrude Kelly. The chapters are divided into four sections: political theory, economic theories and reforms, social implications, and strategies of individualist anarchism. The authors criticize censorship, state support of patriarchal marriage, and the general invasion of privacy. Though quite radical, the writers were not revolutionaries in a conventional sense; they emphasized passive resistance, rather than violent assault, as proper. The Individualist Anarchists is not merely of historical Interest, but offers a fundamental critique of government and authority--one that remains a relevant part of today's libertarian movement. It will be of Interest to political theorists, economists, sociologists, and scholars of American history; above all, to those who may not yet have appreciated the worth of an analysis made so many years ago.

This collection of papers investigates the most recent debates about individualism and holism in the philosophy of social science. The debates revolve mainly around two issues: firstly, whether social phenomena exist sui generis and how they relate to individuals. This is the focus of discussions between ontological individualists and ontological holists. Secondly, to what extent social scientific explanations may and should, focus on individuals and social phenomena respectively. This issue is debated amongst methodological holists and methodological individualists. In social science and philosophy, both issues have been intensively discussed and new versions of the dispute have appeared just as new arguments have been advanced. At present, the individualism/holism debate is extremely lively and this book reflects the major positions and perspectives within the debate. This volume is also relevant to debates about two closely related issues in social science: the micro-macro debate and the agency-structure debate. This book presents contributions from key figures in both social science and philosophy, in the first such collection on this topic to be published since the 1970s.

This book challenges us to look at liberal political ideas in a fresh way. Colin Bird examines the assumption, held both by liberals and by their strongest critics, that the values and ideals of the liberal political tradition cohere around a distinctively 'individualist' conception of the relation between individuals, society and the state. He concludes that the formula of 'liberal individualism' conceals fundamental conflicts between liberal views of these relations, conflicts that neither liberals nor their critics have adequately recognized. His interesting and provocative study develops a powerful criticism of the libertarian forms of 'liberal individualism' which have risen to prominence, and suggests that by taking this term for granted, theorists have exaggerated the unity and integrity of liberal political ideals and limited our perception of the issues they raise.