Christianity and Civil Society: Catholic and Neo-Calvinist Perspectives"Christianity and Civil Society responds to the crisis of American democracy as perceived by such diverse thinkers as Christopher Lasch, Michael Sandel, Mary Ann Glendon, and Robert Putnam. Despite their philosophical differences, these thinkers highlight a common theme: a decline in the institutions of civil society once held to be the vital center of the American polity. In place of these institutions - such as the family, neighborhood, church, and civic associations - one finds a disturbingly reduced sociopolitical stage, dominated by an abstract triumvirate of the individual, state, and market as prime actors." "Whether taking their inspiration from the political theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and papal encyclicals or from John Calvin and his heirs in the Reformed tradition, the authors assembled here find the doctrinal resources of Christianity indispensable to defending the irreducible identity and value of the social institutions that serve as the connective tissue of a political community. By drawing upon a treasury of social thought little known to most Americans, Christianity and Civil Society offers a fresh vantage point from which to assess the crisis of our polity as well as the best prospects for its renewal." --Book Jacket. |
Contents
Social Pluralism and Subsidiarity in Catholic Social Doctrine | 11 |
The Subsidiary State Society the State and the Principle of Subsidiarity in Catholic Social Thought | 31 |
Civil Society and the State A Neo Calvinist Perspective | 67 |
The Pluralist Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd | 97 |
Resources for a New Public Philosophy The Individual Civil Society and the State in Catholic Social Thought | 115 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Kuyper American aspects associations autonomy Carlson-Thies Catholic social teaching Catholic social thought Centesimus Annus Charitable Choice Christ Christian Democracy Church cial citizens civic civil society communitarian conception confessional constitute Critique cultural Democratic differentiation dignity distinctive Dooyeweerd economic Eerdmans encyclical essays Ethics faith-based initiative federal freedom function Gaudium et Spes Glendon Grand Rapids Herman Dooyeweerd human flourishing human person human rights individual intermediary groups John Paul John XXIII Jonathan Chaplin juridical Kuyper Lanham liberal liberty Maritain means ment Messner modal modern moral munera munus regale neo-Calvinist normative ontology organizations parties Pesch Pius XI pluralist political authority political community political theory Pope principle of subsidiarity protect public justice public policy Quadragesimo Anno relationship religion religious require Rerum Novarum responsibility role Rommen Sandel school choice secular Simon Skillen social institutions social pluralism sphere sovereignty state's Thomist tion tradition University Press vision welfare