Economy, Difference, Empire : : Social Ethics for Social Justice / / Gary Dorrien.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Dorrien, Gary,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Columbia Series on Religion and Politics
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (528 p.)

Sourcing the major traditions of progressive Christian social ethics—social gospel liberalism, Niebuhrian realism, and liberation theology—Gary Dorrien argues for the social-ethical necessity of social justice politics. In carefully reasoned essays, he focuses on three subjects: the ethics and politics of economic justice, racial and gender justice, and antimilitarism, making a constructive case for economic democracy, along with a liberationist understanding of racial and gender justice and an anti-imperial form of liberal internationalism. In Dorrien's view, the three major discourse traditions of progressive Christian social ethics share a fundamental commitment to transform the structures of society in the direction of social justice. His reflections on these topics feature innovative analyses of major figures, such as Walter Rauschenbusch, Reinhold Niebuhr, James Burnham, Norman Thomas, and Michael Harrington, and an extensive engagement with contemporary intellectuals, such as Rosemary R. Ruether, Katie Cannon, Gregory Baum, and Cornel West. Dorrien also weaves his personal experiences into his narrative, especially his involvement in social justice movements. He includes a special chapter on the 2008 presidential campaign and the historic candidacy of Barack Obama.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Acknowledgments -- PART I: The Social Gospel and Niebuhrian Realism -- 1. Society as the Subject of Redemption: Washington Gladden, Walter Rauschenbusch, and the Social Gospel -- 2. Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth, and the Crises of War and Capitalism -- 3. The Niebuhrian Legacy: Christian Realism as Theology, Social Ethics, and Public Intellectualism -- 4. Ironic Complexity: Reinhold Niebuhr, Billy Graham, Modernity, and Racial Justice -- PART II: Economic Democracy in Question -- 5. Norman Thomas and the Dilemma of American Socialism -- 6. Michael Harrington and the "Left Wing of the Possible" -- 7. Christian Socialism as Tradition and Problem -- 8. Breaking the Oligarchy: Globalization, Turbo-Capitalism, Economic Crash, Economic Democracy -- 9. Rethinking and Renewing Economic Democracy -- PART III: Neoconservatism and American Empire -- 10. The Neoconservative Phenomenon: American Power and the War of Ideology -- 11. Imperial Designs: Neoconservatism and the Iraq War -- 12. Militaristic Illusions: The Iraq Debacle and the Crisis of American Empire -- 13. Empire in Denial: American Exceptionalism and the Community of Nations -- PART IV: Social Ethics and the Politics of Difference -- 14. The Feminist Difference: Rosemary R. Ruether and Eco-Socialist Christianity -- 15 Pragmatic Postmodern Prophecy: Cornel West as Social Critic and Public Intellectual -- 16. As Purple to Lavender: Katie Cannon and Womanist Ethics -- 17. Religious Pluralism as a Justice Issue: Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Ecumenism -- 18. The Obama Phenomenon and Presidency -- 19. Social Ethics in the Making: History, Method, and White Supremacism -- Notes -- Index