Economy, Difference, Empire: Social Ethics for Social Justice

by Gary Dorrien

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231526296
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2010
Series:	Columbia Series on Religion and Politics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Gary Dorrien is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and professor of religion at Columbia University. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including most recently the three-volume The Making of Liberal Theology and Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American Tradition.

Table of 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, 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

What People are Saying About This

Laura Olson

Like his other works, Gary Dorrien's book is richly researched and beautifully written. Dorrien is among the leading academic voices of progressive Christianity, and his book brings the various threads of his scholarship together in one place.

William Greider

Gary Dorrien's scholarly investigation of capitalism's destructive collision with society has greater urgency for America than ever before. Given all the adversities our nation faces, Americans need to learn and consider the great possibilities that Dorrien discusses for disarming the conflict and creating a more equitable and humane country.

Robert Neville

The most rigorous theological historian of our time, moving from analyses of social context and personal struggles through the most abstruse theological and metaphysical issues.

Cornel West

Gary Dorrien is the preeminent social ethicist in North America today.

Editorial Reviews

Through a collection of 19 essays, the gifted social ethicist not only explores the origins and heights of the social justice movement in American liberal Christianity but studies its challengers and traces its decline

The Christian Century

Like his previous works, Economy, Difference, Empire not only displays Dorrien's passion for remembering the past but also his ability to discern what aspects of the past are still valuable. He writes vividly and clearly about history, ethics, and theology, and he understands that the voices of religious and political progressivism, whose stories he loves to tell, should not be consigned to the dusty shelves of a library.

Journal of Church and State