To change the world : the irony, tragedy, and possibility of Christianity in the late modern world / James Davison Hunter.
2010
BR517 .H86 2010
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Details
Title
To change the world : the irony, tragedy, and possibility of Christianity in the late modern world / James Davison Hunter.
ISBN
9780199730803 (acid-free paper)
0199730806 (acid-free paper)
9780199745395 (electronic bk.)
0199745390 (electronic bk.)
9780199730803
0199730806
0199730806 (acid-free paper)
9780199745395 (electronic bk.)
0199745390 (electronic bk.)
9780199730803
0199730806
Imprint
New York : Oxford University Press, ©2010.
Published
New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Language
English
Description
x, 358 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Call Number
BR517 .H86 2010
Alternate Call Number
BR517 .H86 2010
Subject
The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. This book looks at why efforts to change the world by Christians so often fail or have gone tragically awry and how Christians in the 21st century might live in ways that have integrity with their traditions and are more transformative. The author appraises the most popular models of world-changing among Christians today, highlighting the ways they are inherently flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which they aspire. Because change implies power, all Christians eventually embrace strategies of political engagement. He offers a trenchant critique of the political theologies of the Christian Right and Left and the Neo-Anabaptists, taking on many respected leaders, from Charles W. Colson to Jim Wallis and Stanley Hauerwas. He argues that all too often these political theologies worsen the very problems they are designed to solve. What is really needed is a different paradigm of Christian engagement with the world, one that Hunter calls "faithful presence"--An ideal of Christian practice that is not only individual but institutional; a model that plays out not only in all relationships but in our work and all spheres of social life. He offers real life examples, large and small, of what can be accomplished through the practice of faithful presence. Such practices will be more fruitful, he argues, more exemplary, and more deeply transfiguring than any more overtly ambitious attempts can ever be.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [337]-344) and index.
Formatted Contents Note
Christian faith and the task of world-changing
Culture : the common view
The failure of the common view
An alternative view of culture and cultural change in eleven propositions
Evidence in history
The cultural economy of American Christianity
For and against the mandate of creation
The problem of power
Power and politics in American culture
The Christian Right
The Christian Left
The neo-Anabaptists
Illusion, irony, and tragedy
Rethinking power : theological reflections
The challenge of faithfulness
Old cultural wineskins
The groundwork for an alternative way
Toward a theology of faithful presence
The burden of leadership : a theology of faithful presence in practice
Toward a new city commons.
Culture : the common view
The failure of the common view
An alternative view of culture and cultural change in eleven propositions
Evidence in history
The cultural economy of American Christianity
For and against the mandate of creation
The problem of power
Power and politics in American culture
The Christian Right
The Christian Left
The neo-Anabaptists
Illusion, irony, and tragedy
Rethinking power : theological reflections
The challenge of faithfulness
Old cultural wineskins
The groundwork for an alternative way
Toward a theology of faithful presence
The burden of leadership : a theology of faithful presence in practice
Toward a new city commons.
Historical Data
James Davison Hunter is the Labrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia and Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. He completed his doctorate at Rutgers University in 1981 and joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1983. Over the years, his research findings have been presented to audiences on National Public Radio and C-Span, at the National Endowment for the Arts, and at dozens of colleges and universities around the country including Columbia, Harvard, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and the New School for Social Research. In 2004, Professor Hunter was appointed by the White House and confirmed by the Senate to join the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He also has been a consultant to the White House, the Bicentennial Commission for the U.S. Constitution, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the National Commission on Civic Renewal.
Location
BR517 .H86 2010
Record Appears in
Course Lists
SYS522 Civil Affairs by Biermann (Fall 2026)