Religion and the Making of Society
Essays in Social Theology

A wide-ranging account by a leading theologian of the function of religion in society.

Charles Davis (Author)

9780521443104, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 November 1993

224 pages
22.4 x 14.4 x 1.7 cm, 0.391 kg

In this book a leading contemporary theologian investigates the relation between religion and society. Professor Davis begins with the thesis that society is a product of human agency; this raises immediately the questions of the meaning of modernity and of the function of religion in that context. The linguistic and pragmatic orientation of modern philosophy and social theory lead to a discussion of religious language and of praxis.Whether modernity is an incomplete project, as Habermas would have it, or a mistaken universalism, as the post-moderns maintain, is debated under the heading of human identity, both individual and collective, and in an examination of the formation of the modern self. The practical relevance of the theoretical analyses comes to the fore in a critique of Michael Novak's attempt to make 'democratic capitalism' an ideal. Professor Davis shows that, paradoxically, the post-modern rejection of secularity can be interpreted as a return from the secular to the supernatural.

General editors' preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: from the secular to the supernatural
Part I. Society, Religion and Human Agency: 1. Society and the critique of modernity
2. The present social function of religion
3. From inwardness to social action: the transformation of the political
4. The Christian question to radicalism
Part II. Praxis, Narrative and Religious Language: 5. Theology and praxis
6. Revelation, historical continuity and the rationality of tradition
7. The political use and misuse of religious language
Part III. From the Modern Subject to the Post-Modern Self: 8. Our new religious identity
9. Post-modernity and the formation of the self
Part IV. The Option for the Future: 10. What remains of socialism as a moral and religious ideal
11. Communicative rationality and the grounding of religious hope
Index.

Subject Areas: Christian theology [HRCM]