The Public Forum and Christian Ethics

The communication of Christian ethics in the public forum of liberal, secular societies.

Robert Gascoigne (Author)

9780521790932, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 November 2000

264 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.49 kg

Review of the hardback: 'An excellent and well-written study.' Theology

This book addresses the question of the communication of Christian ethics in the public forum of liberal, pluralist societies. Drawing on debates in philosophy, theology and sociological theory, it relates the problem of communication to fundamental questions about the nature of liberal societies and the identity of Christian faith and the Christian community. With particular emphasis on Kantian and neo-Kantian ethics, it explores the link between autonomy and community in liberal societies. The theology of communio, expressed in revealed Christian traditions, can reconcile autonomy and community. Any Christian attempt to communicate this vision must also reflect on Christianity's own identity, especially the ways in which its own self-consciousness grows in critical interaction with secularity. In this light, Christian ethical communication is both a witness to a distinctive identity, founded in the revelation of the triune God, and a vision of universal human solidarity which can reconcile autonomy and community.

General editor's preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Revelation and reason in liberal societies
2. Revelation and a contemporary public ethics
3. The theology of revelation and Christian identity
4. The communication of Christian ethics in the public forum
5. Reconciling autonomy and community
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Christian life & practice [HRCV]