The Challenge of Pluralism

The Challenge of Pluralism

Author: J. Christopher Soper

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-01-31

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 1442250445

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In a thoroughly revised and expanded edition that now includes France, this essential text offers a rigorous, systematic comparison of church-state relations in six Western nations: the United States, France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia. As successful and stable political democracies, these countries share a commitment to protecting the religious rights of their citizens. The book demonstrates, however, that each has taken substantially different approaches to resolving basic church-state questions. The authors examine both the historical roots of those differences and more recent conflicts over Islam and other religious minorities, explain how contemporary church-state issues are addressed, and provide a framework for assessing the success of each of the six states in protecting the religious rights of its citizens using a framework based on the ideal of governmental neutrality and evenhandedness toward people of all faiths and of none. Responding to the general confusion about the relationship between church and state in the West, this book offers a much-needed comparative analysis of a topic that is increasingly a source of political conflict. The authors argue that the US conception of church-state separation, with its emphasis on avoiding government establishment of religion, is unique among political democracies and discriminates against religious groups by denying religious organizations access to government services provided to other organizations. The authors persuasively conclude that the United States can learn a great deal from other Western nations in promoting religious neutrality and the free exercise of religion.


Christian Citizens

Christian Citizens

Author: Elizabeth L. Jemison

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2020-10-07

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1469659700

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With emancipation, a long battle for equal citizenship began. Bringing together the histories of religion, race, and the South, Elizabeth L. Jemison shows how southerners, black and white, drew on biblical narratives as the basis for very different political imaginaries during and after Reconstruction. Focusing on everyday Protestants in the Mississippi River Valley, Jemison scours their biblical thinking and religious attitudes toward race. She argues that the evangelical groups that dominated this portion of the South shaped contesting visions of black and white rights. Black evangelicals saw the argument for their identities as Christians and as fully endowed citizens supported by their readings of both the Bible and U.S. law. The Bible, as they saw it, prohibited racial hierarchy, and Amendments 13, 14, and 15 advanced equal rights. Countering this, white evangelicals continued to emphasize a hierarchical paternalistic order that, shorn of earlier justifications for placing whites in charge of blacks, now fell into the defense of an increasingly violent white supremacist social order. They defined aspects of Christian identity so as to suppress black equality—even praying, as Jemison documents, for wisdom in how to deny voting rights to blacks. This religious culture has played into remarkably long-lasting patterns of inequality and segregation.


Church, State, and Citizen

Church, State, and Citizen

Author: Sandra Fullerton Joireman

Publisher:

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780197733066

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The history of Christianity's relationship to government is long and complex. This book will attempt to bring order to the chaos by offering essays on how particular branches of the Christian tradition view the institution of the modern state.


The Christian Citizen

The Christian Citizen

Author: Ansel Doane Eddy

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-03-11

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 9780364380888

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Excerpt from The Christian Citizen: The Obligations of the Christian Citizen, With a Review of High Church Principles in Relation to Civil and Religious Institutions It is from these considerations that I shall speak freely, and I hope kindly, of both political and religious institutions, as found existing among us; and as these are favorable to the stability of our government and the growth of a spiritual reli gion, they claim our warmest confidence and support. Our civil and religious principles are our richest and dearest inheritance; and the time has arrived, when it is our imperious duty to speak in their defense. You are not wholly ignorant of the circumstances which claim this, at my hands, at the present time. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.


CHURCH, STATE and CITIZEN

CHURCH, STATE and CITIZEN

Author: Emmanuel Ihim

Publisher:

Published: 2019-05-04

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 9781095808221

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Church, State and Citizen is a biblical-based approach for political engagement, which challenges Christians to always give their ultimate allegiance to God in the public square. It is a very insightful and useful resource and contains immense biblical wealth and practical experience on the vital issues relating to the Church, State, and citizenship. This book is a worthy investment of time and resources. I encourage you to join the author in this book on his eventful historical explorations, theological reflections, moral juxtapositions and healthy analysis of the experiences of great men and women who, through the prudent engagement in politics, were used by God to reshape the ungodly cultures, renovate their socio-political landscape, and reform the decadent structures of their societies. Emmanuel Ihim brings a fresh theological breath into the art of Christian political engagement and introduces a special revelation upon the dynamics of limited government, God's sovereignty, the legitimacy of government, the value of human dignity, God's concept of Christian citizenship, Church and state, and more. Ihim unravels why Christ did not give the State the key of the Kingdom and with it, His redemptive power, but instead, gave it to the Church, neither, did He give to the Church, the sword and its coercive power, but gave it to the government.Church, State, and Citizenship expounds on the invaluable responsibility of the Church to teach the Bible as a common standard of law, both to the Church and State; mobilize forces of compassion, courage, truth, and justice to salvage society; expose sin, equip believers, encourage the magistrates and embolden God's vision for humanity in society.Emmanuel Ihim unfolds biblical cornerstones and practical realities for Christian political engagement, which include, discovering Biblical TRUTH on the subject of politics and governance; developing basic biblical principles as policy tools for operating in the public square and linking these principles with basic complimentary moral values, as they ties into the political and social realities of the time. Church, State and Citizen clarifies the puzzles surrounding Church and State and contend that the Church and State's independent status is mutually exclusive. He describes it as an institutional separation that has an interface between religious faith and civil government. Emmanuel Ihim argues that the spirit behind the separation of the Church and State is to guarantee that, neither the Church nor the state unnecessarily meddles with each other's affairs, but that they coalesce to balance and preserve each other. Ihim explores the theological misconceptions and misinterpretations of Biblical Worldview of government and adequately resolves many controversial questions about Christian political engagement, proffering solutions upon which Christian political engagement should rightly be predicated. This Book challenges the apathy of Christians to comprehend the value of political power and its relationship to our "cultural mandate" and our "commission to disciple the nations." Ihim rejects passivity, for this is equivalent to culturally surrendering to satan, both the Lordship of Christ over all spheres of life and the dominion status that God gives to His children. It is tandem to rendering to Caesar both what belongs to Caesar and also that which belongs only to God.Church, State, and Citizen offer a practical guide for Christian political engagement and highlight some benefits of Christian political engagement, including, how it: *Secures the Bible-based structure for our society and government*Ensures that only Individuals of character and integrity are elected in public office*Nurtures democracy, religious freedom, sanctity of life and civic pleasantness for the propagation of the gospel*Demonstrates and builds upon the Lordship of Jesus over every sphere of life and society.


Church, State and Public Justice

Church, State and Public Justice

Author: P. C. Kemeny

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2009-09-20

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0830874747

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Abortion. Physician-assisted suicide. Same-sex marriages. Embryonic stem-cell research. Poverty. Crime. What is a faithful Christian response? The God of the Bible is unquestionably a God of justice. Yet Christians have had their differences as to how human government and the church should bring about a just social order. Although Christians share many deep and significant theological convictions, differences that threaten to divide them have often surrounded the matter of how the church collectively and Christians individually ought to engage the public square. What is the mission of the church? What is the purpose of human government? How ought they to be related to each other? How should social injustice be redressed? The five noted contributors to this volume answer these questions from within their distinctive Christian theological traditions, as well as responding to the other four positions. Through the presentations and ensuing dialogue we come to see more clearly what the differences are, where their positions overlap and why they diverge. The contributors and the positions taken include Clarke E. Cochran: A Catholic Perspective Derek H. Davis: A Classical Separation Perspective Ronald J. Sider: An Anabaptist Perspective Corwin F. Smidt: A Principled Pluralist Perspective J. Philip Wogaman: A Social Justice Perspective This book will be instructive for anyone seeking to grasp the major Christian alternatives and desiring to pursue a faithful corporate and individual response to the social issues that face us.


Church, State, and Citizen

Church, State, and Citizen

Author: Sandra Fullerton Joireman

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0195378466

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Christians are often portrayed as sharing the same political opinions and the same theological foundations for their actions. Yet, from the time of the early church, believers have held a variety of perspectives on the relationship between church and state and what constitutes legitimate political behavior for Christian citizens. Thoroughly Christian political beliefs run the gamut from disavowal of any political responsibility to a complete endorsement of government policies and the belief that the state has been divinely appointed. In Church, State, and Citizen, Sandra F. Joireman has gathered political scientists to examine the relationship between religion and politics as seen from within seven Christian traditions: Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, Anglican, Evangelical and Pentecostal. In each chapter the historical and theological foundations of the tradition are described along with the beliefs regarding the appropriate role of the state and citizen. While all Christian traditions share certain beliefs about faith (e.g., human sin, salvation, Christ's atonement) and political life (e.g. limited government, human rights, the incompleteness and partiality of all political action) there are also profound differences. The authors discuss the contemporary implications of these beliefs both in the United States and in other areas of the world where Christianity is showing increasing vigor.