Religion and the Making of Society Essays in Social Theology [Hardcover]

A wide-ranging account by a leading theologian of the function of religion in society.A leading contemporary theologian provides an account and a critique of contemporary thinking on the function of religion in society. The chief questions of the day are taken up, expounded with lucidity and clarity, and assessed for their contributions to social theory.A leading contemporary theologian provides an account and a critique of contemporary thinking on the function of religion in society. The chief questions of the day are taken up, expounded with lucidity and clarity, and assessed for their contributions to social theory.In this book a leading contemporary theologian provides an account and a critique of contemporary thinking on the function of religion in society. The chief questions of the day are taken up, expounded with lucidity and clarity, and assessed for their contributions to social theory. The practical relevance of the theoretical analyses emerges especially in a critique of Michael Novak's attempt to make democratic capitalism an ideal, and in an original attempt to ground religious hope in communicative rationality.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.