Theology and Public Philosophy Four Conversations [Paperback]

Grasso and Castillo have here assembled a dream team of eminent thinkers who seek to deepen and enrich our ideas about the role of religion in public life. The result is a consistently lively and engaging volume, with a strong underlying message for the future: The recovery of a viable public philosophy will almost certainly need to find ways to draw on the substantive resources of religious thought and practice if it is to succeed.Its a rare thing, these days, to find minds capable of untying the knots into which the modern world has tied itself. This book is something rarer still: serious, knot-untying minds in conversation  the kind of conversation that has always been the hallmark of politics and philosophy at their best and most humane.Theology and Public Philosophy is an immeasurably valuable contribution to the ongoing contemporary debate on the role that theology can play in the development of an authentic public philosophy, especially given the theoretical and practical weaknesses of the liberal intellectual tradition and the models of social and political life that flow from within it.This volume brings together eminent theologians, philosophers and political theorists to discuss such questions as how religious understandings have shaped the moral landscape of contemporary culture; the possible contributions of theology and theologically informed moral argument to contemporary public life; the problem of religious and moral discourse in a pluralistic society; and the proper relationship between religion and culture.This volume brings together eminent theologians, philosophers and political theorists to discuss the relevance of theology and theologically grounded moral reflection to contemporary Americas public life and argument. Avoiding the focus on hot-button issues, shrill polemics, and sloganeering that so often dominate discussions of religion and public life, the contributors address such subjects as how religious understandings have shaped the lG