The changing situation in South Africa and Eastern Europe prompts Charles Villa-Vicencio to investigate the implications of transforming liberation theology into a theology of reconstruction and nation-building. Such a transformation, he argues, requires theology to become an unambiguously interdisciplinary study. This book explores the encounter between theology, on the one hand, and constitutional writing, law-making, human rights, economics, and the freedom of conscience on the other. Placing his discussion in the context of the South African struggle, the author compares this situation to...

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.

In this important study John de Gruchy examines the past, present and future roles of Christianity in the development of democracy. He traces the relationship from its gestation in early Christendom to its virtual breakdown as democracy becomes the polity of modernity, and focuses on five twentieth-century case studies, including Nazi Germany and South Africa, which demonstrate the revival of the churches as a force in the struggle for democracy. His conclusions point the way to the development of a theology for a just world order.

This work offers a theological response to the Marxist critique of ideology, a critique that suggests that Christianity is reactionary--that Christianity, in other words, concentrates on the individual, and cannot make a contribution to changing society. Peter Scott takes this criticism seriously, and offers a constructive response, stressing with feminist and liberation theologies the contextual nature of theology. Central to his argument are interpretations of resurrection as social and how God might be present to society.

In Western Christianity, the mystic was seen as having direct access to God, and therefore great authority. Dr. Jantzen discusses how men of power defined and controlled who should count as a mystic, and thus who would have power: women were pointedly excluded. The modern philosophical assumption that mysticism is essentially about intense subjective experiences is misguided. This book is the first on the subject to take issues of gender seriously, and to use them as a point of entry for a deconstructive approach to Christian mysticism.

This book examines the relationship between the theologies of atonement and penal strategies. Christian theology was potent in Western society until the nineteenth century, and the so-called "satisfaction theory" of the atonement interacted and reacted with penal practice. Gorringe argues that atonement theology created a structure of affect that favored retributive policies. He reviews theory and practice in the twentieth century, and makes concrete proposals for both theology and criminal and societal violence.

This book contributes to contemporary debates about justice from the perspective of Christian social ethics. Professor Forrester examines some secular theories from a theological viewpoint, and surveys the policies and practices these theories are supposed to support and justify. He argues that Christian theology, although it can no longer claim to provide a comprehensive theory of justice, can provide insights into justice that challenge some aspects of the conventional wisdom, and contribute to the building of just communities.

This book is about conservative Protestant Christians and their spread around the globe. It focuses on "Health and Wealth" Christians. A ministry in Scandinavia is shown to be closely linked to evangelicals in other parts of the world, particularly the United States. The book provides the first extended account by an anthropologist of a Health and Wealth ministry. It makes a major contribution to an understanding of the material lives of these Christians: their art, architecture and uses of electronic technologies such as television, videos and the Internet.