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Literature on Economics, Politics and Religious Faith

Not too long ago, someone at UBC asked where is the hope for intelligent, rational, good-faith political engagement by people of sincere religious faith. Who is addressing the Big Questions? In the context of late modern hyper-pluralism, is it possible to access a discourse that calls on the full wisdom of the Christian heritage while engaging significantly current issues of public debate, the common good and corporate identity? So I went to the Regent College Bookstore and scanned the shelves for answers. To my delight, I discovered a lively array of deep thinking and scholarly work on this topic. It also sparked my memory of the classics that I have studied earlier in my intellectual journey, the giants on whose shoulders I now find confidence and see more clearly. They still inspire me to engage with big questions.

It seems that it is not at all necessary to be an atheist after all, in order to be relevant to current political, social and economic challenges: justice, rights, globalization, poverty, identity, human suffering, global warming, liberty for the oppressed, moral vision, democracy, violence and terrorism, economic justice, crippling debt, recovery of civility. Below you will find sources for brilliant analysis, critique, challenging new metaphors and political vision, but above all hope for a better world and a belief that we humans can do better by each other. These scholars and writers refuse Nihilism and complacency; they are onto a quest for meaningful dialogue and action. Many are public intellectuals such as Charles Taylor or Jim Wallis, constructively involved in their communities. The good news is that there are many more quality voices that those  listed below.

~Dr. Gordon Carkner PhD. Faith & Culture

https://ubcgfcf.com/2022/09/23/daniel-k-williams/   Upcoming talk on Faith & Politics with Historian Daniel K. Williams 

Larry Siedentop, Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism. (2015)

Thomas Heilke and Ashley Woodwiss (eds.). The Re-Enchantment of Political Science: Christian Scholars Engage Their Discipline, (2001).

Miraslov Volf. Flourishing: why we need religion in a globalized world. (Yale, 2015)

John Milbank. Theology & Social Theory: beyond secular reason. Blackwell, 1990.

Brad S. Gregory. The Unintended Reformation: how a religious revolution secularized society.

Rowan Williams. Faith in the Public Square; The Truce of God.

Ron Dart, The North American High Tory Tradition

David Lyon & Van Die. Rethinking Church, State and Modernity: Canada Between Europe and America.

Roger Trig. Free to Believe: Religious Freedom in a Liberal Society, Theos Think Tank, London , 2010

Jean Bethke Elshtain. Sovereignty: God, State and Self.

 

Glenn Tinder, The Political Meaning of Christianity.

Jacques Ellul, Propaganda.

Gary Haugen, Just Courage.

Jim Wallis, The (Un)Common Good.

James K. A. Smith, After Modernity?: Secularity, Globalization, and the Re-enchantment of the World.

John Stackhouse Jr., Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World.

Paul Marshall, Religious Freedom in the World.

____________ Blind Spot: Why Journalists Don’t Get Religion.

____________Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians.

Richard John Neuhaus, The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America.

St. Augustine, City of God.

Charles Taylor, Hegel and Modern Society; (plus two books of papers Philosophy and the Human Sciences); A Secular Age. (Harvard, 2007); Sources of the Self; The Malaise of Modernity; The Language Animal.

James Davison Hunter. To Change the World: the irony, tragedy and possibility of Christianity in the late modern world.

Alasdair MacIntyre. Three Versions of Moral Inquiry;  After Virtue.

Miraslov Volf. Exclusion & Embrace: a theological exploration of identity, otherness, and reconciliation.

Nicholas Wolterstorff, Understanding Liberal Democracy: essays in political philosophy.

________________ Justice: Rights and Wrongs.

________________Until Justice and Peace Embrace.

Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality.

Ronald Sider, Just Politics; Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.

Donald Hay, Economics Today.

Paul Johnson. A History of the Modern World.

Jens Zimmermann.  Incarnational Humanism: a philosophy of culture for the church in the world: Humanism and Religion: a call for renewal of Western culture.

Walter Bruggemann, The Prophetic Imagination.

D. Stephen Long, The Goodness of God: theology, the church and the social order.

Dennis Hollinger, Choosing the Good: Christian Ethics in a Complex World.

Jimmy Carter, Talking Peace.

John Redekop, Politics Under God.

Peter J. Leithart, Between Babel and Beast: America and Empires in Biblical Perspective (Theopolitical Visions).

George Grant, Technology and Empire.

Angus, Dart & Peters (eds.) Athens and Jerusalem: George Grant’s Theology, Philosophy and Politics.

Oliver O’Donovan. The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology. (part of a multi-volume series)

John Owen. Clash of Ideas.

Charles Taylor, The Language Animal.