A Son of the Manse with a Missionary Zeal

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Webber
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Missionary Zeal ◽  
The World

This introductory chapter opens by exploring Gordon Brown’s upbringing as ‘a son of the Manse’ and his burning desire for social justice. This chapter reveals a clear lineage between the young socialist tramping the streets of Edinburgh and the man who would end up becoming Britain’s most powerful Chancellor of the Exchequer. Driven by his Christian faith, the influence of his parents, and a deep compassion for the most vulnerable in society, Brown took his mission to change the world very seriously indeed. As this book will go on to show, Brown’s steadfastness to end global poverty would see the former Chancellor and Prime Minster design a model of political economy that not only oriented Britain towards the ‘opportunities’ presented by globalisation, but one that could also be exported to meet the challenges faced by some of the poorest countries in the world.

Reinhold Niebuhr and Catholic Social Teaching on ‘Why Nations Fail’: Constructing a Common Christian Ethical Analysis of a New Theory of Political Economy

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-162
Author(s):  
James P. O’Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Ethical Analysis ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Christian View ◽  
The World ◽  
Developed Nations

In this paper the author undertakes a Christian ethical analysis of a prominent new theory of political economy by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. The analysis utilizes two commonly juxtaposed Christian sources, Reinhold Niebuhr and Catholic social teaching (cst), which allow for a common Christian analysis while also highlighting the nuance and variations of the Christian view. The author first makes the case for the compatibility of the understanding of basic social justice in Niebuhr and cst. Subsequently, the author expounds Acemoglu and Robinson’s account of the roots of development, poverty, and prosperity and then applies the insights of Niebuhr and cst. The aim is not to argue for the accuracy of Acemoglu and Robinson’s theory, but rather to show that Niebuhr and cst reveal deeper theological and ethical dimensions of this highly regarded empirical account, and that these dimensions compel greater action by the developed nations of the world.

Preaching Good News to the Poor

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. King
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Good News ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Social Concern ◽  
Social Ethic ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
American Evangelicalism ◽  
Exact Relationship

The chapter examines how Billy Graham’s encounters with domestic and global poverty offer a window into the evolution of Graham’s social ethic that sheds light on American evangelicals’ public engagement at home and abroad. As his public platform grew, he began to draw attention to the world’s most pressing needs. Graham’s evolving humanitarianism helped set the boundaries of a postwar American evangelicalism. As Graham came to speak of both evangelism and social concern as necessary parts of the gospel, debates over their exact relationship continued to rally and fragment evangelicals. Graham’s social ethic also illuminated American evangelicals’ view of the world. Finally, Graham’s humanitarianism highlighted the contested relationships between government and religious agencies. As his social ethic moved from the abstract to the specific, Graham embraced terms like social justice and social responsibility. This shift may serve as Graham’s closest link to the global activism of contemporary evangelicalism.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Crawford Gribben
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the history of Christianity in Ireland. Since the arrival of Palladius in Ireland in the year 431, the ‘land of saints and scholars’ has had a long and complex relationship with its dominant religion. Ireland's social, political and intellectual history has always been integrated with its experience of Christianity, for the religion that began to organize in 431 has shaped in powerful ways the island's cultures and languages, as well as its people's conceptions of what it means to be an individual, a family, a community, and a nation. Over one-and-a-half millennia, the Christian faith fashioned ideas about Irish-ness and Ireland, just as Irish missionaries, theologians, ideas, and experiences shaped Christianity as it expanded around the world. Nevertheless, the dominance of Christianity in Ireland was never complete and has never been uncontested.

History, Capitalism, and the Cyber Left

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Mapping Exercise

This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to describe and analyze the logic that drives left-based social movements. The book maps the underlying logic of a new figure of resistance—a new sociopolitical formation—as it has materialized across the world. It undertakes this mapping exercise through a historical and ethnographic analysis of the Global Social Justice Movement from 1994 to 2006, with a particular focus on the indymedia movement. It argues that historical and sociocultural patterns connect different periods of political protest. Specifically, it argues that the patterns of struggle in a particular period are best understood as developing, in an ideal sense, through a multilateral dialogue between social-movement actors and both the past and present. The chapter then introduces the term Cyber Left, suggesting that that we are on the cusp of a new stage in left-based social movements. This is followed by an overview of the two parts of the book.

Social Justice and Critical/Performative Communicative Pedagogy

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Classroom Interactions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Just World ◽  
The World ◽  
Analytical Point ◽  
Embodied Pedagogy

Through narratives and critical interrogations of classroom interactions, I sketch an argument for a co-constitutive relationship between qualitative research and pedagogy that imagines a more reflexive and socially just world. Through story, one comes to see an interplay between one's own experiences, one's own desires and one's community — I seek to focus that potential into an embodied pedagogy that highlights power and, as a result, holds all of us accountable for our own situated-ness in systems of power in ways that grant us potential places from which to enact change. Key in this discussion is a careful analytical point of view for seeing the world and a set of practices that work to imagine new ways of talking back.

“Proclaiming Together”? Convergence and Divergence in Mainline and Evangelical Evangelism, 1945-1967

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-76
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Berg
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Relative Priority ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Mainline Denominations ◽  
Convergence And Divergence ◽  
Protestant Christians ◽  
Dividing Line

By now, it is a commonplace of the American religious scene that the majority of the nation's white Protestant Christians are split into “two parties.” The ideological dividing line runs between “mainline” denominations—Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians—and a bevy of conservative denominations and groups, but it also cuts through the mainline itself, which contains a substantial contingent of conservatives.Among the two parties' numerous disagreements, theological and political, few have run deeper and longer than their difference over the meaning and importance of evangelism, the activity of “proclaiming the gospel” to those outside the Christian community. Is the church's prime call in this regard to seek conversions to the Christian faith, or is it to show the love of Christ by working for charitable goals and social justice? A well-known 1973 study of Presbyterian clergy found that the greatest polarization between self-described “conservatives” and “liberals” came over the relative priority of evangelism and social action. Indeed, the fight over these goals was an important (though by no means the only) factor precipitating the “split” early in this century.

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