This book gives a persuasive answer to the need for public theology today. Rudolf von Sinner can draw from a rich basis of scholarship and experience related to the topic of public theology. His clear awareness of the contextuality of public theology is the reason for his repeated assurance in this book that we cannot speak about "public theology" but always only of "a" public theology. At the same time it is very clear for him that there is also an "intercontextuality". One of the great strengths of this book is its embeddedness into an international discourse on public theology, with a special emphasis on the South-South exchange. It is a contribution to public theology scholarship in its best sense. I proudly welcome its publication in our series. (Bishop Prof. Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Evangelical Church in Germany}

A substantial and definitive introduction to public theology by one of the leading experts in the field.A key text for third year undergraduate modules and MA courses in Social Ethics, Political Theology and Public Theology.

Public theology is an increasingly important area of theological discourse with strong global networks of institutions and academics involved in it. Elaine Graham is one of the UK's leading theologians and an established SCM author. In this book, Elaine Graham argues that Western society is entering an unprecedented political and cultural era, in which many of the assumptions of classic sociological theory and of mainstream public theology are being overturned. Whilst many of the features of the trajectory of religious decline, typical of Western modernity, are still apparent, there are compelling and vibrant signs of religious revival, not least in public life and politics - local, national and global. This requires a revision of the classic secularization thesis, as well as much Western liberal political theory, which set out separate or at least demarcated terms of engagement between religion and the public domain. Elaine Graham examines claims that Western societies are moving from 'secular' to 'post-secular' conditions and traces the contours of the 'post-secular': the revival of faith-based engagement in public sphere alongside the continuing - perhaps intensifying - questioning of the legi¬timacy of religion in public life. She argues that public theology must rethink its theological and strategic priorities in order to be convincing in this new 'post-secular' world and makes the case for the renewed prospects for public theology as a form of Christian apologetics, drawing from Biblical, classical and contemporary sources.

This volume explores the contributions to the field of social ethics by David Hollenbach, one of the most prominent voices in the promotion of the common good over the past half-century.Whatever became of the idea of a "common good"? Ethicists and theologians lament the decline in public life of the importance of this concept, so central to the character of civil society and so crucial for the flourishing of individuals within it. In our own culture, the promotion of the common good is a valuable corrective to our atomised morality and laissez-faire economics. This volume, on the 30th anniversary of the famous U.S. Bishops' economics pastoral letter, brings together some of the leading lights in ethics to discuss the role, impact, and importance of public theology across the globe.

In this masterful analysis of the religious and political dilemmas at the end of the modern age, world-renowned theologian J rgen Moltmann assays the vaulting dreams and colossal failures of our time. He asks how we came to this point, and he argues strenuously for Christian discipleship and public theology that take sides. In both critical and creative ways he advances the specific relevance of Christian messianic hope to today's thorniest political, economic, and ecological questions-including human rights, environmental rights, globalization, market capitalism, fundamentalisms, and Jewish-Christian relations-and the deeper values contested therein.In a world reeling between utopia and disaster, Moltmann here passionately and provacatively shows how Christian discipleship, through engagement and solidarity, can blaze a redemptive path.

What has happened to religion in its present manifestations? Containing contributions from distinguished scholars from disciplines, such as: philosophy, political theory, anthropology, classics, and religious studies, this book seeks to address this question.

This volume explores contemporary Christian political theology, discussing its traditional sources, its emergence as a discipline, and its key issues.