Christian Faith and Modern Democracy
Title | Christian Faith and Modern Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Robert P. Kraynak |
Publisher | |
Pages | 360 |
Release | 2001 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN |
This work challenges the commonly accepted view that Christianity is inherently compatible with modern democratic society. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it argues that there is no necessary connection between Christianity and any form of government.
What is Christian Democracy?
Title | What is Christian Democracy? PDF eBook |
Author | Carlo Invernizzi Accetti |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 401 |
Release | 2019-10-03 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1108386156 |
Christian Democratic actors and thinkers have been at the forefront of many of the twentieth century's key political battles - from the construction of the international human rights regime, through the process of European integration and the creation of postwar welfare regimes, to Latin American development policies during the Cold War. Yet their core ideas remain largely unknown, especially in the English-speaking world. Combining conceptual and historical approaches, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the development of this ideology in the thought and writings of some of its key intellectual and political exponents, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. In so doing he sheds light on a number of important contemporary issues, from the question of the appropriate place of religion in presumptively 'secular' liberal-democratic regimes, to the normative resources available for building a political response to the recent rise of far-right populism.
Christianity and American Democracy
Title | Christianity and American Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Hugh Heclo |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 312 |
Release | 2009-07-01 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 0674027051 |
Exploring the tension at the heart of America’s culture wars, this is “a very fine book on a very important subject” (Mark A. Noll, author of The Civil War as a Theological Crisis). Christianity, not religion in general, has been important for American democracy. With this bold thesis, Hugh Heclo offers a panoramic view of how Christianity and democracy have shaped each other. Heclo shows that amid deeply felt religious differences, a Protestant colonial society gradually convinced itself of the truly Christian reasons for, as well as the enlightened political advantages of, religious liberty. By the mid-twentieth century, American democracy and Christianity appeared locked in a mutual embrace. But it was a problematic union vulnerable to fundamental challenge in the Sixties. Despite the subsequent rise of the religious right and glib talk of a conservative Republican theocracy, Heclo sees a longer-term, reciprocal estrangement between Christianity and American democracy. Responding to his challenging argument, Mary Jo Bane, Michael Kazin, and Alan Wolfe criticize, qualify, and amend it. Heclo’s rejoinder suggests why both secularists and Christians should worry about a coming rupture between the Christian and democratic faiths. The result is a lively debate about a momentous tension in American public life.
Christianity and Democracy
Title | Christianity and Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Jacques Maritain |
Publisher | Ayer Publishing |
Pages | 63 |
Release | 1972 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 9780836972436 |
Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia
Title | Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia PDF eBook |
Author | David Halloran Lumsdaine |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 361 |
Release | 2009 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0195308247 |
Although a minority of the Asian population, Protestants in Asia are a fast-growing group. What are the political implications of this evangelical Christianity? In some cases, religion has enabled poor and marginalized people to gain greater prosperity, self-confidence and civic skills, and more open-minded and democratic societies. But does religion have the kind of cultural currency needed to generate political changes in governments such as China's? Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia provides six case studies on China, Western India, Northeast India, Indonesia, South Korea, and the Philippines. The contributors, mainly younger scholars based in Asia, bring first hand-knowledge to their chapters. The result is a groundbreaking work, indispensable to everyone concerned with the future of the region.Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia is one of four volumes in the series Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in the Global South and grew from a Pew-funded study that sought to answer the question: What happens when a revivalist religion based on scriptural orthodoxy participates in the volatile politics of the Third World? At a time when the global-political impact of another revivalist and scriptural religion - Islam - fuels debate, these volumes offer an unusual comparative perspective.
Christianity and Democracy
Title | Christianity and Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | John W. De Gruchy |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 314 |
Release | 1995-06 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9780521458412 |
The need for global democratisation is now widely recognised, but there is considerable debate about what this means and how it can be achieved. In this important study John de Gruchy examines the historic and contemporary roles of Christianity in the development of democracy. He traces the gestation of modern democracy in medieval Christendom, and then describes the virtual breakdown of the relationship as democracy becomes the polity of modernity. Five twentieth-century case studies - the USA, Nicaragua, sub-Saharan Africa, Germany and South Africa - demonstrate the extent to which ecumenical Christianity has begun to reconnect with democracy and act as its contemporary midwife. De Gruchy argues that democracy needs to rediscover its spiritual heritage, while Christianity needs to develop a theology adequate for its participation in the realisation of a just democratic world order.
The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe
Title | The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe PDF eBook |
Author | Stathis N. Kalyvas |
Publisher | Cornell University Press |
Pages | 314 |
Release | 2018-09-05 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1501731416 |
Although dominant in West European politics for more than a century, Christian Democratic parties remain largely unexplored and little understood. An investigation of how political identities and parties form, this book considers the origins of Christian Democratic "confessional" parties within the political context of Western Europe. Examining five countries where a successful confessional party emerged (Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, and Italy) and one where it did not (France), Stathis N. Kalyvas addresses perplexing questions raised by the Christian Democratic phenomenon. How can we reconcile the religious roots of these parties with their tremendous success and resilience in secular and democratic Western Europe? Why have these parties discarded their initial principles and objectives to become secular forces governing secular societies? The author's answers reveal the way in which social and political actors make decisions based on self-interest under conditions that constrain their choices and the information they rely on—often with unintended but irrevocable consequences.Kalyvas also lays a foundation for a theory of the Christian Democratic phenomenon which would specify the conditions under which confessional parties succeed and would determine the impact of such parties, and the way they are formed, on politics and society. Drawing from political science, sociology, and history, his analysis goes beyond Christian Democracy to address issues related to the methodology of political science, the theory of party formation, the political development of Europe, the relationship between religion and politics, the construction of collective political identities, and the role of agency and contingency in politics.