About the Book
In the late 20th century, the world has grown increasingly smaller because of advances in technology and the erosion of the nation-state as a political paradigm. The process of globalization—with its promises of a common culture, a common currency, and a common government—offers a new political model for the world that fosters unity and community.
At the same time, however, this process threatens to destroy the values, norms, and ideals that particular cultures have wrought and established and to thereby diminish the power of each culture's unique identity. As globalization occurs, society must decide which values will be normative and what roles that social institutions like religion and education will play in selecting and fostering these values. The contributors to this volume examine both the promise and the threat of globalization using the tools of theological ethics to understand and evaluate the "social contexts of life at the deepest moral and spiritual levels."
This inaugural volume of a projected four volume series, Theology for the 21st Century: God and Globalization, examines five spheres of life—economics (Mammon), political science (Mars), psychology and sexuality (Eros), the mass media and the arts (Muses), and religion—that foster normative values for society. As the writers argue, their efforts attempt to determine whether "God is behind globalization in any substantive way."
Contributors to the volume include: Roland Robertson, University of Pittsburgh; Yersu Kim, UNESCO; Donald W. Shriver, Jr., New York; William Schweiker, University of Chicago; Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, Eastern College; David Tracy, University of Chicago. Max L. Stackhouse teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary and is the author of Covenant and Commitments: Faith, Family, and Economic. Peter Paris teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Table of Contents:
Contributors
General Introduction
1. Globalization and the Future of "Traditional Religion" - Max L. Stackhouse
2. Philosophy and the Prospects for a Universal Ethics - Yersu Kim
3. Responsibility in the World of Mammon: Theology, Justice, and Transnational Corporations - William Schweiker
4. The Taiming of Mars: Can Humans of the Twenty-first Century Contain Their Propensity for Violence? - Danold W. Shriver, Jr.
5. Faith, Feminism, and the Family in an Age of Globalization - Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen
6. Public Theology, Hope, and the Mass Media: Can the Muses Still Inspire? - David Tracy
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Max L. Stackhouse is Rimmer and Ruth de Vries Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and coordinating editor of the God and Globalization series.
Review :
"This fine volume will provoke much needed debate about the meaning, the perils, and the possibilities of globalization. At a moment when so many are celebrating the triumph of economic globalization under market auspices, it is good that the distinguished scholars in this volume are helping us to take stock of the phenomenon and to refract its many contentious and contingent features." --Jean Bethke Elshtain, Laura Spellman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, University of Chicago
"This is an important volume" --P. L. Redditt, Georgetown College, reviewing for Choice, March 2001
"This fine volume will provoke much needed debate about the meaning, the perils, and the possibilities of globalization. At a moment when so many are celebrating the triumph of economic globalization under market auspices, it is good that the distinguished scholars in this volume are helping us to take stock of the phenomenon and to refract its many contentious and contingent features."
God and Globalization represents a notable series and offers an excellent opportunity of Christian theologians and scholars of religion alike to engage in conversation, listen, and respond critically one to another. By making this meeting possible, we remain Professor Max L. Stackhouse (the main editor of the series) in great debt." -Archaevs Journal
"One of the most significant contributions of the volumes by Stackhouse et al. is the inquiry into how religion in various forms is-and should be-an actor in globalization."
"A project of this magnitude and scope has broad interdisciplinary appeal. These volumes could easily serve as texts for an introductory course in theological ethics or as a resource for clergy in helping faith communities decipher their mission in our ever-changing world. The strength of these two volumes is their ability to integrate many perspectives, not only from the various academic disciplines, but from a diversity of ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. This valuable series of books, by interjecting complex interdisciplinary analyses of globalization that are rooted in people's deepest moral and religious commitments, promises a genuinely public theology and global ethic that respects a plurality of perspectives without surrendering to radical pluralism."--Rubén Rosario Rodriguez, Princeton Theological Seminary, Koinonia, Vol. XIII.2, Fall 2001
"[The perspective of this volume] enables us to test the questions raised in terms of their fragility or durability, asking where glocalized [a cross between globalization and homogenization ('the McDonaldization of the world')] ethics are being forged and articulated and to what effect. Overall, this first volume in the series passes the mantle to the next generation of public theologians." - Katie Day, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, USA
"This unusually clear and unified collection provides and excellent resource, for discerning the risk and promise of globalization."--John K. Downey, Gonzaga University, Theological Studies
