T&T Clark Being Faithful: Christian Commitment in Modern Society (Ecclesiological Investigations): 9

Review Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\: *{behavior: url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name: "Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow: yes; mso-style-parent: ""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom: .0001pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: #0400; mso-fareast-language: #0400; mso-bidi-language: #0400;} 'Building on the best theological, ethical, and social-scientific sources, Dr. Judith Merkle has created a balanced and insightful method for addressing contemporary challenges in three dimensions: the personal, ecclesial, and global. The" "book" "focuses on the virtue of faithfulness in which Christians respond daily to follow Jesus, a calling that impels them to engage in social transformation. The author identifies a pervasive secularity in today's world that challenges the religious belief of individuals, nations, the Church, and moral theology. Other challenges include nuclear war with its links to terrorism, the trafficking of human beings, and the threat of ecological disaster. She delicately balances the treatment of important concepts; for example, being faithful and loving to God and neighbor (the "subject "who is faithful), and being faithful by resisting evil and building just and peaceful structures that enhance the "humanum "(the "object" to which one is faithful). She presents balanced treatments of both grace and sin; personal sin and social sin; and individual conscience and social analysis. The highlight of this book is the author's skilled development of how diverse cultures form the contexts in which moral decisions, ideologies, and public policy are made. Borrowing the four-fold cultural typology from anthropologist Mary Douglas, Merkle interprets how each of the four types has historically shaped the contours of the Church and in doinNormal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4st1\: *{behavior: url(#ieooui) }/* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name: "Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow: yes;mso-style-parent: "";mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .0001pt;mso-pagination: widow-orphan;font-size:10.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language: #0400;mso-fareast-language: #0400;mso-bidi-language: #0400;}'ManyCatholics today are alienated from the Church, yet feel their identity is tiedup with it. They are conscious that their world has changed radically - and sohave they. They want to be faithful disciples and know they cannot do thatalone. Merkle helps readers to wrestle with their personal and Christianidentity in this new context. Using the anthropological insights of MaryDouglas and others, she explores the many-layered and sometimes conflictingdimensions of the personal, social, cultural and ecc Product Description This book explores how the Christian life is lived in a pluralistic situation where different contexts of belonging give rise to different moral challenges. While it is characteristic of modern life to exist in a postmodern situation where there is an erosion of comprehensive systems of meaning, we still live today in contexts of belonging. We still seek to gather out of the fragments of modern life the sustenance of a network of belonging, belief and practice which comprise a faithful life. The construction of such a life, not only for us, but for others, serves as the framework for our moral commitments. Furthermore, sustaining and transforming social frameworks which shape various aspects of human life form the life task of adult Christians. About the Author Judith A. Merkle is Professor at the Faculty of Religious Studies at Niagara University, New York, USA.