Christians In The American Empire

Author : Vincent D. Rougeau
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190293268
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christians in the American Empire written by Vincent D. Rougeau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be a Christian citizen of the United States today? This book challenges the argument that the United States is a Christian nation, and that the American founding and the American Constitution can be linked to a Christian understanding of the state and society. Vincent Rougeau argues that the United States has become an economic empire of consumer citizens, led by elites who seek to secure American political and economic dominance around the world. Freedom and democracy for the oppressed are the public themes put forward to justify this dominance, but the driving force behind American hegemony is the need to sustain economic growth and maintain social peace in the United States. This state of affairs raises important questions for Christians. In recent times, religious voices in American politics have taken on a moralistic stridency. Individual issues like abortion and same-sex marriage have been used to "guilt" many Christians into voting Republican or to discourage them from voting at all. Using Catholic social teaching as a point of departure, Rougeau argues that conservative American politics is driven by views of the individual and the state that are inconsistent with mainstream Catholic social thought. Without thinking more broadly about their religious traditions and how those traditions should inform their engagement with the modern world, it is unwise for Christians to think that pressing single issues is an appropriate way to actualize their faith commitments in the public realm. Rougeau offers concerned Christians new tools for a critical assessment of legal, political and social questions. He proceeds from the fundamental Christian premise of the God-given dignity of the human person, a dignity that can only be realized fully in community with others. This means that the Christian cannot simply focus on individual empowerment as 'freedom' but must also seek to nurture community participation and solidarity for all citizens. Rougeau demonstrates what happens when these ideas are applied to a variety of specific contemporary issues involving the family, economics, and race. He concludes by offering a new model of public engagement for Christians in the American Empire.

Author : Vincent D. Rougeau
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199720071
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.7X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christians in the American Empire written by Vincent D. Rougeau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be a Christian citizen of the United States today? This book challenges the argument that the United States is a Christian nation, and that the American founding and the American Constitution can be linked to a Christian understanding of the state and society. Vincent Rougeau argues that the United States has become an economic empire of consumer citizens, led by elites who seek to secure American political and economic dominance around the world. Freedom and democracy for the oppressed are the public themes put forward to justify this dominance, but the driving force behind American hegemony is the need to sustain economic growth and maintain social peace in the United States. This state of affairs raises important questions for Christians. In recent times, religious voices in American politics have taken on a moralistic stridency. Individual issues like abortion and same-sex marriage have been used to "guilt" many Christians into voting Republican or to discourage them from voting at all. Using Catholic social teaching as a point of departure, Rougeau argues that conservative American politics is driven by views of the individual and the state that are inconsistent with mainstream Catholic social thought. Without thinking more broadly about their religious traditions and how those traditions should inform their engagement with the modern world, it is unwise for Christians to think that pressing single issues is an appropriate way to actualize their faith commitments in the public realm. Rougeau offers concerned Christians new tools for a critical assessment of legal, political and social questions. He proceeds from the fundamental Christian premise of the God-given dignity of the human person, a dignity that can only be realized fully in community with others. This means that the Christian cannot simply focus on individual empowerment as 'freedom' but must also seek to nurture community participation and solidarity for all citizens. Rougeau demonstrates what happens when these ideas are applied to a variety of specific contemporary issues involving the family, economics, and race. He concludes by offering a new model of public engagement for Christians in the American Empire.

Author : David Ray Griffin
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God written by David Ray Griffin and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2006-05-17 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, four distinguished scholars level a powerful critique of the rapid expansion of the emerging American empire and its oppressive and destructive political, military, and economic policies. Arguing that a global Pax Americana is internationally disastrous, the authors demonstrate how America's imperialism inevitably leads to rampant irreversible ecological devastation, expanding military force for imperialistic purposes, and a grossly inequitable distribution of goods--all leading to the diminished well-being of human communities.

Author : Mark Lewis Taylor
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 9781451413892
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Religion, Politics, and the Christian Right written by Mark Lewis Taylor and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Princeton theologian Mark Taylor here looks at the influence and stance of the right-wing Christian movement in the U.S. He questions its religious authenticity, its claim to be called Christian, and the ethical stands it has taken in national politics of the last ten years. The heart of Taylor's argument is Jesus himself. Using the latest New Testament scholarship on the historical Jesus and his tactic in relation to the Roman Empire, Taylor argues that Jesus' life and work and message are inherently political and driven by the need to show God's love for the poor, condemnation of the oppressor, and search for a reign of justice. These Christian hallmarks, Taylor asserts, stand as a critical corrective to a distorted Christianity that often dominates the U.S. political scene today.

Author : Emily Conroy-Krutz
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501701037
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christian Imperialism written by Emily Conroy-Krutz and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-18 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1812, eight American missionaries, under the direction of the recently formed American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, sailed from the United States to South Asia. The plans that motivated their voyage were ano less grand than taking part in the Protestant conversion of the entire world. Over the next several decades, these men and women were joined by hundreds more American missionaries at stations all over the globe. Emily Conroy-Krutz shows the surprising extent of the early missionary impulse and demonstrates that American evangelical Protestants of the early nineteenth century were motivated by Christian imperialism—an understanding of international relations that asserted the duty of supposedly Christian nations, such as the United States and Britain, to use their colonial and commercial power to spread Christianity. In describing how American missionaries interacted with a range of foreign locations (including India, Liberia, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, North America, and Singapore) and imperial contexts, Christian Imperialism provides a new perspective on how Americans thought of their country’s role in the world. While in the early republican period many were engaged in territorial expansion in the west, missionary supporters looked east and across the seas toward Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Conroy-Krutz’s history of the mission movement reveals that strong Anglo-American and global connections persisted through the early republic. Considering Britain and its empire to be models for their work, the missionaries of the American Board attempted to convert the globe into the image of Anglo-American civilization.

Author : Darcie Fontaine
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107118174
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Decolonizing Christianity written by Darcie Fontaine and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-20 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces Christianity's change from European imperialism's moral foundation to a voice of political and social change during decolonization.

Author : RAHEB
Publisher : Orbis Books
ISBN 13 : 1608334333
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Faith in the Face of Empire written by RAHEB and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2014-02-10 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Palestinian Christian theologian shows how the reality of empire shapes the context of the biblical story, and the ongoing experience of Middle East conflict.

Author : Mike Mazzalongo
Publisher : BibleTalk Books
ISBN 13 : 1945778644
Total Pages : 32 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Decline of the American Empire? written by Mike Mazzalongo and published by BibleTalk Books. This book was released on 2017-11-03 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mike reviews the repeated claims that America's best days are in the past and offers a plan for our nation's renewal.

Author : Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780826416278
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Saving Christianity From Empire written by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2005-02-08 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nelson-Pallmeyer calls into question the imperialistic tendencies of the United States, using the life of Jesus to offer a critique of such tendencies.

Author : Richard T. Hughes
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 025209154X
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christian America and the Kingdom of God written by Richard T. Hughes and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of the United States as a Christian nation is a powerful, seductive, and potentially destructive theme in American life, culture, and politics. And yet, as Richard T. Hughes reveals in this powerful book, the biblical vision of the "kingdom of God" stands at odds with the values and actions of an American empire that sanctions war instead of peace, promotes dominance and oppression instead of reconciliation, and exalts wealth and power instead of justice for the poor and needy. With extensive analysis of both Christian scripture and American history from the founding of the republic to the present day, Christian America and the Kingdom of God illuminates the devastating irony of a "Christian America" that so often behaves in unchristian ways.