The Ethics of Community

by Kirkpatrick, Frank G.

• ISBN13: 9780631216827
• ISBN10: 0631216820
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-25
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

We live today in a world dominated by large political, economic and social institutions; yet we long for the intimacy of smaller, more directly personal communities. This tension between 'individualism' and 'fellowship' is central to communitarian ethics. Frank Kirkpatrick's important and timely study sets out to identify a Christian ethic of community which accounts for the whole range of forms of human association, exploring the significant differences between them. He argues that a realistic Christian ethic of community must address the relationship between the religious aspiration for community and the political necessity for society. Drawing on theology, political philosophy and the social sciences generally, Kirkpatrick develops a 'philosophy of the personal' which can guide us towards understanding what a good society and a fulfilling community ought to be and which might ultimately help us to achieve a greater sense of personal meaning and fulfilment.

Author Biography

Frank G. Kirkpatrick is Professor of Religion at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the co-editor of the series 'Blackwell Religious Ethics' and is author of many books and articles, including Living Issues in Ethics (with Richard Nolan), Community: A Trinity of Models, Together Bound: God, History, and the Religious Community, and To Gather the Nations: A Christian Ethic of Flourishing and Justice in a Postmodern Age.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	viii
Introduction	ix
Moral and Scriptural Foundations	1	(19)
Scripture and the Ethics of Community	1	(5)
Moral Principles	6	(2)
Scripture and Community	8	(2)
The Hebrew Scriptures: Deliverance from Egypt	10	(3)
New Testment and Community	13	(2)
Pauline Communities of Faith	15	(5)
Community in the Monastic Tradition	20	(18)
Medieval Society	24	(6)
Calvin and the Experiment in Geneva	30	(3)
Anabaptism and Community	33	(3)
The Bruderhoff	36	(2)
Historical Experiments in Community: America	38	(27)
The Puritans	38	(4)
The American Revolution and Community	42	(3)
The Creation of the American Republic and the Struggle for the Common Good	45	(3)
From Madison to Communalism	48	(1)
The Second Great Awakening and Social Reform	49	(2)
Communalism in America	51	(2)
The Social Gospel	53	(3)
Reinhold Niebuhr and the Niebuhr Caution	56	(4)
The Struggle between Individualism and Community in America Today	60	(2)
The Small Group Movement	62	(3)
Building a Philosophy of Community	65	(15)
John Macmurray and the Philosophy of Community	65	(1)
Epistemological Revision	66	(2)
Personal Relations	68	(1)
Mother and Child	69	(1)
Resistance and Discrimination of the Other	70	(2)
Society	72	(4)
Material Foundations of a Just Society	76	(4)
Political Philosophies of Society	80	(23)
From Private to Public	80	(1)
The Political Philosophy of Liberal Democracy: John Rawls	81	(3)
The Political Philosophy of Libertarianism: Robert Nozick	84	(1)
The Communitarian Critique	85	(3)
A Critique of the Communitarian Critique	88	(3)
Feminist Criticism	91	(2)
Communicative Ethics	93	(3)
Empowering Positive Liberty	96	(1)
The Limits of Communitarianism	97	(4)
Communities within Liberalism	101	(2)
Community and Society: Difference and Engagement	103	(31)
A Theology of Difference	103	(3)
Hauerwas and Community	106	(6)
Barth's Theology of Engagement	112	(3)
Base Communities: Radical Engagement	115	(5)
Community for Society	120	(11)
Society for Community	131	(3)
Turning Inward to Community: The Family and the Dangers of Too Much Community	134	(13)
The Family as Community	134	(5)
Capacities for Personal and Social Life	139	(3)
Dangers of Too Much Community	142	(2)
Communal Mechanisms of Commitment	144	(3)
Working Outward from Community: Economic Justice and International Order	147	(21)
A Good and Just Society	147	(3)
Economic Justice	150	(5)
Property, Poverty, and Politics	155	(4)
Economic Democracy	159	(2)
Regulation	161	(1)
Taxation	161	(2)
International Order	163	(2)
The End of the Nation-state?	165	(3)
Conclusion	168	(4)
Bibliography	172	(9)
Index	181