A culture of engagement
Subtitle: law, religion, and morality
By: Cathleen Kaveny
Series: The moral traditions series; Moral traditions series
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 305
ISBN-13: 9781626163027; 9781626163034
Subjects: Doctrines; Christian ethics; Culture conflict; Freedom of religion; Law; Catholic Church
Description: Religious traditions in the United States have been characterized by an ongoing tension between assimilation to the broader culture, typically reflected by mainline Protestant churches, and defiant rejection of cultural incursions, as witnessed by more sectarian movements such as Mormonism and Hassidism. But legal theorist and theologian Cathleen Kaveny contends that religious traditions do not need to swim in either the Current of Openness or the Current of Identity. There is a third possibility, which she calls the Current of Engagement, which accommodates and respects tradition but which recognizes the need to interact with culture to remain relevant and to offer a prophetic critique of social and political and legal and economic practice. In fifty-six brief articles Kaveny illustrates the implications of the Current of Engagement in American public life. The articles are organized into five chapters or sections: Law as Teacher; Religious Liberty and its Limits; Conversations about Culture; Conversations about Belief; and Cases and Controversies. Kaveny provides astonishing insights into a range of hot-button issues: abortion, assisted suicide, government-sponsored torture, contraception, the Ashley Treatment, capital punishment, and the role of religious faith in a pluralistic society.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Law as a teacher; title: Rules are not enough : why judges need empathy; title: Teacher or remedy : what is the law for?; title: Letter versus spirit : why the constitution needs interpreting; title: Remember the Mormons : thinking about the nature of marriage; title: Regulating abortion : what did the Roberts court do?; title: Caught in the gap : what hostility to health-care reform has wrought; title: Peaceful and private : Montana's Supreme Court on assisted suicide; title: More than a refuge : why immigration officials should steer clear of churches; title: Justice or vengeance : is the death penalty cruel and unusual?; title: Undue process : the evisceration of habeas corpus; title: Bad evidence : not only is torture immoral, it doesn't work; title: Perverted logic : behind the Bush administration's "torture memo"; title: Regret is not enough : why the president should read Paul Ramsey; title: Religious liberty and its limits; title: The right to refuse : how broad should conscience protections be?; title: The bishops and religious liberty : are Catholics becoming a sect?; title: Is the government "defining religion"? : the bishops' case against the mandate; title: Defining exemptions does not equal defining religion : a category mistake; title: An evolving accommodation : religious minorities and the common good; title: Employment division v. Smith : the eye of the storm; title: Smith, RFRA and the bishops' claims : neutral laws of general applicability?; title: The key Supreme Court case for the mandate : U.S. v. Lee; title: Reading the tea leaves : why the Supreme Court is unlikely to block the contraception mandate; title: A minefield : the troubling implications of the Hobby Lobby decision; title: Conversations about culture; title: Watch your mouth : sage advice from St. James; title: Model atheist : Jeffrey Stout and the culture wars; title: Bishops and politics : lessons from Australia; title: Moving beyond the culture wars : why a bioethics council needs diversity; title: A flawed analogy : prochoice politicians and the third reich; title: Sick minds : what can we do to prevent another Tucson?; title: Crime or tragedy? : murder and suicide at Villanova; title: Dignity and the end of life : how not to talk about assisted suicide; title: The right questions : Catholic colleges and pop culture; title: Either/or? : Catholicism is more complex; title: Conversations about belief; title: Family feuds : what's keeping Catholics apart; title: The martyrdom of John Roberts : Catholic squabbling, then and now; title: No academic question : should the CTSA seek "conservative" views?; title: The "new" feminism : John Paul II and the 1912 Catholic encyclopedia; title: Catholic kosher : is the ban on contraception just an identity marker?; title: The big chill : humanae vitae dissenters need to find a voice; title: How about not firing her? : moral norms and Catholic school teachers; title: Truth or consequences : in Ireland, straying far from the mental reservation; title: Unspeakable sins : why we need to talk about them; title: A darkening : why a church scandal does more harm than the new atheism; title: The long goodbye : why some devout Catholics are leaving the church; title: A postcard from the lost generation; title: Cases and controversies; title: The consistent ethic : an ethic of "life," not "purity"; title: Contraception, again : where can we find compromise?; title: When does life begin? : two prolife philosophers disagree; title: Why prolife? : it's about people, not abstractions; title: The ACLU takes on the bishops : tragedy leads to a misguided lawsuit; title: Coopted by evil? : abortion and amnesty international; title: Boycotts in a pluralistic society : how and where do we draw moral lines?; title: Forever young : the trouble with the "Ashley treatment"; title: Risk and responsibility : why insurance is the wrong way to think about health; title: Care; title: A horrific crime : but is execution the answer?; title: Could the church have gotten it wrong? : let's look at the facts.