Lifting up the poor

People who participate in debates about causes and cures of poverty often speak from religious conviction. But those convictions are rarely made explicit or debated on their own terms. Rarely is influence of personal religious commitment on policy decisions examined. Two of nation's foremost scholars and policy advocates break mold in this lively volume, first to be published in new Pew Forum Dialogues on Religion and Public Life. The authors bring their faith traditions, policy experience, academic expertise, and political commitments together in this moving, pointed, and informed discussion of poverty, one of our most vexing public issues. Mary Jo Bane writes of her experiences running social service agencies, work that has been informed by social teaching, and a Catholic sensibility that is shaped every day by prayer and worship. Policy analysis, she writes, is often indeterminate and inconclusive. It requires grappling with competing values that must be balanced. It demands judgment calls, and Bane's Catholic sensibility informs calls she makes. Drawing from various Christian traditions, Lawrence Mead's essay discusses role of nurturing Christian virtues and personal responsibility as a means of transforming a defeatist culture and combating poverty. Quoting Shelley, Mead describes theologians as unacknowledged legislators of mankind and argues that even nonbelievers can look to Christian tradition as the crucible that formed moral values of modern politics. Bane emphasizes social justice claims of her tradition, and Mead challenges view of many who see economic poverty as a biblical priority that deserves preference ahead of other social concerns. But both assert that an engagement with religious traditions is indispensable to an honest and searching debate about poverty, policy choices, and public purposes of religion

Conviction · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Faith · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Prayer · Sensibility · Sociology · Theology · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies · Aide sociale · Armoede · Biblical teaching · Christian Life · Christianity · Church and social problems · Current Events · Église et problèmes sociaux · Enseignement biblique · Ethische aspecten · General · Godsdienst · Government - U.S. Government · Human services · Justice sociale · Pauvres · Pauvreté · Political Science-Public Policy - Social Services & Welfare · Politics/International Relations · Poor · Public policy · Public Policy - Social Services & Welfare · Public welfare · Religion · Religion: general · Religious aspects · Social Issues · Social justice · Social Science-Human Services · Social Services & Welfare · Sociale aspecten · Sociale politiek · united states