Christianity and Civil Society

Composed of seven essays on civil society written within the Catholic and neo-Calvinist traditions, this thought-provoking volume seeks theological insights that are relevant to the ordering of political life, particularly with regard to the role of civil society. It moves from primarily theoretical reflections to practical ones, such as through commenting on the implications of Catholic and neo-Calvinist thought for school choice and faith-based initiatives. The essays range from primarily explicating particular theological positions to arguing that these theological positions ought to be accepted even outside Christian circles. In his essay, “Social Pluralism and Subsidiarity in Catholic Social Doctrine,” Russell Hittinger persuasively shows how man's divinely ordained function to rule as a king may be fulfilled in the private as well as in the public spheres. This function requires political freedom in order to fulfill it, and the political and social order that best fulfills that freedom is a social order governed by subsidiarity. According to Hittinger, the Christian tradition implies that various levels of authority in civil society are an intrinsic good, rather than an instrumental one, as liberalism understands it to be. Here he argues that Christian theology gives insights into politics that non-theological conceptions are unable to achieve.

Catholic social teaching · Christianity · Civil society · Classical liberalism · Doctrine · Epistemology · Faith · Liberalism · Order (exchange) · Pluralism (philosophy) · Political science · Politics · Social order · Sociology · Subsidiarity · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Religious Education and Schools · Religious Freedom and Discrimination · Religious studies