Moral Fragments and Moral Community: A Proposal for Church in Society

by Larry Rasmussen

Overview

Western society today lives from community fragments and moral fragments alone, and these fragments are being destroyed more quickly than they are being replenished. Larry Rasmussen assesses the long-term reasons for this situation and then proposes the forms and tasks that churches can undertake to help mend and improve civil society. This book, which had its origin in the Hein/Fry Lectures in 1991-92, functions both as an assessment of the moral climate in America today and also as a proposal for the church in contemporary society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800627577
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	11/01/1993
Series:	Hein/Fry Lectures
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Larry L. Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE

Conclusion and Question

Describing the Moment

The Church and Moral Criticism

CHAPTER TWO

Modernity and Middle America

Approaches

Modernity Considered

CHAPTER THREE

Hard Journey, Uncertain Outcome

Community's Changing Face

Community and Civil Society

Fast Forward

Fragmentation

Double Loss

CHAPTER FOUR

Market and State as Moral Proxies

Society as Market, Society as State

Common Outcomes

Community's Contribution

Enlightenment Ethics

CHAPTER FIVE

Present Currents

The Device Paradigm

Catechisms

The 1980s

CHAPTER SIX

Everything at Once

Everything Is Too Much

Inappropriate Religion and Community

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Ecology of Moral Community

The Character of Community

Communities Needed

CHAPTER EIGHT

A People of the Way

The Way

Anticipatory Way of Life

Timely Roles

Index