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Faith as an option : possible futures for Christianity

Author
Joas, Hans, 1948- author.
Preferred Title
Glaube als Option. English
Title
Faith as an option : possible futures for Christianity / Hans Joas ; translated by Alex Skinner.
Format
Book
Published
Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2014.
Description
xiii, 184 pages ; 23 cm
Uniform series
Cultural memory in the present.
Notes
"Originally published in German in 2012 under the title Glaube als Option." Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
  • Introduction : secularization and intellectual honesty
  • Does modernization lead to secularization?
  • Does secularization lead to moral decline?
  • Waves of secularization
  • Modernization as culturally protestant metanarrative
  • The age of contingency
  • Increased options as a danger?
  • Religious diversity and the pluralist society
  • Religion and violence
  • The future of Christianity
  • Intellectual challenges for contemporary Christianity
  • Conclusion : is Christianity leaving Europe behind?
Summary
Many people these days regard religion as outdated and are unable to understand how believers can intellectually justify their faith. Nonbelievers have long assumed that progress in technology and the sciences renders religion irrelevant. Believers, in contrast, see religion as vital to society's spiritual and moral well-being. But does modernization lead to secularization? Does secularization lead to moral decay? Sociologist Hans Joas argues that these two supposed certainties have kept scholars from serious contemporary debate and that people must put these old arguments aside in order for debate to move forward. The emergence of a "secular option" does not mean that religion must decline, but that even believers must now define their faith as one option among many. In this book, Joas spells out some of the consequences of the abandonment of conventional assumptions for contemporary religion and develops an alternative to the cliché of an inevitable conflict between Christianity and modernity. Arguing that secularization comes in waves and stressing the increasing contingency of our worlds, he calls upon faith to articulate contemporary experiences. Churches and religious communities must take into account religious diversity, but the modern world is not a threat to Christianity or to faith in general. On the contrary, Joas says, modernity and faith can be mutually enriching.
Subject headings
Secularism. Faith. Church history--21st century.
ISBN
9780804788731 (cloth : alk. paper) 0804788731 (cloth : alk. paper) 9780804792776 (pbk. : alk. paper) 0804792771 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Holdings

Library
Blmgtn - Herman B Wells Library
Call Number
BL2747 .J5813 2014
Location
Wells Library - Research Coll. - Stacks
Floor
4th Floor, East Tower
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