Protestant Social Teaching: An Introduction
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Do Protestants have answers to the pressing questions of the day?
For over one hundred years, the Roman Catholic Church has steadily curated a body of papal encyclicals, classic texts, and go-to answers on pressing moral issues of the day, that has come to be known as “Catholic Social Teaching.” Meanwhile, in Protestantism, mainline churches have steadily jettisoned nearly every historic Christian moral teaching in an effort to make the faith more “relevant” and progressive, while evangelicals, though still committed to Scripture, have often done little better in holding fast to the norms that used to guide faithful Christian discipleship when it came to love, war, and everything in between. However, Protestants too have a rich heritage of social teaching, if only they knew their own tradition, a heritage that dovetails on many points with Roman Catholic teaching, but is also inflected by the Reformation’s emphasis on the goods of the family and the nation.
Now, for the first time, we are planting a flag for “Protestant social teaching,” a coherent, catholic, biblical set of convictions about what it means to love one’s neighbor in both personal and political life. The essays in this volume span the breadth of human life, from birth to death, from work to welfare, while providing a clear moral compass on hot-button issues like abortion, just war, and environmental care. This volume brings together contributions from a dozen authors who have deeply studied these diverse moral issues from a classical Protestant standpoint, distilling their biblical and historical insights into short, accessible chapters that can guide the reflections of every pastor or Christian leader.
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- Features a biblical set of convictions about what it means to love one’s neighbor in both personal and political life
- Spans the breadth of human life, from birth to death, from work to welfare
- Provides a clear moral compass on hot-button issues like abortion, just war, and environmental care
- Introduction - Steven Wedgeworth
- I: Law and the Christian - E. J. Hutchinson
- II: The Civil Magistrate - Bradford Littlejohn
- III: Resistance and Rebellion - Glenn Moots
- IV: Just War - Mark LiVicche
- V: Procreation and Children - Matthew Lee Anderson
- VI: Abortion - Steven Wedgeworth
- VII: Sex, Marriage, and Divorce - Onsi Aaron Kamel & Alastair Roberts
- VIII: Death and Dying - John Wyatt
- IX: Work and Labor - Joseph Minich & Colin Redemer
- X: Private Property - Eric Enlow
- XI: Taxation and Welfare - Allen Calhoun
- XII: Environmental Care - Jake Meador
Part One: Law, Justice, and Punishment
Part Two: Marriage, Life, and Death
Part Three: Property, Wealth, and Poverty
Protestant Social Teaching takes its Catholic counterpart as its inspiration for mining the rich Protestant tradition for relevant resources to inform Christian thinking on social issues. As the essays in this necessary volume show, the Protestant churches have much wisdom to share. The sources, voices, and reflections contained in these essays are vital to a rejuvenated moral life of the US and its churches. I am confident they will meet the response they merit: energized Christian engagement with the vital social issues of our day that, like these excellent essays, draws on the riches of the Christian traditions.
—Joseph E. Capizzi, Ordinary Professor of Moral Theology, The Catholic University of America
If we are to witness moral renewal in our societies, Protestants will have a major role to play, and I say that as a convicted Catholic. This volume, Protestant Social Teaching, comes as a revelation—a revelation that there is a coherent tradition of Protestant moral theology that can still offer concrete guidance to doctors and nurses, statesmen and judges, soldiers and policemen today. The essays on marriage, sexuality, life, dying, work, and the home are particularly insightful. Only by looking backward can we gain the perspective needed to move forward, and these essays offer a model of retrieval in service of practical discipleship. The result is a book that will benefit both Catholic and Protestant readers.
—Ryan T. Anderson, PH.D, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, author of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment
This rich volume provides evidence that the Protestant tradition is a valuable resource for serious Christian reflection on perennial social and political themes. The various authors are self-consciously anchored in the great tradition that extends from the early church to the magisterial reformers. As such, they show how the Protestant tradition is both in continuity with the Christian past and, at the same time, a unique source of serious reflection on the most profound social and political issues of our day.
—Mark T. Mitchell, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Government, Patrick Henry College.
- Title: Protestant Social Teaching: An Introduction
- Authors: Alastair Roberts, Matthew Lee Anderson, W. Bradford Littlejohn, John Wyatt
- Publisher: The Davenant Institute
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Pages: 270
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Resource ID: LLS:PRTSTNTSNTRDCTN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-06-12T19:12:33Z