From Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate

By Bonn Couture, Pamela D.; Browning, Don S.; Franklin, Robert M.; Miller-McLemore

Book Overview

What is the status of the American family? How is it changing? Are these changes making anything better? What is the future of the family? Does religion offer a positive answer? Not since Habits of the Heart has one book confronted these important issues with such personal and societal impact. This groundbreaking study argues for the creation of a new family ethic that must be central to the agendas of both contemporary society and the church. The Family, Culture, and Religion series offers informed and responsible analyses of the state of the American family from a religious perspective and provides practical assistance for the family's revitalization.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664223524
• ISBN13: 9780664223526
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

All in the family...

The term 'family values' has come into commonplace speech in various settings, spurred on by but not the exclusive province of political speech. Even in the officially church-and-state-separated domain of American culture, the idea of family values cannot be separated from religious and moral values - indeed, sometime the phrase is used as a code-word signal for certain types of religious and moral values. This book, 'From Culture Wars to Common Ground', starts by addressing two particular questions - what is the situation of the family in current-day American culture, and what can the Judeo-Christian tradition have to offer? The authors draw on sociological, psychological, historical and theological sources to produce a wide-ranging discussion of the family. They examine in turn the issues, the traditions, the voices, and directions in which the family trends are going in the future. There are five highlighted families introduced in the beginning, who are seen as case studies for many of the ideas throughout the text. These families represent different religious backgrounds (Jewish and Christian of various types) as well as different socio-economic backgrounds. In the category of issues, the authors look at the political designations often assigned in both conservative and liberal terms - they see a progression away from the idea that concerns for the family are the exclusive province of the right. There are crises in the family, but who has clarity for understanding them? Explanations from the social sciences are examined, as well as trends and changes over the past generation. The authors identify four factors - changing cultural values, changing psychological understandings, changing economic conditions, and patriarchal issues - as being important in this understanding. Finally, the ideals by which modern families are judged are examined, from puritan/colonial models to more modern ideas shows a diversity of ways in which families have been properly constituted and understood in the past. This segues into the section on tradition. While every family seems to require love, just what is meant by this term? Love can mean different things to different families, and in different contexts. Love and the moral ecology of the highlighted families are explored, as are concepts of honour, shame and equality. How does a more traditional, male-headed family structure actually play out in the modern world? Can more general ideas of equality and mutuality be useful for family formation? One interesting example highlights a man named Phil Green, and compares his current-day family set-up as a Jehovah's Witness with the ideas of Aquinas - the similarities and the difficulties with this view. The section on voices is perhaps the most interesting. It highlights modern theories and traditional sources. Ideas from feminism and psychotherapeutic methods are compared and contrasted with what might be called more typical 'family values' id

Great Book

This is a wonderful book about changing patterns in U.S. family life. It includes thought provoking theological reflections, ethicial analysis, and practical suggestions.