Select Annotated Bibliography
on Religion in Public Life

James R. Cochrane

The selections listed here are by no means exhaustive, but they are among the best of recent writings on issues concerning religion in public life—some general, some dealing with specific aspects of public life (such as media, law, or family). The listing includes a small sample of seminal non-religious theoretical texts which are useful for thinking about religion in society, and a restricted sample of recent South African writings in academic publications. Most items, but not all, are annotated. – James R Cochrane

Ackermann, Denise. Tales of Terror and Torment: Thoughts on Boundaries and Truth-telling. Scriptura, 63, 1997, 425-434.
Explores the highly contentious concept of boundaries from a feminist theological point of view, locating the ambiguity of the concept in relation to feminist theory, ethical discourse and identity formation, and applying the resultant insights to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Arjomand, Said Amir (ed.). The Political Dimensions of Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993.
Essays explore the relationship between religion and politics through a richly detailed sample of comparative and case studies to produce a set of analytic paradigms which argue for an acknowledgement of normative pluralism rooted in the histories of religions. Deals with religious fundamentalism in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as well as religion in the institution of order, utopian religious beliefs and political action, and normative contentions in current issues of religion in the political context.

Barberton, Conrad, Blake, Michael & Kotze, Hermien. Creating Action Space: The Challenge of Poverty and Democracy in South Africa. IDASA’s Poverty Reduction Monitoring Service, 1996.

Benhabib, Seyla (ed.). Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.
The volume brings together a group of distinguished thinkers (among them Benhabib himself, Jürgen Habermas, Jean Cohen, Chantal Mouffe, Fred Dallmary, Richard Rorty, Amy Gutman) who, in cutting edge debates, re-articulate and reconsider the foundations of democratic theory and practice in the light of the politics of identity/difference. Sections deal with: Democratic theory, foundations and perspectives; equality, difference and public representation; culture, identity and democracy; does democracy need foundations?

Berman, Harold J. Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993.
Part of the Emory University Studies in Law and Religion, the work explores the tension and interaction between religious faith and legal order in many societies. Part one shows how religious beliefs have shaped Western law, part two exposes current theories of law which neglect its religious dimensions, part three considers the task of law and religion working together to contribute to the emergence of a new world order, and part four discusses the interaction between "secular religion" and legal structures in the Soviet and post-Soviet state.

Botha, Jan. Appeals to Religious Authority in the South African Constitutional Assembly. Scriptura, 1998, 4, 309-334.
The paper identifies and describes, to a large extent in tabulated form, the rhetorical function of appeals to religious authority made in debates during the plenary sessions of the South African Constitutional Assembly, and concludes that these rhetorical functions are primarily: an appeal to authority to substantiate an argument; a threat or insult; a colourful or persuasive metaphor; a humorous statement. Concludes that the plenary sessions were not the crucial location of rhetorical struggle and strategies, but rather the many other closed meetings to whose records access has been restricted.

Brock, Rita Nakashima; Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite. Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.
An exposé, after many years research, of the global sex industry, dealing with the complex issues that surround prostitution in order to rethink the deeper cultural and religious notions of sexuality, power and violence that undergird sexual exploitation. Deconstructs the religious paradigms in Christianity and Buddhism which have legitimated sex traffic, while reconstructing liberating religious perspectives. Locates the personal squarely in the public, in particular, in a critique of the logic of the market.

Browning Don S & Fiorenza Francis Schüssler (eds). Habermas, Modernity, and Public Theology. New York: Crossroad, 1992.
Habermas, the most influential German philosopher of our time, affects debates over a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, social theory, hermeneutics, anthropology, linguistics, ethics, educational theory and public policy. He has also impacted widely on theology, and this book is the first actual conversation between Habermas and theologians, focusing on his interpretation of modernity, his theory of communicative action, and his development of a discourse ethics. With essays by David Tracy, Helmut Peukert, Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Matthew Lamb, Fred Dallmayr, Charles Davis, Gary Simpson, Robert Wuthnow, and a response by Habermas himself, this is an excellent entrance into a cutting edge set of discussions on public theology.

Cady, Linell. Religion, Theology & American Public Life. Routledge, 1996.
Though focused on the USA, Cady’s book explores the basic question of the status of religious thought in the contemporary world, arguing that religious thinking is inevitably particular, arising from singular traditions which make specific, publicly defended claims—and that this presents a challenge to all abstract rationalisms and individualisms of modern thought in a more eclectic, communitarian basis for a genuine public discourse. Deals with the issue of professionalization along the way.

Carr, Anne; van Leeuwen, Mary Stewart (eds). Religion, Feminism, & the Family: The Family, Religion, and Culture. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.
Draws on history, theology and the social sciences to investigate the tension between some proponents of feminism and organized religion in regard to family life, with the USA as the context.

Casanova, Jose. Public Religions in the Modern World. University of Chicago, 1994.
A seminal work from a member of the New School for Social Research. Questions the standard theory of secularization—that modernization leads to a diminishing of the role and impact of religion. Bases his work on five case studies (Spain, Poland, Brazil, Evangelical Protestantism in the USA, and Catholicism in the USA). Proposes three distinctions in the theory, upholding only one as sociologically valid. These are the notion of secularization (1) as the withering of religion (not born out by empirical reality), (2) as the privatization and marginalization of religion (valid only in some circumstances, and not a necessary outcome), and (3) as a separation of spheres over and against the secular economic and state institutions (generally valid).

Chopp, Rebecca S. Reimaging Public Discourse. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 103, March 1999, 33-48.
Argues for a "poetics of testimony" in which the public memories of suffering, and the hearing of new voices, experiences and expressions of life, challenges the social and ecclesial hegemonies which shape narrative identity. This requires a phronesis of empathy, solidarity in praxis through a network of interrelations, a public space for passion, and the privileging in praxis of the suffering, the oppressed and the dead.

Cochran, Clarke E. Religion in Public and Private Life. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Reassesses the nature of the "public" and the "private" in relation to political society, with reference to the way in which religion crosses the spheres of both private life and public institutions. Using an interdisciplinary approach to bring political theory and the sociology of religion into relation, the author examines the intersection of religion and politics generally, and in relation to contested issues of sexuality, abortion, and the family.

Cochrane, James R. The Making and Unmaking of Public Life. Journal of Theology in Southern Africa, 100, March 1978, 86-103.
Characterizes the struggle for the making of public life in a number of dramatic narratives (a portfolio committee chair, an attack on a family, gang mediation, a shack settlement in a garbage dump, a public official, a mission station, a shelter for prostitutes) which serve to put before the reader a range of questions about public policy in relation to "face, body and voice."

Cochrane, James R. "Actuality": Limits to a Social Vision. Journal of Theology in Southern Africa, vol. 98, July 1977, 89-94.
Aims to clarify the policy making process in terms of what limits the embodiment or enactment of what might be concerned a religious or transcendent vision of social justice, arguing for a hermeneutic, that is, interpretive approach to policy analysis and policy advocacy.

Cochrane, James R. The Boundaries of Hegemony: Configuring Public Space from the Margins. Scriptura, 63, 1997, 451-466.
Aims to develop a hermeneutic strategy able to direct a useful participation by the Church in the formation of public policy by drawing on the work of feminist theorists, particularly Kathleen Kirby and her "hermeneutics of the boundary." The main focus is on seeing a key boundary in the concept and the reality of marginalization (of people) in the contestation of public space by the Church.

Cochrane, James R. Close Encounters of the Foreign Kind: Aliens and the Other, Scriptura, 1998, 4, 405-418.
Focuses on the threat of xenophobia to an open, progressive society in South Africa. Argues for an ethic which is capable of taking seriously our responsibilities beyond the boundaries drawn by the ideology of the nation, by investigating a "hermeneutic of alienated otherness" which accepts the impact of material conditions in shaping fear of the other, and a notion of patriotism which is not bound to the nation.

Cochrane, James R. Public Challenges to Christianity in Africa. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 99, November 1997, pp. 130-139.
Questioning the global marginalization of Africa, the article identifies the reality of contested Christianities in Africa as part of what must be dealt with in developing a better future in relation to the challenges of democracy, governance, resource management, gender justice, and health and healing.

Cochrane, James R. Theological Reflection on Public Policy: The Church and the Reconstruction of South African Society. Journal of Theology in Southern Africa, vol. 97, March 1977, 1-15.
Develops an argument about the challenge to theological reflection on public policy presented by a hermeneutic which takes the defense of life-worlds of people against system imperatives as crucial, grounded in the perspective of those who most suffer the negative impact of the rationality of markets or bureaucracies, and the diminishing of valued life-worlds—thus linking a hermeneutic approach to a rhetorical strategy.

Cochrane, James R.; John W. de Gruchy; Stephen W. Martin (eds). Facing the Truth: South African Faith Communities and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Cape Town & Ohio: David Philip & Ohio University Press. 1999.
Centred around the Report prepared for the TRC on its Faith Community Hearings in November, 1997, the work includes the unabridged Report, and several essays critically reflecting on the emphases and gaps highlighted by or through the Report. Intended further to open up the debate among religious communities by provocatively addressing what has not been said or done in responding to the challenges of the present.

Cochrane, James R.; Stephen W. Martin; Gillian Walters. Constructing a Language of Religion in Public Life in South Africa. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 103, March 1999, 64-87.
A summary analysis of the proceedings of the preparatory Multi-Event 1999 Academic Workshop held in Cape Town, September/October 1998, the article deals key concepts and framing questions about religion in public life through nine themes: Religious discourse and public discourse; religious plurality and identity in civil society; citizenship of marginal/subjugated voices; law, constitution and religious organizations; choosing a human rights language; interpreting corporate language & practice; religion, gender & public discourse; Black theology as public discourse; reconstructing a civic moral fibre.

Cochrane, James R. et al. Public Life [theme]. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 104, July 1999, 54-80.
Essays by: Cochrane, Religion in Public Life & the Multi-Event 1999; Mvume Dandala, A Call to Harness the Spirit of the Nation; William Johnson Everett, Religion in Democratic Transition; Douglas R. McGaughey, More Than Right: A Theological Contribution to a Discussion of Cultural Pluralism; Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Reducing Welfare & Sacrificing Women and Children; Graham Ward, Religion in the Transformation of Society.

Cochrane, James R.; Gerald West. War, Remembrance and Reconstruction. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 84, September 1993, 25-40.
An article that has been used widely much more recently than its publication date, it reflects an attempt to ground an understanding of South Africa's past—particularly the struggle against apartheid—in concepts of recovered memories, subjugated knowledge, and marginalized perspectives, arguing for a theological and biblical hermeneutic which emphasis continuity with the history of suffering and struggle. It also focuses on the nature of public discourse and the Church’s role within public discourse, given this hermeneutic.

Cohen, Jean L & Arato, Andrew. Civil Society and Political Theory. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1992.
The "bible" of civil society theory, a hefty work of some … pages. Reviews a history of the concept in detail, and shows how its meaning changes from classical antiquity, through the writings of the Scottish rationalists (Adam Smith, Ferguson, Hume), to Hegel, Gramsci and more recent discussions. Cohen and Arato base their own developed concept on a variation of Habermas’s theory of communicative action. A seminal work. But it pays no attention, surprisingly, to religion in civil society.

Cromartie, Michael. Caesar’s Coin Revisited: Christians and the Limits of Government. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996.

Davis, Charles. Religion and the Making of Society: Essays in Social Theology. Cambridge University Press, 1994.

de Gruchy, John (ed). Bonhoeffer for a New Day: Theology in a Time of Transition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1997.
Explores the significance of Bonhoeffer’s theology in many different contexts at the end of the century, dealing among others with questions of responsible freedom, political witness and the role of the ecumenical movement.

de Gruchy, John W. Christianity and Democracy. Cape Town: David Philip, 1995.
A wide-ranging study of the relationship between Christianity and democracy, linked to a commentary on the South African experience, the book attempts to evaluate current attempts of the world-wide convergence on the political option for democracy of one kind or another. The author also examines the history of the notion of democracy in the Christian tradition and the loss of crucial elements of it in the process of modernization.

de Gruchy, John W; and Steven Martin (eds). Religion and the Reconstruction of Civil Society. Pretoria: UNISA, 1995.
Includes essays on theoretical and comparative perspectives on religion and religious traditions; religions in South Africa; religion and reconstruction; civil society and theology; and civil society and sacred texts.

Detweiler, Robert. Uncivil Rites: American Fiction, Religion, and the Public Sphere. University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Exploring major works of fiction, drama and film in the American context, shows how each reveals religious values and shapes public discourse around issues of politics, sexuality and aggression. Deals, among others, with E. L. Doctorow, Arthur Miller, Agnes of God, the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Vietnam War. The key issue is how a public mythos is created through common narratives, arising from powerful personal expressions, by which communities and whole societies identify and bond themselves.

Dorrien, Gary J. Reconstructing the Common Good: Theology and the Social Order. New York: Orbis Books, 1990.
A "landmark study" in the history and theory of modern Christian socialism which examines the work of Rauschenbusch, Tillich, Moltmann, Gutiérrez and Miguez Bonino, arguing that these theologians offer an important way of addressing questions of freedom and totalitarianism, sacralization and democratization, individual autonomy and the common good.

Du Toit, Fanie. Seeking to Establish Democratic Values in South Africa: Can Truth Help Us? Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 103, March 1999, 49-63.
Where it seems that democracy as a system is relatively indifferent to the pressing needs of the poor, how does one establish a democratic state? Is a new ideology or meta-narrative of democracy necessary? And what would the role of Christians in such a task be? The essay takes up these issues through a consideration of the contesting notions of truth which undergird value decisions.

Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Augustine and the Limits of Politics. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.
Here this well known political philosopher, who draws inspiration from religious thinkers, critically explores the possibilities of Augustine’s thought for our time, arguing that his central concern with the ambiguity of the lives of ordinary people and the importance of our need to forge a coherent personal identity is crucial to a regeneration of the political. It would take seriously the here and now and the real limits therein.

Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Power Trips and Other Journeys: Essays in Feminism as Civic Discourse. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
These essays, taken together, represent a sustained attempt, from someone committed to religious resources for political theory, to respect, defend, and cherish the complexity of civil life against the twin threats of utopian idealism and the leviathan state. Pays special attention to womens’ experiences of power and powerlessness, and ranges from the needs of children, through family issues, to wider national and international policy, including a reconstruction of the notion of patriotism.

Everett, William Johnson. Seals and Springboks: Theological Reflections on Constitutionalism and South African Culture. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 101, July 1998, 71-81.

Everett, William Johnson. God’s Federal Republic: Reconstructing Our Governing Symbol. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.
An original exploration of the long, classical tradition of republicanism and federalism, anchored in the experiences reflected in the texts and organizing concepts of the Jewish and Christian communities of ancient times. Argues that a recovery of the full meaning of both republicanism (political life as "things of the people") and federalism (society structured on the basis of diversity) both challenges and enriches widespread contemporary experiences of a struggle for or deepening of democracy, drawing on a key trajectory within the biblical tradition.

Everett, William Johnson. Religion, Federalism, and the Struggle for Public Life: Cases from Germany, India, and America. Oxford University Press, 1997.
A cross-cultural study on the role of religion in shaping public policy in societies as diverse as Germany (in the process of unification), India and the USA, all of them involved in the struggle for a federal republican order of public life. The book seeks to understand, successfully, how different cultures weave together the political and religious threads which will provide a living fabric of public life suited to a particular cultural context. He turns to concepts of covenant an conciliation to ground his analysis.

Fleet, Michael & Smith, Brian H. The Catholic Church and Democracy in Chile and Peru. University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.

Forrester, Duncan B. Beliefs, Values and Policies: Conviction Politics in a Secular Age. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
Argues that Christian theology has a particularly significant contribution to make to debates about public policy in our time, with a special responsibility to present distinctive understandings and insights into the human condition, without which public life is seriously impoverished. In this context a recovery of what the author calls "mystique" in the midst of politics is crucial, what one may call transcendent, figurative acts of imagination.

Gedicks, Frederick Mark. The Rhetoric of Church and State: A Critical Analysis of Religion Clause Jurisprudence. Duke University Press, 1995.
A work in the interface between religion and law, it explores the particular relationship between religion and law that is characteristic of the constitutional democracy that shapes the USA. In the process, argues against either a return to religious communitarianism or a secular individualism, probing what a "yet-to-be-identified discourse" capable of attracting popular support while protecting religious freedom would look like.

Guma, Mongezi; Leslie Milton (eds). An African Challenge to the Church in the 21^st Century. Johannesburg: South African Council of Churches, 1997.
Includes a range of essays dealing with the new democratic dispensation in South Africa and the complex, often harmful legacies of the past, including issues of: African culture; land; morality and values; reconciliation and koinonia. The authors generally want to see the Church in the vanguard of a drive to build a new society, regarding them as centres of struggle for transformation and the engendering of humanity dignity, while cautioning against any new triumphalism.

Hauerwas, Stanley. Dispatches from the Front: Theological Engagements with the Secular. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994.
Linking Christian theology and social criticism, from a position of Christian pacifism the author mounts an attack on "current sentimentalities" about the significance of democracy, the importance of the family, and the "fatal" quality of compassion, in order to advance a view on how Christian discourse may be both useful and truthful in the public realm.

Ilesanmi, Simeon O. Religious Pluralism and the Nigerian State. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University, Center for International Studies. 1997.
Brings historical, social-ethical perspectives to the relationship between religion and state in Nigeria, dealing particularly with religious violence and conflict, and formulating a public ethic—which the author calls "dialogic politics"—capable of dealing with a diverse pluralist political context. Religious institutions are seen as mediating structures between existential meaning and cultural identity on the one hand, and the impersonal state with its instrumental objectivity on the other.

James, Wilmot & Levy, Moira (eds). Pulse: Passages in Democracy-Building: Assessing South Africa’s Transition. IDASA, 1998.
Measures critically "the pulse of South Africa’s transition," in assessing the progress made in achieving the objectives set out at the start of the road to democracy, through a consideration of the effectiveness of the new democratic institutions, of public organs for democratic protection, of standards of ethics, of public commitment, of improvements in quality of life, and progress on affirmative action and black empowerment.

Jasper, James M. The Art of Moral Protest Culture: Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements. University of Chicago, 1997.
A thorough guide to understanding the nature and scope of social movements, covering critically a wide range of debates and literature, and integrating into the theoretical discussion a large number of diverse examples of social movements at work.

Kakar, Sudhir. The Colors or Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict. The University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Confronts the enigmatic relations that link individual egos to cultural moralities and religious violence through case studies on cultural stereotypes, ethnocentric histories and episodic violence between Hindus and Muslims in India, with a concluding chapter on religious conflict in the modern world.

Kwenda, Chirevo. Beyond Patronage: Giving and Receiving in the Construction of Civil Society. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 101, July 1998, 1-10.
Explores the idea that civil society depends upon a reciprocity of giving and receiving, the antithesis of which is patronage—a colonial category, among others. Arguing that civil society is where "things fell apart" for Africans under colonial domination, the article presents an alternative, ecological view of civil society for post-apartheid South Africa in which a posture of encountering and listening to the other is adopted.

Mamdani, Mahmood. Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History. Kampala: Fountain Publishers, 1996.
Does not deal with religion, but this book is a seminal, even vital, work on the notion and nature of citizenship in Africa, both in the colonization process and in the subsequent movements of independence. Mamdani analyses the obstacles to democratization that are still present in Africa, with Uganda and South Africa as concrete case studies, arguing that the legacy of colonialism continues in a bifurcated power which mediates racial domination through tribal constructs built along the lines of ethnic identity, while reproducing racialized identifications in citizens, both processes entrenching authoritarian power.

McLean, George F (ed). Civil Society and Social Reconstruction: Cultural Heritage & Contemporary Change. Series 1, vol. 16. Washington: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 1997.

Millbank, John. Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason. Oxford, UK: Blackwells, 1990.
This well known volume retraces the genesis of "scientific" discourses about society, unpacking both the theological and anti-theological assumptions built into the disciplines of the social sciences in order to show how these hidden presences compromises claims to scientific status, and thus calling into question the whole enterprise of a the sociology of religion. On this basis the author challenges some of the foundations of contemporary political theology which are seen to neglect specifically Christian traditions of social thought.

Nicholls, David. Deity & Domination: Images of God and the State in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. London: Routledge, 1989.

Nürnberger, Klaus. Prosperity, Poverty and Pollution: Managing the Approaching Crisis. London & Pietermaritzburg: Zed Books & Cluster Publications, 1999.
Focusing on the massive challenges presented to the contemporary world by complex economic forces—including growing inequality and marginalization within societies, the gulf between industrialized and developing countries, the multiplying and uncontrolled powers of science and technology, and mounting environmental destruction—the author masterfully unpacks the linkages between these problems from an innovative perspective. He emphasizes the importance of changing social-economic institutions and collective mindsets and highlights the role of faith and morality in the process.

Parker Cristian. Popular Religion & Modernization in Latin America: A Different Logic. New York: Orbis Books, 1996.
A "landmark work" which sets out a complete historical, sociological and political view of religion as a cultural expression in Latin America, focusing on the meaning and significance of popular religion and the possibilities of an alternative to the "modernization" paradigm.

Petersen, Rodney L (ed). Christianity & Civil Society: Theological Education for Public Life. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Boston Theological Institute, 1995.
A collection of essays by prominent authors, the work explores the social significance of Christianity with particular reference to the theological education and preparation of church leaders for the coming century, assuming and arguing for a strong, credible Christian presence in the public square.

Pityana, Barney N; Charles Villa-Vicencio (eds). Being the Church in South Africa Today. Johannesburg: South African Council of Churches, 1995.
Includes essays on the current challenges to the Church; South Africa in global and regional context; Church and state in South Africa; the quest for human values; culture, ethnicity, race and gender; national security and the global arms trade. International and national responses to these issues as are provided by a further set of essays, and a conference statement and programme of action ends the book.

Rasmusson, Arne. The Church as Polis: From Political Theology to Theological Politics as Exemplified by Jürgen Moltmann and Stanley Hauerwas. University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.

Shanks, Andrew. Civil Society, Civil Religion. Oxford USA: Blackwell, 1995.

Silk, Mark. Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. University of Illinois Press, 1995.

Snyder, T Richard. Once You Were No People: The Church and the Transformation of Society. Meyer Stone Books, 1988.

Stackhouse, Max L. Public Theology and Political Economy: Christian Stewardship in Modern Society. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company (Commission on Stewardship National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., 1987.

Tanner, Kathryn. Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology (Guides to Theological Inquiry). Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997.

Tanner, Kathryn. The Politics of God: Christian Theologies and Social Justice. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.
Argues that Christian beliefs about God and the world can be disengaged from complicity with social forces of reaction and oppression in the struggle for a just society, using an analysis of the relations of belief to attitudes and action through a consideration of notions of hierarchy, transcendence, dualism and oppression. Constructs a typology of how doctrines relate to each other, to social systems and to ethical behaviour.

Thiemann, Ronald F. Religion in Public Life: A Dilemma for Democracy. Georgetown University Press, 1996.
The re-emergence of religion as a potent force in American public life is explored in this work in relation to the character of democratic constitutions vis-à-vis religion, namely, that they tend both to protect religious expression and limit the influence of any particular religion. This tension is reproduced once more in a "postmodern" condition, and Thiemann explores the issues in relation to public religion in a constitutional, pluralist democracy, advocating a renewed appreciation of the role of religion in the public square.

Thomas, George M. Revivalism and Cultural Change: Christianity, Nation Building, and the Market in the Nineteenth-Century United States. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

van der Vyver, Johan D. & Witte, John Jr. (eds). Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1996.
In a century which has cultivated the best of religious rights protections but witnessed the worst of religious rights abuses, the work critically and comparatively assesses the religious rights laws and practices of the international community, as well as of states from the North and the South. Jurists, political analysts and religious figures contribute to a very substantial volume.

Villa-Vicencio, Charles. A Theology of Reconstruction: Nation-building and Human Rights. Cape Town: David Philip, 1992.
Explores the encounter between theology on the one hand, and constitutional writing, law-making, human rights, economics, and the freedom of conscience on the other, locating the discussion in the contexts of South Africa and Eastern Europe.

Wallis, Jim. The Soul of Politics: Beyond "Religious Right" and "Secular Left". San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co (A Harvest Book), 1995.
Calls for the reintegration of politics and spirituality in the face of cultural breakdowns and political impasses in our time, arguing that the antinomy of liberal and conservative visions of the present and the future is unhelpful and inadequate to the challenges we face. Argues for a political morality which combines social justice with personal responsibility, and tries to locate the material bases for such a morality outside the traditional (modern) corridors of power.

Wentz, Richard E. The Culture of Religious Pluralism. Boulder: Westview Press, 1998.

West, Gerald. Don’t Stand on My Story: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Intellectuals, Genre, and Identity. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 98, July 1997, 12.
Against a background of an ongoing interpretative crisis in South Africa, with roots deep in the apartheid past, three concerns which emerge from biblical and theological reflection on the TRC are discussed. First, the very presence of stories of resistance raises questions about whether traditional Marxist notions of the relationship between domination and resistance are adequate. The TRC process clearly demonstrates that the poor and marginalized were actively engaged in forms of resistance to apartheid domination. The (alleged) role of the intellectual in conscientizing the masses needs to be reconsidered. Second, the question is posed as to what role the churches may yet have to play in enabling ordinary people to tell their stories, given that the TRC process allows only a legal transcript version of their stories to be recounted. Third, West sees the TRC process as offering an opportunity to build identity, if South Africans are prepared to be partially constituted by the stories of others, particularly those who are most "other"— the poor and the marginalized.

Wuthnow, Robert (ed). Between States and Markets: The Voluntary Sector in Comparative Perspective. Princeton University Press, 1991.
Analyzes the voluntary sector in advanced industrial societies, to suggest that a strong independent voluntary sector, fuelled significantly by religious endeavours, is essential for creating a vibrant public sphere in which public values can be effectively articulated in the face of growing pressures from government and the marketplace. Contributors deal with Great Britain, West Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, Israel, Japan and the USA.

Wuthnow, Robert. Producing the Sacred: An Essay on Public Religion. University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Studies the major kinds of organizations that produce public religion (congregations, hierarchies, special interest groups, academy, public rituals) in order to show how these organizational vehicles shape public religion discourse and how they draw on available resources. Assumes that cultural expressions are produced, that is, that they do not just "happen."

Wuthnow, Robert. Christianity and Civil Society: The Contemporary Debate. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press, 1996.
A small but useful book on the question of civil society and Christianity in a culturally plural context, suggesting how Christianity might regain a critical voice for itself in a context of diversity and declining influence.

Wyschogrod, Edith. An Ethics of Remembering: History, Heterology, and the Nameless Others. University of Chicago, 1998.