Since the 2000 presidential election, debate over the role of religion in public life has followed a narrow course as pundits and politicians alike have focused on the influence wielded by conservative Christians. But what about more mainstream Christians? Here, Steven M. Tipton examines the political activities of Methodists and mainline churches in this groundbreaking investigation into a generation of denominational strife among church officials, lobbyists, and activists. The result is an unusually detailed and thoughtful account that upends common stereotypes while asking searching questions about the contested relationship between church and state. Documenting a wide range of reactions to two radically different events—the invasion of Iraq and the creation of the faith-based initiatives program—Tipton charts the new terrain of religious and moral argument under the Bush administration from Pat Robertson to Jim Wallis. He then turns to the case of the United Methodist Church, of which President Bush is a member, to uncover the twentieth-century history of their political advocacy, culminating in current threats to split the Church between liberal peace-and-justice activists and crusaders for evangelical renewal. Public Pulpits balances the firsthand drama of this internal account with a meditative exploration of the wider social impact that mainline churches have had in a time of diverging fortunes and diminished dreams of progress. An eminently fair-minded and ethically astute analysis of how churches keep moral issues alive in politics, Public Pulpits delves deep into mainline Protestant efforts to enlarge civic conscience and cast clearer light on the commonweal and offers a masterly overview of public religion in America.

Public Pulpits: Methodists and Mainline Churches in the Moral Argument of Public Life

History

Tipton, Steven M.

World

University of Chicago Press

Getting Saved from the Sixties: The Transformation of Moral Meaning in American Culture

Religion & Spirituality

Univ. Of California Pr.

This groundbreaking study explores the ways young Americans today understand right and wrong, how they think out their morality, and how they live it out. It describes contrasting ethical styles in the biblical, utilitarian, and personalist traditions of our culture; first, as they structured the conflict between mainstream and counterculture during the 1960s, and second, as they have shaped the transformation of these values in new religious movements since the early 1970s. Coupling descriptive ethics with interpretive sociology, this study pursues biography and moral dialogue with sixties youth who participated in a charismatic Christian sect, a Zen Buddhist meditation center, and a human potential organization (est). It shows the significance of these movements for the adherents' changing ideas of their own identity; their relationships, sex roles, courtship, and marriage; and their politics and vision of society. It analyzes the cultural logic and the social location of their ideas, which break down, recombine, and find renewal in the course of conversion.

Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change

Americas

University of California Press

Meanwhile, the authors' antidote to the American sickness—a quest for democratic community that draws on our diverse civic and religious traditions—has contributed to a vigorous scholarly and popular debate. Attention has been focused on forms of social organization, be it civil society, democratic communitarianism, or associative democracy, that can humanize the market and the administrative state. In their new Introduction the authors relate the argument of their book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future. With this new edition one of the most influential books of recent times takes on a new immediacy.

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life

Politics & Social Sciences

Bellah, Robert N.

Sullivan, William M.

Madsen, Richard

Swidler, Ann

Social Sciences

First published in 1985, Habits of the Heart continues to be one of the most discussed interpretations of modern American society, a quest for a democratic community that draws on our diverse civic and religious traditions. In a new preface the authors relate the arguments of the book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future. With this new edition one of the most influential books of recent times takes on a new immediacy.

Habits of the Heart, With a New Preface: Individualism and Commitment in American Life

In and Out of Church: The Moral Arc of Spiritual Change in America

Sociology

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

This groundbreaking study explores the ways young Americans today understand right and wrong, how they think out their morality, and how they live it out. It describes contrasting ethical styles in the biblical, utilitarian, and personalist traditions of our culture; first, as they structured the conflict between mainstream and counterculture during the 1960s, and second, as they have shaped the transformation of these values in new religious movements since the early 1970s. Coupling descriptive ethics with interpretive sociology, this study pursues biography and moral dialogue with sixties youth who participated in a charismatic Christian sect, a Zen Buddhist meditation center, and a human potential organization (est). It shows the significance of these movements for the adherents' changing ideas of their own identity; their relationships, sex roles, courtship, and marriage; and their politics and vision of society. It analyzes the cultural logic and the social location of their ideas, which break down, recombine, and find renewal in the course of conversion.

Wipf and Stock

What must we do to make our dreams come true? What can we do together to keep the promise of the American Dream? What should we do when so many of us have saved so little? Retirement not only offers a time to rest from our labors and relax with family and friends--to travel, play, and have fun--but it beckons us to find our true calling in action, peace of mind in reflection, the spirit moving in the moment of each day, and the grace of God in prayer and love of neighbor.
The Life to Come: Re-Creating Retirement is sure to engage anyone who reads it... see how carefully Tipton avoids the impersonal and cliché versions of advice-giving. Whoever reads this book will be introduced or reintroduced to experts, whose work bears on reflecting on "the life to come," including how to address and master many of the arts of living in retirement...This book is not about the "care of the very aged," but about facing and growing into retirement...readers will be better prepared for waking up to tomorrow, which means "living that life worth living." --from the foreword by Martin E. Marty

The Life to Come: Re-Creating Retirement

Wesley's Foundery Books

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Books by Tipton, Steven M.