Christianity and the Vicissitudes of European Burgher Culture: an Anamnetic Exercise
In this article I offer an historic reconstruction of the way Christianity, with the concept of agape/caritas as a lodestar, has shaped the ‘burgher culture’ in Western Europe that to a large extent has remained typical for western society up to the present day. The socio-moral infrastructure of thi...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
2013
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| In: |
Religion, state & society
Year: 2013, Volume: 41, Issue: 2, Pages: 103-132 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this article I offer an historic reconstruction of the way Christianity, with the concept of agape/caritas as a lodestar, has shaped the ‘burgher culture’ in Western Europe that to a large extent has remained typical for western society up to the present day. The socio-moral infrastructure of this burgher culture consists of a specific ‘coalition’ of various values that are at the same time distinct and interconnected: among these are freedom, equality, solidarity, peace, dignity of labour, promise-keeping, associative life. This burgher culture, however, is only weakly developed theoretically (Althusius being the exception here) and in practice turns out to be fragile. Its critics have been much better able to voice their criticism than its defenders have been able to articulate its own logic, which hence tends to become ‘forgotten’. One can discern five different temptations that may have the effect of undermining the socio-moral infrastructure of burgher culture. Amid the often theoretically elaborated and practically attractive dynamics of these temptations, Christian social and political thought, as developed particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is a moderating, preserving and challenging force within this culture. |
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| ISSN: | 1465-3974 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion, state & society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2013.811161 |