A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good

Named One of the Top 100 Books and One of the Top 10 Religion Books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly Serving the Common Good in Public Life "Why should Christians use the resources of their faith to speak to and to serve the common good rather than reducing the faith to a message that soothes individuals or energizes them to pursue success? And how can they do that without coercing those who are not Christians? In A Public Faith, Miroslav Volf sets for himself the daunting task of addressing these two deep and urgent questions in a way that is both widely accessible and that takes account of the scholarly literature. He succeeds on all counts. It is a wonderful guide for the perplexed in our times." --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University; senior fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia "Our efforts as people of faith to bring our religious convictions into the public arena have clearly malfunctioned in recent years. But Miroslav Volf does not want us to retreat to a 'private faith' mentality. Instead he offers profound counsel about how faith-based public advocacy can promote the common good in our increasingly pluralistic world. This important book is packed with wisdom!" --Richard J. Mouw, president and professor of Christian philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary "Firmly rooted within his own tradition of Christianity, Miroslav Volf has produced an indispensible guide for voices of faith within the arena of public discourse. A Public Faith is arguably the most important book on the topic since H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture." --Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history, Columbia University