Dale McConkey

The United Methodist Church is facing the biggest crisis of its 50-year history. At the center of the controversy is a debate over the church's stance toward homosexuality. United Methodists Divided provides a fair and impartial overview of the major issues facing the church as it approaches a special session of General Conference in February 2019, where the fate of the denomination will be determined. United Methodists Divided includes: -Balanced and fair-minded descriptions of both the traditionalist and the progressive views of homosexuality-Thorough analysis of religious beliefs about homosexuality utilizing the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason-Details of all three plans (One Church, Connectional Conference, Traditionalist) presented in the final report of the Commission on a Way Forward-Basic information on the upcoming special session of General Conference-End-of-chapter questions suitable for personal reflection or group discussion-Helpful context for people not familiar with the structure of the United Methodist Church. If you are looking for an impartial book that fairly presents both sides of the crisis at hand, United Methodists Divided is the book for you.

The eleven essays in this collection examine the relationship between institutional structures and community integration, offering practical insights to increase social capital and strengthen social institutions. A variety of social institutions are analyzed. Three chapters cover political legal issues, two cover religion, three address education, and two examine the macrostructures of the military and the economy. An important collection for scholars and other researchers interested in the communitarian movement, sociology, and political science, particularly for those in public administration.

There is a crisis in America revolving around social and political life, and the contributors to this essay collection believe it has provoked a renewed attention to the issue of community in political thought. The 14 essays approach the question of community and political thought from a variety of perspectives, ranging from political philosophy to social theory. All the essays, however, share the concern of the opening essay by Hertzke and McRorie about moral ecology, or determining what is required for a vital and free social and political life and preserving it from erosion by individualism in its various forms. Two of the essays, by Jardine and Stier, deal with understanding the communitarian impulse. Three, by Frohnen, Stone, and Woolfolk, evaluate perhaps the first major contribution to the communitarian movement, Habits of the Heart. While McClay's chapter seeks to restore the connection between federalism and communitarianism, Sharpe's essay connects the liberal-communitarian debate to the classic works of de Tocqueville and Arendt. Two essays, by Knippenberg and Lawler, criticize the quirky communitarianism of America's leading professor of philosophy, Richard Rorty. Lawler also criticizes Bloom for his similarity to Rorty, joining Nichols in her discussion of Bloom's excessive debt to Rousseau. McDaniel and Mahoney present unfashionable appreciations, not without criticism, of the achievement of Leo Strauss's illiberal if not exactly communitarian thought. Finally, Anderson discusses Raymond Aron's prudent opposition to the oxymoronic global community. This is a unique and significant collection for all students and researchers interested in contemporary social and political thought.