Religion and Social Criticism

This volume brings together emerging and established religious ethicists to investigate how those in the field carry forward the practice and tradition of social criticism and, at the same time, how social criticism informs the scholarly values of their field. Contributors reflect on the nature of the moral subject and the ethical weight of human dignity and consider the limits and possibilities of religious humanism in orienting the work of social criticism. They compare religious sources and forms of research in religious ethics to secular sources and the tradition of liberal social criticism. And they offer proposals for how religious ethics can help humanists navigate our complex and multicultural moral landscape and what this field reveals about the ultimate ends of humanistic scholarship. 

“This volume tackles important questions about the role of social criticism in religious studies. In doing so, it brilliantly honors Richard Miller, distinguished scholar of religious ethics, through eleven new essays that directly or indirectly address central themes in his work. It is engaging and illuminating, and I enthusiastically recommend it.”
--James F. Childress, University Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA


Many of the chapters in this book are very high quality indeed. But the contribution of the book is much more than just the addition of these eleven chapters. This book is unique – the first critical, in-depth study of the work of the religious and Christian ethicist Richard B. Miller. Miller is one of the leading figures in religious and Christian ethics in this country and has taught for many years at Indiana University and the University of Chicago. This book analyzes, criticizes, and develops Miller’s central concept of social criticism that contributes to the cultural knowledge of humanity, focusing on religious belief and practice in the study of history, thought, and culture. In short, this book makes a very significant contribution.
-- Charles E. Curran, Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor Emeritus of Human Values, Southern Methodist University


What is the role of social criticism--the intellectual work of assessing the customs, practices, and policies that shape the moral quality of society--in religious ethics? And how might social criticism be deployed by religious ethicists to develop ethical responses to pressing issues that arise in culture, politics, and the religions themselves?  The contributors to this important volume draw from diverse intellectual, methodological, and religious commitments to address these questions. Inspired by the work of Richard B. Miller, they explore foundational questions about the nature of moral subjectivity and human dignity,address practical issues that arise in war and medicine, and consider the role of normative judgments in the study of religion and religious ethics. Taken as a whole, the volume not only exemplifies the variety and richness of contemporary work in the field; it constitutes an extended argument for the value of social criticism as a core value and method in religious ethics.
--Maria Antonaccio, Presidential Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Bucknell Humanities Center, Bucknell University.

Bharat Ranganathan is the Brooks Assistant Professor of Social Justice and Religion at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he teaches religious ethics. He is the co-editor of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason in Christian Ethics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).



Caroline Anglim is Assistant Professor of Bioethics and Professionalism at the Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, GA. She teaches professional ethics and topics in the medical humanities.