Description: Cahill's important work brings fresh historical, theological, and ethical thought to the explosive area of family -- deeply contested territory in today's cultural and religious skirmishes. In the religious arena, evangelical-conservative vs. mainline-feminist lines echo larger social battles, contesting the authentic meaning of family within a Christian framework.

Though "family" has been dissected in the academic and cultural wars, Cahill asserts that the usual religious agenda of restoring the traditional nuclear family is actually misinformed and misguided. It bolsters oppressive social, economic, and racial mechanisms that are destroying families at the bottom, middle, and even top of the ladder.

Is there an authentically Christian notion of family? Cahill's contribution shows in a striking way how very different were counter-cultural New Testament and early-church notions of family from our ideas of "family values; " how, throughout history, other influential Christian examples have emerged in the work of John Chrysostom, Martin Luther, and the Puritans; how, despite distortion by gender and class divisions, there develops a Christian vision of the altruistic family, animated by Christian discipleship to stand for compassion, generosity, and justice; how pertinent this vision of the "domestic church" is to public debate and public policy.

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