Davenant Press

Protestant Social Teaching

An Introduction

A Davenant Press publication

Do Protestants have answers to the pressing questions of the day?

For over one hundred years, the Roman Catholic Church has steadily curated a body of papal encyclicals, classic texts, and go-to answers on pressing moral issues of the day, that has come to be known as “Catholic Social Teaching.” Meanwhile, in Protestantism, mainline churches have steadily jettisoned nearly every historic Christian moral teaching in an effort to make the faith more “relevant” and progressive, while evangelicals, though still committed to Scripture, have often done little better in holding fast to the norms that used to guide faithful Christian discipleship when it came to love, war, and everything in between. However, Protestants too have a rich heritage of social teaching, if only they knew their own tradition, a heritage that dovetails on many points with Roman Catholic teaching, but is also inflected by the Reformation’s emphasis on the goods of the family and the nation.

Now, for the first time, we are planting a flag for “Protestant social teaching,” a coherent, catholic, biblical set of convictions about what it means to love one’s neighbor in both personal and political life. The essays in this volume span the breadth of human life, from birth to death, from work to welfare, while providing a clear moral compass on hot-button issues like abortion, just war, and environmental care. This volume brings together contributions from a dozen authors who have deeply studied these diverse moral issues from a classical Protestant standpoint, distilling their biblical and historical insights into short, accessible chapters that can guide the reflections of every pastor or Christian leader.

$29.95

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About the Author

E. J. Hutchinson

is Associate Professor of Classics at Hillsdale College, where he also directs the Collegiate Scholars Program. His research focuses on the intersection of Christianity and classical civilization in late antiquity and early modernity. He is the editor and translator of Niels Hemmingsen, On the Law of Nature: A Demonstrative Method (CLP Academic, 2018).

Bradford Littlejohn

is President of the Davenant Institute and Fellow in Evangelicals in Civic Life at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His research interests include Christian ethics, church history, and political theology. He is the author of The Two Kingdoms: A Guide for the Perplexed (Davenant Press, 2017), The Peril and Promise of Christian Liberty: Richard Hooker, the Puritans, and Protestant Political Theology (Eerdmans, 2017), and Richard Hooker: A Companion to His Life and Work (Cascade Books, 2015).

Glenn A. Moots

is Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Northwood University and also serves as a Research Fellow at the McNair Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship there. He is the author of Politics Reformed: The Anglo-American Legacy of Covenant Theology (University of Missouri Press, 2010, 2022 paperback), and he coedited, with Phillip Hamilton, Justifying Revolution: Law, Virtue, and Violence in the American Revolution (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018).

Marc LiVecche

is the McDonald Foundation Distinguished Scholar in Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence: A Journal of Christianity & American Policy. He also serves as a non-resident research fellow at the U.S. Naval War College.

Matthew Lee Anderson

is an Assistant Research Professor of Ethics and Theology at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and the Associate Director of Baylor in Washington. He is an Associate Fellow at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Oxford University where he completed a D.Phil in Christian Ethics. He is the author of two books: Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to Our Faith (Bethany House Publishers, 2011) and The End of Our Exploring (Moody Publishers, 2013).

Steven Wedgeworth

is the rector of Christ Church Anglican in South Bend, Indiana. He has written for Desiring God Ministries, the Gospel Coalition, the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and Mere Orthodoxy, and served as a founding board member of the Davenant Institute.

Publication Details

Publisher: Davenant Press
ISBN: 978-1-949716-13-9
Publication Date: october 13, 2022
Pages: 270
Price: $29.95

Endorsements

“ Protestant Social Teaching takes its Catholic counterpart as its inspiration for mining the rich Protestant tradition for relevant resources to inform Christian thinking on social issues. As the essays in this necessary volume show, the Protestant churches have much wisdom to share. The sources, voices, and reflections contained in these essays are vital to a rejuvenated moral life of the US and its churches. I am confident they will meet the response they merit: energized Christian engagement with the vital social issues of our day that, like these excellent essays, draws on the riches of the Christian traditions.”

— Joseph E. Capizzi, Ordinary Professor of Moral Theology, The Catholic University of America
“If we are to witness moral renewal in our societies, Protestants will have a major role to play, and I say that as a convicted Catholic. This volume, Protestant Social Teaching , comes as a revelation—a revelation that there is a coherent tradition of Protestant moral theology that can still offer concrete guidance to doctors and nurses, statesmen and judges, soldiers and policemen today. The essays on marriage, sexuality, life, dying, work, and the home are particularly insightful. Only by looking backward can we gain the perspective needed to move forward, and these essays offer a model of retrieval in service of practical discipleship. The result is a book that will benefit both Catholic and Protestant readers.”

— Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, author of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment
“This rich volume provides evidence that the Protestant tradition is a valuable resource for serious Christian reflection on perennial social and political themes. The various authors are self-consciously anchored in the great tradition that extends from the early church to the magisterial reformers. As such, they show how the Protestant tradition is both in continuity with the Christian past and, at the same time, a unique source of serious reflection on the most profound social and political issues of our day.”

— Mark T. Mitchell, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Government, Patrick Henry College.