ABSTRACT
The Religious Right insists that faith provides answers to the deepest problems of society. The vast majority of Americans understand themselves to be religious. To explore this possibility, it was necessary to refocus the social-policy debate more broadly around welfare reform. The 1980s and 1990s have been, according to many criteria, a time of unprecedented economic prosperity. The promise of religious communities to play a crucial role in revitalizing the social fabric and re-knitting the social safety net comes from three potential roles: creating community; shaping moral dialogue; and participating with other institutions in social provision. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the need to recover a broader perspective on how the people provide for one another as citizens in an evolving democracy. It takes up the need for a new perspective on public religion.
