Jean Bethke Elshtain

Jean Bethke Elshtain is the first attempt to evaluate Elshtain’s entire published body of work and to give shape to a wide-ranging scholarly career.

Jean Bethke Elshtain (1941–2013) was a noted ethicist, political philosopher, and public intellectual. Her four decades of scholarship defy easy categorization: she wrote both seminal works of theory and occasional pieces for the popular press, and she was variously viewed as radical and conservative, feminist and traditionalist, anti-war and pro-interventionist. Jean Bethke Elshtain: Politics, Ethics, and Society is the first attempt to evaluate Elshtain’s entire published body of work and to give shape to a wide-ranging scholarly career, with an eye to her work’s ongoing relevance. This collection of essays brings together scholars and public intellectuals from across the spectrum of disciplines in which Elshtain wrote. The volume is organized around four themes, which identify the central concerns that shaped Elshtain’s thought: (1) the nature of politics; (2) politics and religion; (3) international relations and just war; and (4) the end(s) of political life. The essays have been chosen not only for the expertise of each contributor as it bears on Elshtain’s work but also for their interpretive and analytic scope. This volume introduces readers to the work of a key contemporary thinker, using Elshtain’s writing as a lens through which to reflect on central political and scholarly debates of the last few decades. Jean Bethke Elshtain will be of great interest to specialists researching Elshtain and to scholars of multiple disciplines, particularly political theory, international relations, and religion.

Contributors: Debra Erickson Sulai, Michael Le Chevallier, Robin W. Lovin, William A. Galston, Arlene W. Saxonhouse, Don Browning, Peter Berkowitz, Nancy J. Hirschmann, Michael Kessler, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Nigel Biggar, Gilbert Meilaender, Eric Gregory, Daniel Philpott, Marc LiVecche, Nicholas Rengger, John D. Carlson, Chris Brown, Michael Walzer, James Turner Johnson, Erik Owens, Francis Fukuyama, Carl Gershman, and Patrick J. Deneen.

Foreword

Introduction: Debra Erickson and Michael Le Chevallier

Part 1. The Political Question

Introduction: Robin Lovin

1. The Context and Texts of Public Man, Private Woman: Jean Bethke Elshtain in the World of Ideas and Action by Arlene Saxonhouse

2. Becoming Jean Elshtain: Exploring the Intersections of Social Feminism and Civic Life by William Galston

3. Elshtain’s "Reflective" Ethics of Feminism and Family: An Appreciation and Critique by Don Browning

4. Striking the Balance: Burke’s Blending of Liberty, Tradition, and Reform by Peter Berkowitz

5. Reflections on Reflections: Democracy, Depression, and Disability by Nancy Hirschmann

Part 2. Cities of God and Man

Introduction: Michael Kessler

6. A Critical Appreciation of Jean Bethke Elshtain's Embodied Augustinian Realism by Nigel Biggar

7. Engaging the Mind of Elshtain on Sovereignty by Gilbert Meilaender

8. Taking Love Seriously: Elshtain’s Augustinian Voice and Modern Politics by Eric Gregory

9. Supremacy at Stake: Religion and the Sovereign State by Daniel Philpott

10. Sovereign No More? Selves, States, and God in Our Bewildering Global Environment by Lisa Sowle Cahill

Part 3. Nations and Citizens at Peace and War

Introduction: Marc LiVecche

11. The Education of a Just War Thinker by John Carlson

12. The Effect of Perspectives of Thinking about Sovereignty: a Dialogue with Jean Bethke Elshtain by James Turner Johnson

13. Two Sovereigns? Violence and the Ambiguities of Jean Bethke Elshtain’s Christian Realism by Nicholas Rengger

14. A New, But Still a Just War Against Terror by Chris Brown

15. Just War and Religion: Reflections on the Work of Jean Elshtain by Michael Walzer

Part 4. The End(s) of Political Life

Introduction: Erik Owens

16. Civil Society and Political Society by Francis Fukuyama

17. Religion and Democracy: Why Each Needs the Other by Carl Gershman

18. Defending the Indefensible Liberal Consensus: The Tragic Moderation of Jean Bethke Elshtain by Patrick Deneen

19. The Limits of Politics and the Inevitability of Ethics by Robin Lovin