Jeff Nowers & Néstor Medina 
Theology and the Crisis of Engagement 
Essays on the Relationship between Theology and the Social Sciences

What does theology have to do with sociology? Do the social sciences in general provide helpful assistance to theologians? Does theology have anything to contribute to social theory?

This compendium of essays attempts to address such questions. In so doing, it confronts assumptions about how academic disciplines are best articulated, whether within their own airtight frames or in dialogue with one another. The essays in the first half of the book accomplish this from historical and methodological perspectives, while the remaining essays present case studies or constructive proposals for how theology might engage the social sciences in productive ways.

For those particularly interested in the ongoing development of theologies of liberation, this book will be timely. The essays, reflecting a definite international flavor, are written in honor of Lee Cormie, a long-standing advocate of what he calls the ‘new voices’ in theology that have irrupted in the wake of Vatican II. Cormie has spent over three decades teaching theologies of liberation at the Toronto School of Theology on the campus of the University of Toronto. This book continues the many conversations that his teaching has provoked.

About the author

GREGORY BAUM, a Catholic theologian and native of Germany, is Professor Emeritus at the Religious Studies Faculty of Mc Gill University in Montreal, Canada. Baum has served as editor of The Ecumenist since 1962. His most recent books include Amazing Church: A Catholic Theologian Remembers a Half-Century of Change (2005), Compassion and Solidarity: The Church for Others (2006), and Religion and Alienation: A Theological Reading of Sociology (2nd edition, 2007).HAROLD WELLS, a Protestant theologian, is a professor of systematic theology at Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto, Canada. His most recent book is The Christic Center: Life-Giving and Liberating (2004).