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Description
In The Universe Is On Our Side, Bruce Ledewitz argues that there has been a breakdown in American public life that no election can fix - Americans struggle to even converse about politics and the usual explanations for our condition have failed to make things better. Ledewitz posits that America is living with the consequences of the Death of God, which Friedrich Nietzsche presumed would be momentous and irreversible.For a long time, God acted as the story of the meaning of our lives. America's future requires that we begin a new story by each of us asking a question posed by theologian Bernard Lonergan: Is the universe on our side? When we commit to live honestly and fully by our answer to that question, even if our immediate answer is no, America can begin to heal. Beyond this, pondering the question of the universe will allow us to see that there is more to the universe than blind forces and dead matter.Guided by the naturalism of Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, and the historical faith of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ledewitz argues we can work towards a trust that the universe bends toward justice and our welfare, which can complete our healing and restore faith in American public life. The Universe Is On Our Side makes the case that we can live without God, but not without thinking about holiness in the universe.
(Oxford University Press)
ISBN
9780197563939
Publication Date
Fall 10-18-2021
Publisher
Oxford University Press, Incorporated
City
USA-OSO
Keywords
theology, philosophy, religion, politics, United States, history, government, 21st century, public opinion
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Law and Philosophy | Law and Politics
Recommended Citation
Ledewitz, B. (2021). The The Universe is on Our Side: Restoring Faith in American Public Life. Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/ledewitz-books/1
Comments
"Bruce Ledewitz is the Adrian Van Kaam C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Scholarly Excellence and a professor of law at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University. He teaches in the areas of state and federal constitutional law and jurisprudence, specializing in law and religion and law and the secular. Ledewitz is co-director of Duquesne Kline's Pennsylvania Constitution website. In 1981, Ledewitz founded the Allegheny County Death Penalty Project, which he directed for 13 years. He co-founded the Western Pennsylvania Coalition Against the Death Penalty and served from 1985-1990 as secretary of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. He is past winner of the Allegheny County Bar Association Pro Bono Service Award, the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Liberty Award, the Marjorie Matson Civil Liberties Award and the Inaugural Dr. John & Liz Murray Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship in 2012, an award he received again in 2017.
In addition to scholarly publications, Ledewitz writes regularly in a variety of popular journals and magazines. He is the author of four books, American Religious Democracy, Hallowed Secularism, Church, State, and the Crisis in American Secularism and, most recently, a book from Oxford Univ. Press: The Universe Is on Our Side: Restoring Faith in American Public Life. Ledewitz received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and his J.D. from Yale Law School."
https://www.duq.edu/faculty-and-staff/bruce-ledewitz.php