Contents -- Introduction: The Future in the Present -- I: Institutional Challenges: Community, Identity, and the Role of the Church -- 1. Church and Culture -- Congregations and Culture -- The Challenge of Diversity -- The future of the Church -- 2. Can the Church Sustain Community? -- The Varieties of Community -- The Church and Individualism -- The New Voluntarism -- What of the Future? -- 3. A Place for the Christian -- The Church as Community of Memory -- The Church as Denomination -- The Church as Support Group -- II: Ethical Challenges: Role Models, Stories, and Learning How to Care -- 4. Stories to Live By -- The Ethical Challenge -- Stories of Love -- Beyond Our Parents -- From Stories to Action -- The Role of Christianity -- 5. The Saints in Our World -- Who Embodies Compassion? -- The Symbolic Value of Contemporary Saints -- Exemplars of Our Individualism -- 6. Ethical Ambivalence -- Uncomfortable in the Presence of God -- Learning to Interpret Stones -- Looking for Principles -- The Worth of the Individual -- Community (Again) -- Small Lessons -- Ill: Doctrinal Challenges: Pluralism, Polarity, and the Character of Belief -- 7. Religious Orientations -- Transcendent Meaning -- Varieties of Belief -- Consequences of Religious Outlooks -- The Public Dimension -- Influences on Religious Belief -- Aspects of Religious Pluralism -- 8. The Future of Fundamentalism -- The Environment of Christian Fundamentalism -- The Dynamics of Christian Fundamentalism -- The Culture of Christian Fundamentalism -- Coda -- 9. Fundamentalism and Its Discontents -- How Liberals Let Fundamentalists Set the Agenda -- Fundamentalism and the Future -- Can Liberals Seize the Initiative? -- IV: Political Challenges: Christianity and Conflict in the Public Realm -- 10. Faith and Public Affairs -- The Polarization of Liberals and Conservatives.

The Character of Public Religion -- What of the Future? -- 11. The Future of the Religious Right -- Predisposing Circumstances -- Organizational Factors -- Sources of Societal Strain -- Resources That Can Be Mobilized -- Factors That Dampen Movements -- A Cautious Forecast -- 12. Religion and Symbolic Politics -- Politics and the Public Sphere -- Reinforcing a Public Agenda -- Insiders and Outsiders -- The Politics of Morality -- The Power of the Holy -- V: Cultural Challenges: The Possibilities of Faith for Constructing Personal Lives -- 13. The Quest for Identity -- A Story -- The Character of Identity -- Religion and the Pursuit of Identity -- A Link to the Wider Society -- 14. Maladies of the Middle Class -- The Challenge of Materialism -- Diversions from Our Discontent -- Ministries to and of the Middle Class -- 15. Living the Question -- Beware the Christian -- Tour of the Underground -- Faith and Critical Thought -- Living the Question -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y.