Mark A. Noll, Max L. Stackhouse, and George Weigel set the stage for an interdenominational conversation by exploring the current social-ethical situation in America from the evangelical Protestant, ecumenical Protestant, and Roman Catholic points of view.
Other contributors - Carl E. Braaten, Jean Bethke Elshtain, J. Bryan Hehir, Christa R. Klein, Michael Novak, and Glenn Tinder - tackle some of the most controversial questions involving religion and public life today, such as: the state of high and popular cultures; the meaning and boundaries of human freedom; abortion; war, peace, and the "new world order"; and poverty and economic development here and abroad.
Among the seventeen respondents to the major essays are Alberto R. Coll, Mary Ann Glendon, Russell Hittinger, John P. Langan, S.J., George Lindbeck, Paul E. Sigmund, and William H. Willimon. Richard John Neuhaus closes the conversation by exploring the question, Can atheists be good citizens?