Book contents
- Christianity and the Future of Welfare
- Reviews
- Christianity and the Future of Welfare
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 What Has Christianity to Do with the Welfare State?
- Chapter 2 William Temple and the Origins of the ‘Welfare-State’
- Chapter 3 Jacques Maritain and the Right to Welfare
- Chapter 4 John Paul II and the Social Assistance State
- Chapter 5 Rowan Williams and the Big Society
- Chapter 6 A Theological Vision of Welfare
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 6 - A Theological Vision of Welfare
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2026
Book contents
- Christianity and the Future of Welfare
- Reviews
- Christianity and the Future of Welfare
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 What Has Christianity to Do with the Welfare State?
- Chapter 2 William Temple and the Origins of the ‘Welfare-State’
- Chapter 3 Jacques Maritain and the Right to Welfare
- Chapter 4 John Paul II and the Social Assistance State
- Chapter 5 Rowan Williams and the Big Society
- Chapter 6 A Theological Vision of Welfare
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This conlcuding chapter harvests insights from the theological anthropology of William Temple, Jacques Maritain, John Paul II, and Rowan Williams, and the way in which these thinkers shaped their political theology of the welfare state. It draws out a "multidimensional" conception of the human person that is (1) created, (2) material, (3) vulnerable, (4) agential, (5) sinful, (6) relational, (7) transcendent, (8) creative, and (9) oriented to, and fulfilled by gift. It then uses this conception to return to the work of Alan Deacon (to underline the centrality of anthropology in welfare state theory), Raymond Plant (to help fill in the content of contestable social concepts) and Gøsta Esping-Andersen (to affirm but underline the limitations of the idea of welfare regimes). It concludes by outlining what a welfare state (or regime) might actually look it in the light of this, by focusing on the foundation, the funding, the structure, and the ethos of welfare.
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- Christianity and the Future of Welfare , pp. 162 - 194Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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