Public Righteousness: The Performative Ethics of Human Flourishing is driven by the idea that part of what manifests as a disorderly display of virtue in public culture is underlined by the desire to see a more righteous society and an expression of the will to enact such an ideal world into reality. This book re-structures the ferment of such public displays and fashions an ethic that overturns the ostentatious signals of self-righteousness and the fierce contest of animating visions. This book engages the work of social ethicist Nimi Wariboko to explore an idea of public righteousness. In place of smug superiority and phony pieties, the performative ethics that inaugurate this public righteousness offer an intellectual and moral competence that establishes rectitude and culminates in human flourishing.

This book examines the debate over the connection between religion and public life in society during the fifty years following the American Revolution. Sassi challenges the conventional wisdom, finding an essential continuity to the period's public Christianity, whereas most previous studies have seen this period as one in which the nation's cultural paradigm shifted from republicanism to liberal individualism. Focusing on the Congregational clergy of New England, he demonstrates that throughout this period there were Americans concerned with their corporate destiny, retaining a commitment to constructing a righteous community and assessing the cosmic meaning of the American experiment.

In Calvin's Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church, Matthew J. Tuininga explores a little appreciated dimension of John Calvin's political thought, his two kingdoms theology, as a model for constructive Christian participation in liberal society. Widely misunderstood as a proto-political culture warrior, due in part to his often misinterpreted role in controversies over predestination and the heretic Servetus, Calvin articulated a thoughtful approach to public life rooted in his understanding of the gospel and its teaching concerning the kingdom of God. He staked his ministry in Geneva on his commitment to keeping the church distinct from the state, abandoning simplistic approaches that placed one above the other, while rejecting the temptations of sectarianism or separatism. This revealing analysis of Calvin's vision offers timely guidance for Christians seeking a mode of faithful, respectful public engagement in democratic, pluralistic communities today.