Biography
Alan Storkey (1943 - ) read economics at Christ College, Cambridge and then took a Masters's degree in sociology at the London school of Economics before doing research at the University of Stirling. In 1969 he became the first director of the Shaftesbury Project. He was head of economics and politics at Worksop College. In 1993 he was awarded a PhD for his dissertation Foundational Epistemologies in Consumption Theory from the VU, Amsterdam. His doctoral supervisors were Bob Goudzwaard and Sander Griffioen. In the 1990s he was the chair of the Movement for Christian Democracy and was Director of Studies at Oak Hill College, London. He writes poetry, paints and lives with his wife Elaine in a village near Cambridge.His present research is on militarism.
He has a web presence here.
Books
A Christian social perspective (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979)
Transforming economics: a Christian way to employment ( London: Third Way/ SPCK, 1986)
Foundational epistemologies in consumption theory (Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1993)
The meanings of love (Leicester: IVP, 1994)
Marriage and its modern crisis: repairing married life ( London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996)
Jesus And Politics: Confronting The Powers (Grand rapids: Baker Academic, 2005)
Book chapters
'The rise and fall of "sex"' in Sex These days Essays on theology, sexuality and society (ed John Davies and Gerald Loughlin) (Sheffield Academic Press, 1997)
Alan Storkey, Postmodernism and Consumption, in Christ and Consumption, edited by Craig Bartholomew and Thorsten Moritz (Carlisle: Paternoster).
Biblical
Theological
Philosophical
Economic
Political
Sociological
A Christian Social Perspective
Contents
Preface
CHAPTER 1
Faith and social relationships
Faith and social behaviour. The Reformation.
The Enlightenment. The great dilemma. Nineteenth
century developments. Collectivism. The twentieth
century's insoluble problems.
CHAPTER 2
Sociological perspectives
The origins of sociology. The French tradition.
The British tradition. The German tradition. Marx.
The attempted neutralization of sociology functionalism;
conflict theory; neutralized subjective meaning; synthetic
sociology. Radical sociology.
CHAPTER 3
What kind of knowledge?
The natural sciences and their origins: Christian culture
and science; Christian faith and science; the necessity
of a Christian perspective. Eighteenth century immanent
theories of knowledge: nature and knowledge;
empiricism; rational knowledge. The twentieth century
faith in method. The modified faith in method.
Linguistic theories of knowledge. A fundamental
critique. A Christian epistemology.
CHAPTER 4
Christian failure
The problem. Church politics. The sacred-secular
division. Synthetic thinking. The solution.
CHAPTER 5
A Christian social perspective
Biblical exegesis: How is the Bible to be interpreted?
some Christian misconceptions; some non-Christian
interpretations. The word of God. A Christian
philosophy of sociology: A Christian perspective;
scientific knowledge; scientific differentiation; sociology
as a scientific discipline. A Christian sociological
perspective: creation; sin; redemption. Free societal
relationships and communities. Basic social institutions.
Structures of institutional authority. Free institutions.
A critical perspective.
PRIMARY SOCIOLOGY
CHAPTER 6
Free relationships
Free societal relationships. The individualist pole:
the egocentric response; the possessive response;
the competitive response; individual pressure; the
manipulative response; the self-validating response;
the comparative response; the self-righteous response;
the privatized response; the hedonist response.
The collectivist pole: the image-creating response;
extrinsic relationships; the acceptability focus; group
identity; the other-directed conscience;
the status response. The dilemma. The Christian perspective.
CHAPTER 7
Community and class
Definition. Economic community in Britain: Class.
The historical background. Modern social class relationships.
Social communication. Status and social
balkanization. The norms of community.
CHAPTER 8
Marriage
Different views of sex and marriage: individualism and
contract marriage; other-directed marriage; naturalism
and marriage; asceticism. Sexual truth. A biblical view
of sex and marriage. Crisis or not? The breakdown of
love. The breakdown in communication.
The breakdown of authority. The breakdown of
faithfulness. Marriage and other institutions: family;
the economy; the state; the churches.
CHAPTER 9
The family
Marriage and the family. Abortion. Parenthood: child-
centred parenthood; parent-centred families. Family
structure: between parents; parents and children; among
children. The family and society. The family and
education. The family and the economy.
CHAPTER 10
The mass media
The free media. The television audience. The fictional
content of television. Non-dogmatic television. News.
See-through characters. Continuity. Variation and
change. The effects of television. The other mass
media. Diagnosis. The economics of the media.
The Dutch alternative. Humanism and communication.
SECONDARY ASPECTS
CHAPTER 11
British politics and parties
Faith and parties: the Labour party; the Conservative
party; the Liberal party. Power and parties. The current political
expedients. The present weakness of parties.
CHAPTER 12
A Christian view of the state
Christian involvement in politics. A biblical
perspective of the state: God's sovereignty; the state is
instituted because of sin; the state and justice;
the state and coercion; the state and law; political office;
impartiality; redistribution of resources;
limitations on the activities of the state;
religious toleration; peacemaking.
CHAPTER 13
Economic perspectives
Christian foundations of modern economics. Post-
Christian economic perspectives: property; self-interest;
blind natural evolution; neutrality, power and socialist
economics; changing the system; means and ends.
Conclusion.
CHAPTER 14
A Christian economic perspective
The biblical meaning of economic life: The religious
nature of economic life; economic blessing; stewardship;
economic judgment; economic rest; economic
independence; social acquisitiveness; economic fairness;
the economic community; normative economics.
A Christian economic philosophy: work; property;
economic freedom; the firm and production; capital;
markets and exchange; money; consumption.
The economy and the state. The economy and society.
CHAPTER 15
The institutional church
The New Testament church. The church as 'sacred'
institution. The church institutionalized; church loyalty;
ecumenism; denominational commitment; the congregation;
finance; the functional church; the institutional
church professionals. Secular divisions within
the churches: class; status; sex; race. The Christian
warfare.
CHAPTER 16
Conclusion
The historical situation. The confrontation.
The Kingdom of God.
Index
Arms trade
Transport
Apologetics
On-line articles
Interview Wittenberg Door by Becky Garrison (April 2007)
Transport Committee Inquiry into Bus Services across the UK (5/5/2006).
The evangelical ghetto (editorial) Anvil 22 (2) (2005)
The Lord's reform Evangelicals Now August 1999
Movement for Christian Democracy -- in Great Britain Public Justice Report (Feb 1991)
Share Values and Economic Crisis ACE Journal Issue 5 (1988)
The surogate sciences Philosophia Reformata, 51 (1986): 110-116
Why following Jesus means being political Church of England Newspaper
Resolving the gay issue Church of England Newspaper
Poetry
I can't believe http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=88
Articles
A quiet morning http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=88
http://www.grantchester.info/AlanStorkey/
Simeon letting go http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=259
On Alan Storkey
Bruce Wearne "A New Beginning in Christian Social Theory" Anakainosis 4(1) September, 1981.
Bruce Wearne "A Christian Social Perspective by Alan Storkey" Newsletter FCS NZ No 17 (December, 1980) pp 19-22.
Steve Bruce 'A new absolutism: Christian sociology in Alan Storkey A Christian Social Perspective' International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 1981
Review by Jim Skillen http://www.cpjustice.org/stories/storyReader$1279
Review by Simona Goi http://www.perspectivesjournal.org/perspectives/2005/06/review.php