{"id":1765,"date":"2012-09-06T17:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/?p=1765"},"modified":"2020-10-28T20:02:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T20:02:26","slug":"editors-introduction-building-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/editors-introduction-building-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"Editor’s Introduction – Building Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe can\u2019t go on together
\nWith suspicious minds,
\nAnd we can\u2019t build our dreams
\nOn suspicious minds\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Elvis Presley, \u201cSuspicious Minds\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[1] I must admit that despite my best efforts, this song was stuck in my head while reading the last chapters of Martin Marty\u2019s 2010 book Building Cultures of Trust<\/em> (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2010), the focal text for this issue of JLE. While \u201cthe King\u201d may not have been singing of something as profound as the cultures of trust Marty describes, both the pop song and the scholarly text point to a basic feature of human life \u2013 the importance of trust as a foundation for a viable common life. This is despite the fact that suspicion has become something of a virtue of late, and not without reason. Marty lists a handful of the tragic and significant violations of public trust that have ruptured American life in the last decade, from the Bernie Madoff scandal to the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church (to which we may add, since publication, the similar cover-up of abuse at Penn State University.) Yet, Marty suggests \u2014 in agreement with some of the authors here \u2014 that trust is both a possibility and a moral good worth pursuing, despite the risk of its violation.<\/p>\n

[2] Marty is not na\u00efve about the risks entailed in the act of trusting; in fact, he spends his second chapter enumerating them. Yet the risk of not trusting is perhaps greater. Seeking a common good \u2013\u2013 that complex of circumstances which makes a common life worth living and worth protecting \u2013\u2013 requires a culture of trust, a culture in which \u201cthere is evidence that through internal or external means the religious, political, economic, artistic, scientific, technological, educational, and linguistic expressions of a group lead participants to count on each other and keep commitments\u201d (15). This is a tall order, and Marty is aware of the challenges. His plan, to build trust through honest and self-critical conversation between subcultures, \u201cwill not mean an end to conflict\u201d (85), nor does he hold out much hope for the extremists in each subculture. This is especially true in the conflict he uses as a case study for his proposal, the divide between religionists and scientists. One can hardly expect \u201cfundamentalist creationists\u201d and \u201cnew atheists\u201d to accept the mutual vulnerability and respect necessary for authentic trust of one another. Nevertheless, improving the prospects for communication and understanding among the parties involved (and here we may substitute any number of subcultures for Marty\u2019s case study of religion and science) may foster the creation of \u201cmore openings for showing empathy, promoting cooperation, and taking up issues common to all in the larger public\u201d (85).<\/p>\n

[3] The authors in this issue take up the subject of trust and Marty\u2019s proposal for grounding a culture of trust in honest, self-critical, and empathetic conversation between subcultures. Collectively, the articles here represent an attempt to \u201ckeep the conversation going,\u201d as Marty desires. Robert Crease, the organizer of the Trust Institute at Stony Brook University which hosted Marty for this project, highlights Marty\u2019s emphasis on the \u201ctrusting process\u201d and asks the challenging question, \u201cDo we trust this book?\u201d John McCarthy, whose research and teaching has focused on the intersection of religion and science, adds to Marty\u2019s discussion of \u201ccategory mistakes\u201d by noting the scientific illiteracy (on the part of religionists) and the theological illiteracy (on the part of scientists) that, combined with \u201cprofessional disincentives,\u201d may undermine attempts at conversation between the two fields. In her article, Deanna A. Thompson attends to Marty\u2019s discussion of the \u201cbuilding blocks\u201d of society and their role in shaping public trust. Drawing on recent research, political shifts, and her own experience Thompson argues, in particular, that \u201cpowerful, healing cultures of trust can be built on virtual foundations.\u201d Political scientist Shayla C. Nunnally, whose research has focused on the role of trust, racial socialization, and the intergenerational transmission of memory, brings the question of cross-cultural and cross-racial trust and distrust to bear on Marty\u2019s proposal, asking, \u201cHow can history and discourses about the future of race and politics move us towards \u2018building cultures of trust\u2019?\u201d D.M. Yeager brings philosopher Annette Baier into conversation with theologian H. Richard Niebuhr to posit that trust is best understood within the context of \u201ctransactional ethics,\u201d rather than in the context of the action or character of isolated, autonomous individual actors. For those who are interested in the subject of trust, Yeager has also prepared a helpful bibliography of important texts on the topic.<\/p>\n

[4] This issue also features Stewart Herman\u2019s analysis of asymmetric warfare, prepared at the invitation of the Lutheran Ethicists group for their discussion of the topic earlier this year. In his essay, Herman examines the question of \u201cinvulnerable weapons platforms\u201d and \u201ccombatant immunity\u201d through the lens of Luther\u2019s discussion of vulnerability and the human condition. In addition, Benjamin Taylor offers readers his review of James Cone\u2019s most recent book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Orbis Books, 2011).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe can\u2019t go on together With suspicious minds, And we can\u2019t build our dreams On suspicious minds\u201d \u2013 Elvis Presley, \u201cSuspicious Minds\u201d [1] I must admit that despite my best efforts, this song was stuck in my head while reading the last chapters of Martin Marty\u2019s 2010 book Building Cultures of Trust (Wm. B. Eerdmans, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-from-the-editor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEditor's Introduction - Building Trust - Journal of Lutheran Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/editors-introduction-building-trust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Editor's Introduction - Building Trust - Journal of Lutheran Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cWe can\u2019t go on together With suspicious minds, And we can\u2019t build our dreams On suspicious minds\u201d \u2013 Elvis Presley, \u201cSuspicious Minds\u201d [1] I must admit that despite my best efforts, this song was stuck in my head while reading the last chapters of Martin Marty\u2019s 2010 book Building Cultures of Trust (Wm. 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