|
|
Article: The World Council of Churches and international civil society.
- Article from:
- The Ecumenical Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 World Council of Churches. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The term "civil society" is being used today for a variety of purposes and with a range of meanings and nuances. Moreover, it is being used by people who live, think and act in diverse contexts and whose understanding of society is more or less shaped by different traditions of social analysis. Inevitably, a certain ambiguity thus surrounds the term. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that most people who speak about civil society would typically include among its actors the churches, their related organizations and less formal associations of Christians.
For the most part, civil society has been understood as a phenomenon at the level of the nation-state. But as ...