"The Tower of Babel, for all its antiquity, continues to exert its power over the imagination. Whenever we desire to penetrate the strangeness of alien speech or dispel the confusion of tongues, the image of the ruined tower recurs. It is, among other things, a symbol of our moral condition," writes Jeffrey Stout, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, at the beginning of this insightful volume, first published in 1989. The author believes there are many moral languages coexisting in our time under the tent of pluralism. Nevertheless, he believes people of all religious persuasions should try to focus on common interests in considerations of of ethics.
Stout offers commentary on what he sees as the specters of skepticism, nihilism, and relativism, which all threaten to revive Babel. The academic pursuit of religious ethics could shed considerable light on moral discourse today. The author goes on to analyze the work of Robert Bellah and his associates in Habits of the Heart and Alasdair MacIntyre thoughts in After Virtue. In a new postscript for this edition, Stout addresses many of the issues generated by discussion of the book over the past decade.