Anne Davis

The Single Person in Contemporary Society

These are the questions which we have set out to answer in this article. The perspective is sociological rather than theological. Our purpose is descriptive rather than prescriptive. Other writers in this journal have explored biblical, ethical, historical, and psychological dimensions of the single life. Our task has been to put together a composite picture, a montage of single adulthood in America today.

Book Review: V. Pastoral—Practical Studies: Culture and CommunityCulture and Community, by ArensbergConrad M. and KimballSolon T., New York: Harcourt, Brace and World Inc., 1965. 329 pp. No price given.

Throughout the work Hatfield labors at sensitizing the church to the ills of society and at orienting the political system of the nation to the emphases of the church. Addressing himself to the international scene, the writer relates peace to evangelism and calls for a reorganization of foreign-aid policies around more humanitarian objectives. Nowhere, however, is Hatfield willing to substitute a program for person-toperson contact in binding up the wounds of the world.

Book Review: III. Pastoral—Practical Studies: Social Welfare: Charity to JusticeSocial Welfare: Charity to Justice, by RomanyshynJohn M., New York: Random House, 1971. 441 pp.

First, the text does not deal in depth with many of the key attitudinal issues which are crucial to social welfare, such as human values, our market economy, and our democratic political system. Secondly, the book is of 1968 vintage and does not cover the last four years of social welfare activity in such areas as comprehensive mental health, income maintenance, and dissident groups such as the Welfare Rights Organization. It also treats social problems as an outgrowth of industrialization while many social scientists see America as having passed from an industrial to a technological society. Since the midfifties, more Americans have been employed in service jobs than in production jobs—a key to the idea that the industrial revolution has seen its day.