This series analyzes the powerful and variable normative codes that, for better or worse, shape moral character and ethical education in late modern liberal societies. Successive volumes unpack the place and role of these codes operating in the social spheres of law, religion, the family, the market, the political economy, the media, the military, and the systems of health care and academic research. Each volume offers selected examples and case studies drawn from Western Europe, the United States, South Africa, Asia and Australia, and features presentative voices from the humane, social, and natural sciences as well as the professions of theology, law, business, medicine, and others. While most contributors write from Christian perspectives, the volumes offer comparative insights designed to edify scholars from any profession or confession. While our laboratory is principally Western liberal societies, the modern forces of globalization will soon make these issues of moral character formation a concern for every culture and region of the world.

Preface from Beyond the Horizon

The protagonist of Beyond the Horizon is my great grandfather, John Barton, who was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1868, and died in Rapid City, South Dakota in 1956. John married in Iowa and had seven children—three sons and four daughters. He homesteaded at Three Tree Creek in Rainy Creek Township, Pennington County, north of the town of Wall in western South Dakota from 1907. He proved up his claim in 1912 and continued to work the land until 1932.

Preface from Two Hearts

The genesis of this novel is a Barton family myth that has been passed down through the generations for more than 140 years. As the story goes, the Barton brothers rode with the James brothers after the Civil War. During these outlaw days, my great-great grandfather ran off with Cole Younger’s sweetheart. It has been further claimed that she may have been part Seneca or Cherokee Indian. As the tale has been told, the couple first met along a small river in northwest Missouri where she was doing laundry. They fell in love, later ran off, got married, and had children who continued the Barton family march west into the Dakota Territory and beyond.

Series Editor

Bill Bishop