Bowlin thus draws from critics who suggest that the supposed virtue of tolerance is complicit in ... more Bowlin thus draws from critics who suggest that the supposed virtue of tolerance is complicit in the worst vices of liberal societies. ‘Tolerance encourages a passive-aggressive politics, a gentle and self-deceived paternalism that in fact betrays our commitment to the equal dignity of all’ (p. 22). Bowlin is aware of complaints that tolerance is to be overcome rather than accommodated, and recognises that tolerance is frequently viewed as an inherently resentful response to disagreement and difference (p. 47). The task that he sets himself is to demonstrate that tolerance is a natural virtue ‘embedded in the form of life humans happen to lead’ (p. 25): if geared to ends we all desire and activities we cannot avoid taking up ‘then it is unlikely that the virtue itself can be resented’ (p. 25). At issue throughout the book is whether tolerance is not a virtue in the Aristotelian sense, not a human perfection, but merely the exercise of self-restraint. Tolerance does not feature in the classical world or in the writings of Thomas Aquinas as a moral virtue that belongs to justice as one of its parts. Bowlin’s constructive claim is that it should be recognised as such because natural to us, and because it functions like other virtues, namely courage: ‘Like courage, it comes with our humanity, with the life we lead according to our kind’ (p. 49). Like all virtues in Aristotelian-Thomist tradition, Bowlin’s claim is that tolerance is virtuous in that it makes its subject and their work good; the virtue of tolerance corresponds to a special kind of good. This good is the mediation and ordering of human relations across various divides of objectionable difference. The kinds of difference that Bowlin mentions as examples of objectionable difference include taking pleasure in cockfighting, selling pornography, sacrificing animals, using hallucinogens, confessing certain beliefs and endorsing certain policies. All might cause harm but none substantively enough significantly to upset civic life. Legal remedies would likely make things worse. An indifference person simply would not care. Tolerance, by contrast, prompts tolerant actions, exemplifies humility, and somehow comes packaged with our humanity. It can be cultivated and praised without loss to our humanity (p. 67). So, in Christian perspective, is forbearance the real virtue with tolerance the modern imposter? Should love for one another be cast in terms of virtuous endurance rather than tolerance as virtue’s semblance? Bowlin
[T]he idea of total incorporation, of absorbing every individual thing . . . into an all-encompas... more [T]he idea of total incorporation, of absorbing every individual thing . . . into an all-encompassing body . . . connotes violence’ (p. 99). If the metaphor is to be productive rather than oppressive in our current time, the cosmic body of Christ must be resurrected carefully. Part I traces the development of the cosmic Christ from Origen of Alexandria and Nicholas of Cusa to Teilhard de Chardin, Raimon Panikkar and Sallie McFague. These early chapters provide helpful expositions of previous thinkers, but they do not tend to engage in much critical evaluation of the metaphor today. The more probing explorations come in Part II. Celia Deane-Drummond proposes that cosmic body of Christ imagery is an ‘eschatological goal, rather than a present reality’ (p. 110). Maaike de Haardt, meanwhile, opts for a generic sacramentality and is highly critical of the Church for the constraints it tends to place on divine presence, especially in the clerical and liturgical bounding of the Eucharist. Laurel Schneider emphasizes the same point in a different idiom: Christian ‘chastity’, she argues, seeks to delimit divinity and is at odds with the generous ‘promiscuity’ of a God of abundant love (p. 129). Indeed, Schneider approves of Chalcedonian Christology as an explicitly unpredictable mixture that blurs categories and boundaries, provided that the overflowing desire for material entanglement – for incarnation – is not just channelled into a single, male body. Matthew Eaton and Catherine Keller round out the collection with accounts of a plurality of incarnations, and the very real tension between a communal and a colonial Christ. Keller concludes that we require a ‘plurisingularity’ of ‘intercarnations’ if we are to navigate this tightrope between the one and the many (p. 156). It can be hard to do justice to such a huge topic in such a short volume. Various New Materialist philosophies – in which the agencies and complexities of matter are emphasized – hover in the background but are rarely brought to the fore. Similarly, although ecological concerns are touched on, the significance of the cosmic Christ for our climate catastrophe is never fully unpacked. Nonetheless, this is an exciting book. Any sense that there was more that ought to have been discussed is likely an indication of the need for further work in this area.
Angels' questions and the wonder and joy they evoked. Anything else is to roll across the stone a... more Angels' questions and the wonder and joy they evoked. Anything else is to roll across the stone again and close off the possibilities of hope and joy in a new darkness. 'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' (Mk 8:36, KJV)
Martin shows no appreciation of this dimension of feminist theology and is thus in a better posit... more Martin shows no appreciation of this dimension of feminist theology and is thus in a better position to minimize its contributions both to theology and to the life of the Church. The third fundamental presupposition concerns Enlightenment individualism which Martin claims is writ large within feminist theology. Against this he seeks to propose a relational view of the person. It is quite an astonishing, indeed insulting, omission that not a single work by a Christian feminist theologian of relationship is used, cited, referred to or discussed. How can we have a serious book about feminist theology which does not make use of Mary Grey or Carter Heyward in this context? These theologians have been doing constructive work in precisely the area that Martin is himself exploring, but you would get no indication of this whatsoever from reading his book. Martin's treatment of this subject leads me to be deeply suspicious of his intentions and of his scholarly method. I am disappointed in this, because he promises dialogue and genuine engagement. However, his is a reductionist and polemical argument, which thanks women for their good questions that he has taken some trouble to respond to, but which sends them home with no place in theological partnership. What begins with some warmth towards the stirrings within humanity which feminism manifests and dares to speak, ends with the cold tone of demanding that we seek forgiveness for our 'egotism, self-righteous anger, infidelity to truth, and fear' (p.422). Surely we all alike pray for this, and hope that Martin too may one day notice how profoundly all of these things are written into his own text.
For the later periods Hastings selects themes which he develops by means of copious and detailed ... more For the later periods Hastings selects themes which he develops by means of copious and detailed illustration drawn from a huge variety of sources. There are some unexpected but illuminating comparisons of European and African movements. Christian villages, mass evangelism, prophet movements, the emergence of new nationalisms, catechists, dreams, the emergence of modem leadership are among the topics discussed. There are a few slips: the CMS did not, for instance, leave Tanganyika when this passed under German rule; there are occasional inconsistencies in the spelling of
The question: 'What does theological ethics do?' invites answers that range from the descriptive ... more The question: 'What does theological ethics do?' invites answers that range from the descriptive and comparative (e.g., what happens in Universities where theological ethics is taught) to the doctrinal and hermeneutical (e.g., why theological ethics is dependent utterly upon the selfrevealing grace of the triune God revealed in the bible), and the contextual and constructive (why and how the places and politics, etc., of where theological ethics is done, is related intrinsically to decision-making that bears upon action). Mindful of Karl Barth's reported words in a Time magazine piece that, 40 years previously, he had advised young theologians 'to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible' (Friday, May 31, 1963), this essay offers a doctrinally-informed, constructive answer: theological ethics does tropology. 1 Tropology is rarely discussed in Christian ethics today but has a lineage in Christian tradition of interconnecting aesthetic, political and moral practice. Tropology is everyday striving after the moral sense of the bible that allows the diverse witness to the self-revealing grace of the triune God revealed in its pages to bear upon the praxis of life. In a short study entitled The Book that Reads Me: A Handbook for Bible Study Enablers (1995), Hans-Ruedi Weber invites bible-study enablers to re-experience the bible as an oral rather than literary tradition through story-telling and singing, drama and symbolic actions. His point is that generations of Western Christians have flattened the bible to merely a literary document to be read and/or listened to. A striking front cover shows a wood carving of a beautiful and strong African woman whose arms are raised in prayer and dramatic representation of the scriptures. The message conveyed by the image is that bible is more like the script for many dramas than simple prose text and comes with an expectation of dramatization; this book must be lived. This is the essence of tropology. Theological ethics that does tropology moves between newspapers and the bible, as Barth summons young scholars, in ways that expect deep hermeneutic relation between the logos of the text and lifestyle, judgment and action.
Studies in Christian Ethics 32(3) amounts to selling out the idea of the common good altogether, ... more Studies in Christian Ethics 32(3) amounts to selling out the idea of the common good altogether, resigning any aspiration for the best in pursuit of the good. At the end, the reader can see what theology might learn from social science; in the words of one contributor, social science offers an accurate picture of the world as it is, as well as powerful insights into the costs and benefits of various proposals to ameliorate social ills (p. 215). However, the extent to which this facilitates the pursuit of the common good, let alone provide 'empirical foundations' for it, remains open to debate.
Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1 Introduction 2 Towards a Restatement of Natural 3 Jus Cogens Nor... more Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1 Introduction 2 Towards a Restatement of Natural 3 Jus Cogens Norms and the Impurity of Natural Law Reasoning 4 Peacemaking through Law: Ambivalence,Violence and Answerability 5 Responsibility to Protect and Militarized Humanitarian Intervention: Tests and Challenges 6 Nation States and Love of Neighbour: Impartiality and the Ordo Amoris 7 Human Rights and Ideological Confl ict: Threats to the Rule Law 8 Concluding Theses Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects
For the later periods Hastings selects themes which he develops by means of copious and detailed ... more For the later periods Hastings selects themes which he develops by means of copious and detailed illustration drawn from a huge variety of sources. There are some unexpected but illuminating comparisons of European and African movements. Christian villages, mass evangelism, prophet movements, the emergence of new nationalisms, catechists, dreams, the emergence of modem leadership are among the topics discussed. There are a few slips: the CMS did not, for instance, leave Tanganyika when this passed under German rule; there are occasional inconsistencies in the spelling of
Bowlin thus draws from critics who suggest that the supposed virtue of tolerance is complicit in ... more Bowlin thus draws from critics who suggest that the supposed virtue of tolerance is complicit in the worst vices of liberal societies. ‘Tolerance encourages a passive-aggressive politics, a gentle and self-deceived paternalism that in fact betrays our commitment to the equal dignity of all’ (p. 22). Bowlin is aware of complaints that tolerance is to be overcome rather than accommodated, and recognises that tolerance is frequently viewed as an inherently resentful response to disagreement and difference (p. 47). The task that he sets himself is to demonstrate that tolerance is a natural virtue ‘embedded in the form of life humans happen to lead’ (p. 25): if geared to ends we all desire and activities we cannot avoid taking up ‘then it is unlikely that the virtue itself can be resented’ (p. 25). At issue throughout the book is whether tolerance is not a virtue in the Aristotelian sense, not a human perfection, but merely the exercise of self-restraint. Tolerance does not feature in the classical world or in the writings of Thomas Aquinas as a moral virtue that belongs to justice as one of its parts. Bowlin’s constructive claim is that it should be recognised as such because natural to us, and because it functions like other virtues, namely courage: ‘Like courage, it comes with our humanity, with the life we lead according to our kind’ (p. 49). Like all virtues in Aristotelian-Thomist tradition, Bowlin’s claim is that tolerance is virtuous in that it makes its subject and their work good; the virtue of tolerance corresponds to a special kind of good. This good is the mediation and ordering of human relations across various divides of objectionable difference. The kinds of difference that Bowlin mentions as examples of objectionable difference include taking pleasure in cockfighting, selling pornography, sacrificing animals, using hallucinogens, confessing certain beliefs and endorsing certain policies. All might cause harm but none substantively enough significantly to upset civic life. Legal remedies would likely make things worse. An indifference person simply would not care. Tolerance, by contrast, prompts tolerant actions, exemplifies humility, and somehow comes packaged with our humanity. It can be cultivated and praised without loss to our humanity (p. 67). So, in Christian perspective, is forbearance the real virtue with tolerance the modern imposter? Should love for one another be cast in terms of virtuous endurance rather than tolerance as virtue’s semblance? Bowlin
[T]he idea of total incorporation, of absorbing every individual thing . . . into an all-encompas... more [T]he idea of total incorporation, of absorbing every individual thing . . . into an all-encompassing body . . . connotes violence’ (p. 99). If the metaphor is to be productive rather than oppressive in our current time, the cosmic body of Christ must be resurrected carefully. Part I traces the development of the cosmic Christ from Origen of Alexandria and Nicholas of Cusa to Teilhard de Chardin, Raimon Panikkar and Sallie McFague. These early chapters provide helpful expositions of previous thinkers, but they do not tend to engage in much critical evaluation of the metaphor today. The more probing explorations come in Part II. Celia Deane-Drummond proposes that cosmic body of Christ imagery is an ‘eschatological goal, rather than a present reality’ (p. 110). Maaike de Haardt, meanwhile, opts for a generic sacramentality and is highly critical of the Church for the constraints it tends to place on divine presence, especially in the clerical and liturgical bounding of the Eucharist. Laurel Schneider emphasizes the same point in a different idiom: Christian ‘chastity’, she argues, seeks to delimit divinity and is at odds with the generous ‘promiscuity’ of a God of abundant love (p. 129). Indeed, Schneider approves of Chalcedonian Christology as an explicitly unpredictable mixture that blurs categories and boundaries, provided that the overflowing desire for material entanglement – for incarnation – is not just channelled into a single, male body. Matthew Eaton and Catherine Keller round out the collection with accounts of a plurality of incarnations, and the very real tension between a communal and a colonial Christ. Keller concludes that we require a ‘plurisingularity’ of ‘intercarnations’ if we are to navigate this tightrope between the one and the many (p. 156). It can be hard to do justice to such a huge topic in such a short volume. Various New Materialist philosophies – in which the agencies and complexities of matter are emphasized – hover in the background but are rarely brought to the fore. Similarly, although ecological concerns are touched on, the significance of the cosmic Christ for our climate catastrophe is never fully unpacked. Nonetheless, this is an exciting book. Any sense that there was more that ought to have been discussed is likely an indication of the need for further work in this area.
Angels' questions and the wonder and joy they evoked. Anything else is to roll across the stone a... more Angels' questions and the wonder and joy they evoked. Anything else is to roll across the stone again and close off the possibilities of hope and joy in a new darkness. 'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' (Mk 8:36, KJV)
Martin shows no appreciation of this dimension of feminist theology and is thus in a better posit... more Martin shows no appreciation of this dimension of feminist theology and is thus in a better position to minimize its contributions both to theology and to the life of the Church. The third fundamental presupposition concerns Enlightenment individualism which Martin claims is writ large within feminist theology. Against this he seeks to propose a relational view of the person. It is quite an astonishing, indeed insulting, omission that not a single work by a Christian feminist theologian of relationship is used, cited, referred to or discussed. How can we have a serious book about feminist theology which does not make use of Mary Grey or Carter Heyward in this context? These theologians have been doing constructive work in precisely the area that Martin is himself exploring, but you would get no indication of this whatsoever from reading his book. Martin's treatment of this subject leads me to be deeply suspicious of his intentions and of his scholarly method. I am disappointed in this, because he promises dialogue and genuine engagement. However, his is a reductionist and polemical argument, which thanks women for their good questions that he has taken some trouble to respond to, but which sends them home with no place in theological partnership. What begins with some warmth towards the stirrings within humanity which feminism manifests and dares to speak, ends with the cold tone of demanding that we seek forgiveness for our 'egotism, self-righteous anger, infidelity to truth, and fear' (p.422). Surely we all alike pray for this, and hope that Martin too may one day notice how profoundly all of these things are written into his own text.
For the later periods Hastings selects themes which he develops by means of copious and detailed ... more For the later periods Hastings selects themes which he develops by means of copious and detailed illustration drawn from a huge variety of sources. There are some unexpected but illuminating comparisons of European and African movements. Christian villages, mass evangelism, prophet movements, the emergence of new nationalisms, catechists, dreams, the emergence of modem leadership are among the topics discussed. There are a few slips: the CMS did not, for instance, leave Tanganyika when this passed under German rule; there are occasional inconsistencies in the spelling of
The question: 'What does theological ethics do?' invites answers that range from the descriptive ... more The question: 'What does theological ethics do?' invites answers that range from the descriptive and comparative (e.g., what happens in Universities where theological ethics is taught) to the doctrinal and hermeneutical (e.g., why theological ethics is dependent utterly upon the selfrevealing grace of the triune God revealed in the bible), and the contextual and constructive (why and how the places and politics, etc., of where theological ethics is done, is related intrinsically to decision-making that bears upon action). Mindful of Karl Barth's reported words in a Time magazine piece that, 40 years previously, he had advised young theologians 'to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible' (Friday, May 31, 1963), this essay offers a doctrinally-informed, constructive answer: theological ethics does tropology. 1 Tropology is rarely discussed in Christian ethics today but has a lineage in Christian tradition of interconnecting aesthetic, political and moral practice. Tropology is everyday striving after the moral sense of the bible that allows the diverse witness to the self-revealing grace of the triune God revealed in its pages to bear upon the praxis of life. In a short study entitled The Book that Reads Me: A Handbook for Bible Study Enablers (1995), Hans-Ruedi Weber invites bible-study enablers to re-experience the bible as an oral rather than literary tradition through story-telling and singing, drama and symbolic actions. His point is that generations of Western Christians have flattened the bible to merely a literary document to be read and/or listened to. A striking front cover shows a wood carving of a beautiful and strong African woman whose arms are raised in prayer and dramatic representation of the scriptures. The message conveyed by the image is that bible is more like the script for many dramas than simple prose text and comes with an expectation of dramatization; this book must be lived. This is the essence of tropology. Theological ethics that does tropology moves between newspapers and the bible, as Barth summons young scholars, in ways that expect deep hermeneutic relation between the logos of the text and lifestyle, judgment and action.
Studies in Christian Ethics 32(3) amounts to selling out the idea of the common good altogether, ... more Studies in Christian Ethics 32(3) amounts to selling out the idea of the common good altogether, resigning any aspiration for the best in pursuit of the good. At the end, the reader can see what theology might learn from social science; in the words of one contributor, social science offers an accurate picture of the world as it is, as well as powerful insights into the costs and benefits of various proposals to ameliorate social ills (p. 215). However, the extent to which this facilitates the pursuit of the common good, let alone provide 'empirical foundations' for it, remains open to debate.
Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1 Introduction 2 Towards a Restatement of Natural 3 Jus Cogens Nor... more Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1 Introduction 2 Towards a Restatement of Natural 3 Jus Cogens Norms and the Impurity of Natural Law Reasoning 4 Peacemaking through Law: Ambivalence,Violence and Answerability 5 Responsibility to Protect and Militarized Humanitarian Intervention: Tests and Challenges 6 Nation States and Love of Neighbour: Impartiality and the Ordo Amoris 7 Human Rights and Ideological Confl ict: Threats to the Rule Law 8 Concluding Theses Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects
For the later periods Hastings selects themes which he develops by means of copious and detailed ... more For the later periods Hastings selects themes which he develops by means of copious and detailed illustration drawn from a huge variety of sources. There are some unexpected but illuminating comparisons of European and African movements. Christian villages, mass evangelism, prophet movements, the emergence of new nationalisms, catechists, dreams, the emergence of modem leadership are among the topics discussed. There are a few slips: the CMS did not, for instance, leave Tanganyika when this passed under German rule; there are occasional inconsistencies in the spelling of
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