How is it that the same Christian beliefs can be used both to bolster an oppressive regime and rally opposition to it? Are there any norms intrinsic to Christian belief that dictate its political import?Delving into the complex aspects of Christian beliefs in their historical, theological, and social diversity, Tanner here offers a rigorous and sustained analysis of the relations of belief to attitudes and action. She centers her analysis on God and Creation and brings a much-needed clarity to notions of hierarchy, transcendence, dualism, and oppression. She constructs a typology of how doctrines can relate to each other, to social systems, and to ethical behavior. In arguing that Christian beliefs about God and the world can be disengaged from complicity with social forces of reaction and oppression, Tanner discloses the radical potential of Christian beliefs and realigns them with efforts to bring about a just society.
Kathryn Tanner is Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, University of Chicago, and author of The Politics of God (1992), Theories of Culture (1997), and Jesus, Humanity, and the Trinity (2001), all from Fortress Press.
Preface Beliefs, Actions, Attitudes Doubts and Complexities Beliefs as an Influence on Attitudes and Actions The Gap between Beliefs and Proposals of Attitude and Action Bridging the Gap An Example of Factors at Work Proper and Improper Attitudes and Actions A Look Ahead Self-Critical Cultures and Divine Transcendence The Possibility of Self-Critical Cultures Two Types of Culture Structural Features of the Two Types Religion and the Two Types of Culture The Ambiguities of Divine Transcendence Sociopolitical Critique and Christian Belief The Doctrine of Creation and Sociopolitical Critique Sin and Sociopolitical Critique Despair and the Possibility of Aimless Critique Christianity's Critical Potential Affirmed Christian Belief and the Justification of Hierarchy The Model of an Intradivine Order Chain-of-Being and Chain-of-Command Justifications of Hierarchy Hierarchy Based upon Created Differences or a Divine Mandate The Model of God's Relation to the World Christian Belief and Respect for Others The Dialectic of Idolatrous Self-Aggrandizement and Self-Contempt A Caveat Respect for Others as Creatures of God Inferences to Treatment Rights Possessed by Creatures Social Consequences What this Vision of Society Leaves Undecided Christian Belief and Respect for Difference Forms of Toleration and a Christian Respect for DifferenceUniversal Standards and the Value of ParticularityIdentity and Difference and Respect for Others as God's Creatures Social Consequences Christian Belief and Activism Nonidolatrous Self-Esteem as Grounds for Activism Nonidolatrous Self-Esteem and Inclinations to Self-Development Relative Judgments and Particular Commitments Activism and the Recognition of Finitude Conclusion Index
