God and the Victim: Traumatic Intrusions on Grace and Freedom

by Jennifer Erin Beste

Overview

Christian tradition holds that an individual's ability to respond to God's graceto love both God and neighboris not wholly vulnerable to earthly contingencies, such as victimization. Today, however, trauma theory insists that situations of overwhelming violence can permanently damage a person's capacity for responsive agency. For Christians, this theory raises the very troubling possibility that humans can inflict ultimate harm on each other, such that some individuals' eternal destiny can be determined not by themselves but by those who do great harm. Offering crucial insights that lead to a more adequate understanding of the relation between Gods grace and human freedom, Bestes important theory reconfigures our visions of God and humanity and alters our perceptions of what it means to truly love ones neighbor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198042501
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/28/2007
Series:	AAR Academy Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	407 KB

About the Author

Jennifer Erin Beste is Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics at Xavier University

Table of Contents

Challenges of Interpersonal Harm for a Theology of Freedom and Grace     3
Karl Rahner's Theological Anthropology: The Role of Freedom and Grace in the Construction of the Human Self     17
The Vulnerable Self and Loss of Agency: Trauma Theory and the Challenge to a Rahnerian Theology of Freedom and Grace     37
The Fragmented Self and Constrained Agency: Feminist Theories as Correctives to a Rahnerian Anthropology     59
Response to the Challenge: Rahner's Theology Revisited     85
Ethical Directions: Implications of a Revised Theology of Freedom and Grace     107
Notes     129
Bibliography     149
Index     161

Editorial Reviews

"This is a highly original study of the viability of any strong version of a theology of freedom. It challenges one of the most important of these theologies—the one proposed by Karl Rahner—by juxtaposing it to descriptive analyses of severe psychological and physical trauma. Beste attempts an important revision of Christian theologies of freedom and offers pastoral recommendations for communal healing of post-traumatic syndrome. This is an extremely significant contribution to our understandings of human freedom and our vulnerabilities to damage at the heart of our capacity for free choice." —Margaret A. Farley, author of Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics

From the Publisher