Anthropology

by Ross, Susan A.

• ISBN13: 9780814659946
• ISBN10: 0814659942
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-15
• Publisher: Michael Glazier

Summary

Drawing on the wisdom and teaching experience of highly respected theologians, the Engaging Theology series builds a firm foundation for graduate study and other ministry formation programs. Each of the six volumes-Scripture, Jesus, God, Discipleship, Anthropology, and Church-is concerned with retrieving, carefully evaluating, and constructively interpreting the Christian tradition. Comprehensive in scope and accessibly written, these volumes, used together or independently, will stimulate rich theological reflection and discussion. More important, the series will create and sustain the passion of the next generation of theologians and church leaders.

Author Biography

Susan A. Ross is a professor and chair of the theology department at Loyola University Chicago. She is a vice president and member of the board of editors of Concilium, the international theological journal. She is the author of Extravagant Affections: A Feminist Sacramental Theology (1998) and For the Beauty of the Earth: Women, Sacramentality, and Justice (2006).

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface	p. ix
Preface and Acknowledgments	p. xi
Ancient Resources on Being Human	p. 1
Biblical Resources	p. 1
Interpreting the Bible	p. 1
Some Biblical Narratives	p. 4
Jesus as Exemplar	p. 9
Paul	p. 12
Early Christianity on Being Human	p. 13
Gnosticism, Irenaeus, and Early Christian Martyrs	p. 14
Asceticism	p. 16
Platonism and Origen	p. 19
Augustine	p. 20
Conclusion	p. 24
Resources from the Medieval and Reformation Periods	p. 27
Medieval Thought	p. 27
Monasticism and Learning	p. 27
Monasticism and Living One's Faith	p. 32
The Desire for God	p. 33
Scholasticism and Thomas Aquinas	p. 36
The Reformation	p. 39
Martin Luther	p. 40
John Calvin	p. 42
The Council of Trent	p. 44
Women in the Reformation	p. 45
Conclusion	p. 46
Resources from Modernity	p. 47
The Desire for Knowledge	p. 48
Descartes	p. 49
Hume and Kant	p. 51
Nineteenth-Century Developments	p. 53
The Desire for Freedom	p. 56
Slaves, Women, and Personhood	p. 57
The "Masters of Suspicion"	p. 61
Karl Marx	p. 61
Sigmund Freud	p. 62
Conclusion / Twentieth-Century Issues	p. 65
Christian Selfhood and Postmodernity	p. 67
Characteristics of Postmodern Selfhood	p. 69
Fragmentation and Plurality	p. 69
Social and Historical Relativity	p. 70
The Linguistic Turn	p. 71
Otherness	p. 72
Ambiguity	p. 74
Christian Theological Engagement with Postmodernity	p. 75
Edward Schillebeeckx and "Anthropological Constants"	p. 76
Jan-Olav Henriksen and the Other	p. 78
Karl Rahner and the Desire for God	p. 81
Concluding Reflections on the Postmodern Self	p. 83
The Beauty of Embodiment: Body and Sexuality	p. 85
The Body	p. 87
Sex	p. 94
Sex and Traditional Catholic Theology	p. 94
Sexuality and Contemporary Theological Anthropology	p. 98
The Theology of the Body	p. 99
Margaret Farley and "Just Love"	p. 102
Sex and Sexual Variation	p. 104
Conclusion	p. 104
The Human Capacity for Evil and the Hope for Salvation	p. 109
The Human Capacity for and Propensity to Evil	p. 111
Human Beings, the Sciences, and Evil	p. 112
René Girard's Theory of Violence and Mimetic Desire	p. 114
Understanding the Perpetrators of Evil	p. 116
Victims of Evil	p. 123
Trauma Victims	p. 124
Social Trauma	p. 127
Witnesses to Evil	p. 130
Theology, Science, and Human Personhood	p. 133
What Makes Us the Imago Dei?	p. 135
Animals and Human Beings	p. 139
Human Beings and the World around Us	p. 141
Neuroscience and the Human	p. 144
Technology, Medicine, and the Human Person	p. 148
Conclusion	p. 152
Conclusion: Seeking Light and Beauty	p. 155
Index	p. 163
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