Goodness of God : Theology, Church, and the Social Order

by Long, D. Stephen

• ISBN13: 9781587430190
• ISBN10: 1587430193
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Brazos Press

Author Biography

D. Stephen Long is assistant professor of theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and codirector of the Center for Ethics and Values

Table of Contents

Preface	11	(4)
Introduction	15	(1)
Moral Norms As Social Constructions	15	(4)
God and the Good, and Goodness As a Transcendental Predicate of Being	19	(4)
The Good and the Holy Spirit	23	(3)
The Quest for Goodness	26	(5)
Part 1. The Subordination of Ethics to Theology
Beyond Evil and (Toward an Enchanted) Good	31	(22)
Good and Evil in Light of ``The Soporific Appliances''	34	(2)
On Getting Caught Up	36	(2)
Getting Caught Up in the Tragic	38	(3)
Beyond Evil	41	(3)
Toward an Enchanting Good: Being Caught Up in a Quest for God	44	(2)
Competing Visions/Alternative Quests	46	(7)
Kant's Ethical Revolution against Religion: Questing for Freedom	53	(52)
Both/And Theology	57	(4)
Kant's Question: Can the Sensible Be Theological?	61	(2)
Kant's Answer and the Ethical Revolution against Religion: Only through Freedom Can God Be Thought	63	(3)
Overcoming the Kantian Debt	66	(2)
The Repetition of Kant's Answers: Public Theologians	68	(12)
The Church As Public	80	(4)
Subordinating Ethics to Theology: Thomas Aquinas As Theologian	84	(5)
Forgetting Kant's Answers, Remembering Kant's Question	89	(16)
Beyond Evil through the Beauty of Holiness: True God, True Humanity	105	(28)
The Reality of Evil	108	(2)
Christology As Anthropology	110	(2)
A Catholic Ecclesiological Alternative?	112	(2)
Double Effect: The Kantian Quest Revisited?	114	(3)
Objects and Intentions	117	(3)
Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose	120	(1)
You Will Be Like Gods, Knowing Good and Evil	121	(6)
The Fall	127	(2)
The Interiority of Gnostic Goodness	129	(1)
Evil As Accidental	130	(2)
Redeeming Evil	132	(1)
Christian Ethics As Repentance	133	(22)
The Ministry of Restoration	135	(2)
Canonical Penance	137	(3)
Penance As Virtue	140	(2)
Protestant Loss of Penance	142	(6)
Minimalism and the Manualists	148	(3)
But Is This Ethics?	151	(4)
Part 2. The Church and Other Social Formations
Ecclesia: Ordering Desires	155	(33)
The Making of the Twelve: A New Creation	156	(3)
Failure of the Church	159	(2)
The Scandal of Disunity As a Mark of the Church	161	(2)
The Right Ordering of Social Formations and the Church's Nonnecessity	163	(1)
Obedience As Right Desire, The Supernatural Virtues	164	(2)
Deadly Vices	166	(2)
Gifts and Beatitudes	168	(5)
The Social Formation of Gifts	173	(1)
Commanding Desires	174	(2)
The First Three Commandments: Church Life	176	(3)
Fourth and Sixth Commandments: Family Life	179	(3)
Commandments Seven through Ten: Loving Neighbors	182	(2)
Fifth Commandment: The Means of Violence	184	(4)
Oikos	188	(45)
Ecclesial Social Reproduction	189	(2)
The Goodness of Marriage	191	(4)
Which Master Shall We Serve?	195	(2)
Family As Source of Idolatry and Division: The Invention of Race	197	(4)
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Black or White Church?	201	(3)
Alternative Family Lifestyles	204	(1)
Loyal Oppositionists	205	(7)
Civil Opposition	212	(1)
Re-Hellenizing the Gospel	212	(3)
Re-Evangelizing Hellenism	215	(3)
Abortion: The Commodification of Human Flesh	218	(2)
Abortion: Statecraft or Ecclesial Politics?	220	(3)
Dying Well	223	(2)
Speaking of Aging As the Optimal Allocation of Scarce Resources: The Language of Economics	225	(3)
Dying As a Participation in Charity: The Language of Theology	228	(2)
Honoring Our Elders	230	(3)
Agora	233	(67)
Jesus As Signifying Exchange	234	(2)
Accomplishing Eucharist	236	(2)
Reversal of Roles	238	(1)
Common Ownership?	239	(2)
Interrogating Tradition	241	(7)
Capitalism's Choreography	248	(2)
The Catholic Church/The Catholic Market	250	(2)
The Cultural Logic of a Catholic Economy	252	(3)
The Church	255	(1)
Ecclesial Marks and Agora Scars	256	(6)
Polis
De-Divinizing Emperors	262	(1)
Divinity Re-Emerges: Caesaropapism	263	(2)
The Power of the Sword	265	(1)
God and Violence	266	(4)
War As Devotional Practice	270	(2)
From Sparta to Clausewitz	272	(4)
Violent Concessions?	276	(3)
Religious Liberty As State Project	279	(2)
Modern War	281	(2)
The Logic of Humility: Does War Result from Making Absolute the Relative?	283	(4)
Why the Analysis Fails	287	(3)
Humility As a Remedy	290	(1)
Crime and Punishment, Repentance and Reconciliation	291	(9)
Conclusion	300	(5)
Notes	305	(24)
Name Index	329	(3)
Subject Index	332