Practices, Politics, and Performance

by Cartwright, Dr. Michael G.

• ISBN13: 9781597525657
• ISBN10: 1597525650
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-01
• Publisher: Pickwick Pubns

Summary

Drawing on the hermeneutical reflections of John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, and Mikhail Bakhtin, Cartwright challenges the way twentieth-century American Protestants have engaged the Òproblem of the use of scripture in Christian ethics, and issues a summons for a new debate oriented by a communal approach to hermeneutics. By analyzing particular ecclesial practices that stand within living traditions of Christianity, the Òpolitics of scriptural interpretation can be identified along with the criteria for what a Ògood performance of scripture should be. This approach to the use of scripture in Christian ethics is displayed in historical discussions of two Christian practices through which scripture is read ecclesiologically: the Eastern Orthodox liturgical celebration of the Eucharist and the Anabaptist practice of Òbinding and loosing or Òthe rule of Christ. When American Protestants consider Òperformances of scripture such as these alongside one another within more ecumenical contexts, they begin to confront the ecclesiological problem with their attempts to Òuse the Bible in Christian ethics: the relative absence of constitutive ecclesial practices in American Protestant congregations that can provide moral orientation for their interpretations of Christian scripture.

Author Biography

Michael G. Cartwright is Dean of Ecumenical and Interfaith Programs at the University of Indianapolis

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
An Historical Prologue: Scripture and Ethics in the American Protestant Context	p. 8
A Debate That Disappoints: The Uses of Scripture in Formalist Ethics	p. 39
The Practice and Performance of Scripture: Grounding Christian Ethics in a Communal Hermeneutic	p. 83
Scripture and Ethics in the Oikoumene: Explorations in the Orthodox Communal Hermeneutic	p. 106
Scripture and Ethics in the Oikonomia: Reading Scripture through "The Rule of Christ"	p. 169
Conclusions	p. 237
Bibliography	p. 249
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