Creatures of Possibility: The Theological Basis of Human Freedom - Softcover

Dalferth, Ingolf U.

 
9780801098109: Creatures of Possibility: The Theological Basis of Human Freedom
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0801098106 ISBN 13: 9780801098109
Verlag: Baker Publishing Group, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

A preeminent scholar and theologian defines human beings not by what we do or achieve but by God's creative and saving action.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ingolf U. Dalferth (DrTheol, University of Tübingen) is Danforth Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. He is also professor emeritus in the faculty of theology at the University of Zurich, where he directed the Institute of Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion for many years. Dalferth is the author or editor of over forty books, including Crucified and Resurrected.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

In Creatures of Possibility, preeminent scholar and theologian Ingolf Dalferth explores what it means to be human, defining human beings not by what we do or achieve but by God's creative and saving action.

"Few Protestant theologians today write with the authoritative grasp of the theological tradition that Ingolf Dalferth demonstrates in Creatures of Possibility. Fewer still are capable of bringing this tradition into such an extensive constructive and critical engagement with contemporary thought. Through a series of expositions of Luther, Marion, Derrida, Blumenberg, and Nietzsche, Dalferth shows that the Christian account of human beings as fundamentally passive is so far from being a conservative recoil in the face of modernity's promotion of autonomous rational agency as to be, instead, the founding charter of our creaturely creative possibilities. Creatures of Possibility will surely prove essential reading for anyone concerned with theological anthropology."
--George Pattison, University of Glasgow

"With impressive conceptual precision and insight, Dalferth explores how being created by God invites a deeper appreciation of human giftedness, possibility, and becoming. Christian faith is not a response to an experience of lack; instead, it is an exciting way (initiated by God) to relate to God, God's creation, my fellow human beings, and my own emerging self in this world. This is truly engaging theology."
--Werner G. Jeanrond, University of Oxford

"In this brilliant and provocative study, Dalferth argues against the dominant (and tired) view of human nature as deficient to courageously reimagine what it means to be human in terms of possibility."
--Regina Mara Schwartz, Northwestern University

Aus dem Klappentext

Creatures of Possibility offers mature reflections on what it means to be human, a topic at the forefront of contemporary Christian thought. Ingolf Dalferth explains that we have become accustomed to regarding humans as deficient beings who would have no chance in the struggle for existence if they did not know how to actively compensate for the weaknesses of their biological nature by means of technology, morals, media, religion, and culture. In contrast, Dalferth sees humans as creatures of possibility whose lives are based not on their deeds but on what happens to them. He understands humans by reference to their capacity to live (or fail to live) a truly humane life. Thus the crucial challenge for theology is not evolutionary biology and neurobiology but rather the ethical, political, and theological question of the destiny of our humanity.

The author begins by discussing human beings from a general anthropological perspective and then shows how the divine-human relationship as described in Christian Scripture and identified by the incarnation trumps all general categories. He goes on to demonstrate how the ideas of passivity, the gift, and sacrifice can and must be reconceived in light of the divine-human relationship. Dalferth concludes with a reimagination of what it means to be human in the context of God's salvific actions. The book explores the sheer gratuitousness of God's agency in justifying and sanctifying the human person. In the gospel, we are set free to interact with the world and creation.

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Verlag
Baker Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2016
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0801098106
ISBN 13 
9780801098109
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
240
Kontakt zum Hersteller
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Verantwortliche Person
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