A Politics of Grace: Hope for Redemption in a Post-Christendom Context

Description

Christiane Alpers discusses the contribution and role Christian theology plays in developing of the democratic life in post-Christendom societies. She discusses the three major approaches to this debate - public theology, Radical Orthodoxy, and post-liberal Protestantism - in order to illustrate the shared assumption that such an enhancement should be understood in terms of solving existing political problems. The volume builds on and combines public theology's aspiration to craft a non-triumphant political theology, fit for a post-Christendom context, Radical Orthodoxy's hesitancy to embrace secularism as neutral centre for present democracies; as well as post-liberalism's Christocentric outlook. Alpers engages with a wide variety of thinkers, such as John Milbank, Graham Ward, John Howard Yoder, Kathryn Tanner and Edward Schillebeeckx; to suggest that a political theology in the post-Christendom context could build on the faith that Christ alone has redeemed the whole world.

Christiane Alpers is Research Fellow at the Catholic University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt, Germany

Alpers disrupts received oppositions between church and world by recognizing both grace already given and the distorting power of sin. She provocatively urges Christians not to take on God's work for themselves, but instead to recognize the hope that grace brings to a fallen world and to attend to its signs. An important intervention in both public theology and systematic theology. * David Grumett, University of Edinburgh, UK * Wide-ranging but sharply focused and clearly argued, this is an important contribution to systematic theology. In a way that few of us manage to do, Alpers takes seriously the significance of the doctrine of sin for the practice of theology itself. * Karen Kilby, University of Durham, UK * This is the best book on Edward Schillebeeckx's theology that I have read. Alpers demonstrates that Schillebeeckx presents a starting point for political theology today, in our secular age, that can stand up against the alternatives on offer. Combining theoretical rigor and theological sophistication, with this book Alpers establishes herself as a leader among her generation of political theologians. * Vincent Lloyd, Villanova University, USA *