Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism And Women's Lives Matter
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Manufacturer: Westminster John Knox Press
EAN (European Article Number): 9780664229597
Number of Items: 1
Binding: Paperback
Author: Traci C. West
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Dewey Decimal Number: 241
Publication Date: 2006-01-16
Reading Level: 216
Description: Bringing to the fore the difficult realities of racism and the sexual violation of women, Traci West argues for a liberative method of Christian social ethics in which the discussion begins not with generic philosophical concepts but in the concrete realities of the lives of the socially and economically marginalized. She writes, "The idea that we’ve ‘moved beyond’ our society’s need for concretely identifying these concerns is a costly lie."
Presenting conscience-jarring stories of individual women’s experience and endurance of prejudice, violation, and subjugation, West demonstrates how racism can impact key ideas in Christian ethics, influence government policy on welfare, infect public practice, and invade worship. Concluding with hope-filled testimonies of black women ministers and activists confronting heterosexism in their communities, Disruptive Christian Ethics is a virtual toolkit for how to "do" ethics. It enables readers to hone their skills at recognizing racial subjugation and demonstrates how to make the transformation of unjust, marginalizing conditions for women a key criterion for evaluating society’s health.
Customer Reviews
Review Summary: Christian social ethics that takes race, sex, and homophobia seriously
Date: 2008-11-13
Details: This a great book for contemporary students and scholars of Christian ethics seeking to deepen their understanding of faith and ethics. Starting with real people, West makes women, particularly women of color, and sexual violation her entry point into constructing Christian ethics. Her proposal is "disruptive" because she insists that the universal vision of Christian ethics begins precisely here, in the particular experiences of particular people living particular lives. The disruption is felt when the Christian imperative is re-framed in the material conditions and embodied experiences of subjugated persons whose lives are impacted by gender-discrimination, homophobia, and race. Approached this way, Christian ethics avoid sanctuary in the abstract universals of theological claims and rationalizations of human nature and destiny for West. Instead, Christian ethics disturbs widespread Christian complacency about the lives of people living amidst persistent injustices institutionally structured and experienced at the intersections of personal, social, and political life. In response, she lays out a liberative vision of social ethics that struggles to connect Christian social thought to a practical faith that resists abstraction, elevates embodied life and sets sight on transformation in the concrete.
West's disruptive Christian ethics is important. It follows an American tradition of Christian social ethics from Union Theological Seminary, from Reinhold Niebuhr through the John C Bennett, Bev Harrison, and others. West makes her contribution by incorporating feminist and womanist critiques, which lead her to an understanding of Christian social ethics that truly ties the universal claims of Christian thinking to lives lived in the particular realities. West tightens the connection of Christian thinking to concrete practices. West's book is an excellent unity of Christian realism and liberation ethics in a disruptive synthesis that brings Christian social ethics vibrancy and puts it in a new light.
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