Rebekah L. Miles
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144161
- eISBN:
- 9780199834495
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144163.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Feminist theologians have commonly identified Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian realism as a prime example of a patriarchal theological ethic that promotes domination. In this study, the author claims ...
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Feminist theologians have commonly identified Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian realism as a prime example of a patriarchal theological ethic that promotes domination. In this study, the author claims that Niebuhr's thought can be usefully appropriated and revised in service of a new ethic – a feminist Christian realism. This new ethic is offered as an answer to the loss of moral grounding and critical judgment within some North American feminist theologies. She contends that an increasingly radical feminist emphasis on divine immanence and human boundedness has undercut key assumptions upon which feminism rests. Niebuhr's realism, she believes, can be the source of a necessary correction. Feminist theologians. Miles argues, would be better served by using the categories of Christian realism to retrieve critically, a more positive understanding of divine transcendence and human self‐transcendence while maintaining their emphasis on human boundedness and divine presence. This position is developed by drawing together the contributions of Niebuhr, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Sharon Welch (two prominent feminist theologians). Ruether's turn to creation and Welch's turn to community together provide an important corrective to Niebuhr's Christian realism.Less
Feminist theologians have commonly identified Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian realism as a prime example of a patriarchal theological ethic that promotes domination. In this study, the author claims that Niebuhr's thought can be usefully appropriated and revised in service of a new ethic – a feminist Christian realism. This new ethic is offered as an answer to the loss of moral grounding and critical judgment within some North American feminist theologies. She contends that an increasingly radical feminist emphasis on divine immanence and human boundedness has undercut key assumptions upon which feminism rests. Niebuhr's realism, she believes, can be the source of a necessary correction. Feminist theologians. Miles argues, would be better served by using the categories of Christian realism to retrieve critically, a more positive understanding of divine transcendence and human self‐transcendence while maintaining their emphasis on human boundedness and divine presence. This position is developed by drawing together the contributions of Niebuhr, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Sharon Welch (two prominent feminist theologians). Ruether's turn to creation and Welch's turn to community together provide an important corrective to Niebuhr's Christian realism.
Rebekah L. Miles
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144161
- eISBN:
- 9780199834495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144163.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
An examination is made of Sharon Welch's political realist position. Welch, in contrast to Ruether, locates moral norms and the divine in particular human communities, and all moral claims are ...
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An examination is made of Sharon Welch's political realist position. Welch, in contrast to Ruether, locates moral norms and the divine in particular human communities, and all moral claims are radically relative to those particular contexts. Appeals to an experience or reality that transcends our interactions in communities are illusory justifications of our own relative positions, since only within community interaction can we transcend ourselves as we see the limitations of our understandings through the criticism of others. Welch is a political realist in the sense that she is suspicious of the power interests hidden behind truth claims, and she is cynical in her skepticism of any substantive grounding for moral claims. It is shown that each of these proposals undercuts a crucial aspect of feminist moral judgment and, thus, does not lessen, but rather unintentionally supports, further domination.Less
An examination is made of Sharon Welch's political realist position. Welch, in contrast to Ruether, locates moral norms and the divine in particular human communities, and all moral claims are radically relative to those particular contexts. Appeals to an experience or reality that transcends our interactions in communities are illusory justifications of our own relative positions, since only within community interaction can we transcend ourselves as we see the limitations of our understandings through the criticism of others. Welch is a political realist in the sense that she is suspicious of the power interests hidden behind truth claims, and she is cynical in her skepticism of any substantive grounding for moral claims. It is shown that each of these proposals undercuts a crucial aspect of feminist moral judgment and, thus, does not lessen, but rather unintentionally supports, further domination.
Margaret D. Kamitsuka
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195311624
- eISBN:
- 9780199785643
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311624.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter addresses one of the most contested issues in feminist theology today: solidarity. Three important contemporary approaches to this issue (by white feminists Sharon Welch and Sheila ...
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This chapter addresses one of the most contested issues in feminist theology today: solidarity. Three important contemporary approaches to this issue (by white feminists Sharon Welch and Sheila Greeve Davaney and womanist M. Shawn Copeland) are examined. In critical conversation with Welch's views on communicative action, Davaney's pragmatism, and Copeland's appeal to eucharistic unity, the chapter proposes some conditions under which feminists might continue rethinking the notion of solidarity. This is followed by discussion of how a metaphor borrowed somewhat eclectically from the field of dance improvisation theory can help us look anew (though still very skeptically) at solidarity in light of inescapable and determinative differences in women's experience.Less
This chapter addresses one of the most contested issues in feminist theology today: solidarity. Three important contemporary approaches to this issue (by white feminists Sharon Welch and Sheila Greeve Davaney and womanist M. Shawn Copeland) are examined. In critical conversation with Welch's views on communicative action, Davaney's pragmatism, and Copeland's appeal to eucharistic unity, the chapter proposes some conditions under which feminists might continue rethinking the notion of solidarity. This is followed by discussion of how a metaphor borrowed somewhat eclectically from the field of dance improvisation theory can help us look anew (though still very skeptically) at solidarity in light of inescapable and determinative differences in women's experience.
Rebekah L. Miles
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144161
- eISBN:
- 9780199834495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144163.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This introductory chapter starts by describing the setting within which the book was written, and provides an outline of the main contents. It the next two sections, it goes on to give the historical ...
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This introductory chapter starts by describing the setting within which the book was written, and provides an outline of the main contents. It the next two sections, it goes on to give the historical background to and definitions of Christian realism, and describe the assumptions and methodology used. The next section sketches a general argument about transcendence and immanence that is common to many, but not all, Christian theologies, and the following one argues that common feminist rejections of radical human self‐transcendence are bad for feminism because they undercut that which makes the feminist experience possible. The last four sections of the chapter discuss feminists on freedom, feminists on divine transcendence, Reinhold Niebuhr as a feminist resource, and feminist Christian realism as it emerges in the book from a mutually critical interaction among Niebuhr, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Sharon Welch.Less
This introductory chapter starts by describing the setting within which the book was written, and provides an outline of the main contents. It the next two sections, it goes on to give the historical background to and definitions of Christian realism, and describe the assumptions and methodology used. The next section sketches a general argument about transcendence and immanence that is common to many, but not all, Christian theologies, and the following one argues that common feminist rejections of radical human self‐transcendence are bad for feminism because they undercut that which makes the feminist experience possible. The last four sections of the chapter discuss feminists on freedom, feminists on divine transcendence, Reinhold Niebuhr as a feminist resource, and feminist Christian realism as it emerges in the book from a mutually critical interaction among Niebuhr, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Sharon Welch.
Rebekah L. Miles
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144161
- eISBN:
- 9780199834495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144163.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This final chapter points toward an alternative position that critically retrieves the realisms of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sharon Welch, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and finds a middle way between the ...
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This final chapter points toward an alternative position that critically retrieves the realisms of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sharon Welch, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and finds a middle way between the idealistic realism about moral grounding found in Ruether and some early feminists, and the radically relative political realism of Welch and some other postmodern feminists. This alternative joins an appeal to human self‐transcendence and divine transcendence with an affirmation of human boundedness and divine presence. At the same time, it takes seriously, Ruether's turn to creation and Welch's turn to community. In this alternative model – a feminist Christian realism – the author hopes to maintain both substantive grounding for moral claims and critical judgment of them.Less
This final chapter points toward an alternative position that critically retrieves the realisms of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sharon Welch, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and finds a middle way between the idealistic realism about moral grounding found in Ruether and some early feminists, and the radically relative political realism of Welch and some other postmodern feminists. This alternative joins an appeal to human self‐transcendence and divine transcendence with an affirmation of human boundedness and divine presence. At the same time, it takes seriously, Ruether's turn to creation and Welch's turn to community. In this alternative model – a feminist Christian realism – the author hopes to maintain both substantive grounding for moral claims and critical judgment of them.
Corey S. Shdaimah
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814740545
- eISBN:
- 9780814786703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814740545.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter explores the role of the ethic of risk in progressive lawyering. Drawing on Sharon Welch's feminist ethic of risk, it considers the practice of public interest law as it relates to a ...
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This chapter explores the role of the ethic of risk in progressive lawyering. Drawing on Sharon Welch's feminist ethic of risk, it considers the practice of public interest law as it relates to a dual commitment to social justice and the necessity of getting one's hands dirty. Lawyers and clients work together within an internally consistent and morally informed ethic of risk, which involves tactical and informed risk-taking. They engage in principled acts of resistance when, where, and how they can, and articulate a critique of the systems in which they work and a theory of justice. This chapter examines how a systematic and integrated ethic guides the work of lawyers and clients toward social justice. It also discusses lawyer and client attitudes toward social change, autonomy, collaboration, and lawyer–client relationships.Less
This chapter explores the role of the ethic of risk in progressive lawyering. Drawing on Sharon Welch's feminist ethic of risk, it considers the practice of public interest law as it relates to a dual commitment to social justice and the necessity of getting one's hands dirty. Lawyers and clients work together within an internally consistent and morally informed ethic of risk, which involves tactical and informed risk-taking. They engage in principled acts of resistance when, where, and how they can, and articulate a critique of the systems in which they work and a theory of justice. This chapter examines how a systematic and integrated ethic guides the work of lawyers and clients toward social justice. It also discusses lawyer and client attitudes toward social change, autonomy, collaboration, and lawyer–client relationships.
Corey S. Shdaimah
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814740545
- eISBN:
- 9780814786703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814740545.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter explores the role of the ethic of risk in progressive lawyering. Drawing on Sharon Welch's feminist ethic of risk, it considers the practice of public interest law as it relates to a ...
More
This chapter explores the role of the ethic of risk in progressive lawyering. Drawing on Sharon Welch's feminist ethic of risk, it considers the practice of public interest law as it relates to a dual commitment to social justice and the necessity of getting one's hands dirty. Lawyers and clients work together within an internally consistent and morally informed ethic of risk, which involves tactical and informed risk-taking. They engage in principled acts of resistance when, where, and how they can, and articulate a critique of the systems in which they work and a theory of justice. This chapter examines how a systematic and integrated ethic guides the work of lawyers and clients toward social justice. It also discusses lawyer and client attitudes toward social change, autonomy, collaboration, and lawyer–client relationships.
Less
This chapter explores the role of the ethic of risk in progressive lawyering. Drawing on Sharon Welch's feminist ethic of risk, it considers the practice of public interest law as it relates to a dual commitment to social justice and the necessity of getting one's hands dirty. Lawyers and clients work together within an internally consistent and morally informed ethic of risk, which involves tactical and informed risk-taking. They engage in principled acts of resistance when, where, and how they can, and articulate a critique of the systems in which they work and a theory of justice. This chapter examines how a systematic and integrated ethic guides the work of lawyers and clients toward social justice. It also discusses lawyer and client attitudes toward social change, autonomy, collaboration, and lawyer–client relationships.
