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7 - Has Anyone Prevailed?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

Cecelia Lynch
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
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Summary

I began this book by arguing that wrestling is the lifeblood of Christian ethics – in historical practice, if not in all Christian theology. Wrestling focuses our attention on the tensions regarding how Christians understand and define the common good, given their interpretation of religious teachings and practices for their sociopolitical context. Wrestling begs the question of what must be done, and what is possible, though Christians (like secularists and those who adhere to other religions) often assume the qualifier “in our world; by us.” Wrestling is part of popular casuistry – it is how people make sense of their ethical commitments to act in the world, given their interpretation of their sociopolitical context and their ideas about what the common good should be. In the Christian ethical genealogy presented in this book, the contextual nature of the common good also shapes conceptions of evil and sin, providing the foundation for Christian ethical wrestling about what to do and how to act. In other words, out of the constitutive nature of popular casuistry and sociopolitical context, specific ethical questions arise regarding what the common good is and how it is to be achieved.

Type
Chapter
Information
Wrestling with God
Ethical Precarity in Christianity and International Relations
, pp. 234 - 242
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Has Anyone Prevailed?
  • Cecelia Lynch, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: Wrestling with God
  • Online publication: 02 March 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108649599.007
Available formats
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Has Anyone Prevailed?
  • Cecelia Lynch, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: Wrestling with God
  • Online publication: 02 March 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108649599.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Has Anyone Prevailed?
  • Cecelia Lynch, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: Wrestling with God
  • Online publication: 02 March 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108649599.007
Available formats
×