Mid-term Flashcards
Quote from Lord Acton
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
Quote from William Gaddis
“Power does not corrupt people. People corrupt power”
What discussion could be drawn from Lord Acton’s quote?
Is corruption in human nature? Would God be corrupted by such power?
What discussion would come from William Gaddis’ quote?
is power good or bad in and of itself?
Name and explain a feminists’ 3 framings of power
Amy Allen
Power-to
- the ABILITY of an individual actor to attain an end or series of ends that serve to subvert domination
Power-with
- the ability of a COLLECTIVELY to act together for the attainment of a common or shared end or series of
ends.
Power-over
- the ability of an actor or set of
actors to CONSTRAIN THE CHOICES AVAILABLE to another actor or set of actors in a nontrivial way.
What are the dimensions of power? With police examples
1D: violence, coercion, AUTHORITY (the police can influence the agency of citizens)
2D: conflict over STRUCTURES & dominant ideology (police are invested with additional powers by the structure of policing)
3D: the SOCIAL construction of what’s (un)reasonable (they have a certain understanding of their roles and what the citizen’s roles are so we act (un)reasonably accordingly)
4D: the making of the social subject (the officer’s INTERNAL DISCIPLINE so they do not apply excessive force, recognising the common good)
Discussion: how does this apply to God, the Church, the community, the individual
Where is authority (power) thought to reside in Christian theology?
Scripture
Tradition
Church Leadership
- Structures
- Charismatic individual
Individual Conscience “here I stand, I can do no other” Martin Luther
Discuss your concerns of contextual theologies’ impact on the contents of Christianity
Point: Areas of evangelisation may just hold watered down versions of Christianity. Maybe we should just strip everything back to revelation to prevent culture and interpretations getting in the way
Counter argument: but stripping this all back denies Christianity its richness and is the true watering down
How does Jesus’ role lend itself to contextual theology?
Jesus is the Word, unlike in Islam where their text is the word of God and therefore cannot be changed or translated out of Arabic.
What is the difference between political and cultural power?
Political Power is tied to space
Explain a scholarly critique of contextual theology and a counter-argument
Point: John Milbank- splitting off into queer, black, feminist theologies as a cultural context adopts a theologian centric, rather than theocentric, approach. God should be central.
Counter:
- Is Milbank’s theology also contextual, but his context is so mainstream it gets re-absorbed back into theology as a whole?
- Contextual theology does not destabilise God, it destabilises us
- Contextual theology forces us to look at our blind spots
- as humans we can only approach theology through our view, not God’s or from the view from nowhere
Readings of the Bible which are not sexist
- God as a mother hen
- Jesus often referred to himself in female gendered metaphors
- Men ran away at the crucifixion, the women stayed
- Eve had to be deceived to accept the fruit, Adam just accepted it
- Eve as a necessary companion for Adam, masculinity is not enough on its own (but is Eve subordinate? An after thought? A piece? A finishing touch? A way to take giving life from women?)
Quote from my Lord and Saviour:
“If God is Male, then Male is God”
What does Jesus talk the most about in the Bible?
Money (other than the worship of God)
What can be said about people in the Church that suggest that wealth is fulfilling?
They are promoting a political project, not a religious one
Tons of people in the Church are landlords for example
