The Human Subject and Sin (Paperback)

Christian theology historically has assumed that the human subject is autonomous, isolated from social forces, and exists prior to its constitution in language-and that sin resides in the very being or self of each person. Many contemporary theologians, critical theorists, and philosophers reject this model of the subject because it contributes to patterns and practices of objectification and oppression. Theologians Wolfhart Pannenberg, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Mary McClintock Fulkerson suggest that humans are primarily relational in character, and that sin can be viewed in relational rather than ontological categories. This book provides a detailed analysis of each theologian's model of the human person and doctrine of sin, and suggests that the autonomous subject and essentialist understanding of sin still lingers in their work. The final chapter develops a portrait of the human subject as imago dei, constituted, paradoxically free, and embodied. Sin is then redefined as violence, subjection, a subject position, and discourse. These new models provide tools to help us resist the ways theology has used human difference to exclude and harm individuals and divide communities.