Power and Christian Ethics by James P Mackey

Power and Christian Ethics by James P Mackey

In the conventional analysis of human behaviour, power and ethics are frequently considered contrary principles, in that power enforces, while ethics elicits a free response. But, as James Mackey forcefully shows, a more adventurous philosophical study of human morality escapes the sense of contraries, and sets us on a quest for the kind of power that liberates human creativity. It then becomes possible to establish the framework for a critical assessment of the kind of power that ought to be operative in the major structures of human society, civil or ecclesiastical, state governments and church hierarchies. Mackey analyses the religious question which then quite naturally emerges, as to whether this Eros-type power so manifest in human society originates from beyond the more empirical structures of churches, states and 'nature'; and the effort to detect the specifically Christian characterisation of an allegedly ultimate power working in us for final well-being finds its natural context.

'A lively book…' Ronald Preston, The Times Literary Supplement

James P. Mackey holds doctorates in both philosophy and theology. He began his career in the philosophy department at Queen's College, Belfast, and went on to become professor of theology at the University of San Francisco and then at the University of Edinburgh, where he was the first Roman Catholic to hold the chair of theology since the founding of the university in the sixteenth century. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, at Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, at Dartmouth College, and currently at Trinity College, Dublin. Among his ten books are The Problems of Religious Faith, Jesus the Man and the Myth, An Introduction to Celtic Christianity, The Critique of Theological Reason, and Power and Christian Ethics.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521415958
ISBN 10	0521415950
Title	Power and Christian Ethics
Author	James P Mackey
Series	New Studies In Christian Ethics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	1994-03-10
Number of pages	251
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.