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Compelling Knowledge: A Feminist Proposal for an Epistemology of the Cross
Asks what sorts and sources of knowing we should consider compelling as we seek to live morally responsible lives. Contends that Martin Luther's theology of the cross provides a solid theological and ethical basis for a surprisingly congenial conversation with feminist thought and scholarship on these issues.
Few feminist philosophers would expect to find a resonant dialogue partner in the sixteenth-century theologian and reformer Martin Luther. This book contends, however, that Luther's theology of the cross, in its critique of both official theology and human pretension, its announcement of God's incarnate solidarity with humankind and the value of embodied experience, and its intention to equip humans to "use reality rightly," provides a solid theological and ethical basis for a surprisingly congenial conversation.
The "epistemology of the cross" that emerges from the conversation between secular feminist thought and Luther's theology of the cross raises and responds to the essential epistemological questions of power, experience, objectivity, and accountability. It helps us as people of privilege overcome our resistance to knowing the reality of suffering, a reality we need to recognize if we are to respond to it, bear with it, and seek to overcome it. Solberg describes the movement from lived experience to "compelling knowledge": seeing what is the case, recognizing one's implication in it, and responding accountably.
Few feminist philosophers would expect to find a resonant dialogue partner in the sixteenth-century theologian and reformer Martin Luther. This book contends, however, that Luther's theology of the cross, in its critique of both official theology and human pretension, its announcement of God's incarnate solidarity with humankind and the value of embodied experience, and its intention to equip humans to "use reality rightly," provides a solid theological and ethical basis for a surprisingly congenial conversation.
The "epistemology of the cross" that emerges from the conversation between secular feminist thought and Luther's theology of the cross raises and responds to the essential epistemological questions of power, experience, objectivity, and accountability. It helps us as people of privilege overcome our resistance to knowing the reality of suffering, a reality we need to recognize if we are to respond to it, bear with it, and seek to overcome it. Solberg describes the movement from lived experience to "compelling knowledge": seeing what is the case, recognizing one's implication in it, and responding accountably.
226 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1997
About the author
Mary M. Solberg
3 booksMary Solberg is Professor Emerita of Religion at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.
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December 22, 2009
Mary Solberg writes from a world view developed while living in El Salvador. In this book is what I believe is the best explanation of the theology of the cross I have ever come across.
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