The Call to Personhood: A Christian Theory of the Individual in Social Relationships

by Alistair McFadyen

"What is a person?" Although the answer is given in largely theoretical terms, the primary concern of this book is to identify the personal, social and political practices required to live as a human in community with others. Christian trinitarian theology is accordingly interwoven with contemporary social thought to provide an account of individuality and of the various dimensions of personal existence (the psychological, the interpersonal, the material, the institutional, the political, the spiritual) in terms of communication. The basic theme of this book is that we become the people we are as our identities are shaped through the patterns of relation, communication and exchange that surround and incorporate us.

Genres: Theology, Anthropology

339 pages, Hardcover

First published October 19, 1990

Reviews

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

What does it mean to be responsible? McFadyen addresses the ideas of being open and responsive in our relationship with God and others.
Wonderful content, a bit tough to plough through. I found the need to read and re-read.

[Rod White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very British. Very philosophical. It was so quirky that I began to put "smiley faces" in the margin whenever he invented a new, "overcomplexification" to say something simple. But the Christian answer he crafted to answer Kantian individualism was very useful to me.

[John Lussier · Rating 5 out of 5]

An expansive theological work giving foundation to a Christian system of personhood. McFadyen explores the Trinitarian basis of personhood as a call and expectation of response. Persons are centered, sedimented, histories of communication embodied in the material world. They come to be what they are through relationship with others. This personhood is explored spiritually, materially, psychologically, interpersonally, socially, institutionally, and politically. The call of Christ to all humanity demands that we be transformed in our communication, i.e. our personhood, to the image of Christ. This transformation will have effects in all of the above-mentioned areas, and especially is possible in the context of the Church community.

[Pkb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Fascinating. Read it twice!