In the modern era, medical and psychological science has succeeded in establishing the category of 'disability' to name those individuals who are understood to lie on the margins of human normalcy. Suitable for upper-level undergraduate students, this comprehensive, student-friendly textbook introduces the subject disability theology.

Disability Theology (Scm Core Text)

History

Brock, Brian

World

SCM Press

Evoking Lament: A Theological Discussion

Harasta and Brock show that a robust concept and practice of lament is an appropriate response to questions of evil and suffering.

Religion & Spirituality

Harasta, Eva

Christian Books & Bibles

T&T Clark

Harasta and Brock show how lament seems to introduce notes of mistrust into an otherwise confident relationship with faith, God and His will. In prayer all experiences may be brought to God in openness and trust. Yet lament seems to introduce notes of mistrust into a relationship properly characterized by confident faith in God and His will. Sustained attention to lament presents a challenge to theological reflection in reminding it of the acuteness of the experience of suffering and evil. This volume suggests that a robust concept and practice of lament is an appropriate response to questions of evil and suffering in its refusal to close off questions that cannot and should not be closed. Lament takes place in the eye of the storm of theodicy, and when the distinct content of Christian lament is discovered here the question of theodicy is transformed. The first section reflects on the anthropological conditions of lament, describing it as a hermeneutic for negotiating adverse experiences that transcends the simple opposition of innocent suffering and guilt. The second section reflects on why and how lament has faded from modern theological thought that is over reliant on systematic accounts of evil and whose abstractions have drifted free of religious experience. The third section develops an understanding of trust that includes expressions of lament while not sanitizing its rawness. The final section inquires after the distinct Christian profile of lament. Lament, even as an experience of isolation, stands within the believing community and its traditions. Moreover, because Christian lament is based on Christ's passion and resurrection, Christ endorses and shapes the believers' lament as he shapes their praise.

Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why Science Needs the Church

Recent developments in genetic technology promise to eradicate disease and disability.  Such promises pose challenging questions with regard to our understanding of what it is to be human.  Taking a Christian and theologically informed viewpoint, this book explores and challenges our concept of disability.  This book will seek to explore the question: does our current attitude toward the use of genetic technologies in contemporary practice risks a slide into social habits which are implicitly evil and destructive of the humanness of our society? The central theological question that will be addressed by the book is: Is the image of humanness that underpins the implicit and explicit assumptions of new genetic technology compatible with Christian theological understandings of what it means to be human and to live humanly?   This book aims to explore these questions within a multidisciplinary context with a view to developing an informed practical theological perspective which can guide the theory and practice of the church as it engages with the world around the complex issues that are emerging in response to new genetic technology. John Swinton, and Brian Brock have drawn together an international team of the top scholars from medicine, ethics and theology to produce a unique text which will lay out the complex problems genetic technology raises, and offer fresh understandings and solutions that are theoretically significant and practically vital.

Religious Studies

Bloomsbury T&T Clark

Stanley Hauerwas is arguably the most well-known figure in theological ethics of the last generation. Having published voluminously over the last 30 years, late in his career he has also published two volumes of essays discussing his corpus retrospectively, as well as a widely acclaimed memoir. The sheer volume of his work can be daunting to readers, and it is easy to get the impression that his retrospective volumes are restating positions developed earlier. Brian Brock delves into Hauerwas' formation as a theologian at Yale, his first book, Character and the Christian Life, and examines some of his early, and outspoken, criticisms of the guild of Christian ethics. This chapter is followed by a discussion of his memoir, Hannah's Child, and raises tricky questions about the role of autobiography in Christian ethics, as well as the troubling problem of race in the modern academy. Brock explores Hauerwas' work on disability, his criticisms of the discipline of medical ethics, and the role played by vulnerability in his work. The next chapter examines his views on just war and pacifism, here probing the sensitive issue of the role of gender in his work, and leading into a discussion on the nature of the church's peaceable politics, in which his supposed hyper-ecclesiocentricism is examined. Brock examines the role of virtue in Hauerwas' thought, and teases out why he hates to be called a virtue ethicist. A final chapter asks him to respond to the recently levelled criticism that scripture does no work in his theology, focusing especially on his under-appreciated commentary on the gospel of Matthew.The editor of this volume has managed to maneuver Hauerwas into positions where he has directly faced tricky questions that he normally does not discuss, such as the accusation that he is racist, too soft on Yoder, or misogynist.

Beginnings: Interrogating Hauerwas (T&T Clark Enquiries in Theological Ethics, 2)

Hauerwas,Stanley

Stanley Hauerwas is arguably the most well-known figure in theological ethics of the last generation. Having published voluminously over the last 30 years, late in his career he has also published two volumes of essays discussing his corpus retrospectively, as well as a widely acclaimed memoir. The sheer volume of his work can be daunting to readers, and it is easy to get the impression that his retrospective volumes are restating positions developed earlier. Brian Brock delves into Hauerwas' formation as a theologian at Yale, his first book, Character and the Christian Life, and examines some of his early, and outspoken, criticisms of the guild of Christian ethics. This chapter is followed by a discussion of his memoir, Hannah's Child, and raises tricky questions about the role of autobiography in Christian ethics, as well as the troubling problem of race in the modern academy. Brock explores Hauerwas' work on disability, his criticisms of the discipline of medical ethics, and the role played by vulnerability in his work. The next chapter examines his views on just war and pacifism, here probing the sensitive issue of the role of gender in his work, and leading into a discussion on the nature of the church's peaceable politics, in which his supposed hyper-ecclesiocentricism is examined. Brock examines the role of virtue in Hauerwas' thought, and teases out why he hates to be called a virtue ethicist. A final chapter asks him to respond to the recently levelled criticism that scripture does no work in his theology, focusing especially on his under-appreciated commentary on the gospel of Matthew. The editor of this volume has managed to maneuver Hauerwas into positions where he has directly faced tricky questions that he normally does not discuss, such as the accusation that he is racist, too soft on Yoder, or misogynist.

Beginnings: Interrogating Hauerwas (T&T Clark Enquiries in Theological Ethics)

Noting that academic biblical scholars and Christian ethicists have been methodologically estranged for some decades now, Brian Brock seeks to reframe the whole Bible-and-ethics discussion in terms of this question: What role does the Bible play in God's generation of a holy people -- and how do we participate in that regeneration? Brock first examines various major contemporary thinkers on the Bible and Christian ethics, including John Howard Yoder, Brevard Childs, John Webster, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He then undertakes major discussions of Augustine and Martin Luther, unpacking their interpretation of the Psalms. Finally, Brock articulates the processes of renewal in God's people. His close study of a few individual psalms shows how we enter the world of praise in which all human life is comprehended within God's work -- and is thus renewed. Immersion in the exegetical tradition of the Christian faith, Brock argues, must be the heart and soul of theology and ethics.

Singing the Ethos of God: On the Place of Christian Ethics in Scripture

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Through close analysis of the historical and conceptual roots of modern science and technology, Brian Brock here develops a theological ethic addressing a wide range of contemporary perplexities about the moral challenges raised by new technology.

Christian Ethics in a Technological Age

Wondrously Wounded: Theology, Disability, and the Body of Christ (Studies in Religion, Theology, and Disability)

The church welcomes all―or it should.
The church has long proven itself a safe refuge despite the sad reality that it can be, and has been, unwelcoming toward those perceived as different. This is especially true of the contemporary church’s response to those with disabilities―a response often at surprising variance with its historic practices of care. The church once helped shape western morality to cherish these individuals with love and acceptance. It is thus ironic when today’s church neglects this care, or practices care with no awareness of the rich theological history out of which such moral sensibilities originally emerged. In Wondrously Wounded, Brian Brock reclaims the church’s historic theology of disability and extends it to demonstrate that people with disabilities, like all created in God’s image, are servants of God’s redemptive work.
Brock divides his volume into five parts. Part one chronicles how early Christianity valued and cared for those with disabilities, putting into practice Jesus’ teachings about divine mercy in decidedly countercultural ways. Part two details how a rise in the fear of disability tempted the church away from these merciful practices as well as its confession of the infinite worth of all God has created. Part three traces how the fear of difference continues to negatively shape contemporary practices in today’s schools, churches, and politics. Part four lays the foundations of a vision of Christian life that is resistant to this pervasive fear. Finally, Part five shows how the recognition of all people as part of the body of Christ not only demonstrates the love of Christ but displaces the fear of disability in a manner that invites the church beyond even the most ambitious contemporary hopes for full inclusion.
Brock interweaves his historical and theological analysis with the narrative of his own disabled son, Adam. These stories vividly bring into view the vulnerability, as well as the power, of the disabled in contemporary society. Ultimately, Brock argues, those with disabilities are conduits of spiritual gifts that the church desperately needs. Wondrously Wounded is an appeal to the church to find itself broken and remade by the presence of Christ on offer in the lives of those society has labeled "disabled."

Baylor University Press

In this wide-ranging and engaging collection of interviews, Brian Brock discusses how Christian faith makes a difference for life in the modern world. Beginning with a discussion of teaching Christian ethics in the contemporary academy, Brock takes up environmental questions, political and medical ethics, the modern city and Christian responsibility to it, energy use, the information age, agriculture, political consensus and coercion, and many other issues. The reader is thus offered a broad and incisive discussion of many contemporary topics in a brief, illuminating, but never superficial manner. The book's unusual conversational style allows strikingly clear, creative, and concrete theological connections to emerge in the spaces between moral questions rarely thought of as linked. As the titles suggests, the running theme of the interviews is being bound to Christ and placed into the contemporary world. Brock's theological readings of contemporary cultural trends are vigorous, unapologetic, and insightful, and they offer delightful surprises as well as fertile new ways through the sterile impasses of many issues currently being debated in the public square. This book provides an excellent starting point for those interested in fresh theological insights into contemporary ethical questions and an accessible introduction to Brock's previous works.  ""This book invites readers into an ongoing conversation with an engaging and brilliant thinker who makes us think long and well about Scripture, technology, the environment, politics, and more besides. Reading this book feels a bit like I'm sitting across from Brian at a cafe, sipping coffee and having a robust conversation about crucial questions--questions that ultimately ask, 'How will I respond to Christ with my whole life?'"" --Jana M. Bennett, University of Dayton, Ohio  ""These interviews give us a chance to listen in as an erudite and nimble-minded theological ethicist responds to the gamut of issues in our world. Brock advocates an open and unguarded type of Christian engagement in culture, and in this little book the medium fits the message. We can't ask Augustine, Luther, and Bonhoeffer how they would respond to the cultural, ecological, and technological issues of our time, but we can listen to Brian Brock think on his feet about what is to be learned from them and from Scripture."" --Fred Sanders, Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University, La Mirada, California  ""What a joy it is to sit in on a conversation with someone who 'grew up in a little Bible church in an industrial backwater in Texas' and who now calls an ancient Scottish university his home. Brian expresses a great delight employing his profound Christian faith to engage the world. Anyone who reads this book is in for a great delight. . . . "" --John Nagle, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana   Brian Brock is Reader in Moral and Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen. He is the author of Singing the Ethos of God: On the Place of Christian Ethics in Scripture (2007) and Christian Ethics in a Technological Age (2010), and editor of Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why Science Needs the Church (2007) and Disability in the Christian Tradition: A Reader (2012), both with John Swinton.  Kenneth Oakes is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Notre Dame, having previously been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tubingen. He is the author of Karl Barth on Theology and Philosophy (2012) and Reading Karl Barth: A Companion to The Epistle to the Romans (2011). His articles and reviews have appeared in journals such as Modern Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, and The Thomist.

Captive to Christ, Open to the World

Wipf and Stock

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brock, Brian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brock, Brian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brock, Brian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Disability Theology (Scm Core Text)

Evoking Lament: A Theological Discussion

Evoking Lament: A Theological Discussion

Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why Science Needs the Church

Beginnings: Interrogating Hauerwas (T&T Clark Enquiries in Theological Ethics, 2)

Beginnings: Interrogating Hauerwas (T&T Clark Enquiries in Theological Ethics)

Singing the Ethos of God: On the Place of Christian Ethics in Scripture

Christian Ethics in a Technological Age

Wondrously Wounded: Theology, Disability, and the Body of Christ (Studies in Religion, Theology, and Disability)

Captive to Christ, Open to the World