Self Earth and Society: Alienation and Trinitarian Transformation

Our era is experiencing unparalleled and rapid transience. The twentieth century began with the telephone and ended with e-mail. People change jobs and homes a half-dozen times or more in their lives. Air and water pollution are threatening the well-being of the earth itself. Wars their multiplying refugees and political crises are tearing societies apart. If there is a key word for our era it might be alienation. Amid increasing and often chaotic complexity individuals struggle to attain an integrated stable self with durable relationships. An expanding ecological consciousness reveals our estrangement from the earth. Societies are internally divided by clashing political and economic perspectives and processes. This profound and important book recognizes and reveals the connections among these three alienations. Thomas Finger undertakes a probing critical conversation with culture and develops his own public theology. Each alienation is analyzed in depth through the writings of secular authors. His theological construction draws neither on modern philosophy nor worldviews but perhaps surprisingly on Scripture. To support his emphasis on Christ Finger engages the skepticism of the much celebrated Jesus Seminar. He rejects the widespread claim that Christianitys transcendent God is largely absent from the world and legitimates human exploitation of it. For transcendence means that God is different but not distant from the world. Finger then examines the roles of Jesus Father and Spirit in his earthly ministry. In this and later scriptures these three act and interact in a salvific manner that can only be divine. This means that his Father and Spirit also suffer with Jesus in his death and with all creation as Jurgen Moltmann brilliantly explains and accompany him in his resurrection. This also means that the creation exists in God as some feminists maintain and originated as the overflow of Gods love and character into a realm which was hardly distant from God yet very different. In addition this entails that every human self and the process of becoming a self as Gods creations must be respected as indeed must all earthly creatures and the basic structures needed to form and maintain any society. Theological developments in the last decade have done much to critique misguided biblical interpretations which would justify unbridled human exploitation and abuse of creation. But work in exploring how an understanding of a trinitarian transcendent God results in creative and caring relationship between humanity and creation has been less developed. In discussing these matters with Dr. Finger I am convinced that his proposed work holds the promise of meeting an important need within global theological discussions today. Further I know that Dr. Finger is fully capable of accomplishing this project. Thus from my vantage point where I have the opportunity of hearing theological discussions on these subjects from the major Christian traditions and from throughout the globe it is clear that Dr. Fingers proposal will fill a theological void and enrich our search for truth. --Wesley Granberg-Michaelson Executive Secretary Commission on Church and Society World Council of Churches 1988-1994 General Scretary Reformed Church in America 1994-2011”