The Bonds of Freedom

"Feminist theologians have commonly identified Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian realism as a prime example of a patriarchal theological ethic that promotes domination. In this constructive study, however, Rebekah Miles claims that Niebuhr's thought can usefully be appropriated and revised in service of a new feminist ethic - a feminist Christian realism. Miles offers this new ethic as an answer to the loss of moral grounding and critical judgment within some North American feminist theologies.". "Miles contends that an increasingly radical feminist emphasis on divine immanence and human boundedness has undercut key assumptions upon which feminism rests. Niebuhr's realism, she believes, can be the source of a necessary correction. Feminist theologians, Miles argues, would be better served by using the categories of Christian realism to critically retrieve a more positive understanding of divine transcendence and human self-transcendence while maintaining their emphasis on human boundedness and divine presence.". "Miles develops this position in conversation with Niebuhr and two prominent feminist theologians, Rosemary Radford Ruether and Sharon Welch. Ruether's turn to creation and Welch's turn to community together provide an important corrective to Niebuhr's Christian realism.". "Miles's critical reappraisal of these three important figures will be of great interest to ethicists and theologians, and her own creative synthesis will be received as a significant contribution to the development of this new feminist ethic."--BOOK JACKET.