Nature and Spirit: Agency and Concupiscence in Hauerwas and Rahner
Stanley Hauerwas is representative of contemporary theologians in that he describes human personhood in terms of the realization of agency and spirituality. This essay argues that, despite Hauerwas's use of the concepts of character and narrative in order to affirm that human personhood has an...
| Published in: | Journal of religious ethics |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
1987
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| In: |
Journal of religious ethics
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Stanley Hauerwas is representative of contemporary theologians in that he describes human personhood in terms of the realization of agency and spirituality. This essay argues that, despite Hauerwas's use of the concepts of character and narrative in order to affirm that human personhood has an involuntary aspect as well as a voluntary aspect, or that human persons have a nature aspect as well as a spirit aspect, his conceptualization of agency leads to the following results: (1) The human spirit is seen as invulnerable to the effects of the nature aspect in a way that the nature aspect is not invulnerable to spirit. (2) The nature aspect of human persons is described primarily as a limit to the full realization of human spirituality. This essay argues that Karl Rahner's concept of the permanent concupiscence of human persons, in contrast to Hauerwas's concept of an inalienable agency, enables him to affirm the radical openness and vulnerability of human spirituality to the involuntary events of external and internal nature. The concept of permanent concupiscence also enables Rahner to present the nature aspect of human personhood, not only as a limit to human spirituality, but as an aspect of God's good creation that has meaning and value in its own right. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9795 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
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