A Radical Jesus and the Inoperativity of Salvation and Sin: Pastoral Theological Implications

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper argues that apparatuses associated with sovereignty and the ontological rift give rise to psychosocial experiences of alienation. These experiences are ontologized by way of the notion of sin, and the ‘remedy’ for these experiences is the notion of salvation. The theological remedy functions to leave the real sources of alienation unquestioned and hidden, namely, apparatuses associated with sovereignty and the ontological rift. A radical Jesus, I argue, renders these apparatuses inoperative, creating the possibility of anarchic relations free of both sovereignty and the ontological rift. All of this, I argue, has implications for pastoral theology/care in the Anthropocene Age.