“I Exist in Believing” : Anthropology as a Theological and Emancipative Pursuit. A Response to Michael Banner

Philosophical BooksVolume 32, Issue 3 p. 191-192 The Philosophy in Chrisitanity MICHAEL BANNER, MICHAEL BANNER PETERHOUSE, CAMBRIDGESearch for more papers by this author MICHAEL BANNER, MICHAEL BANNER PETERHOUSE, CAMBRIDGESearch for more papers by this author First published: July 1991 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0149.1991.tb02301.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume32, Issue3July 1991Pages 191-192 RelatedInformation

The Ethics of Everyday Life: Moral Theology, Social Anthropology, and the Imagination of the Human. By Michael Banner. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. xiii + 223 pp. $35.00 (cloth).Michael Banner, in this book form of his 2013 Bampton Lectures, argues for three innovations in Christian ethics. First, and most significantly in Banner's view, he aims to reorient Christian moral discourse toward what he calls (p. 3). For too long, he contends, moral theology has seen simple naming of the good and bad as sufficient fulfilment of its obligations in limited but difficult situations like abortion or the use of military force (p. 202). Rather, ethics should concern itself events across the whole course of human experience, without necessarily neglecting its treatment of hard cases. One might think that Christian ethics could find assistance from moral philosophy in this regard, but that discipline proves even more remote from everyday life due to the abstracted reflection of both Kantian deontological ethics and utilitarianism, according to Banner. His alternative proposal-the second innovation-is deep engagement social anthropology, specifically the ethnography's textured portrayal of the human motives and desires that underpin moral choices. The third innovation is his method, the crafting of an everyday ethics through the lens of Christ's own life as the paradigmatic human. His method is, in short, ethics as Christology.The moments of Christ's life as narrated in the Nicene Creed thus become the foci of Banner's everyday ethics. Conception, birth, suffering, death, and burial each receive their own chapter, as does the act of remembrance-itself an objective of the creed. In addressing conception, for example, Banner draws from Augustine and certain erstwhile Christian baptismal liturgies to argue that Christianity reconstructs kinship around spiritual solidarity rather than blood ties. This spiritual kinship challenges the modem preoccupation conceiving a biological child through fertility treatments, emotionally taxing as they may be, rather than considering options like adoption (chapter 2). Later in his discussion of suffering, he employs ethnographies to criticize modem humanitarianism, which too often responds to crises through curious spectatorship (p. 90). Instead, conceiving suffering through Holy Week remembrances of Christ's sufferings implores Christians to nurture sympathy and to involve ourselves the sufferings of others, which he aptly portrays in the compassion practiced in Christian L'Arche communities. His chapter on expanding forgiveness in acts of communal remembrance (chapter 7) proves especially poignant, especially his moving account of a Greek village that remembers its dead by coupling their names with the adjective ? …

Francine Rivers’s a 1997 realistic novel “The Atonement Child” presents ethical dilemma of abortion in a Western Christian society. When a young girl gets pregnant due to rape, aborting the baby seems to be the right thing to do for the good of the girl and her family, but they cannot easily do so as Christian ethics suggests against abortion in all situations. Conflict and confusion arise from this ethical dilemma of abortion, which the novelist has tried to resolve finally by adhering to Christian ethics and having the baby born beautiful and healthy and the whole family again coming to terms. When analyzed this ethical dilemma of abortion by subjecting it to the opposing principles of Consequentialism and Christianity as explained by Michael Banner in his book Christian Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems, it is found that the resolution provided by the novelist is not a resolution in a truly practical sense; the ambiguity surrounding the wellbeing of the mother, child, and the entire family continues to exist.

At least since Cardinal Newman's Grammar of Assent (1870), Anglo-American philosophers have been concerned with the role of certitude, or subjective epistemic certainty, in theistic belief. Newman is himself famous for holding that certitude is an essential feature of any sort of genuine belief, including in particular religious belief. As one recent commentator, Michael Banner, notes, for Newman

Christian Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems by Michael Banner

Report of the Committee to Consider the Ethical Implications of Emerging Technologies in the Breeding of Farm Animals, chaired by Michael Banner

The Heythrop JournalVolume 56, Issue 4 p. 711-711 BOOK REVIEW The Ethics of Everyday Life: Moral Theology, Social Anthropology, and the Imagination of the Human. By Michael Banner. Pp xiii, 223, Oxford University Press, 2014, £20.00/$35.00. Nathan L. Cartagena, Nathan L. Cartagena Baylor UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Nathan L. Cartagena, Nathan L. Cartagena Baylor UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 15 June 2015 https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.12250_23Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume56, Issue4July 2015Pages 711-711 RelatedInformation

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Book Reviews

Book Review: The Ethics of Everyday Life: Moral Theology, Social Anthropology, and the Imagination of the Human. By Michael Banner

This article begins by introducing recent work by Michael Banner, who advocates the use of social anthropology generally (not just the anthropology of Christianity) for the Christian ethics of everyday life. His use of ethnography in Christian theological ethics is then situated in relation to recent discussions in ecclesiology and ethnography. Situated thus, Banner’s work forms the springboard for a brief discussion of what is at stake for theological ethics in turning to ethnographic research. While some dangers are highlighted, a way forward is offered for the fruitful use of ethnographic research in this field.

Michael Banner’s The Ethics of Everyday Life begins by sketching his understanding of contemporary moral as ‘hard cases ethics’, especially in its connections with the rise of Western European moral theology in the slipstream of the penitentials, a development which led to an estrangement from everyday life. With the help of a recently developed approach in social anthropology Banner reframes Christian ethics and brings it back toeveryday experience. He argues that intense and extensive Christian reflection within the Christian tradition on the life of Christ is a resource of prime importance for Christian moral theology, one which will stimulate the human imagination.

Christian Political Ethics brings together leading Christian scholars of diverse theological and ethical perspectives--Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anabaptist--to address fundamental questions of state and civil society, international law and relations, the role of the nation, and issues of violence and its containment. Representing a unique fusion of faith-centered ethics and social science, the contributors bring into dialogue their own varying Christian understandings with a range of both secular ethical thought and other religious viewpoints from Judaism, Islam, and Confucianism. They explore divergent Christian views of state and society--and the limits of each. They grapple with the tensions that can arise within Christianity over questions of patriotism, civic duty, and loyalty to one's nation, and they examine Christian responses to pluralism and relativism, globalization, and war and peace. Revealing the striking pluralism inherent to Christianity itself, this pioneering volume recasts the meanings of Christian citizenship and civic responsibility, and raises compelling new questions about civil disobedience, global justice, and Christian justifications for waging war as well as spreading world peace. It brings Christian political ethics out of the churches and seminaries to engage with today's most vexing and complex social issues. The contributors are Michael Banner, Nigel Biggar, Joseph Boyle, Michael G. Cartwright, John A. Coleman, S.J., John Finnis, Theodore J. Koontz, David Little, Richard B. Miller, James W. Skillen, and Max L. Stackhouse.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsChristian Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems. Michael Banner Kevin JungKevin Jung Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 83, Number 1Jan., 2003 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/491264 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 2003 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Book Review: Michael Banner, <i>The Ethics of Everyday Life: Moral Theology, Social Anthropology, and the Imagination of the Human</i>