In the conventional analysis of human behaviour, power and ethics are frequently considered contrary principles, in that power enforces, while ethics elicits a free response. But, as James Mackey forcefully shows, a more adventurous philosophical study of human morality escapes the sense of contraries, and sets us on a quest for the kind of power that liberates human creativity. It then becomes possible to establish the framework for a critical assessment of the kind of power that ought to be operative in the major structures of human society, civil or ecclesiastical, state governments and church hierarchies. Mackey analyses the religious question which then quite naturally emerges, as to whether this Eros-type power so manifest in human society originates from beyond the more empirical structures of churches, states and ‘nature’; and the effort to detect the specifically Christian characterisation of an allegedly ultimate power working in us for final well-being finds its natural context.
• The first book to bring together in an explicit way philosophical analyses of power and ethics with central themes of Christian theology • Author is one of the UK’s leading theologians • Topic of great current interest in theology, philosophy and political theory
Contents
General editor's preface; 1. The anatomy of power; 2. The anatomy of morals; 3. Powers secular and powers sacred; 4. The Christian experience of power; 5. The anatomy of Church; Conclusion: of Christian churches and secular states; Bibliography; Index.
Review
‘A lively book…’ Ronald Preston, The Times Literary Supplement
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