Chapter Six: Subversive Ethics
Ethics looks different depending on your cultural context. Four strands to be discussed:
Class
Latin American Liberation Theology
The groups and conditions that led to Liberation Theology.
- Praxis. Ethics is worked out in the framework of a commitment to God’s concern for the poor.
- Ethical Emphasis. Human rights are strongly emphasized.
- Scripture.
- Criticisms.
Liberation Theology around the world. Minjung theology in South Korea. Dalit theology in India.
Race
- African American Theology.
a. Black liberation theology.
b. The theological problem of whiteness.
c. Black lives matter. - South African Theology and Ethics. The Kairos Document.
- African Theology and Ethics. View their God as the same as the Western God with a different name.. Jesus Christ is the same for both.
- Asian American Ethics. The newest branch of subversive ethics.
- Postcolonial Ethics.
a. Caribbean theology. Three themes: (1) divine sovereignty, (2) salvation history, and (3) eschatology.
Gender
- Feminism and the Bible. Feminists question the traditional interpretation of the texts regarding women. (Adam and Eve for example.
- Feminism Throughout Christian History. The early history of ethics was male dominated. Women were regarding as inferior.
a. Maintaining but revising a universal paradigm. Seeks equality between men and women via social and political reform.
b. Restoring a universal paradigm. Women and men are different and have different natures.
c. Rejecting the universal paradigm. The idea of the feminine mystique. - Womanism. A term coined to describe the experience of women of color, especially African American women. They use Sarah’s slave Hagar as an example of what black women face.
- Lesbian Ethics.
- Ecofeminism.
- Feminism and Church Practices.
Age and Disability
- Disability.
a. The medical model sees disability as a physical issue and calls for science to cure or prevent.
b. Social Model. The problem is related to societies attitude towards those with “Impairment”. - The Elderly. Dementia is a special case of this kind of ethics.
- Children.