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Document Details : Title: Suffering, Vulnerability & Flourishing Subtitle: Understanding the Rule of God in the Face of Human Suffering Author(s): MCMANUS, Kathleen Journal: Louvain Studies Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Date: 2023 Pages: 245-257 DOI: 10.2143/LS.46.3.3293955 Abstract : 'When confronted with suffering, how do Christians understand God’s rule in creation and on the cross and what does it mean for the church to embody the rule of God in its own structures, doctrines, and symbols?' I attempt to answer this question, which I received from the organizers of the Schillebeeckx lecture 2023, through the lens of another question: How is the reign of God being revealed through the suffering experience of the marginalized? In my overarching project, I take the Lukan image of 'the bent-over woman – standing up straight' as the paradigm for all who are marginalized because of gender, sexual orientation, or race. With a particular focus on the ways these groups experience marginalization in the church, I enter into analysis of the revelatory possibilities of their experience through engagement of Edward Schillebeeckx’s insight into the 'superior power of God’s defenseless vulnerability in Jesus on the cross' and ask what this implies for the church in its institutional and doctrinal structures. I argue that the global suffering of women, the marginalized, and indeed the earth itself constitutes an ethical imperative for the church and a summons to institutional conversion. I conclude by envisioning what it might mean for the church to embody the 'vulnerable rule of God' in its own structures, doctrines, symbols, and rituals. |
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