Bücher von Graham (University of Manchester) Ward

The book sets out to address and answer three questions from the point of view of Christian theology. The first is, from where does theology speak? The second is, what are the mechanisms whereby cultures change? The third is, how might we conceive the relationship between the contemporary production of theological discourse and the transformation of cultures more generally? Drawing upon the work of standpoint epistemologists, cultural anthropologists and social scientists, the book argues that public acts of interpretation are involvements in renegotiating the future direction of cultural change. Though the enquiry is conducted from one particular standpoint - Christian theology - the observations and suggestions it makes regarding cultural transformation and the defense it makes of syncretism have more general application.

This new and original analysis of the problem of religious language draws parallels between Karl Barth's doctrine of analogy and the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, and concludes that it is a theological reading of Derrida's economy of difference.