The Call to Personhood: A Christian Theory of the Individual in Social Relationships

This book is an attempt to answer the question What is a person?. Although the answer is given in largely theoretical terms, the author is concerned primarily with practice: what does it mean to live as a human person in community with others? What personal, social, and political practices are required by personal being? The central insight, that human identity is most productively understood in communicational terms, leads to an account of personhood which is both compassionate and which - at the same time - keeps sight of the particularity of each individual.

Introduction; Part I. Persons in Relation to God: 1. The creation of individuality in God’s image: Trinity, persons, gender and dialogue; 2. The re-creation of individuality: the call of Christ; Part II. Social Relations: 3. The social formation of persons; Part III. Interpersonal Relations: 4. The redemptive transformation of relations: dialogue; 5. Pesonal integrity: centredness and orientation on others; 6. Ethical resistance: testing the validity of disagreements; Part IV. Political Relations: 7. Theology, church, and politics; 8. Political community; 9. Institutions; Epilogue; Glossary; Index.