Christopraxis: A Theology of Action

Christian social ethics too often lands in despair. Edmund Arens exploits the normative aspects of Jurgen Habermas’s philosophy to construct a fresh and positive Christian theology of action. Its centerpiece is the idea of communicative action, with its premise that speech is oriented toward eliciting shared conviction.
After offering clear, concise formulations of Habermas’s chief ideas, Arens sketches their application in biblical, systematic, and practical theology. Christopraxis finds its axial point in the gospel portraits of Jesus’ own creative, communicative, and critical praxis. Christopraxis redeems some of the promise of critical social theory for theology and situates Christian social ethics in a continuum of humane action oriented toward doing the truth.