Beyond Monotheism: A Theology of Multiplicity [Paperback]

Laurel Schneider (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415941911 | ISBN-13: 978-0415941914 | Publication Date: September 1, 2007 | Edition: New edition

Laurel Schneider takes the reader on a vivid journey from the origins of "the logic of the One" - only recently dubbed monotheism - through to the modern day, where monotheism has increasingly failed to adequately address spiritual, scientific, and ethical experiences in the changing world. In Part I, Schneider traces a trajectory from the ancient history of monotheism and multiplicity in Greece, Israel, and Africa through the Constantinian valorization of the logic of the One, to medieval and modern challenges to that logic in poetry and science. She pursues an alternative and constructive approach in Part II: a "logic of multiplicity" already resident in Christian traditions in which the complexity of life and the presence of God may be better articulated. Part III takes up the open-ended question of ethics from within that multiplicity, exploring the implications of this radical and realistic new theology for the questions that lie underneath theological construction: questions of belonging and nationalism, of the possibility of love, and of unity. In this groundbreaking work of contemporary theology, Schneider shows that the One is not lost in divine multiplicity, and that in spite of its abstractions, divine multiplicity is realistic and worldly, impossible ultimately to abstract.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Laurel C. Schneider is Associate Professor of Theology, Ethics, and Culture at Chicago Theological Seminary and author of Re-Imagining the Divine: Confronting the Backlash Against Feminist Theology (1999).

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; New edition edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415941911
• ISBN-13: 978-0415941914
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #410,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Challenging, Brilliant, and Cutting Edge Theological Text, June 4, 2008

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Matthew J. Frizzell (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond Monotheism: A Theology of Multiplicity (Paperback)

This is a challenging, yet critical theological book. Can incarnation, the pivotal confession around which Christian theology claims its unique contribution and particularity amongst the world's religions, be the solvent that dissolves centuries of sediment formed around an ossified concept of monotheism? For Schneider, looking beyond monotheism is not to simply slip into polytheistic ideas of the divine. Rather, it is to argue a theology of multiplicity that moves beyond the ideology of divinity conceived under the dominant "logic of the One." Deeply rooted in Western thought, this logic drives monotheism to conceptual closure around our idea of God, encased in a logic of identity and totality.

Schneider's work is interdisciplinary. It transgresses the boundaries of both philosophy and theology. Her thought is both brilliant and promiscuous, covering a wide array of evidentiary sources for her incarnational theology: pop culture, literature, folklore, French feminism, queer theory, while engaging critical thinkers such as Barth, Mary Daly, Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida. As a theological work, her historiography of the "logic of the One" and ontological argument are the most courageous and intriguing.

This is a book can be read and re-read. I highly recommend it for contextual and constructive theologians, as well as students of contemporary theology.