Customer Reviews

Beyond Monotheism: A Theology of Multiplicity

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.