Ecce Homo! Christian Humanism in the Black Atlantic

Catalog description

This course addresses three questions: 'Who is Jesus Christ for us today?' 'What kind of creature is a human animal and what is the relationship of this kind of animal to nonhuman life?' And 'Can one be free in Christ but enslaved, colonized, or dominated by another human?' The assumption of this course is that to answer one of these questions entails addressing all these questions. In addressing these questions, it examines Christian visions of a humane, democratic political economy and civic culture through learning from the legacies of what Paul Gilroy calls the Black Atlantic world as it emerged from the 18th C onwards and some of the theological voices that traversed it. Figures engaged with include Olaudah Equiano, Mary Wollstonecraft, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jacques Maritain, Desmond Tutu, and Ada María Isasi-Díaz. The course pairs well with Renaissance Christian Humanism, but this is not a prerequisite.