‘Forgive Us Our Trespasses’: The Critical Role, Responsibility and Rights of Ethics in Confronting the Enlightenment's Pride and Prejudice

While postmodernists have claimed that the failure of the Enlightenment was a failure of philosophical courage, this plenary address explores how its greatest shortcoming actually was its hubris. Paying attention to how Western scholars have centered pride in their elitist purview was their ultimate...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Floyd-Thomas, Stacey M. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2024
In: Studies in Christian ethics
Year: 2024, Volume: 37, Issue: 1, Pages: 54-65
Further subjects:B Pride
B Critical Pedagogy
B Christian social ethics
B Enlightenment
B racial justice
B Prejudice
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:While postmodernists have claimed that the failure of the Enlightenment was a failure of philosophical courage, this plenary address explores how its greatest shortcoming actually was its hubris. Paying attention to how Western scholars have centered pride in their elitist purview was their ultimate worldview, this article examines ‘pride’ as the doctrinal dimension of the good life in contemporary Western society and culture. Furthermore, it implores postmodern Christian social ethicists to reform their stewardship to the telos of the field's highest ideals and role, in order to confront the shortcomings of the Enlightenment and help realize its greater capacity for social transformation. Borrowing the Gandhian critique of ‘knowledge without character’, the author surveys how the existential crisis of higher education, the political manipulation of journalism, and the policy practices of politicians, public intellectuals, and pundits operate in addressing post-imperial/postmodern legacies have legitimated implicit biases and dehumanizing projects that pass off stereotypes as scholarship and hate as hermeneutics.
ISSN:0953-9468
Contains:Enthalten in: Studies in Christian ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/09539468231215303