The End of Civility

Christ and Prophetic Division

Ryan Andrew Newson

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1 The Genesis of Civility

2 Whose Etiquette? Which Christ?

3 Civil Rites and Uncivil Bodies

4 The End of Civility

5 Agonism, Abolition, Absolution

“I have come not to bring peace, but a sword.” These words of Christ echo in our current times. In recent years, a growing number of commentators have decried a lack of civility in public discourse Considered in isolation this concern is innocent enough, but no call for civility happens in a vacuum, and there is good reason to be suspicious of civility in our current political context. Calls for civility can encourage passivity and blunt prophetic action against injustice; truly heinous policies can be pursued under the guise of civility. And yet civility should not be dismissed outright, especially as presented by its more nuanced defenders— when it is presented as a limited good in a pluralist society.

In The End of Civility, Ryan Andrew Newson analyzes the development of the concept of “civility” as we know it in modern discourse and names some of the criteria Christians can use to judge between healthy and toxic appeals to civility

The challenge, Newson contends, is discerning when civility is called for and when its pursuit becomes vicious. Pleas for civility cannot be assessed without considering the context in which they are made. Some appeals to civility merely seek to lessen conflict, even conflict necessary in the struggle for a more just world. But when issued by people struggling for justice on the margins of society, calls for civility can name the types of conflict that might lead to liberation.

One must be attentive to what counts as “civil” in the first place and who gets to make that determination. Which bodies are considered civil and “ordered,” and which people are under suspicion of being “uncivil” before they ever say a word? For Christians, civility can never be an ultimate good but remains subordinate to the call to follow Christ—in particular, the Christ who is not always “civil” but who calls people to an ethic of resistance to injustice and solidarity with people who are suffering.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1901-0

$54.99 | Hardback

248 pages

6 x 9

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“The End of Civility confronts its readers with erudite, urgent thinking that cuts against the grain of some of our seemingly most unshakable contemporary political proprieties. In an era riven by intractability, such entrenched proprieties become obstacles we most need to think through and beyond, toward genuinely transformational forms of engagement. Those who read and follow along will find their intuitive presumptions about good order, common sense, and respectable political behavior challenged, and perhaps, even their virtues burned away.”

JASON A. SPRINGS, Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

“Amid continuing calls for ’civility’ in our political and ecclesiastical life, Ryan Newson asks us to consider the complex, often varied, meaning of civility itself. In so doing, he has produced an insightful, carefully documented, and creative analysis of the often-conflicting approaches to the issue in biblical, theological, ethical, historical, and political realms. The book offers an important challenge to and for our times.”

BILL J. LEONARD, Founding Dean and Professor of Divinity Emeritus, Wake Forest University

ISBN 978-1-4813-1915-7

$54.99 | Hardback

230 pages

6 x 9

September 1, 2023

Perfect in Weakness

Disability and Human Flourishing in the New Creation STUDIES IN RELIGION, THEOLOGY, AND DISABILITY Maja I. Whitaker

One of the central and novel convictions of the early Christian movement compared to the existing Greco-Roman beliefs was the dogma of bodily resurrection. The Stoics esteemed temperance, disciplining the body to curb the flesh; the Epicureans embraced pleasure, indulging their worldly desires. However, Paul’s letters to the Corinthians convey a countercultural idea: what you do with your body matters because it will still be with you in the resurrection. But when many contemporary Christians consider the new creation, they imagine the new Jerusalem filled with unblemished people living with normalized and idealized resurrected bodies: “healing” is assumed as a fundamental reality of the resurrection.

MAJA I. WHITAKER is Lecturer in Practical Theology in the School of Theology at Laidlaw College.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The Body, the Resurrection, and Disability

2 Personal Identity across Life, Death, and Resurrection

3 Identity-Forming Features in the Preand Post-resurrection Body

4 The Diversely Embodied Resurrection Body

“Whether disabled bodies will be present in the resurrection is a poignant question that reveals implicit assumptions about God, personal identity, and what is considered ’right’ or ’normal.’ In this scholarly rigorous but also eminently understandable book, Whitaker tackles the question of disability in the resurrection with thoughtfulness, insight, and a courageous yet humble approach. Drawing on disability theology, biblical passages, and philosophical perspectives on identity, Perfect in Weakness is bound to ignite the pastoral and theological imaginations of those who read it.”

KEITH DOW, author of Formed Together: Mystery, Narrative, and Virtue in Christian Caregiving

In Perfect in Weakness, Maja I. Whitaker develops the proposition that people with disabilities might retain their diverse embodiment in the new creation—that the resurrected body might still be “disabled.” This theological claim is based in the accounts of the resurrected Christ appearing with the stigmata, and it is supported by the intuitions of those persons with disabilities who consider that their unique embodiment is identity-forming and entirely unproblematic in itself. If the human person is an essentially embodied metaphysical unity, then there may be features of our particular bodies that must be continuous through the transformation of resurrection for personal identity to be secured. However, this “retention view” has faced conceptual objections on the grounds of theological anthropology, continuity of identity, and biblical conceptions of flourishing human life. Whitaker confronts these objections, integrating philosophical, biblical, and theological methodologies in order to present a reasonable and coherent defense of the retention view.

The possibility of persons with diverse embodiment enjoying fullness of life in the new creation can expose negative attitudes towards disability and unlock a critique of ableist bias in Christian thought and practice in the modern church. Moreover, it can function as an eschatological parable to subvert the powers of this age that idolize success, mastery, and autonomy to the neglect of theologies of weakness, limitation, and dependency. In this way, Perfect in Weakness is important not only in the realm of disability studies but also in the wider Christian community that is mired within the cultural ideologies of our time.

5 Implications for Pre-resurrection Thought and Practice

Conclusion

“Maja Whitaker approaches the complexities of disability and identity with a wonderful sense of dignity, wisdom, and empathy. She draws on many voices to challenge and expand our thinking around perfection, encouraging new expressions of love, inclusion, and acceptance. In this robust book, Maja poses the question ’If we look beyond perfection, can we bring about more of God’s love here on Earth now, for all people, across the whole spectrum of ability?’ Maja invites us to reconsider those we may have dismissed, to see more of God in them, and in ourselves. Disability is not a deficit. We are all human and are all worthy of receiving love. If there is breath, there is life, and there is the presence of God. This book’s message of life, love, and acceptance is not constrained to resurrection, but is relevant right now, right here in today’s human experience.”

RACHEL CALLANDER, author and speaker

ARMAND LÉON VAN OMMEN is Senior Lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen. He is also co-editor of Disciples and Friends: Investigations in Disability, Dementia, and Mental Health.