ABSTRACT

Throughout the twentieth century, humankind has been preoccupied with the notion of power.1 In the wake of philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault, this theme has spanned the conceptual “divide” between modernism and postmodernism, and has increasingly dominated such diverse academic fields as philosophy, economics, political science, English literature, anthropology, international relations, and the social sciences. Within the field of Christian theology, much attention has focused on power and its various manifestations within the world in general and the Church in particular. This emphasis has often been spearheaded by feminist, liberation, two-thirds world, and other theologians belonging to groups who have been historically marginalized from mainstream Christian scholarship. Theological responses to power can be loosely categorized under two headings: those which accept existing definitions and structural manifestations of power-or at least leave them significantly unchanged-seeking inversions and/or inclusions within “the powers that be”; and those who reject existing modes of power in search of a better or “more Christian” approach.2