Abstract
This book unites the right scholar at the right stage in his career with the right series. In his scholarly career, Wolterstorff has written extensively on a vast range of philosophical subjects. His scholarship has explored ethics, political theory, aesthetics, biblical interpretation, and many other topics. Wolterstorff is Noah Porter Emeritus Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale University, where he taught from 1989 until his retirement in 2002. The series of which this book is a part publishes work of “Christian thinkers from North America” who have “experienced a change of heart, mind, and professional direction because of their encounters with people from Africa, Asia, or Latin America and their ideas and concerns” (p. ix). When Wolterstorff responds to this prompt, the effect is a book that revisits many of his major scholarly projects with special attention to the unifying theme of specific encounters he had with South Africans and Palestinians who had been wronged. Wolterstorff relates his intellectual concerns to these experiences masterfully throughout the book. The result is an erudite, concise, and accessible review of his major scholarly projects that integrates retrospective and biographical explanations of moments that motivated a life of philosophical inquiry.
The two experiences to which Wolterstorff returns throughout the book are encounters with people who suffer from various forms of social injustice. In 1975 he had a formative experience in South Africa while attending a conference on higher education. The experience awakened him to the injustice and indignity to which “colored people” of South Africa were subject under apartheid. In 1978 he listened to Palestinians in Chicago who “described the indignities daily heaped upon them” as a result of Israel's post-World War II nationhood (p. 5). In these encounters, people spoke eloquently about how they had been wronged. Not only does Wolterstorff connect these experiences with his scholarly work in philosophy, theology, ethics, and aesthetics; he also draws on these encounters to advocate a specific taxonomy of rights and a particular conception of justice. In addition, he shows that his own intellectual inquiries always begin from “the standpoint of one who, though not himself systemically wronged, found himself empathetically united with some who were” (p. 17).
Although rights and justice are the dominant concepts, all of Wolterstorff's reflections are connected by the common thread of encounters with people who had been wronged. The reflections in this book include chapters on a wide variety of academic topics. Like his career, this book covers an incredible amount of intellectual territory. Readers who are familiar with Wolterstorff's career will find many chapters to be reviews and distillations of his previous arguments. (This is not true for all chapters, though. Wolterstorff occasionally develops new ideas and recognizes that he has not yet settled on answers to certain relevant questions.) Readers who are not familiar with his scholarship will find accessible introductions to Wolterstorff's major concerns. As introductions to his scholarly inquiries these chapters are brief but do not sacrifice intellectual rigor. There are 31 chapters in this book, each averaging about eight pages. Such brevity makes each chapter well-suited for college syllabi. Several chapters would be appropriate in undergraduate courses in philosophical ethics, Christian ethics, biblical interpretation, and global justice issues. The chapters in this book would introduce undergraduates to Wolterstorff's thought, give them a distinct position to consider, and provide relatable reference to concrete conflicts in the global struggle for justice.
The strengths of this book are many. The intellectual territory that Wolterstorff covers is admirable. The depth and responsibility of each discussion is also impressive. Readers will enjoy the skillful weaving of biographical narrative into the scholarly inquiry. The prose sparkles with clarity. In addition, I was heartened by Wolterstorff's nuanced explanation of his relationship to people who are systemically wronged. He guards against a paternalistic posture of “speaking up” for victims, noting that he “felt called to stand alongside them as they spoke up for themselves” (p. 17). Wolterstorff answers postcolonial concerns well and opens doors for democratic coalitions between different people to engage in a common struggle for social justice.
Different audiences might argue with certain details. Biblical scholars, for example, might question Wolterstorff's treatment of dikaiosynē and krisis as synonyms without any discussion of their differences. Hauerwasians and Rawlsians may wonder about his voice. Wolterstorff's academic training is in philosophy, and he approaches his intellectual inquiries through philosophical analysis. But his personal identity is clearly Christian, as is the motivation driving his scholarship. In this book and in his career, Wolterstorff seeks philosophical understanding and analysis of Christian theological and moral concepts. I, for the record, do not find Wolterstorff's approach to be incoherent or contradictory. Other readers, such as Hauerwasians who seek a more confessional Christian voice, or Rawlsians who pursue justice from behind a “veil of ignorance” may be less satisfied.
This book is an engaging overview of Wolterstorff's major intellectual concerns. It communicates his arguments powerfully and concisely. It is appropriate reading for scholars and graduate students, as well as undergraduates in courses on philosophical and theological ethics, biblical studies, and global justice issues. Instructors who teach such courses should consider incorporating selections from this book into their syllabi.