Relying on a paraphrase of Anselm - "faith seeking the ethical" - Boesel engages modern and postmodern theologians and philosophers - from Kierkegaard to Barth, Ruether, Hegel, Derrida, and Levinas - to analyse the imperialistic dynamics entailed in Christian theological interpretations of the Jewish neighbour. He places particular emphasis on the problem in the evangelical theological assumptions of Karl Barth and the analysis and critique of Ruether's, which Boesel finds to be built upon a body of modern assumptions that constitute what he calls "modern ethical desire." Employing a reading of Levinas and Derrida, he shows that these assumptions constitute a distinct imperialistic discourse with its own specific hostility toward the Abrahamic tradition. In light of these postmodern critiques, Boesel returns to Barth to suggest that his evangelical theological assumptions, while indeed amounting to a form of Christian interpretive imperialism in relation to the Jewish neighbour, may nevertheless determine and delimit the knowledge and speech of Christian faith in such a way that resists more toxic forms of Christian imperialism. Broader implications follow: The ethical faces a radical limit, both in general and in relation to concrete faith. Therefore, no human remedy that does not entail an interpretive imperialism for the imperialistic discourse of Christian faith presents itself. Ethically, then, there is only discernment between different forms of interpretive imperialism. Theologically, an understanding of Christian faith as irreducible to the ethical may offer surprising though always risky ethical resourcement within this predicament of radically limited ethical possibility. "Risking proclamation, respecting difference, Chris Boesel has dared to host a dialogue among Karl Barth, radical postmodernists, religious Jews, and those Christian theologians who seek both to follow Christ and not turn their backs on the People Israel. This is one of the essential dialogues we need to have today, and Boesel is a most able host. He has set the table and served his delicious meal - with provisions for our various diets and with an invitation to eat according to our own tastes. Now it is time for us to converse " - PETER OCHS, University of Virginia "This book is at once vigorous and vulnerable. Boesel invites the Christian to learn anew the strangeness of Christianity. For him, proclamation has a chance of becoming authentic when it realizes that it inevitably involves ethical risk." - WALTER LOWE, Emory University (Professor Emeritus) CHRIS BOESEL is Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at Drew University's Theological School and Graduate Division of Religion.
