This volume offers a robust theological investigation of the concept of the person. Philip Rolnick calls us to think about personhood not just psychologically -- understanding it as a set of traits or behaviors or as a level of social adroitness -- but theologically. He believes that "person" represents our highest understanding of our lives with regard to each other, the world, and God. Some understanding of "person" underlies virtually every significant Christian doctrine and points to what is most at stake in it. A philosophically astute, historically informed, scientifically minded theologian, Rolnick here highlights the centrality of "person" for Christian thought by tracing its development from pre-Christian anticipations through the early church councils to Augustine, Boethius, Richard of St. Victor, and Aquinas. Examining contemporary challenges to the concept of the person from evolutionary biology and postmodern thought, Rolnick demonstrates the impressive accomplishment of neo-Darwinian research and then shows ways to interpret the biological data that are consonant with Jesus' love commands. Rolnick's Person, Grace, and God is a wide-ranging, deeply informed study of a topic of no small importance in a world in which science, postmodern thought, and Christian theology continuously engage each other.
Philip Rolnick is Professor of Theology at the University of St Thomas. His books include Explorations in Ethics and Analogical Possibilities.
Expository Times "The straightforward and skillfully presented account of human personhood Rolnick articulates inPerson, Grace, and God is highly recommended to all interested in exploiting the resources of theology to overcome the contemporary collapse of metaphysics." Reinhard Huetter -- Duke Divinity School "In Person, Grace, and God Philip Rolnick offers a wide-ranging, compellingly argued, and gracefully written theological account of the person. Deeply steeped in the theological tradition, Rolnick astutely engages the modern as well as postmodern philosophies du jour, enters into a serious dialogue with the natural sciences, and presses relentlessly for a full theological recovery of the abiding significance of personhood in the midst of a troubled world. This is an excellent Protestant echo and elaboration of the late Pope John Paul's theology of the person and hence a work of urgent relevance for Protestants and Catholics alike. It is a remarkable achievement -- arguably one of the very best Protestant works of recent years on theological anthropology."
