The Solidarity of Others in a Divided World: A Postmodern Theology After Postmodernism

The thesis of this book is quite simple. The globalization of the world brings together different groups into common space and produces a twofold dialectic, the dialectic of differentiation in which we are made increasingly aware of differences in nationality, culture, religion, ethnicity, gender, class, and language, and the dialectic of interdependence in which we are compelled to find a way of living together despite our differences. The central challenge of the globalizing world is how to manage and transform this twofold, antithetical dialectic of simultaneous differentiation and interdependence into a solidarity of others, the mutual solidarity of those who are different. The Christian tradition provides abundant resources worth retrieving for this theological purpose. Using the paradigm of solidarity of others as the central theme of theology, it is possible and appropriate to renew the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of solidarity and recapture the inspiring and illuminating potential of the classical, authentically Christian metaphor of the body of Christ as embodiment of this solidarity.

Anselm Min is Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University and the author of Dialectic of Salvation: Issues in Theology of Liberation.