Entangled Being - by Rebecca L Copeland (Hardcover)

About the Book

Provides a grounded vision for justice in the realms of medicine, environment, and economy through the theological lenses of sin and repentance.

Book Synopsis

Contemporary societies face many complex injustices, from environmental devastation that threatens our long-term prospects, to human trafficking that fuels our global economy, to health disparities that harm already marginalized communities. Although theologies of liberation have long identified these injustices as manifestations of systemic sin, many Christians recoil from using the language of sin to discuss our everyday involvement in such systems. This is partly because many Christians expect "sin-talk" to name particularly heinous actions--ones in which we certainly do not wish to engage--and partly because the language of sin has been used to shame others for so long that its theological value has been all but lost.

In Entangled Being, Rebecca L. Copeland asserts that sin is the most appropriate theological language for naming what has gone wrong in the world and for beginning to repair those wrongs, despite modern resistance to the use of sin-talk. She argues that Christians need a reconstructed understanding of what naming something as sin should accomplish. Traditional treatments of sin as either original (universal and congenital) or actual (individual and intentional) are not capable of addressing the individual's complicity in the unintentional, communal, and multigenerational harms caused by systemic injustices. Copeland offers the scripturally based idea of unoriginal sin to explore moral agency and responsibility in our complex, pluralistic, and interdependent world.

Expanding the doctrinal boundaries of sin-talk to encompass repentance, she argues that Christians need not only to name systemic injustices as sin but also to repent of them by taking responsibility for the harms they cause and working to repair such harms. Entangled Being addresses common concerns about sin-talk, deconstructs individualistic understandings of moral agency, and draws from the work of marginalized communities to reconstruct understandings of agency and responsibility competent to address the wicked problems we face today.

Review Quotes

This is a book for readers troubled by their complicity in systemic racism, climate change, or other harms and who long for theological clarity on how to think about and respond adequately to complex challenges. Copeland's clear writing and compelling argument can help guide readers toward transformative engagements with these and other areas of concern. I am already applying Copeland's structured argument in my ongoing efforts--alongside others--toward decolonization of human-land relationships.

About the Author

Rebecca L. Copeland is Assistant Professor of Theology at Boston University School of Theology. She is also the author of Created Being: Expanding Creedal Christology.