Places of Redemption Theology for a Worldly Church [Hardcover]

The primary aim of this book is to explore the contradiction between widely shared beliefs in the USA about racial inclusiveness and equal opportunity for all and the fact that most churches are racially homogeneous and do not include people with disabilities. To address the problem Mary McClintock Fulkerson explores the practices of an interracial church (United Methodist) that includes people with disabilities. The analysis focuses on those activities which create opportunities for people to experience those who are `different' as equal in ways that diminish both obliviousness to the other and fear of the other. In contrast with theology's typical focus on the beliefs of Christians, this project offers a theory of practices and place that foregrounds the instinctual reactions and communications that shape all groups. The effect is to broaden the academic field of theology through the benefits of ethnographic research and postmodern place theory.

Fulkerson gives a rich account of practices of communal caring, central for the study and teaching of pastoral care and counseling. ...Fulkerson's demanding yet vivid writing makes the work accessible and presents an exemplary ethnographic study. The array of theoretical lenses and embodied experiences capture the nuances of a situation, displaying a deeply embedded wound up-close, and its potential for redemption. --Journal of Pastoral Theology

The excellence ofPlaces of Redemptionas an exercise in practical theology, and its interest for those working in parishes and in the academy, lies in the way Fulkerson connects two levels of analysis. On the one hand, this is a book about how the universality of the grace of Christ gets effectively (though not perfectly) enaceted in a particular church community. On the other ahnd, this is a book about how to do academic theology. --Anglican Theological Review

Mary McClintock Fulkerson is Associate Professor ol3*