Böcker av Nicholas Wolterstorff

Nicholas Wolterstorff¿s distinguished career in philosophical theology continues to bear fruit, and here he shares his insight on the concepts of justice, art and liturgy. Although often discussed in isolation, as Wolterstorff masterfully demonstrates, they are bound together by divine love, and follow a common logical framework. Whether oriented towards the dignity of the other, the desire for creative engagement, or the infinite goodness of the creator, in every case unitive love is at their core. Wolterstorff explores all of this with consummate elegance, ultimately showing how each of the three topics find their fulfilment in the worship of God and in the affirmation of the image of God in each of us.

Calling Christians to be true to God's shalom in all dimensions of life, philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff brings the religious vision of the Reformation to bear on such urgent matters as world poverty, nationalism, urban ugliness, and the tragedy of liturgy in Protestantism.

Taking vigorous issue with the pervasive Western notion that the arts exist essentially for the purpose of aesthetic contemplation, Nicholas Wolterstorff proposes instead what he sees as an authentically Christian perspective: that art has a legitimate, even necessary, place in everyday life. While granting that galleries, theaters and concert halls serve a valid purpose, Wolterstorff argues that art should also be appreciated in action -- in private homes, in hotel lobbies, in factories and grocery stores, on main street. His conviction that art should be multifunction is basic to the author's views on art in the city (he regards most American cities as dehumanizing wastelands of aesthetic squalor, dominated by the demands of the automobile), and leads him to a helpful discussion of its role in worship and the church. Developing an aesthetic that is basically grounded, yet always sensitive to the human need for beauty, Wolterstorff make a brilliant contribution to understanding how art can serve to broaden and enrich our lives.

Wide-ranging and ambitious, Justice combines moral philosophy and Christian ethics to develop an important theory of rights and of justice as grounded in rights. Nicholas Wolterstorff discusses what it is to have a right, and he locates rights in the respect due the worth of the rights-holder. After contending that socially-conferred rights require the existence of natural rights, he argues that no secular account of natural human rights is successful; he offers instead a theistic account. Wolterstorff prefaces his systematic account of justice as grounded in rights with an exploration of the common claim that rights-talk is inherently individualistic and possessive. He demonstrates that the idea of natural rights originated neither in the Enlightenment nor in the individualistic philosophy of the late Middle Ages, but was already employed by the canon lawyers of the twelfth century. He traces our intuitions about rights and justice back even further, to Hebrew and Christian scriptures. After extensively discussing justice in the Old Testament and the New, he goes on to show why ancient Greek and Roman philosophy could not serve as a framework for a theory of rights. Connecting rights and wrongs to God's relationship with humankind, Justice not only offers a rich and compelling philosophical account of justice, but also makes an important contribution to overcoming the present-day divide between religious discourse and human rights.

This text presents two critical views on religion in politics. Whilst Audi argues that citizens in a democracy should distinguish religious and secular considerations, Wolterstorff responds that religious elements are appropriate and indispensable for the vitality of a pluralistic democracy.

In this book the author treats art as an action performed by the artist as agent, rather than examining it from the point of view of its audience as contemplators.