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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>Traditional theological perspectives on the human person are being challenged by contemporary cultural, political and scientific developments. Bringing together Roman Catholic theologians from different sub-disciplines, this collection of essays engages with and responds to the resulting tensions in theological anthropology, with a special focus on the themes of nature, self and relationality.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>Theological anthropology is being put to the test: in the face of contemporary developments in the spheres of culture, politics, and science, traditional perspectives on the human person are no longer adequate. Yet can theological anthropology move beyond its previously established categories and renew itself in relation to contemporary insights? The present collection of essays sets out to answer this question. Uniting Roman Catholic theologians from across the globe, it tackles from a theological perspective challenges related to the classical natural law tradition (part 1), to the modern conception of the subject (part 2), and to the postmodern awareness of diversity in a globalizing context (part 3). Its contributors share a fundamental methodological choice of a critical-constructive dialogue with contemporary culture, science, and philosophy. <p/>This collection integrates a wider range of approaches than one usually finds in theological volumes, bringing together experts in systematic theology and in theological ethics. Authors come from different American contexts, including Black and Latino, and from a European context that include both French and German. Moreover, the interdisciplinary insights upon which the different contributions draw stem from both the natural sciences (such as neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and ethology) and the humanities (such as cultural studies, philosophy, and hermeneutics). <p/>This volume will be essential reading for anyone seeking a state-of-the-art account of theological anthropology, of the uncertainties it is facing, and of the responses it is in the process of formulating. The shared Roman Catholic background of the authors of this collection makes this volume a helpful complement to recent publications that predominantly represent views from other theological traditions.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>The Christian notion of the Human involves both the biblical notion of the Imago Dei and philosophical understandings of natural law. How those concepts are to be understood, defended, and nuanced in the face of modernity and postmodernity is the subject of these rich and varied essays. This exploration of Christian anthropology, fifty years after the capacious vision of Gaudium et Spes, should be gratefully received and meticulously studied.<b>-----Lawrence Cunningham, <i>John A. O'Brien Professor of Theology (Emeritus), The University of Note Dame</i></b><br><br>In a time when the natural sciences are raising new questions about the very notion of a fixed human nature, theology is required to think more deeply about the meaning and implications of the classical claims of Christian faith, particularly the Incarnation. These welcome exploratory essays in theological anthropology by significant contemporary scholars will help theologians and students sort out the issues and join a very important conversation.<b>-----Paul Crowley, <i>Santa Clara University</i></b><br><br>In Questioning the Human, international known scholars explore crucial issues on the relation of human nature to sciences, ethics, and morality in a way that clearly shows how contemporary thought reflects on the human self and the human body in a world that is both diverse and commodified. These essays explore central questions that a Twenty-First Century theological anthropology needs to take into account. An exciting, probing, and informative volume.<b>-----Francis Schuessler-Fiorenza, <i>Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies</i></b><br><br>Theological anthropology, the project of articulating what it is and what it means to be human in relation to the transcendent God, stands at a crossroads in the second decade of the 21st century. Powerful forces shaping contemporary life--science and technology, the workings of the global economy, re-configurations of social and political power, regionally, locally, and globally--seem to render that project deeply problematic in terms of both its substance and its methods. The discourse of theological inquiry, moreover, has itself been pluralized, nor only in consequence of these encompassing cultural challenges, but also as a result of a renewed self-critical awareness of theology's own deep embedding in socio-cultural and historical particularity. The essays in this volume offer incisive diagnoses of these challenges and promising strategies to address them. They provide a solid basis for confidence in the continuing importance of a renewed theological anthropology for the living faith of the Catholic Church in its concrete engagements with the full range of the workings of the world.<b>-----Rev. Philip J. Rossi S.J., <i>Marquette University</i></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><br><strong>Lieven Boeve</strong> is Professor of Fundamental Theology and Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He is the author of <em>Interrupting Tradition. An Essay on Christian Faith in a Postmodern Context </em>(LPTM, 30), Leuven: Peeters / Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003, and <em>God Interrupts History. Theology in a Time of Upheaval</em>, New York: Continuum, 2007 and co-authored<em> The Ratzinger Reader</em>, London/New York: Continuum, 2010. He co-edited 18 volumes, of which the most recent are: <em>Edward Schillebeeckx and Contemporary Theology</em>, London/New York: Continuum, 2010; and: <em>Between Philosophy and Theology. Contemporary Interpretations of Christianity, </em> Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010. <p/><strong>Yves De Maeseneer</strong> is teaching Fundamental Theological Ethics at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium. From 2000 to 2007, he was a member of the Research Group Theology in a Postmodern Context. Since 2010, he is the coordinator of the Research Group Anthropos, an interdisciplinary platform of theological ethicists and fundamental theologians, who are developing a renewed theological anthropology. He also edited (together with Lieven Boeve and Stijn Van den Bossche), <em> Religious experience and contemporary theological epistemology</em>, Peeters, Leuven, 2005. <p/><strong>Ellen Van Stichel </strong>is a postdoctoral researcher to the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). For her dissertation<em> Out of Love for Justice: Moral Philosophy and Catholic Social Thought on Global Duties</em> she received the Mgr. Arthur Janssens prize for Christian social ethics (2012). Currently, she is a member of the Research Group Anthropos of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven (Belgium).<br>

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