The Flourishing of Human Life: Fostering a Dialogue between Theology and the Capabilities Approach through Dietrich Bonhoeffer

• Authors: Steven C. van den Heuvel

Abstracts

EN

In recent decades, the Capabilities Approach (CA) has developed into a major interdisciplinary theory, especially relevant for development economics. Proposing to measure development not so much in terms of GNP, but in the freedom of human beings to develop themselves-measured by several core capabilities-this paradigm is seen as a much richer and more precise way to measure human development. Despite the CA’s remarkable growth in importance, there is a notable lack of dialogue between this approach and Christian theology-on those rare occasions when the two interact with each other, they seem to be talking past each other. In this paper, I seek to help foster, instead, a constructive dialogue between the CA and Christian theology. In doing so, I make recourse to Bonhoeffer’s theology-I focus on the rich appreciation of the bodily life in his theology and then show how his account is in deep accord with that of one representative of the CA, Martha Nussbaum. On this basis, I argue that a true dialogue between Christian theology and the CA is both possible and necessary.

• Publisher: Ewangelikalna Wyższa Szkoła Teologiczna we Wrocławiu
• Journal: Theologica Wratislaviensia
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 11 Dietrich Bonhoeffer na 500 lat Reformacji
• Pages: 61-72

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Steven C. van den Heuvel

• Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven (Belgium)

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

2054919