Grammar Of Responsibility, A - Hardcover

Gabriel Moran is a professor in the department of Culture and Communication, New York University, and director of the doctoral program in religious education.

Millions of self-help disciples have learned to recite the phrase, "Take responsibility for your own life." But those willing to join Moran in analyzing, rather than reciting, this slogan will soon discover its deceptiveness, even dangerousness. For in modern speech, the word responsibility frequently hides numerous ambiguities and unresolved cultural tensions. By tracing the linguistic and philosophical history of the word, Moran establishes the preconditions for its meaningful use in contemporary contexts. In the first instance, we must recognize the impossibility of identifying what or whom we are responsible for until we have first established what or whom we are responsible to. Raising questions of great urgency, Moran resists the temptation to supply simple answers. Drawing from Aristotle and the apostle Paul, from Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky, he defines responsibility as a spiritual posture characterized by a willingness to listen, to open ourselves to the various and conflicting voices in the world around us. A challenging and rewarding text for larger collections. Bryce Christensen