Mutual Accompaniment As Faith-Filled Living : Recognition of the Vulnerable Other

In this book, Gerard J. Ryan examines the interrelationship between recognition theory and theology with their respective concerns for what it means to be a human. He advocates a mutual accompaniment that reformulates recognition theory within a practical and public theology. Ryan develops this interpersonal recognition through the accompaniment of vulnerable people, particularly persons with disabilities and those who suffer from mental illness. He explores three contexts that support this mutual accompaniment and the labour of recognition. These are narrativity, the stories we live out of; vulnerability, the basic human condition common to all; and participation, the inter-relationship of humanity. Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: Recognition Through Mutual Accompaniment 1.1 L’Arche as the Pastoral Background and the Discovery of Relationships of Recognition 1.2 An Example of Recognition Through Mutual Accompaniment 1.2.1 Recognition as a Religious Category 1.2.2 Recognition as a Theological Category 1.2.3 The Possibility of Religious Recognition 1.2.4 The Social Reality of Religious Recognition for Pastoral Care 1.2.5 Structure of the Study Chapter 2: Theological Reflection as a Resource for Recognition of the Vulnerable Other 2.1 Introduction 2.1.1 Who Is to Be Recognized? 2.1.2 The Suffering Other 2.2 Theological Humanism and the Recognition of Vocation 2.2.1 Recognition of Vocation in the Everyday 2.2.2 Recognition of the Other’s Vocation in Ecumenical Dialogue 2.2.3 Recognition of the Other’s Vocation in Civil Dialogue 2.3 The Dialogue of Equal Recognition 2.3.1 Equal Recognition Embraces Difference and Universalism 2.4 The Application of Recognition 2.4.1 Recognition and Re-evaluation 2.4.2 Recognition as a Remembering Bridge to Formation and Healing 2.5 Conclusion Chapter 3: Narrative as a Context for Theological Reflection on Recognition 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Narrative as Mediation 3.2.1 Narrative as a Resource for a Theology of Biography 3.3 Narrative as Constitutive of Theological Meaning 3.3.1 Narrative as Theologically Reflected Biography and Autobiography 3.4 Narrative and Recognition: A Mutual Resource for Pastoral Care 3.4.1 Narrative as Encounter with the Vulnerable Other 3.5 Narrative as a Precarious Resource 3.5.1 Narrative and Emerging Personhood 3.5.2 Narrative and Interpersonal Formation 3.6 Narrative and Mutual Formation 3.7 Conclusion Chapter 4: Vulnerability as a Context for Theological Reflection on Recognition 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Vulnerable Whole: Recognition and Narrative Revisited 4.3 Prioritizing a Praxis of Recognition 4.3.1 Praxis in Philosophical and Theological Tradition 4.4 The Frame of Recognition: Norms and Seeing 4.4.1 Widening Recognition: Emerging from Dependency Towards Interdependency 4.4.2 Recognition: Surrendering to the Other 4.4.3 Recognition: Beyond Linguistic Recognition Towards an Embodied Recognition 4.4.4 Recognition: Intrapsychic and Intersubjective Knowing 4.5 Recognition as a Theological Category: Availability and Participation 4.6 Repairing Recognition: Returning to Recognition by Way of the Cross 4.7 Recognition and Eschatology: Loving Accompaniment 4.8 Conclusion Chapter 5: Disability as a Context for Theological Reflection on Recognition 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Recognition as Accompaniment: Participation Disabilities 5.2.1 Participation and the Labour of Recognition 5.2.2 Disability and Accompaniment: Vulnerability Revisited 5.3 Accompaniment Through Participation: Human Finitude and Limitation 5.3.1 The Philosophical Dimensions of Participation 5.3.2 The Theological Dimensions of Participation 5.3.3 Current Developments in a Theology of Participation 5.3.4 Participation and the Challenge of Norms 5.3.5 Participation and the Gift of Human Limitation 5.4 From Non-recognition to Recognition: Accompaniment as Memory 5.4.1 Accompaniment as Interpretative Memory 5.4.2 Accompaniment as Transformed Memory 5.4.3 Accompaniment as the Reconstruction of Memory 5.5 Recognitional Accompaniment Through Participation in Witnessing 5.5.1 Accompaniment as Realism to the Idealism of Recognition 5.5.2 Recognitional Witnessing: The Reparation of Relationships Through Mutual Accompaniment 5.6 Conclusion Chapter 6: Conclusion References Index