Jason A. Mahn – författare

For more than 1,500 years, the claim that Adam's Fall might be considered 'fortunate' has been Christianity's most controversial and difficult idea. While keepers of the Easter vigil in the fifth century (and later John Milton) praised sin only as a backhanded witness to the ineffability of redemption, modern speculative theodicy came to understand all evil as comprehensible, historically productive, and therefore fortunate, while the romantic poets credited transgression with bolstering individual creativity and spirit. Jason Mahn's compelling study examines Kierkegaard's ''para/orthodixical'' language of human fallibility and Christian sin. Mahn breaks down and reconstructs the concept of the fortunate Fall in Western thought, in context of Kierkegaard's later writings, examining Kierkegaard's blunt critique of Idealism's justification of evil, as well as his playful deconstruction of romantic celebrations of sin. Mahn also argues, though, that Kierkegaard resists the moralization of evil, preferring to consider temptation and sin as determinative dimensions of religious existence. In relation to the assumed ''innocence'' of Christendom's cultured Christians, the self-conscious sinner might be the better religious witness. Although Mahn shows how Kierkegaard finally replaces actual sin with human fragility, temptation, and the possibility of spiritual offense as that which ''happily'' shapes religious faith, he cogently argues that Kierkegaard's understanding of ''fortunate fallibility'' is at least as rhetorically compelling and theologically operative as talk of a fortunate Fall. Mahn's insights into Kierkegaard's playful maneuvers encourages Christian theologians can speak of sin more particularly and peculiarly than in the typical discourses of church and culture.

Jason Mahn traces the concept of the fortunate Fall through the later writings of Soren Kierkegaard, examining Kierkegaard''s blunt critique of Idealism''s justification of evil, as well as his playful deconstruction of romantic celebrations of sin.

Can a Lutheran be sociopolitically radical? Can a radical be theologically and faithfully Lutheran? This book answers yes.Written by teacher-scholars from five ELCA colleges, Radical Lutherans/Lutheran Radicals follows Martin Luther, Soren Kierkegaard, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothee Soelle, and others as they sink deep roots in the Lutheran Christian tradition while simultaneously resisting the status quo with their words, their deeds, and sometimes their very lives.Each chapter shows how the Lutheran theologian returns to the roots of Luther''s life and writing and puts them toward radical social and political ends, including critiques of cultured Christianity; resistance to state or market; preferential options for the poor and suffering; deep commitments to peace, justice, and ecological sustainability; and direct nonviolent resistance.The book highlights theological themes popularized by Luther (justification by grace, two-kingdoms thinking, theology of the cross, and vocation) and then shows how these theological staples--when deeply and creatively retrieved--can inform political protest, intentional living, and other countercultural movements.The compelling claim throughout is that Luther''s theology at its root has resources for radical political participation and social transformation, as exemplified by the writings and lives of these radical Lutherans/Lutheran radicals.