Date of Award

10-16-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Theology

First Advisor

Hille Haker

Abstract

This dissertation adapts Dorothee Sölle’s concept of creative disobedience to account for those histories of obedience to structures of domination and to foster moral agency that disrupts and dismantles structures of domination. The first two chapters contextualize and summarize Dorothee Sölle’s critique of obedience and her warning against the way in which the obedient social character yields a “Christofascist” society. Chapter II considers the extent to which Christofascism already exists in US society today through Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry’s study of the political and cultural prevalence of Christian nationalism. Chapter III contextualizes Dorothee Sölle’s theoretical critique of obedience through Erich Fromm’s concept of social character, Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s concept of kyriocentrism. In Chapter III, the author shows how histories and structures forming US white-Christian social character--white supremacy, coloniality and kyriarchy--require white-Christian obedience to the same Christian nationalist structures of power, boundaries and order. Chapter IV summarizes Sölle’s feminist theology which argues that creative disobedience is necessary for Christian moral agency. Finally, Chapter V adapts Sölle’s creative disobedience as an ethical process for progressive white-Christians in the US today. This chapter explains how moral agency defined by creative disobedience would foster habits and practices that lead to effective participation in political transformation, rather than reinforcing relationships and structures of domination.

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