Human Dependency and Christian Ethics

Dependency is a central aspect of human existence, as are dependent care relations: relations between caregivers and young children, persons with disabilities, or frail elderly persons. In this book, Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar argues that many prominent interpretations of Christian love either obscure dependency and care, or fail to adequately address injustice in the global social organization of care. Sullivan-Dunbar engages a wide-ranging interdisciplinary conversation between Christian ethics and economics, political theory, and care scholarship, drawing on the rich body of recent feminist work reintegrating dependency and care into the economic, political, and moral spheres. She identifies essential elements of a Christian ethic of love and justice for dependent care relations in a globalized care economy. She also suggests resources for such an ethic ranging from Catholic social thought, feminist political ethics of care, disability and vulnerability studies, and Christian theological accounts of the divine-human relation.

• Offers a foundational critique of and new insight into several prominent understandings of Christian love, making it useful to scholars and students
• The book is highly interdisciplinary, touching on Christian ethics, Christian love theologies, social contract theory, Rawls, contemporary feminist political theory, feminist economics, and feminist care ethics
• Will appeal to a range of audiences, where each will find new arguments in the conversations they are currently part of, learn some basics of other disciplinary conversations, and see parallels and areas of divergence among these conversations