Opting for the Margins

The "preferential option for the poor" - the idea that the poor and helpless have a claim to special consideration from society - has been one of the most significant developments in 20th-century Christian theology. Arising out of liberation theology, the option for the poor (and other people at the margins of society) has provided major new impulses for biblical studies, systematic theology, church history, ecclesial practice and the academic study of religion. Recently, however, options for the margins have been challenged by postmodern shifts in intellectual, social, political and economic realities that often replace preferential options with other emphases, such as general concerns for pluralism, otherness and difference. The essays in this volume show how some forms of postmodern thought and theology can mask patterns of oppression and provide an excuse for deafness to voices from the margins.