Introduction: Recognition Through Mutual Accompaniment

Ryan, Gerard J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-06007-6_1

Gerard J. Ryan²

122 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter introduces the study whereby L’Arche Daybreak acts as a background for the exploration of recognition through mutual accompaniment. Ryan situates the study within my living experience in L’Arche for over three years. I present three contexts that support recognition through mutual accompaniment: narrative, vulnerability, and participation. In exploring these three contexts, I utilize both Christian theology and other disciplines to make available an interdisciplinary study on how recognition of the vulnerable other is facilitated through mutual accompaniment. Within this chapter, I explore recognition as a religious and theological category. I advance further the possibility of religion and theology as a resource for recognition in arguing that the social reality of recognition contributes towards the pastoral care of God’s people.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 109.00; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 139.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 139.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Cf. Axel Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts, trans. Joel Anderson (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2004).
2.
Cf. Simon Thompson, The Political Theory of Recognition: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2006).
3.
Margaret Gilbert, Joint Commitment: How We Make the Social World (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014), 324.
4.
Ibid.
5.
Mary Watkins, Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons (New Haven & London: Tale University Press, 2019), 7-23.
6.
Walter Kasper, The Catholic Church: Nature, Reality, and Mission, trans. Thomas Hoebel (London, UK: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2015), 120.
7.
Ibid.
8.
Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition, 165.
9.
Ibid.
10.
Ibid.
11.
Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2018), 10.
12.
J. Matthew Ashley, Interruptions: Mysticism, Politics and Theology in the Work of Johann Baptist Metz (Indiana, US: University of Notre Dame, 1998), 39.
13.
Gerald O’ Collins, Rethinking Fundamental Theology: Toward a New Fundamental Theology (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2011), 15.
14.
Karl Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity, trans. William D. Dych (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2012), 8.
15.
Ibid.
16.
Gavin Flood, The Importance of Religion: Meaning and Action in Our Strange World (Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), 44.
17.
Graham Ward, How the Light Gets In: Ethical Life I (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016), 215.
18.
Ibid.
19.
Johann Baptist Metz, Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology, trans. J. Matthew Ashley (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2013), 39.
20.
Risto Saarinen, Recognition and Religion: A Historical and Systematic Study (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016), 184.
21.
Ibid., 185.
22.
Jacques Rancière, ‘Critical Questions on the Theory of Recognition’, in Recognition or Disagreement: A Critical Encounter on the Politics of Freedom, Equality, and Identity, ed. Katia Genel and Jean-Philippe Deranty (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016), 84.
23.
Saarinen, Religion and Recognition, 185.
24.
Ibid.
25.
Ibid.
26.
Ibid.
27.
Ibid., 185-6.
28.
Heikki J. Koskinen, ‘Mediated Recognition: Suggestions Toward an Articulation’, in Religion and Recognition: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives, ed. Maijastina Kahlos, Heikki J. Koskinen, Ritva Palmén (London, UK: Routledge Press, 2019), 36.
29.
Ibid.
30.
Ibid.
31.
Colin Gunton, ‘The Human Creation: Toward a Renewal of the Doctrine of Imago Deri’, in T & T Clark Reader in Theological Anthropology, ed. Marc Cortez and Michael P Jensen (London, UK: Bloomsbury T & T Clark), 115.
32.
Saarinen, Recognition and Religion, 186.
33.
Ibid.
34.
Ibid., 189.
35.
Ibid.
36.
Cf. Kevin W. Hector, Theology Without Metaphysics: God Language, and the Spirit of Recognition (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
37.
Saarinen, Recognition and Religion, 189.
38.
Ibid. In outlining Bultmann’s development of recognition within the study of Scripture, Saarinen identifies Bultmann’s theological assessment of the words ‘ginosko’ and ‘pistis’ as significant. The former, knowledge, and, the latter, faith, can be broadly understood as an act of recognition (ibid., 160). His judgement in this respect rests on his contention that ‘[i]n both cases [ginosko and pistis], the faithful human response can be labeled an act of recognition’ (ibid., 159). For a more comprehensive account of Saarinen’s argument, refer to ibid., 158-64.
39.
Ibid., 189.
40.
Ibid., 190.
41.
Ibid.
42.
Ibid., 195.
43.
Ibid.
44.
Ibid., 196.
45.
Ibid.
46.
Ibid.
47.
Ibid.
48.
Ibid., 196-7.
49.
Ibid., 197.
50.
Ibid.
51.
Ibid.
52.
Ibid.
53.
Ibid.
54.
Ibid., 198.
55.
Ibid.
56.
Ibid.
57.
Ibid., 199.
58.
Ibid., 200.
59.
Ibid.
60.
Ibid.
61.
Ibid.
62.
Paul Tillich, ‘The Theology of Pastoral Care’, Pastoral Psychology 10, no. 7 (1959): 21.
63.
Julia Kristeva, ‘A Tragedy and a Dream: Disability Revisited’, in Carnal Hermeneutics, ed. Richard Kearney and Brian Treanor (New York: Fordham University Press, 2015), 121.
In the period of my research and writing, I became aware of Jean Vanier’s misconduct with respect to women whom he was spiritually accompanying, I do not endorse his conduct. I hold, however, that his writing on disability remains a source for reflection on disability and community life. Thus, I have included some of his material on disability in this study.
64.
Ibid., 121-2.
65.
Metz, Faith in History and Society, 60.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology, Regis College, Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Gerard J. Ryan

Authors

Gerard J. Ryan
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerard J. Ryan .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ryan, G.J. (2022). Introduction: Recognition Through Mutual Accompaniment. In: Mutual Accompaniment as Faith-Filled Living. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06007-6_1

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06007-6_1
Published: 03 July 2022
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06006-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06007-6
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics