the attractiveness of the Other become effective in me<\/em> (the self).\u201d<\/p>\nIt is a \u201cstaggering\u201d truth: \u201cCreaturely power begins in and presupposes all along the way precisely \u2018littleness\u2019 . . . , but the pertinent point is that this littleness turns immediately into genuine power.\u201d It can do this because of \u201cthe beauty that is made effective in me, and immediately\u2014also now with<\/em> me and through<\/em> me, paradoxically by that very littleness, by the littleness that constitutes me as a \u2018handmaid,\u2019 one that is structurally subordinate to the Other.\u201d Creatures become powerful \u201cthrough obedience,\u201d an \u201contological\u201d reality \u201cbefore it is moral.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cHandmaid\u201d conjures Mary, and Schindler goes on to comment on \u201cthe intrinsic link between creaturely power and the poor and vulnerable ones of the Gospel, those who are exalted in Mary\u2019s Magnificat and in the Beatitudes.\u201d Mary is liberated through the fiat of God\u2019s choice and her obedient response, and so liberated she and the other \u201cpoor and vulnerable ones\u201d \u201cbecome themselves creative and powerful precisely with the power of God, which is to say, with the power of a love that is intended to be inclusive-transformative of the poor and vulnerable in the whole of their embodied, cosmic-cultural reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an essay on Alexander Schmemann (in Ordering Love, 301-2), David L. Schindler observes that \u201cCreaturely power begins in wonder and gratitude before the inherent beauty of the other. The power of creaturely being originates and consists primarily in the beauty of the Other: it is the attractiveness of the Other become effective in me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-power"],"yoast_head":"\n
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