We're delighted to announce that our chaplain, Revd Dr Jonny Torrance, has published his first book, Sin and Theory, published by T&T Clark. Based on his PhD thesis, the book is a dialogue between Martin Luther’s theology of sin and various contemporary critical theorists.

At its heart, the book is asking a disarmingly simple question: what is wrong with humanity? Traditionally, Christians have answered this by talking about sin: the radical and in-baked distortion of the world and of human beings caused by our tendency to turn inwards towards ourselves in self-interest and self-gratification. If this already sounds challenging, then it is, and few Christian teachings have been more critiqued in modernity than this understanding of original sin. Even amongst theologians it has been controversial, and there has been little enthusiasm within 20th-century theology for the more radical versions of this doctrine, as represented by Martin Luther.

Yet, as the book argues, some trends within contemporary critical discourse are beginning to suggest that there might be renewed interest in such questions, and something like a doctrine of sin might still have explanatory and critical power. Critical theory has long operated with the assumption that there is something deeply wrong with the world, and whilst few theorists would ever use the language of sin, conceptually their approaches bear striking similarities to traditional Christian teaching.

The first half of the book introduces Luther’s doctrine, whilst the second is structured as a series of dialogues between Luther and a contemporary theorist or group of theorists, with each chapter addressing a particularly challenging theological question around sin. For it turns out that many of the issues theologians are wrestling with are also debates within critical theory. The possibility of knowledge given the radical distortions of human knowledge production; the vexed question of the relationship between individuals and the structures they exist within; how shame functions for individuals caught in webs of brokenness and pain: all these problems turn out to be points of contact and generative tension between theology and theory.

Jonny says of the book: “I’ve been thinking about these ideas for a long time now, so I’m very excited that they are out in the world. I’m very grateful for the community at Lincoln for giving me the space and encouragement to get the book to this stage. I’m particularly excited that the book is Open Access, so free for anyone, everywhere to read online, and I’m thankful to Oxford and UKRI for making this possible.”

Sin and Theory is available from Bloomsbury, either as a print edition or for free online.