Joseph S. Pagano

On the weekend of April 22, 2012 the St. Anne's Church website received thousands of visitors. That Sunday, in the New York Times Magazine, an article appeared about the Rev. Dr. Amy E. Richter competing in a physique competition. The strong reactions to the article got Richter and her husband and fellow clergyperson, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Pagano, thinking about the scandal of the Incarnation. The claim that God entered fully into our flesh-and-blood human existence makes some of us squeamish. And yet, this shocking claim is at the heart of the good news that in Christ God is with us no matter what. There is nothing that can happen to us--no pain, no humiliation, no anguish--that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In sermons for the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, Richter and Pagano proclaim the good news of the scandalous love of God in flesh and bone.

About the Contributor(s): Amy E. Richter is Rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church and Visiting Instructor at the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is author of Enoch and the Gospel of Matthew. Joseph S. Pagano is Associate Rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland, and Affiliate Professor of Theology at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland. He is author of The Origins and Development of the Triadic Structure of Faith in H. Richard Niebuhr, and co-author of A Man, A Woman, a Word of Love, with his wife and colleague Amy Richter.

Previous studies of H. Richard Niebuhr's intellectual background have fallen into two groups: those that stress the German and especially Kantian sources of Niebuhr's thought, and those that emphasize the American and especially pragmatic sources of his thought. Joseph S. Pagano provides a way beyond these seemingly antagonistic positions. Through careful readings of the philosophical background of the triadic structure, Pagano demonstrates that Niebuhr's intellectual background was both Kantian and pragmatic. He also provides the first book-length study of the development of the triadic structure of faith in Niebuhr's theology and ethics. This book is a particularly insightful reference for scholars in ethics, religious studies, theology, philosophy, and church history.

Previous studies of H. Richard Niebuhr's intellectual background have fallen into two groups: those that stress the German and especially Kantian sources of Niebuhr's thought, and those that emphasize the American and especially pragmatic sources of his thought. Joseph S. Pagano provides a way beyond these seemingly antagonistic positions. Through careful readings of the philosophical background of the triadic structure, Pagano demonstrates that Niebuhr's intellectual background was both Kantian and pragmatic. He also provides the first book-length study of the development of the triadic structure of faith in Niebuhr's theology and ethics. This book is a particularly insightful reference for scholars in ethics, religious studies, theology, philosophy, and church history.