A theology of humanity through identity politics: reading the Book of Esther

Abstract

Humanity obligates respect. To respect someone is to intend what the person intended that one intends. A daughter
respected her father if if he intended that she rests regularly, then she does so with the correct motive. Jesus' Greatest
Commandment, through the Worship of Yahweh identified via the First Commandment, interacts love with respect. If to
love is to value the loved one's welfare, valuing it for its own sake differentiates a malignant form of love from one out
of respect. From gender, through ethnicity and humanity, I bring out the theological insight from us being created in the
image of God. Why respect? Because we are human. But why does humanity obligate respect? Because Yahweh
commanded so. The vice of idolatry, ecologically, is constituted by self-disrespect - a form of worship that demeans and
defiles oneself. That we are grateful to be Designed thus enlightens our life.