Overview

'Law is for protection of the people' sings Kris Kristofferson. Except, as the irony of the song cries out, when it isn't and becomes a system of oppression that turns people subjected to its controlling power into non-persons - people who are socially devalued and carry a surplus of suffering. The recent incorporation of independent advocacy into the new mental health legislation in both Scotland and England represents a counter-force in a system which tends to give too much uncontested power to an exclusive few. These developments are here interpreted in and through the Biblical saga of the Exodus, a liberative journey led by the ambiguously powerful prophetic figure of Moses. Law in religion, where it descends into deathly literalism, also needs to be subordinated to the Spirit's shaping of the live covenant community. In so far as this is a work of practical theology it is response to a question asked nearly 30 years ago by Professor Alastair Campbell: 'Is Practical Theology Possible?' His own guarded comment was that it could only be so if it addressed itself to real live zones of human life, to specific concrete structures. The territory covered here fits that specification and points the way to identifying other key areas where people need advocacy. The conclusion indeed is that there are times when we all do. Advocacy for all.

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9781908128195

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