Othering: The Original Sin of Humanity; A Book Review

Othering by Charles K. Bellinger makes the case that the original sin of humanity is othering. Bellinger defines "Othering, as a verb, refers to the psychological process of interpreting other human beings as ontologically different from and inferior to oneself and the members of one’s in-group." (loc 667) Belinger structures Othering through four chapters, each dealing with an angle of his premise. These angles are the anthropological, the historical, the rights language, and the theological.

In chapters one and two, Bellinger is laying out an anthropological and historical argument that othering is a sin across ideologies. I believe that he makes this case, but one criticism is that in Bellinger's desire to show that the dominant poles within the United States of Conservatives and Progressives equally engage in othering, he tends to push harder against progressive othering. The argument could be made in a more balanced way. This slant also appears within the use of arguments toward natural law and founding documents of the United States. The arguments are cogent, but I personally got bogged down in the language of conservative politics at times.

Bellinger makes good points about the use of rights language even as that discussion drifts into political ideology. My concerns melted away once I arrived at the final chapter in which Bellinger makes the theological argument. Here, he uses the framework of open and relational theology to set the reader free from the tyranny of othering. It is in the theological section that we find a freedom within understanding that fallen nature pushes us toward control and othering. Within an understanding of God as relational and pushing us away from othering, we can find freedom in God.

This is another more academically related title and I recommend it within that genre for readers who enjoy an academic argument in academic langauge and structure.

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