This introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the development of Catholic ethics in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962–5), an event widely considered crucial to the reconciliation of the Catholic Church and the modern world. Andrew Kim investigates Catholic responses to questions of moral theology in all four principal areas: Catholic social teaching, natural law, virtue ethics, and bioethics. In addition to discussing contemporary controversies surrounding abortion, contraception, labor rights, exploitation of the poor, and just war theory, he explores the historical sources of the Catholic worldview. Beginning with the moral vision revealed through the person of Jesus Christ and continuing with elaborations on this vision from figures such as Augustine and Aquinas, this volume elucidates the continuity of the Catholic moral tradition. Its balance of complexity and accessibility makes it an ideal resource for both students of theology and general readers.
Are human beings ever blameworthy for the choices they make? This essay offers a comparative analysis of two systems of thought that argue they are not. The first is Manicheanism, which places blame on a depraved nature within the individual and in competition with a good nature residing within the same person. The good nature is not accountable for the actions of the bad one. The second is situationist psychology, which posits that situations influence behavior more than any alleged robust traits inhering within the personality of the individual. We are thus not to blame for our bad actions which are produced not by our own volition, but by situational stimuli that are beyond our control. This essay critiques both of these systems of thought from an Augustinian perspective. I argue that while situationism does have something to commend, Augustine's views on the constraining force of a sinful secunda natura, which influences but does not determine behavior, is a preferable alternative to both Manicheanism and situationism.
This essay supports William Cavanaugh's thesis in The Myth of Religious Violence that the distinction between the "religious" and the "secular" is arbitrary. This essay also accepts the claim that this arbitrary distinction can be used to form unhelpful inversely-valued dichotomies for the sake of ideological or sectarian ends. However, the current essay seeks to show that this binary goes in the opposite direction as well. Sectarian outlooks of various kinds also postulate a strict and inversely valued dichotomy between the believing community and the world, where the former is the locus of truth and life and the latter, falsehood and death. Instead of this model of ethics, I commend an approach that upholds the prospect of concord between the believing community and the world, of the religious and the secular, even if these are somewhat inevitably arbitrary categories. In this approach, religious and civil loyalties are not pitted against each other, but rather exist on a continuum of provenance and perfection. KeywordsAquinas, Hauerwas, Cavanaugh, Virtue, SectarianismIn The Myth of Religious Violence, William Cavanaugh mounts a critique of an enlightenment narrative that postulates a strict and inversely valued dichotomy between the "religious" and the "secular," where the former is rejected as irrational and violent thus legitimating the so-called "rational" violence of the latter.1 This essay seeks to show that this binary goes in the opposite direction as well. Sectarian outlooks of various kinds also postulate a strict and inversely valued dichotomy between the believing community and the world, where the former is the locus of truth and life and the latter, falsehood and death. Instead of this model of ethics, I commend an approach that
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.