This book endorses feminist critiques of gender, yet upholds the insight of traditional Christianity that sex, commitment and parenthood are fulfilling human relations. Their unity is a positive ideal, though not an absolute norm. Women and men should enjoy equal personal respect and social power. In reply to feminist critics of oppressive gender and sex norms and to communitarian proponents of Christian morality, Cahill argues that effective intercultural criticism of injustice requires a modest defence of moral objectivity. She thus adopts a critical realism as its moral foundation, drawing on Aristotle and Aquinas. Moral judgment should be based on reasonable, practical, prudent and cross-culturally nuanced reflection on human experience. This is combined with a New Testament model of community, centred on solidarity, compassion and inclusion of the economically or socially marginalised.
Scholars and the public are well aware of the ethically controversial nature of euthanasia, artificial nutrition and hydration, and embryonic stem cell research. Moral theologians have extensively analyzed these issues, and religious leaders have publicly made them tests of orthodoxy. Literature on death and dying is therefore the main concern of this article, which also covers the literature on economic exclusion from adequate care at the end of life, low availability of hospice care, and inequities in global health resources.
James M. Gustafson, who died in 2021, has influenced generations of theologians and ethicists. In this article, five students, colleagues, and friends provide short reflections on what Gustafson has meant for their work as scholars of theology and religious ethics.
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