Human dignity in Catholic thought

Hollenbach, David; Düwell, Marcus; Braarvig, Jens; Brownsword, Roger; Mieth, Dietmar

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511979033.031

Cited by 15 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…By stressing the inherent worth and dignity of every individual, Catholic high schools foster an environment that promotes respect, empathy and compassion. Some authors underline that the modern Catholic social teaching tradition views human dignity as the most basic standard to which all personal behaviour and social institutions are accountable (Hollenbach 2014;Whelan 2023). Second, Catholic high schools often provide a values-based education that highlights the importance of social responsibility and service to others (Suhy 2012).…”

Section: The Role Of Education On Human Dignity and Catholic Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Education on Human Dignity: Fostering Peace and Diminishing Violence

Kleindienst

2024

Religions

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The concept of human dignity postulates that every individual inherently possesses intrinsic worth. This means that upholding human dignity demands an end to war and violence. Rooted in Catholic social teachings, human life is sacred, and the dignity of the human being is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This becomes instrumental in educating students about the imperative nature of respect, empathy and compassion towards all, irrespective of sociocultural backgrounds and individual beliefs. Given the profound implications held by the concept of human dignity, through their influence on their students, Catholic educational institutions can wield substantial influence in fostering peacebuilding initiatives and mitigating conflict. This research article presents a comparative study between California and Slovenia, highlighting variations in the autonomy of Catholic high schools in terms of teaching and curriculum development and implementation. Qualitative research into private Catholic high schools in these two states shows that those with greater autonomy tend to foster a more comprehensive grasp of human dignity. These schools also demonstrate students’ enhanced ability to swiftly detect violations of human dignity, even when such breaches are not immediately evident. These observations emphasise the crucial role Catholic educational settings thereby play in the realm of peacebuilding and conflict deterrence, underscoring the need to embed a profound comprehension of human dignity in the educational framework.

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Section: The Role Of Education On Human Dignity and Catholic Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Education on Human Dignity: Fostering Peace and Diminishing Violence

Kleindienst

2024

Religions

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“…For instance, a "just wage," the salary suffi cient for the maintenance and wellbeing of a worker and dependents, varies with time and place. Thus, CST is subject to certain evolution in particular judgments, although not in principles, as scholars point out (Hollenbach, 2014 ;Rhonheimer, 2010 ). In summary, CST represents a body of moral refl ection forged through centuries on social issues; it seeks rational and faith-harmonious solutions in accordance with the characteristics of human nature within changing historical contexts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Dignity and The Dignity of Work: Insights from Catholic Social Teaching

Sisón¹,

Ferrero²,

Guitián³

2016

Bus. Ethics Q.

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ABSTRACT:What contributions could we expect from Catholic Social Teaching (CST) on human dignity in relation to the dignity of work? This article begins with an explanation of CST and its relevance for secular audiences. It then proceeds to identify the main features of human dignity based on the notion of imago Dei in CST. Next comes an analysis of the dignity of work in CST from which two normative principles are derived: the precedence of duties over rights and the priority of the subjective dimension of work over the objective dimension. Afterwards, the “right to work” and the “rights of workers” are engaged with from this normative perspective, particularly within the context of globalization.

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“…Furthermore, what might it mean, outside of Mattei's highly generalized moral discourse, to link French national distinction to a preference for human ‘dignity’ over human ‘liberty’? Mattei mocked Italy for its deference to Catholicism, and yet the fight for a transcendent, obligation‐based understanding of ‘human dignity’ is at the root of contemporary social Catholicism (Hollenbach 2014: 252). So what were the secular norms that allowed care providers to limit liberty and rights in the name of dignity?…”

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confidence: 99%

Making secular ‘French’ medical ethics: transcendent morality and patient subjectivities in southern French hospitals

Arkin

2020

Royal Anthropological Inst

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Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with physicians and nurses working in two state-funded southern French hospitals, this article explores why and how medical care providers connected their everyday deliberations about patient care to what they considered to be distinctively French forms of medical responsibility. Many healthcare professionals saw French medical morality in opposition to 'Anglo-Saxon' discourses of individual autonomy and transactional choice. In contrast to such 'transactionalism', they insisted that 'French' ethics required limits that transcended particular circumstances. And yet it was difficult for doctors and nurses working in secular and increasingly neoliberal hospitals to argue against individual transactionalism in an overtly moral register, one that might appear religious and paternalist. Through a close look at two different cases-one in assisted reproduction and one in palliative care-I show how the language of folk psychoanalysis provided some health professionals with a way out of this impasse. Care providers used pseudo-psychoanalytic accounts of patient subjectivities to depict individuals as incapable of knowing, let alone 'owning' or rationally mastering, themselves. This, in turn, suggests that some aspects of French secularity may be far less Protestant and liberal than contemporary anthropological work tends to assume. In the spring of 2017, a southern French hospital's public-facing bioethics institution, its espace éthique, brought in a national superstar-Jean-François Mattei-to give a talk on comparative bioethics. Mattei, a former legislator, practising doctor, and founding member of a prestigious regional bioethics institution, drew a crowd of doctors, nurses, and midwives to the old medical school amphitheatre. All were keen to hear a talk on what Mattei called 'various approaches to questions with no good answers'. But rather than talk about questions with no good answers, Mattei delivered an encomium to 'French' bioethics. Focusing on issues often covered in the French press, notably embryonic stem cell research and surrogacy, he told the audience that other countries had bad political or philosophical reasons for their approaches. According to Mattei, British doctors were too 'pragmatic' , engineering the category 'pre-embryo' as a 'convenience' that allowed scientists to experiment on embryos during the first weeks of existence, when they can still divide. This exceptional pre-person form of life, he noted, was a cynical ploy that allowed the British to claim that they were respecting human dignity from the moment the embryo became an indivisible entity, or a person.

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Human dignity in Catholic thought

Cited by 15 publications

References 1 publication

The Role of Education on Human Dignity: Fostering Peace and Diminishing Violence

The Role of Education on Human Dignity: Fostering Peace and Diminishing Violence

Human Dignity and The Dignity of Work: Insights from Catholic Social Teaching

Making secular ‘French’ medical ethics: transcendent morality and patient subjectivities in southern French hospitals

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