Studies in Christian Ethics current issue

Becoming Responsible in Christian Ethics

Lovin, R. W. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

The works of H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr provide an appropriate starting point for renewed attention to the idea of responsibility in Christian ethics. While responsible choice and ‘the responsible society’ were important themes in ecumenical Protestant ethics in Britain and the US from the 1930s to the late 1950s, the idea has been neglected in recent decades. German theology, however, has considered Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wartime writings on the ‘venture of responsibility’ and a biblical theology of judgment and responsibility in light of a growing literature in philosophy and social thought that structures the moral life around a technological society’s responsibility for the human future. These different ways of thinking about responsibility invite further theological and ethical reflection on their history, their disagreements, and their possibilities for the future.

The Niebuhrian Legacy and the Idea of Responsibility

Ottati, D. F. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr developed different stances in theological ethics as well as contrasting interpretations of important circumstances and events. Despite their differences, however, when it came to the idea of responsibility, they shared a fundamental insight about the situated character of human agency. Their insight points to a substantial if also flexible Niebuhrian legacy in theological ethics, and promising and problematic features of this legacy have continued to engage the critical and constructive energies of diverse thinkers, including James M. Gustafson, Gordon D. Kaufman, Robin W. Lovin, and William Schweiker.

The Concept of Responsibility: Dilemma and Necessity

Schoberth, W. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

Beginning with a critique of Max Weber’s famous, but misleading distinction between an ‘ethics of intention’ and an ‘ethics of responsibility’, the article brings attention to the elucidating analysis of the concept of responsibility by the German philosopher Georg Picht. Originally a juristic term, responsibility was applied to eschatology and so became a fundamental ethical concept. By separating the concept from its theological background it remains a necessary idea for modern societies but increasingly loses its definition. The concept suffers from overemphasising the autonomous subject, which is overburdened by the universality of responsibility. Therefore a ‘polis ethic’ is needed: not the isolated subject, but subjects in community are its authors. For Christians all human responsibility is preceded by God’s actions and held by God’s grace.

The Drama of Social Sin and the (Im)Possibility of Solidarity: Reinhold Niebuhr and Modern Catholic Social Teaching

Firer Hinze, C. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

Recent Catholic social teaching’s treatments of social sin and its proposed remedy, neighbor-love conceived as solidarity, represent genuine advances in this modern Christian tradition. This essay asks what Niebuhr’s ethical analysis might add to, or question about, these Catholic interpretations. After briefly describing how these themes are enunciated in post-Vatican II documents, and Niebuhr’s approach to like issues, I identify several challenges, cautions and additions that Niebuhr might offer to Catholic leaders seeking to understand social sin and to promote solidary action. Suggesting the merits of a more ‘Niebuhrian’ Catholic social ethic, and a more ‘Catholic’ Niebuhrian realism, I argue that articulating a Catholic social agenda with a Niebuhrian perspective can address weaknesses that undercut each tradition’s ability to motivate and sustain effective work for justice. Both traditions also need to better connect social ethics and spirituality, and more systematically account for the social-theoretical assumptions their moral discourse depends upon or implies.

Responsibility as Response: Biblical-Theological Remarks on the Concept of Responsibility

von Lupke, J. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

The term of responsibility is ambiguous. In a general sense it means nothing more than answering questions about human behaviour (in Greek: logon didonai; in Latin: rationem reddere). In order to get a more precise sense of responsibility this article discusses concepts of responsibility, worked out by Albert Schweitzer, Hans Jonas, Richard Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The discussion is concentrated on two problems: (1) extensification of responsibility in accordance with the expansion of technological power; (2) limitation and intensification of responsibility in accordance with human capability and readiness. The central question is that of the subject of responsibility: How becomes man, who abdicates responsibility, ‘the responsible self’ (Niebuhr)? Referring to this question the biblical language is of great importance as the word, which re-establishes communication between God and man. Responsibility in the biblical sense means the response to this word of God. Therein lies not only a radicalising and intensifying of responsibility, but also its enabling and limiting.

Responsibility and Moral Realities

Schweiker, W. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

This essay explores ‘responsibility’ within moral theory and around the question of God’s relation to the world and to acting and suffering human beings. Advancing reflection beyond the outlooks of twentieth-century theologians, the inquiry outlines a multidimensional position that interweaves different rationalities crucial to orienting responsible life. Actions and relations are responsible which respect and enhance the integrity of life. Responsibility is thereby not in itself the object or norm of the ethics but the form of moral existence. This account enables current thought to weave together previous arguments in Christian ethics in a way productive for our global times.

Obituary: Richard John Neuhaus (1936--2009)

Meilaender, G. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

Book Review: David F. Ford, Christian Wisdom: Desiring God and Learning in Love, Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine, 16 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). xiv + 412 pp. {pound}45/US$85 (hb), ISBN 978-0-521-87545-5; {pound}15.99/ US$29.99 (pb), ISBN 978-0-521-69838-2

Moberly, W. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

Book Review: Stephen J. Pope, Human Evolution and Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). xiii + 359 pp. {pound}50/US$95 (hb), ISBN 978-0-521-86340-7

Clark, S. R. L. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT

Books Received

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:58:08 PDT