scholarly journals Moral earthquakes and our response: Can ethics make a difference?

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 589
Author(s):  
RN Richardson

The major conflicts that shake our world are often driven by deep seated religious and cultural differences – they seem so overwhelming and run so deep that a seismological metaphor seems appropriate. How can ethics help to resolve these conflicts when much twentieth century ethical theory understood its role to be “neutral as regards actual conduct”? Alasdair MacIntyre rightly criticised the ethics of the Enlightenment project, but his own positive proposals do not seem to offer a clear way to address major moral conflicts. Can Christian ethics and the Christian church play a constructive role in our multi-faith and multicultural world? A practical ecumenical proposal is considered and is seen to offer a bridge across the theory-action divide; to draw together some positive suggestions of MacIntyre and other socio-ethicists; and to foreground the important role that the church might play in responding to major moral conflicts.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Schick

This study defends the legitimacy of the Enlightenment project by way of its different realizations in the philosophies of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. Today, Enlightenment as a cosmopolitan project with a global claim is often considered synonymous with Western chauvinism. The assertion of a universally binding reason is all too obviously inconsistent with the much-cited recognition of cultural differences. In contrast, it is the conviction brought forward in this book that an adequately understood Enlightenment is an unconditional right of every person taking an active interest in a self-determined way of life. Only the realization of this conception of Enlightenment can provide the required space for the reciprocal recognition of human differences to freely unfold.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-93
Author(s):  
Yusak Setianto ◽  
Ferry Mahulette

Abstract Ruwatan is a form of ceremony in Javanese society that aims to free people from bad luck and the disasters that will befall on them. Some Javanese Christians who still perform the Ruwatan ceremony. The Ruwatan ceremony itself was rejected by the church and priests, especially the Javanese Christian Church/ Gereja Kristen Jawa (GKJ). This article itself aims to understand the Ruwatan model by Javanese Christians and to review it in a christian ethics related to the implementation of Ruwatan by Javanese Christian. The method used is a qualitative method with a field observation approach. The speakers were Javanese Christians who participated in Ruwatan, cultural practitioner, and priests of GKJ. We found the fact that there are two models of Ruwatan done by Javanese Christians. We give the terms with Javanese Christians A and B. Javanese Christians A do Ruwatan as in general, namely the style of Yogyakarta and Surakarta. While the Javanese Christian B performs Ruwatan that has been contextualized in the form of bidston/ pandonga worship. The Church and GKJ Priests themselves support the Ruwatan model carried out by Javanese Christian B which presents Jesus as the Human Guardian. In conclusion after being reviewed in christian Ethics, the Ruwatan carried out by Javanese Christian A cannot be justified in terms of both the motive and the action. Contrary, the Javanese Christianity B can be accepted and implemented because it is not in conflict with the Bible.   Keywords: ruwatan; javanese christians; bidston/ pakempalan pandonga; javanese christian church; christian ethics   Abstrak Ruwatan merupakan suatu bentuk upacara di masyarakat Jawa yang bertujuan untuk membebaskan manusia dari nasib buruk maupun malapetaka yang akan menimpa dirinya. Tidak sedikit orang Jawa Kristen yang masih melakukan upacara Ruwatan. Upacara Ruwatan sendiri ditolak pelaksanaannya oleh gereja dan pendeta, khususnya Gereja Kristen Jawa (GKJ).  Artikel ini sendiri bertujuan untuk memahami model Ruwatan yang dilakukan orang Jawa Kristen serta meninjauan nya secara etika Kristen terkait pelaksaan Ruwatan oleh orang Jawa Kristen. Metode yang digunakan ialah metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan observasi lapangan. Narasumbernya merupakan Orang Jawa Kristen peserta Ruwatan, budayawan, serta pendeta GKJ. Peneliti menemukan fakta bahwa terdapat dua model Ruwatan yang dilakukan oleh orang Jawa Kristen. peneliti memberi istilah dengan Orang Jawa Kristen A dan B. Orang Jawa Kristen A melakukan Ruwatan seperti pada umumnya yaitu bergaya Yogyakarta dan Surakarta. Sedangkan orang Jawa Kristen B melakukan Ruwatan yang telah dikontekstualisasikan dalam bentuk ibadah bidston/ pakempalan pandonga. Gereja dan Pendeta GKJ sendiri mendukung model Ruwatan yang dilakukan oleh orang Jawa Kristen B yang mana menghadirkan Yesus sebagai Juru Ruwat Manusia. Kesimpulannya setelah ditinjau secara etika Kristen, maka Ruwatan yang dilakukan oleh orang Jawa Kristen A tidak dapat dibenarkan baik secara motif dan tindakan pelaksanaannya. Sebaliknya, Ruwatan orang Jawa Kristen B dapat diterima dan dilaksanakan karena tidak bertentangan dengan Alkitab.   Kata Kunci: ruwatan; orang jawa kristen; bidston/ pakempalan pandonga; gereja kristen jawa; etika kristen


1994 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-64
Author(s):  
Klaus Nürnberger

AbstractThis article offers a condensed survey of justice and peace issues in Christian ethics. It was originally written for an evangelical encyclopedia but was not accepted by the editors, possibly because of its historical critical and social critical stance. It begins with the historical origins of the concepts of law in the Old Testament, namely covenant law and cosmic order, their profound transformations in biblical history and their final form in the New Testament. Then we mention a few important developments in the history of the church from the Constantinian reversal, over the Reformation and the Enlightenment to the modern revolutionary spirit. Then we highlight a few aspects of the modern discussion, such as the accelerating development of science and technology, the emergence of a global, highly imbalanced economy, the rise and fall of Marxist socialism, a renewed upsurge of ethnic sentiments, and so on. Finally we offer a few directives for the contemporary debate, focusing on the relation between justice and peace.


Pneuma ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Gros

Abstract In the long course of Christian history there have been many expressions of the action of the Holy Spirit in renewing the Christian Church through a variety of renewal movements. Two such movements are the twentieth-century Pentecostal movement and the thirteenth-century Franciscan movement. While there is no specific historical link one with the other, there are resources in the older movement, with its concern for direct human experience of Christ, its return to biblical poverty, a hope of renewing the church by a restoration of biblical holiness, its experience of gradually integrating its radical view of the end of time with the institutional church, and its impulsive missionary outreach, that offer many lessons for the newer movement as it serves worldwide Christianity.


2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Wall

AbstractThis essay argues that children's rights will adequately transform societies only when the very concept of “human rights” is reimagined in light of childhood. In this case, human rights would be understood as grounded, not in modernist ideas of autonomy, liberty, entitlement, or even agency, but in a postmodern circle of responsibility to one another. This “childist” interpretation of rights is constructed by examining various forms of child-centered ethical theory in Western history; their impacts on major human rights theories of the Enlightenment and today; alternative visions implied in twentieth century international children's rights agreements; new theoretical groundings arising out of postmodern ethics; and the possibility of human rights as truly including all humanity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Amin Mudzakkir

ABSTRACT: This paper will discuss rationality and ethics in the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre. Like other communitarian thinkers, tradition is the key word in his thinking. MacIntyre's rationality and ethics are tradition-based rationality and ethics. The return of tradition in the debate of rationality and ethics is a critique of the Enlightenment project which assumes that tradition is irrational. But MacIntyre also disagrees with the post-enlightenment argument with a relativist and perspective tendency. However the rationality and ethics proposed by MacIntyre still has a certain principle of objectivity. Used in contemporary realities, including in Indonesia, Alasdair Macintyre's thought is useful for understanding political identity critically. KEYWORDS: rationality, ethics, traditions, communiatrian, Alasdair Macintyre 


2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Saresella

Though a Catholic country, Italy has been distinguished by the presence of a deeply-rooted Socialist Party. At the beginning of the twentieth century, encouraged by the economic and social changes taking place as well as by a new and growing awareness, a number of Catholics decided to open up to a dialogue with the socialist world. Some, such as Don Murri, identified Turati's party as a possible political interlocutor, in the conviction that the programmes of the democratic Catholics and those of the left had many elements in common. Others sensitive to modernist issues, particularly in intellectual circles, believed that Christianity at its origins and the early forms of socialism shared the same basic identity. Thus some scholars (including Father Ernesto Buonaiuti) chose to focus on the origins of the church, convinced that examples could be found there of how the world could be changed according to Christian ethics. The response of left-wing culture to these ideas was varied. Some, such as Camillo Prampolini, an exponent of “evangelical socialism,” appeared to be interested in a dialogue, like those socialists who were ready to accept idealist inspiration. The party leadership, instead, barred any suggestion of debate, convinced that Marxism was an alternative to Christianity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeppe Bach Nikolajsen

Abstract In all its diversity, Lutheran ethics places a pronounced emphasis on the universal aspects of theological ethics. This article argues that due to the increasing pluralization of many societies in recent decades, however, it is becoming more and more relevant to develop the particular aspects of theological ethics in the Lutheran tradition. Holding together both the universal and particular aspects of theological ethics constitutes a position of relevance for a pluralistic societal situation. Such a position enables the Christian church to maintain its distinctiveness and, at the same time, to be engaged in dialogue with other positions. In this way, the church will at once stand for a tradition-determined distinctiveness and be engaged in a tradition-transcending dialogue. Consequently, this position is characterized by both distinctiveness and openness.


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