Culture and Ethics

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-73
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agency ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Global Ethics ◽  
Intercultural Research ◽  
Communicative Theories

The necessity for global ethics to guide international and intercultural research is by no means new phenomenon. In 1996, James Bretzke wrote about a then-growing appeal for global ethics, which led to a habitude of scholarly employment of hermeneutical and communicative theories that were thought to represent workable models for Christian ethics. The notion of morality has been subjected to descriptive references by socio-anthropologists when they report on the moral comportment of the societies they study. A descriptive explanation should suffice as a micro definition for the purpose of associating the notions of ethics and morality with the conduct of individuals on the basis of membership affiliation. A normative definition that is applicable to all humans would depict a macro or universal account. Gert and Gert specified that a condition of rationality is almost always a requirement for moral agency.

Cultural Particularity and the Globalisation of Ethics in the Light of Inculturation

1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Bretzke
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Ethical System ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Principal Elements ◽  
Communicative Theories

Increased interest in the so-called “globalisation of ethics” has led to a number of studies which utilise various hermeneutical and communicative theories to sketch out viable paradigms for developing a fundamental Christian ethics as a whole. Scant attention has been given to the cultural particularity of each and every ethos and ethical system. This article rehearses the principal elements of the concerns raised by the globalisation of ethics and then focuses on the particularity of culture using insights from both cultural anthropology and inculturation. The Confucian context of Korea is employed to illustrate some of the issues raised by greater attention to cultural particularity.

Freedom, Responsibility, and Moral Agency

2019 ◽  
pp. 305-320
Author(s):  
Gerald McKenny
Keyword(s):  
Basic Principle ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
The Other

The concepts of freedom, responsibility, and moral agency are tightly interwoven in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s thought and have to do with the relation of subject to the other that is at the centre of Bonhoeffer’s ethics and theological anthropology. This chapter presents and critically examines these three concepts. It argues that Bonhoeffer’s key notion of responsibility for the other (that is, liability) is an important and permanent contribution to Christian ethics. It also argues that Bonhoeffer’s notions of the responsibility of the agent (that is, imputability) and the agent’s responsibility to the other (that is, accountability) are attenuated, to the detriment of his ethics. Finally, the chapter argues that Bonhoeffer’s treatment of vicarious representative action as an expression of responsibility for the other is more ambiguous and less suited to be a basic principle of social ethics than Bonhoeffer supposes.

scholarly journals Moral Intuition, Social Sin, and Moral Vision: Attending to the Unconscious Dimensions of Morality and Igniting the Moral Imagination

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 292
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Sweeny Block
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agency ◽  
Moral Imagination ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Moral Intuition ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Moral Vision ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Observable Actions ◽  
Future Work

This paper argues that the unconscious dimensions of the moral life—for example, moral vision, moral imagination, and distorted consciousness—are some of the most urgent provinces of moral theology today. Historically, moral theology was concerned with moral quandaries and observable actions, and moral agents were understood to be rational, deliberate, self-aware decision makers. Cultures of sin, such as racism and sexual violence, require that moral theologians reconceive of moral agency. Confronting these unconscious dimensions of the moral life requires integrating research in disciplines such as science, sociology, history, and anthropology with Christian ethics, pushing the boundaries of what has traditionally been understood to be the domain of moral theology. As an example, this paper draws upon the mutually reinforcing theories of moral intuition, developed by social and moral psychologists, and recent theories of social sin in Christian ethics, arguing that attention to the unconscious province of the moral life is necessary for developing an accurate conception of moral agency and for future work in moral formation. This paper concludes with a modest proposal for how stories might enable awareness of our distorted consciousness.

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