Recent Dissertations in Christian Ethics - Ethical Perspectives

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Recent Dissertations in Christian Ethics

Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree in Religious Studies and the Degreeof Doctor in Theology (STD) — Faculty of Theology (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

ANCKAERT, Luc, God, wereld en mens in het twee-stromenland tussen westerse wijsbegeerte en bijbelsewijsheid. Een filosofische, ethische en theologischedialoog met het ternaire denken van Franz Rosen-zweig. [God, world and humans in the Zweistromlandbetween western philosophy and biblical wisdom. Aphilosophical, ethical and theological dialogue with theternary thinking of Franz Rosenzweig.] (STD) Promot-er: Roger Burggraeve

Interest in the thought and ideas of Frans Rosenzweighas grown significantly in recent years. The purpose ofthis dissertation is to explore the internal dynamics ofhis principal work Der Stern der Erlösung (The Star ofRedemption) and to inquire into its relevance forcontemporary philosophical, ethical and theologicalreflection. Following a detailed bibliography, part ofwhich was published separately in 1990, the introduc-tory chapter attempts to situate Rosenzweig’s life,thought and the reception of his work. In addition, aneffort is made to explain the main questions raised byRosenzweig as these are developed in a number oftexts from Zweistromland, questions related to theexistence of God, the reality of the world and thefreedom of the human person.

Part I examines Rosenzweig’s perspective on God,the world and the human person at an archaeologicallevel, prior to their entry into reality. These threeirreducible substances signify the disintegration of anidealistic one-dimensionality which would reduce allof reality to a single principle. The irreducible natureof these three substances also constitutes the transcen-dental precondition of their ternary relationality. Part II

examines the relationships between God, world andhuman person: creation, revelation and redemption.The basic paradox of experiential and transcendentalthinking (Stern I) is here transformed into the paradoxof an inclusive understanding of relational reality andan existential concept of revelation. Part III is devotedto Rosenzweig’s concept of truth. Truth is never com-

pletely and exclusively present in time, rather it isexperienced by Judaism and Christianity inclusively. Inthis way both religions partially refer to the trans-historical truth which constitutes a unified perspectiveon paradoxical reality.

From a methodological point of view, each part isintroduced by an elucidation of the philosophical andtheological background of Rosenzweig’s work, togeth-er with an articulation of its internal dynamics andcoherence. Rosenzweig’s own re-examination of theStern plays and important role here. Each section isconcluded with a critical dialogue. Attention to lan-guage forms the common framework for three person-al reflections: in a reflection rooted in the philosophyof language I examine what is actually happening inRosenzweig’s text; in a moral theological reflection Isystematise and critically examine the building blocksof a fundamental ethics; finally, in a theological evalu-ation I question the particular nature of Rosenzweig’sJewish ternary thinking in the Zweistromland betweenbiblical wisdom and western philosophy from theperspective of Christian trinitarian theology and Chris-tology. The mystery of the incarnation allows us to goone step further than Rosenzweig’s Jewish thought, atleast from a characteristically Christian perspective.

ARISTONDO SARACIBAR, Juan, For Me and For Oth-ers... A Christian Personalistic Perspective on OrganDonation and Transplantation. (STD) Promotor: PaulSchotsmans.

The ethical righteousness of harvesting organs fortransplantation from dead and living donors was debat-ed in the 1950s, together with the first medical proce-dures to that purpose. Afterwards, however, medicaltechniques have developed in such a way that organtransplantation is considered a standard treatment whenfacing some kidney, liver, lung, pancreas or heartdiseases. The spread of transplantation, and the discov-ery of new sources of organs such as animals and

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Ethical Perspectives 2 (1995)3, p. 141

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fetuses, have created some new ethical problems, andhave transformed old ones, in such a way that moraltheology is compelled to offer a more complete Chris-tian view in this particular arena. This is the purposeof the present doctoral thesis.

The thesis is divided into two main parts: I. TheState of the Medical Art of Transplantation, and II. theEthical Clarifications performed upon it. After a sum-mary of the history of transplantation, we show in thefirst part the various possibilities and challenges tomedicine and law regarding the harvest and allocationof organs for transplantation. Medical possibilities andsocietal policies concerning the harvesting of organsfrom living and dead donors, possibilities of harvestingfrom animals and fetuses, regulation of the distributionof organs among patients, etc., are briefly described.Part two begins with a presentation of our main ethicalreasoning, built upon a sound theological basis inaccordance with the magisterium of the Roman Catho-lic Church, and a sound reading of that magisterium.We offer a christian personalistic perspective on thequestions that the state of the art of transplantationpresents to ethical reasoning. In this sense, we dealwith the concept of human death and its characteris-tics, and how the ‘brain death’ set of criteria fulfillsthem. This also includes the question concerning thedisposal of the corpse, the moral status of the cadaverand the moral reasoning underlying the different poli-cies for harvesting applied in different countries. Sinceharvesting organs from cadavers has proved itself tobe insufficient for the time being, we reflect upon thejustification of the mutilation of a living person. Weexamine the evolution from the prohibition of organharvesting to its permission and encouragement, in-cluding the balance of risks-benefits and the need forand characteristics of the informed consent given bythe donor. Every practice entails its own dilemma.Challenged by the discoveries shown in the ‘State ofthe Art’ section, we study the relationship betweenaborting a fetus and donating fetal tissue by applyingthe concept of personhood to the human fetus andanalyzing the consent of the fetus under the differentpolicies for harvesting. Considering the near future, wereflect upon the ethical reasoning behind the use ofanimals for the needs of human beings, and the influ-ence of xenotransplants on the recipient’s personality.

Then we enter into an entirely different dimensionof the issue: the social-ethical concern of the allocation

of organs among patients in need. We analyze theadmission of patients to transplant-waiting lists, moreconcretely whether or not to accept foreigners or pa-tients with few chances of survival. Next, we presentthe ethical weighing up of criteria for admission totransplant, such as medical and social utility, patientcompliance, or commerce in organs, as well as themoral reasoning for macro-allocative decision-makingat national and international levels.

We conclude with the claim that the practice oforgan donation and transplantation strongly influencesthe value-system of a community/society. Our study,from a Christian perspective, may promote the clarifi-cation of these values and — where necessary — there-adaptation of the ranking of values in the value-system.

BENSON, Richard, Unwinding the Double Helix. TheEthical and Theological Implications of the HumanGenome Projects: A Moral Analysis from a Per-sonalist and Interdisciplinary Perspective. (STD) Pro-moter: Paul Schotsmans, co-promoter: Jean-JacquesCassiman.

The Human Genome Projects are a conglomeration ofautonomous national genetic research enterprises fo-cused on producing physical and linkage maps of theentire complement of human chromosomes and thebase-pair sequences of all or parts of those chromo-somes. As such, these projects have presented theoccasion to engage in an interdisciplinary moral inves-tigation of a contemporary bio-medical activity withsubstantial implications for society.

Our dissertation surfaces primarily, the ethical andsecondarily, the theological, implications emergingfrom humankind’s increased knowledge of, and subse-quent power to manipulate, its genome. The projectsare morally analyzed with a Personalist prism whichframes the ethical question that guides and directs theinvestigation: “Are the Human Genome Projects re-sponsible science at this point in human history?”

Our work addresses two distinct academic commu-nities; theologians and geneticists. As such the workadopts an ‘exterior’ logic of structure and an ‘interior’logic of method in offering a coherent addition to themoral discussion. The exterior logic is found in thefirst four of our five general sections, which follow aLonerganian method: experience, understand, judge,

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and act. An ‘internal’ logic accompanies and comple-ments the external structure. A consistent internalanalysis is supplied by a specific critique of the para-digms that support the twentieth century genetic ‘re-search project.’ That critique investigates the inherentlimits of ‘meaning’ and ‘accuracy’ found, essentially,in all paradigms. Our first section outlines the theolog-ical foundations, personalist perspective and bio-ethicalapproach that form the infrastructure of the subsequentanalysis. Besides framing the primary ethical question,personalism is employed to provide an historically,culturally and personally sensitive ethical perspective,in the Catholic tradition, that avoids the pitfalls ofnaive realism, physicalism and acultural, ahistorical, apriori ethical positivism. A second section presents the‘experience’ of the projects and provides a thoroughinvestigation of the scientific nature of the humangenome enterprises and a review of the contemporarystate of the national enterprises that combine to playthe individual parts of the international enterprise. Thethird section adds to the ‘understanding’ of the mean-ing of the genome projects by placing them in both thecontext of the historical development of the notions ofheredity and genetics, and that of twentieth centuryethical discussions concerning human genetics. Thefourth section presents the ‘analysis’ of the genomeprojects regarding their implications for society, medi-cine, and the understanding of human behavior andanthropological paradigms. It concludes that the humangenome projects can, indeed, be accepted as responsi-ble scientific enterprises, from a personalist perspec-tive, when restricted to understandings and applicationsof their data that respect the inherent internal andexternal limits (the ‘meaning’ and ‘accuracy’) of themendelian and post-mendelian genetic paradigms. Italso concludes that the genome projects will offersufficient data in support of concurrent contemporaryhuman genetic research to suggest that genetic para-digms will eventually complement the previous shiftsin anthropological understandings precipitated by theintegration of psychological paradigms. As a result ofthe increasing pressure of genetic data, anthropologicalparadigms will no doubt be challenged to move froman almost exclusive foundation in ‘nurture’ to one thatrespects and integrates the human limits implied in the‘nature’ of the genes. Our concluding section is com-prised of both a bibliography and scientific glossarypresented in a separate volume.

DANIEL, Amy. Towards a Theology of Healing andWholeness. (Ph.D.) Promoter: Kris Depoortere.

Although illness and healing are central to humanexistence as well as central concerns in religion, sys-tematic theological reflection on these issues has beenrelegated until now to the provision of the theologicalbasis for the practical area of pastoral care of the sickand for the sacrament of the anointing of the sick.Such reflection has too often focused on illness andsuffering at the expense of healing and wholeness. Todate, fundamental theological reflection on illness andhealing has been scarce in mainstream academic theol-ogy. Such a situation contrasts greatly with the pro-found changes that have taken place in the medicalsciences as well as in society in the way human healthand sickness are perceived. As a result, critical evalua-tion of the overall Christian response to illness hasalso been scarce. This study aims at formulating afundamental theology of healing and wholeness inorder to fill a serious gap that exists in academic the-ology. Since the practice of charismatic healing hasbeen known to embody such a theology in an implicitmanner, the theological underpinnings of this practicewill be used as a starting point.

The dissertation is divided into four chapters. Thefirst two chapters will undertake a historical-criticalanalysis of the practice of charismatic healing in theCatholic Church — something which has not beenattempted until now. The first chapter will locate thehistorical origins of this practice in the rise of Pente-costalism in the twentieth century. It will also trace itstheological background in the developements that tookplace during the Second Vatican Council. The secondchapter will provide a critical analysis of the pastoralpractice of charismatic healing. It will also isolate themain theological presuppositions of the practice andlist the theological questions that are raised by itwhich need to be examined in the light of criticalbiblical scholarship. The third chapter will be devotedto a systematic investigation of healing in the NewTestament. It will show that healing was intrinsic toJesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Healingwas a distinct theme in both his teaching as well as inhis actions. Given the modern tendency to demytholo-gise the narratives in which Jesus is portrayed as ahealer and an exorcist, the third chapter will disclosethat, according to the criteria of critical biblical exege-

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sis, these narratives originate from an authentic gospeltradition. Similarly, the inclusion of a clear instructionto heal the sick in the mission charge that was givenby Jesus to his first disciples is shown to arise from anauthentic gospel tradition. Chapter three will alsoshow, by examining the Acts of the Apostles and theLetters of the New Testament, that healing was part ofthe ministry of the first disciples of Jesus and the laterChristian missionaries. In addition, some of the firstChristian communities operated as healing communi-ties.

The final chapter will begin by addressing thetheological questions that were raised (in chapter two)by the practice of charismatic healing in the light ofthe findings of chapter three. It will thus show thatalthough it can justifiably be criticised for theologicaldistortions, the practice has a firm basis in the NewTestament. Once these distortions are corrected, how-ever, the theological underpinnings of charismatichealing are revealed as a viable starting point for atheology of healing and wholeness. Chapter four willthen endeavour to formulate such a theology usingprecisely such a starting point. The resultant theologywill have a trinitarian basis which will focus on thenotion of continuous creation. Such a notion allowscreation, salvation and healing to be perceived asbelonging to the same continuing activity of the Cre-ator God in history. Consequently, health, well-beingand wholeness can be defined in terms of the shalomthat is intended by the Creator to prevail in the createdworld. Finally, consideration will be given to the im-plications that such a theology will have for ecclesi-ology and ecclesial practice.

DE BOER Sjaak, The Sacrament of the Anointing of theSick in the Latin American Context of Suffering causedby Poverty; a Challenge for Greater Relevance. (Ph.D.)

Promoter: Lambert Leijssen.

In four parts and 11 chapters this dissertation arguesthat a relevant celebration of the sacrament of the sickwith the suffering poor cannot come about if thecauses which lead to their pain are not taken intoaccount. If sickness results from poverty, then not onlythe sick person but the whole situation which led tothis suffering needs to be healed. Individual and col-lective anointing of the impoverished sick offers anopportunity to bring out the pain of the poor and to

organise co-Christians to alleviate that pain throughprayer and concrete actions.

In the first part we examine how Western andLatin American sacramental theology serves to devel-op a relevant framework for the sacrament of the sickamong the suffering poor in Latin America. Startingfrom that local reality, with liberation theologians likeGutiérrez, Sobrino, L. Boff, Ellacuría, Segundo,Codina and others, we see how the Christian commu-nity can carry out its liberating sacramental role andhow their theology influences liturgy with those whoare suffering. The second part analyzes how peopledealt with sickness and healing in the Scriptures andsituates the care of the sick in the Letter of Jameswithin the indispensable context of wholeness, solidari-ty and justice. The third part presents approaches tosuffering and healing within liberation theology. Thistheology contributes to the elimination of pain-causingstructures and discovers God’s nearness in this pro-cess. Liberating evangelisation enters the churchthrough the participation of the suffering poor whourge her to combine her preaching with working to-wards justice. Poverty as a result of unjust economicand political structures is considered the main cause ofhuman suffering. Identifying the sacrament of the sickas a celebration of solidarity with the suffering poorrequires a definition of solidarity. Recent times haveattached various interpretations to the notions of heal-ing, health and cure. We explore the ethical side ofhealing and healers, establishing the unique contribu-tion of the Christian message and Afro-Brazilian reli-gions in the healing process. In part four, through aselection of official secular and religious post-Vatican II documents which express the need for soli-darity with the suffering poor, we look for elementswhich help to construct a relevant pastoral theologyand liturgy around sickness and suffering in LatinAmerica. We examine the effect of the three generalLatin American bishops’ conferences (Medellín,Puebla and Santo Domingo) on the situation of thesuffering poor, the healing of creation and a commit-ment to a liberating, inculturated liturgy. When justicebecomes a condition for and a consequence of liturgywith the sick it becomes a source of transformation inan unjust society. Liturgy alienated from real life isinsensitive to suffering and may serve to maintainpain-causing structures. We come to the conclusionthat the participation of the suffering poor transforms

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the liturgy and the church, and that the collectiveanointing of the weakened contributes to the healing ofsociety. This form of anointing offers an opportunityin which the social aspect of suffering is emphasisedand a response to unnecessary suffering is organised asa sign of Christ’s victory.

DE GUZMAN, Emmanuel S., Filipino Base Communi-ties: Description and Analysis of the Phenomenon inthe Context of the Local Church History. (Ph.D.) Pro-moter: George De Schrijver.

During the past three decades, the Catholic church haswitnessed the phenomenal rise and proliferation ofbase communities in their varied forms, thrusts, andundertakings. In general terms, these refer to smallgroups of Christians of 10 to 30 people who meet forcommon prayer, Bible study, and social action.

While there is an abundance of scholarship on thebiblical foundation and contemporary ecclesiologicalsignificance of the base communities, there is stillmuch to be said about their place in the specific histo-ries of the local churches where they have evolved.This current work enters into a research terrain that ismarginally explored. It seeks to describe and analyzethe praxis of the base communities in the context ofboth the present episode of the church’s life and itslonger historical past, including as well, the history ofa particular people and their society. This historico-critical investigation focuses on the Philippines as thecountry-setting.

Part I examines the actual operative state of theFilipino basic Christian or ecclesial communities(BCCs/BECs). Chapter One revisits the larger socialsituation between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s,i.e., the crucial period when the BCCs/BECs sprung upand multiplied. Chapter Two tracks down the begin-nings, growth and spread of the BCCs/BECs as seenfrom a nationwide angle, especially regarding theirchanging leitmotifs, theological elaboration, and practi-cal accents in relation to the shifts in the localchurch’s pastoral praxis and its involvement in Philip-pine society. Chapter Three dissects the internal fea-tures of the base communities. Lines of similarity anddifference are established with respect to the com-munities’ membership in their demo-geographic set-tings, organisational types and approaches, concreteactivities and programs, and emerging leadership ori-

entations and styles vis-à-vis the different ecclesial‘models’ of base communities. Chapter Four highlightsthe potential of the BCCs/BECs as vehicles of religiousand social change, and how the local church has, by1991, considered the communities as the most signifi-cant expression of the vision of the church as a com-munity of disciples in the service of the world.

Part II inquires into the roots, precedents, or paral-lels of some elements in the praxis of the BCCs/BECsfrom the vantage-point of the longer historical past ofthe local church and of the Filipino people. Fourthemes are selected for investigation in the context ofvarious historical periods. Chapter Five traces the‘barangay’ and barrio socio-pastoral organisations inthe pre-conquest times and the Spanish colonial era(1521/65-1898). Chapter Six deals with the relationbetween religious ideals and political action, especiallyin the course of the late 19th-century popular move-ments and during the 1896 Revolution against Spanishrule. Chapter Seven assesses the approaches to socialchange taken by the church and the secular peasantand labor leagues to the issues and challenges underthe American and Commonwealth regimes (1899-1935/1935-1941). Chapter Eight attends to the chang-ing understanding and practice of lay participation inthe Philippine church through the colonial eras, andspecifically, during the nation’s post-independenceyears (1946 till mid-1960s). Chapter Nine synthesisesthe major findings of the study, identifies the pastoralimport of the base communities, with their strengthsand weaknesses, and presents recommendations fortheir further development towards the building up ofthe local church.

The dissertation offers two principal conclusions.First, the BCCs/BECs represent a new ecclesial praxisthat has grown out of the concrete socio-historicalmatrix of the times. They are renewing the face of thePhilippine church, and more importantly, they aremaking Christianity a transformative or liberatingpower, a sign of hope and solidarity, in the midst ofpoverty and structural injustice. Second, their evolutionis integrally linked to the historical past of the localchurch and of the Filipino people. They have drawnelements from the past which can serve as concreteguides for a better comprehension of their praxis to-day. The BCCs/BECs are indeed an indigenous phenom-enon that is deeply Filipino and an embodiment of achurch journeying with the Spirit.

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DEFREYNE, Bert, Het onpeilbare peilen. Zinoriëntatieen zorgverlening aan dementerenden. [Measuring theunmeasureble. Meaning-orientation and care-giving forthe demented.] (STD) Promoter: Paul Schotsmans; co-promoter: Kris Depoortere.

This dissertation aims at achieving a ‘total vision’ onthe care of the demented. After broadly situating theageing process in chapter 1, and the dementia syn-drome in chapter 2, the basic shape of an integratedand hermeneutical model for the orientation of mean-ing within a moral framework is delineated.

This proceeds with an examination of the way inwhich medicine deals with illness, ageing and demen-tia in chapter 3. As an exponent of our contemporarysocial frame of reference, medicine is firmly orientedtowards the physical while the more personal andhuman aspects of being sick tend to be undervalued.Medical discourse surrounding dementia confirms thisobservation. In light of this, an appeal is made for anextra-paradigmatic medical approach to dementia, onein which the demented person is treated as a uniquelife story with a specific orientation of meaning. In oursearch for a dynamic model for the orientation ofmeaning, the personality theory of V.E. Frankl hasprovided a useful point of departure. Frankl primarilydevelops the noetic or spiritual dimension of beinghuman, i.e. the human person is a spiritual being andis fundamentally oriented towards other human per-sons. Moreover, Frankl claims that every human per-son is, whether consciously or unconsciously, orientedtowards a transcendental meaning, and that this orien-tation towards higher meaning is universal. In chapter5, the model for the orientation of meaning is complet-ed from the perspective of narrative theology whichgives transcendental meaning a personal face, that ofthe God of Jesus Christ who took flesh in humanform. Furthermore, narrative theology also makes itclear that the interiority of the human person is de-fined by one’s own life story, the story of one’s fellowhuman beings and the story of God with humanity.The last of which constitutes a basic narrative whichgives foundation to all other narratives.

With chapter 6 the basic shape of our model forthe orientation of meaning is in place, becoming ourguide in the elaboration of an orientation of meaningin the care of the demented. This process of care is inneed of a ‘vision’ of existence in which a place is

given to the physical erosion and psychological deteri-oration so characteristic of dementia. Our model al-lows such a vision to emerge, placing the accent onthe caring nearness of God to humanity and providinga basic foundation for the justification of the care forthe demented.

The fact that our model and its implicit understand-ing of what it means to be human are not withoutprior foundation is explained in the final and seventhchapter which shows that it is consistent with certainfundamental moral and pastoral theological ends.

DRAULANS, Veerle, Christelijk geïnspireerd sociaalengagement tussen wenselijkheid en werkelijkheid.Theologisch-ethische reflectie, documentenanalyse enempirisch onderzoek over de Christelijke Arbeiders-beweging vandaag. [Christian inspired social engage-ment between desirability and reality. Theological-ethical reflection, document analysis and empiricalresearch relating to today’s Christian Workers Move-ment.] (STD) Promoter: Roger Burggraeve.

This dissertation is divided into three parts. Part one,entitled “Reflecting on the identity of Christian socialorganisations in a secularised world,” consists of threechapters. The first chapter, “Reflecting on secularisa-tion,” attempts to unravel the jumble of meaningsassociated with the concept of ‘secularisation’ andoutline the event of secularisation within the context ofmodernisation processes which themselves are becom-ing more and more the object of critical reflection. Inthis chapter a number of theological comments arealigned with the way in which sociological literaturereflects on secularisation. The second chapter, “Re-flecting on social movements,” attempts to arrange thevarious social movements using a working definitionand a system of classification, and then to describe thecore of social movements as such by means of a her-meneutical analysis. At the same time an analysis ismade of the way in which traditional and new socialmovements such as the ‘Communitarians’ presentthemselves in terms of ideology and social ethics. Thissecond chapter offers a description of the position ofsocial organisations in the social centrefield togetherwith an evaluative judgement of the contribution ofsuch organisations towards ethical motivation. In thethird chapter, “Reflecting on identity,” following thedefinition of a number of key concepts (identity, im-

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age, specificity, uniqueness, foundation, signature), asketch is given of a number of theological modelsrelated to Christian-inspired social-ethical engagement,namely: the ‘ecclesiocentric’; the ‘church-narrativewitness’ model; the ‘diaconal’; and the ‘contextualreligious-communicative’. At the end of this thirdchapter a personal theological model is developedwhich advocates specificity and a-specificity concur-rently.

Taking into account the concrete operation of con-temporary social organisations, is what one mightconsider theologically desirable, actually feasible inthis day and age? The second part of our researchseeks to answer this question in the actual context ofthe Christian Workers Movement. By means of ananalysis of documents spanning the period from WWII

to the present, eight separate chapters examine thedominant values of the various organisations and theway in which social-ethical motivation was or was notrelated to Christian conviction.

In the third part of our research, “Specificity be-tween impasse and impulse? Limits and possibilities ofa particular Christian Workers Movement,” the resultsof part I are confronted with the results of part II. Atthe same time, the empirical results of research donein the context of this project, which consisted of ques-tioning 839 CWM-committee members from the 17 Fle-mish committees concerning values, church, politicsand the CWM to which they belong, are processed andincorporated. By analogy to the structure of the firstpart of our research, an adequate reaction was soughtto the unavoidable advance, so to speak, of secularisa-tion, the ethicisation of the narrative tradition and theconsequences of the CWM’s concern for new socialmovements. In the final considerations we includesome suggestions concerning the future identity devel-opment of the CWM, taking the tension between desir-ability and reality into account.

DUNSON, Donald H., Beyond Economics: The US Bish-ops’ Communitarian Answer to the Crisis of the Amer-ican Ethos. (Ph.D.) Promotor: Johan Verstraeten.

As the tenth anniversary of the United States bishops’major pastoral letter on the US economy approaches,this dissertation delves anew into the foundationalinsights that this document contributed to the on-goingpublic dialogue in the United States. The work begins

with an examination of the social and cultural ethos ofthe US in the 1980s, specifically exploring a number ofthe dominant trends fragmenting life in the US,namely, possessive individualism, racism, pervertedincome distributions, consumerism, and an absence ofa common moral vision. A key tenet of this inquiry isthat the bishops’ letter on ‘economics’ cannot be un-derstood apart from the insight that the economy is injeopardy because the United States ethos, which under-girds the economy, is in crisis. This crisis has to dowith the fundamental purposes of society and is, ulti-mately, a crisis of moral meaning and solidarity.

Have the people of the United States lost theirsense of what they mean to one another, and, there-fore, their ability to articulate and attempt to fulfil theconsequences inherent in their necessarily being-in-society-with-others? How are the citizens of the UnitedStates to go about the task of building a just and com-passionate society? One of the fundamental answersgiven by the US bishops points to the need for a genu-ine and ongoing renewal of civic virtue. The politicaleconomist and current US Secretary of Labor RobertReich has observed that: “Individuals comprising asociety will sacrifice their personal well-being to thegreater good only if they feel connected to that societyin such a way that ‘the greater good’ has substantivemeaning for them.” This dissertation explores somekey concepts within the Catholic faith tradition incor-porated within the economic pastoral letter whichappear to be decisively capable of aiding in the devel-opment of such vital connections. The concepts of ‘thecommon good’, the ‘preferential option for the poor’,and the notion of ‘justice as participation’ are present-ed here as being attentive to the deeper aspirations ofthe human person for community and social solidarity.

The first chapter of this work, therefore, is anexamination of the social and cultural ethos of theUnited States in the 1980s. It is followed in chaptertwo by an analysis of several specific areas which theUS bishops have drawn attention to as pivotal spherescontributing to the moral crisis of the nation, in partic-ular the absence of a common moral vision.

The third chapter of this dissertation explores theintellectual background and drafting process of theeconomic pastoral letter. It examines how the pastoralletter came about — it’s origin, the positions held bythose people charged with articulating the guidingprinciples of the pastoral, and the key developmental

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changes that took place within the text over its stagesof development. Particular attention is given to thechief protagonists involved in the story of the econom-ic pastoral letter and its reception — Rembert Weak-land and Michael Novak.

It is the judgment of the US bishops that for the‘good society’ to flourish in the United States, individ-ual citizens must cultivate moral attachments to oneanother. Such attachments are concretised in the ‘pref-erential option for the poor’ and in the joint strivingstowards the achievement of the common good. Thesetwo concepts are of vital significance to the core mes-sage of “Economic Justice for All” and are examinedin detail in chapters four and five of this work.

The growing disparity between the nation’s richand poor has had drastic and subversive effects notonly upon the capacity of its citizens for genuine so-cial solidarity, but also upon the country’s capacity forunrestricted political participation. Therefore, chaptersix of this dissertation explores the theme of justice asparticipation, a critical and driving thrust that runsthroughout the economic pastoral letter.

One fact endures: any realistic appraisal of theeconomic and political situation in the United Statestoday reveals that serious questions concerning pover-ty, ideology, money, and power remain unabated with-in the nation. This dissertation attempts to demonstratethat the primary contribution which the US bishops’1986 pastoral letter “Economic Justice for All” madeto ongoing public discourse on these issues in the1980s was to show convincingly that an ethics thatdeals only with individualistic moral values and ac-tions is inherently flawed. The bishops succeeded indemonstrating how the joining together of ethics andeconomics in the United States context, through thetradition of political economy, is a prerequisite toenhancing the moral, social, and political environmentof the nation.

The societal crisis of the USA in the decade of the1980s was marked by a profound loss of understand-ing that the proper way for human beings to relate toone another is in community. This community isformed not on the basis of a kind of collective individ-ualism, but, rather, it is built upon the exercise ofmoral attachments that emanate from the desired, free-embrace of commitments which transcend individualself-centeredness and which link separate persons intrue solidarity.

ETIM, Patrick E., Church-State Relations in Light ofthe Fundamental Right to Religious Freedom: TheQuestion of State Religion and Peaceful Co-Existencein Nigeria, 1979-1987. (STD) Promoter: George DeSchrijver.

This study focuses on the relationship between Churchand State in the Nigerian context. Through much ofthe history of the church, an impartial relationshipbetween state and religion has not been easy to ac-complish. The precise nature of church-state relationsis at present a problem in Nigeria. Nigeria is a multi-religious nation seriously troubled by the problem ofpeaceful co-existence of its citizens. This is due main-ly to the opposing views of two of its predominantreligions, Islam and Christianity, regarding the rela-tionship between government and religion. The Mus-lims have argued for government adoption of Islam asstate religion, whereas the Christians, on the contrary,have opted for separation of religion and state. Thefindings of our study lead us to propose not merely asecular society for the Nigerian context, but morespecifically the pillars of a secular society, whosecommon aim is the attainment of a peacefully unitedsociety based on justice, equality and respect for theinalienable rights of all people of all faiths.

Chapter One deals with the fundamental principlesof Church-State relations in Europe as backgroundtopics: the principles of complete state domination ofthe church until 313, church-state alliance (313 -ca. 600), church domination of the state (the MiddleAges), and the separational principle of church-staterelations (which was first attempted in France between1792 and 1799 and intensified by the Separation Lawof 1905, which decided the final shape that the pres-ent-day French Church-State relations took). Theseparational principle is more reliable in the presentsituation in Nigeria than the ancient and medievaltypes, because it guarantees respect for the people’sbasic right to religious freedom.

Chapter Two investigates the operational principlesof Church-State relations in the colonial state of Nige-ria. The nineteenth century missionary enterprise inNigeria was predominantly Protestant and British,whose operational principle in respect to church-staterelations was, and still is, the principle of religiousestablishment, in which a particular religion isfavoured and supported by a State. This does not mean

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that the idea of a state church was to have any futurein Nigeria. A new arrangement was made, whereby theopposed ideals of established state-churchism andcomplete separation fought for recognition. The solu-tion then was found in a compromise ostensibly fa-vourable to the partial separation of church and state.It was legitimate, therefore, to speak of an ecclesiasti-cal establishment which came to constitute somethingindistinguishable from ecclesiastical disestablishment,known as ‘quasi-establishment.’ This system guaran-teed the rights of the minorities.

Chapter Three focuses on the Catholic Church andthe new Independent State of Nigeria (1960). Hereattention is centered on a particular section of funda-mental human rights in the constitution of IndependentNigeria, namely the right to religious freedom. Thelegal meaning and significance of the right to religiousfreedom is examined. It is argued that the new Inde-pendent State is a secular state (based on a separation-al principle) by virtue of its provisions for religiousliberty and its exercise by the Nigerian citizens.

Chapter Four attempts a comparative analysis ofthe declarations in the Nigerian Constitution and thecontemporary Church Constitution (Vatican II) onchurch-state relations. This study aims at finding outwhether the contemporary Catholic solution to thechurch-state problems has much to offer Nigerianpoliticians and theologians in their search for a satis-factory solution to Nigerian social problems of injus-tice, inequality, discrimination, favouritism, and theproblem of peaceful co-existence.

Chapter Five examines new perspectives in church-state relations, the aftermath of the military interven-tion in Nigerian politics (1966-1970). The study aimsat finding out if the military regime has reaffirmed theprinciple of church-state relations as established in theera of the civilian administration from 1960 to 1966,or whether a new system has evolved. Like any otherregime of force, the Nigerian military regime adopteda hostile attitude towards the Church. Such militaryrule is anti-thetical to democracy. Human rights, espe-cially the Church’s freedom and the right to religiousliberty, had no value in the eyes of the military.

It is argued in Chapter Six that peaceful co-ex-istence cannot be achieved in a society that favours aparticular religion as the state religion (by imposing,for example, the Muslim sharia on non-Muslims). Inthe end, peaceful co-existence can only be achieved in

a secular state which respects the basic rights of itscitizens. This study evokes a secular state in whichthere should be no feeling of minority or majority,where all will live together peacefully as equal citi-zens.

FAULHABER, Gregory M., Politics, Law & the Church:An Examination of the Relationship Between Catholi-cism & American Law as Evoked by the ExchangeBetween Governor Mario M. Cuomo & Cardinal JohnJ. O’Connor. (STD) Promoter: Joseph A. Selling.

In recent times, there seems to be a growing tensionwithin the United States concerning the relationshipbetween politics, law, and the Roman Catholic Church.In many ways this strain has been made evident withthe dispute over the public policy of legalised abortion.However, the concern is more fundamental, involvinga search into the depths of what it means to be both aCatholic and a citizen in the concrete circumstances ofthe United States. Consideration of the proper rela-tionship between one’s faith and politics is primaryhere, and this involves issues of religious freedom,conscience, obedience to authority, political compro-mise, and other matters which touch upon the coreconvictions of any society.

These concerns influence the life of someone whois a Catholic and an United States public official in aspecial way. Such a person has the responsibilities ofhis or her office in addition to the duties of one’s faithand religion. He or she takes an oath to serve all thepeople of the community, and in the United States thatcommunity is represented by a wide range of peoplewith different religious persuasions and beliefs. AUnited States Catholic politician stands on the firingline in any conflict between the Catholic Church andUS law.

The various dimensions of this struggle are im-mense and too complex to be examined fully in thisone work, but they are illustrated well in the exchangebetween Mario M. Cuomo, Governor of New YorkState, and John J. O’Connor, Cardinal Archbishop ofNew York. Their discussion began in 1984 and attimes has become confused by a variety of factors, butthe questions which have been brought forth duringthat exchange are essential to the Catholic Church andthe nation as a whole. O’Connor, schooled in thetradition of an immutable natural law, speaks from the

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viewpoint of absolute moral truths, while Cuomoexpounds a pragmatic political world, based uponnegotiation and compromise. This paradigm articulateswell a foundational conflict present within UnitedStates society, the Roman Catholic Church, and theworld between them, and it is expounded in the firstchapter of this work.

The exchange between O’Connor and Cuomo callsforth a deeper understanding of the issues that liebehind their arguments, and the major portion of thedissertation attempts to do that. The second chapterdelves into the foundations of United States law andgovernment by a close inspection of the FoundingFathers of the United States, the documents whichthey created, and the traditions and philosophies be-hind them. US legal history is examined in order toobserve how US law has evolved from its foundations.Certain trends and developments are noted, and specialattention is paid to the understanding of the rolesplayed by God, religion, and natural law in that histo-ry. Throughout it all, we hope to come to a bettercomprehension of the legal tradition that is UnitedStates law. This is the tradition in which the US Catho-lic politician must operate today.

The third chapter considers the views of the US

Catholic Church in regard to politics and law. It ex-plores the teachings of Thomas Aquinas and observeshow that instruction has been applied to the UnitedStates political and legal scene by the US Catholicbishops over history. It probes the thoughts of JohnCourtney Murray, who stands at the nexus between theCatholic Church and US law. Finally, it brings us backto the circumstances that helped to evoke the inter-change between O’Connor and Cuomo, leading us toreconsider and evaluate the issues which they bringout.

The intention of this work is not to solve any spe-cific legal dilemmas or to propose particular politicalsolutions to the many problems that face our world.Rather, it seeks to look behind the arguments to cometo a better understanding of the issues involved. Itattempts to penetrate into the dynamics of the tensionbetween politics, law, and the church in order to com-prehend more fully what it means to be a RomanCatholic and a citizen in the United States today.Hopefully, in so doing it may serve as a buildingblock from which we are able to address those prob-lems.

FONTEYN, Luc, Tussen ontologisering en symbolise-ring. Een onderzoek naar de filosofische en ethischevooronderstellingen in de discussie over het statuutvan het menselijk embryo. [Between ontologising andsymbolising. An inquiry into the philosophical andethical presuppositions in the discussion concerningthe status of the human embryo.] Promoter: PaulSchotsmans.

This dissertation attempts to shed new light on thefrequently discussed topic of the status of the humanembryo. The first part situates the current discussion inits historical context. In the first chapter we offer asurvey of the many traditional elements introducedinto the discussion by a variety of contemporary au-thors. In the second chapter we inquire into the pre-suppositions which have already played a role in thehistorical discussions and which can shed some lighton the foundations underpinning contemporary posi-tions on this question. In this context our attention isspecifically drawn to the tension between dualistic andhylomorphic frames of interpretation on the one hand,and essentialist ‘substance thinking’ on the other.

In the second part we arrive at an in-depth analysisof the various contemporary positions on the status ofthe embryo. In chapter three, we offer a thoroughexamination of those standpoints which can begrouped together under the ‘fertilisation thesis’ whichargues that fertilisation is the point after which theembryo becomes worthy of protection. Significantdifferences exist between the various positions underthis heading, depending on the philosophical founda-tion upon which they base their affirmation of thepersonhood of the embryo. At the same time, thetension generated by this variety of philosophical-anthropological and ethical positions also has a role toplay in the nuanced, yet ambiguous, standpoint ofRoman Catholic Church teaching. The fact that suchanalysis makes an apparently artificial distinctionbetween philosophical and moral positions also appliesto the ‘individuation thesis’ which links respect for thehuman embryo to the point of definitive individuationat around fourteen days after fertilisation. Positionsunder this heading are discussed in chapter four. Thefifth chapter concludes the second section with a con-cise analysis of the ‘self consciousness thesis’ and the‘recognition thesis’ which situate the personhood ofthe embryo — and the extent to which it is worthy of

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protection — at the point where the capacity for self-awareness emerges or a relationship of recognition isestablished with the embryo’s social environment.

In the third section we focus our attention on thefundamental presuppositions underlying the entirediscussion. This will also open up the possibility offormulating a more personal hypothesis concerningrespect for the embryo. In the sixth chapter we criti-cally examine the defining ontologisations whichcharacterise the philosophical concept of personhoodinvolved in the discussion. The use of the concept ofpotentiality or other such terms of reference cannot becompletely avoided in these ontologisations. In theseventh chapter we confront the ontologising proposi-tions, which tend to conceal ethical objectivism, with asymbolic conferment of significance rooted in a per-spective of meaning and value attribution. The inex-haustable or transcendent character of the symbolicorder clearly distinguishes this symbolisation frompure emotivism. In addition, this symbolisation grantsa special place to the ‘humanity’ of the embryo in theprocess of meaning giving while at the same timemaking it possible to formulate respect for the embryowithout having to appeal to ontologising reductions.We conclude by suggesting how this symbolic per-spective allows us to consider the dilemmas arisingfrom concrete conflict situations surrounding the hu-man embryo without harming their quality as moraldilemmas.

GASTMANS, Chris, Verpleegkunde, zorg en ethiek.Historische, wijsgerig-antropologische en moraaltheo-logische grondlijnen van een verpleegkundige ethiek,opgevat als een zorgzaamheidsethiek. [Nursing, careand ethics. Historical, philosophical-anthropologicaland moral theological foundation of a nursing ethic,considered as a care-giving ethic.] (STD) Promoter:Paul Schotsmans.

The aim of this study is to propose a number of linesof reasoning which, as regards content, might be use-ful in the discussion surrounding the normative mean-ing of care in a nursing context. By way of an histori-cal approach to the development of deontological andethical theory, part one seeks to show that reflectionon the ethical integration of medical practices hasalways been an aspect of modern nursing. The chap-ters do so as follows: (1) the prehistory of modern

nursing; (2) the influence of Florence Nightingale; 3)the development of a normative frame of referenceduring the first half of the twentieth century; 4) theemergence of the first national and international pro-fessional codes for nurses; 5) the emergence of aspecific ethics of nursing. Based on historical analysis,part I concludes with a philosophically inspired valuereflection on the nurse’s role as carer. Medical-ethicalquestions, in our view, are an inherent aspect of thecare oriented and health promoting activities of nursesthemselves, and not principally a consequence of prog-ress made in medical and nursing science and technol-ogy.

In part two, a number of important aspects of thephenomenon of (nursing) care are clarified. We beginwith an examination of nursing from the perspective ofthe philosophy of science in chapter 6. Nursing ischaracterised as a practical science based on the rela-tionship between the care-giver and the one receivingthe care. This relationship of care provides the specificcontext in which nursing as such can adequately devel-op. Although nursing is the caring profession parexcellence, we endeavour in chapters 7 and 8 to ap-proach the phenomenon of care in general, extendingbeyond its nursing context. This is done on the basisof a sociological and philosophical-anthropologicalanalysis. The most important finding of philosophical-anthropological research points out that ‘caring’ cannotbe considered a neutral, closed activity. It is, rather, anintentional human event which conceals a rich mean-ing content. The humanitarian significance of theprocess of care-giving and care-receiving consists inthe fact that it provides those involved with a careoriented identity which in turn gives life meaning anddirection. Against the background of this broad theo-retical framework chapter 9 offers an evaluation of aspecific model of nursing care.

Part three then attempts to define the contours ofan ethics of care in a nursing context. It does so be-ginning with a critical discussion of the Kohlberg-Gilligan debate in chapter 10, the virtue-ethicsapproach in chapter 11, the normative concepts of‘moral practice’ in chapter 12 and ‘altruistic virtue’ inchapter 13. Three influential currents within contempo-rary ethical practice emerge as nourishing sources forour research into the normative aspects of care giving,namely: feminist ethics, virtue ethics and medicalethics. In conclusion, chapter 14 is entirely devoted to

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the application of the normative framework (fromchapters 12 and 13) to nursing care. We present nurs-ing as a moral procedure, centred around the altruisticvirtue of care-fulness and oriented towards therealisation of its goal in the form of ‘good care’.

GUZMAN, Edmundo Pacifico V, Creation as God’sKaloób: Towards an Ecological Theology of Creationin the Lowland Filipino Socio-Cultural Context. (Ph.D)

Promotor: Georges De Schrijver.

As our main thesis for this study, we endeavour todemonstrate that the Filipino concept and metaphor,kaloób, as applied in a lowland Filipino creation theol-ogy creation as kaloób ng Diyos (kalo’ob naη djos)

can generate cultural and theological resources thatare meaningful and relevant enough to address thepresent ecological crisis in the Philippines. Two partswith three chapters each make up this study.

Part One sketches the ecological crisis in the Phil-ippines today that serves as a challenge for theology.We begin with a chapter on the basic principles ofinterrelationship and interdependence between organ-isms and their environment (ecosystems) that charac-terise ecology. This is followed by a general descrip-tion of the state of the environment and the presentcrisis in the Philippines, focusing on the archipelago’smajor ecosystems (land, tropical rainforests, freshwaterand marine resources) and the islands’ geographicallocation in a tropical monsoon area over an activevolcanic belt. To acquire a broader view of the crisis,we deal in Chapter 2 with a framework to analyse anecological crisis situation. We discuss the elementsthat make up this framework, namely, the causal fac-tors (rapid population growth, decrease in the quantityand quality of resources, unequal access to resources),the role of resource scarcity in inducing conflict, thesocial effects (agricultural decline, economic decline,population displacements, disruption of social rela-tions), and the resulting social conflicts. We apply thisframework to the present Philippine situation in Chap-ter 3. Thereby, we are able to identify unequal accessto resources exacerbated by a rapid decrease in thequantity and quality of resources as key causal factors.The resulting social effects and conflict situationsportray that the ecological crisis in the Philippines islargely a crisis of social justice as well.

Part Two deals with an elaboration of the Filipino

cultural-ecological perspective from which a theologyof creation can be developed. It begins with Chapter 4where we delineate the emergence of an ecologicalperspective in the Philippines of late. The majorthemes include the involvement and empowerment oflocal communities in environmental management andecological advocacy, and the dimensions of an emerg-ing Filipino ecological perspective, namely, an ap-proach to sustainable development, the re-valuing ofFilipino cultures, and the contributions of Christianityand religiosity. Basing ourselves on cultural anthropo-logical insights, Chapter 5 engages in an interpretiveanalysis of lowland Filipino folk beliefs in environ-mental spirits on how these may be indicative of thecultural-ecological world view of Filipinos. From thisperception of nature and human inter-connectednesswith nature, we venture to retrieve a more fundamentaland original earth-rooted religiosity a re-enchantmentof nature that can be a basis for an ecological theol-ogy of creation. In Chapter 6, we develop our pro-posed indigenous theological theme of creation askaloób ng Diyos (‘gift’ of God). Kaloób finds its rootin a more fundamental concept and metaphor, loob,(literally ‘the inside’) which is generally used to referto the inner, authentic core of one’s being or person-hood from which volition, feeling, and thought arise.In imaging the world as kaloób ng Diyos, we highlighttwo facets, namely, creation as God’s gift, and cre-ation as reflecting God’s Divine Loob. In imaging Godwho ‘gifts’ creation, we trace our rootedness in theJudaeo-Christian tradition in terms of continuities anddiscontinuities, and in dialogue with selected theo-logians’ works. Lastly, we reflect on how creation askaloób ng Diyos can evoke a Filipino eco-ethics andcreation spirituality that can offer a Christian inspiredresponse to the ecological crisis in the Philippines.

HENSON, Joselito C., The Church as a CommunicativeCommunity. Engaging Johann-Baptist Metz’s Under-standing of the Church’s Role in the World andJürgen Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action.(STD) Promotor: Robrecht Michiels.

The Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes inparticular, represented a shift in the understanding ofthe Church’s relationship to the world. It was also aninitial attempt at reflecting on and reassessing theChurch’s role within this relationship. In a sense, any

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theological reflection on this topic remains incomplete.This dissertation hopes to contribute to the continuingtheological reflection on the Church’s role in the worldby examining the theology of Johann-Baptist Metz andthe theory of Jürgen Habermas. This work seeks toaddress two principal questions: first, how does Metzunderstand the Church’s role in the world in relationto his theology of secularisation and his political theol-ogy? Second, what can Habermas’s theory of commu-nicative action, as a theory of society and modernity,contribute to this understanding?

Part I inquires into the Church’s role in the worldin the theology of Johann-Baptist Metz. Chapter 1presents Metz’s theological interpretation of secularisa-tion. Focusing on the biblical themes of creation, hu-man freedom, and above all the incarnation, Metzargues that secularisation originates from the dyna-mism of Christian faith itself. In the Christian under-standing of the world, the world is not the objectiveframework within which history occurs; it is ratherhistory itself, history as a human event. This impliesthat the world is not an unchangeable reality or afinished ‘whole’, but the result of human actions anddecisions. Chapter 2 focuses on Metz’s political the-ology. Metz sees political theology as a theologicalhermeneutic which takes society and history as consti-tutive elements of reflection on faith. As a correctiveto existentialist-personalistic-transcendental theologieswhich tend towards a privatistic, individualistic under-standing of the Christian message of salvation, politi-cal theology attempts to bring into sufficient promi-nence the social and political dimensions of thebeliever’s faith and responsibility. The implications ofMetz’s theology of secularisation and political theol-ogy on the Church’s role in the world are discussed inChapter 3. In the relation to the world, the Church isnot a non-world or an other world which has a historyapart from, or parallel to the history of the world.Hence, the Church does not exist in and for itself butfor the world. In this relationship, Metz sees the func-tion of the Church as an institution of social criticismand as the bearer of the dangerous memory of Christ.Metz sees both functions concretely embodied in thebasic ecclesial communities, from the perspective ofwhich he elaborates a ‘Church of subjects.’

Part II begins with a presentation of Jürgen Haber-mas’s theory of communicative action. Habermasargues that the pathologies of modernity are a result of

a process of one-sided or selective rationalisation thatinvolves the ‘colonisation of the lifeworld’ by eco-nomic and administrative subsystems. Identity forma-tion, social integration, and the transmission of tradi-tion and value orientations can be achieved onlythrough communicative interaction, not by subordinat-ing them to systemic exigencies (Chapter 4). Manytheologians recognise not only the value and relevanceof Habermas’s theory to theology, but also the valueand relevance of theology to his theory. Aside fromthe contributions that theology and religion can maketo the practical tasks that issue from his theory, theaporia internal to a theory of communicative actioncan only be resolved theologically. Otherwise, thepresupposition of the theory ends up in a contradiction.This opens up the possibility for dialogue betweentheology and communicative theory (Chapter 5). Thispossibility becomes our point of departure for engag-ing Metz’s theology and Habermas’s theory. Chapter 6discusses the lines of convergence and divergencebetween the two. Metz’s understanding of theChurch’s role in the world embodied in the model ofBasiskirche, is not totally incompatible with Haber-mas’s universal communicative community.

LUFUTA Mujangi, Théologie Pratique en Afrique. Ledéfi postcolonial. (STD) Promotor: George De Schrij-ver.

Au début des années 60, alors que les lampionsallumés pour célébrer la vague des indépendancesafricaines n’étaient pas encore éteints, l’agronomefrançais René Dumont lança un cri d’alarme: “L’Afri-que noire est mal partie.” Depuis lors il n’a cessé des’époumoner sur le même thème, renchérissant aucontraire, et relayé par une foule de chercheurs: lecontinent noir régresse, il se meurt. Ce diagnostic vientmalheureusement d’être confirmé par l’apparition, audébut de la décennie en cours, d’un nouveau vocable :l’afropessimisme. Devant cette situation on ne peutplus dramatique, l’Église et la théologie chrétiennessont sommées de répondre. Elles doivent rendrecompte de l’espérance qui habite le chrétien et sacommunauté de foi. La présente dissertation doctoralevoit le jour dans ce contexte de préoccupations. Ellepart cependant du présupposé que la théologie est unediscipline qui a son ordre d’efficience propre et quec’est là qu’elle peut rendre les services que l’on attend

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d’elle. Ratio fide illustrata: la raison éclairée par lafoi, bien sûr. Mais dans le cas présent, ce ne sont pasdes difficultés surgies à propos de l’un ou l’autrearticle de la foi chrétienne qui motivent notre recher-che, mais la remise en cause de la totalité de l’offrechrétienne du salut, remise en cause due à la perdura-tion d’une situation collective de malheur à laquelle lafoi prêchée par l’Église semble impuissante à remé-dier: la situation de l’Afrique postcoloniale. Aussinotre travail s’intitule-t-il ‘théologie pratique’, c’est-à-dire en fait théologie politique. Comme tel il relève dela dogmatique fondamentale.

L’étude se divise en sept chapitres. Le premiertente de situer notre contribution par rapport à la pro-blématique bien connue de la théologie africaine. Icil’on regrette que malgré des avancées significativesqu’elle a permises à l’avènement d’une christianismevraiment africain, la tendance dominante dans ce dis-cours, du moins telle qu’on l’a généralement inter-prétée, soit restée principalement fixée sur les ques-tions de l’inculturation de la religion chrétienne enAfrique. En dépit de cette limite, la présente thèses’inscrit, bien entendu, dans le sillage du discoursthéologique négro-africain que l’on a dit.

Le second chapitre s’ouvre sur la question de l’in-terprétation en science de la foi. A partir de là il meten exergue les dimensions essentielles de la théologiepolitique telle que l’entendent des penseurs renomméstels que J.B. Metz, G. Gutierrez, C. Boff. La théologiepolitique est d’une part suspendue aux thèmes despromesses eschatologiques divines sur notre avenir, età leur anticipation dans la passion, la mort et la ré-surrection du Christ, événements célébrés dans l’Églisecomme souvenir critique et dangereux du monde semanifestant dan l’histoire. Elle s’articule d’autre partdialectiquement sur l’histoire moderne de la liberté,programme mis en route par l’Aufklärung. C’est dansce chassé-croisé que notre thèse entend définir sapropre méthode. Elle est une lecture herméneutique,historico-critique, des pratique sociales et une critiquedes idéologies qui les sous-tendent, une généalogie ensomme de notre présent africain à partir des valeurs dela foi.

La preuve en est qu’au chapitre III, nous nousattachons à déchiffrer les causes du traumatisme afri-cain par l’étude des pratiques politiques qui ont courssur le continent, pratiques perçues comme résultat deson histoire plurielle et contrastée. On y trouve en

effet à l’oeuvre: le vieux fond autochtone négro-afri-cain, l’influence séculaire de l’Islam, les conséquencesde l’esclavage transatlantique et la greffe décisive dela colonisation-évangélisation occidentale. Cependant,malgré leur poids immense, ces diverses historicités del’Afrique noire n’auraient pas conduit au marasme quel’on sait sans un dernier élément, plus déterminantencore: la lutte entre les Africains eux-mêmes pouraccéder à la modernité, i.e. au progrès et au dévelop-pement. Qu’est-ce donc que la modernité? Cette ques-tion posée aux ténors de la tradition philosophiqueallemande, puis aux auteurs anglo-saxons occupe toutle chapitre IV. En réalité elle est présente dans tout letexte. Elle concerne surtout la problématique de l’Étatde droit et de la société civile, les performances et lesfaillites de ce monde moderne (la dialectique de lamodernité). Aux chapitres V et VI, les évêques et lesthéologiens d’Afrique formulent la riposte du catholi-cisme africain à la crise. Les élites chrétiennes dé-signent unanimement — ou presque — l’État africainpostcolonial comme le premier facteur de l’insécuritésur le continent: despotique, corrompu, violent, triba-liste et clientéliste, il vit de l’exploitation économiqueet de l’oppression politique des citoyens. Pour guérirl’Afrique, les responsables des Églises prônent unestratégie complexe: un retour aux sources bibliques etafricaines de l’éthique politique. Leurs principes com-muns peuvent croiser et intégrer valablement les re-quêtes du droit et de l’éthique modernes (défense desdroits de l’homme, limitation des pouvoirs, justicesociale, rôle de l’éducation, etc.) Le chapitre VII fait lepoint sur ces acquis.

La conclusion repose la question initiale. On ditsouvent que ‘changer le monde est une tâche pourl’Église’ (V. Cosmao). A quelles conditions cetteproposition peut-elle s’avérer recevable devant le défide la postcolonie, alors que le christianisme reste, quoiqu’on en dise, une réalité et une idéologie minoritairesau sud du Sahara?

PERUMAYAN, Anthony, A Pill for Every Ill? A Studyon Justice in and Right to Health Care From the Per-spective of Christian Tradition with Special Referenceto India. (STD) Promotor: Paul Schotsmans, co-pro-motor: Johan Verstraeten.

The purpose of our study is two-fold: firstly, a theoret-ical elucidation of the right to health care with special

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consideration for the concepts of rights and justice,particularly as exemplified in the Christian tradition;secondly, the practical application of this theoreticalunderstanding to existing health care systems, withspecial reference to India. Our goal in this endeavouris to discern whether they are just or unjust and topropose practical suggestions towards improving healthcare systems so as to comply with the preferentialoption for the poor which is the characteristic core ofthe tradition of Christian justice.

Three parts with three chapters each make up thisstudy. In the first part we discuss how the humanperson depends on the proper and natural operation ofhis/her physical as well as spiritual self. Health is aprime determinant of one’s ability to contribute to andto cooperate in a society. This justifies our discussion,in chapter 1, of health and health care which nurturethe ’autonomy’ of the human person and bestow theperson with dignity. In chapter 2 we examine thenotion of rights in its theoretical framework, in antici-pation and as a prelude to the discussion of the rightto health care, which takes place in chapter 3. Theright to health care leads to a conflictual situation byvirtue of the manifold claims to this right made bydifferent persons in societies. This state of affairs hasto be regulated and controlled by the concept of jus-tice.

Part II is dedicated to a thorough delineation of theconcept of justice which orients itself towards a prefer-ential option for the poor, leading even to a ‘newsolidarity’ which will enable one to waive one’s ownright (to health care) in favour of the other. Manythinkers, as treated in chapter 4, have come to differ-ent and even opposing interpretations of justice. In theface of such an absence of consensus, we opt for acommunitarian approach to justice, which is mostvividly represented in the Judeo-Christian tradition,dealt with in chapter 5. In this tradition we can discerntwo components: a philosophical and a narrative. Theformer includes the notion of the common good, whilethe latter engages itself in an explication of God’sspecial concern for the needy. We cannot remain blindto the countless members of our human family wholive in great poverty and demeaned dignity, and whoare unable to receive health care services on accountof their dire situation. For this reason, we develop inchapter 6 a notion of a preferential option for the pooras an elaboration of the Judeo-Christian justice tradi-

tion. We enter into this relationship through the chan-nels of love which have to temper and transform theconcept of justice. This stand is supported by theuniversal destination of created goods, which obligatesus, in justice, to administer God’s goods as responsiblestewards, in solidarity with the needy, in accordancewith God’s own concern towards humanity.

In Part III, then, we turn our attention to the appli-cation of the Christian justice tradition to health carewith particular reference to the Indian situation. Inchapter 7 the topic under discussion is the relationshipof the Christian justice tradition to health care andhow the former regulates the latter in arranging thedifferent levels of health care in a hierarchical struc-ture. As a guidepost, we consider the social teachingof the Church on this subject. The specific diseasepatterns of the developing world provide us with crite-ria which enable us to discern where we should placeour priorities in the distribution of health care re-sources which are undeniably scarce. This dearthnecessitates a complementary understanding of human-ity’s station in life by means of a philosophical-theo-logical anthropology. Thus in chapter 8 we deal withthe need of balancing medical proficiency with medi-cal ethics. This leads us to the acknowledgement ofhuman limitation, which in turn reveals the need forthe appropriate allocation of health care resources. Inthe health status of a population there are many factorsother than health care which play pivotal roles; inmost cases more than the health care itself. That is,health care in itself, apart from the wider reality ofintermediate needs, is not the sole remedy for human-ity’s ailing situations.

Our entire discussion takes us to chapter 9 inwhich we focus our attention on the specific reality ofIndia. To help us better see what our priorities shouldbe, we first examine the experiences, of the developedcountries and then some of the socialist countries. Thedeveloped world has taught us that their health statuswas improved even before modern medicine becamean important means to alleviate human suffering. Theimprovement was effected by the wider range of influ-ences in human life, for such as, nutrition, sanitation,drinkable water, and so on. The experiences of someof the socialist countries have questioned many of theprevalent assumptions about health care. Turning ourattention to Kerala, a state in India, we learn thatexisting health status can be improved not solely on

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the basis of monetary investment in health care, butrather on the overall examination and restructuring ofthe social milieu, such as education of the citizens, justdistribution of resources, and so on. This demonstratesthat the role of a health care professional is not con-signed solely to the administering of medication, butmust help to realise the person’s fullest growth anddevelopment in society, which means that he/she hasto be an agent of change.

POLLEFEYT, Didier, Voorbij afschuw en verschoning.Een antropologische, wijsgerig en ethisch onderzoeknaar verschillende paradigmatische benaderingen vanhet kwaad van Auschwitz als aanzet tot een ‘bevreem-dende’ theologie van het heilige. [Beyond horror andexcuse. An anthropological, philosophical and ethicalinquiry into different paradigmatic approaches to theevil of Auschwitz as setting to a ‘surprising’ theologyof the holy.] (STD) Promoter: Roger Burggraeve.

For theologians, the holocaust often provides the occa-sion for placing the ethical dimension of Jewish-Chris-tian religion in the foreground, sometimes even reduc-ing religion to its ethical dimension. On the basis of afundamental moral-theological reflection on the rela-tionship between theology and ethics, this dissertationattempts to determine to what extent such efforts atreduction are justified. An attempt is made to answerthe question whether theology still has a contributionto make to society’s discussion concerning the preven-tion of racism and genocide, together with the formthat contribution might take.

In the first, ethical part of our study we develop an‘etho-analysis’ of the evil of Auschwitz. By means ofthe concept of ‘paradigm conflict’ taken from thephilosophy of science, we examine three differentapproaches to the evil of Auschwitz, focusing on theirconflicting anthropological, philosophical and ethicalpresuppositions. In the first chapter we examine the‘diabolicisation paradigm’ in which the immoral char-acter of Nazism is emphasised. Repugnance at theholocaust leads to a Manicheistic split between good(‘us’) an evil (‘them’). Our criticism of this approachshows it not only to be a strategic way to exonerateoneself of the evil in question, but that it also tends toreproduce the very Manicheistic schemes upon whichNazism itself is based. In the second chapter we inves-tigate the ‘banalisation paradigm’ which places the

amoral nature of Nazism in centrefield. In this inter-pretation, evil is not seen as the consequence of violat-ing the law, but rather of absolute obedience to thelaw. The holocaust can then be considered not as afailure, but as a product of modern culture. Our criti-cism of the position of this approach shows that theholocaust, rather than being the result of modernity, isin fact the perversion thereof, and that obedience assuch constitutes more the exterior side than the interiorside of evil. In the third chapter we examine the ‘ethi-cising paradigm’ in which the moral character of Na-zism is argued. In this interpretation, the crimes of theNazis are not seen from the perspective of immoralityor moral indifference, but explained within the contextof a new, extremely rigorous ‘ethical’ frameworkwhich is constructed, moreover, from material takenfrom existing western morality. ‘Nazi-ethics’ can re-veal how ordinary people can do evil without ceasingto consider themselves ethical persons. Our criticismof this position reveals, however, that Nazism’s read-ing of ethical categories leads to an apology for evil,resulting in ethical relativism and power-positivism.

In the second part of this dissertation we come to atheological investigation, based on the ‘etho-analysis’of part I, into the support base, criterion and beckoninghorizon of ethical life within a Christian perspective.In the fourth chapter we formulate an integrated Chris-tian vision of evil ‘beyond the paradigm conflict’. Viathe concept of ‘ordinary vices’, we attempt to outlinean alternative to the above mentioned interpretations ofevil and endeavour to track down the everyday, self-deceptive mechanisms which constitute the interiorside of evil. Rooted in self-justification and the fear ofrejection by others, the self-deceiver fools him orherself into thinking that there are ‘good’ reasons fordoing evil in an effort to maintain his or her identityand authenticity. We develop the thesis that evil can-not be fully grasped when ‘in the name of Auschwitz’we place the exclusive emphasis on the imperativeexternal force of ethics without paying equal attentionto that which ethical life supports and exceeds fromwithin. Whenever we subscribe restrictively to a‘tough’ ethical standpoint we run the risk of increasingour fear of rejection and force weak-natured humanbeings into the same position which led to the evil ofAuschwitz in the first place, namely the defensiveposition in which we deceive ourselves into reconcil-ing our sinful deeds with our basic solidarity with the

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good. Paul’s critique of self-justification by the lawchallenges us to expressly renew the bonds betweenChristian ethics and the ‘transdescendent’ source(‘grace’) which nourishes it and the ‘transascendent’horizon which beckons it (‘redemption’). Our fifth andfinal chapter reveals how such an ethical implantationcreates the basic prerequisites through which thestranger can appear as something other than an exis-tential threat, namely as an invitation to ethical growthand as a gift of God. Rooted in the distinction betweensacral closedness and liberating openness, and in con-tradistinction to ethical relativism, we develop a posi-tion wherein the ability to welcome the stranger en-ables a trans-narrative criterion to be found for theethical appreciation of people and systems. It is pre-cisely here that we find the paradox of Christian faith:only when we recognise the Messiah in the strangercan we become like the Messiah for the stranger.

ROEBBEN, Bert, Een tijd van opvoeden. Ontwerp vaneen dynamisch-integrale moraalpedagogiek. Histo-rische, wijsgerig-pedagogische en theologische verken-ningen. [A time for educating. A project of dynamic-integral moral pedogagy. An historical, philosophical,and theological survey.] (STD) Promoter: RogerBurggraeve; co-promotor: Joseph Bulckens.

This study consists of three parts: The first exploresand identifies problem issues related to the contempo-rary moral-pedagogical horizon; the second broadensthis horizon by way of a philosophical-pedagogicalreflection; the third offers a contribution towards atheological re-reading of the results of the first twosections. Parts I and II consist of two chapters, andpart III of one chapter. The first part attempts to offersome insight into the sphere of influence surroundingcontemporary socio-ethical discourse in the field of theeducation and upbringing of children. The first chapteroffers a historical examination of 20th century moralpedagogy with an eye to the exposition of motifs andunderlying concepts. Two disjunctive moments areapparent in the development of moral pedagogy: first,from the end of the Sixties onwards moral educationwas no longer practised and conceptualised from theprivacy of personal conscience, but took place ratherin the ‘public’ arena; second, from the end of theSeventies the question of meaning-giving came to thesurface against the background of value-pluralism. On

closer inspection, the communitarian and liberal under-standings of moral education appear to complementone another in their judgement of this situation. Inchapter 2 we show that this development revealedsomething of the emergent shape of the ‘modern’pedagogical paradox (Anpassung und Widerstand),which has been cut across by the ‘postmodern’ pluri-formity of today’s society. The possibility of moraleducation in our time is supported by the presence of awidespread social concern for the quality of life offuture generations and a sensitivity which is expressedprimarily in a variety of new social movements.

In the second part we immerse ourselves in aphilosophical-pedagogical reflection concerning theparadox of (moral) education. This study brings someclarity to the contention that at this juncture in time,the paradox has not been undone, rather it has beengiven new energy. Precisely because of the emergenceof contemporary value-pluralism, there appears to be aneed for renewed reflection on the paradox of moraleducation. In chapter three we discuss the three con-stitutive components of moral education, namely thecognitive, the affective and the conative. The dynamicof the pedagogical paradox is repeatedly evident in thedevelopment of these three components or dimensions:moral thinking, feeling and acting (or: moral judge-ments, emotions and virtues) is learned through socia-lisation in a particular ethos with an eye to moralautonomy in the ethical sphere. In chapter 4 we offerour own outline of a dynamic-integral vision of moraleducation: integral in that the three developmentalcomponents are incorporated in the vision; dynamic inthat these are considered from within the pedagogicalparadox. The communication and transmission ofvalues presuppose each other in this vision. A thor-ough elucidation is offered here of the possibilities formoral education in the family and at school.

The third part attempts a theological re-reading ofthe results of parts I and II. Christian ethics offers theeducator a motivating horizon of meaning withinwhich to engage the topic of moral education in adynamic way. Christian ethics advocates an ongoingprocess of removal of the boundaries surroundingethics and moral education. During the socialisationphase (especially in the family context) a moral peda-gogics inspired by Christian faith would draw attentionto the moral unicity of the child. In the phase of justi-fying and communicating one’s own moral perspective

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(especially in the school context), it would urge thechild towards respect for and conscientious commit-ment to the communio of the dialogue partners. Inaddition, a number of recent insights from the field ofreligious pedagogics are presented from the perspec-tive of family, school and church as educational com-munity.

SALZMAN, Todd A., Deontology and Teleology: AnHistorical Investigation of the Roman Catholic Norma-tive Debate. (Ph.D.) Promoter: Joseph A. Selling.

For some thirty years there has been both an evolutionand a revolution in Catholic moral theology. The evo-lution is reflected in a move away from the traditionalmanual approach to moral theology, initiated by Trent,that was sin-centered and confession oriented. Up untilVatican II, the focus of moral theology was on trainingand educating priests to be good confessors. SinceVatican II, however, there has been a revolution inCatholic moral theology. This revolution is apparent inthe debate on normative ethics and the question ofmethodology. The terms themselves, ‘normative ethics’and ‘methodology’, reflect novel concepts which arenoticeably absent from the moral manuals. With thisrevolution came a need to develop and articulate amethodological structure for normative discourse.Moral theologians had recourse to two sources for thisstructure, British-analytic philosophy and Catholictradition.

The first source serves as our point of departurefor this dissertation. Catholic literature on normativeethics frequently cites C.D. Broad’s treatise, FiveTypes of Ethical Theory, as the source for the termsdeontology and teleology. Given the fact that Broad isan analytic philosopher, a question emerges: can theterms that were formulated in one tradition, deontologyand teleology as developed by an analytic philosopher,be transposed univocally to a completely differenttradition, Catholic moral theology? In our response tothis inquiry we return to Broad in an attempt to dis-cern the background, meaning and purpose of analyticethics in general, and deontology and teleology inparticular, as they emerged from this genre. This in-vestigation entails an historical study of analytic ethics,as well as Broad’s subsequent work in ethics, whichcontribute to the overall understanding of deontologyand teleology.

The transplantation of deontology and teleologyfrom British-analytic philosophy to Catholic traditiondemands further investigation. Since B. Schüller is themoral theologian responsible for incorporating theseterms into Catholic moral theological discourse, webegin chapter two with an analysis and evaluation ofwhat he claims to be a univocal understanding ofdeontology and teleology as they were taken over fromBroad. The study of Schüller’s understanding of Broadprovides the logical bridge from analytic philosophy toCatholic theology. There is, however, a chronologicalaspect indigenous to Catholic normative ethical discus-sions.

The question concerning the chronological evolu-tion of normative discussions within Catholic moraltheology is the second source for a methodologicalstructure for normative discourse, and provides thestructure for the second part of this chapter. Prior toSchüller’s incorporation of deontology and teleologyinto Catholic discourse, other moral theologians (P.Knauer, J. Fuchs and L. Janssens) were investigatingthe question of norms from various perspectives withinthe Catholic tradition. A foundational element of thosediscussions is a dissatisfaction with the manualistapproach to moral theology and an attempt to ‘up-grade’ moral theology as a science in light of contem-porary philosophical and theological developments.Although their discussions on norms take variouspoints of departure, what they have in common are thedefinition of the human act and its moral determinants,traditionally labeled the object, circumstances and end.These three aspects are indigenous to Catholic moraltheological discussions and differentiate Catholic nor-mative ethics from analytic ethics. It is an investiga-tion of this differentiation and its implications forconcrete normative ethical discussions that serves asthe basis for our historical study of the object, circum-stances and end (fontes moralitatis), the final chapterof this work.

An historical survey of the origins, meaning anddevelopment of the three sources of morality through-out the history of moral theology reveals that there isno univocal ‘traditional’ understanding of these ele-ments. Due to the various interpretations of theseelements, and the ensuing confusion which their useelicits, they are best avoided in concrete normativeethical discussions. What is and remains essential tothose discussions, however, is the question of how the

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act is to be defined and the need to clearly define themethodological terms of concrete normative discus-sions.

Although this thesis was in its final stages whenJohn Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor was pro-mulgated, and therefore does not go into great detailconcerning the ramifications of this encyclical forconcrete normative methodology, one aspect of theencyclical bears pointing out. In its presentation ofethical theories, it equates teleology and proportion-alism. This equation is paradigmatic of the confusionssurrounding concrete normative ethical discussions inCatholic moral theology. Teleology, as it pertains to amethod in concrete normative discussions, was takenover from analytic philosophy. Proportionalism, as itwas developed from the principle of double effect, isinherent to Catholic tradition. Considering the back-ground of these two terms, the question arises whetherthey can be equated. To do so is to misconstrue theproject of concrete normative ethics and proportional-ism. It is in light of this confusion that the topic ofconcrete normative method necessitates investigation.

THOMASSET, Alain, S.J., Poétique de l’existence etagir moral en société. La contribution de Paul Ricœurau fondement d’une éthique herméneutique et narra-tive, dans une perspective chrétienne. [The poetics ofexistence and the moral agent in society. The contribu-tion of Paul Ricœur to the foundation of a hermeneuticand narrative ethic within the Christian tradition.](STD) Promoter: Johan Verstraeten.

In this last quarter of the XXth century, ethical reflec-tion, criticising its heritage from the Enlightenment,rediscovers at the same time its anchoring in the par-ticular narrative traditions carried by our culture andthe importance of the fundamental dispositions of thesubject in moral decisions, even before the interventionof moral reasoning itself. Moral theology, at the sametime, is confronted with a similar difficulty whichconsists in articulating its specific rooting in the Wordof God with the relevance of its discourse in our con-temporary world. How, then, do we distinguish andreconcile a deontological perspective which does notrenounce universality and a teleological perspectivefounded on a conception of the good conveyed by atradition? Moreover, the question is raised of the rela-tionship between philosophical ethics and religious

ethics, and more specifically about the relations be-tween moral argumentation and personal appropriationof the texts from the biblical tradition.

This thesis intends to interrogate the whole work ofPaul Ricœur, in the light of these questions. Our hy-pothesis is that the thought of this author gives us,first in the ethical and philosophical dimension, sub-stantial elements in order to distinguish and articulatetogether what seems today incompatible: the moralargumentative process on the one hand, and taking into account of ethical convictions formed in the learn-ing of a narrative tradition, on the other. Furthermore,his reflection, in the religious dimension, offers re-sources to think out the relation and the differencebetween a common philosophical ethics and a poeticsof existence inspired by the hermeneutics of biblicaltexts.

This study is composed of two parts. After a pre-sentation of the contemporary challenges of ethics inchapter 1, chapters 2 to 4 are dedicated to the domainof philosophical ethics strictly speaking. After thedescription of Ricœur’s ethical theory on the reflexivelevel (chap. 2), and the exposition of his hermeneuticsof the subject, particularly with the help of his narra-tive theory (chap. 3), we analyse in detail the articula-tion between ethics and narrativity, which Ricœur’sworks allow us to show (chap. 4). Among other as-pects, the central importance of symbolic and narrativeimagination is developed in feeding the treasure of ourethical imagination and of our fundamental disposi-tions, individual as well as social. The second part(chap. 5 to 7) intends to answer the religious problem-atic raised before, using the results of the precedingchapters. The complex and nuanced relationships be-tween philosophy and religion in Ricœur’s thought arefirst analysed, as well as the reciprocal relations be-tween philosophical and biblical hermeneutics (chap.5). It is then possible to develop Ricœur’s conceptionof the indirect and meta-ethical influence of the bibli-cal narratives on moral life, through a poetics ofChristian existence. This poetics, which concerns theroots of human creativity, is developed beyondRicœur’s own results, in particular with the help of thebiblical theology of Paul Beauchamp (chap. 6). It isonly at the end of this itinerary that it is then possibleto consider Ricœur’s political philosophy and to showthe possible influence of the Christian tradition in theelaboration of a social and political ethics in the mid-

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dle of secularised societies (chap. 7). The conclusionenables us to take up Ricœur’s contributions to thefoundation of an hermeneutical and narrative ethics ina different way , and to suggest a programme formoral theology in the light of this work.

While this dissertation, in many ways, seeks toexplain and articulate Ricœur’s thought on ethical andreligious matters, it is devoted also to a discussion ofsome of his philosophical presuppositions and theolog-ical attitudes. This is especially the case for the de-bates which oppose Ricœur to Peter Kemp on narra-tive ethics (chap. 4), the discussions where membersof the ‘Yale School’ criticise him on his biblical her-meneutics (chap. 5), and also on the matter of hisrootedness in Reform tradition (chap. 5 and 7).

VALLIPALAM, Manuel, Inculturation in India: A Theo-logical Analysis of Inculturation in Relation to theTheology of the Local Churches and its Application tothe Church in India in the Areas of Liturgy, Theologyand Evangelisation. (STD) Promoter: RobrechtMichiels.

A systematic theological reflection on inculturation,undertaken in the wake of the renewal programmechartered by the Second Vatican Council, tends toconcentrate on the ecclesiological dimension of theissue under consideration. What accounts for the re-newed interest in inculturation in the post-Vatican II

era is the growing awareness that local Churches arethe subjects and agents of the process of inculturation.This dissertation investigates the dynamics of in-culturation along the lines of an ecclesiological view-point that underscores a theology of the local Church.Contextualised in the specific socio-cultural-religioussituation of the Indian milieu, this study criticallyappraises the attempts at inculturation stretching overthe terrains of liturgy, theology and evangelisation,which have been undertaken by the Church in India,and tries to articulate theoretical and practical guide-lines in order to intensify and enhance the overallinculturation thrust.

Integrating a systematic as well as a practical ap-proach to the question of inculturation, this work isdivided into two parts with six chapters. In part one,the first chapter provides a theological analysis of theconcept of inculturation, highlighting its ecclesiologicalnuances spelt out both in the writings of theologians

and in magisterial documents. The second chapterdelineates the theology of the local Churches based onthe documents of Vatican II which speak of the con-stitution and nature of the local Church and the salientfeatures emerging in the post-Vatican II period charac-terizing the theology of the local Churches. Furthermore, the feasibility of two models of the Church,‘people of God’ and ‘communion’, is examined in thecontext of inculturation.

Part two of the dissertation is situated against themulti-faceted Indian background. Hence the thirdchapter presents a picture of India, portraying its so-cial, cultural and religious dimensions. On the pre-sumption that it is the local Churches in India that arethe agents of the process of inculturation in their con-text, the ecclesial situation of India is specially attend-ed to. In the fourth chapter, the liturgical inculturationprogrammes in India are under focus, decipheringthem both on the national level and on the level of theOriental Churches. The fifth chapter deals with the at-tempts to evolve an inculturated theological reflectionand education in India. The prospects and problems ofan inculturated Indian theology are discussed withinthe general frame of Third-World and Asian theolo-gies. The unique spontaneity of such an Indian theol-ogy is also focused on, as it evolves by interactingwith the issues and concerns of Indian society. Thesixth chapter shows how an inculturated approach toevangelisation has evolved in the Indian missionaryscenario, integrating within the purview of theChurch’s total mission the comprehensive frameworkof liberation-inculturation-interreligious dialogue andplacing the local Church at the service of the usheringin of the Kingdom of God. In light of the research, thedissertation proposes an orientation towards the peopleas a line of direction for ongoing inculturationattempts in the Church in India, accentuating a partici-patory life-style in the Church.

WERNOW, Jerome, R., This Vital Death: Toward Ap-plying a Postmodern Reconstructed Christian Ethic tothe Discussion of Forgoing Treatment in the CriticallyIll Hospitalised Adult. (Ph.D.) Promoter: P. Schotsmans.

Biotechnological prolongation of a person’s physiolog-ical life with disputable effects on quality of life hasraised questions regarding the use of such health careresources in critically ill patients. Two crucial ques-

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tions emerge: (1) Who ought to be the appropriateagent rendering the treatment decision? and (2) Whatare the norms used by that agent which warrant obli-gations to request or forgo resuscitation and/or life-sustaining treatment?

My dissertation addresses these questions in twomovements. The first movement is encapsulated in thetitle by “the discussion of forgoing treatment in thecritically ill hospitalised adult.” It is a descriptionwhich clarifies the medico-ethical reality through atechnical use of the ground question, ‘what ought I todo?’ This technical use involves the application of fourelements: the ‘to do’ element or actus materialis; the‘I’ element, or primacy of the agent; the ‘what’ ele-ment, or the operative norms; and the ‘ought’ element,or the election of the will to act. These elements areemployed to analyze and describe the medical practiceof forgoing treatment in acute care hospitals in thecontext of the United States. Three categories of cur-rent medical literature serve as a basis of this analysis:(1) literature guidelines, (2) hospital policies, and (3)

praxis studies. The results demonstrate a mosaic ofpolicies and practices, including the confusion of thenotion of forgoing life-supportive care with that ofsupportive care, as well as a disjunction between thenorms used in guideline literature and the norms oper-ative in actual practice. These discoveries suggest acrisis in attempts to consistently apply contemporarybioethical principles to decisions on the fringes ofmortal life.

The second movement is denoted by the titlephrase: “a postmodern Christian ethic” and differsfrom the first in that it is directive rather than descrip-tive. It begins with a short historical overview of themetamorphosis of medical ethics interpreted in termsof Martin Heidegger’s “Essence of Truth” and WilliamDesmond’s description of “being mindful.” My histori-cal interpretation posits that an over-emphasis of ‘turn-ing to or fro’ from supernatural metaphysics to medi-cal science, or vice versa, results in an erroneous ‘uni-vocity’ of either supernatural metaphysics or science.An over-emphasis of the former engenders a medical

practice mingled with superstition while over-emphasisof the latter engenders a reduction of man’s totality tomere corporeality. The historical study concludes withthe observation that medical ethics is in a period ofcrisis partly due to the conflicting world views whichare voicing opposition to positions contrary to theirs inthe ‘turning process’. My desire to facilitate a balanc-ing of voices in the process of ‘turnings’ leads to areconstruction of a postmodern Christian ethic. Itmirrors the approach of the postmodern constructivistsat the State University of New York by rejecting theunivocity of both scientism and pre-modern anti-scien-tific restorationism. It is reconstructive and Christianin that the approach uses strands of medical science,the structure of the personalist model of the LeuvenSchool, and the meta-ethic sourced in neo-evangelicalpresuppositions in the paradigmatic construction. Theresulting paradigm seeks to balance the voice of beingexpressed in Christian metaphysics with the voice ofbeing expressed in the rational empirical medical sci-ence.

The second movement concludes with a moralengagement and is represented in the title phrase by“toward applying.” The paradigm is applied to theproblems uncovered in determining primary agencyand the application of that primary agent’s norms intreatment decision. The decision to forgo or requesttreatment is guided by the consideration of the patientas originality, similarity, corporeality, and consciousinteriority in relation to God, the other seen and un-seen, family, society, institution, and history. The maintitle of this work reveals the ultimate aim of this deci-sion: an occasion of enrichment in the living and dy-ing process. The primary moral agent, as well as otherhealth care participants, ‘ought to be’ those who rec-ognise that a sort of death of self and other begins innatality and is a process of true being in relation toJesus Christ. The witness expressed by the patient,care providers, and society during the end process ofbiological dying reflects the spiritual depths of lessonslearned during this process of being, the process of“This Vital Death.”

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Documents

Recent Dissertations in Christian Ethics - Ethical Perspectives