Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Earth Ethics, James Martin-Schramm, Daniel Spencer, Laura A. Stivers

Laura Stivers

Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics In A New Key By Larry Rasmussen, Laura Stivers

Laura Stivers

Larry Rasmussen’s new book, Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key, like his last environmental ethics masterpiece Earth Community Earth Ethics (won the 1997 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion), is eloquently written and incorporates a multitude of interdisciplinary sources to argue for Creation justice.

Ethics As Grammar: Changing The Postmodern Subject, Brad Kallenberg

Brad J. Kallenberg

Wittgenstein, one of the most influential, and yet widely misunderstood, philosophers of our age, confronted his readers with aporias—linguistic puzzles—as a means of countering modern philosophical confusions over the nature of language without replicating the same confusions in his own writings. In Ethics as Grammar, Brad Kallenberg uses the writings of theological ethicist Stanley Hauerwas as a foil for demonstrating how Wittgenstein’s method can become concrete within the Christian tradition. Kallenberg shows that the aesthetic, political, and grammatical strands epitomizing Hauerwas’s thought are the result of his learning to do Christian ethics by thinking through Wittgenstein. Kallenberg argues that Wittgenstein’s …

Tradition-Based Rationality, Brad Kallenberg

Brad J. Kallenberg

The term “tradition-based rationality” derives from the works of Alasdair MacIntyre. Human reasoning, argued MacIntyre, is both tradition-constitutive and tradition-constituted. By the first phrase, he means that all reasoning, especially moral reasoning (i.e., thinking about what “good” means), involves people sharing a conceptual language (rather than a natural language like English or Chinese). For example, think of how widely three persons may differ on their use of the word “good” when applied to their jobs. The driver of a beer truck will claim his job is “good” because he is paid well; he is resoundingly welcomed wherever he goes; and …

The Master Argument Of Macintyre's 'After Virtue', Brad Kallenberg

Brad J. Kallenberg

In September of 1995 the Associated Press released a wire photo showing Russian lawmakers of both genders in a punching brawl during a session of the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.' Is this behavior an ethnic idiosyncrasy? Do only government officials duke it out over matters of great importance? Or have fisticuffs suddenly become politically correct? No, on all counts. Pick a topic, any topic -- abortion, euthanasia, welfare reform, military intervention in the Balkans -- and initiate discussion with a group of reasonable, well-educated people and observe the outcome. Chaos ensues. Of course the volume of the debate …

The 'P'-Word: Conversion In A Postmodern Environment, Brad Kallenberg

Brad J. Kallenberg

Allow me to write frankly about the “P”-word. There is great concern about the proliferation of the “P”-word. In the past decade, over 1,500 articles and 2,000 books have come into print bearing the "P"-word in their titles. Nearly 1,000 of these books are still in print. Everywhere we turn we find that we have been inundated with the “P”-word. And so we have come to fear for our culture. The "P"-word? “Postmodernism.” Granted, postmodernism is a slippery concept; there are many versions, many postmodernisms. But should Christians fear postmodernism? To be sure, the modern era proved to be no …

The Theological Origins Of Engineering, Brad Kallenberg

Brad J. Kallenberg

Knowledge of our roots can sometimes help us figure out how we ought to proceed. Many claim that engineering began in ancient antiquity with the Egyptian pyramids, Archimedes' inventions, or the Roman aqueducts. Others give contemporary engineering a more recent history, tracing its origins to the Industrial Revolution or the Enlightenment. Yet what is often overlooked is the fact that contemporary engineering owes part of its identity to medieval monasticism. The advantage of remembering this history is the bearing it has on the questions "What is engineering for?" and "How ought engineering be practiced?" Michael Davis makes the claim that, …

Virtue Ethics, Nikki Coffey Tousley, Brad Kallenberg

Brad J. Kallenberg

Virtue ethics emphasizes the development of moral excellence in terms of character qualities called virtues. Virtue are (1) habituated dispositions involving both an affective desire for the good and the skill to both discern and act accordingly; (2) learned through practice within a tradition (i.e., a historical community with a rich account of the "good"); and (3) directed toward this tradition's particular conception of the good (making virtues "teleological"). From a Christian perspective, virtue ethics is an ethics of discipleship, which emphasizes the development of the habits, practices, and wisdom necessary to pursue the "good" exemplified by Christ. Reading Scripture …

Dynamical Similarity And The Problem Of Evil, Brad Kallenberg

Brad J. Kallenberg

Discussions of evil commonly fault God for not “doing something.” Defenders of God respond that God had good reasons for not “doing something.” Detractors observe that if a human being can snatch the toddler from the path of the oncoming bus, why does not God snatch the bus from the path of the oncoming toddler? The underlying assumption in such discussions is that God’s “doing something” is similar to humans’ “doing something.” If human beings bear the image of their Creator as the Abrahamic faiths maintain, it is natural to suppose that divine action is similar to human action. But …

"Mere Genes." A Review Of Life Script, By Nicholas Wade, And The Misunderstood Gene, By Michael Morange, M. Therese Lysaught

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

Who Is My Neighbor? Commentary On David Hilfiker's Case Story, M. Therese Lysaught

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

"The X File.” A Review Of The X In Sex: How The X Chromosome Controls Our Lives, By David Bainbridge, M. Therese Lysaught

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

"Not So Fast, Mr. Wilson." A Review Of Genes, Genesis And God: Values And Their Origins In Natural And Human History By Holmes Rolston., M. Therese Lysaught

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

The Sanctity Of Life Seduced: A Symposium On Medical Ethics, Daniel Callahan, Gilbert Meilaender, William B. Smith, M. Therese Lysaught, Caroline Whitbeck, William E. May, Eric Cassell

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

Wrongful Life? The Strange Case Of Nicholas Perruche, M. Therese Lysaught

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

Choosing Palliative Care: Do Religious Beliefs Make A Difference?, M. Therese Lysaught

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

Reviews Of Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest Of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World, By Tracy Kidder; Pathologies Of Power: Health Care, Human Rights, And The New War On The Poor, By Paul Farmer; And The Uses Of Haiti, By Paul Farmer, M. Therese Lysaught

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

Is It Killing? Jodie, Mary & God, M. Therese Lysaught

M. Therese Lysaught

No abstract provided.

"But Mary Was Preserving These Matters, Carefully Bringing Together And Considering Them In Her Heart”: Ethical Listening, Contemplation, And The Cultivation Of A Sexuating Silence, Julie Kelso

Julie Kelso

Twice in Luke's gospel, and only ever in Luke's gospel, we are presented with the curious response of Mary to mysterious events concerning her son: "but Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Lk 2:19) and "but his mother kept all these things in her heart" (Lk 2:52). We are never told exactly what Mary makes of these things she witnesses and hears. Her silence extends to us here, in the present, from this distant past. And indeed, this is quite a different response to that which she earlier gives her cousin Elizabeth, when she bursts into …

Irigaray’S Madonna, Julie Kelso

Julie Kelso

In this essay, I argue that Luce Irigaray’s recent, seemingly esoteric readings of the Madonna, actually provide us with a constructive, perhaps even politically progressive, interpretive mode for engaging with the religious texts and figures of our tradition as women. As such, I argue that through her own specific interpretive practice Irigaray provides us with a new image of Mary, and this new Madonna figures the very interrelational interpretive practice that Irigaray believes essential when it comes to our engagements with the (religious) texts of our tradition. Irigaray’s Madonna is an ethical listener, interpreter and exchanger of ‘sacred’ discourse and …

Niebuhr’S Immoral Society And Bellah’S Good Society: A Conversation About Moral Man, Harlan Stelmach

Harlan Stelmach

The title of my paper is an indication of where I began my thinking about this project. I was convinced from the start that Niebuhr’s and Bellah’s most significant disagreement would be how they viewed the role of collective life. Second, I assumed that they would have their most significant area of agreement on the moral capacity and responsibility of individuals. If you focus on Niebuhr’s early work, especially in Moral Man and Immoral Society and Bellah’s mature work today, these assumptions are generally true. Further, I still expected some broad lines of continuity in the work of these two …

Civil Religion In The Interfaith Context Of Northern California: Revisiting Robert Bellah's Broken Covenant Project, Harlan Stelmach

Harlan Stelmach

Are there signs of new emerging myths and stories about our religious self-understanding as a nation that will help us address what Robert Bellah calls, our "third time of trial"? On and off for many years, I have been interested in the questions raised by Robert Bellah's work on civil religion. Specifically, I have sought answers to the above question posed in the last Chapter of Broken Covenant, "The Birth of New American Myths." Perhaps to be more precise about my interest in this question, I would at least have to go back to my graduate student days in Berkeley …

"Loyalties, Allegiances And Discipleship: Facing The Challenges", Michael Budde

Michael Budde

No abstract provided.

Vincent De Paul As A Fundraiser: His Attitudes And Practices, John E. Rybolt

John E Rybolt

A review of mainly unpublished materials concerning Vincent de Paul's attitudes and practices in fundraising. He sought the relief of the poor, published their needs, saw the presence of God in the poor, encouraged and cared for donors, avoid any show of power, developed volunteers, and practiced respect for the recipients of charity.

Book Review: The Wound And The Blessing: Economics Relationships And Happiness By Luigino Bruni (New City Press, 2012), Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

This book review critically examines this important work on the relationship between economic prosperity and happiness. The review concludes that although Professor Bruni accurately diagnoses the causes of the paradox of increased wealth but decreased appiness in the modern West, he fails to fully articulate the solution.

A Place For Dialogue, Scott Kelley

Scott Kelley