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Philosophy as a way of life has been undergoing a revival in recent years. This essay explores how the central idea of the spiritual exercises can be used to develop an account of philosophy of religion as a way of life. It details some of the contemporary uses and trajectories of philosophy as a way of life. Through engaging the religiously inflected philosophies of Karl Jaspers and Simone Weil, this paper argues that their thought can present an account of philosophy of religion as a way of life that is both ethically and transcendentally oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many students who sign up for undergraduate‐level philosophy arrive with the expectation that moral philosophy is concerned with how one should act in the concrete and familiar situations of everyday life. Yet moral philosophers are often motivated by an ideal of neutrality, and adopt a detached perspective to achieve a scientific view of the competing moral theories. To concretise the points of disagreement they present highly specific examples that are abstracted from daily reality. There is something odd about the image of morality that comes into view. What kind of guidance about how to act in concrete and familiar situations can this form of theorising bring about? This paper examines Iris Murdoch's account of moral perception as an alternative starting point. Murdoch offers a perspective that is conceptually prior to the separation of thought from action, one that addresses the agent on the level of perception. While accounts of moral perception are often criticized for proposing a complacent moral theory that is inherently conservative, I argue that Murdoch's account offers a radical – or tragic – form of perfectionism. While moral philosophy cannot provide sufficient reasons to act, Murdoch shows that it can, like art, make us practical, capable of acting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of René Girard invites us to re-imagine a ‘religious–secular’ interactivity within social space in a way released from the violent dualisms of the ‘sacred/profane.’ Earlier Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered the same task and suggested directions for a positive theology of church-state relations, even as the inherited forms of these institutions were collapsing about him. This paper explores the Girardian scenario for church and state becoming rivalrous ‘doubles’– whether it be secular utopic projects doubling religious narratives of redemption, or churches doubling the state as parallel yet purer societies – and suggests resources from Bonhoeffer by which a non-rivalrous church-state relationality - both mutually-constituting and mutually-limiting - may be configured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At times decisions are made in the field of genetics that are presented as if the ethical debates have been adequately treated and so all moral considerations have been addressed, when the truth is very different. Nor is it always easy or desirable to separate the ethical, legal and social questions posed by new developments. The impact of developments in genetic science upon communities is one field of enquiry that envelops each of these areas. This paper explores the impact of genetics upon communities through focusing, in particular, upon certain developments in reproductive science. After introducing core issues and technologies, it discusses particular ethical concerns in relation to the ‘shadow’ of eugenics over such developments, before exploring the role of legislative debates and procedures in transforming social attitudes, values and hence norms. It then turns to consider debates concerning the ‘quality of life ethic’ now prevalent in healthcare, and moves on to discuss the issue of genetic discrimination – focusing, in particular, upon discrimination against disabled persons as a representative instance of the actual ethical and social/communitarian implications of the foregoing. It ends by highlighting the need to discern the ways in which the ethics of genetics is presently shaped and practised in order to discern better the particular social and communitarian implications of certain technological advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the proposal justifying the morality of homosexual acts offered by Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler, this paper seeks to make intelligible the reasoning used by the New Natural Law Theory and others that arrives at the opposite conclusion. This article proposes to explore the weaknesses in the arguments offered in justification. By proposing an expanded notion of human nature so as to include sexual orientation as one of the factors from which to draw moral norms, the authors have adopted the central proposition of the Old Natural Law Theory defended by Francisco Suarez and others, viz., that human nature as such was a fit source from which to draw moral norms. Thus the New Natural Law Theory, formulated by Germain Grisez to answer the charge of the naturalistic fallacy, has curiously found itself being refuted by a reformulation of the Old Natural Law Theory. This article seeks to show how the proportionalistic reasoning used by Salzman and Lawler leads inevitably to a revival of the naturalistic fallacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to make a contribution to work concerning the nature of the subject. The article pays special attention to the work of Parfit but will also cover the work of Hume and Locke. The article seeks to develop an ontological account of persons with important implications to the way in which we distinguish associations, groups and persons in both philosophy and moral theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Natural Law Theory (NNLT) argues against the morality (and legality) of same sex-unions on the basis that homosexual (and non-reproductive heterosexual) acts are unnatural, unreasonable, and therefore immoral. In this paper, we explore and critique the foundational principles – biological and personal complementarity, their subcategories, and the interrelationship between them – that the NNLT uses to justify its claim. We propose alternative principles – orientation, personal, and genital-biological complementarity, with a distinct interrelationship – to argue that homosexual couples can engage in sexual acts that are natural, reasonable, and therefore moral. Our study clearly demonstrates that for the NNLT genital complementarity, a subcategory of biological complementarity, is the sine qua non for personal complementarity. In other words, personal complementarity within a sexual act is only possible if there is genital complementarity between male and female. We believe that the NNLT's foundational principles reflect too narrow an understanding of the human person and human sexuality. Instead, we propose “holistic complementarity” as the fully human integration of orientation, personal, and genital-biological complementarity. What defines a natural, reasonable, and moral sexual act is not genital complementarity as the foundational principle, but a dialectic between these three principles of complementarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Henry Newman's An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent is a commonly cited source for the idea that religion and ethics are in some fashion mutually implicated, and specifically the idea that religious belief can be grounded in our moral experience. In this paper I aim to do two things. First of all, I shall try to show that Newman's account of the relationship between religious and ethical understanding, as expounded in the Grammar, is more richly nuanced than one might suppose from reading the work of his commentators, and indeed anticipates a great deal of recent discussion in the philosophy of religion. Secondly, I shall argue that one strand of Newman's case in particular merits further attention in the context of current debate; here I shall argue that Newman's position is reminiscent of recent discussion in the philosophy of mind concerning the sense in which feelings are intentional, and articulates a view which is at best underdeveloped in recent work in philosophy of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In my essay, I interpret Augustine's Confessions as a political text that portrays Augustine's attempt to find a true community. This search includes a critique of various defective communities that cannot provide the public good necessary for a true public. To show this, I focus on Augustine's account of the pear theft as an example par excellence of a privative community. I examine the story as an account of an inexplicable act of willing against the good that unmakes the will. I then argue that the supposed resolution—that Augustine was willing the good of community—in fact exacerbates the inexplicability of the pear theft. In feasting on iniquity, this community un‐makes itself. I conclude by showing how the pear thieves represent a perverted imitation of the eucharistic community, which does not steal but shares the Good and so shares its goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our thesis is that the story of Onan in Genesis chapter 38 offers scriptural and logical grounds for believing that contraceptive acts are sinful. We set out a five‐part modus ponens argument which considers the meaning and significance the story of Onan and, by showing that contraceptive acts are substantially similar to the act for which Onan is infamous, conclude that Christians ought not to practise contraception. We then respond to objections to this conclusion before finally and briefly touching upon some of the implications of our thesis for Christian ethics, namely with reference to the perverted faculty argument and natural law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the article "Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God," by Marilyn Adams regarding the problems of evil. It describes the doctrine of eternal hell and the redemption of suffering persons. It refers to the moral responsibilities of men who reject God, explained by Adams in the article.

The article focuses on the factors influencing the policy of Cordaid, the Dutch Catholic Oragization for Relief and Development Aid, on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) with justification for its own stance. The policy and approach of Cordaid to SRH within the Dutch Catholic community is discussed. The Netherlands' significant role in the international development community on SRH and the reality of Cordaid's development work are examined.

The article compares philosophers Charles Beitz and Martha Nussbaum's understanding of human rights and argues for the achievement of standards for respecting human dignity. Topics discussed are weaknesses of the naturalistic and agreement conceptions according to Beitz and his political theory of human rights, overlapping consensus among religious doctrines and moral cultures that determine human rights, concept of nonminimalist human rights, and theory of basic social justice by Nussbaum.

The article offers the author's insights on the Christianity and ethical subjectivity of Emmanuel Levinas as compared to the idea of Thomas Aquinas. The author says that he prescind from the basis of Aquinas in Christian revelation which focuses on the phenomenological and philosophical aspects of his thoughts. The author also discusses the associations between Aquinas band Thomas regarding the inspiration of the basis of ethical subjectivity by an Infinite God.

The article presents the author's comments on the Catholic teachings that contraception is morally wrong but natural family planning or periodic abstinence is morally justified. He discusses the analogies that proponents of contralife arguments have used to distinguish contraception and periodic abstinence. He says, he has given a new analogy to show that Catholic teachings about contraception and periodic abstinence are consistent, and not to prove that they are correct.

The article presents the discussion on offering an analysis of work on human development in evolutionary anthropology from a Thomist perspective. Topics include focusing on human evolution containing bipedalism, higher encephalisation, and extended childhood; elaborating different perspectives on the relationship between morality and evolution; and thinking the good life for humans showing moral activity.

The article focuses on the American philosopher H. Tristram Engelhardt has argued that morality is available at two levels: the shared content-thick ethics of moral friends, or the content-thin procedural ethics of moral strangers. It mentions that moral strangers lack shared basic premises or rules of evidence and inference; and must rely on a content-thin proceduralistic process to resolve ethical questions.

The article proposes the philosophical and theological views of Thomas Aquinas as a solution to the evil-god challenge and the problem of evil. Topics discussed are semantic theodicies and the privation view of evil according to philosophers Stephen Law and John Collins, sovereignty of God and His power over the free-willed and moral choices of human beings, and Aquinas' view of the goodness of God and the privation view of evil, and the a posteriori notion of the interchange of good and being.

The article explores the moral problem with the free will defense against the problem of evil. Topics discussed are limited value of free will when it comes to allowing evil versus doing morally good, the idea that God allows free will to determine who deserves to get into heaven or hell after death, God's omnipotence and absolute ability to prevent evil, moral maturity as a response to the problem of evil, free will to believe in God, and similarity of God's divinity and human goodness.

The article analyzes the link between imagination and individual in Søren Kierkegaard's "The Concept of Anxiety" as it relates to original sin. Topics discussed are relation between the initial sin of Adam and every subsequent individual that participated in sin, hereditary sin with anxiety as condition for the individual self, and role of imagination in the formation of the ethical self and in the synthesis of apprehension and recognition.

The article offers insight to poet, John Henry Newman's reflections on first principles of Catholic Church worldviews. It mentions about book "Nicomachean Ethics" from Aristotle which focuses on ethics; and contributions of Rik Achten on people's faith towards first principles of Catholic Church worldviews.

The article examines the theology of palliative care in theological tradition of Roman Catholic such as faith, reason and love. It states the practice of a paradigm for palliative care like in patients who are dying and performing the rituals for death to prepare psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. It also emphasizes the vision for a virtuous care model offered in early Christians embracing the sick and dying.

This article provides an ethical evaluation of the CIA's use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) to target so-called terror suspects and insurgents. It utilises Christian informed deontological and virtue-ethical criteria to assess this practise. These criteria include just intent, charity, proportionality, moral consistency, truthfulness, mercy, courage and prudence. The article concludes that the UAV target programme is morally problematic. The United States' 'kill not capture' policy as exemplified in the use of 'signature' strikes defies the virtues at stake. By using UAV's as tools for preventive warfare, utilising armed UAV's that are weapons of war outside areas of armed conflict and disregarding the principles of transparency, last resort and proportionality, the United States is employing UAV's in a morally illegitimate and imprudent way, and is setting precedents that might have dire consequences for global peace and the security of future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the effect of perverted faculty argument as defense against homosexual sex. The author highlights the natural law theory with heavy emphasis on the body as well as the capacity for reason grounds moral obligation. The author also emphasizes the objective standard of evaluation by natural law theorists and homosexual activity critics.

The article discusses the definition of objectivity and naturalist moral theories. Topics discussed include the explanation of morality by philosopher Charles Taylor as among the hardest problems of human beings, the differences between moral realism ad moral anti-realism, and the insights of philosophy professor Kerry Walters about atheism.

The article discusses the dynamics of the interaction between social consensus and moral values in the democratic society. Topics discussed include the insights of British Labour Party politician Charles Clarke on the role of faith in society, former British Prime Miniter Winston Churchill's definition of society as the best system of governance, and the role of moral values in economic, political and social life.

The article offers the author's insights on German Jesuit and theologian Josef Fuchs. Topics discussed include his role for the Second Vatican Council, the implication of his theological ethic for moral realism, his contributions for the natural law theory of theological ethics, and his books "Moral Demands & Personal Obligations" and "Christian Ethics in a Secular Arena."

The article discusses the difficulties encountered by Catholics who want to get involve in dialogue and on issues including population, family planning and parenthood. Noted are the emergence of several discourses and various interlocutors, which can be hostile to specific Catholic voice types. It is observed that Church spokespeople prevent to speak to Catholic positions in public.

A review of the essays by Nora Hämäläinen and David Robjant about author and philosopher Iris Murdoch is presented. It highlights the achievements of Murdoch in the fields of ethics, religion and literature. It describes the collection of essays on Murdoch in the book "A Philosophy to Live By: Engaging Iris Murdoch," by Maria Antonaccio.

An essay on the aesthetic view of morality by author and philosopher Iris Murodch is presented. It highlights the contentions of author and philosopher Maria Antonaccio about Murdoch in her book "A Philosophy to Live By: Engaging Iris Murdoch." It emphasizes the response of Antonaccio to the interpretation of void by philosopher Stephen Mulhall.

The article focuses on the ideas of author Michael Dummett on the morality of contraception. It highlights his book "Humanae Vitae," in which he concentrates on the prohibition of birth control pill use in contraception. It says that he finds the prohibition incoherent and argues that its promulgation damaged the faithful's respect for the moral teaching of the Catholic Church.

The article focuses on the moral and ethical aspect of the demands for forgiveness. It mentions the definition of forgiveness by Joseph Butler, which accordingly, forgiveness is related to resentment. It explores victim's forgiveness to his or her offender, and the resentment and commitment of victims for the forgiveness. It also discusses the reasons why demands of offenders for forgiveness sound incongruous.

The article presents the author's views on philosopher Immanuel Kant's conception of a realm of ends. He says that Kant had thought of morality in terms of aspiring to be a member of a realm of ends as an ideal community. He tells that Kant was influenced by the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. He further believes that the genesis of realm of ends of Kant had been withdrawn from that of Swedenborg.

The article focuses on to make a new moral meaning of debt through a phenomenological examination of the genealogy of debt. The newly reconstructed meaning of debt is uncovered through a phenomenological investigation of the peculiar phenomenon. The phenomenological investigation of the Christian moralization is the eidetic vision, that is the juridical meaning of debt.

Although demanding and hard to grant, forgiveness has been treasured for centuries because it has the power to heal emotional wounds, restore human relationships and break the chain of violence. Some writers, though, have asserted that forgiveness found its boundaries in Auschwitz; the Nazi crimes against humanity reached the pinnacle there and cannot be forgiven. While discussing forgiveness in the context of the Holocaust and outside of it, this article pursues the following issues: Does forgiveness have limits? What would be the implications of being unable to forgive? Can punishment of the perpetrator help the process of forgiveness? Does the offended party forgive his or her hurt only? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the central tasks of meta-ethical inquiry is to accommodate the common-sense assumptions deeply embedded in our moral discourse. A comparison of the potential of secular and theistic ethics shows that, in the end, theists have a greater facility in achieving this accommodation task; it is easier to appreciate the action-guiding authority and binding nature of morality in a theistic rather than in a secular context. Theistic ethics has a further advantage in being able to accommodate not only this essential conceptual feature of morality, but also the existence of moral requirements and their source of normativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Euthyphro dilemma in the divine command theory. There has been a longstanding argument regarding the obligation to act morally because God dictates so. It was in Plato's "Euthyphro" that the argument first appeared. Further discussed are several aspects of the argument, including the underlying assumptions, and their implications to religion.

The article presents an essay about a model of kenosis of incarnation which present a diachronic and transcendental version of God. The model of kenosis presupposes a quasi-distinction which requires a human ethical engagement for the ongoing association of God with the world. This model of kenosis is a subordination of God's omnipotence to the ethical consent of man.

Books reviewed: Christopher Bobonich, Plato's Utopia Recast: His Later Ethics and Politics John Capreolus, On The Virtues Miguel A. Badia Cabrera, Hume's Reflection on Religion Catherine Chalier, What Ought I to Do?: Morality in Kant and Levinas Keith Ansell-Pearson and John Mullarkey, Henri Bergson: Key Writings Andrew Brook and Don Ross, Daniel Dennett Nancey Murphy, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation, Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre William Lane Craig, God, Time, and Eternity Paul Copan and Paul K. Moser, The Rationality of Theism W. Norris Clarke, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics Richard A. Cohen, Ethics, Exegesis and Philosophy: Interpretation after Levinas Simon Critchley and Robert Bernasconi, The Cambridge Companion to Levinas D. D. Raphael, Concepts of Justice Martha C. Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions David Herbert, Religion and Social Transformations Robert H. Nelson, Economics as Religion; from Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond Edmondo F. Lupieri, The Mandaeans: The Last Gnostics Antonía Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age James M. Scott, Geography in Early Judaism and Christianity: The Book of Jubilees David Naugle, Worldview: The History of a Concept Dianne Kirby, Religion and the Cold War Colin E. Gunton, The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine Paul Williams, The Unexpected Way: On Converting from Buddhism to Catholicism Alan P. F. Sell, Confessing and Commending the Faith Thomas M. Kelly, Theology at the Void John David Dawson, Christian Figural Reading and the Fashioning of Identity Daniel Kendall and Stephen T. Davis, The Convergence of Theology: A Festschrift Honoring Gerald O'Collins, S.J. Bernard Hoose, Authority in the Roman Catholic Church Timothy Matovina and Gary Riebe-Estrella, Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Traditions in US Catholicism Kenneth J. Howell, God's Two Books: Copernican Cosmology and Biblical Interpretation in Early Modern Science Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller Jr. and Jeffrey Paul, Should Differences in Income and Wealth Matter? Ron Geaves, Continuum Glossary of Religious Terms [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Levinas' ethical metaphysics opens up a nexus of relationships, in the midst of which God becomes accessible as the counterpart of the justice I render to others. Although Levinas refuses a theorising theology which does violence to God, we attempt in this article nonetheless to glimpse the possibility of a divine threesome (leash) which can be articulated in the language of ethical metaphysics. We seek to trace a Trinity, not in Levinas, but with Levinas. We seek to ‘leash God with Levinas.’ Thus, we argue the liturgical nature of God. God is utterly ‘for-the-other.’ The Father, as utterly self-diffusive, is ‘for-the-Son’, and the Son, as utterly responsive, is ‘for-the-Father.’ The divine nature (ousia) is the ethical reality of ‘for-the-other.’ Secondly, this one nature (ousia) has three distinct hypostases, which need to be understood ethically. The relationship between Father and Son is not the same as the relationship between the Son and the Father. The Father and the Son are the same in that they are essentially ‘for-the-other,’ bound by a bond or a Spirit of responsibility. Yet, the Son's relation to the Father is responsive, whereas the Father's relation to the Son is initiative or originary. Thus, there is both an identity yet a non-identification of Father and Son. Again, since responsibility is the ethical hypostasis of ‘the-other-person-in me,’ we might say that the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father (cf. John 14:10,11), in a non-identical way, and that it is precisely this perichoresis of the one in the Other which constitutes the hypostasis of each. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the publication of MacIntyre's After Virtue, the ‘Enlightenment Project’, where morality was uprooted from its traditional context and where human reason reigned supreme, has been regarded as doomed to failure. This view has been shared by a large number of theologians, but it is based on a misrepresentation of the Enlightenment, one strand of which sought to set limits to human reason. In particular, Immanuel Kant, who is discussed in detail, believed in the principle of perpetual criticism, a method which refused to see human reason as supreme, but which also criticised all other systems of absolute authority. A trust in criticism was part and parcel of ‘growing-up’: the educational process was thus of crucial importance as children gradually learnt to think for themselves. For Kant, this method was rooted in a theological position, where transcendence or ‘holiness’ functioned as a constant reminder of human finitude, and served to prevent all forms of idolatry. The article concludes with an outline of a theology suitable for grown-ups, more aware of ideology and power than was Kant, where all truth is seen as relative to an absolute truth, but one which can never be known in full. Such a position, which is seen as profoundly Christological, encourages tolerance and openness, but makes a stand against those who claim a certainty or an authority they can never (logically) possess. The church is seen as that body which lives away from human certainties in a life of hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liturgy has been the forum for the enactment of a diverse range of theologies, at times stressing the human, at times the divine. Following Emmanuel Levinas, this article understands the meaning of liturgy as ‘a movement of the Same towards the Other which never returns to the Same.’ Whether directed towards God, or expressive of human longing, the structure of liturgy is essentially ‘for-the-Other.’ This movement out of self is seen when one considers liturgy as the ‘work of the people,’ where ‘work’ is understood as Œuvre rather than travail. To say that liturgy is œuvre is to situate its significance not in the activity of the subject who has a concern to achieve or realise something through his own effort, but in the Other who inspires the work. The activism of travail finds its counter in the essential passivity of œuvre. By recognising this the horizontal and vertical elements within divine liturgy can be brought together in a mutually indispensable way. As essentially ‘for-the-Other,’ responsible service, which is at one and the same time divine service and human service, is at the heart of the liturgy. In liturgy we are drawn out of ourselves in a ‘movement of the Same towards the Other which never returns to the Same’ and which is positively experienced as responsibility. It is not that we first worship and then are called unto service in a movement out of self towards the Otherness of God and thereafter towards the Otherness of the other person. The movement out of self – liturgy – is at one and the same time worship and ethics, an ethical worship, in which justice is rendered both to God and to the other person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]