Search results for ""author j. verstraeten""

Gaudium et spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) was promulgated on December 7, 1965. It mirrors a new spirit of openness of the Catholic Church to the world, as well as a new historical consciousness, based on a self-understanding of the Catholic Chuch as "linked with mankind and its history by the deepest bonds" (GS, 1). This historical consciousness resulted in a method of social discernment which, inspired by John XXIII, was articulated by Gaudium et spes in terms of 'scrutinizing the signs of the times' and of 'interpreting them in the light of the gospel' (GS, 4). Conscious of the need to revisit the pastoral constitution of Vatican II, the Centre for Catholic Social Thought at the Catholic University of Leuven, has organised two international expert seminars. The first expert seminar (6-7 September 2003) was rather explorative and focused on the relevance of catholic social thought in its actual context with special attention paid to the signs of the times in an era of globalisation. The discussion on the contemporary signs of the times revealed the necessity to clarify the theoretical and practical implications of the methodology of social discernment and particularly of a social hermeneutic in the light of the gospel. This became the theme of a second expert seminar (Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve, 9-11 September 2004), the discussions of which are the background to this book.

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This book submits for discussion the first results of an undertaking that is still going on. It aims to stimulate a broad reflection on the general question of the meaning of ethics and ethics teaching in the context of professional practice. In doing so, it explores what might be called the transverse foundations of professional ethics. The authors, all of them philosophers engaged in educating future professionals, took the risk of putting forward a vision which is more inspirational than informative. Their approach to ethics is in-depth and wide-ranging, appropriate to what ethics is : a positive, creative dynamic, less concerned with respecting certain rules or applying certain procedures than with the inventive significance of a sensible practice or a meaningful life, both for individuals and for institutions or societies as a whole. This volume, then, is offered primarily as an instrument and source of inspiration (and perhaps also as course material) for anyone involved in ethics education who wants to reflect on professional life and to conceive their courses as going beyond a narrowly deontological, pragmatic or informative point of view.

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These essays are an attempt to recover something of the form, style and force of Catholic non-official social thinking in the face of contemporary social thought and contemporary injustice in advanced societies. After an opening essay by the doyen of Catholic writers in this field, Jean-Yves Calvez, SJ, the book is divided into three sections. The first and largest group of essays discuss patterns and predicaments of Catholic social thought in general terms and from different points of view. The context here is partly the debate on modernity, high-modernity and post-modernity, partly the issue of how far and in what ways Catholic Social Thought can claim to be distinctive, relative to contemporary secular thought. The second section of the book focusses on relationships between Catholic social thought and its restatement, and a number of contemporary debates on public issues. Particular attention is given, in successive essays, to issues of anti-poverty, human rights, economic theory and international finance. A third and shorter section describes a number of institutional projects which attempt to carry Catholic social values forward into concrete action, focussing on work in health and welfare, grass roots economic co-operation, anti-poverty and international peace and justice. Final contributions by the reputed international scholar in this field, John Coleman, SJ, and the book editors, respectively evaluate the collection as a whole and discuss further steps.

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A generation of students at the Faculty of Theology of the K.U.Leuven have been introduced by Roger Burggraeve to the thoughts of Emmanuel Levinas (1905-1995). Levinas has been (and still is) for him a true "master in thinking". For Levinas responsibility is heteronymous because it does not start from the "I" but from the epiphany of the other as the face, appealing to me not "to kill" but to promote him/her. In and through the appeal of the face, the difference between the other and me - expressed in the irreducible alterity of the other - is, ethically speaking, the appeal to the highest "non-indifference": proximity without absorption. As Levinas' thinking carries on obvious Jewish-Talmudic imprint, Burggraeve was interested as to how the concept of responsibility can be connected to a biblically inspired ethic. In which way can the Levinasian view on responsibility enhance a Christian anthropology, and in particular that one articulated by Louvain personalism, and in its turn inspired by a Christian anthropology, so that it benefits from uniquely Christian accents? In this Festschrift for Roger Burggraeve, authors explore the theme of "Responsibility, God and Society" in order to answer two questions. What does Levinas' ethic of responsibility have to offer Christian theology? And vice-versa, what can Christian theology offer to contemporary ethical thought on personal, relational and societal responsibility.

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