DOCSLIB.ORG

Christian Objections to Same Sex Relationships: an Academic Assessment

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Christian Objections to Same Sex Relationships: an Academic Assessment W: www.wijngaardsinstitute.com E: [email protected] Christian Objections to Same Sex Relationships: An Academic Assessment Interim Research Report Principal Author: Luca Badini Confalonieri, PhD Director of Research, Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Re- search. Contributing Authors: All contributing authors have contributed to and peer-reviewed the report strictly in their per- sonal capacity. They do not represent the view of their employers. Sharon A Bong, PhD Associate Professor in Gender and Religious Studies, Monash University, Selangor, Malaysia. Michael Brinkschröder, PhD Independent New Testament scholar and sociologist. Aloysius Lopez Cartagenas, PhD Formerly Rector of San Carlos Seminary and professor in Theological Ethics and Catholic Social Teaching, School of Theology, Cebu City, Philippines; at present an independent scholar. Margaret A. Farley, PhD Gilbert L. Stark Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics, Yale University Divinity School, USA. Jeannine Gramick, PhD Sister of Loretto, Co-Founder of New Ways Ministry, Mount Rainier, Maryland, USA. Hille Haker, PhD Richard McCormick Endowed Chair of Ethics, Loyola Uni- versity, Chicago, USA. Karin Heller, PhD Professor of Theology, Whitworth University, Westminster, Spokane WA, USA. Michael Lawler, PhD Amelia and Emil Graff Professor of Catholic Theology (Emeritus), Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Kathryn Lilla Cox, PhD Visiting Research Associate, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, San Diego University, USA. Gerard Loughlin, PhD Professor of Theology, University of Durham, UK. Aaron Milavec, PhD Vice-President Emeritus, Catherine of Siena Virtual College, Cincinnati, USA. Stanisław Obirek, PhD Professor of Humanities, University of Warsaw, Poland. Markus Patenge, PhD Commission for Justice and Peace of the German Catholic Episcopal Conference, Germany. Irina Pollard, PhD Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Macquarie Uni- versity, Sydney, Australia. Todd Salzman, PhD Amelia and Emil Graff Professor of Catholic Theology, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Mark S. Smith, PhD Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Skirball Professor Emeritus of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, New York University. David Stronck, PhD Professor (Emeritus), Department of Teacher Education, Cal- ifornia State University, USA. Cristina Traina, PhD Head Religious Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. John Wijngaards, PhD Professor Sacred Scripture (Emeritus), Missionary Institute London, UK. 2 Contents Christian Objections to Same Sex Relationships: An Academic Assessment ...........................1 1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................5 2 Summary of Official Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality ...............................9 2.1 Consequences of the papal teaching that the finality of sexual intercourse is always procreation .......................................................................................................................10 2.2 How to Evaluate Non-Procreative Unions: An Ecumenical Problem ...............11 3 Scientific Evidence on Sexual Orientation ........................................................13 3.1 Sexual Orientation: A Continuum? ....................................................................15 4 The Natural Law Argument: Sex is for Procreation ..........................................17 4.1 Evidence from Biology: Not Every Act of Heterosexual Intercourse Has a Procreative Finality ..........................................................................................................17 4.1.1How could HV affirm that each and every act of sexual intercourse has procreation as its finality? .............................................................................................................18 4.2 The Naturalistic Fallacy: Drawing a Moral Obligation directly from Biology .21 4.3 Non-Conceptive Purposes of Human Sexuality: Evidence from Evolutionary Biology 22 4.4 Non-Conceptive Purposes of Human Sexuality: Evidence from Sociology and Psychology .......................................................................................................................26 4.5 Non-Conceptive Purposes of Human Sexuality: Catholic theology, Canon Law, and Papal Teaching .................................................................................................................27 4.6 The Biblical View on the Purpose of Sex ..........................................................28 4.6.1 Gen. 1:27: “Male and female He created them”: Reproduction as Natural Capacity 29 4.6.2 Gen. 1:28: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth” ...............................................32 4.6.2.1 A Blessing, not a Command ......................................................................32 4.6.2.2 A Blessing limited to the situation of the origins neither absolute nor universal ................................................................................34 4.6.3 Gen. 2:18, 24: “It is not good for Adam to be alone”: Social Purposes of Sexuality ..............................................................................35 5 The Arguments from Authority: The Bible and Homosexuality .......................37 5.1 Cultural Background: Same-sex Behavior in the Ancient Near East ................37 5.2 Gen. 2:18-24: A normative statement on heterosexual marriage? .....................40 5.3 Genesis 19:1-29 .................................................................................................41 5.4 Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 ..................................................................................42 5.5 1 Cor 6:9-10 .......................................................................................................48 3 5.6 1 Tim 1:9-10 ......................................................................................................51 5.7 Romans 1:26-27 .................................................................................................53 5.8 Conclusions from the NT Evidence ...................................................................60 Academic Statement on the Ethics of Free and Faithful Same-sex Relationships ..................63 1. Summary of Findings .........................................................................................63 2. Recommendations ..............................................................................................66 3. Assessment of the Official Papal Arguments against Same Sex Relationships 67 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................76 4 1 Introduction Catholic moral teaching on [homosexuality] will be intellectually marginalized to the extent that it avoids engaging with the experiences of the people and the human sciences that reflect on them. Moreover, the dialogue with the exegetical and moral theological knowledge of the last decades must be such as not to preclude from the outset progress in learn- ing and knowledge. Rt Rev. Dr. Franz-Josef Overbeck, Catholic bishop of Essen, Germany, 2019 The past few decades have seen a remarkable increase in the social acceptance of LGBT people. Such a change “is why the moral question of homosexuality is no longer about its acceptability, but about the [Catholic] Church’s opposition to it, about the [Catholic] Church’s homophobia”. 1 Current papal teaching strongly condemns same-sex acts as “intrinsically disordered” (Persona Humana §8). That teaching is restated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) – the official document used to inform all Catholics of the main tenets of their faith – and it is reiterated through the worldwide network of Catholic parishes, schools, universities, and so on. Given the membership of the Catholic Church, its reach is momentous, and so is the harm it inflicts on LGBT people globally. LGBT people are still, to this day, the target of discrimination that regularly results in verbal and physical abuse, employment discrimination, firing, and death. The current and most comprehensive official exposition of those arguments dates back to 1986.2 Its condemnation of homosexual acts is based on two main arguments: that the Bible prohibits them; and that they are biologically infertile, and so unable to fulfill “procreation”, regarded as a necessary “finality” of each and every act of sexual intercourse. Therefore, papal teaching concludes that the “homosexual orientation” is an “objective disorder” “ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil”, i.e. same-sex acts (HP §3, see CCC §2358); “homosexual acts” are “intrinsically disordered” and, as 1 Gerard Loughlin, “Catholic Homophobia,” Theology 121, no. 3 (May 1, 2018): 189. 2 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Homosexualitatis Problema: On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Per- sons” (1986), henceforth HP, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/docu- ments/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html. Some minor documents published since do not substantially expand the reasons provided in that document for a negative moral evaluation of all homosexual rela- tionship as intrinsically immoral: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons,” July 24, 1992, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19920724_homosexual-per-
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly 32 Number 3 Articles Fall 2009 President’S Letter
    Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly 32 Number 3 ARTICLES Fall 2009 President’s Letter .............................................Joseph Koterski, S.J. Terrence Tilley’s Christological Impasses: The Demise of the Doctrine of the Incarnation ....Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap. The Cultural and Ecclesial Situation 1964 to 1967: Paving the Way for Dissent from Church Teaching on Contraception ....................................................William E. May Catholic Feminist Ethics and the Culture of Death ................................................................Anne Barbeau Gardiner Reflections on Fifty Years of Writing ................ James V. Schall, S.J. A Catholic Factor in an Inter-Orthodox Controversy ......................................................Rev. Msgr. Daniel S. Hamilton BOOK Men and Women: Diversity and Mutual Complementarity by Study Seminar, Vatican City ............................... William E. May American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile by Richard John Neuhaus ...................................... D. Q. McInerny A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine ............................................Jude P. Dougherty Christ in His Mysteries: A Benedictine and a Benedict by Blessed Columba Marmion .................................Marie P. Loehr ISSN 1084-3035 The Death of a Pope by Piers Paul Read .......................................................Alfred Hanley Fellowship of Catholic Scholars P.O. Box 495 Notre Dame, IN 46556 (574) 631-5825 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS ...........by Jude P. Dougherty www.catholicscholars.org FCS BOARD J. Brian Benestad, Editor [email protected] EX CATHEDRA .....................................................J. Brian Benestad FCS Quarterly • Fall 2009 1 PRESIDENT’S LETTER Going In Their Door by Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. Fellowship of s the Fellowship convenes for its 2009 conference on Catholic Scholars the theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, it seems fitting to devote this column to that subject.
    [Show full text]
  • MORAL METHODOLOGY and PASTORAL RESPONSIVENESS: the CASE of ABORTION and the CARE of CHILDREN TODD DAVID WHITMORE University of Notre Dame
    Theological Studies 54 (1993) MORAL METHODOLOGY AND PASTORAL RESPONSIVENESS: THE CASE OF ABORTION AND THE CARE OF CHILDREN TODD DAVID WHITMORE University of Notre Dame ORAL METHODOLOGY is intimately related to pastoral practice. M Though neither element can be reduced to the other, the way one construes a moral problem methodologically shapes one's response to the problem. This article will analyze the moral reasoning in three recent church documents in order to assess the implications of their modes of reasoning for the relationship between abortion and the care of children. The three documents are the "Declaration on Abortion" issued in 1974 by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and two statements by the American Catholic Bishops: "The Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities: A Reaffirmation" (1985), and "Putting Children and Families First: A Challenge for Our Church, Nation, and World (1991).1 The insight that there is some connection between the issues of abortion and the care of children is not uncommon. A number of schol­ ars make the initial observation that there is a link between the two.2 But efforts to understand more fully how they relate have been less than satisfactory. The frustration is evident in Cardinal Bernardina words: "There must be a connection—logical, legal and social— between our lack of moral vision in protecting unborn children and our lack of social vision in the provision of basic necessities for women and children."3 These words imply, correctly, that the inability to relate 1 Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Abortion (Wash­ ington: U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    Rev. 5-9-17 CURRICULUM VITAE MARGARET A. FARLEY Phone: 203-432-1099 (office) E-mail: [email protected] Present positions: Gilbert L. Stark Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics, Yale Divinity School. Education: A.B., English Literature, University of Detroit, 1957. M.A., Philosophy, University of Detroit, 1960. M.Phil., Religious Studies (Ethics), Yale University, 1970. Ph.D., Religious Studies (Ethics), Yale University, 1973. Teaching positions: Philosophy Dept., Mercy College of Detroit, 1962-67. Philosophy Dept., University of Detroit (visiting lecturer), 1966-67. Yale University Divinity School, 1971- Lecturer, 1971-72; Assistant Professor, 1972-74; Associate Professor, 1974-84; Professor, 1984-07; Professor Emerita, 2007 - . Honors and Awards: British Universities Summer Fellowship, 1957. Yale University Fellowship, 1967-68 (declined). Danforth Teacher Grant, 1967-69. Kent Fellowship, 1969-72. Morse Junior Faculty Fellowship, Yale University, Summer, 1973. Elected membership, New Haven Theological Discussion Group, 1979. Rockefeller Fellowship, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, Summer, 1980 (declined). Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, College Misericordia, 1980. A. Whitney Griswold Humanities Research Award, Yale University, 1981. Elected membership, American Theological Society, 1983. Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Fairfield University, 1983. Centennial Medal for Scholarly Contributions in Religious Ethics, John Carroll University, 1986. Gilbert L. Stark Chair in Christian Ethics, Yale University, 1986. Leadership Award, Mercy Higher Education Colloquium, 1988. Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Weston School of Theology, 1989. Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Detroit, 1990. Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Regis College, Weston, MA, 1991. Humanities Laureate Award, St. Joseph College, W. Hartford, CT, 1992. John Courtney Murray Award for Excellence in Theology, Catholic Theological Society of America, 1992.
    [Show full text]
  • Catholic Feminist Ethics and the Culture of Death
    Citation for the following article: Anne Barbeau Gardiner, “Catholic Feminist Ethics and the Culture of Death: The Case of Sister Margaret Farley,” Proceedings of the Nineteenth University Faculty for Life Conference at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minneapolis MN (2009), ed. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. (Washington, D.C.: University Faculty for Life, 2013), pp. 281-294. Catholic Feminist Ethics and the Culture of Death: The Case of Sister Margaret Farley Anne Barbeau Gardiner A BSTRACT: In her recent book Just Love, Sister Margaret Farley makes so-called “women’s experience” the basis for a radical new “sexual ethics.” She promotes an upper-class feminist ideology while censuring the Catholic Church for promulgating an ethics that is not universal but only a masculine construct. Ever since 1973, Farley has been a leading and consistent apologist for the Culture of Death, but in the year 2000, in her presidential address to the Catholic Theological Society of America, she openly confronted and blamed the Magisterium for standing on a narrow ground in its repeated condemnations of abortion. And yet her writings and those of other Catholic feminists in her wake reveal that it is these dissidents themselves who stand on a narrow ground in their defense of abortion. Their embrace of “women’s experience” as an ideology has led directly to Farley’s Just Love, a work that condones not just abortion but also masturbation, pornography, adultery, and active homosexuality. N A J UST AND TRUE LOVE, a recent collection of essays honoring
    [Show full text]
  • Vatican Ii and Theological Ethics
    Theological Studies 74 (2013) VATICAN II AND THEOLOGICAL ETHICS JAMES F. KEENAN, S.J. This note, extended into an article to commemorate Vatican II, argues that any study of the council and theological ethics must attend to World War II’s devastating impact on the field. The war moved European ethicists to repudiate the three centuries of moral manuals and propose a theological ethics based on conscience acting out of charity. In Latin America and Africa, “suffering” emerges as the overarching concern, while in the United States, the language of Catholic social teaching enters the fields of fundamental moral theol- ogy, sexual ethics, and bioethics. Looking back on the council today, ethicists see that the agenda of Gaudium et spes has become theirs. S I BEGAN RESEARCH ON THIS TOPIC, I originally wanted to focus solely Aon what developed in theological ethics after Vatican II. The more research I did, however, the more I found that ecclesiologists and church historians celebrating the 50th anniversary of the council tended to convey at best a modest assumption about the relationship between theological ethics and the council.1 At the same time, polling theological ethicists around the world, I found that many had recently written on the council, emphasizing either Gaudium et spes’s anthropological assumptions, embrace of human dignity, affirmation of conscience and personal freedom, together with its wide array of urgent concerns2 or Dignitatis humanae’s own defense JAMES F. KEENAN, S.J., received the STD from the Gregorian University and is Founders Professor in Theology at Boston College. His areas of special interest include the history of theological ethics, virtue ethics, biblical ethics, and HIV/ AIDS.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a Just Christian Sexual Ethic for Engaging Young People in the Context of Concurrent Sexual Partnerships
    Sex = u + i² : toward a just Christian sexual ethic for engaging young people in the context of concurrent sexual partnerships By Indileni E.S. Hilukiluah Supervisor: Dr Beverley G. Haddad Submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Masters in Theology and Development in the School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg November, 2011 DECLARATION I declare that, unless otherwise specifically indicated through the references, this dissertation is entirely my original work. All citations, references and borrowed ideas have been duly acknowledged. This dissertation is being submitted for the degree of Masters of Theology and Development in the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. None of the present work has been submitted previously for any degree or examination in any other University. 06 March 2012 _____________________________ _______________________________ Date Indileni E.S. Hilukiluah i ABSTRACT Concurrency studies reveal that concurrent sexual partnerships (CSPs) increase the rate of HIV transmission. Church programmes on HIV prevention for young people predominantly promote the moral-based message of sexual abstinence before marriage. These key issues motivate this study which seeks to find a Christian sexual ethic for young people aged 15-24 that is underpinned by the principle of justice to facilitate ethical discernment. The study focuses on Southern Africa with particular emphasis on Namibia and the Siyafundisa youth programme of the Anglican Diocese of Namibia. Through non-empirical research, the work of Margaret Farley on “just sex” is employed as a framework of analysis. Farley’s Christian ethic promotes justice in any love or sexual relationship, and suggests seven justice norms.
    [Show full text]
  • American Catholics and American Politics
    • CTSA PROCEEDINGS 55 (2000): 55-82 • AMERICAN CATHOLICS AND AMERICAN POLITICS Prefatory Note. The issues I collect under the label "religion in politics" are, for me, at least as much existential as intellectual. I am a religious believer—in par- ticular, a religious believer for whom the Roman Catholic tradition has been formative. I am also a citizen of a liberal democracy: the United States. Indeed, I am grateful to be—I am enthusiastic about being—a citizen of a liberal democracy.1 In some of my books, I have spoken to those of my fellow citizens who are not religious believers about how I and other religious believers, as religious believers, may and should participate in politics. I now want to speak to those of my fellow citizens who are also fellow religious believers—fellow Catholics—about how I and other Catholics, as Catholics, may and should participate in politics. This is, for me, a new topic, and the paper I am about to present is my first attempt to think "in writing" about the relevant issues. Perhaps it is not unfitting for me, a mere lawyer in this den of Catholic theologians, to do in my paper what I am about to do: quote liberally the voices of several Catholic theologians. In any event, my paper is, in part, a collage of Catholic theological voices—voices that are surely familiar to all of you. I have assembled, or conscripted, these voices, these texts—I have relied on them—in my attempt to think about the relevant issues. I hope you will be patient with me as I rehearse the texts with you in the course of presenting my paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Law School in a Different Voice: Legal Education As a Work of Mercy
    Mercer University School of Law Mercer Law School Digital Commons Faculty Publications Faculty 2019 Law School in a Different Voice: Legal Education as a Work of Mercy Pamela A. Wilkins Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/fac_pubs Part of the Legal Education Commons SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW LAW SCHOOL IN A DIFFERENT VOICE: LEGAL EDUCATION AS A WORK OF MERCY PAMELA A. WILKINS* [W]e live in complex and deeply challenging times. Our society most often measures the value of a person by his or her productivity alone and discards the unproductive along the way. We live in a society so mesmerized by its view of success that it considers real only that which can be touched, weighed, and measured, a culture in which human and spiritual values have almost vanished from its consciousness. Whether it is our brothers and sisters living on the streets in this city of such great power [Washington D.C.], or the tens of millions of persons around the globe who have become refugees because of both political and economic violence; today there is such devastating human suffering and dehumanization. The world’s most notable Jesuit has spoken powerfully about this very reality. Addressing the Fortune-Time Global Forum last December, Pope Francis affirmed the “urgent need for more inclusive and equitable economic models.” He has called for a “revolution of tenderness.” Today, more than ever, we need this “revolution of tenderness.” This may be a strange message given the prestige of Georgetown University. However, I ask you to consider that our hearts are becoming hard.
    [Show full text]
  • Current Theology Notes on Moral Theology: 1983 Richard A
    Theological Studies 45 (1984) CURRENT THEOLOGY NOTES ON MORAL THEOLOGY: 1983 RICHARD A. McCORMICK, S.J. Kennedy Institute of Ethics and Woodstock Theological Center, D.C. These "Notes" will focus on four areas of contemporary concern: (1) conversations in fundamental moral theology, (2) doctrinal development, (3) pastoral problems, (4) the episcopal pastoral The Challenge of Peace. CONVERSATIONS IN FUNDAMENTAL MORAL THEOLOGY I have entitled this section "conversations" rather than "disputes" in order to underline the open and communicative character that should pervade scholarly exchanges. Furthermore, the term allows reportage of literature that would not fit easily under a single rubric. In an important article, Joseph Fuchs, S.J., discusses the tensions between bshops and theologians.1 Fuchs first adverts to the mission of bishops. One aspect ofthat mission is the unity of the faithful. However, there is the danger that bishops can confuse unity in faith with uniformity about moral teaching. "If Vatican II noted that believing Christians of upright conscience could at times come to different solutions in important human questions (therefore ethical questions), then that indicates that the unifying function of the bishops in moral questions, even on the basis of the one faith, is not unlimited."2 Unity in the faith is much more important than unity in moral questions. "Church history shows repeat­ edly that functional unity in moral questions does not mean the truth of the moral formulations implied in this unity." Therefore episcopal service should aim not above all at functional conformity, but at unity in the truth. Many regrettable events could have been avoided if this had been remembered through centuries of church history (Fuchs mentions reli­ gious freedom, sexual-ethical formulations, and the defense of the unjust use of force).
    [Show full text]
  • Bioethics and Public Policy
    Theological Studies 71(2010) BIOETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY LISA FULLAM WILLIAM R. O'NEILL, S.J. Part I of this note assesses recent developments in embryonic stem cell research and HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in light of two recent magisterial texts: Dignitas personae on Certain Bioethi- cal Questions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical. Caritas in veritate. Part II explores the implications of these developments for public policy in reli- giously pluralist societies. wo RECENT MAGISTERIAL TEXTS Set the Stage for our reflections: the Tinstruction, "Dignitas personae on Certain Bioethical Questions" issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on June 20, 2008; and Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical. Caritas in veritate, promulgated on June 29, 2009.^ Pope Benedict insists that bioethical issues fall under the purview of the Church's social teaching on human rights. However, as LISA FULLAM received her Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School and her D.V.M. (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) from Cornell University. Now associate professor at Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, she specializes in virtue ethics and sexual ethics. Among her recent publications are: The Virtue of Humil- ity: A Thomistic Apologetic (2009); Virtue Ethics: Readings in Moral Theology No. 16, coedited with Charles E. Curran (forthcoming from Paulist); and "Sex in 3-D: A Telos for a Virtue Ethics of Sexuality," Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 27 (2007). Several articles are in progress: "Virtue Ethics in Spiritual Guidance"; "Archetypes of Spiritual Guidance"; and "The Cultivation oi" Desire: Toward a Virtue Ethics of Marriage." WILLIAM R.
    [Show full text]
  • 1401 Keenan Lect Bk-F.Qxd
    AID P ermit No. 22 ermit No. U.S. Postage anta Clara, CA P S onprofit Organization onprofit N The Santa ClaraLectures Church Leadership, Ethics and the Future James Keenan, S.J. Boston College Gasson Chair in the Department of Theology and Professor of Moral Theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology Santa Clara Lecture Santa Clara University March 7, 2006 95053-0643 Santa Clara CA Jesuit Education 500 El Camino Real Change Service Requested Vol. 12 The Ignatian Center for Previous Lecturers John Meier Denise Carmody Margaret Farley David O’Brien Francis X. Clooney, S.J. Mary Jo Weaver In 1994, through the generosity of Bannan Center for Jesuit Education, the Department of Religious Studies of Santa Clara Ron Hansen University inaugurated the Santa Clara Lectures. This series brings to Pierre DuMaine campus leading scholars in theology, offering the University Phyllis Trible community and the general public an ongoing exposure to debate on M. Shawn Copeland the most significant issues of our times. Santa Clara University will publish these lectures and distribute them throughout the United John R. Donahue, S.J. States and internationally. Bill Cain Elizabeth A. Johnson Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university Klaus J. Porzig, M.D. located in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its 7,400 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, David Hollenbach, S.J. plus master’s and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the third- Joseph Daoust, S.J. highest graduation rate among U.S. master’s universities, California’s Sandra Schneiders, I.H.M. oldest higher education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of Robert E.
    [Show full text]
  • Lectio Divina and Divorce: Reflections in Twelve Parts About What Divorce Has to Teach the Church
    ATR/97.2 Lectio Divina and Divorce: Reflections in Twelve Parts about What Divorce Has to Teach the Church Lauren F. Winner* I First, let me say what this essay is not: It is not an argument about whether “the Church” or churches should allow divorce. It is not a painstaking consideration of what Jesus had to say about divorce, and, given those words, the circumstances in which it might or might not be legitimate to divorce. It is not an essay about whether remarriage should be permitted after divorce. It is not a reading of the social scientific literature—reams, of it, now; whole libraries of literature—on the effects of divorce on children.1 It is not a claim about what divorce reveals about “the culture”— for example, that the United States is in peril because people’s selfish desire for fulfillment has eroded a gemeinschaftliche commitment to the common good. * Lauren F. Winner is Assistant Professor of Christian Spirituality at Duke Divinity School and an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of North Carolina. Her books include Girl Meets God (Algonquin, 2002), A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households of Eighteenth-Century Virginia (Yale University Press, 2011), Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis (HarperOne, 2012), and Wearing God: An Exercise in Expanding the Spiritual Imagination (HarperOne, 2015). The author is grateful to Scott Bader-Saye, Paul J. Griffiths, Stanley Hauerwas, David Matzko McCarthy, and Thea Portier-Young for comments on drafts of this essay, and Elizabeth DeGaynor for formatting help. 1 This essay does not consider the implications of divorce for children, and as such, there is a certain decided limitation to the essay.
    [Show full text]