TMCE7034 · Theology and Ministry

Critical Ethical Issues

Clough School of Theology and Ministry

This is the introductory course in moral theology for all degree programs, except the M.Div. This course considers critical contemporary issues from Catholic, interdenominational, interfaith, international, and cross-cultural perspectives. Attention will be given to the Wesleyan Quadrilateral (scripture, tradition, reason, and experience) and casuistry to ground a common approach in the examination and interrogation of the issues to be addressed. The principal ethical issues to be studied include: economic justice (access to health and human services), sexual ethics (just love, sexual identity, misogyny, pedophilia, and reproduction), respect life (abortion, euthanasia, hyper-incarceration and capital punishment), fanaticism and religious fundamentalism, environmental degradation and human ecology (natural disasters), and the toll of a perpetual state of war.