Catholic Social Ethics

This course seeks to provide both an historical and a systematic overview of the development of social ethics within the Catholic tradition, noting major themes in the tradition. The course presumes that one has completed at least an introductory course in Christian ethics at the graduate level. The purpose of the course is to assist students in forming moral arguments, engaging discussions on emerging issues, and placing debates within their historical context, including their contemporary context. All students will at the end of the course be expected to have a firm grasp of the ethical teaching of the Church, including knowledge of key magisterial documents, as well as how to apply them to situations they will face in their ministerial context. While the course will attend to major magisterial works chronologically, it will engage the issues raised by those texts as they developed over time. For example, Pope John's encyclical, Pacem in Terris, will be linked with growing attention to human rights as a foundation for world peace.