Abstract
Joseph Selling, professor emeritus from KU Leuven, Belgium, recently made a significant contribution towards ethical methodology. It is in fact a continuation of the in-house conversations that have been in vogue about methods in moral reasoning since Vatican II in the discipline called theological ethics. What is specific about Selling’s attempt is that he re-orients or reframes the evaluation of the moral event to consider human intentionality or motivation before considering human behavior or human acts. He convincingly establishes his method by a meticulous reading of Thomas Aquinas. This paper is a response to the goal-oriented ethics that he has posited. As illustrated below, this paper evaluates the goal-oriented approach as solid and sufficient. While fully endorsing this approach, this paper argues that the process of ethical goal-setting is to be framed concretely. In a concrete historical context, so that a goal-oriented approach fully serves its purpose, this paper proposes that it is to be reinforced by four supportive pillars, which are in fact assumed by Selling in his work. They are openness to human sciences, conversation among various narratives, positing a theological frame for ethical reasoning, and recourse to non-discursive reasoning.
Highlights
Book-length discussions on ethical methodology are rather rare
Joseph Selling, with his book Reframing Catholic Theological Ethics, (Selling 2016) has travelled into that less trodden terrain. While it is a matter of great accomplishment for him, for the company of Christian ethicists, it poses a great task—to grasp, evaluate, and integrate the major claims that he makes in this work into contemporary ethical reasoning, ethical methodology
Sustained discussions on ethical methodology require a great amount of familiarity with technical terms and the history of the development of theological ethics
Summary
Book-length discussions on ethical methodology are rather rare. Rarer still are proposals for reframing theological ethics. Think about an ethical goal that involves a break from the integrity of the parameters of the human person adequately and integrally considered. For instance, one’s choice of martyrdom or ascetic life Such instances are so radical that, for the sake of a highly esteemed goal, one chooses to relinquish the essential parameters of the human person adequately and integrally considered. To illustrate this point further, when someone opts for martyrdom for the sake of a religious goal, s/he is willing to surrender some of the parameters of the human person adequately and integrally considered, such as her/his corporeality, her/his being part of the material world, and her/his historicity. The ethical goal or intention of the one who opted for martyrdom escapes the evaluative parameters of the human person adequately and integrally considered
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