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Cross-Cultural Ethics In a

bretzke@bc.edu

How Is Truth?

“The splendor of truth shines forth in all the works of the Creator and, in a special way, in humans, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26). Truth enlightens humans’ intelligence and shapes their freedom, leading them to know and love the Lord.” Veritatis splendor

Sacred Texts

HumanExperiences

NormativelyHuman

Tradtions ofthe community

Find the Truth in Moral Methodology :

Let Every Voice Be Heard!

Source Content Questions

What is used, and why?What is ignored, and why?What is rejected, and why?What is reinterpreted, and why?Which source(s) is (are) decisive when there is a conflict, and why?

Two Contrasting Scriptures

The Natural Law is the same for allRomans 2:13-16 “…what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their conscience bears witness…”

The Spirit speaks in our mother tongueActs 2:5-11 “…how is that we hear, each of us, in our native languages them speaking about God’s deeds of power?”

Competing Moral Paradigms

Only God Can Know the Whole of RealityThus for the rest of us this knowledge is necessarily incomplete and partial, and we tend to understand complex realities according to models and paradigmsCan we speak of authentic cultural paradigms for morality and ethics?Necessary Openness to Revision of All Paradigms—especially in light of new insights

Morality Is Necessarily ComplexRecall Thomas Aquinas’ distinction between speculative and practical reasonIn the abstract, speculative realm truth could be universal and unchangeable,But in the concrete, practical reason rules:

“in matters of action, truth or practical rectitude is not the same for all, as to matters of detail, but only as to the general principlesand where there is the same rectitude in matters of detail, it is not equally known to all.”ST I-II, Q. 94, art. 4

What & Whose Truth?

“Truth,” moral or otherwise exists always in a contextIn that context what we see, and how we see it, will help “shape” the truth for usTherefore, seeing broadly and diversely is part of seeing “correctly”Even the same site will truly look different depending on time & circumstance

The Inculturation of Truth

If the Gospel is ultimately about the deepest truth of our world and ourselvesAnd if we are called to inculturate the Gospel in every cultureThen we must look at this “truth” in a variety of modesAnd the truth will be both the same and different at the same time

The Truth about Evangelization

“Evangelization is to be achieved, not from without, as though by adding some decoration or applying a coat of color, but in depth, going to the very center and roots of life. The gospel must impregnate the culture and the whole way of life of men & women.” Evangelii nuntiandi, 20

Stages of Inculturation

Translation Stage: Assimilation Stage:Adaptation Stage:Inculturation Stage:Cross-Fertilization Stage:

Deus is HanunimHanunim is Our GodEucharist Is Chae-saNew liturgy?We are all called to filial piety

Cross-Fertilization of Truth

If inculturation leads to new understanding of moral truth then cross-cultural ethics may help produce a broader and deeper understanding akin to the model of cross-fertilizationAs inculturation bears fruit in evangelization then this new fruit should be enjoyed by all

Pathways to Truth [?]

“Experience shows that young priests who have been trained in Rome, near to the heart of the Vicar of Christ, adapt themselves even better than others, to the culture of their own countries”Msgr. Luigi Bogliolo, Rector of the Urbanianum

“Two of the deepest and most fruitful prayers of Christendom [are] the Stations of the Cross and the Rosary. If nowadays we are so dangerously exposed to the attractions of Asiatic religious practices; it is surely in part because we have forgotten these prayers.”Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect CDF

An Alternative Path:Pilgrimage of Dialogue

C.S. Song’s Stages of Conversion:The World is DifferentBlessed IgnoranceBi-Lateral Cease-FireConversion to Dialogue

The Challenge of Changing Our Perceptions

Can We Allow for the Possibility that There Is Another Way to Look on Our Human Moral Nature?

Seeking Out the Truth

Meeting the Challenges of Developing Cross-Cultural Ethics

Culture As Framework

Culture as our principal mode of being human, thus the way we are truly human beingsThere is no such thing as a non-cultural or “a-cultural” human beingThus, to speak of “human nature” one must do so always in a cultural context

Theology of Culture

Gaudium et spes states that humans "can achieve true and full humanity only by means of culture”[#53] Culture as our way of being is God-given, and thus essentially goodFor us culture can be a means by which we act as co-creators with God

Through Thick and Thin

Culture is not easily “thinly” defined but rather requires a “thick” descriptionGeertz’s example of a “wink”Cultural, and especially cross-cultural understanding first requires “decoding”This decoding may be partial & fallible, but this shouldn’t paralyze us

Fundamental Values and Root Paradigms

Fundamental Values express assumptions about the world as a whole, and in particular about human nature and concomitant appropriate behavior. These values are incarnated in Root Paradigms, e.g., The Way of the Cross for Christianity

Ethnocentrism

Culture tends to produce ethnocentrism as a way of viewing the world and especially other cultures in terms of one’s own culture.Ethnocentrism is a natural result of culture’s functioning, but poses great challenges to intercultural communication

Western Cultural Views

“Man [sic] is the measure of all things”

East Asian Cultural Views

T’ien-Jen-Ho-I[Heaven and the Human Become One]

Inter-Cultural Communication

Ethnocentrism as a whole raises many difficultiesFundamental Values and Root Paradigms are usually the last things to change in a given cultureTension between conflicting root paradigms is particularly challenging

The Challenge of Changing Our Perceptions

Can We Allow for the Possibility that There Is Another Way to Look on Our Human Moral Nature?

Life is Coded

The Challenge of Finding the Golden Key(C.S. Song)

Acculturation: The Challenge of the Meeting of Cultures

Acculturation refers to the encounter between member(s) of different culturesAcculturation usually results in some

sort of change, which can be both benign or conflictual

What’s Going On Here?

And What’s Going On Here?

Korean Martyrs Beatification Rome, 1925

1984 Canonization, Seoul

Moving to the Next Stage

Developing an Ear for Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Nuns at the Temple Well

Buddhist Monk & Jesuit

Playground Shrine to the Blessed Mother in Barangka

The Last Challenge

Discerning, Trusting, and Collaborating with the Spirit

Human Face(s) of Decision on Vasectomies

32 year old Street Vendor: $5.35 a day with 7 pre-teen children

Doctor with 2 teenagers

200 Pesos on a Good Day {56 Pesos to a Dollar}

Chapel Decorations Complete

Carmen shares her digital photos at Payatas

Norlan Julia, S.J. and the Block Rosary Group of Payatas

Montalban Squatters’ Relocation Barrio

Outdoor Shower at Montalban Barrio

Road to the Montalban Church

The Riches of Payatas

Mau Ulep, CMF, with friends at Liwanag Barrio

Prayer of St. Theresa AvilaChrist has no body on earth but yoursNo hands on earth but your hands.Yours are the eyes through which He looks out with compassion on the world.Yours are the feet with which He chooses to go about doing good.For as He is the Head, so you are the membersand we are all one in Christ Jesus.

Suggested Readings

Robert Schreiter, The New Catholicity: Theology between the Global and the Local (1997)James Bretzke, “Cultural Particularity & the Globalization in the Light of Inculturation,” Pacifica 9 (1996): 69-86“Moral Theology out of East Asia” Theological Studies 61 (2000); 106-121“A New Pentecost for Moral Theology: The Challenge of Inculturation of Ethics” Josephinum (Summer/Fall2003): 250-260