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In his keynote address at the Creature Conference John Berkman, Professor of Moral Theology at Re... more In his keynote address at the Creature Conference John Berkman, Professor of Moral Theology at Regis College, University of Toronto, brings together ethology and theology in considering what is means for animals flourish and why this matters to God. 223 views
Professor John Berkman warns against the evils of factory farming and reveals how Pope Francis’s ... more Professor John Berkman warns against the evils of factory farming and reveals how Pope Francis’s Laudato Si has encouraged new, positive thinking in regards to environmental and animal issues. 8 views
Moral Philosophy and Theology Papers
Studies in Christian Ethics, 2024
It has been argued that Elizabeth Anscombe's writing on killing and just war in the 1950s and ear... more It has been argued that Elizabeth Anscombe's writing on killing and just war in the 1950s and early 1960s were highly influential, not only on just war theorists (such as Michael Walzer and Thomas Nagel), but also on the recovery of just war thinking among the US and British military. In researching the sources for Anscombe's thought, it became clear that Donald MacKinnon's unknown early writings on social ethics and war inspired and influenced Anscombe's earliest thought on justice in war. In this paper, I focus on MacKinnon's and Anscombe's prophetic analysis of the function of the Church and the lay faithful in a time of war. This paper argues that among other things, MacKinnon and Anscombe anticipate much of the contemporary concerns of the advocates of the 'just peace' approach to thinking about war and other violent conflicts.
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Kingdom Come, 2022
Elizabeth Anscombe's book Intention and her famous essay “Modern Moral Philosophy” were contingen... more Elizabeth Anscombe's book Intention and her famous essay “Modern Moral Philosophy” were contingent intellectual byproducts of a public witness against mass murder. If she had not made her solitary public witness to a fundamental moral principle, Anscombe would not likely have written either Intention or “Modern Moral Philosophy.” This essay in honour of Jonathan Wilson tells the heretofore unknown story of Elizabeth Anscombe’s witness, and how it transformed the future of moral philosophy and Christian ethics.
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New Blackfriars, 2021
This short autobiographical piece by G. E. M. Anscombe, published in 1938, is the earliest known ... more This short autobiographical piece by G. E. M. Anscombe, published in 1938, is the earliest known publication by Anscombe. It is edited by John Berkman.
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Studies in Christian Ethics, 2022
In this brief response, I address what I take to be a key problematic that arises from reflection... more In this brief response, I address what I take to be a key problematic that arises from reflection on Jayme Reaves's article. My response is not so much to any concerns with Reaves's article, but with the scriptural exegesis and resulting claims of some of her interlocutors. The problematic is as follows: Scriptural texts discussing the cities of refuge are almost universally appropriated as inspiration for naming contemporary locales, whether churches, synagogues, towns or cities as 'sanctuaries'. The problem is that the scriptural texts on the cities of refuge proclaim refuge for killers, murderers and/or manslayers, that these cities of refuge seem to offer refuge to the persecutors.
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Oxford Handbook for Elizabeth Anscombe, 2022
Drawing on my archival and biographical research on Anscombe, I argue that Anscombe’s work in mor... more Drawing on my archival and biographical research on Anscombe, I argue that Anscombe’s work in moral philosophy was driven by her concern to recover the absolute moral prohibition on murder, and the virtue of justice as the appropriate basis for it. Oxford moral philosophy made the mistake of giving priority to abstract moral theorizing over the most fundamental moral convictions. Anscombe, following the wisdom of great philosophical and religious traditions, recognized that the prohibition of killing innocent people as a requirement of natural justice as a prerequisite for legitimate theorizing about morality. She thus attacked what she took to be the naïve, frivolous and/or degenerate moral theorizing of the ‘Oxford moral philosophers.’
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New Blackfriars, 2021
This essay examines the Dominican influences on the Catholic philosopher G.E.M. Anscombe while an... more This essay examines the Dominican influences on the Catholic philosopher G.E.M. Anscombe while an undergraduate at Oxford University between 1937-1941. It focuses on three Thomists who formally instructed Anscombe and how one Dominican, Victor White, likely instructed her on a radically Catholic perspective regarding the morality of warfare, which would not only influence her 1940 co-authored pamphlet, 'The Justice of the Present War Examined', but would shape her writings on war and murder for her entire academic career. This essay accompanies the republication of Anscombe's 'I am Sadly Theoretical: It is the Effect of Being at Oxford,' her earliest known published essay. She wrote this article in response to a public invitation from the Catholic Herald for Catholics between the ages of 18 and 25 to make their voices heard by their fellow Catholics. In this teenage apologia, Anscombe outlines the goals for her life, and what it means for her as a Catholic to be a witness.
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“Are there objective moral values which can unite human beings and bring them peace and happiness... more “Are there objective moral values which can unite human beings and bring them peace and happiness?” People seem to assume there are indeed such values when they recoil against genocide, rape, child abuse, slavery and human trafficking, senseless destruction of the environment, involuntary “medical” testing, corruption, and terrorism. This recoil is generally perceived to be not merely some learned or innate moral sentiment, but an indicator that some actions are truly wrong — wrong not merely because of the emotional responses they arouse; wrong not merely on the basis of a consensual agreement between people or societies; but truly wrong, meaning in violation of some standard for human action that is applicable to and (at least in principle) accessible to all human persons. Even if there is great difficulty specifying norms about wrong human actions, and even if the norms have needed revision, there is a common conviction that certain moral norms exist. This fundamental conviction that there is some sort of standard against which human actions can be evaluated, and that it is accessible and applicable to all, is the essence of the view that there is a universal ethic.
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Christian Bioethics , 1997
One's conception of the conditions and applicability of the principle of double effect derive fro... more One's conception of the conditions and applicability of the principle of double effect derive from one's broader convictions about moral methodology. Developed in a Catholic context which presumed the existence of moral absolutes, the principle of double effect was originally a conceptual tool to aid priests in being skilled confessors. In recent decades, as the practice of moral theology has become less connected with its earlier ecclesial and sacramental context, the principle of double effect has fallen into an epistemological crisis. Contemporary moral theological discussion of the principle of double effect usually operates in one of the following four contexts: interpretation of Aquinas; in defended within the new natural law methodology. The essay argues that juridically oriented methodologies do not adequately sustain the principle of double effect. To be sustained, it must be viewed as a theological achievement based upon the meaning of our redemption in Christ and the concomitant possibilities regarding our actions in pursuit of our true good and true end.
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Eucharistic Reconciliation: Penitence, Punishment, and Worship, Jan 2004
This essay focuses on the reconciliatory facet of the Eucharist, highlighting its transformative ... more This essay focuses on the reconciliatory facet of the Eucharist, highlighting its transformative and restorative character. In so doing, it seeks to show how the Eucharist can shape our perception and practices with regard to penitence and retributive justice, two controversial aspects of reconciliation. The essay proceeds in three sections. The first section focuses on how acknowledgment of our need for reconciliation shapes our identity, showing us not only who we are as sinners, but also who we are called to be as a reconciled people. The second section examines practices of penitence in the Church’s history to show how these practices of penitence contribute to the practice of what I shall call Eucharistic reconciliation. The third and final section will examine both ecclesial and secular practices of punishment in the light of the practice of Eucharistic reconciliation, and in doing so seek to show how punishment—properly understood and applied—can be understood to be a part of the practice of Eucharistic reconciliation.
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New Blackfriars, Nov 1994
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Philosophy & Theology, Jan 1996
After responding to several misreadings of Milbank's project in Theology and Social Theory - e.g.... more After responding to several misreadings of Milbank's project in Theology and Social Theory - e.g., that it dispenses with "truth" or "reality", is sectarian, reads a social theory off the bible, is ecclesially absolutist - the authors highlight several strands of Milbank's argument to stress the resolutely theological character of this work. In Milbank's narrative, modernity is defined as a theological problem in which forms of modern secular thought have usurped theology as the "ultimate organizing logic"; his theological response to this involves a broadly Augustinian account of the relationship between nature and grace which requires a theology which can only be true if it is enacted: it is necessary for the Church to make an actual historical difference in the world.
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Tradition and Discovery: The Polanyi Society Periodical, Jan 2010
These short remarks are a belated expression of thanks for the gift in my life that was Poteat. W... more These short remarks are a belated expression of thanks for the gift in my life that was Poteat. When Poteat died, I was spending time at a Trappist monastery, and never got word until after the funeral. I greatly regretted not being there. While I had the opportunity to tell Poteat during his lifetime how much he meant to me and the wonderful gift he gave to me, after his death, I never got or took the opportunity to tell that to others. This is my very belated attempt so to do.
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The Pinckaers Reader, Jul 2005
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Religion and Public Life: The Legacy of Monsignor John A. Ryan, 2001
In this paper, I wish to look at John Ryan's considerable interest in questions of birth regulati... more In this paper, I wish to look at John Ryan's considerable interest in questions of birth regulation. My thesis is twofold: first, that Ryan's views on the regulation of family size were integrally connected with his economic and political thought. Second, the right to enter the married state and the number of children one has is a not merely an issue of personal satisfaction and happiness, but also a question of the common good of society.
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On the 25rh Anniversary of Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America, theologians Lorenzo Albacet... more On the 25rh Anniversary of Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America, theologians Lorenzo Albacete and John Berkman, and philosophers Bradley Lewis and Eric Perl individually engage in a dialogue with Berry on a wide-ranging set of topics.
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Communio, Jan 2000
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This short paper is a response to Fr. John Pawlikowski’s presentation entitled “Holocaust: Its Co... more This short paper is a response to Fr. John Pawlikowski’s presentation entitled “Holocaust: Its Contemporary Ethical Challenges,” presented at Regis College in the University of Toronto on November 5th, 2013. Prof. Pawlikowski was presenting at a session entitled “What Influence has the Holocaust had on Christian Social Ethics?”, which was part of the 2013 Holocaust Education Week in the City of Toronto. Prof. Pawlikowski has been an outstanding figure in Catholic Social Ethics over the last 40 years in terms of teaching the field about the significance of the Holocaust for Catholic Social Ethics. Unfortunately, as this brief response argues, it has seemingly had little influence on the discipline of Catholic Social Ethics.
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I will draw on what the Catholic moral tradition refers to as cooperation with wrongdoing, and argue that buying factory-farmed meat constitutes formal cooperation with wrongdoing.
this essay focuses on distinctively theological reasons Catholics, especially in the early centuries of Catholicism, have chosen to abstain from consuming animal flesh. On the one hand, this essay will show how such abstinence has been an aspect of the spiritual practice of fasting and a response to the capital vice of gluttony. On the other hand, it will show how such abstinence has been predicated on Catholic doctrines concerning creation and nature, the Fall, and eschatology.
In this paper I evaluate the adequacy of each of these categorizations, proceeding as follows: first, I present a well-known case of a particular woman’s choice to gestate an abandoned embryo. I then examine the appropriateness of the categories of surrogacy, adoption, and rescue for morally evaluating this case and other analogous cases. I argue that, at least in the type of case I present, if in choosing to gestate an abandoned embryo one is also choosing to adopt the child, then it can be morally appropriate to gestate an abandoned embryo."
In this volume twenty-three major scholars comment on and critically evaluate In Search of a Universal Ethic, the 2009 document written by the International Theological Commission (ITC) of the Catholic Church. That historic document represents an official Church contribution both to a more adequate understanding of a universal ethic and to Catholicism's own tradition of reflection on natural law.
The essays in this book reflect the ITC document's complementary emphases of dialogue across traditions (universal ethic) and reflection on broadly applicable ethical guidance within the Christian tradition (natural law). Among other things, the document situates the natural law ethical tradition within the larger search for a universal ethic. Along with its insightful essays, Searching for a Universal Ethic offers — for the first time in published form — the Vatican's official English translation of In Search of a Universal Ethic.
The editors of The Hauerwas Reader, therefore, have compiled and edited a volume that represents all the different periods and phases of Hauerwas’s work. Highlighting both his constructive goals and penchant for polemic, the collection reflects the enormous variety of subjects he has engaged, the different genres in which he has written, and the diverse audiences he has addressed. It offers Hauerwas on ethics, virtue, medicine, and suffering; on euthanasia, abortion, and sexuality; and on war in relation to Catholic and Protestant thought. His essays on the role of religion in liberal democracies, the place of the family in capitalist societies, the inseparability of Christianity and Judaism, and on many other topics are included as well.
Perhaps more than any other author writing on religious topics today, Hauerwas speaks across lines of religious traditions, appealing to Methodists, Jews, Anabaptists or Mennonites, Catholics, Episcopalians, and others.
But consumers whose closets are full of cheap clothes from Bangladesh are also morally responsible, theologians told The Catholic Register.
“What’s at stake here is to what extent you are co-operating with certain kinds of evils,” said Regis College moral theology professor John Berkman.
If we know or can make a reasonable guess that working conditions in Bangladeshi garment factories are unjust and even dangerous, then the purchase “would be a kind of formal co-operation with wrongdoing and that would be wrong,” Berkman said.