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Created: May 20, 2003
Latest Update: May 20, 2003
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Site Teaching Modules Moral Theology and Ghana

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, May 2003.
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Shared Discourse for Wednesday, May 21, 2003

All of these questions pertain to the issue of religion and illocutionary discussions. Look over as much as you can so that we can discuss the following questions: for theory and discussion guides.

  1. Moral theology is called different names by different religions, and religions exhibit different tolerances to one another. How important is the tolerance of these differences as we enter the twenty-first century, and how does Catholicism suggest that we approach them?

    Consider what we mean by moral theology: the study of the moral life of Christians, particularly Catholics, with God as the "end" and direction of our study ; the study of our human nature in the process of being redeemed and sanctified by God in part through the moral reason with which he has provided us; causistry, or case examples of moral behavior. The liturgy and the sacraments are a major part of Moral Theology.

    Protestant etchics places more emphasis on "faith," and on the tradition that that which is done in good faith is good. Grace is given by God, not earned, therefore to act to earn God's approval would be outside the thought pattern. But in reality, Protestants also depend on tradition and authority, and Dr. Scott suggests that Protestants on an issue such as abortion would find themselves divided over "do not murder" and "doing the least harm." Catholics would be more heavily pressed by the rules of the church, even though basically the same causistry (or thinking through) lies behind the rules.

    Moral theology is a creature of the modern world and will not appear in this same form in African Traditional Religion. What has the Catholic Church said about this? That we have been greatly mistaken in assuming that Western culture can simply be overlaid over African culture. Essentially the Church documents recognize that missionaries of all denominations were insensitive to the existing religions when Africa was colonized.Phillip Berryman in South America, and John Baur in Africa call upon all the churches to recognize the history and the culture of the ordinary folk and to allow the future of the church to develop from their own indigenous innovation.

    From the beginning many of the missionaries understood that the African and the South American churches needed to be developed by indigenous leaders. Although evangelical churches have found success in this endeavor in the drawing of many to "accept Jesus," which could theoretically serve as an end if "accepting and being accepted by God" is the end sought, Berryman confesses great unease with the superficiality of such conversion and acceptance. So, are the sacrament and ritual of the church important enough that we must take the new converts along such a path, or is it enough simply to draw them to worship?

    And is it enough to provide the comfort of worship and acceptance, and not to worry about the politics of economics and social issues? For ever so long we have thought that good must be done in the name of those who need it. But we have slipped into a kind of middle-class comfort with religion. Does class matter? How much? Where?

    All of these are questions we need to consider as we study moral theology. Most of the religious leaders I admire come ultimtely to the position that the church must concern itself with politics, and the church must address the needs of the poor. But one World Bank leader recently said that when public agencies and the public sphere could not effectively provide for the needs of its citizens that it's pretty unrealistic to assume that simply privatizing such an agency is going to change very much. Good point. Maybe we have expected the institutionalized church to accomplish what the people themselves could not. Maybe now would be the time to let go, to listen in good faith, and to discover what we could accomplish together.

    References

  2. In your first visit we asked questions about genital cutting in Africa. Although we thought we knew what we were talking about, we have since learned a great deal more. Genital cutting could conceivably come under the heading of moral theology, and certainly many religious groups differ on their interpretation and moral response to the cutting. How does the West's lack of understanding about African culture lead us to great moral indignation about practices we cannot understand or ascribe to? How might we approach this in an illocutionary discussion?

    Consider that having been raised in the Western world through the 20th Century, we have a fairly determined mind-set as to what is and is not socially and politically acceptable. The forcible removal of body parts for non-medical reasons is not one of those accepted practices. So there was a lot of affect when we talked about this on your last visit. Since that time I have had the chance to read the work of a group of feminists from many different places around the world, and they have called to attention some of the underlying assumptions that are driving our outcry:

    • Cultural practice

      We are talking about cultural practices grown over long periods of time, not about political decisions made in recent decades. Actually one tribe has taken the step of forbidding the cutting of girls on the grounds that it no longer seems appropriate to the times.

    • Reification

      By expressing outrage, we are reifying the practice amongst many other practices that do not offend health and social standards. That means that we negotiate no aid to an area that refuses to prohibit cutting, making genital cutting seem to be the most outstanding factor in that social group. Feminists are now pointing out that labor skills, farming skills, the means to feed and educate themselves and their children are certainly equally important features of that culture, which are neglected when we focus all attention on genital cutting.

    • Power

      We are also failing to take into account that our negotiations hardly seem negotiable: more like "stop it or else." That's hardly an illocutionary approach. And coupled with other colonial missteps, that may explain why we have made less progress than one might think we should have in the areas of women's and children's needs.

    References

  3. Ghana is very near to Nigeria, where stoning for adultery is an acceptable acceptable punishment under Shariah. How does this relate to human rights issues? And how does a neighboring country manage disagreement over such issues? Who do we in the West handle it?

    Once more, I think we need to be aware of our process of reification of the practices we don't like. We do still have a death penalty in the United States. Not for adultery. But, hey, it was on the books once. Shariah might be better than no law at all. But most of us aren't really in a position to know. This is one case, in Northern Nigeria, largely Muslim. Are we blowing it out of proportion in terms of how we relate to Shariah and to Nigeria?

    Can moral theology help us here? Don't we have a quandry kind of like the one on abortion? Don't we need to pick the least of the evils until we manage to alter normative expectations, like that no one wants to marry a young woman who has not submitted to genital cutting? Unfortunately this is not a moral theology question for Catholic or Protestant churches, it's a question that goes back to long history and custom, and most of our missionaries and evangelicals have not yet developed a climate of mutural understanding with indigenous religions.

    References

  4. Most of us are unfamiliar with African religion, and so we are tempted to say that African religion is all superstition. First of all, many Africans are Christians. Many more are Muslims. Some are Jews. Some are Hindus. How do we begin to sort out in our minds how these religions relate to indigenous religions and how we can effectively work towards illocutionary understanding of interdependent religious attitudes?

    Thanks to your visits, Father Adjakpe, we are now much more sensitive to our lack of in depth understanding of most of the world's religions. Unfortunately the marketing of tourism is also totally insensitive to the world's religions, turning our churches, mosques, and sanctuaries into commodities. In 1962 I went to mass at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Tourists were ushered right in and around those worshipping. I was both stunned and offended. I felt like a monkey in a zoo. How many other peoples sacred dances have we turned into performances, and sacred sanctuaries into objets d'art? Religious icons are sold as "art" and privatized. Whole temples and churches are dragged away and rebuilt. So maybe this isn't a religious question at all, Father. Maybe it's just a sigh of frustration at how poor are our manners when it comes to visiting the Other in good faith and with all the skills we can brng to understand that Other.

    Maybe for interdependent religious attitudes, I'll have to wait for the next Vatican Council.

    References: