Pope Francis, Weak Theology, and the Subtle Transformation of Roman Catholic Bioethics
Pope Francis has emerged as a popular, progressive, and potentially transformative figure for Roman Catholicism. However, he has been careful to avoid firm doctrinal accounts of Roman Catholicism's traditional positions on bioethics. Condemnations of abortion, the destruction of human embryos,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2015]
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| In: |
Christian bioethics
Year: 2015, Volume: 21, Issue: 1, Pages: 84-88 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KCB Papacy KDB Roman Catholic Church NCH Medical ethics RH Evangelization; Christian media |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Pope Francis has emerged as a popular, progressive, and potentially transformative figure for Roman Catholicism. However, he has been careful to avoid firm doctrinal accounts of Roman Catholicism's traditional positions on bioethics. Condemnations of abortion, the destruction of human embryos, artificial insemination, assisted suicide, euthanasia, homosexual acts, and so forth have been relocated within a pastoral discourse. Many of Francis' public statements on bioethics, especially as developed in Evangelii Gaudium, appear to adopt a weak postmodern position; that is, a position that avoids directly underscoring an objectively true moral-theological position. Such a "weak theology" does not require Roman Catholicism to confront secular bioethics directly, much less to convert the world to Christ. This short paper outlines the dramatic change in framing context that Pope Francis proposes for Roman Catholic theology, which will also subtly but substantially change the character of Roman Catholic bioethical concerns. |
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| ISSN: | 1744-4195 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Christian bioethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/cb/cbu045 |