Description: This book aims to build a foundation for intercultural theological ethics. Its intercultural perspective fosters decolonialization processes and postcolonial approaches and contributes to theological developments within a synodal understanding of the Catholic Church. With its global contributions and its focus on alterity, otherness, and intersectionality, the volume studies the relationship between cultural manifestations of ethics and universalistic claims in the Church's moral teaching and ethical theory; the limits of appeals to cultural diversity; tensions between local and global forms of ethical and ecclesial reasoning and decision-making; the scope of shared anthropological and ethical assumptions; the relationship between theological and philosophical approaches to intercultural ethics; and various forms of consensus-building.
Brief description: Sigrid Müller is University Professor at the Institute of Systematic Theology and Ethics at the University of Vienna. She has published broadly on the history of moral theology and late medieval ethics and coedits peer-reviewed book series in the fields of moral theology and bioethics. Mirijam Salfinger studied Catholic theology in Vienna, Madrid, and San Salvador. She works as a university assistant in the Department of Theological Ethics at the University of Vienna. Her doctoral research explores Latin American ecofeminism, articulating a holistic and inclusive anthropology through the lens of Ivone Gebara's contributions. Andrea Vicini, SJ, is Chairperson, Michael P. Walsh Professor of Bioethics, and Professor of Theological Ethics in the Theology Department at Boston College. He also holds a MD from the University of Bologna and a STD from the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of Southern Italy in Naples.
Review Quotes: "Intercultural Theological Ethics is a welcome addition to the many attempts to decolonize Western ethical systems. The excellent essays in the volume point to the possibility of relational ethics and to the challenge of an irreducible unknowingness attending plurality, supplemented with the imaginative and sacramental inhabiting of other worlds and value systems that destabilize any claims of homogenous or cultural certitude."
--Susan Abraham, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean, Pacific School of Religion
"The tension between the universal and the contextual permeates every form of understanding of reality. It also runs vibrantly through the pages of this book, giving rise to a vision of ethics that places the highest value on the intercultural approach. The exploration of theoretical foundations and practical applications of interculturality makes this book a source of inspiration for rethinking moral life."
--Antonio Autiero, Professor of Moral Theology, University of Münster
"At a time marked by growing global interconnectedness and deep cultural, political, and religious divisions, the need for such dialogue has never been more pressing. This volume offers a timely, insightful, and important contribution to contemporary ethical discourse and deserves a wide readership."
--Michelle Becka, Director, Institute for Christian Social Sciences, University of Münster