Controversial ethical issues that have divided the Christian community -- such as natural law, birth control, feminism, euthanasia and the justifiability of war -- will be explored in a course titled "Contemporary Catholic Ethics" being offered this fall under the auspices of the department of religious studies.
Professor Lisa Cahill of Boston College will lead the course, which will investigate the development of Roman Catholic moral theology since the mid-20th century. Among the topics she will discuss are the increasingly public and global advocacy role of the church in relation to social issues; the evolution of the "natural law" tradition on which moral claims are based; the enhanced role of the Scripture in Catholic moral argument; and the changing, yet controversial, role of church authority in defining moral positions.
A noted lecturer, Professor Cahill has written extensively on ethics and sexuality. Her five books include "Between the Sexes: Toward a Christian Ethics of Sexuality," now in its fifth printing. Professor Cahill is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, president of the Society of Christian Ethics and past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
"Contemporary Catholic Ethics" (course number 60405) will meet Thursdays 1:30-3:20 p.m. at a location to be announced. For more information, call the department of religious studies at 432-0828.
The course is being presented as part of a four-year program in Catholic studies sponsored by a Catholic agency that wishes to remain anonymous. Last fall Professor Joseph Komonchak taught a course on "Catholicism's Road to Modernity: the Church in the 19th and 20th Centuries," and in 1995-96 Avery Dulles, S.J., lectured on the present status of Catholic theology.