Assessment

Continuous assessment 30% + Essay 20% + Exam 50%

Module Aims

The aim of this module is to provide foundational understanding of the Catholic sexual ethics, including knowledge of the magisterial teaching in this area. In particular, students will become familiar with key papal documents. Students will gain knowledge of developments in Catholic sexual teaching, espcially its teaching on marriage and the family. Understanding of foundational concepts and principles will also be provied, such as human dignity, justice, human agency, freedom, empowerment. The module utilizes contemporary scholarship in this area, but will also facilitate interdisciplinary intellectual engagement among participants through use of resources outside of theological ethics. The module will enable students to ethically evaluate global structural injustice as it relates to sexual morality; of particular importance here is the issue of human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls. Students will consider the power imbalances and global realities that exacerbate this issue. They will also be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the role the Church can play locally in tackling human trafficking.

Indicative Syllabus

• Week One: Key magisterial documents, Part 1
• Week Two: Key magisterial documents, Part 2
• Week Three: Key concepts: human dignity, human agency, justice, empowerment, human vulnerability.
• Week Four: Key concepts: human dignity, human agency, justice, empowerment, human vulnerability.
• Week Five: Challenges to the Catholic sexual undertsanding of the person: Human trafficking
• Week Six: Challenges to the Catholic sexual undertsanding of the person: Human trafficking
• Week Seven: Case Study: the Santa Marta Group and APT Ireland
• Week Eight: Guest speakers from NGOs in this area.
• Week Nine: HIV/AIDS, marriage and discordant couples
• Week Ten: HIV/AIDS and sexual violence
• Week Eleven: Responses from Below: solidarity, accompaniment, subsidiarity
• Week Twelve: Responses from above: politics, government, Church leadership

Learning Outcomes

• — (Comprehension): demonstrate knowledge of key concepts relevant to this module: for instance, human dignity, structural violence, human agency, gender inequality.
• — (Analysis): examine how the Catholic sexual teaching can help critique the injustices affecting human trafficking.
• — (Evaluate): appraise the relationship between poverty, inequality and structural sin, and how these realities affect the sexual agency and sexual health of women and girls.
• — (Evaluate): critically evaluate current scholarship in this area. 
• — (Evaluate): critically evaluate magisterial teaching on marriage and the family. 
• — (Synthesis): extrapolate from the Christian tradition, in particular from Catholic sexual ethics, relevant perspectives by which to consider the issues of today.
• — (Application): employ the resources of the Christian tradition in a coherent manner when addressing issues of sexual morality. 
• — (Affective): demonstrate an appreciation of the centrality of the human person, in particular moral agency, freedom, and human dignity, in social and religious practice.

Bibliography

• — Pope Paul VI, Humanae vitae, (1968).
• — Pope John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, (1981).
• — Pope John Paul II, Mulieris dignitatem, (1988).
• — Pope Francis, Amoris laetitae, (2016).
• — Kochurani Abraham, “Resistance: A Liberative Key in Feminist Ethics”, in Linda Hogan, A.E Orobator SJ (eds.), Feminist Catholic Theological Ethics: Conversations in the World Church, (Orbis Books, 2014).
• — Margaret Farley, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, (Continuum, 2006).
• — Karen Peterson-Iyre, Reenvisioning Sexual Ethics: A Feminist Christian Account, (Georgetown University Press, 2022).
• — James F. Keenan SJ, “Virtue Ethics and Sexual Ethics”, in Charles E. Curran, Lisa Fullan (eds.), Virtue, (Paulist Press, 2011).
• — James F. Keenan SJ, “Receiving Amoris Laetitae”, Theological Studies, vol.78 (1), 193-212.
• — James F. Keenan SJ, “Linking Human Dignity, Vulnerability and Virtue Ethics”, Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, vol.6 (2020), 56-73.
• — Kevin Kelly, New Directions in Sexual Ethics: Moral Theology and the Challenge of AIDS, (Geoffrey Chapman, 1998).
• — Suzanne Mulligan, “Violence Against Women and the Virtue of Resistance”, The Furrow, vol.74 (1), January 2023, 3-10.
• — Anne Patrick, “Narrative and the Social Dynamics of Virtue”, in Charles E. Curran, Lisa Fullan (eds.), Virtue, (Paulist Press, 2011).
• — Jennie Weiss Block, M. Therese Lysaught, Alexander A. Martins, A Prophet to the Peoples: Paul Farmer’s Witness and Theological Ethics, Pickwick Press, 2023).
• — Ethna Regan, Theology and the Boundary Discourse of Human Rights, (Georgetown University Press, 2010).
• — Linda Hogan, A.E. Orobator (eds.), Feminist Catholic Theological Ethics: Conversations in the World Church, (New York: Orbis, 2014).