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The Sunday Times Bestseller A new assessment of the West’s
colonial record In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire
in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the ‘End of
History’ – that the global dominance of liberal democracy had
been secured forever. Now however, with Russia rattling its sabre
on the borders of Europe and China rising to challenge the
post-1945 world order, the liberal West faces major threats. These
threats are not only external. Especially in the Anglosphere, the
‘decolonisation’ movement corrodes the West’s self-confidence
by retelling the history of European and American colonial
dominance as a litany of racism, exploitation, and massively
murderous violence. Nigel Biggar tests this indictment, addressing
the crucial questions in eight chapters: Was the British Empire
driven primarily by greed and the lust to dominate? Should we speak
of ‘colonialism and slavery’ in the same breath, as if they
were identical? Was the Empire essentially racist? How far was it
based on the theft of land? Did it involve genocide? Was it driven
fundamentally by the motive of economic exploitation? Was
undemocratic colonial government necessarily illegitimate? and, Was
the Empire essentially violent, and its violence pervasively racist
and terroristic? Biggar makes clear that, like any other
long-standing state, the British Empire involved elements of
injustice, sometimes appalling. On occasions it was culpably
incompetent and presided over moments of dreadful tragedy.
Nevertheless, from the early 1800s the Empire was committed to
abolishing the slave trade in the name of a Christian conviction of
the basic equality of all human beings. It ended endemic
inter-tribal warfare, opened local economies to the opportunities
of global trade, moderated the impact of inescapable modernisation,
established the rule of law and liberal institutions such as a free
press, and spent itself in defeating the murderously racist Nazi
and Japanese empires in the Second World War. As encyclopaedic in
historical breadth as it is penetrating in analytical depth,
Colonialism offers a moral inquest into the colonial past,
forensically contesting damaging falsehoods and thereby helping to
rejuvenate faith in the West’s future.
Natural law theory has been enjoying a significant revival in
recent times. Led by Germain Grisez in the USA and John Finnis in
the UK, one school of thinkers has been articulating a highly
developed system of natural law built upon a sophisticated account
of practical reasoning and a rich and flexible understanding of the
human good. However, long-standing prejudices against old-style
natural law among moral philosophers and Protestant ethicists,
together with the new theory's appropriation by conservatives in
the impassioned debate between the Vatican and dissenting
theologians in the United States, have prevented the Finnis-Grisez
version from being adequately appreciated. Providing a clear and
substantive introduction to the theory for those who are new to it,
this book then broadens, assesses, and advances the debate about
it, examining crucial philosophical, theological and ethical issues
and opening up discussion beyond the confines of the Roman Catholic
Church. Part 1, on philosophical issues, starts with two broad
chapters that locate the Grisez school in relation to modern moral
philosophy and the Roman Catholic philosophical tradition of
Thomism, and then follows these with further chapters on two
crucial issues: the possibility of consensus on the human good, and
the nature of moral absolutes. Part 2, on theological dimensions,
begins with a Lutheran critique of Grisez, locates him in relation
to the ethics of two very prominent 20th century Protestants, Karl
Barth and Stanley Hauerwas, and then explores the major area of
theological controversy within the Roman Catholic community - how
to conceive of the "Church's" authority with regard to moral
matters. Part 3 subjects the school's thought to critical
examination in a broad range of ethical fields: bioethics, gender,
sex and the environment. A concluding chapter then develops eight
topics that recur in the course of the book: the status of ethical
realism in the contemporary intellectual climate; whether realism
is best conceived in rationalist or naturalist terms; whether
marriage should be counted as a basic good; whether physical
pleasure should not be counted a basic good; whether it is always
wrong to act deliberately against a basic good; the problems of
moral certainty and authority; the rapproachement between
Protestant and Roman Catholic ethics; and, finally, whether ethical
understanding is really independent of one's anthropological point
of view. Drawing together North American, European and Australian
contributors from across moral philosophy and Protestant ethics as
well as from Roman Catholic moral theology, this book opens up the
debate about the Finnis-Grisez theory, highlighting its strengths
and weaknesses in order to advance current discussion about natural
law in moral theology and in moral and legal philosophy.
Natural law theory has been enjoying a significant revival in
recent times. Led by Germain Grisez in the USA and John Finnis in
the UK, one school of thinkers has been articulating a highly
developed system of natural law built upon a sophisticated account
of practical reasoning and a rich and flexible understanding of the
human good. However, long-standing prejudices against old-style
natural law among moral philosophers and Protestant ethicists,
together with the new theory's appropriation by conservatives in
the impassioned debate between the Vatican and dissenting
theologians in the United States, have prevented the Finnis-Grisez
version from being adequately appreciated. Providing a clear and
substantive introduction to the theory for those who are new to it,
this book then broadens, assesses, and advances the debate about
it, examining crucial philosophical, theological and ethical issues
and opening up discussion beyond the confines of the Roman Catholic
Church. Part 1, on philosophical issues, starts with two broad
chapters that locate the Grisez school in relation to modern moral
philosophy and the Roman Catholic philosophical tradition of
Thomism, and then follows these with further chapters on two
crucial issues: the possibility of consensus on the human good, and
the nature of moral absolutes. Part 2, on theological dimensions,
begins with a Lutheran critique of Grisez, locates him in relation
to the ethics of two very prominent 20th century Protestants, Karl
Barth and Stanley Hauerwas, and then explores the major area of
theological controversy within the Roman Catholic community - how
to conceive of the "Church's" authority with regard to moral
matters. Part 3 subjects the school's thought to critical
examination in a broad range of ethical fields: bioethics, gender,
sex and the environment. A concluding chapter then develops eight
topics that recur in the course of the book: the status of ethical
realism in the contemporary intellectual climate; whether realism
is best conceived in rationalist or naturalist terms; whether
marriage should be counted as a basic good; whether physical
pleasure should not be counted a basic good; whether it is always
wrong to act deliberately against a basic good; the problems of
moral certainty and authority; the rapproachement between
Protestant and Roman Catholic ethics; and, finally, whether ethical
understanding is really independent of one's anthropological point
of view. Drawing together North American, European and Australian
contributors from across moral philosophy and Protestant ethics as
well as from Roman Catholic moral theology, this book opens up the
debate about the Finnis-Grisez theory, highlighting its strengths
and weaknesses in order to advance current discussion about natural
law in moral theology and in moral and legal philosophy.
Are natural rights 'nonsense on stilts', as Jeremy Bentham
memorably put it? Must the very notion of a right be
individualistic, subverting the common good? Should the right
against torture be absolute, even though the heavens fall? Are
human rights universal or merely expressions of Western
neo-imperial arrogance? Are rights ethically fundamental, proudly
impervious to changing circumstances? Should judges strive to
extend the reach of rights from civil Hamburg to anarchical Basra?
Should judicial oligarchies, rather than legislatures, decide
controversial ethical issues by inventing novel rights? Ought human
rights advocates learn greater sympathy for the dilemmas facing
those burdened with government? These are the questions that What's
Wrong with Rights? addresses. In doing so, it draws upon resources
in intellectual history, legal philosophy, moral philosophy, moral
theology, human rights literature, and the judgments of courts. It
ranges from debates about property in medieval Christendom, through
Confucian rights-scepticism, to contemporary discussions about the
remedy for global hunger and the justification of killing. And it
straddles assisted dying in Canada, the military occupation of
Iraq, and genocide in Rwanda. What's Wrong with Rights? concludes
that much contemporary rights-talk obscures the importance of
fostering civic virtue, corrodes military effectiveness, subverts
the democratic legitimacy of law, proliferates publicly onerous
rights, and undermines their authority and credibility. The
solution to these problems lies in the abandonment of
rights-fundamentalism and the recovery of a richer public discourse
about ethics, one that includes talk about the duty and virtue of
rights-holders.
The nation-state is here to stay. Thirty years ago it was
fashionable to predict its imminent demise, but the sudden break-up
of the Soviet Union in the 1990s unshackled long-repressed
nationalisms and generated a host of new states. The closer
integration of the European Union has given intra-national
nationalisms a new lease of life, confirming the viability of small
nation-states under a supra-national umbrella - after all, if
Ireland and Iceland, then why not Scotland and Catalonia? And then
the world stage has seen new and powerful national players moving
from the wings to the centre: China, India, and Brazil are full of
a sense of growing into their own national destinies and are in no
mood either to dissolve into, or to defer to, some larger body.
Nations, nationalisms, and nation-states are persistent facts, but
what should we think of them morally? Surely humanity, not a
nation, should claim our loyalty? How can it be right to exclude
foreigners by policing borders? Can a liberal nation-state thrive
without a cohering public orthodoxy? Does national sovereignty
confer immunity? Is national separatism always justified? These are
urgent questions.Between Kin and Cosmopolis offers timely Christian
answers.
Are natural rights 'nonsense on stilts', as Jeremy Bentham
memorably put it? Must the very notion of a right be
individualistic, subverting the common good? Should the right
against torture be absolute, even though the heavens fall? Are
human rights universal or merely expressions of Western
neo-imperial arrogance? Are rights ethically fundamental, proudly
impervious to changing circumstances? Should judges strive to
extend the reach of rights from civil Hamburg to anarchical Basra?
Should judicial oligarchies, rather than legislatures, decide
controversial ethical issues by inventing novel rights? Ought human
rights advocates learn greater sympathy for the dilemmas facing
those burdened with government? These are the questions that What's
Wrong with Rights? addresses. In doing so, it draws upon resources
in intellectual history, legal philosophy, moral philosophy, moral
theology, human rights literature, and the judgments of courts. It
ranges from debates about property in medieval Christendom, through
Confucian rights-scepticism, to contemporary discussions about the
remedy for global hunger and the justification of killing. And it
straddles assisted dying in Canada, the military occupation of
Iraq, and genocide in Rwanda. What's Wrong with Rights? concludes
that much contemporary rights-talk obscures the importance of
fostering civic virtue, corrodes military effectiveness, subverts
the democratic legitimacy of law, proliferates publicly onerous
rights, and undermines their authority and credibility. The
solution to these problems lies in the abandonment of
rights-fundamentalism and the recovery of a richer public discourse
about ethics, one that includes talk about the duty and virtue of
rights-holders.
The Sunday Times Bestseller A new assessment of the West’s
colonial record In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire
in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the ‘End of
History’ – that the global dominance of liberal democracy had
been secured forever. Now however, with Russia rattling its sabre
on the borders of Europe and China rising to challenge the
post-1945 world order, the liberal West faces major threats. These
threats are not only external. Especially in the Anglosphere, the
‘decolonisation’ movement corrodes the West’s self-confidence
by retelling the history of European and American colonial
dominance as a litany of racism, exploitation, and massively
murderous violence. Nigel Biggar tests this indictment, addressing
the crucial questions in eight chapters: Was the British Empire
driven primarily by greed and the lust to dominate? Should we speak
of ‘colonialism and slavery’ in the same breath, as if they
were identical? Was the Empire essentially racist? How far was it
based on the theft of land? Did it involve genocide? Was it driven
fundamentally by the motive of economic exploitation? Was
undemocratic colonial government necessarily illegitimate? and, Was
the Empire essentially violent, and its violence pervasively racist
and terroristic? Biggar makes clear that, like any other
long-standing state, the British Empire involved elements of
injustice, sometimes appalling. On occasions it was culpably
incompetent and presided over moments of dreadful tragedy.
Nevertheless, from the early 1800s the Empire was committed to
abolishing the slave trade in the name of a Christian conviction of
the basic equality of all human beings. It ended endemic
inter-tribal warfare, opened local economies to the opportunities
of global trade, moderated the impact of inescapable modernisation,
established the rule of law and liberal institutions such as a free
press, and spent itself in defeating the murderously racist Nazi
and Japanese empires in the Second World War. As encyclopaedic in
historical breadth as it is penetrating in analytical depth,
Colonialism offers a moral inquest into the colonial past,
forensically contesting damaging falsehoods and thereby helping to
rejuvenate faith in the West’s future.
For Christians living as a persecuted minority in the Middle East,
the question of whether their allegiance should lie with their
faith or with the national communities they live in is a difficult
one. This collection of essays aims to reconcile this conflict of
allegiance by looking at the biblical vision of citizenship and
showing that Christians can live and work as citizens of the state
without compromising their beliefs and make a constructive
contribution to the life of the countries they live in. The
contributors come from a range of prestigious academic and
religious posts and provide analysis on a range of issues such as
dual nationalism, patriotism and the increase of Islamic
fundamentalism. An insightful look into the challenges religious
minorities face in countries where they are a minority, these
essays provide a peace-building and reconciliatory conclusion for
readers to consider.
Untamed Gospel complements The Bright Field and Darkness Yielding,
and offers meditations, reflections, stories, prayers and poems for
use throughout the church year. Each one focuses on the often
startling nature of Jesus' sayings and teachings, the raw honesty
of the psalms and other biblical texts, and on contemporary issues,
such as mental health and displacement, seen in the light of the
demands of the kingdom of God. A rich resource for worship,
preaching, teaching and personal reflection throughout the year,
Untamed Gospel contains hundreds of reproducible items, including
seasonal reflections, stories, homilies, poems and some of Jim
Cotter's last writings as he was being treated for cancer: a moving
sequence of prayer poems inspired by the psalms.
Pacifism is popular. Many hold that war is unnecessary, since
peaceful means of resolving conflict are always available, if only
we had the will to look for them. Or they believe that war is
wicked, essentially involving hatred of the enemy and carelessness
of human life. Or they posit the absolute right of innocent
individuals not to be deliberately killed, making it impossible to
justify war in practice.
Peace, however, is not simple. Peace for some can leave others at
peace to perpetrate mass atrocity. What was peace for the West in
1994 was not peace for the Tutsis of Rwanda. Therefore, against the
virus of wishful thinking, anti-military caricature, and the
domination of moral deliberation by rights-talk In Defence of War
asserts that belligerency can be morally justified, even though
tragic and morally flawed.
Recovering the Christian tradition of reflection running from
Augustine to Grotius, this book affirms aggressive war in
punishment of grave injustice. Morally realistic in adhering to
universal moral principles, it recognises that morality can trump
legality, justifying military intervention even in transgression of
positive international law-as in the case of Kosovo. Less cynical
and more empirically realistic about human nature than Hobbes, it
holds that nations desire to be morally virtuous and right, and not
only to be safe and fat. And aspiring to practical realism, it
argues that love and the doctrine of double effect can survive
combat; and that the constraints of proportionality, while real,
are nevertheless sufficiently permissive to encompass Britain's
belligerency in 1914-18. Finally, in a painstaking analysis of the
Iraq invasion of 2003, In Defence of War culminates in an account
of how the various criteria of just war should be thought together.
It also concludes that, all things considered, the invasion was
justified.
Too often, says Nigel Biggar, contemporary Christian ethics poses a
false choice either conservative theological integrity or liberal
secular consensus. Behaving in Public explains both why and how
Christians should resist these polar options. Informed by a frankly
Christian theological vision of moral life and so turning toward
the world with openness and curiosity, Biggars succinct argument
charts a third way forward. Common sense is usually bland and
boring. Nigel Biggars book Behaving in Public, however, is full of
common sense that is anything but bland and boring. Thats because
Biggar employs his common sense polemically to show whats deficient
in one and another position on speaking as a Christian in public,
and to point to alternatives. Over and over I found myself saying,
Yes, of course; hes right. This is a wonderfully fresh, perceptive,
and sensible discussion. Nicholas Wolterstorff Yale University How
can the church witness effectively in public debates in modern,
mostly secular societies, without either losing its integrity or
imposing its perspectives on others? In this important new book
Nigel Biggar maintains that the integrity of the Christian message
should not be confused with distinctiveness. . . . Offers a nuanced
yet demanding position on the public role of the church, cutting
through unhelpful dichotomies and reminding us that theological
seriousness need not be sectarian or intolerant. Jean Porter
University of Notre Dame Clear in thought, elegant in expression,
and generous in dialogue, this book offers a new and convincing
approach to Christian ethics. . . . Biggar argues for the integrity
of a mature, discriminating, nonmoralizing Christian ethics which
is inspired and equipped for critical engagement with the church
and the wider public and which cares about the flourishing of both.
Werner G. Jeanrond University of Glasgow Behaving in Public shows
people who care about public life how to combine theological
integrity and political effectiveness. . . . This is a theology
that offers an alternative to todays polarized politics. Robin W.
Lovin Southern Methodist University
Controversy about the morality of euthanasia and assisted suicide
and their legalisation has been running for over a generation, and
it shows no sign of flagging. The main arguments for and against
are widely familiar, yet the horizon yields no sign of any
approaching resolution. Progress can still be made by careful
examination of the opposing fronts and that is the service that
this book performs. Drawing ecumenically on both theological and
philosophical resources, it pioneers an original way to a mature
judgement by tackling the three basic questions that the debate
raises: What is it that makes human life valuable? Can it ever be
moral to intend to kill someone? And how much should we fear the
wider, social effects of legalising euthanasia or assisted suicide?
In the world's most developed democracies, anxiety about the future
of democracy itself is palpable. The tension between moral
aspiration and moral despair in modern political life has reached a
point of crisis. Christian Realism arose during a similar time of
crisis, when Reinhold Niebuhr used the insights of the Christian
tradition to interpret the clash between democracy and
totalitarianism in the first half of the 20th century. Beginning
with Robin Lovin's account of Niebuhr's Christian realism as a
nuanced blend of theological, moral, and political realisms, The
Future of Christian Realism directly addresses fundamental topics
in theology, ethics and politics. The contributors of this volume
come from different traditions, span five continents, and together
present a case for the continuing relevance of Christian realism.
By paying close attention to many of the most pressing moral
challenges facing societies today, the authors illustrate and
evaluate the relevance of Christian realism in the contemporary
world.
Must religious voices keep quiet in public places? Does fairness in
a plural society require it? Must the expression of religious
belief be so authoritarian as to threaten civil peace? Do we need
translation into 'secular' language, or should we try to manage
polyglot conversation? How neutral is 'secular' language? Is a
religious argument necessarily unreasonable? What issues are
specific to Islam within this exchange?
These are just some of the pressing questions addressed by
Religious Voices in Public Places. Drawn from Australia, Canada,
France, Ireland and England-as well as the United States-thirteen
contributors take the long-running discussion about religion in the
public square beyond its usual American confines.
Religious Voices in Public Places comprehends both political
philosophy and theology, and moves adeptly between political theory
and practice. Whether offering critical analyses of key theorists
such as John Rawls, Jeffrey Stout and Jurgen Habermas, or pursuing
the issue of the public expression of religion into the debate
about religious education in the USA, the legalisation of
euthanasia in the UK, and human rights worldwide, this incisive
volume speaks directly into crucial areas of religious and
political complexity."
No one can deny how September 11, 2001, has altered our
understandings of "Peace" and "Justice" and "Civil Conflict." Those
have become words with startling new life in our vocabularies. Yet
"making" peace and "doing" justice must remain challenges that are
among the highest callings of humanity-especially in a
terror-heightened world. Nigel Biggar, Christian ethicist and
editor of this now more than ever "must read" (Choice) volume,
newly expanded and updated, addresses head-on the concept of a
redemptive burying of the past, urging that the events of that
infamous date be approached as a transnational model of
conflict-and suggesting, wisely and calmly, that justice can be
even the better understood if we should undertake the very
important task of locating the sources of hostility, valid or not,
toward the West. Burying the Past asks these important questions:
How do newly democratic nations put to rest the conflicts of the
past? Is granting forgiveness a politically viable choice for those
in power? Should justice be restorative or retributive? Beginning
with a conceptual approach to justice and forgiveness and moving to
an examination of reconciliation on the political and on the
psychological level, the collection examines the quality of peace
as it has been forged in the civil conflicts in Rwanda, South
Africa, Chile, Guatemala and Northern Ireland. There are times in
history when "making peace" and "doing justice" seem almost
impossible in the face of horrendous events. Those responses are
understandably human. But it is in times just like these when
humanity can-and must-rise to its possibilities and to its higher
purposes in order to continue considering itself just and humane.
In this fertile collection of essays, prominent theologians,
philosophers, historians, and social scientists explore the mutual
entanglements of religious identity with political activity in
religiously plural societies. Four essays are devoted to each of
the three great religions of "The Book, " evidencing the variety of
conceptions of such a relation within the same religious tradition
and demonstrating how they came to be so conceived. In addition,
the three sections together display intriguing similarities between
the conceptions that are pertinent to the different traditions.
These range from definant theocracy to religious sanction of the
liberal, secular state.
Pacifism is popular. Many hold that war is unnecessary, since
peaceful means of resolving conflict are always available, if only
we had the will to look for them. Or they believe that war is
wicked, essentially involving hatred of the enemy and carelessness
of human life. Or they posit the absolute right of innocent
individuals not to be deliberately killed, making it impossible to
justify war in practice.
Peace, however, is not simple. Peace for some can leave others at
peace to perpetrate mass atrocity. What was peace for the West in
1994 was not peace for the Tutsis of Rwanda. Therefore, against the
virus of wishful thinking, anti-military caricature, and the
domination of moral deliberation by rights-talk In Defence of War
asserts that belligerency can be morally justified, even though
tragic and morally flawed.
Recovering the Christian tradition of reflection running from
Augustine to Grotius, this book affirms aggressive war in
punishment of grave injustice. Morally realistic in adhering to
universal moral principles, it recognises that morality can trump
legality, justifying military intervention even in transgression of
positive international law-as in the case of Kosovo. Less cynical
and more empirically realistic about human nature than Hobbes, it
holds that nations desire to be morally virtuous and right, and not
only to be safe and fat. And aspiring to practical realism, it
argues that love and the doctrine of double effect can survive
combat; and that the constraints of proportionality, while real,
are nevertheless sufficiently permissive to encompass Britain's
belligerency in 1914-18. Finally, in a painstaking analysis of the
Iraq invasion of 2003, In Defence of War culminates in an account
of how the various criteria of just war should be thought together.
It also concludes that, all things considered, the invasion was
justified.
This book offers a fresh and up-to-date account of the ethical
thought of Karl Barth, one of the twentieth century's greatest
theologians. In it, the author seeks to recover Barth's ethics from
some widespread misunderstandings, and also presents a picture of
it as a whole. Drawing on recently published sources, Biggar
construes the ethics of the Church Dogmatics as it might have been
had Barth lived to complete it. However, The Hastening that Waits
is more than apology and description. For it recommends to
contemporary Christian ethics the theological rigor with which
Barth expounds the good life in terms of the living presence of
God-in-Christ to his creatures; his conception of right human
action as that which is able to hasten in the service of humanity
precisely by waiting prayerfully upon God; and his discriminate
openness to moral wisdom outside the Christian church. Among
particular topics treated are: the concepts of human freedom and of
created moral order; moral norms and their relation to individual
vocation; the relative ethical roles of the Bible, the Church,
philosophy, and empirical science; moral character and its
formation; and the problem of war.
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