One of the most sweeping, categorical, and absolute phrases that has ever been employed by the hierarchical teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church refers to a concept called 'intrinsic evil'. In short, intrinsic evil is invoked to describe certain kinds of human acts that can never be morally justified or permitted, regardless of the intention of the person who performs them or any circumstances within which they take place. The most common examples of things that people recognize as being classified as intrinsically evil are, suicide, euthanasia, abortion, and the use of contraception. The ease with which the term 'intrinsic evil' gets right to the point, thereby making the fairly complex field of ethical reflection seem manageable and widely accessible, is one of the reasons for its attractiveness within Roman Catholic ethical teaching. However, this kind of simplification risks or even encourages avoidance of critical questions such as, "Where does this concept come from and what meanings are associated with it?", "Is it supposed to express an ethical judgment or to form it?", and "Is there a substantial difference between intrinsically evil acts and morally wrong acts?". The contributors to this volume engage with these and similar issues surrounding the formation and use of the concept, and in the process dispel the naive belief that the concept can somehow escape the complexity of ethical discourse or establish certainty of ethical judgments that is otherwise unattainable. In light of this realization, the most important issue becomes whether the concept can still be useful for Catholic theological ethics. Although the contributors to this volume do not completely agree on this issue, they have shown that a critical scrutiny of the concept must necessarily precede settling this issue and that the concept might not be able to withstand such critical judgment. The book provides a description of the origin and meanings of the concept of intrinsic evil. While the term itself tends to create confusion rather than clarity, eliminating its use does not imply that we cannot still have a meaningful discussion about 'things that should never be done'.

This book is intended as a contribution to the theory of contingent claim valuation based on arbitrage considerations. It is concerned with preference-free valuations of contingent claims (such as options written on a stock) in frictionless multiperiod securities markets that do not permit arbitrage profits. Besides the question of pricing it considers the possibility of hedging in securities markets. The research reported in this book was carried out at the Institut fUr Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, University of Bonn. While working in this field and preparing this monograph I received helpful comments and encouragement from many people, and I would like to thank all of them. Special thanks are due to Prof. Dr. Dieter Sonder- mann. He first stimulated my interest in the theory of contingent claim valuation and commented on my work at various stages. Furthermore, I would like to thank Profs. Martin Hellwig, Peter Schonfeld and Klaus SchUrger, all University of Bonn, for helpful comments on earlier ver- sions of this monograph. Parts of this monograph were presented at va- rious meetings including the European Meeting of the Econometric Socie- ty, Pisa 1983, the European Meeting of the Econometric Society, Madrid 1984, and the third Conference "Geld, Banken und Versicherungen", Karls- ruhe 1984. I greatly appreciate comments of Profs. Stephen Ross, Yale University, and Michael Brennan, UCLA. I take this opportunity to ex- press my indebtness to my colleague Dr. Shinichiro Nakamura for his con- stant encouragement during the laborious process of writing this mono- graph.

English summary: Recent developments in technology have given rise to the impression that the boundaries imposed by our bodiliness can somehow be overcome. The increasing philosophical interest in bodiliness as an unavoidable human condition can be seen as a response to this far too comfortable impression. The essays in this volume address the topic of bodiliness from a theological point of view. They show that our perceptions of, and relationships with, one another cannot be divorced from our bodily condition, and that this existential reality affects significantly how we understand our relationship with God. The contributions also address how we can best deal with the fragility of our bodily condition, as well as the challenges that technological and medical procedures for altering the appearance and constitution of our bodies pose. Special attention is given to how liturgical experience not only offers us a means to respond to these challenges but also to deepen our understanding of Christian communities as ineluctably bodily. German description: Die technologischen Entwicklungen unserer Zeit erwecken den Eindruck, dass wir unseren Leib verbessern und seine Grenzen mit ihrer Hilfe uberwinden konnen. Das hohe philosophische Interesse an der leiblichen Verfasstheit des Menschen ist moglicherweise eine Gegenreaktion auf diese Entwicklung. Dieser Band bietet theologische Perspektiven zu diesem Thema. Die Beitrage vertreten ein integratives Verstandnis vom Menschen, zu dem Leiblichkeit als unabdingbare Charakteristik gehort. Sie zeigen, wie diese Leiblichkeit die Art und Weise bedingt, wie wir uns wahrnehmen und miteinander in Beziehung treten und wie sich diese Grundbedingung auch auf unsere Beziehung zu Gott auswirkt. Gegen eine einseitige Perspektive der Verbesserung des Korpers stellen die Autoren einen differenzierten Umgang mit dessen Verwundbarkeit. Die Beitrager stellen die Bedeutung der Leiblichkeit fur den Vollzug der Liturgie und fur ein zeitgemasses Verstandnis von christlicher Gemeinde und diakonischer Arbeit heraus.