Research Catalog

Title

Foundations of an African ethic : beyond the universal claims of western morality / Bénézet Bujo ; translated by Brian McNeil.

Author

Bujo, Bénézet

Publication

New York : Crossroad Pub., c2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

McNeil, Brian

Description

xvii, 214 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"In this book, Benezet Bujo offers a critique of Western ethics and lays the theoretical groundwork for a new African ethic. By drawing on themes from African life such as marriage, therapy, and art, Bujo exposes the shortcomings of the philosophical anthropology implicit in Western ethics, comparing Western theories of natural law, discourse ethics, and communitarianism with the African emphasis on community and remembrance. He then considers whether African ethics can account for central Western values such as autonomy, freedom, and individual identity. Finally he considers how African ethics both challenges the church and contributes to its richness, suggesting that an African palaver ethic can integrate the best features of communitarianism and discourse ethics. This contribution to African theology will be of special interest to students of religion, comparative and non-Western philosophy, anthropology, and African studies, as well as anyone interested in contemporary ethics."--BOOK JACKET.

Uniform Title

Wider den Universalanspruch westlicher Moral. English

Alternative Title

Wider den Universalanspruch westlicher Moral.

Subject

• Christian ethics
• Ethics > Africa
• Ethics, Comparative

Note

• "A Herder and Herder book."

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-209) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Fundamental Questions of African Ethics -- Starting Point and Anthropology -- The Problem of the cognatus sum -- Questioning Natural-Law Thinking -- Virtue and Morality -- Fairy Tales, Proverbs, Riddles, and Initiation -- The Narrative Dimension of Virtue -- Various Understandings of Virtue -- Ethics and Anamnesis -- The Significance of Praxis and Poiesis for Ethical Conduct -- Marriage and Sexuality -- The Anamnetic Dimension of Choreography and Art in General -- The Palaver between Communitarianism and Discourse Ethics -- The Palaver as Process for Discovering and Justifying Norms -- The Essence of the Palaver -- Identity and the Understanding of Freedom -- Western Christian Ethics and African Anthropology -- Individual Responsibility in "Autonomous" Moral Theology -- The Practice of Autonomy in Ethics -- The Encyclical Veritatis Splendor -- Individual Responsibility in African Ethics -- The Community and the Individual -- World Ethos and the Ethos of Salvation -- Sin and Freedom of Conscience -- Sin and Conscience in Classic Catholic Moral Theology -- Catholic Teaching on the Conscience -- Situation Ethics -- Sin and Conscience in the African Context -- The Internalization of Ethical Norms -- The Community and the Individual Conscience -- Critical Observation: The Challenge of Inculturation -- Community and Structural Sin -- Limits to the African Tradition -- Mistaken Developments -- The Magisterium and the Authority of the Palaver -- The Magisterium in Ethical Questions -- The Palaver as a Complementary Practice.

ISBN

0824519051 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2001000504

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library