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MUST ETHICS BE THEOLOGICAL? A CRITIQUE OF THE NEW PRAGMATISTS
Author(s) -
Sherlock Richard
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9795.2009.00405.x
Subject(s) - pragmatism , philosophy , nothing , christian ethics , theology , epistemology , rest (music) , sociology , medicine , cardiology
In the last decade there has been a pragmatic turn in the work of those doing Christian ethics, especially as represented by the work of Jeffrey Stout and Franklin Gamwell. The pragmatic turn represents a critique of the highly influential work of Stanley Hauerwas and Alasdair MacIntyre, which argues for a strongly intra‐church ethics. The pragmatists are correct in arguing that Christian ethics must engage the public sphere. However, I argue that they are deeply mistaken in their claim that this engagement must rest on a weak or non‐existent theology. I show that the claim that robust theology adds nothing to ethics, and that we can get along without it, is unsustainable.