Theological Ethics and Moral Value Phenomena The Experience of Values

The experience of moral values is often side-lined in discussions about moral reasoning, and yet our values define a large part of our moral motives, standards and expectations. Theological Ethics and Moral Value Phenomena explores whether the experience of a meeting point of the immanent and the transcendent, i.e. the moral self and God, can be the source of our values.

The book starts by arguing for a greater theological engagement with value ethics, personalism and the phenomenological method by drawing on thinkers such as Max Scheler and William James. It then provides an understanding of the social and religious dimension of the valuing person, demonstrating the importance of the emotional, as well as the cognitive, dimension of value experience. Finally, this value perspective is utilised to engage with current moral issues such as professional ethics, environmental ethics, economical ethics and family ethics.

Integrating the concepts of religious experience, moral motivation, and subjective and objective value within a broad framework of Christian theology and philosophy, this is vital reading for any scholar of Theology and Philosophy with an interest in ethics and moral reasoning.

Introduction: The Experience of Values; Part 1: Return to the Classics; 1 A Pragmatic Ontology of Religious Value Experience: A discussion of Charles Taylor, William James and Max Scheler, Angela Roothaan; 2 The Sentiments of the Heart and Protestant Ethics: A Constructive Dialogue between Paul Ramsey and Max Scheler, Patrick Nullens; 3 Empirically Grounded Ethics and Charles Taylor’s Relational Ontology of Goods, Guus Timmerman; 4 The Moral Relevance of Lived Experience in Complex Hospital Practices: A Phenomenological Approach, Frans Vosman; Part 2: The Validating Person; 5 The Self in Exile: Emmanuel Housset’s Concept of Personhood, Frits de Lange; 6 Hospitality versus Personalism? Weil, Levinas and Derrida on the Encounter of the Other, Angela Roothaan; 7 Value-Based Ethics in Care, Axel Liégeois; Part 3: Value Ethics in Practice; 8 A ‘Value’ Prolegomenon for Creation Care: Appropriations from Marion and Levinas, Ronald T. Michener; 9 Loving ‘Imagined Communities’: A Theological Assessment of the Value of Patriotism, Steven C. van den Heuvel; 10 Revival of the Fitting: Virtue and Relational Experiences of Value, Louke van Wensveen

Steven C. van den Heuvel is postdoctoral researcher in the department of Systematic Theology at the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit (ETF), Leuven, Belgium

Angela Roothaan isassistant professor of Philosophy at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands

Patrick Nullens is professor of Christian Ethics and Rector at the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit (ETF), Leuven, Belgium