The complex interwoven crises of climate disruption and biodiversity loss demand not only rapid technological innovation for sustainable development but also major shifts in consumption and behaviour, implying a need for responses rooted in ethical values and a reorientation of attitudes towards the more-than-human world. In this context, given the global significance of faith communities and institutions as motivators and moral authorities, it is important that faith leaders state the challenges for sustainable development and suggest pathways forward to protect the environment and people that live in it. Building on his landmark encyclical of 2015, <i>Laudato Si’</i>, Pope Francis issued <i>Laudate Deum</i>, an apostolic exhortation on the climate crisis, and followed this up with a message to COP 28 for leaders to show leadership in facing up to the climate challenge. We argue that the interventions of Pope Francis point to the crucial importance of an approach to sustainable development that can integrate faith perspectives on social and ecological ethics with the knowledge generated by the natural sciences and by environmental systems science. The <i>interdependence</i> revealed by the emerging scientific understanding of human, animal, and ecosystem life implies the bioethics of care and stewardship, which have the potential to bring people together across religious and disciplinary divides. Unlike other analyses, we argue that it is important to understand how life was created if we are to care for it effectively and sustainably. We also put forward the case for more sustainable land use and the production of more sustainable foods. This article is written from the perspective of the Catholic Church, including its approach to moral theology, but we argue that the implications of the analysis are relevant to all faith communities and religious institutions seeking to promote sustainable development.
Shubham Saraswat, Anuj Rastogi, Farid Mohammad
et al.
Background:
Chronic low back pain has been one of the most common musculoskeletal problems from the public health perspective owing to its high impact on disability and loss of productive years. The usefulness of Vitamin D in musculoskeletal health is widely acknowledged. The relationship between chronic low back pain in women and Vitamin D status becomes an important issue in context with clothing patterns owing to various cultural, social and religious factors. While there are many studies investigating the Vitamin D status in women with low back pain yet there are limited or almost no studies evaluating this problem in context with their clothing pattern. Hence, the present study was planned to determine the association between Vitamin D levels and clothing habits in women of reproductive age group having chronic back pain without any apparent clinico-radiological pathology.
Materials and Methods:
A cross-sectional study was done from September 2022 to March 2024 following ethical clearance from the institutional ethics committee. Two hundred and fifty-one women in the reproductive age group were included in the study after taking informed consent. Demographic and other details related to their diet, clothing pattern, and obstetric history were taken using a pretested questionnaire. Serum 25 (OH) Vitamin D level estimation was done. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0; appropriate tests were applied and the following results were drawn.
Results:
Mean age of the 251 participants who complained of chronic back pain was 33.16 ± 10.27 years. The duration of pain ranged from 6 to 36 months. Majority of patients (n = 201; 80.1%) had duration of pain <12 months followed by 12–18 months (n = 44; 17.5%), 18–24 months and >24 months (n = 3; 1.2% each), respectively. The mean duration of pain was 9.97 ± 4.60 months. Almost half (n = 124; 49.4%) of the study participants preferred to use veil, while the rest half (n = 127; 50.6%) did not. Vitamin D levels ranged from 7.2 to 99.2 ng/mL with a mean of 26.31 ± 18.75 ng/mL. The prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency, insufficiency and sufficiency was 46.2%, 21.9% and 31.9% respectively. No statistically significant association was found between the duration of pain and Vitamin D status (P = 0.347). Furthermore, factors such as age, gravida status and place of residence (urban/rural) were not found to be associated with Vitamin D deficiency. Statistically, there was a significant difference in Vitamin D status between veiled and unveiled women (P = 0.001).
Conclusions:
Mean Vitamin D levels did not show any significant association with age, place of residence, gravid status and duration of pain. However, veiled women had a significantly higher prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency compared to nonveiled women.
Mohammadhasan Samooei, Seyed Mustafa Hosseini Nasab
Expediency and corruption in the term is the base of legislating Sharia rules. On the other hand, beauty and ugliness are concepts that have a long history in various sciences, and different meanings such as perfection and imperfection, agreement and disagreement with intent, deserving of praise and blame, reward and punishment have been considered for them. In the science of principles of jurisprudence, this question has been raised that what is the relationship between expediency and corruption as the basis of Sharia rulings with good and bad. Mohaghegh Esfahani believed that they are the same, and Martyr Sadr considered comparing these concepts with each other. This article aims to examine the relationship between these two types of concepts with a critical-analytical method. With the selected definition of good and bad, which expresses the relationship of necessity between the act and its result, we can understand the same thing between good and bad, expedient and corrupt.
The article is devoted to the originality of L. N. Tolstoy’s early story “A Billiard-Marker’s Notes” and the history of its writing with the use of preparatory materials. The author aims to analyze and show the interrelation of a wide range of psychological, socio-ethical, and ideological issues raised in the story, which deeply worried the writer in the 1850s. The article proves that the artist’s choice of the genre of “notes” and first-person narratives allowed him to diversify the plot, methods of psychological analysis, and images of the characters’ inner world. The article pays considerable attention to such a feature of “A Billiard-Marker’s Notes” in terms of narratology as the presence of two characters-narrators, opposite to each other in age, social status, level of development, and bearers of different speech styles. This technique allows the writer to depict dramatically Nekhlyudov’s loneliness, “lostness,” and the existing blatant gap between the worldview of the nobility and the people and their ethics. The narrator’s expressive word, completing the work, brings it to the existential level. The image of the character-marker and his perception of reality testifies to the connections of “A Billiard-Marker’s Notes” with the traditions of the “natural school,” its humanistic principles, and democracy. This story, along with other works of the 1850s, contains the origins of the religious and philosophical views of the writer-thinker.
This article examines the management of the COVID-19 pandemic by the Roman Catholic Church in Nsukka, Nigeria. By management, we mean how the Roman Catholic church in Nsukka makes sure that its congregations adhere to the COVID-19 protocols. A survey was carried out which covered both parishes in the rural areas and Nsukka town as well. Three each from the rural and three from Nsukka town, formed the population of the study. The study spanned from June 2020 to April 2021.The findings of the article showed that Roman Catholics in the rural areas cared less about maintaining COVID-19 protocols; their reason is based on the ‘illusion’ that the pandemic is not real after all. Those within the urban areas adhered more to the protocols given that provisions of washing hand basins and sanitisers were made. They also made use of their facemasks. These set of Roman Catholic members believe that the pandemic may be real and to be on the safe side, one has to protect oneself against any eventuality. Stricter measures were found out not to have been put in place in Roman Catholic parishes in the rural areas to ensure adherence to COVID-19 protocols.
Religion has been in general neglected or even seen as a taboo subject in organizational research and management practice. This is a glaring omission in the business and society and business ethics literatures. As a source of moral norms and beliefs, religion has historically played a significant role in the vast majority of societies and continues to remain relevant in almost every society. More broadly, expectations for responsible business behavior are informed by regional, national, or indigenous cultures, which in many parts of the world are heavily influenced by religious belief systems and religious institutions. In this essay, we discuss examples of how religion has functioned as a macro social force affecting business and society, discuss some of the key questions and issues related to research in this domain, offer some observations about why religion may be problematic with regard to its effects on business, and conclude by summarizing the articles contained in the special issue.
ABSTRACTTheoretical and methodological discussions of ethnography and ethics have appeared regularly in the Journal of Religious Ethics for at least the past 13 years. Many of these conversations have been preoccupied by the relationship between “normative” work in religious ethics and “descriptive” work on moral worlds and patterns of reasoning. However, there has often been a perceived impasse when it comes to drawing “normative” ethical arguments from fine‐grained ethnographic study. This paper begins by assessing significant contributions to religious ethics made by ethnographers of Islam, focusing on the way they render a stark descriptive/normative binary irrelevant. I then turn to an example from my own fieldwork that expands our understanding of the relationship between ethnography and ethics. Through this example, I argue that ethical thinkers working outside the academy—theologians, activists, and cultural producers—also draw on an “ethnographic imagination” to make moral arguments. I end by reflecting on how the “ethnographic imagination” situates religious ethics as part of broader humanistic inquiry, showing that careful accounts of how people do live are always enmeshed with visions of how we should live.
Political leaders, philosophers, sociologists, historians, political scientists, law scholars and economists approach terrorism in diverse ways, especially its definition. Politicians assign the meaning to the term terrorism that best suits them. Political scientists analyze the actions of those in the geopolitical framework. Moral philosophers look at terrorism from the viewpoint of fairness. Historians make a comparative assessment of the phenomenon through its evolution over time, and scholars of law simply dissect counterterrorism measures and assess their consistency with customs and current legislation. Sociologists stress the importance of culture, social relationships and social interactions. Eventually, politicians and lawmakers are not immune to the influence of the common ethics and morals of their own societies and the uses and habits of their own cultures, including religious aspects. Morals and ethics relate to “right” and “wrong” conduct; the first provides guiding principles, and the latter refers to rules provided by an external source, e.g., codes of conduct in workplaces or principles in religions. While morals are concerned with principles of right and wrong, ethics are related to right and wrong conduct of an individual in a particular situation. Ethics, morals and religion are intertwined in the antithetical principles “good and evil.” This work aims to scrutinize the crucial concept of just and unjust war, and just and unjust combatants, and to elaborate on some critical moral and ethical elements within the modern understanding of the interplay between terrorism, counterterrorism, fundamental human rights, and international humanitarian law. Through the examination of all pertinent theoretical positions the paper seeks to shed light on the limits of the use of force and the justification of the violation of fundamental rights in the War on Terror.
Purpose – God promised pious individuals who obey to His commandments, to increase their economic well-being. Although it is difficult to demonstrate with figures in hand this causality relationship, Muslims must believe in its existence and robustness at both the individual and collective levels, as it is argued in Qur'an and the Prophetic Narration. We aim in this paper to model this positive relationship between Islamic work ethics and economic growth and prove theoretically its existence. Design/methodology/approach – We develop an endogenous growth model very close technically to Lucas–Uzawa model (1988) in which the human capital defined as the individual's skill level acquired through formal education and learning by doing is replaced by ethical capital (piety). Findings – The model proves theoretically that Islamic ethics are a key engine of endogenous economic growth and that the underdevelopment of Muslim populations is due to their low ethical capital (lack of piety). Practical implications – The study recommends some policies such as providing formal religious education at all educational levels (elementary, secondary and higher levels) and promoting ethical values such as piety, sincerity, transparency, etc., through media and cultural institutions. Also, managers could provide courses and training to their workers to teach them Islamic work ethics. Originality/value – This paper is the first to mathematically model Islamic work ethics as endogenous phenomena in socioeconomic systems and study theoretically their contributions to economic growth.
Photo by Cecilie Johnsen on Unsplash
INTRODUCTION
Across the country, states are enacting legislation that curtails LGBTQ+ rights and liberties.[1] In March 2021, Arkansas enacted Senate Bill 289, titled the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act (the “Act”).[2] The Act permits medical practitioners, healthcare institutions, and insurance companies to refuse to treat, or, in the case of insurance companies, to cover, a non-critically ill person if treating the individual violates their religious or personal beliefs. Though masked as protecting religious liberties, the Act discriminates against LGBTQ+ patients. While the Act purports to protect different types of healthcare workers, I frame my discussion of the Act to discuss the physician’s obligations given the changes to Arkansas law.
Even if legally permissible, I believe virtuous physicians do not consider patients’ sexual orientation or gender identity when deciding whether to treat them. I will explain why a virtuous physician would never conscientiously object to treating a patient based on the patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity, even if allowed, like in Arkansas. Conscientious objection based on sexual orientation or gender identity, even if permitted under state law, is always unvirtuous.
l. Senate Bill 289 and the LGBTQ+ Patient
On March 29, 2021, Governor Hutchinson adopted the Act by signing Senate Bill 289 into Arkansas state law. To protect a “right of conscience” in health care, the Act invokes traditions of the United States and the Hippocratic Oath, stating:
[t]he right of conscience was central to the founding of the United States, has been deeply rooted in the history and tradition of the United States for centuries, and has been central to the practice of medicine through the Hippocratic Oath for millennia.
As used in the Act, conscience means “religious, moral, or ethical beliefs.” The Act protects medical practitioners, healthcare institutions, or healthcare payors when they act from their conscience and extends this protection to include the following: (1) the right not to participate in a healthcare service that violates his, her, or its conscience; (2) no requirement to participate in a healthcare service that violates his, her, or its conscience; and (3) no civil, criminal, or administrative liability for declining to participate in a healthcare service that violates his, her, or its conscience.
The Act limits which services physicians can refuse to perform: it permits conscientious objection only if the patient requires non-emergency care. Under Arkansas state law, an emergency is defined as an “immediate threat to the life or health of a patient.”[3]
Before the Act, conscientious objection was limited in medical practice in the United States. The American Medical Association’s (“AMA”) Code of Medical Ethics states physicians can act as moral agents. The AMA’s code supports conscientious objection if it is based on a moral objection to a treatment rather than discrimination against patients.[4] From the Church Amendments to the Affordable Care Act, federal law has protected practitioners’ rights to object to participating in treatments contrary to their religious or moral beliefs, such as abortions, sterilization, euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide.[5] However, the language of these laws emphasizes treatment-based objection; the laws protect healthcare workers who are unwilling to participate in medical practices based on a moral objection to a treatment. In addition, the laws specifically name procedures like sterilization, euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide as permissible grounds for objection.
The Act extends physicians’ rights to conscientious objection by removing the treatment-specific language. In Arkansas, the broad language of the law could permit conscientious objection based on a patient’s LGBTQ+ identity because it does not limit objections based on type of treatments. The Act broadened conscientious objection in Arkansas to include treatment-based and patient-based objections.
ll. Virtue Ethics
Virtue ethics is an ethical framework that focuses on the character of the individual performing actions during the individual’s life and career. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle writes that virtue is a state of being, such as a courageous or amiable person, rather than a system for ethical action selection.[6] Society understands these virtues as falling at the mean—or between— a deficiency and an excess. For example, the virtue of courage lies between the deficiency of cowardness and excess of rashness, never in abundance or excess.
A virtuous person exemplifies the virtues required of the person’s role and performs the required functions well. Aristotle writes, “[w]e become just by doing just actions, temperate by doing temperate actions, brave by doing brave actions.” In this way, we must live our virtues to become virtuous.
A. The Virtuous Physician
The virtuous physician exemplifies virtue and practices medicine in congruence with medicine’s ethos. Since an individual can practice and learn virtue, it provides a unique ethical framework to distinguish between the virtuous or “good” physician and the unvirtuous or “bad” physician. Aristotle writes that life’s virtues are courage, temperance, generosity, magnificence, magnanimity, mildness, amiability, truthfulness, wit, and shame.[7] Individuals possessing these traits are virtuous, but virtuous physicians must also demonstrate traits integral to their professional duties. A virtuous physician’s qualities include empathetic listening, emotional sensitivity, and respect for patients. These additional qualities create trust and comfort patients.[8] Also, the virtuous physician exemplifies trustworthiness, integrity, discernment, compassion, patience, and conscientiousness.[9] Others even include theological virtues such as faith, hope, and charity as important characteristics in a physician’s practice.[10] While not an exhaustive list of the values that compose a virtuous physician, these standards are the basic requirements for physician to exemplify virtue and perform the job’s functions well.
One may argue that theological virtues like faith, hope, and charity support the conscientious objection because physicians are virtuous when they are faithful, or loyal to their religious beliefs. However, this argument fails to consider the four principles of medical ethics. Using conscientious objection to withhold care from even non-critically ill patients can cause harm that is physical and emotional. A physician cannot act virtuously and simultaneously undermine non-malfeasance and beneficence.
The virtuous physician must also practice medicine in congruence with medicine’s ethos, acting for the patient’s benefit and taking a patient-centered approach. The patient’s benefit has multiple elements, such as the medically defined good outcome, the patient’s definition of a good outcome, what is dignifying to the patient, and what is considered universally good.[11] If a physician acts against a patient’s good or the physician does not exemplify virtue in their own life, the physician would be considered unvirtuous.
B. Unvirtuous Conscientious Objection Through the Act
Conscientious objection is a debated topic. Some argue that physicians’ values should not influence the care they provide.[12] In addition, the legalization of conscientious objection is seen by some to violate medicine’s central ethos of caring for the patient.[13] Others do not view conscientious objection as wholly wrong.
Despite the debate over the role of conscientious objection in the physician’s practice, conscientious objection based on a patient’s LGBTQ+ identity under the Act is unvirtuous. The Act extends the understood norm of treatment-based objections to objections based on any component of health care, including a patient’s LGBTQ+ identity. This patient-based objection is discriminatory and unrelated to the patient’s requested medical service which may conflict with the physician’s morals.[14] A virtuous physician would never refuse to treat a patient based on the patient’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. Refusing to treat a patient because of the patient’s LGBTQ+ identity is unvirtuous because it defies a physician’s duty, is discriminatory, and displays a lack of respect for patients, amiability, and compassion. Even if permitted under the Act, a virtuous physician must never object to treating a patient based on the patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
One may argue a physician can be virtuous while conscientiously objecting if the physician clearly communicates all limitations and refers the patient to another medical provider. This is the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ view.[15] Under this view, physicians maintain respect for themselves as agents but ultimately provide proper care for the patient, even if their hands do not perform the service. However, to be virtuous, this objection must never be discriminatory. Even with prerequisites, objection based on gender identity and sexual orientation is discriminatory and indicates deficiencies in the physician’s virtue. The simple act of objection can cause psychological pain to a patient. LGBTQ+-based discrimination and rejection causes unnecessary physiological harm like anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideations, whereas social acceptance increases feelings of self-esteem.[16] The virtuous physician would never cause pain to the patient, as this violates the principle of non-maleficence. Regardless of actions taken before or after the objection, a physician is unvirtuous when the physician inflicts pain on a patient by conscientiously objecting to treating the patient based on LGBTQ+ status.
CONCLUSION
To avoid discrimination, a physician must have a valid reason for employing conscientious objection. The Medical Ethics and Diversity Act extends physicians’ rights from treatment-based objection to patient-based objection. Arkansas’s LGBTQ+ community is at risk of suffering from discriminatory healthcare practices. The physician who objects based on LGBTQ+ identity is unvirtuous because the physician’s action causes psychological harm to the patient, displays deficiencies in virtues, and opposes the central ethos of medicine.
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[1] For examples of Senators and State Representatives passing laws affecting LGBTQ+ rights to protect religious liberties and fairness, see ACLU. (2021). Legislation Affecting LGBTQ Rights Across the Country 2021. https://www.aclu.org/legislation-affecting-lgbtq-rights-across-country-2021
[2] Medical Ethics and Diversity Act, Ark. Acts 462 §§17-80-501-06 (2021). https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Acts/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2021R%2FPublic%2F&file=462.pdf&ddBienniumSession=2021%2F2021R
[3] Emergency Medical Care Act, Ark. A.C.A. § 20-9-309
[4] AMA. (n.d.) Physician Exercise of Conscience. https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/ethics/physician-exercise-conscience
[5] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2021). Your Conscience Rights. https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/conscience-protections/index.html
[6] Aristotle. (1999). Nicomachean Ethics. (Irwin, 2nd ed.). Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
[7]Aristotle. (1999). Nicomachean Ethics. (Irwin, 2nd ed.). Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
[8] Bain, L. E. (2018). Revisiting the need for virtue in medical practice: a reflection upon the teaching of Edmund Pellegrino. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 13(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13010-018-0057-0
[9] Gardiner, P. (2003). A virtue ethics approach to moral dilemmas in medicine. Journal of Medical Ethics, 29(5), 297-302. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.29.5.297
[10] Toon, P. D. (1999). Towards a philosophy of general practice: a study of the virtuous practitioner. Occasional Paper Royal College of General Practitioners, (78), iii-vii, 1-69.
[11] Shelp, E. E. E., & Pellegrino, D. (1985). The Virtuous Physician and the Ethics of Medicine Virtue and medicine explorations in the character of medicine, 17, 237-255.
[12] Savulescu, J. (2006). Conscientious objection in medicine. BMJ, 332(7536), 294-297. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7536.294
[13] Stahl, R. Y., & Emanuel, E. J. (2017). Physicians, Not Conscripts - Conscientious Objection in Health Care. New England Journal of Medicine, 376(14), 1380-1385. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsb1612472
[14] Reis-Dennis, S., & Brummett, A. L. (2021). Are conscientious objectors morally obligated to refer? Journal of Medical Ethics, medethics-2020-107025. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2020-107025
[15] ACOG. The limits of conscientious refusal in Reproductive Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2022, from https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2007/11/the-limits-of-conscientious-refusal-in-reproductive-medicine
[16] Meanley, S., Flores, D. D., Listerud, L., Chang, C. J., Feinstein, B. A., & Watson, R. J. (2021). The interplay of familial warmth and LGBTQ+ specific family rejection on LGBTQ+ adolescents' self-esteem. Journal of Adolescent Health, 93, 40-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2021.10.002 ; Ruben, M. A., Livingston, N. A., Berke, D. S., Matza, A. R., & Shipherd, J. C. (2019). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Veterans' Experiences of Discrimination in Health Care and Their Relation to Health Outcomes: A Pilot Study Examining the Moderating Role of Provider Communication. Health Equity, 3(1), 480-488. https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2019.0069. ; Sutter, M., & Perrin, P. B. (2016). Discrimination, mental health, and suicidal ideation among LGBTQ people of color. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 98-105. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000126
Self-killing in late imperial and modern China called into play gender disparities, and secular and religious morals often at odds with each other. Scholarship has long focused on Confucian virtue ethics that led young widows to follow their husband to death, or take a chastity vow and disfigure themselves to avoid rape, but little effort has been made to examine suicide practices cross-culturally. This paper compares such practices among Han women from the southeast coast and indigenous Naxi and Lahu women of upland Yunnan, throwing light on the aesthetics behind their struggles for justice, free-choice marriage and beliefs in posthumous love.
Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Although scholars have examined the link between religiosity and consumer ethics, the idea of Muslim consumer ethics has not received much traction within academia. The idea of Muslim consumer ethics is a manifestation of religious revivalism. Yet, its discussion must consider the critical roles played by Muslim youth and their consumption of new media because the latter has a profound effect on shaping and directing popular Muslim youth cultures. Muslim consumer ethics encompass the moral and humanistic dimension of living in a globalized world as an extension of an individual’s religious practice. This phenomenon of ethical consumption has also been commoditized in a lucrative halal industry that fosters a Muslim identity market.
In recent research on moral psychology, the human consciousness has been compared to a tongue, with different taste buds, which together can cause a variety of sensations. According to this theory, people in general have a preparedness to react to situations, which can provide opportunities or pose threats in a social context. Moral psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, has described these receptors as pairs, for example: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/ betrayal, authority/subversion and sanctity/degradation. Which of these foundations the individual develops a taste for depends, largely, on the social and cultural context. Hence, the choices teachers make of which issues to address and in what way can contribute to a learning environment that influences their pupils’ moral outlook. The purpose of this study is to investigate which of these moral intuitions or taste preferences that teachers want to endorse and cultivate in their pedagogical practices. Against this background, a number of qualitative research interviews were conducted with experienced teachers in the non-confessional subject religious education (RE), who have a particular responsibility for moral education in the Swedish school system. The interviews were based on a modified version of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, which was deliberately developed to determine the participants’ moral taste, and the participants were asked to elaborate their answers. The results indicate that the participants tended to favour harm and fairness over loyalty, authority and sanctity. As one of the participants puts it: “many of my examples relate to the weak and vulnerable or the ones that are denied their rights in society… these pedagogical choices are based on the content of the curriculum but also mirror my own preferences”. In this paper we analyse the interviews with the RE teachers and critically discuss the consequences the moral foundations theory has for moral education.
Keywords: moral education, ethics education, moral psychology, moral foundations theory
A series of conflicts that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union culminated in the war in Ukraine waged by Russia in 2014. The international community was taken by surprise, and its reactions to the Russian aggression were often confused and inadequate. Even more confused and inadequate were the responses from global Christianity. Russian propaganda often renders the aggression against Ukraine as a quasi-religious conflict: a “holy war” against the “godless” or “heterodox” West. It would be natural, therefore, for the Christian churches worldwide to loudly condemn both propaganda and aggression. However, in most cases, their response was silence. Such reactions came from most local Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic church, and international ecumenical organizations such as the World Council of Churches. An exception was the reaction from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which decided to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The article argues that the Tomos for autocephaly was, among other reasons, a reaction to the war in Ukraine. The responses of other local Orthodox churches to the Tomos also indicate their attitude to the war in Ukraine. These reactions have demonstrated a profound crisis in inter-Orthodox solidarity and social ethics.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
Financial reports are important elements in economics, so that a rule is formed in the financial reporting process called General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The aim is to unify financial reporting and financial reporting for each business entity in a country to facilitate the auditing process for fairness in reporting. This study will discuss earnings management in terms of Islamic ethics. The research method uses the literature review method concerning Islam's references and matters relating to profit management and Islamic business ethics. In this study, it can be seen that the behavior of a manager towards profit management by manipulating profit figures on paper is not following what is instructed by Islamic teachings and the basic laws of various types of muamalah are permissible until arguments are found that prohibit them.
Ali Asqhar Pour-Ezzat, Golara Pourmojarab, Hasan Zarei Matin
et al.
Ethics is one of the most widely used words in social life that has been expressed in Iranian organizations' goals and policies in recent decades. However, there is no precise definition of ethics in the organization or a standard that can distinguish ethics from non-ethics in any circumstances. Ethics and its related theories are strongly dependent on the cultural and religious context of the society; therefore, the definition of ethical standards must be done according to the valuable beliefs of the intended community; therefore, the need to determine native ethical criteria appropriate to the beliefs and values of the community for Iranian organizations is felt. For this purpose, by analyzing the content, the Holy Qur'anic verses and Nahj al-Balagha's propositions were studied and finally, 97 basic themes, 13 organizing themes, and two overarching themes, action's goodness and subject's goodness, have been counted. The criteria for action's goodness deal with the organizer themes of considering responsibility as a trust, respect for justice, benevolence, moderation, the preservation of human dignity, the nature of action, the worldly and afterlife's consequences of acts. And the criteria for subject's goodness are organizer themes of the faith to God, piety, good intention and the appropriateness for acting.
It is now 49 years since Johan Heyns’s Sterwende Christendom? [Dying Christendom] was published (1969) in which he traced the history of secularisation and its impact on the theology of his time and 36 years since the publication (1982) of the first volume of his Teologiese etiek [Theological ethics] in which he discussed the impact of secularisation on ethics. In this article, the topic of the impact of secularisation on Christian ethics is revisited. Account is taken of research conducted on the secularising impact of modernisation since then. Although empirical research points to the fact that it is not true that modernisation inevitably leads to the complete demise of religious faith and ethics, and also not that there is today absolutely no room for religious influences in the different social orders, it does not mean that it is a case of business as usual for Christian ethics. It cannot be denied that modernisation has a significant effect on the shape of Christian ethics in the contemporary world. And it can also not be denied that in most contemporary liberal democratic societies, including South Africa, the public role of Christian ethics is restricted. Some of the challenges – and opportunities – present-day realities pose to South African churches and their members are identified and discussed.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: On account of the pluralising and fragilising impact of modernisation on Christian faith, the discipline of Christian ethics should today criticise the absolutising of Christian ethical beliefs and encourage Christians to actively support consensus seeking on moral values in the workplace and in society.
Ahmad Amiri Khorasani, Enayatollah Sharifpour, Alireza Kashani
Our ancestors paid special attention to didactic literature, especially the ethics, whose main subject is good and evil and focuses on the people’s behavior toward each other. The goal of ethics is to guide people toward good and beauty and prepare them for modifying personal and social behavior, a theme that is prominent in Persian prose and poetry.
Khajeh Nasiradin Tusi is one of the scholars who focused on this subject, especially in his two books of “Nasirean Ethics” and “Mohtashami Ethics”. The Nasirean Ethics inspired lots of other writers, centuries later to create works based on his books.
Another book with the subject of household management or family ethics is “Jalali Ethics” written by Jalal-al Din Davani, a 9th century scholar. The book is in fact a rewriting of Khajeh Nasir’s work and the only differences between them are in making the religious tone bolder than Khajeh’s philosophical view, its composition according to the style of his time, summarization of the book, addition of some Arabic Koranic verses and poems. The aim of this study is to review the subject of “household management” (family ethics) in these two books.