1. Course title: Thinking through Catholic Social Teaching
2. Tutor: Stephen Watt PhD
3. Location and times: run by the Albertus Institute which will run over ten weeks from September 24 2014 from 6-7pm in the Chaplaincy Library, 24 George Square Edinburgh.
4. Registration: places are limited. Online registration here.
5. Rationale:
The course, as many other resources and courses on Catholic Social Teaching, will aim to familiarize participants with the content of Catholic Social Teaching, particularly as developed in the years since 1891 and the publication of the Encyclical, Rerum Novarum, by Leo XIII, and as contained in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
Unlike many other resources, however, the main focus of this course will be to encourage critical reflection on that tradition, both in its application and the principles underlying it. Particular emphasis will be placed on exploring the philosophical underpinnings in the Aristotelian and Thomistic tradition of eudaimonistic ethics and the exercise of practical wisdom.
With these aims in view, the course aims to introduce some key concepts of Catholic Social Teaching, to explore how they fit into a full understanding of humanity, and to reflect on the application to current difficulties. The focus of the course will be on understanding and exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the teachings rather than simply knowing their content. Most sessions will involve the introduction of key concepts and the reasoning behind them, followed by reflection on a topical question using these concepts. Critical questioning of the principles will be encouraged.
The course will be taught in ten hour long sessions predominantly through led discussions. The Albertus Institute website will carry relevant material and links for further optional exploration but no work outside the class is required.
6. Course aims & objectives:
· To develop participants’ ability to think through social and political issues and the principles behind them.
· To provide an introduction to some central ideas in Catholic Social Teaching and their philosophical and theological underpinnings.
· To encourage critical reflection on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
· To select key social and political issues from contemporary discussions and to subject them to philosophical and theological analysis.
· To provide insights into competing conclusions on these key issues.
7. Contents
Week 1) Overview of basic principles of methodology and content including:
a. Revelation and reason.
b. The nature of prudentia (practical reason).
c. Supernatural and natural ends of human beings.
d. The social nature of human beings.
e. Key textual sources.
Week 2) The dignity of the human person. Individuals: their natural and supernatural ends. Happiness, the exercise of the virtues and the best life (contemplation) and second best life (activity of the moral virtues). The contrast with atomistic views of individualism. Autonomy and dependence. Subsidiarity and solidarity. The common good.
Week 3) The social nature of the human person: the family.
[As we didn't finish the family in week 3, the revised plan is now:]
Week 4) The family (continued).
Week 5) The social nature of the human person: civil society and the role of associations intermediate between family and State.
Week 6) The social nature of the human person: politics, the State and the role of the Church.
Week 7) Dignity of work and property. The special claim of the poor. Social exclusion.
Week 8) International responsibility.
Week 9) Ecological responsibility.
Week 10) Wind up session. Overall view.
8. Course Readings
No outside reading is necessary, but participants will be encouraged to explore the issues further with specific recommended readings given weekly. The Albertus Institute blog will carry relevant material and links for further exploration.
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