Kristin E. Heyer

How Does Theology Go Public? Rethinking the Debate between David Tracy and George Lindbeck

Abstract The possibilities for taking theological ethics ‘public’ have taken on added significance amidst debates over the nature of moral norms. If realist theological ethics can find a public voice, it will enhance the prospects for interreligious ethical collaboration and the place of theology in it. A key question remains whether particular contexts of religious symbols render them meaningful only within communities of ‘origin’, or particularity actually enables broadly compelling meaning or a public voice for theology. At issue in the Tracy-Lindbeck debate are their understandings of ‘public’, their responses to philosophical anti-foundationalism, and their theological presuppositions. While postliberal emphases on the distinctiveness of the Christian community and attention to the ecclesial community complement Tracys emphases on dialogue and coherence, Tracys recent methods provide more adequate responses to the challenges posed by postmodernism.

Social Sin and Immigration: Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors:

The category of social sin elucidates the connection between unjust structures that contribute to undocumented immigration and pervasive ideologies that foster resistance to reform efforts and immigrants themselves. Following an exploration of the development of social sin by Pope John Paul II and Latin American liberation theologians, the author advances a conception of social sin that accounts for its personal, institutional, and nonvoluntary dimensions. The analysis seeks to clarify intersecting levels of inhospitality and injustice.

US Catholic Discipleship and Citizenship: Patriotism or Dissent?

Abstract While some fear that political values so contradict gospel values that engagement with wider society risks religious corruption, Roman Catholic teaching encourages civic engagement even with political structures, while remaining cautious that such collaboration does not become cooptation. Negotiating the tensions between discipleship and citizenship in practice has given rise to different stances within the American Catholic community, particularly with regard to patriotism, dissent and the use of force. A survey of different Catholic reactions to the US involvement in Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of 11 September reveals the tensions between discipleship and citizenship as well as the potential role for religious dissent or critique, even in times of war. It also suggests potential for a realignment or integration of conventional Catholic postures toward public engagement.

Internalized Borders: Immigration Ethics in the Age of Trump:

The Trump administration’s immigration measures and attendant dehumanizing rhetoric have fanned the flames of nationalism and sown fear in communities. Its internal enforcement strategies are bolstered by manipulative narratives that perpetuate myths and reflect facile analyses of complex dilemmas, focusing on symptoms rather than causes of migration. Reducing immigration questions to the locus of border crossers alone eclipses from view transnational actors responsible for economic instability, violent conflict, or labor recruitment, and also eclipses their accountability. Recent developments in migration ethics help illuminate significant historical and structural contexts of migration as well as models of justice and norms for negotiating duties of reception that better reflect such relationships. Attending to underlying fears and idolatries that contribute to exclusionary dynamics also emerges as critical for advancing just policy reforms and cultivating civic friendship moving forward.

The Promise of a Pilgrim Church

On a visit to the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) in April 2013, I had the opportunity to speak with recently deported migrants at their aid center. One gentleman had spent 26 of his 27 years in central California, brought there as a one-year-old by his uncle. He had worked harvesting pistachios and almonds to support his wife and four citizen children without trouble, even on the occasions he could not produce a driver’s license for a routine stop. In the past two years, each such stop landed him in jail—with the third resulting in deportation to Nogales. He expressed dread at starting over in a country foreign to him. Up the road at KBI’s Casa Nazaret, I sat with deported women planning to reattempt the journey north in spite of the considerable dangers it posed. The women at the shelter were simply desperate to be reunited with their frxmilies in the United States or support their families at home in El Salvador or across Mexico. One had worked at a Motel 6 in Arizona for many years, supporting her two citizen children on her own after her husband left them; describing their initial reason for migrating to the United States from Mexico, she said, resigned, “At home you either eat or send your children to school.” The Nazareth House residents repeatedly broke into tears as they shared the pain of being separated from their children and their experiences in detention.

The Idea of the Common Good: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Catholic Higher Education

A robust, interdisciplinary engagement of the idea of the common good is well poised to make a timely contribution to the project of Catholic higher education. Reflection on shared goods as essential to civic and moral formation can serve to critique not only market models of education but also broader cultural currents that influence today’s students. At the same time, Catholic universities would do well to galvanize collaboration across the disciplines to refine traditional understandings and applications of the concept of the common good. Fostering interdisciplinary approaches in curricula and research, together with opportunities for global and local experiential learning, holds promise for reinvigorating the common good in the context of Catholic higher education and enhancing the education of integrated persons.

Reframing Displacement and Membership: Ethics of Migration

The mounting human costs of contemporary displacement challenge dominant interpretations that frame migration in terms of security or economic functionalism alone. Surveying global realities and recent academic and pastoral contributions, the author argues that a migration ethic attentive to transnational human rights, scriptural hospitality, and mutually (re)constituted membership remains well poised to reorient reigning approaches. The analysis suggests that greater attentiveness to the Churchs posture toward new migrants and the gender-specific experiences of migration are warranted.