This study of the implications of Gillick competence argues it is an unnecessary burden with an unethical foundation. The ethics of adolescent medical decision-making is a fraught area for medical ethics because it deals with the threshold boundaries between childhood and adulthood and Gillick adds a burden upon children and adolescent patients that is unwarranted and through which damage is done to integral human relationships. In light of Gillick, it can be seen that the context of adolescent decision-making and childhood, (...) is a neglected topic of ethical reflection. (shrink)

Introduction : the provocation of Levinas -- Being's other -- "Would you like to do a bit of theology?" : Levinas and theological turn -- The disturbance of theology -- Preferring the shadows : the "little faith" of Israel -- The return of God?

What is the fruit of a searching dialogue between faith and reason? This book collects theological and philosophical perspectives on the richness of the faith-reason dialogue, including examples from literature, continental and analytic philosophy, worship and liturgy, and radical approaches to issues of racism and prejudice. The authors strongly resist the temptations to either disregard the faith-reason dialogue or take it for granted. Through their explorations and reflections they open up new vistas and horizons on a topic more necessary than (...) ever. (shrink)

The ‘other’ has taken on an increased theological significance for the Church in the advent of post‐modern reflection, resulting in a myriad of possibilities for those who would reflect on the significance of the other in relation to the ‘self’, largely in connection with various theories of embodiment. Following Karol Wojtyla's emphasis on the given‐ness of the body I wish to illustrate a way in which the other might be understood theologically, informed by the insights of the continental philosophical tradition, (...) specifically Emmanuel Levinas' phenomenological outline of the other as a key locus of ethical reflection. Bringing Levinas' continental philosophy into dialogue with Wojtyla's philosophical theology, it will be argued that the other must be re‐approached in terms of their subjective self‐disclosure, centring upon the en‐fleshed and bodily form of the human person, who confronts us as a reflection of both that which is most other to ourselves and paradoxically that which most resembles ourselves. The other is always an en‐fleshed subject and in their action, their subjective identity is disclosed on the relational level. (shrink)