Chapter Summaries and Themes
Project Preparation
Strong foundation is important before moving forward.
Readings should align with your curiosity to propel your research in groups.
Group Work
Groups of 4-5 people.
By late October (20th-22nd), groups should choose a topic related to:
Healthcare (Paul Farmer book).
Right relationship with our environment (empathy and relational being toward life).
Class time will be allocated for group formation and topic exploration.
Topic Choices
Healthcare:
Issues from Paul Farmer's book.
Related issues like nursing shortage or healthcare compensation.
Can align with your major/interests.
Environment:
Social environment.
Natural world/climate change.
Practice of empathy and relational being toward life.
Timeline
Focus on step-by-step progress each week.
By the end of the second half of unit two, you should be well on your way.
Considerations
Think about who you want to work with.
Consider which social justice issue interests you most.
Align your group with people invested in the same issue.
Unique Approach
This class examines healthcare alongside empathy and relational being toward life.
These issues are interconnected.
Right relationship with life leads to accessible healthcare and mutual care.
Preparation
Rich conversation and preparation are key for the town hall.
Upcoming Assignments
Reading and reflection journals due a week from Wednesday.
One to two paragraphs on each reading.
3 for Week 5, 2 for Week 6, 3 for Week 7, and 3 for Week 8.
Unit 2A exam on Wednesday, October 8.
Plan will be collaborative.
Catholic Perspective Sources
Three levels to draw from for research and reflection:
Encyclicals (Papal).
Writings of Theologians.
Everyday/Ordinary Person.
Source Levels
High (Papacy/Magisterium):
Encyclicals.
Church teaching authority.
Middle (Theologians):
Writings of theologians (moral theologians).
Texts from the course.
Moral theology broadens to include psychology, social work, sociology (theological ethics).
Catholic social teaching is interpretation at multiple levels.
Everyday/Ordinary Person:
Practices Catholicism.
Experiential level, through survey and questions.
Poor and Marginalized:
Access: experiential level with someone you know OR through Luciani text and Farmer's book/firsthand accounts.
Sources
Include sources in your footnotes, and source inclusively through these three levels.
Women's Empowerment
Focus on chapter two of Luciani, followed by chapter one from today.
Suzanne Mulligan Article
Role of women discussed; structure and social structure reviewed.
Structures of systemic injustice.
Systemic injustice examples include race and sex.
Luciani, Ch. 2: Responding to the Signs of the Time
Locus theologicus: place of God's presence reveals history and theology.
Reality = space-time dimension; historical consciousness.
Focus on the Poor
Most people in the world are poor, uneducated.
Humility, reverence, appreciation, and gratitude.
Francis: we have to take on the reality of the poor and their struggle in order to humanize the world.
Revelation of our reality in the moment and of historical theological dimension.
Church must become a poor church to be a church of and for the poor.
Growing numbers of poor people has a cause in decisions pointing history in one way or another.
Systems of injustice are perpetuated through institutional/political life.
Globalization is detrimental without solidarity. Inattention to local culture leads to dehumanization.
Religion's role in civic life:
Provides transcendence of the human person which exceeds the physical and finite.
To fully participate in civic life, we have to know the role and importance that religion plays.
Consideration of both conscience and social situation and subjectivity in relationship.
Chapter Two Conclusion
To get to the root of the problem, we have to change our location.
New lens/perspective beyond that to which we are used.