David Cloutier | The Catholic University of America (original) (raw)
Papers by David Cloutier
Journal of Moral Theology 10 (2): 160–93, 2021
In this essay, we want to suggest that the debate in Catholic moral theology remains too shaped b... more In this essay, we want to suggest that the debate in Catholic moral theology remains too shaped by a dominant binary of law and conscience. This binary has a history, but one that is typically told primarily in terms of a 20th century change from a static and objective legalism to a more dynamic, historically-conscious, empowering individual agency. The first part of this essay hopes to show that a more extended history roots the binary in a construal of particular moral cases in terms of an authority-versus-authority conflict, in which there is no resolution except to declare juridically one or the other “side” as the ultimate authority. Instead, the casuistry of Amoris Laetitia should be understood by a different approach, suggested by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, which considers particular cases in terms of principles and prudence. Cardinal Schönborn’s suggestive remarks, however, require elaboration, explaining how a disciplined deployment of a principles-and-prudence framework can make better sense of “development” in Catholic moral teaching. We offer an analogy with the development of the Church’s teaching on usury to suggest how Amoris Laetitia’s casuistry might be understood: in terms of the prudential judgments involved in act descriptions. Such an approach can make sense of the discernment Francis recommends, without enshrining a “creative” view of conscience; however, this approach also leaves several questions and concerns that would have to be addressed if the development is to be construed as we have described.
Theological Studies, 2022
has served as a regulative idea in the Kantian sense (515) in guiding, for example, the recent sh... more has served as a regulative idea in the Kantian sense (515) in guiding, for example, the recent shift in focus from peacemaking to peacebuilding. In a chapter on anthropology, he considers empirical, philosophical, and theological perspectives on whether people are inherently peaceful and then enumerates a set of virtues supporting the human potential for peaceableness. Next, after assessing how the conception of just peace is related to that of just war, he explicates four “pillars” of a just peace ethic: preventing human rights violations and extreme poverty, promoting democracy and the rule of law, fostering economic cooperation and just global trade relations, and strengthening the international community and its institutions. His closing chapter discriminatingly applies the just peace framework to contemporary problems including humanitarian intervention, international terrorism, targeted killing, automated weapons systems, cyber conflict, and nuclear arms control. A drawback to...
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
Recent Catholic literature on the common good centers on the state’s creation of the social condi... more Recent Catholic literature on the common good centers on the state’s creation of the social condition for the flourishing of individuals. This view stands in contrast with a premodern conception of the common good as shared participation in the enterprise of the social whole, which appears incompatible with liberal pluralist societies. To get beyond this forced choice between individualism and imposed collectivism, Catholic social teaching can learn much from how social science’s richer description of the social whole depicts shared participatory structures of contention and competition as crucial for the achievement of the common good. Yet, following insights from both social science and the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, prudence must be developed to distinguish between structures of competition that do promote the common good and others that do not. The essay concludes with a revised definition of the common good that includes these insights.
Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 2019
Contemporary social discourse oscillates between norms against being judgmental and discourse fil... more Contemporary social discourse oscillates between norms against being judgmental and discourse filled with highly judgmental conflicts. The paper suggests the inability to understand the scope and limits of judgment in society requires Christian ethics to recover its own understanding of judgment, including of a final judgment as something other than a courtroom encounter over one’s individual sins. After exploring the centrality of God’s judgment in Scripture as an ongoing activity of social ordering for justice and mercy, I draw on several theologians to develop a different imagination for what final judgment means, rooted in conflicts of social identities, and then identify four key lessons for ethical discourse about social sins.
CTSA Proceedings, 2021
The modern Catholic social encyclical tradition is founded on “the worker question,” and yet much... more The modern Catholic social encyclical tradition is founded on “the worker question,” and yet much of Catholic moral thought over the past century has centered its attention either on questions in sexual and life ethics (constructed most often as “personal” questions) or on various forms of individual and social provisioning for the poor. I develop a theological anthropology of good work rooted in Vatican II’s core idea of the universal call to holiness, suggesting along the way that many of these other questions (both theoretically and practically) would be better approached through a social ethic focused on good work. A theological anthropology of work rooted in the vocation to holiness will necessarily engage not only natural ends, but also Christian eschatology, and such a connection will be developed in conversation with the “eschatologies” implied in modern approaches to economics. I conclude by engaging recent public policy proposals, some of which have been predicated on “the end of work” while others more promisingly have sought a reorientation of the economy in favor of work.
Studies in Christian Ethics, 2021
In his 2016 book, Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity, Alasdair MacIntyre spends considerable ti... more In his 2016 book, Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity, Alasdair MacIntyre spends considerable time
discussing how disputes between different moral theorists and different forms of practice might
be adjudicated. A crucial addition to the tradition-constituted historical narrative approach of
Whose Justice? Which Rationality? is his introduction of what he calls ‘sociological self-knowledge’.
The present article outlines what MacIntyre means by this and suggests that his approach here
dovetails well with Christian ethicists who have advocated the use of critical realist sociology
in Christian ethics. MacIntyre’s account stresses the importance of ‘a grasp of the nature of
the roles and relationships in which one is involved’, a grasp helpfully conceptualized by critical
realists. Daniel Finn also notes that the use of critical realism to analyze structures must be paired
with a basic typology, and MacIntyre’s sociological self-knowledge, I argue, rests on precisely such
a typology between two different types of moral practices. The article concludes by suggesting
much more attention be paid to these ‘moral-social’ analyses when addressing apparently
intractable disagreements in Christian social ethics.
Theological Studies, 2020
The widespread embrace of virtue ethics in Catholic morality has not overcome sharp disagreement ... more The widespread embrace of virtue ethics in Catholic morality has not overcome sharp disagreement on particular moral issues. The authors argue that more attention be paid to developing the account of what a virtue is ("virtue theory") in order to connect virtues with individual acts. Building on Thomas Aquinas, the authors suggest social cognitive theory provides key insights into the mechanics of agents "acting from character" and offers an empirical program that can further our understanding of moral disagreement. https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tsj Theological Studies F o r P e e r R e v i e w 1 Catholic Moral Theology and the Virtues: Integrating Psychology in Models Abstract The widespread embrace of virtue ethics in Catholic morality has not overcome sharp disagreement on
Uncorrected final draft of paper published in Journal of Society of Christian Ethics, 2019
Contemporary social discourse oscillates between norms against being judgmental and discourse fil... more Contemporary social discourse oscillates between norms against being judgmental and discourse filled with highly judgmental conflicts. The paper suggests the inability to understand the scope and limits of judgment in society requires Christian ethics to recover its own understanding of judgment, including of a final judgment as something other than a courtroom encounter over one's individual sins. After exploring the centrality of God's judgment in Scripture as an ongoing activity of social ordering for justice and mercy, I draw on several theologians to develop a different imagination for what final judgment means, rooted in conflicts of social identities, and then identify four key lessons for ethical discourse about social sins.
In the collection New Wine New Wineskins
An examination of the evolution of Catholic moral theology from guidance for confessors to guidan... more An examination of the evolution of Catholic moral theology from guidance for confessors to guidance for life, with a development of what key questions must be addressed to reason practically in today's social context.
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2019
One approach to well-being focuses not on feelings or circumstances but on virtue, or engaging in... more One approach to well-being focuses not on feelings or circumstances but on virtue, or engaging in the right action for the right reason in the right circumstances. Philosophers have experienced a surge of interest in virtue. In recent years, psychologists have followed suit. This paper briefly introduces virtue theory and recent work on virtue. Given the centrality of "right reason" for virtue, it is essential for virtue theorists to find a psychology that pays close attention to the reasons people have for taking action. We present social cognitive theory as one such psychology. We describe several specific research directions that social cog-nitive theory suggests for those interested in virtue as the best descriptor of well-being. What is well-being? Much well-being research focuses on subjective factors such as affect (Kahneman, Diener, & Schwarz, 1999) and life satisfaction (Diener, Inglehart, & Tay, 2012), or on experiences such as having satisfying relationships (Ryff, 1989). However, an alternative (and ancient) view suggests instead that well-being is defined by living an excellent, or virtuous, life (Annas, 1993). Psychologists have had minimal engagement with this virtue tradition. For instance, in one schema of approaches to measuring well-being, virtue is described as "the most awkward omission" (Haybron, 2016, p. 49). In this paper, we introduce work in both philosophy and psychology on virtue. Then we consider ways in which understanding virtue through the lens of social cognitive theory might be fruitful. The revived focus on virtue began with developments in philosophy. As opposed to approaches to philosophical ethics that emphasize rule-following or consequences as the basis of moral judgment, a virtue approach refocuses on the agent. Good actions are ones done by good agents, acting according to characteristic excellences which they develop and which enable them to function well. Aristotle famously observes that the possession of virtue involves acting with the right feelings, in the right circumstances, for the right reasons (Aristotle, 1962, p. 43)-it does not simply involve doing correct external acts. After refocusing on agents, contemporary philosophical reflection asks (1) what standards of evaluation are being used in determining "excellences" (usually called "virtue ethics") and (2) how can we further specify the "thing" or mechanism at which we are pointing when we say that these good actions
Journal of Moral Theology, 2014
Journal of Moral Theology, 2012
Communio: International Catholic Review, 2010
Understanding the different moral analyses of economic inequality
Introductory chapter from my monograph The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age (Geo... more Introductory chapter from my monograph The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age (Georgetown University Press, 2015)
THE VATICAN II MANDATE TO TRE AT TOPICS IN MORAL THEOLOGY IN AWAY that will "shed light on the lo... more THE VATICAN II MANDATE TO TRE AT TOPICS IN MORAL THEOLOGY IN AWAY that will "shed light on the loftiness of the calling of the faithful in Christ" points the way to an alternative approach, in which sexuality and the lofty calling to the Kingdom are not simply kept separate. Such an approach would be a genuinely eschatological narration of marriage and sexuality. In this essay I argue three points: First, as a background story, the characterization of the shift in the tradition on sexual issues from a "negative" to a "positive" view of sexuality is both inaccurate and theologically rather empty. Second, four writers (Pope John Paul II, Germain Grisez, Lisa Canili, and Herbert McCabe) all manifest this shift, but their construals of eschatology differ significantly—indicating that future debate about sexual ethics will have to take place among competing narrations of es-chatology rather than in terms of competing moral theories about how to justify certain norms. Finally, I gesture toward potential implications for sexual norms in light of eschatological approaches to marriage and sexuality.
Journal of Moral Theology 10 (2): 160–93, 2021
In this essay, we want to suggest that the debate in Catholic moral theology remains too shaped b... more In this essay, we want to suggest that the debate in Catholic moral theology remains too shaped by a dominant binary of law and conscience. This binary has a history, but one that is typically told primarily in terms of a 20th century change from a static and objective legalism to a more dynamic, historically-conscious, empowering individual agency. The first part of this essay hopes to show that a more extended history roots the binary in a construal of particular moral cases in terms of an authority-versus-authority conflict, in which there is no resolution except to declare juridically one or the other “side” as the ultimate authority. Instead, the casuistry of Amoris Laetitia should be understood by a different approach, suggested by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, which considers particular cases in terms of principles and prudence. Cardinal Schönborn’s suggestive remarks, however, require elaboration, explaining how a disciplined deployment of a principles-and-prudence framework can make better sense of “development” in Catholic moral teaching. We offer an analogy with the development of the Church’s teaching on usury to suggest how Amoris Laetitia’s casuistry might be understood: in terms of the prudential judgments involved in act descriptions. Such an approach can make sense of the discernment Francis recommends, without enshrining a “creative” view of conscience; however, this approach also leaves several questions and concerns that would have to be addressed if the development is to be construed as we have described.
Theological Studies, 2022
has served as a regulative idea in the Kantian sense (515) in guiding, for example, the recent sh... more has served as a regulative idea in the Kantian sense (515) in guiding, for example, the recent shift in focus from peacemaking to peacebuilding. In a chapter on anthropology, he considers empirical, philosophical, and theological perspectives on whether people are inherently peaceful and then enumerates a set of virtues supporting the human potential for peaceableness. Next, after assessing how the conception of just peace is related to that of just war, he explicates four “pillars” of a just peace ethic: preventing human rights violations and extreme poverty, promoting democracy and the rule of law, fostering economic cooperation and just global trade relations, and strengthening the international community and its institutions. His closing chapter discriminatingly applies the just peace framework to contemporary problems including humanitarian intervention, international terrorism, targeted killing, automated weapons systems, cyber conflict, and nuclear arms control. A drawback to...
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
Recent Catholic literature on the common good centers on the state’s creation of the social condi... more Recent Catholic literature on the common good centers on the state’s creation of the social condition for the flourishing of individuals. This view stands in contrast with a premodern conception of the common good as shared participation in the enterprise of the social whole, which appears incompatible with liberal pluralist societies. To get beyond this forced choice between individualism and imposed collectivism, Catholic social teaching can learn much from how social science’s richer description of the social whole depicts shared participatory structures of contention and competition as crucial for the achievement of the common good. Yet, following insights from both social science and the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, prudence must be developed to distinguish between structures of competition that do promote the common good and others that do not. The essay concludes with a revised definition of the common good that includes these insights.
Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 2019
Contemporary social discourse oscillates between norms against being judgmental and discourse fil... more Contemporary social discourse oscillates between norms against being judgmental and discourse filled with highly judgmental conflicts. The paper suggests the inability to understand the scope and limits of judgment in society requires Christian ethics to recover its own understanding of judgment, including of a final judgment as something other than a courtroom encounter over one’s individual sins. After exploring the centrality of God’s judgment in Scripture as an ongoing activity of social ordering for justice and mercy, I draw on several theologians to develop a different imagination for what final judgment means, rooted in conflicts of social identities, and then identify four key lessons for ethical discourse about social sins.
CTSA Proceedings, 2021
The modern Catholic social encyclical tradition is founded on “the worker question,” and yet much... more The modern Catholic social encyclical tradition is founded on “the worker question,” and yet much of Catholic moral thought over the past century has centered its attention either on questions in sexual and life ethics (constructed most often as “personal” questions) or on various forms of individual and social provisioning for the poor. I develop a theological anthropology of good work rooted in Vatican II’s core idea of the universal call to holiness, suggesting along the way that many of these other questions (both theoretically and practically) would be better approached through a social ethic focused on good work. A theological anthropology of work rooted in the vocation to holiness will necessarily engage not only natural ends, but also Christian eschatology, and such a connection will be developed in conversation with the “eschatologies” implied in modern approaches to economics. I conclude by engaging recent public policy proposals, some of which have been predicated on “the end of work” while others more promisingly have sought a reorientation of the economy in favor of work.
Studies in Christian Ethics, 2021
In his 2016 book, Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity, Alasdair MacIntyre spends considerable ti... more In his 2016 book, Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity, Alasdair MacIntyre spends considerable time
discussing how disputes between different moral theorists and different forms of practice might
be adjudicated. A crucial addition to the tradition-constituted historical narrative approach of
Whose Justice? Which Rationality? is his introduction of what he calls ‘sociological self-knowledge’.
The present article outlines what MacIntyre means by this and suggests that his approach here
dovetails well with Christian ethicists who have advocated the use of critical realist sociology
in Christian ethics. MacIntyre’s account stresses the importance of ‘a grasp of the nature of
the roles and relationships in which one is involved’, a grasp helpfully conceptualized by critical
realists. Daniel Finn also notes that the use of critical realism to analyze structures must be paired
with a basic typology, and MacIntyre’s sociological self-knowledge, I argue, rests on precisely such
a typology between two different types of moral practices. The article concludes by suggesting
much more attention be paid to these ‘moral-social’ analyses when addressing apparently
intractable disagreements in Christian social ethics.
Theological Studies, 2020
The widespread embrace of virtue ethics in Catholic morality has not overcome sharp disagreement ... more The widespread embrace of virtue ethics in Catholic morality has not overcome sharp disagreement on particular moral issues. The authors argue that more attention be paid to developing the account of what a virtue is ("virtue theory") in order to connect virtues with individual acts. Building on Thomas Aquinas, the authors suggest social cognitive theory provides key insights into the mechanics of agents "acting from character" and offers an empirical program that can further our understanding of moral disagreement. https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tsj Theological Studies F o r P e e r R e v i e w 1 Catholic Moral Theology and the Virtues: Integrating Psychology in Models Abstract The widespread embrace of virtue ethics in Catholic morality has not overcome sharp disagreement on
Uncorrected final draft of paper published in Journal of Society of Christian Ethics, 2019
Contemporary social discourse oscillates between norms against being judgmental and discourse fil... more Contemporary social discourse oscillates between norms against being judgmental and discourse filled with highly judgmental conflicts. The paper suggests the inability to understand the scope and limits of judgment in society requires Christian ethics to recover its own understanding of judgment, including of a final judgment as something other than a courtroom encounter over one's individual sins. After exploring the centrality of God's judgment in Scripture as an ongoing activity of social ordering for justice and mercy, I draw on several theologians to develop a different imagination for what final judgment means, rooted in conflicts of social identities, and then identify four key lessons for ethical discourse about social sins.
In the collection New Wine New Wineskins
An examination of the evolution of Catholic moral theology from guidance for confessors to guidan... more An examination of the evolution of Catholic moral theology from guidance for confessors to guidance for life, with a development of what key questions must be addressed to reason practically in today's social context.
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2019
One approach to well-being focuses not on feelings or circumstances but on virtue, or engaging in... more One approach to well-being focuses not on feelings or circumstances but on virtue, or engaging in the right action for the right reason in the right circumstances. Philosophers have experienced a surge of interest in virtue. In recent years, psychologists have followed suit. This paper briefly introduces virtue theory and recent work on virtue. Given the centrality of "right reason" for virtue, it is essential for virtue theorists to find a psychology that pays close attention to the reasons people have for taking action. We present social cognitive theory as one such psychology. We describe several specific research directions that social cog-nitive theory suggests for those interested in virtue as the best descriptor of well-being. What is well-being? Much well-being research focuses on subjective factors such as affect (Kahneman, Diener, & Schwarz, 1999) and life satisfaction (Diener, Inglehart, & Tay, 2012), or on experiences such as having satisfying relationships (Ryff, 1989). However, an alternative (and ancient) view suggests instead that well-being is defined by living an excellent, or virtuous, life (Annas, 1993). Psychologists have had minimal engagement with this virtue tradition. For instance, in one schema of approaches to measuring well-being, virtue is described as "the most awkward omission" (Haybron, 2016, p. 49). In this paper, we introduce work in both philosophy and psychology on virtue. Then we consider ways in which understanding virtue through the lens of social cognitive theory might be fruitful. The revived focus on virtue began with developments in philosophy. As opposed to approaches to philosophical ethics that emphasize rule-following or consequences as the basis of moral judgment, a virtue approach refocuses on the agent. Good actions are ones done by good agents, acting according to characteristic excellences which they develop and which enable them to function well. Aristotle famously observes that the possession of virtue involves acting with the right feelings, in the right circumstances, for the right reasons (Aristotle, 1962, p. 43)-it does not simply involve doing correct external acts. After refocusing on agents, contemporary philosophical reflection asks (1) what standards of evaluation are being used in determining "excellences" (usually called "virtue ethics") and (2) how can we further specify the "thing" or mechanism at which we are pointing when we say that these good actions
Journal of Moral Theology, 2014
Journal of Moral Theology, 2012
Communio: International Catholic Review, 2010
Understanding the different moral analyses of economic inequality
Introductory chapter from my monograph The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age (Geo... more Introductory chapter from my monograph The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age (Georgetown University Press, 2015)
THE VATICAN II MANDATE TO TRE AT TOPICS IN MORAL THEOLOGY IN AWAY that will "shed light on the lo... more THE VATICAN II MANDATE TO TRE AT TOPICS IN MORAL THEOLOGY IN AWAY that will "shed light on the loftiness of the calling of the faithful in Christ" points the way to an alternative approach, in which sexuality and the lofty calling to the Kingdom are not simply kept separate. Such an approach would be a genuinely eschatological narration of marriage and sexuality. In this essay I argue three points: First, as a background story, the characterization of the shift in the tradition on sexual issues from a "negative" to a "positive" view of sexuality is both inaccurate and theologically rather empty. Second, four writers (Pope John Paul II, Germain Grisez, Lisa Canili, and Herbert McCabe) all manifest this shift, but their construals of eschatology differ significantly—indicating that future debate about sexual ethics will have to take place among competing narrations of es-chatology rather than in terms of competing moral theories about how to justify certain norms. Finally, I gesture toward potential implications for sexual norms in light of eschatological approaches to marriage and sexuality.