Towards a Critical Political Ethics

In her book Hille Haker pleads for a radical course correction of Catholic social ethics by focusing on three foundational concepts of social ethics: human rights, human dignity and moral responsibility based on the interplay of compassion, solidarity and justice. The author argues for a historically and politically mediated ethics that replaces the natural law ethics. The theoretical reflections of the book are carried out by the practical social-ethical studies: The politicization of individual human rights is examined in the contexts of migration, religious freedom, and criminal justice. Human dignity is spelled out as 'vulnerable agency' allowing for a sharp criticism of Catholic sexual morality and neglect of women's human rights.The book ends with a discussion of the relationship of political theology and political ethics and its social-ethical implications for the further development of a Critical Political Ethics.

Hille Haker holds the Richard McCormick Endowed Chair for Theological Ethics at Loyola University Chicago and was formerly professor in Frankfurt and at Harvard University. Her research interests lie in fundamental questions of ethics, literature and ethics, bioethics and social ethics.