THEOLOGICAL ETHICS OUT OF THE UNITED STATES
Keywords:
UNITED STATES, ETHICS, THEOLOGICALAbstract
In my previous essay, “Theological Ethics out of Latin America,
Africa, and Asia,”1 I examined how, in many ways the three
“southern” continents – Latin America, Africa, and Asia – have
developed a contextual ethics specific to their continents. In this essay
I turn to describe developments from my own country, the United
States.
Because of its geographical proximity and more importantly its deep
historical (and often oppressive) involvement in Latin America,
United States’ citizens were deeply affected by the irruption of
liberation theology onto the theological scene. Soon, central premises
from liberation theology became incorporated by North American theologians into the overall theological foundations of Catholic
theological ethics, especially the notions of social sin,3 and the option
for the poor.
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