Annotation
The course is a critical examination of our everyday lives within social institutions in light of hermeneutic philosophy, Christian social theology and ethically reflected practice.We will explore various contexts and levels of our ´being with, within, for or against institutions´ (familial, economic, civic, administrative, technological or political), their typical moral dilemmas and different ways to cope with them in a Christian perspective. What are institutions and what is their philosophical, ethical and spiritual meaning in our everyday lives? Are they just
´external frameworks´ which make our life-plans more diffucult or do they have something to do with these plans?
What is their relation to our ´informal world´ of consumption, fun, friendship or cooperation? When and why do they make us free or alienated? What makes institutional routines just and unjust? What makes democratic institutions special and what have they in common with institutional life in general? And is there any specific Christian approach to institutions in the present-day globalized and fragmented culture? Why is the church an institution and is it just this? Can institutional life be a calling and in what sense?
These introductory philosophical reflections will be re-interpreted (step by step) in the context of systematic introduction into Catholic Social Teaching (Doctrine), its theological background, essential principles, values and argumentative viewpoints applied at different levels of social life (family, work, economics, civil society, politics, international relations, natural environment, peace seeking).