1 - On diversity

Summary

To enter the area in which feminism and Christian ethics interact is to enter a territory characterised by broad and deep diversity, a diversity which is challenging and creative to those who may take hold of the opportunity it presents. Careful observers of contemporary culture will have become aware of the very great number of belief systems and moral frameworks which are used by different groups and by individuals in making moral decisions and in settling major political and social issues. The contemporary world has been described as pluralistic, suggesting that there are a variety of frameworks available for justifiable and reasonable commitment, to which people are intensely attached, and which provide for them the essential foundation and rationale for the practice of their personal and social lives. The presence of these alternatives has been discussed and analysed by numerous moral philosophers and Christian ethicists, who have attempted in various ways both to understand the nature of the differences and to recommend a reasonable way through the alternatives for moral agents. This book shares in that task by engaging in an analysis of the interactions of feminism and Christian ethics, interactions which are themselves indicative of the complexity of current moral thinking.