Dialogue and Christian ethics: commending virtue in a pluralist society

This thesis examines the challenges to Christian ethics posed by the model of round table dialogue.It opens with a case-study description of the round table approach and then surveys some contemporary works in the field of ethics in the light of Alasdair Maclntyre's critique of modern moral discourse. This review leads to a proposal indicating how the round table dialogue may be a suitable model by which Christian ethicists may engage with a range of other moral perspectives.The next three chapters explore different aspects of work which may usefully contribute to an understanding of the method and function of dialogue for ethical discourse. These aspects include general and specifically Christian reflection on dialogue, the Harvard Negotiation Project and work from those engaged in inter-faith dialogue. Consideration is then given to contributions by the philosophers Gadamer and Habermas on the extent to which absolutes operate within thought and conversation. Thirdly, there is a discussion of how a dialogical approach could affect the methods of Christian ethics.There are then reviews of two important and contrasting areas of contemporary ethical confusion: euthanasia and pornography, each discussed over two chapters. These four chapters develop and attempt to apply what has been learnt from the previous section.Finally, there is an assessment of the extent to which the round table model of dialogue may be used by Christian ethicists and an identification of those aspects of the model which need consolidation or further developmen