Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association

Volume 77, 2003

Philosophy and Intercultural Understanding

Human Rights, Human Wrongs, and the Problem of Multicultural Understanding

As a human rights activist and lawyer who believes in the mutuality of theology and legal philosophy, the author argues that Catholic philosophy can catalyse the process of global reconciliation. This is because the Church has the ability to recognise the double burden faced by Christians around the world (especially in Asia) who are struggling to disassociate themselves from an “alien” and “western” mantle, while still trying to live and preach the Christian doctrine and find common ground with other religions and cultures. Catholic philosophy, therefore, must engage itself and others meaningfully at an inter-religious, interdisciplinary, and multi-cultural level. We now live at a time in Church history when the gap in education between the clergy and the laity has been dramatically narrowed; as a result, it is imperative—especially now—to allow competing voices within the Church to be heard so that a healthy tension might arise and thrive. This will help to increase the transparency of discourse within the Catholic community itself, while also providing adaptive tools for dialogue with other, non-Catholic communities.