SYMPOSIUM ON NATURAL LAW AND CONSCIENCE

Tina Beattie is the Director of the Digby Stuart Research Centre for Religion, Society and Human Flourishing at the University of Roehampton. Much of her research focuses on the relationship between the Catholic tradition and contemporary culture, particularly in areas to do with gender, sexuality and reproductive ethics; Catholic social teaching and women’s rights, and theology and the visual arts. She has a keen interest in Marian theology, art and devotion, and in the relationship between medieval mysticism, sacramental theology, and psychoanalytic theory. Her doctoral research was on the theology and symbolism of the Virgin Mary, drawing on the psycholinguistic theory of Luce Irigaray as a resource for the analysis of Christian writings on Mary and Eve in the early Church and in recent Catholic theology. Her thesis formed the basis of her book, God’s Mother, Eve’s Advocate(Continuum 2002), and these ideas are further developed in New Catholic Feminism: Theology and Theory’ (Routledge 2006). Her latest research monograph, Theology After Postmodernity: Divining the Void, was published by Oxford University Press in 2013. She is also the author of The New Atheists (Darton, Longman & Todd 2007; Orbis Books 2008), and she has contributed essays to many edited collections.

Tina is a contributor to The Tablet, The Guardian online. The Conversation, and several other publications. Television and radio appearances include BBC1, BBC2, Sky News and Al Jazeera, BBC Radios 1 and 2, BBC World Service, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and RTE (Ireland). She has given talks and lectures in many different countries including Australia, the United States, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Germany and Belgium.

Tina is a Director and Trustee of the Catholic weekly magazine The Tablet and a member of the Theological Advisory Group of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (Cafod). She is often asked to give lectures and run workshops for parishes, religious communities and interfaith groups.

Luca Badini Confalonieri is Director of the independent think-tank Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research. He studied theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the Université Marc Bloch (now Université de Strasbourg, France); the Department of Theology and Religion of Durham University in the UK; and the Lonergan Institute of Boston College (USA). His doctoral research: Democracy in the Christian Church. An Historical, Theological and Political Case has now been published as a monograph (T & T Clark International 2012; as Ecclesiological Investigations, vol. 16; 304 pages). It focuses on overcoming some of the obstacles to democratizing the governance and decision-making of the Catholic Church.
Among his other publications is a lengthy essay in Theological Studies which, building on Blessed Antonio Rosmini’s seminal proposal in his 1848 book The Five Wounds of the Church, offers one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date arguments for reintroducing episcopal elections by the local church.
He has also been involved in the Receptive Ecumenism initiative, at the heart of which is the principle that “further ecumenical progress will become possible if – and only if – rather than asking the typical question as to what ‘other’ traditions might need to learn from ‘us’, each tradition instead takes the first step of rigorously exploring what ‘it’ needs to learn and can learn (or ‘receive’) with integrity from others”.

Jan Jans is Associate Professor of Ethics at the Tilburg Faculty of Theology in the Netherlands. His main areas of interest within fundamental moral theology are images of God, personalism and ethical methodology, including feminism and intercultural ethics. A focus of ongoing research aims at exploring the concept of ‘neighbour’ as an hermeneutical key with regard to a characteristic Christian moral identity.

Professor Jan Jans’ recent publications include: “What’s the fuss? The difficulties of religion(s) with sexuality”, in: Trefoil (The Southern African Catholic Quartely), n. 271 (2007/1) 33-34; 57-58; “Just a Piece of Cloth? The European debate on ‘the Islamic headscarf’ as a case study and paradigm for an emergent intercultural ethics”, in: The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 28.1 (2008) 25-43; “Until the end willed by God? Moral theology and the debate on ‘euthanasia’,” in: Studies in Christian Ethics, 24 (2011) 477-486; “Typisch und Eigenartig. Krankenhäuser auf der Suche nach ihrer christlich-katholische Identität”, in: Konrad Hilpert (Hrsg.),Theologische Ethik im Pluralismus, Fribourg i. Ue.: Academic Press Fribourg / Freiburg I. Br.: Herder, 2012, 285-290.
Jan Jans is an active member of the European Association for Catholic Theology (2005-2007: editor-in-chief of the journal Bulletin ET), the Internationale Vereinigung für Moraltheologie und Sozialethik, the Societas Ethica (board member since 2011), the Association of Teachers of Moral Theology [UK] and the Society of Christian Ethics[USA] (board member 2007-2011), the Catholic Theological Association of America, and vice-president of INSeCT (2008-2011).

Dr. Salzman has a PhD in Theology from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He completed his dissertation in 1994, taught at the University of San Diego from 1995-1997. He is currently associate professor and chair of the department of theology at Creighton University, USA. He has published six books and over 50 scholarly articles. Among its most relevant for present purposes are The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology, (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2008), Sexual Ethics: A Theological Introduction (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2012), and Catholic Ethical Method for the 21st Century (in progress). All three have been co-authored with Prof. Michael G. Lawler.

10.00 – Coffee and registration
10.20 – Welcome – Tina Beattie, DSRC, and Luca Badini, Wijngaards Institute
10.30 – 11.00 – Todd Salzman – Natural Law, Perspectivism and Conscience: Plural Definitions of Human Dignity
11.00 – 11.30 – Tina Beattie – Earthly Delights and Mortal Fears: A reflection on natural law, original sin and human dignity, with reference to debates about contraception and same-sex marriage
11.30 – 12.15 – Questions and discussions
12.15 – 1.00 – Lunch
1.00 – 2.00 – Workshops and groups
2.00 to 2.30 – Luca Badini – Discerning the Natural Law as a Community: The Role of Experts in the Decision-Making of the Church
2.30 – 3.00 Jan Jans – Responsible Freedom ~ Human Dignity ~ Freedom of Conscience
3.00 – 3.45 – Questions and discussions
3.45 – 4.15 – Tea