Doing Justice in Theory and Practice (DT9341Y)

Postgraduate, 24.0 points

Content

What is justice? Who has the authority to decide on what is just among competing interpretations? These questions have received numerous answers, from Plato through to the Catholic Social Teaching tradition and the variety of national legal justice systems. This unit will seek to make sense of these matters in conjunction with themes of retributive and restorative justice, local and global justice, and individual rights and social justice. Crucial engagements will take place with theological themes of grace, hospitality, mercy, and sacrifice.

Unit code: DT9341Y

Unit status: Approved (New unit)

Points: 24.0

Unit level: Postgraduate Elective

Unit discipline: Moral Theology

Delivery Mode: Blended

Proposing College: Yarra Theological Union

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Learning outcomes

1.

Evaluate major strands within political philosophy, political theology, moral theology, and the Catholic Social Teaching tradition
2.

Demonstrate critical distinctions between various approaches to justice
3.

Critically analyse the shifts in theorising about justice and the practice of justice
4.

Critically appraise the theological and philosophical implications of the various theoretical and practical approaches to justice
5.

Demonstrate the capacity to research a specific topic in a critically rigorous, sustained and self-directed manner.

Unit sequence

24 credit points in AP / CT / DT

Pedagogy

Multi-modal blended asynchronous and synchronous lectures and tutorials

Indicative Bibliography

  • Compendium on the Social Teaching of the Church. Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004.
  • Gerard Bradley and E. Christian Brugger (eds.). Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume of Scholarly Essays. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
  • Charles Curran. Catholic Social Teaching. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2002.
  • Jenny Daggers and Kim Grace Ji-Sun (eds.). Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
  • Jacques Derrida, Politics of Friendship. trans. George Collins. London & New York: Verso, 1997.
  • Nancy Fraser. Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
  • Alasdair MacIntyre. Whose Justice, Which Rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988.
  • Michael D. Palmer and Stanley M. Burgess (eds.). The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Social Justice. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
  • Michael J. Sandel. Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)

Variant 1

Essay 2800 35.0
Essay 5200 65.0

Variant 2

Essay 800 10.0
Essay 7200 90.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Prof Albert Haddad on 20 Jun, 2022

Unit record last updated: 2022-06-20 15:27:28 +1000