R. Burggraeve – författare

The many numbers of divorces and remarriages today seem to place in question the concept of marriage as being «till death do us apart». How should we evaluate this development? Are the foundations of society being shaken to their core or does perhaps the great number of people remarrying indicate precisely that «conjugality» continues to be a fixed element in the human lifecycle? Scientific insights and loyality to the Christian tradition bring this multi-disciplinary theological reflection to a double movement: on the one hand, a re-appreciation of Christian marriage in terms of its evangelical roots, on the other a theological and pastoral dialogue with the several current forms that conjugality assumes upon a marriage's failure. We furthermore give special attention to the position of the children. From a faith perspective, marriage continues to be a pre-eminent path of salvation as a community of life and basis for family. La fréquence actuelle des divorces et des remariages remet en question la vision d'un «mariage pour toujours». Comment apprécier cette évolution? Faut-il dire qu'est ainsi atteint le fondement même de la vie commune? Ou bien le grand nombre de remariage confirme-t-il que la «conjugalité» reste une composante ferme de l'existence humaine? Les recherches scientifiques et la loyauté envers la tradition chrétienne orientent la réflexion théologique multidisciplinaire dans une double direction. D'une part, une redéfinition du mariage chrétien à partir de ses racines évangéliques. D'autre part, un dialogue théologique et pastoral avec les multiples formes actuelles de conjugalité, succédant à un échec du mariage. Dans ce contexte, nous accordons une particulière attention à la situation des enfants. Pour le chrétien, le mariage reste une exceptionnelle voie de salut, si du moins il est conçu comme une communauté de vie et le fondement de la famille.

The subject of this book is pastoral counseling as a particular form of pastoral care in the Christian context. Central in the reflection stays the counseling process as dialogue and ethical event, inspirend by thinkers as Levinas, Buber, Honneth, Bakhtin, Vygotsky, Nagy, and others. The first part provides building blocks for an interdisciplinary reflection on different forms and fields of counseling as a qualitative event of conversation. The views on the event of dialogue are illustrated on the basis of different forms and fields of conversation that come from both the pastoral as well as the therapeutic and guidance setting. Contributors to the first part are: Sheila McNamee, Lisbeth Lipari, Marie-Cécile Bertau, Peter Rober, Vangie Bergum, Darcia Narvaez. The second part focuses on the pastoral counselling as ‘event of conversation’ whereby our ‘dialogical human condition’ takes shape in its own manner. Two seemingly contradictory characteristics are linked with each other, namely asymmetry and reciprocity, or better reciprocity in a context of ethical asymmetry, with special attention for the different aspects of responsibility, recognition, power, and visible or hidden forms of violence. The different contributors (Marina Riemslagh, Carrie Doehring, Annelies van Heijst, Axel Liégeois, Annemie Dillen, Roger Burggraeve) indicate stepstones for a pastoral relationship without tyranny. Kenneth and Mary Gergen offer a critical postscriptum on the ‘missing voices’ to make possible a ‘fully relational ethic’ in (pastoral) care-giving and counselling.

Levinas is a thinker for the future, concerned with the future. He inverts the priority of the declaration of the French Revolution "Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood", by designating "brotherhood" first among modern European society's most cherished values. Levinas sees brotherhood as the fundamental condition of our shared humanity and as the foundation of freedom and equality. Thus, he presents himself as a Western thinker who sets modern thought on its head and at the same time enriches it. His radical view of the other, responsibility, subjectivity and the Infinite remains a challenge, today more than ever. Calling out to both religious and secular seekers alike, Levinas asks for an alert and critical dialogue of the ethical and metaphysical meaning of our inter-human and social relationships. In this work, a new generation of philosophers, ethicists and theologians embark on a conversation with Levians, with due appreciation for his genius and uninhibitedness in their questioning. The intermediaries in this provocative dialogue are: Hannah Arendt, Henri Bergson, Anders Nygren, Paul Ricoeur and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The following themes are thus treated: - ethics as liberation and redemption beyond the self - time, duration and alterity - freedom, society and politics - desire between eros and agape - 'good enough' parenting and family ethics - conversational processes and pastoral counselling - asymmetry and reciprocity between the self and the other - modern humanism vs. post-modern anti-humanism as an inspiration for a renewed secular humanism - suffering, death and euthanasia - perspectives and boundaries of interreligious dialogue - the (im)possibility of a Christian interpretation of Levinas' Jewish-inspired thought - a new Christian theology of Trinitarian praxis. This volume likewise includes contributions by: Roger Burggraeve, W. Wolf Diedrich, Annemie Dillen, Thomas Folens, Glen Morrison, Marianne Moyaert, Marina Riemslagh, Anya Topolski, Emilie Van Daele, Jean Vanheessen, Sophie Veulemans and Torben Wolfs. In this book Levinas is presented as an 'extra-ordinary' other who awakes into vigilance the conscience of not only the contributors, but the readers as well: one speaks and the other responds differently.