Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2023.
Degree Name
Doctor of Sacred Theology (STD)
Director
Julie Hanlon Rubio
Abstract
This dissertation explores the Church’s ability to effectively communicate Catholic Social Teaching (CST) principles to its followers in Vietnam. Using virtue ethics as a guide, I argue that the social vocation of the Christian family can become a potential channel for applying the principles of CST to the daily life of believers. The dissertation employs the See–Judge–Act method to assess and discern the current reality and proposes some family practices. Discerning the negative and positive signs of time through the lens of historical, sociological, and political studies, I propose that one way the Church enables its believers to engage more efficiently in its social mission is through the context of the formation of virtues within the family.
One can see from observing family dynamics in Vietnam that cultivating virtues is a crucial part of their culture. However, the virtues valued and promoted in Vietnam are gendered-based and politically bounded. Indeed, some of them are virtues of burden because they harm the possessor’s agency and prevent them from flourishing. Moreover, the language of virtues has been utilized to promote and justify a political agenda. I address the impasse of the Vietnamese virtue framework by proposing a foundation based on Christian virtue ethics to underscore the attainment of happiness as the final telos. While Christian ethics realizes the significance of the inter-relationality among individuals of virtue ethics, it avoids elevating this relationality to the extent that it ignores the individuality of each person as in the Vietnamese context. From this standpoint, my dissertation claims that social virtues are qualities that make a person a good person in the community and contribute to the good of the community and to the good for which humans are designed.
The dissertation proposes specific practices situated within the framework of a meal whereby family members can both acquire and practice virtues, thereby equipping themselves to serve the broader world. It demonstrates that adopting wholesome eating practices can contribute to the ethical growth of family members, preparing them to serve the world by embracing the principles of justice, mercy, and charity. It emphasizes how those who practice virtues like justice, charity, and mercy during family meals can exemplify the social values of the Gospel, which are woven into the fabric of the CST tradition.
Recommended Citation
Nguyen, Trieu M., "Family as a School of Social Virtues and the Mission of Social Transformation of the Catholic Church in Vietnam" (2023). Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations. 123.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/jst_dissertations/123