John R Berkman

• Ph.D. Duke University
• Professor (Full) at University of Toronto

From early writings of our oldest religious traditions through recent controversies surrounding the Hobby Lobby case and the ever-divisive question of abortion, questions of reproduction raise some of the most difficult and fascinating issues in bioethics. Much has been written on broader bioethical perspectives on reproductive issues, but it is eq...

It has been argued that Elizabeth Anscombe's writings on killing and just war in the 1950s and early 1960s were highly influential, not only on just war theorists (such as Michael Walzer and Thomas Nagel), but also on the recovery of just war thinking among the US and British military. In researching the sources for Anscombe's thought, it became cl...

Elizabeth Anscombe was one of the most important and original philosophers of the twentieth century, as well as being a friend, a student, and the main translator of Ludwig Wittgenstein. She wrote on a wide range of philosophical topics, publishing a handful of books and a large corpus of articles in her lifetime. This collection of twenty-two essa...

Drawing in part on new biographical discoveries about Anscombe, this chapter argues that Anscombe’s work in moral philosophy was driven by her concern to recover the absolute moral prohibition on murder, and the virtue of justice as the appropriate basis for it. Oxford moral philosophy made the mistake of giving priority to abstract moral theorisin...

This chapter has a simple thesis: Anscombe's work in moral philosophy, as represented by 'Modern Moral Philosophy' (MMP) and other publications up through the mid- 196os, as well as her work on action-descriptions and the philosophy of mind, were driven by her concern to recover the absolute moral prohibition on murder, and the virtue of justice as...

This essay examines the Dominican influences on the Catholic philosopher G.E.M. Anscombe while an undergraduate at Oxford University between 1937–1941. It focuses on three Thomists who formally instructed Anscombe and how one Dominican, Victor White, likely instructed her on a radically Catholic perspective regarding the morality of warfare, which...

Drawing especially on Aquinas and Pope Francis, the paper argues that Christians are indeed called to love non‐human animals. Human love (amor) for non‐human animals follows from the Trinitarian example of divine love (amor), and includes affection, dilection, benevolence, and thus charity as friendship. Love for and fraternity with non‐human anima...

This essay examines St. Thomas Aquinas’s views on different types of impairment. Aquinas situates physical and moral impairments in a teleological account of the human species, and these impairments are made relative in light of our ultimate flourishing in God. For Aquinas, moral and spiritual impairments are of primary significance. Drawing on Phi...

Can ethicists learn from evolutionary anthropologists? Yes, but unfortunately we should not expect it to happen frequently. Why? First, because it appears that many ethicists are temperamentally unwilling to look to evolutionary theorists for insight. Second, and more significant for my argument, only some ethicists can learn from evolutionary anth...

Stanley Hauerwas is one of the most widely read and oft-cited theologians writing today. A prolific lecturer and author, he has been at the forefront of key developments in contemporary theology, ranging from narrative theology to the “recovery of virtue.” Yet despite his prominence and the esteem reserved for his thought, his work has never before...

In this response to Gerald McKenny's "Evolution, Biotechnology, and the Normative Significance of Created Order," John Berkman and Michael Buttrey suggest that McKenny has not adequately substantiated his claim that O'Donovan's account of "created order" provides no objection in principle to genetically "enhancing" children. Berkman and Buttrey fra...

In this volume twenty-three major scholars comment on and critically evaluate In Search of a Universal Ethic, the 2009 document written by the International Theological Commission (ITC) of the Catholic Church. That historic document represents an official Church contribution both to a more adequate understanding of a universal ethic and to Catholic...

There has been an almost complete marginalizaton of consideration of non-animals animals in Catholic theology generally and Catholic moral theology more specifically up until very recently. But something remarkable has happened in just the past few years. No longer excluding animals from view, there is a veritable flowering of interest in non-human...

Holocaust Education Week in the City of Toronto. Prof. Pawlikowski has been an outstanding figure in Catholic Social Ethics over the last 40 years in terms of teaching the field about the significance of the Holocaust for Catholic Social Ethics. Unfortunately, as this brief response argues, it has seemingly had little influence on the discipline of...

What -- if anything -- qualifies as a "just war"? Hear Michael Enright's "Sunday School" Class on his Sunday Edition Radio Show on CBC Radio. Michael's teacher is John Berkman, a professor of moral theology at Regis College at the University of Toronto.

Although almost completely ignored, Aquinas’s account of persons with severe intellectual disabilities is key to his understanding of human persons and their salvation. Aquinas extensively addresses questions of human impairment, and for Aquinas physical and mental impairment are not nearly as important as moral or spiritual impairment. Contrary to...

We are all opposed—at least ostensibly—to mindless animal cruelty. Almost no one defended Michael Vick and his cohorts when they tortured and killed dogs for their dog fighting ring. Imagine Michael Vick had been selling a product—say dog-skin handbags from the “losing” dogs—that financially supported and enabled the continued torture of more dogs....

This essay focuses on the reconciliatory facet of the Eucharist, highlighting its transformative and restorative character. In so doing, it seeks to show how the Eucharist can shape our perception and practices with regard to penitence and retributive justice, two controversial aspects of reconciliation. The essay proceeds in three sections. The fi...

This feature article by Stacey Gibson in the University of Toronto Magazine on factory farming in Canada interviews various University of Toronto professors, including John Berkman, Stephen Scharper, and Wayne Sumner.

These short remarks are a belated expression of thanks for the gift in my life that was Poteat. When Poteat died, I was spending time at a Trappist monastery, and never got word until after the funeral. I greatly regretted not being there. While I had the opportunity to tell Poteat during his lifetime how much he meant to me and the wonderful gift...

The Abolitionist's questions are theologically based as John Berkman shows par excellence how the Catholic tradition has really been a victim of poor scholarship with regard to its views of the other of God's creatures, the animals.

At present, there is to our knowledge no Catholic institution engaged in overseeing the practice of embryo adoption (EA), nor any institution that currently oversees the practice explicitly claiming to do so in accord with Catholic ethical and religious principles. On the one hand, this is understandable, since the Catholic Church has yet to rule o...

Despite the expansive literature detailing various arguments for or against the use of MANH in caring for the dying and debilitated, the thesis of this paper is that a large part, if not the main thrust, of the debates over MANH have been inadequate and misguided on a number of different levels. The paper hopes to reorient and redirect the debate b...

In recent debates among moral theologians over the practice of adopting embryos, a largely overlooked category for analyzing this practice is the larger practice of parenthood. In approaching the issue of embryo adoption, the majority of moralists have tended to focus either on the marital relationship or the embryo as a human individual in dire ne...

The parents and husband of Terri Schiavo said they were trying to do the most compassionate thing for the brain-damaged woman, but both sides were operating under misguided concepts of mercy, said a theologian who specializes in applying Christian ethics to medical and health practice. It is natural to want to respond to another person's suffering...

Historically, most if not all Catholics have abstained from eating animal flesh as an expression of their faith. Although most have abstained only for certain periods of time, others have abstained permanently. While Catholics have abstained for a variety of reasons, this essay focuses on distinctively theological reasons Catholics, especially in t...

Despite the expansive literature detailing various arguments for or against the use of MANH in caring for the dying and debilitated, the thesis of this paper is that a large part, if not the main thrust, of the debates over MANH have been inadequate and misguided on a number of different levels. The paper hopes to reorient and redirect the debate b...

This essay focuses on the reconciliatory facet of the Eucharist, highlighting its transformative and restorative character. In so doing, it seeks to show how the Eucharist can shape our perception and practices with regard to penitence and retributive justice, two controversial aspects of reconciliation. The essay proceeds in three sections. The fi...

One reason why the question of gestating abandoned embryos has produced such debate is that moral theologians do not agree as to how the choice of a woman to gestate an abandoned cryopreserved embryo is most adequately described. Moralists have been divided, alternatively using descriptions such as “surrogacy,” “adoption,” and “rescue.” What makes...

In 2001, on behalf of two Christian couples, a Christian adoption agency in the United States arranged an open embryo adoption. In addition to ethically analyzing this specific case, this paper situates the case politically and medically and distinguishes a number of general moral considerations relevant for reflection on this case. The paper concl...

In the light of the moral principles and fundamental goods articulated by Donum vitae, one may conclude that under some circumstances it is appropriate and even morally praiseworthy for women to allow themselves to be impregnated with abandoned frozen embryos, gestating and raising them as their children. Under appropriate circumstances, such a dec...

Stanley Hauerwas is one of the most widely read and oft-cited theologians writing today. A prolific lecturer and author, he has been at the forefront of key developments in contemporary theology, ranging from narrative theology to the “recovery of virtue.” Yet despite his prominence and the esteem reserved for his thought, his work has never before...

In this paper, I wish to look at John Ryan's considerable interest in questions of birth regulation. My thesis is twofold: first, that Ryan's views on the regulation of family size were integrally connected with his economic and political thought. Second, the right to enter the married state and the number of children one has is a not merely an iss...

This essay argues that the early responses to Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life) failed to attend to two central themes at the heart of the encyclical. First, Evangelium vitae (EV) has a distinctive methodological approach to moral theology (like its predecessor Veritatis splendor); that is, the very form and structure of the encyclical constitu...

If it is part of the tragedy of the fall that we do violence to other creatures, that we kill other animals for food, clothing, sport, for testing medicines, shave creams and eye shadows, then our killing of other animals, must, in some way, be seen as a part of a “culture of death.” Why should we hesitate to kill other animals? First and foremost,...

One's conception of the conditions and applicability of the principle of double effect derive from one's broader convictions about moral methodology. Developed in a Catholic context which presumed the existence of moral absolutes, the principle of double effect was originally a conceptual tool to aid priests in being skilled confessors. In recent d...

After responding to several misreadings of Milbank's project in Theology and Social Theory - e.g., that it dispenses with "truth" or "reality", is sectarian, reads a social theory off the bible, is ecclesially absolutist - the authors highlight several strands of Milbank's argument to stress the resolutely theological character of this work. In Mil...

Early in February, I was privileged to participate in a gathering of forty-five predominantly Catholic philosophers and theologians who met to discuss John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor. Most of the discussion at the conference focused on the second of the encyclical’s three chapters, which deals with “some trends of theological thinking...

In light of the scriptural witness that humans and other animals share in the ultimate end, which is God's peaceable kingdom, we thus believe that each and every creature is created to manifest God's glory. Animals will not manifest God's glory insofar as their lives are measured in terms of human interests, but only insofar as their lives serve Go...

Those of us who object to animal experimentation must never argue against vivisection simply on the grounds that it has not been shown that there are sufficiently useful benefits. For once those who are concerned for animals argue in this way, they concede that vivisection is automatically acceptable if the benefits are show to be great enough.

In light of the scriptural witness that humans and other animals share in the ultimate end, which is God's peaceable kingdom, we thus believe that each and every creature is created to manifest God's glory. Animals will not manifest God's glory insofar as their lives are measured in terms of human interests, but only insofar as their lives serve Go...