Prozessontologische Transformationsethik

Abstract

The discrepancy between our knowledge about anthropogenic climate change and the reactions to it form an irrefutable challenge for ethical reflection. The focus of ethical questions thus shifts from justification to implementation. The search for proper levers starts at those obstacles which block an effective understanding of pertinent processes in human-nature relationships. What comes into view is the underlying layer of predominant ontological notions regarding our world and the place of humans within. If nature is conceived as an essentially immutable, controllable and endless storehouse, the way to ecosocial transformation remains blocked. This marks the double aspect a process ontological ethics of transformation seeks to tackle: in order to thematize adequately the transformations of environment and society, the conceptual form of ethical reflection is itself transformed from static notions to process thinking. Ultimately, the importance of the new in Christian faith and the structural dimension of ecological conversion open up a transformation ethical refocussing of Christian Social Ethics.