User:JulieC1971/Elmar Nass

Elmar Nass (* July 5, 1966 in Kempen on the Lower Rhine) is a German Roman Catholic priest, theologian and social and economic ethicist. He holds the chair of Christian Social Sciences and Social Dialogue at the Cologne University of Catholic Theology (KHKT).

He is the author of Christian Social Ethics, Rowman & Littlefield 2022, among other publications in English and German.

Life
After training as a bank clerk, Nass studied Catholic theology, philosophy and social sciences at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn, the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the University of Trier. From 1990 to 1995 he studied in Rome as an alumnus of the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum and was ordained priest there in 1994. He graduated from Rome with his licentiate in social sciences (Lic. soc.) in 1995. Nass was chaplain in Viersen-Süchteln until late 1999. In addition to completing his theological degree in Trier (Dipl. theol.), he initiated a political-religious youth ministry there. Nass subsequently received his doctorate first in Christian Social Sciences (Dr. theol.) from the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Trier (2002), then in Social Policy and Social Economics (Dr. rer. soc.) from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Ruhr University in Bochum (2006). In addition to his pastoral parish work in the Linden district of Bochum, he was a research assistant and lecturer at the chair of Jörg Althammer as well as a lecturer at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

After a teaching position at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Cologne (2006), he was a lecturer at the Chair of Christian Social Teaching and Pastoral Sociology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Bonn from 2007 to 2012. Teaching positions at the Faculty of Philosophy at RWTH Aachen University followed from 2012 to 2021. He was Professor of Economic and Social Ethics at the private Wilhelm Löhe University of Applied Sciences in Fürth from 2013 to 2020, where he directed the Wilhelm Löhe Ethics Institute (WLE) from 2015 to 2020. In 2014 he received his doctorate at the Faculty of Philosopy at RWTH Aachen and received his teaching qualification (venia legendi) for the subject of Christian economic and social ethics. On January 1, 2021, he was appointed Chair of Christian Social Sciences and Social Dialogue at the Cologne University of Catholic Theology (KHKT). He has also served as vice rector of KHKT since June 29, 2021.

From 2006 to 2013, Nass was the episcopal commissioner for the continuing education of pastoral personnel in the Aachen diocese and has been the cathedral vicar at Aachen Cathedral since 2007. In 2014, he was made a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem by Cardinal Grand Master Edwin Frederick Cardinal O’Brien and invested on May 10, 2014, in Aachen Cathedral by Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Grand Prior of the German Stadtholder.

Elmar Nass’s main area of teaching and research is social ethics with a focus on economic ethics. He also conducts research on the relevance and communication capabilities of the Church in general and Christian social ethics in particular in contemporary society. His research areas include issues of social justice, the social market economy, ethics of order and leadership, as well as digitalization and technology ethics.

In the tradition of Joseph Höffner and Oswald von Nell-Breuning, he argues for a form of social ethics based on natural law, for which he also provides an ecumenical profile in the spirit of normative humanism. With his thesis of objectively justifiable human dignity and the rights and responsibilities that can be inferred from this dignity, he builds bridges from Thomasian tradition to neo-Aristotelian approaches to justice (Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum) and to a Kantian ethics of reason. His aim is to use this coalition, which also transcends ideological boundaries, to counteract the relativization of human dignity. He shares Pope Benedict XVI’s approach to an emphasis on virtue ethics in the context of social ethics. Nass also drew attention to ethical positions on the monetary crisis, emphasizing subsidiarity over solidarity.[1]

In his practical writings, Nass draws a line from liturgical performance to diaconal action and personal witness of faith. The focus is on the plausibility of Christian faith and action, as well as virtues of courage and hope oriented toward them. He has stated that vital Church reform must discover and foster core groups of faith that radiate outward. [1] Was hat katholische Sozialethik zur Euro(pa)-Krise zu sagen? In: M. Pulte / M. Klekamp (Ed.): Werte entfalten-Gesellschaft gestalten, Paderborn 2013: 145-162 (reprinted in: A. Schüller / E. Nass / J. Höffner: Wirtschaft, Währung, Werte, Paderborn 2014: 71-97), ISBN 978-3-506-77868-0 ; Targetsalden – die vergessene geldpolitische Gefahr. In: Eine währungsethische Provokation. Wirtschaft und Ethik 24-2 (2013): 6-7; Solidarität und Subsidiarität in der Europäischen Währungsunion aus Sicht katholischer Sozialethik. In: Die Politische Meinung 509 (2012): 49-54.

Memberships and roles (excerpt)

 * Collaboration as external scientific expert of the expert commission on prosperity for the basic program of the CDU Germany (headed by Jens Spahn MdB)


 * Academic Freedom Network, https://www.netzwerk-wissenschaftsfreiheit.de/
 * CDA Germany - CDU Social Committees (scientific advisor)
 * Joseph Höffner Society, Cologne (board member since 2012, deputy chairman since 2021)
 * Gesellschaft zur Förderung von Wirtschaftswissenschaften und Ethik (Society for the Advancement of Economics and Ethics) (board member since 2015)
 * Johannes Messner Society, Vienna (scientific advisory board)
 * Catholic Social Institute (KSI), Siegburg (member of the board of trustees)
 * Ex fide Lux - German-Romanian Institute for Theology, Science, Culture and Dialogue e.V. (scientific advisor)
 * bku DG Aachen (spiritual advisor)
 * Ordo socialis (scientific advisory board)
 * Die Wiege e.V. Krefeld, Palliative Network (scientific advisor)
 * Research project “Prevention of Violence in Bavarian Inpatient Care” by AGP Social Research with the Hans Weinberger Academy and Munich University of Applied Sciences (advisory board)
 * Co-initiator of the Working Group on Ethics and the Social Market Economy (ESMA), until 2019 in the Action Group for the Social Market Economy (ASM)
 * Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem: Commander Caritas Pirckheimer Nuremberg
 * KDStV Marchia (Wrocław) Aachen in CV
 * LIONS International: LC Cologne-Lindenthal

Writings (excerpt)

 * Der humangerechte Sozialstaat (Untersuchungen zur Ordnungstheorie und Ordnungspolitik, Band 51), Mohr Siebeckm 2006, ISBN 978-3-16-149118-4.
 * Mit Alfred Schüller, Joseph Kardinal Höffner: Wirtschaft, Währung, Werte. Die Euro(pa)krise im Lichte der Katholischen Soziallehre, Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-77868-0
 * Handbuch Führungsethik: Teil I: Systematik und maßgebliche Denkrichtungen (Dynamisch Leben gestalten / Innovative Unternehmensführung in der Sozial- und Gesundheitswirtschaft, Band 7), Kohlhammer 2017, ISBN 3-17-032204-4
 * Utopia Christiana – Vom Kirche- und Christsein heute, LIT Verlag 2018, ISBN 978-3-643-14221-4
 * Christliche Sozialethik: Orientierung, die Menschen (wieder) gewinnt (Ethik – Grundlagen und Handlungsfelder, Band 13), Kohlhammer 2020, ISBN 978-3-17-037056-2.
 * Christian Social Ethics, Rowman & Littlefield 2022, ISBN 978-1538165263 (Erscheint im November 2022)
 * Christian Social Ethics, Rowman & Littlefield 2022, ISBN 978-1538165263 (Erscheint im November 2022)

Activities as reviewer and expert

 * Frontiers in Psychology (Positive Psychology): Review Editor
 * Zeitschrift für Ethik und Moralphilosophie
 * Journal of Business Ethics
 * Management Research Review
 * Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik
 * Journal for Markets and Ethics
 * Zeitschrift für Lebensrecht
 * Forum Katholische Theologie
 * Habilitation, doctoral and external appointment procedures

Discussion

 * Christian Hecker: Christliche Sozialethik. Orientierung, die Menschen (wieder) gewinnt, beim Deutsches Netzwerk Wirtschaftsethik

Weblinks

 * Literature on and about Elmar Nass in the catalogue of the German National Library
 * Search for “Elmar Nass” In: German Digital Library
 * Literature on and about Elmar Nass in the catalogue of the German Digital Library
 * Elmar Nass website
 * Cologne University of Catholic Theology (KHKT)

Author links

 * Elmar Nass: Christian Social Ethics
 * Elmar Nass: Handbuch Führungsethik. Vol 1: Systematik und maßgebliche Denkrichtungen. 2018 Stuttgart.
 * C. Müller/ E. Nass/ J.H. Zabel (Ed.): Naturrecht und Moral in pluralistischer Gesellschaft, Paderborn 2017.
 * E. Nass/ W. H. Spindler/ J. H. Zabel (Ed.): Kultur des Gemeinwohls. Festschrift für Wolfgang Ockenfels, Trier 2017.
 * Elmar Nass: Die Kirche und das Euro(pa)dilemma. FAZ August 16, 2012. Online at faz.net.

Individual references
