43

By taking into account contemporary references to the Good Samaritan, this article considers the possible contributions of theology to contemporary ethics, conceived as existential experience. Reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan indeed encourages a secular reflection. Thus, in the ethics of care, the parable is analyzed as an example of an ethics of sollicitude (Brugère) emphasizing on the human relation, by promoting the wisdom of emotions, which renews the ethics of virtue, and by giving voice to something other than the morality of duty. The parable also allows us to re-examine the relationship between the universal and the particular, by taking into account the suffering of people near and far (Boltanski). It also addresses extreme situations: is one’s neighbour like oneself, when the wounded ‘no longer has a human face’? The parable of the Good Samaritan also offers potential for conceiving of common humanity that remains in spite of a disquieting strangeness. The practical wisdom arising from this parable can enrich moral theology and theological anthropology by bringing together the complexity and vulnerability of human experience.