Social work and the search for meaning under conditions of modernity
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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/103336Identifiers
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- Číslo 2 [15]
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2018Publisher
Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakultaSource document
Fórum sociální práce (web)ISSN: 2336-6664
Periodical publication year: 2018
Periodical Volume: 2018
Periodical Issue: 2
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/Keywords (English)
Social work, meaning, modernitySocial work is a clear product of modernity although it builds on values and helping traditions of
pre-modern times. Therefore, its practice reflects and needs to confront many of the ambiguities that
characterize processes of solidarity and ‘helping’ under conditions of modernity. Both the progress of
secularization and the widespread re-emergence of religious affiliations bear witness to this ambiguity
and require differentiated responses that neither pay naïve homage to rationality nor advocate an
authoritarian ‘return to traditional values’. It is proposed that a critical acknowledgement of the importance
of dimensions of human finality, derived from, for instance, the theological thought of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, can provide a basis for a sensitive, value-oriented form of social work practice that
acknowledges the fundamental openness and vulnerability of the human condition without condoning
suffering fatalistically.