The Paradox of Self-Sacrifice: An Analysis of the Cultural and Religious Understanding of Christian Sacrifice in Vietnamese Society and Its Implications for the Apostolic Mission of The Lovers of the Holy Cross (LHC) to Women Empowerment

The dissertation develops a fundamentally moral framework on the virtue of self-sacrifice. By utilising a historical-descriptive approach to Vietnamese culture, and critical analysis discourse on Christian ethics of agapé and eros, the research would draw a proper understanding of self-sacrifice beyond feminist critiques and its ambiguity. To do so, it first describes the characteristics of the Vietnamese women, which elucidates the improper understanding of self-sacrifice from a cultural viewpoint. Pertinent to that concern, it explores the possibility of constructing the conditions for healthy/genuine self-sacrifice after discussing a complex picture of self-sacrifice on the scale of agapé and eros. Next, the study sketches a notion of women between self-sacrifice and empowerment from Stein’s teaching on the intrinsic value of women to the pursuit of a transformed society. If the claim is correct, it can be adequate to make it involved in the religious mission to endorse a possible way in the process of uplifting women’s life.