Preface New Beginnings 1. Moral Pathology and The Manualists 2. The Inbreaking of History: Odon Lottin's Initiatives and His Legacy 3. The Scriptures and Love: Tillman and Gilleman Either/or 4. Moving toward two tracks: Pius Xii, Bernard Haring and Reaction 5. ultimate authorities? Conscience and the Magisterium: Fuchs, Paul VI, and John Ford: 6. European Revisionism (universities) and American Proportionalism debate: Hoose Both and 7. Feminism and Natural Law 8. Justice and virtue 9. Inculturation and Liberation New vision, new competence 10. Epilogue: Working Locally, dialoging Globally
This is an historical survey of 20th Century Roman Catholic Theological Ethics (also known as moral theology). The thesis is that only through historical investigation can we really understand how the most conservative and negative field in Catholic theology at the beginning of the 20th could become by the end of the 20th century the most innovative one.
James F. Keenan, S.J., is professor of theological ethics at Boston College. He was principal editor of Catholic Ethicists on HIV/AIDS Prevention and is the author of numerous books, including The Works of Mercy: The Heart of Catholicism, Moral Wisdom: Lessons and Texts from the Catholic Tradition, Virtues for Ordinary Christians, Commandments of Compassion, Goodness and Rightness in Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, and (with Daniel Harrington) Jesus and Virtue Ethics annd Paul and Virtue Ethics.
Mention in Rassegna Bibliografica Internazionale, 2010.
"Remolding material from a doctoral seminar he taught for 15 years,
Keenan introduces students to the intellectual history of
20th-century Catholic moral theology and to the people who
developed and debated it. He limits his study to such fundamentals
as conscience, sin, love, virtue, and authority, and omits ethical
concerns relating to society, sex, medicine, corporations, and the
like. His topics are the moral manualists, Odon Lottin initiating
reform, Fritz Tillmann and Gerard Gilleman retrieving scripture and
charity, Berhard Haring's synthesis, the neo-manualists, for
foundations for moral reasoning 1970-89, new foundations for a
theological anthropology 1980-2000, and toward a global discourse
on suffering and solidarity. A brief afterword reviews the
encyclicals of Benedict XVI." - Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.
'Whichever camp you are in this book will provide much food for
thought. It touches on many of the burning moral issues that have
captivated and divided Catholics over the past several decades and
it ends with some optimistic words about the future.' Catholic
Herald, 2nd July 2010
"Keenan...writes with the deftness, enthusiasm, and thoroughness
one would expect from one of today's most prolific figures in the
field....Highly recommended." - Choice
Reviewed in Church Times 17 September (UK) ‘This is precisely what
it says on the cover: a very thorough and very detailed account of
the various developments in moral theology over the last
century'
‘Keenan's historical presentation is invaluable...helping the
reader to enter the conversation and come to a balanced appraisal
of the different ways of doing moral theology.'
*Theological Book Reviews*
‘James F. Keenan has crafted an insightful narrative reflecting the
contributions of multiple theologians associated with moral
theology during the past century.'
*The Catholic Historical Review*
James Keenan, SJ, offers a historical argument about the shape and
scope of moral theology and captures with great clarity the
shifting enterprise of moral theology in the last century, rightly
claiming that moral theology is not a static discipline but the
on-going search for truth, which proceeds differently in different
times and places.
*Journal of Religion*
Keenan's conservative critics may not like the fact that the focus
of moral theology has shifted from diagnosing "moral pathologies"
to formation of conscience, but Keenan amply shows that it has.
What's more, Keenan gives reason to think that his shift has been
good: moral theology is no much more, well, theological that it was
when the moral manuals, intended for confessors and parish priests,
dominated the discipline.
*Commonweal*
This may be the only work in history of moral theology that
presents the contributions from Asia, Africa and Latin America and
integrate them into the history of moral theology. . . .
Theologians and students of theology have to read this book to get
an idea of the developments in contemporary moral theology as well
as in other theological disciplines.
*Asian Horizons*
'A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century is a
remarkable achievement. The more I delved into the book the more I
was impressed with Keenan's command of the issues and the
literature across the globe. He seems to have omitted no one who
has had a hand in shaping the development of moral theology, and he
masterfully summarizes their core contributions. Footnotes are in
abundance and identify significant works in many languages. This is
the book for anyone interested in what has happened in moral
theology and in who's who among its contributors. It is essential
reading for graduate students of moral theology, since much of the
history narrated here and the theologicans who have shaped it
remain unknown territory to many of today's students.' -Richard M.
Gula, S.S, April 5, 2010
*America: The National Catholic Weekly*
Keenan’s text captures the incredible dynamism that marked the
history of Roman Catholic moral theology in the twentieth century.
It is a gripping text, for at particular junctures, Keenan
amplifies uncomfortable and unsettling arguments in the twentieth
century that have arisen from moral theology’s fundamental search
for truth. In his own uncovering of yet another part of the moral
theology tradition in this book, Keenan proffers hope to the
discipline of moral theology, and keeps the conversation alive.
*International Journal of Public Theology*
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