Free and Faithful in Christ Vol I/Principles for a Catholic Morality
Longwood, Merle
Books: TWO VISIONS OF MORAL THEOLOGY Since Vatican II there has been a flood of articles delineating the renewal of Catholic moral theology, and an even greater number of articles and...
...Even a cursory examination of the amount of attention each author gives to natural law and the Bible will reveal the differences...
...This is best summarized in a concluding statement made after summarizing the discussions of James Gustafson and others on this question: "We have been articulating a vision which recognizes the interpenetration of the divine and the human in the lives we lead, and which reflects that interpenetration...
...From my perspective, the chapter on the fundamental option summarized some of the most interesting developments in moral theology that have occurred in recent years, and Haring discusses this concept by drawing upon philosophers and psychologists, in addition to classic and contemporary theologians...
...In this essay, O'Connell denies there is a distinctive Christian ethic in terms of its content or source...
...Haring's book, published twenty-five years after his landmark work, The Law of Christ, is the first volume of what will again be a three-volume presentation of the whole of Catholic moral theology...
...Merle Longweod themes of freedom and fidelity...
...Whereas Haring devotes only a small part of one chapter to a discussion of natural law, O'Connell devotes a whole section of his book—eight out of the twenty chapters—to a discussion of natural law morality...
...Consequently, these two substantial books in general moral theology fill a need for sustained, comprehensive, internally consistent works that express the current thinking being done in this discipline...
...A careful examination of the sources cited in the footnotes of this new volume shows significantly more authors from the English-speaking world than were evident in the earlier three-volume work, but the references to writers representing the Third World are still few...
...In terms of tone, Haring's book frequently verges on homiletical exhortation, whereas O'Connell's book is consistently precise, clear, and deliberative in its arguments...
...He frequently seems content to summarize the present state of the discussion in general terms, neither delineating the nuances or subtleties of the debate nor firmly adjudicating between them...
...He indicates that he is now more sensitive to the interests of the Third World, even though his experience has been predominantly in Europe and North America...
...Indeed .in the chapter immediately following his discussion of the Bible, O'Connell develops a theological justification for discussing Christian morality primarily in philosophical and phenomenological terms with relatively Jittle attention given to the content of the Christian faith, to say nothing about the Bible...
...The first four chapters elaborate general themes that are familiar from Haring's previous writings, beginning with a discussion of the biblical perspective, tracing this through the history of moral theology, and then delineating the FREE AMD FAITHFUL ill CHRIST: VOLUME 1: GENERAL MORAL THEOLOGY Bernard Haring Seabury Press, $17.50, 492 pp...
...On the basis of that vision we have tried to understand the principles of a morality which is human in its content and its source, but also a morality which is Christian in its essential meaning-conviction and its existential motivation...
...Moreover, Haring begins his book with an extensive treatment of the biblical perspective on morality and references to scripture permeate his work, while O'Connell confines his explicit discussion of biblical morality to a relatively brief chapter and scarcely refers to the Bible following that...
...The fifth and sixth chapters focus on "the fundamental option" and "conscience...
...The next two chapters describe a variety of issues related to normative ethics and sin, respectively, and the concluding synthesis tries to pull everything together...
...In Principles for a Catholic Morality, Timothy E. O'Connell covers a lot of the same ground as Haring, but the tone and emphases of O'Connell's work clearly distinguish it from Haring's...
...However, he does allow a specifically Christian ethic in relation to "meaning" and "motivation...
...This analysis is extended further in relation to the insights of Lawrence Kohlberg, Rollo May, and others in the following chapter on conscience...
...Haring's book is divided into eight chapters plus a concluding synthesis...
...PRINCIPLES FOR A CATHOLIC MORAL ITY Timothy E. O'Connell Seabury Press $11.95, 233 pp...
...Books: TWO VISIONS OF MORAL THEOLOGY Since Vatican II there has been a flood of articles delineating the renewal of Catholic moral theology, and an even greater number of articles and books focusing on particular moral issues, but there have been few books which have attempted to present systematically the basic principles of moral theology in the light of these recent developments...
...Haring suggests that his involvement with the Second Vatican Council, as well as the contact he has had with Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the United States, has made him aware that his previous writings were too narrowly European...
...February 1980: 59...
...For example, he concludes his discussion of the differences between deontological and teleological criteria for norms with the general suggestion that "as Christians, we should give our greatest attention to forming a harmonious synthesis of deontological and teleological reflections...
...A reader of this book by O'Connell will not be surprised to learn that one of the author's previous achievements was a study of Josef Fuchs's writings, for it seems to be from such a philosophical and phenomenological perspective that O'Connell has discerned the basic shape of contemporary moral theology...
...In writing/Vinrip/es/or a Catholic Morality, O'Connell's aim was to develop a popular textbook in fundamental moral theology, and in doing so from the perspective he did he has perhaps not broken as decisively as Haring has with the manualist tradition of moral theology, which provided the basis for most of the popular textbooks used in moral theology courses in Catholic colleges and seminaries before Vatican II...
...This argument, which is central to O'Connell's work, is further developed in one of the concluding essays of the book, focusing on "'Christian' Morality...
...Haring promises that this new com-, prehensive moral theology will not be an abridged or revised edition of the previous work nor a repudiation of it, but a further development of it in the light of the changes that have occurred in the past quarter of a century...
...The greatest disappointment in this book is the way Haring handles arguments in which there are significant issues at stake...
...In relation to those aspects, "Christian ethics is human ethics, no less and certainly no Commonweal: 58 more...
...Readers will disagree on the question of which of these two works most satisfactorily represents the current state of the development of the discipline, but college students, seminarians, pastors, and interested lay persons will profit by reading either or both...
Vol. 107 • February 1980 • No. 2
