Correspondence

...When the "revisionist center" of American Catholic feminist theology publicly distinguishes itself from the deconstruction of the Christian classics that is so typical of Mary Daly, rather than praising her in the terms I cited, then I shall think that something indeed important has happened...

...ROBERT JACKALL...

...However," I go on to say, "this book treats ethics and morality sociologically, that is, as empirical, objective realities to be investigated...

...The relevant passage goes from pp...

...Finally, on the matter of Mary Daly: Why is it "guilt by association" to note that a seminar of the Catholic Theological Society of America praised Daly-"that crone, hag, witch, spinster, fury, amazon who dared to challenge the character of the CTSA," as the CTSA Proceedings put it-as a "significant voice from the periphery that cannot be ignored by the revisionist center without peril...

...Well, we can always hope...

...145-156, which contain a detailed appraisal of the social roots of managers' sense of psychological be-leaguerment...

...128-133...

...First, the "mean-spirited injustice" toward Dorothy Day which Professor McCann finds in my earlier book, Tran-quillitas Ordinis, was not evident to Robert Gilliam, whose review in The Catholic Worker (December 1987) stated that my "section on Dorothy Day is mostly right and genuinely respectful...

...Therefore, in using the terms morality and ethics, I do not refer to any specific or given, much less absolute, system of norms and underlying beliefs...

...162-190, where I analyze the world of public relations...

...In all charity, I doubt that McCann's standards of justice and respect in evaluating Dorothy Day's manifold contributions to American Catholicism are more stringent than those at the Worker...

...GEORGE WEIGEL The morals of managers Williamstown, Mass...

...It has nothing to do with "whistle-blowing" but is, in fact, about the importance of silence as the price of social acceptance, even when this means not informing workers about their inhalation of carcinogenic dust...

...In short, the book examines managers' actual moral rules-, in-use in their occupational situations and tries to discern the social contexts and institutional logic that frame those rules...

...Readers might also compare Toffler's attempt at a clever ending to her review with pp...

...Toffler's review from this standpoint, Commonweal readers may wish to consult pp...

...Toffler suggests that "the story" ends on page 130, whereas the story is really two stories about the same manager, a fact clearly stated on page 128...

...Moral choices become inextricably bound to personal fates...

...Toffler's review with the relevant passages of the book...

...As a rule, men and women who live/or business recognize in the book the difficult world they live in...

...This means that (Continued on page 479) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 450) one can only grasp managers' moral rules-in-use by also examining their rules for success within their organizations...

...To the Editors: In the spirit of Dennis McCann's call to temperate dialogue in American Catholicism (a call which he seems curiously loath to heed in his review of my Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy [May 19]), may I make four comments on McCann's evaluation of my work...

...To the Editors: I write in response to Barbara Ley Toffler's review [May 5] of my recent book Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers...

...As it happens, my years of fieldwork in the corporate world led me to the conclusion that large hierarchical organizations create an ethos that encourages the men and women in them to bracket whatever moralities they might hold outside the workplace and to "look up and look around" for moral cues for behavior at work...

...Take, for instance, her report of a "whistle-blowing incident" which, she says, I use for "one more piece of corporation bashing...

...But on the assumption that he regards Avery Dulles, S.J., as a reasonable and serious thinker, I shall simply note that Dulles described the book as "thoroughly researched, cogently reasoned, lucidly organized, and temperately expressed," and hoped that it might "change the state of the question...

...I state the book's approach succinctly early on...

...I am not interested in "heresy trials," pace Professor McCann...

...This assertion completely falsifies the book...

...Commonweal readers can assess this possibility for themselves by comparing parts of Ms...

...137-144, where I discuss the habits of mind of management consultants, and pp...

...As I point out in the book's last chapter, the managers' lot is to make choices that will inevitably make other people unhappy...

...The book provides a realistic look at managers' work as they themselves experience it...

...I invite Commonweal readers to decide the matter for themselves...

...Finally, readers might note the internal contradiction in the review where Toffler misreports the book's main approach and then cites the book correctly to bolster her attack...

...I note that in popular usage "the notions of morality and ethics have a decidedly prescriptive, indeed moralistic, flavor...

...Third, in Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy, I do not criticize the fact of criticism of John Paul II, but precisely the "mean-spirited injustice" which has too often marked that criticism...

...Perhaps, when he stops hyperventilating about my alleged affinities with the rhetorical style of Newt Gingrich, Professor McCann and I can sit down and argue matters of substance in a way that John Courtney Murray would approve: over a Beefeater martini, "desperately dry...

...But in a world that has seen the collapse of overarching systems of moral meaning, managers often find their own choices subject to scrutiny from moral entrepreneurs of every sort, including their own children at the breakfast table...

...In assessing Ms...

...But carelessness may not satisfactorily explain the stridency of the review...

...Perhaps she is simply a careless reader, the kind of person who reads snippets of a book but does not, or cannot, follow an argument...

...Toffler seems unable to get things in context...

...I am interested in a debate over the pope's distinctive theological perspective that does not caricature John Paul II as a Polish commissar bent on rolling back Vatican II...

...Those who live off business seem to find the book especially unsettling, since it is they who invent and propagate the jaunty euphemisms and lulling platitudes that mark most discussions of American business...

...Toffler asserts that I am captive to an ideology that argues "that morality demands an unswerving, preemptive adherence to traditional moral values and beliefs" and that I measure managers' occupational morality against such an absolute standard...

...Toffler get things so wrong...

...Moreover, I imply no judgment about the actions I describe from some fixed, absolute ethical or moral stance, as the terms are often used in popular discourse, sometimes even by corporate managers themselves...

...I have appreciated McCann's contributions to Catholic social thought, just as I appreciate his kind words about my "occasionally brilliant" forays into certain aspects of public theology...

...How could Ms...

...Second, I'm not sure what Professor McCann is talking about when he opines that Tranquillitas Ordinis is "all but disqualified]...from serious consideration...