Curran has written a lucid, enlightening, and engaging text introducing readers to the ongoing development of modern US moral theology by tracking a dozen distinctive voices influencing the discipline since the middle of the twentieth century. In a volume seeking to familiarize us with the range of methods and approaches employed by those shaping modern US moral theology, foster dialogue between entrenched camps of conservative and progressive moral theologians, and illustrate the critical import of a thinker's Sitz im Leben in the development of their thought, Curran introduces readers to the broad and unfolding tapestry of a discipline moving far beyond its long confinement in the manualist tradition and invites us to recognize the fundamental importance of method, dialogue, and context.
Underlying Curran's historical and irenic study of twelve diverse voices shaping modern US moral theology are the twin assumptions that history and context matter in this discipline and that we can better practice the craft of moral theology if we grasp both the range and limits of various methods of resolving moral problems. These assumptions are consistent with both the move by most modern moral theologians beyond an ahistorical classicism and a simultaneous shift from a reliance upon magisterial authority as the primary grounds for decision making.
In this volume Curran reviews the context, method, and contribution of John Ford; Bernard Haring; Josef Fuchs; Richard A. McCormick; Germaine G. Grisez; Romanus Cesario; Margaret A. Farley; Lisa Sowle Cahill; Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz; Brian Massingale; the New Wine, New Wineskins movement; and James F. Keenan. These voices have been chosen because they represent a dozen distinctive approaches found within the discipline over the past seventy years, and perhaps also because a sequential review of their work allows readers to see how differing methods were developed, employed, and critiqued in the discussions and debates that have taken place within the field.
Curran's historical approach offers a short, sympathetic, and practical course in, among other things, the fundamentals and limits of the manualist tradition; the development and critiques of proportionalism; various understandings and applications of casuistry; the role of virtue ethics; the contributions and insights of feminist, mujerista, and antiracist ethics; as well as the importance of international and irenic dialogue within the discipline itself.
Additionally, this historical review not only illustrates the unraveling of the manualist tradition in the turn to modernity, the critique of Vatican II, and the contraception controversy, but also traces the shifts brought about in both the content and methods of US moral theology as three distinctive generations of ethicists respond first to Humane Vitae, then to broader issues in medical and sexual ethics, and later still to social questions about war, sexism, racism, and globalization. Curran reminds readers how moral theology's move from the seminary to the university radically altered the identity, conversational partners, and audiences of practitioners of the discipline and exponentially expanded the range of topics addressed and disciplinary resources employed. In the present moment, no single theologian could hope to master the scope of topics or the breadth of scholarly resources required to address this burgeoning field. Nor could any one voice speak for the range of perspectives required for a full and vibrant discussion of any significant question.
Still, as Curran's historical tapestry of a dozen distinctive voices shows, the limits of each separate contributor are not a weakness in a more communal understanding of the ongoing and unfinished labors of moral theology. Instead, it is clear that their contributions to a larger intergenerational, interdisciplinary, and international conversation are both an accomplishment and an invitation to others to take up this expanding work.
Decades ago in a classroom at the Gregorian in Rome, this reviewer watched as Josef Fuchs (one of Curran's voices) traced the development of Catholic sexual ethics from Augustine to Humane Vitae on a blackboard. With two feet left on the board, Fuchs drew a dotted line and a question mark, indicating the work was unfinished. Curran's review reminds readers of the importance both of knowing whence we have come in this discipline and of taking up the invitation to move on.
