Catholic Theological Ethics

Ancient Questions, Contemporary Responses

By (author) Todd A. Salzman, Michael G. Lawler

Not available to order

Publication date:

23 November 2015

Length of book:

298 pages

Publisher

UPA

ISBN-13: 9780761866886

This book has two objectives, one explicit and one implicit. The explicit objective is to explore the normative implications for both general and sexual ethics of the methodological and anthropological developments in Catholic tradition. The implicit objective is to stimulate dialogue in the Church about ethics, particularly sexual ethics, a dialogue that must necessarily include all in the communion-Church, laity, theologians, and hierarchy. Since we believe that genuine and respectful dialogue about sexual morality is sorely needed to clarify Christian truth today, we intend this book to be part of that genuine dialogue.
One could rightly question why Catholic Theological Ethics would be dealing with ‘Ancient Questions’. One would think that the church would have answered these questions a long time ago. That perspective, however, ignores the simple fact that we live in a changing world. When the Second Vatican Council called for an up-date, aggiornamento, of what and how the church teaches, most people thought it was talking about content, about moral rules. But the real issues that needed to be tackled were how one thinks about ethical issues. Lawler and Salzman are among the few Catholic ethicists who have taken on the challenge of rethinking ethical method and applying their findings to concrete questions, especially in sexual ethics. Their work is ground-breaking and deserves our full attention.