Divine Promise and Human Freedom in Contemporary Catholic Thought

Contributions by Montague Brown, Sara Butler, Roger Duncan, Robert P. George, John S. Grabowski, Daniel C. Hauser, Joseph T. Lienhard, John M. McDermott, Kevin A. McMahon, David Meconi, Earl Muller, Richard A. Nicholas, Lawrence J. Welch Edited by Kevin A. McMahon

Publication date:

01 July 2015

Length of book:

310 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498500357

It has always been understood that the central claim of Christianity—that Jesus born of Mary is the Son of God—is as much a declaration of the mystery of the human as it is the mystery of God; just as the claim that in virtue of this identity he is the Christ who restores, and more, transforms, the created order, intensifies the mystery of the human even further. When the age of revolution was followed by the age of science, and the effort to shape the environment by technology was joined by an injunction to shape societies and economies, and class conflicts became part of world conflicts, the question about the human emerged as a crisis in the meaning of being human. Yet the Catholic mind, preoccupied like every other with the crisis, has conducted its reflection within a tradition of Christian humanism, insisting on the mystery and the tragedy, and still the dignity, of the human. This collection of essays by thirteen Catholic scholars of philosophy, theology, and political thought investigates a range of topics from human sexuality and marriage to moral freedom and responsibility in a pluralistic society, while demonstrating that the Gospel, passed on in an ecclesial tradition, entered into through a sacramental tradition, remains the one radical source of confidence in the quest for human truth.

Introduction
Chapter 1: “Faith of Our Fathers”: The Fathers of the Church and Vatican II, Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.
Chapter 2: Augustine and Dionysius the Areopagite: Two Christian Responses to Theurgy, David Vincent Meconi, S.J.
Chapter 3: Is the Natural-Supernatural Distinction Still Adequate?: The Problem of Freedom and Grace in Augustine, Anselm, and Beyond, John M. McDermott, S.J.
Chapter 4: Christocentrism in the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, Earl Muller, S.J.
Chapter 5: Covenantal Sexuality, John S. Grabowski
Chapter 6: Faith and the Revival of Metaphysics: A Survey from the Ancients to the Present, Montague Brown
Chapter 7: Covenant and Cosmos: New Directions, Roger Duncan
Chapter 8: The Reception of Rahner’s Trinitarian Axiom and the Covenantal Theology of Donald Keefe, Lawrence J. Welch
Chapter 9: Women’s Ordination and A Sola Fide Ecclesiology: Tracing a Problem to its Reformation Roots, Sara Butler, M.S.B.T.
Chapter 10: Mary and the Attribute of Unity in Theology, Richard A. Nicholas
Chapter 11: On the Idea of a Eucharistic Morality, Kevin A. McMahon
Chapter 12: The Sacramental Foundation for Catholic Morality, Daniel C. Hauser
Chapter 13: Religious Liberty and the Human Good, Robert P. George

This volume, covering as it does such a variety of core topics, is a welcome reminder of the many themes and insights that Donald Keefe, S.J., has given us in his writings and lectures. The contributors have touched on and expanded a number of his main ideas. Father Keefe is a careful and thorough scholar with a vast breadth of reading, original reflection, and subject matter to support his wide-ranging insights; and he proves, once again, the central importance to academy, culture, and Church of a clear mind devoted throughout his life to the truth.