Essential for theologians, Curran book also accessible to non-academics
Fr. Charles Curran is, without question, one of the most important Catholic moral theologians of the present era.
“The Development of Moral Theology: Five Strands” by Charles E. Curran. Georgetown University Press (Washington, 2013). 306 pp., $29.95.
There is simply no doing or attending to Catholic moral theology today without taking his work into account. “The Development of Moral Theology,” the latest of his many books, is essential reading for other theologians, to be sure, but it is also quite accessible to any educated reader who wants to gain a complete, balanced understanding of the history of Catholic moral theology.
Now 80, Fr. Curran is the Elizabeth Scurlock professor of human values at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In the 1980s, the Vatican ruled he no longer had permission to teach as a Catholic theologian, because of his dissenting positions on church teaching about sexual morality.
In his book, Fr. Curran organizes his discussion in five historical “strands” — “Sin, Reconciliation, and the Manuals of Moral Theology”; “Thomas Aquinas and the Thomistic Tradition;” “Natural Law”; “Papal Teaching Office”; “Second Vatican Council”; and a conclusion in which he responds concisely to the question, “Where Do We Stand Today?” Fr. Curran discusses “how moral theology today stands with regard to each of these strands and their influence on the contemporary scene.”
A detailed index makes it easy to locate everything the book says about specific topics, e.g. contraception, dissent or “papal teaching: assent of faith and.”
Topics of a moral theological nature are central to a good many Catholic debates and discussions today, and any reader who would be well informed on any of them is well advised to read this book from cover to cover. A few concise quotations may encourage you to do so:
- “At Vatican II we moved from classicism to historical consciousness. … Classicism sees reality in terms of the static, the unchanging and the eternal. Historical consciousness sees reality in terms of historical change and puts more emphasis on the particular individual, whereas classicism stresses the abstract and the universal.”
- “There is no doubt that the popes in the first millennium did not play a primary teaching role in the church with regard to what was later called ‘faith and morals.’”
- “In the Catholic tradition the understanding of sin is intrinsically connected with the sacrament of penance, but the theory and practice of the sacrament of penance has changed dramatically in the course of history.”
Fr. Curran does a great service by explaining how sin and reconciliation are understood in Scripture, in the early church, by various church councils, and by the manuals of moral theology that ruled the moral theology roost from the 16th-century Council of Trent until just prior to and after the Second Vatican Council. “In light of the biblical understanding of sin, forgiveness, and conversion,” Fr. Curran writes, “the teaching of the manuals was shockingly different and insufficient.”
Many readers may be especially intrigued by Fr. Curran’s discussion of dissent from noninfallible magisterial teachings. “There is no doubt that the majority of moral theologians publishing scholarly books and articles have accepted the legitimacy of such dissent in some circumstances,” Fr. Curran comments.
In 1986, Fr. Curran was removed from his position at The Catholic University of America in Washington over his stance that Catholics have a right to dissent from church teachings that fall into the category of noninfallible, such as church teaching against artificial methods of contraception.
“The Development of Moral Theology” is clearly written and thorough without ever slipping into heavy, academic, technical theological language. If you’re feeling a little uninformed about Catholic moral theology today, this book is the remedy.
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Finley is the author of more than 30 books for Catholic readers, including “It’s Not the Same Without You: Coming Home to the Catholic Church” (Wipf and Stock).
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