Moral Theology in an Age of Renewal: A Study of the Catholic Tradition Since Vatican II.

Kaczor, Christopher

Moral Theology in an Age of Renewal: A Study of the Catholic Tradition Since Vatican II

Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor, C.S.Sp.

Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003 (412 pages)

This book provides an overview of the major themes, questions, and scholars in Catholic moral theology over the past forty years. Beginning with an overview of the Second Vatican Council's treatment of moral theology and ending with an account of John Paul II's teaching in Veritatis splendor and Evangelium vitae, Odozor offers a systematic presentation of virtually all the major debates of recent history.

Odozor notes that the Second Vatican Council contributed to changes in moral theology, not so much by teaching anything explicitly new but by calling for a renewal of the discipline, especially by emphasizing in its very composition a "personalist" orientation.

The author treats the debate over contraception--condemned in affirmation of Catholic tradition by Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae--at length as a sort of lightning rod for a series of other debates. Not without reason does this topic come up repeatedly throughout the book. Both before and, especially, after Humanae Vitae, moral theologians focused on this issue as they did no other.

Other topics, not entirely unrelated to contraception, also occupied moral theologians. New approaches in biblical studies as well as Karl Rahner's concept of "anonymous Christians" were brought into debates about the specificity of Christian ethics. What, if anything, makes Catholic moral theology different from moral philosophy? Should a Christian, because of the teachings of Jesus, arrive at different conclusions than secular colleagues about practical issues such as artificial reproduction, cloning, or waging war? Does revelation make a difference for ethics? Does the competence of the magisterium extend to making ethical judgments about concrete behavior such as contraception?

Odozor also focuses on the theologians (and philosophers) who debated about moral norms in the postconciliar period. Proportionalism held that an act is judged as right or wrong on the basis of the proportion of nonmoral good and evil of the act. Thus, contraception, intentionally killing the innocent, and other acts long held to be intrinsically evil in the Catholic tradition could be justified on this view. There would be, therefore, no exceptionless norms. Although advocated by many theologians, this theory was criticized by many other theologians, philosophers, and eventually by John Paul II in Veritatis splendor. Turning away from debates about norms and intrinsically evil acts, Christian ethicists have more recently focused on virtues and a revival of casuistry.

At the end of the book, Odozor argues that, although there is pluralism in postconciliar ethics, there are also shared benchmarks and commonalities that serve to distinguish Catholic moral theology from other approaches to ethics. These elements of fundamental agreement include the centrality of God, a compatibility of faith and reason in morality, a person-centered approach, a pastoral orientation, and a tradition-based discourse that takes its orientation from Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Second Vatican Council. He concludes with a summary of John Paul II's Veritatis splendor and Evangelium vitae and an account of the documents' reception by the theological academy. Odozor notes rightly that: "It would be safe to say that Veritatis splendor might not have been issued if the pope had been satisfied with the fundamental emphasis of moral theology following Vatican II" (305). The pope holds up martyrdom as the ideal, in contrast to an accommodation to secular culture.

Summarizing the major trends in any discipline over the past forty some years is a difficult task, but moral theology presents particular challenges due to the multiplicity of languages and approaches. However, Odozor's treatment of these issues achieves the lofty goal of covering the major debates in a judicious, balanced way. He treats the most significant theologians and their most important contributions in an accessible style that gives the reader the "lay of the land" of recent decades. For the most part, both conservative and liberal theologians receive a fair treatment, though progressive voices have the last word in most of his accounts of the debates. The two exceptions to the rule of fair treatment would be his handling of Germain Grisez and, even more, Servais Pinckaers, O.P., whose significant work seems often short changed.

Pinckaers, the principal author of the moral section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in his Sources of Christian Ethics offers a moral theology that resonates clearly with the actual words of the

Council, but the Belgian Dominican does not make any appearance in the book aside from a few critical remarks about the state of contemporary moral theology. Odozor dismisses Pinckaers' concerns as an oversimplification, but Pinckaers' analysis does not substantially differ from the one given by John Paul II in Veritatis splendor, which receives more respectful treatment.

Although for the most part a summary of the work of others, Odozor does come to various judgments about a number of contested issues, most of which seem both balanced and reasonable. In covering so much ground in a way that is for the most part fair to all concerned, Moral Theology in an Age of Renewal: A Study of the Catholic Tradition since Vatican II can itself be judged as a contribution to renewal.

--Christopher Kaczor

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles