New Wine, New Wineskins: A Next Generation Reflects on Key Issues in Catholic Moral Theology.
Ravizza, Bridget Burke
New Wine, New Wineskins: A Next Generation Reflects on Key Issues
in Catholic Moral Theology. Edited by William C. Mattison III. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Pp. vii + 190. $65; $22.95.
This collection grew out of a summer gathering of young (meaning:
new to the field) Catholic moral theologians at the University of Notre
Dame in 2002. The New Wine, New Wineskins symposium, convened every year
since, assembles Catholic moral theologians at the beginning of their
careers to engage in conversation, prayer, and friendship,
and--specifically--to reflect both on their particular vocation in
today's church and academy and on vital issues of contemporary
moral theology. In this text, William Mattison has brought together a
pertinent and provocative group of essays. Overall, the collection
helpfully points to current trends in Catholic moral theology and
attempts to situate young Catholic moralists in the contemporary church
and academy--offering insight into their formation (for good or for
ill), major challenges they face in the classroom, academy, and church,
and practices that might best support their work and development. The
book's introduction usefully groups the essays according to "three important arenas for the practice of Catholic moral
theology: formation of moral theologians, the classroom, and engagement
in methodological debates in the discipline" (14).
The essays on formation lament that Catholic moral theologians
today are not guaranteed ready access to the regularized institutional
practices of prayer and worship that used to firmly root Catholic moral
theologians in the church, shaping their minds, hearts, and vision.
Reflecting on his own professional training and experience, for example,
Christopher Vogt speaks of his "only loose, informal connections
with the church," in contrast to the typically clerical and
religious moral theologians of previous generations who had tight
connections with the church (48). Christopher Steck, himself a Jesuit,
similarly warns that a narrowly academic, rationalistic formation is a
particular danger for moral theologians of this generation because, as
advances in the discipline themselves suggest, Christian ethicists must
grasp discipleship and holiness in a more than intellectual way, that
is, within spiritual practices that "nurture the ethicist's
Christian vision" (33). One concrete suggestion aimed at better
formation of Catholic moral theologians is what Steck calls
"discipleship casuistry"--that is, moral reflection on
"various kinds of decisions and concrete actions that make up a
life of holiness" (37). Specifically, he suggests reflection on the
lives of the saints in order to train one's moral senses and gain
insight into what a holy life looks like and to expand one's moral
vision regarding the life of Christian discipleship. Vogt suggests that
regular lay preaching at the invitation of the local bishop might better
form lay Catholic moral theologians while enabling them to better serve
the church, a suggestion that, I imagine, will prompt consideration and
conversation.
Kelly Johnson writes of a Christian economic ethic that trusts in
plentitude and demands eucharistic solidarity. Though focused on
questions of economic justice, she--like Steck and Vogt--asks broader
questions about the how the practices of moral theologians (in this case
related to economics) are related to their ability to serve the church
and academy well. Johnson writes that "we who are called to teach
about economic ethics have two closely linked problems: how to teach and
how to live," because to teach about eucharistic solidarity one
must "know it from the inside" (172). Margaret Pfeil argues
that the theologian is called to mediate God's love transparently
and thus must "surrender all the personal and ecclesial attachments
that might keep them from doing so" (74). For Johnson and Pfeil,
doing moral theology fundamentally demands the practice of Christian
charity.
The teacher of moral theology is further challenged by
Mattison's claim that, in order to do justice to the discipline and
students, one must engage students at the level of faith rather than
merely intellectually. He suggests the use of Christian rhetoric as a
method for teaching theology. David Cloutier, informed by his experience
with students and by the work of Alasdair McIntyre, emphasizes the need
for today's moral theories to better "articulate the intrinsic
connections between rules, virtues and the human good" and for
teachers to help students develop practical reasoning skills (129). Also
helpful and practical is William Bolan's essay on community-based
learning, with its insistence that Catholic educators might best use
such a method of learning by connecting it to Catholic social teaching
and restoring "its original focus on questioning social values and
helping students see themselves as agents of social change" (104).
While I sometimes found it difficult to see how a particular essay
cohered with the collection as a whole, the essays are generally well
done and I highly recommend this text, particularly for Catholic moral
theologians, whether young or established (I dare not write old).
BRIDGET BURKE RAVIZZA
St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wis.
