Revisiting Keenan's "History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century"

There were some posts about Jesuit Keenan's book a while back, including one by me.  Now, this review appears in AMERICA, by Richard Gula, S.S., professor of moral theology at the Franciscan School of Theology of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California.  Some excerpts:

"Participants in sabbatical programs, clergy conferences or workshops for religious educators often ask me to recommend an article or book that will bring them up to speed on recent thinking in moral theology and the roles various contributors have played in developing the field. This book meets that need.

James F. Keenan, S.J., professor of theological ethics at Boston College, is already well known to readers of America. He is a prolific author with that special gift of being able to write for the academy and for people in the pews. His keen insight, fair hand, comprehensive grasp and friendly style make even the most intricate argument accessible to the reader. In this book you will find more of the same.

With this volume, Keenan joins the ranks of John Mahoney (1987) and Charles Curran (1997 and 2008) in providing another towering history of moral theology. . . .

The encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968) marked the turning point in re-examining the method and concepts of the manualists, and in reconsidering the location of moral truth in norms proposed by the magisterium. The turbulent period between Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendor (1993) was dominated by intense discussions of the notion of moral objectivity and of the process of moral reasoning. Keenan deftly handles the controversies of this period to show that what distinguished moral positions was not theology but philosophy, especially the anthropology that influenced interpretations of natural law. The essentialist anthropology of the classicists posits an a priori human nature with a fixed end that does not yield to experience or social-scientific claims. For them the principle of action is the laws of nature. For the historically minded revisionists, human nature is not a static object. Rather, human nature is the relational, embodied person in a historical world that we come to know only gradually and partially. The principle of moral action is not a fixed nature but reason discovering moral value by reflecting on experience.

As virtue ethics gained in ascendancy during the latter part of this period, prudence took its rightful place as the foundation of moral objectivity. Moral truth is found where prudence takes into account the totality of the moral reality (act, intention and circumstances, including consequences). In his last chapter, Keenan shows how virtue ethics serves as the most appropriate mode of moral reflection to meet the challenges of cross-cultural dialogue about how to express moral truth.

A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century is a remarkable achievement."