Ainda não li o livro, mas a resenha abaixo o recomenda.
Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, edited by James F Keenan, Continuum £16.99
These 18 articles are the result of the first meeting at Padua, in July 2006, of an international panel of 400 theological ethicists from 63 countries. It is the kind of book I have been waiting for a long time to be able to recommend and it deserves to be read widely by pedagogues, pastors and priests. This is Catholic theology at its best, challenging and embracing what it should not evade: that post-modern world which believes (unlike the traditional Catholic world) it has inherited no obligations or assumptions from the past. The four-day conference was marked by "so much good will and respect toward one another that we were able to challenge one another", writes the editor proudly. Three altercations summon up the spirit and breadth of the meetings. First: "When three senior ethicists concluded their remarks on the African continental panel, three African women ethicists took them to task for not mentioning anything about living in profoundly patriarchal settings." Secondly: "When a French scholar spoke of the primacy of the conscience, an Italian responded speaking about the competency of the Magisterium." Thirdly: "The most significant exchange came when, after the North American spoke at length about the military aggressiveness of the United States, several others asked 'were scholars from the States doing enough, in light of the impact such policies were having on their own countries?' "The content of the book is expertly arranged in three parts, each section with its own introduction, summary and conclusion. I found it very user-friendly. Part one asks how theological ethicists can respond to the world's needs - a very important consideration because it relates to one of the great unresolved problems of our time: the demands of authority versus the priority of conscience, with the former superseded by the latter as the foremost moral guide. Part two tackles moral theological attitudes in the five continents. Part three identifies the four central themes challenging Catholic theological ethics today: the interpretation of its sources, the sensus fidelium and moral discernment, pluralism, and globalisation and justice. This sounds extremely highbrow, a bit like a textbook in the extent of the information included, but unlike a textbook in that it is couched in the language of debate. The contents range from simple explanations to analysis in depth. The Italian Giuseppe Angelini, for example, gives the following exact and straightforward definition of the key words "ethics" and "morality". "Ethics is concerned with justice in societal relationships, not with my immediate neighbourhood; it has a fundamental interest in procedures. Morality ought to be concerned precisely with the relationships between neighbours, through which the individual acquires self-knowledge from the very beginning of his life. In these relationships, his identity is always involved."Or consider the clarity with which Maureen Junker-Kenny from Ireland opens her discussion on scripture and tradition. "The Christian truth is given by God. God's self-revelation is witnessed in - but not identical with - scripture, where we encounter it in an already interpreted form." In a few words she is able to establish that distinction which has plagued both Christian and Islamic theology: what is a direct revelation for God and what is created, opening the way for considerations of tradition and reason in establishing Christian ethics.Finally, Antonio Papisca, another Italian, takes on the burden of accepting or rejecting the notion of a bellum iustum (just war). His conclusions may be unacceptable to many, but the rapid way in which he establishes the inconsistencies and dishonesties of our present-day international position is impressive. "The time has come to bury this concept," he says. "The historical fact of the existence of a new international law, of the United Nations, and of other important international organisations means that it is no longer acceptable from an ethical point of view to justify war - not even a war of defence." This goes beyond a fashionable pacifism; it sounds very like the Christian gospel. Is not the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven going to war a somewhat ridiculous contradiction in terms? All this is a far cry from the status of ethics 50 years ago, when the subject was hardly taught in seminaries and certainly not in secondary schools. A final comment is that, for the advanced student of ethics, the extensive footnotes should prove a real bonus for updating opinion and knowledge. "It was a wonderful meeting. I believe these papers convey that," concludes Fr Keenan. They certainly do.
John Greenhalgh
