At a time when religion and spirituality have been divorced from one another and morality and ethics are viewed as being confining rather than liberating, Fr. James Keenan offers an accessible book that beautifully reclaims the Catholic moral tradition and casts it afresh for a new age. 'Moral wisdom,' as Fr. Keenan calls it, is the distinctive gift of the Catholic tradition, a gift that helps us discern what values to pursue and which virtues to embody on the path to becoming who we really are and who God calls us to be. Writing in a conversational style filled with stories and examples, Keenan goes beyond the penitential, confessional, and moral manuals that too often define public perception of moral teaching and breaks open the treasure trove of resources in the Catholic tradition for developing moral wisdom. In the process, he reclaims four key texts that bishops and lay people alike appealed to in nurturing their moral wisdom—the person of Jesus in the New Testament, the ten commandments in the catechism, the practice of the corporal works of mercy, and the development of the four cardinal virtues—and lifts up the lessons on love, conscience, sin, and suffering within these texts that form the content of the Catholic moral tradition. By reflecting on each of these texts and lessons, readers get into contact once again with the formative influences of the Catholic heritage and appreciate and understand what gives meaning to our lives and what enhances our relationships with friends and family.

Moral Wisdom: Lessons and Texts from the Catholic Tradition

Religion & Spirituality

Keenan, James F.

Christian Books & Bibles

Sheed Ward

At a time when religion and spirituality have been divorced from one another and morality and ethics are viewed as being confining rather than liberating, Fr. James Keenan offers an accessible book that beautifully reclaims the Catholic moral tradition and casts it afresh for a new age. "Moral wisdom," as Fr. Keenan calls it, is the distinctive gift of the Catholic tradition, a gift that helps us discern what values to pursue and which virtues to embody on the path to becoming who we really are and who God calls us to be. Writing in a conversational style filled with stories and examples, Keenan goes beyond the penitential, confessional, and moral manuals that too often define public perception of moral teaching and breaks open the treasure trove of resources in the Catholic tradition for developing moral wisdom. In the process, he reclaims four key texts that bishops and lay people alike appealed to in nurturing their moral wisdom—the person of Jesus in the New Testament, the ten commandments in the catechism, the practice of the corporal works of mercy, and the development of the four cardinal virtues—and lifts up the lessons on love, conscience, sin, and suffering within these texts that form the content of the Catholic moral tradition. By reflecting on each of these texts and lessons, readers get into contact once again with the formative influences of the Catholic heritage and appreciate and understand what gives meaning to our lives and what enhances our relationships with friends and family.

In The Works of Mercy: The Heart of Catholicism, Father James Keenan, S.J., reveals mercy as God's principle way of loving us and our way of loving one another. A masterful guide, Keenan invites us to journey with him through Scripture, tradition, and lived witness to better understand why and how mercy is the heart of Catholicism. Like other Christian traditions, Catholic moral theology is rooted in natural law, Scripture, the Ten Commandments, and ethical principles. But what distinguishes Catholicism is its emphasis on the virtue of mercy as the center of moral living. In the first two of three parts, Father Keenan explores modern applications of the corporal works of mercy—visiting the prisoner, sheltering the homeless, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick, clothing the naked, burying the dead—and the spiritual works of mercy—reconciling, being vigilant for the spiritual needs of one's neighbor, and praying. Because we are called by God's mercy into the church, the third part of the book looks at the effective work of mercy in the prayer of the church, particularly in the Eucharist. Complete with meditations on September 11, 2001, and the priesthood in light of the scandals in the church, The Works of Mercy provides a bridge between the past and the present and is must reading for students, parish groups, and individual readers seeking to live their faith in the everyday world.

The Works of Mercy: The Heart of Catholicism (Church Book (shw))

This is an historical survey of 20th Century Roman Catholic Theological Ethics (also known as moral theology). The thesis is that only through historical investigation can we really understand how the most conservative and negative field in Catholic theology at the beginning of the 20th could become by the end of the 20th century the most innovative one. The 20th century begins with moral manuals being translated into the vernacular. After examining the manuals of Thomas Slater and Henry Davis, Keenan then turns to three works and a crowning synthesis of innovation all developed before, during and soon after the Second World War. The first by Odon Lottin asks whether moral theology is adequately historical; Fritz Tillmann asks whether it's adequately biblical; and Gerard Gilleman, whether it's adequately spiritual. Bernard Haering integrates these contributions into his Law of Christ. Of course, people like Gerald Kelly and John Ford in the US are like a few moralists elsewhere, classical gate keepers, censoring innovation. But with Humanae vitae, and successive encyclicals, bishops and popes reject the direction of moral theologians. At the same time, moral theologians, like Josef Fuchs, ask whether the locus of moral truth is in continuous, universal teachings of the magisterium or in the moral judgment of the informed conscience. In their move toward a deeper appreciation of their field as forming consciences, they turn more deeply to local experience where they continue their work of innovation. Each continent subsequently gives rise to their own respondents: In Europe they speak of autonomy and personalism; in Latin America, liberation theology; in North America, Feminism and Black Catholic theology; and, in Asia and Africa a deep post-colonial interculturatism. At the end I assert that in its nature, theological ethics is historical and innovative, seeking moral truth for the conscience by looking to speak crossculturally.

A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century: From Confessing Sins to Liberating Consciences

History

Continuum

This is an historical survey of 20th Century Roman Catholic Theological Ethics (also known as moral theology). The thesis is that only through historical investigation can we really understand how the most conservative and negative field in Catholic theology at the beginning of the 20th could become by the end of the 20th century the most innovative one. The 20th century begins with moral manuals being translated into the vernacular. After examining the manuals of Thomas Slater and Henry Davis, Keenan then turns to three works and a crowning synthesis of innovation all developed before, during and soon after the Second World War. The first by Odon Lottin asks whether moral theology is adequately historical; Fritz Tillmann asks whether it's adequately biblical; and Gerard Gilleman, whether it's adequately spiritual. Bernard Haering integrates these contributions into his Law of Christ. Of course, people like Gerald Kelly and John Ford in the US are like a few moralists elsewhere, classical gate keepers, censoring innovation. But with Humanae vitae, and successive encyclicals, bishops and popes reject the direction of moral theologians. At the same time, moral theologians, like Josef Fuchs, ask whether the locus of moral truth is in continuous, universal teachings of the magisterium or in the moral judgment of the informed conscience. In their move toward a deeper appreciation of their field as forming consciences, they turn more deeply to local experience where they continue their work of innovation. Each continent subsequently gives rise to their own respondents: In Europe they speak of autonomy and personalism; in Latin America, liberation theology; in North America, Feminism and Black Catholic theology; and, in Asia and Africa a deep post-colonial interculturatism. At the end I assert that in its nature, theological ethics is historical and innovative, seeking moral truth for the conscience by looking to speak crossculturally.

History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century

This appraisal of two of the most fundamental terms in the moral language of Thomas Aquinas draws on the contemporary moral distinction between the goodness of a person and the rightness of a person's living. Keenan thus finds that Aquinas's earlier writings do not permit the possibility of such a distinction. But in his mature works, specifically the Summa Theologiae, Thomas describes the human act of moral intentionality, and even the virtues in a way analogous to our use of the term moral rightness. To Thomas, only the virtue of charity expresses moral goodness. And, although Thomas describes vices and sin as wrong conduct, he never really develops a description for moral badness. Keenan compels us to carefully examine Thomas's central moral concepts and to measure them against contemporary standards for meaning and correctness. As a result, any student of Thomas will find here a forceful argument that his notion of the good is considerably different from ours. Similarly, ethicists and moral theologians will find in the Thomas presented here a consistent-virtue ethicist concerned with descriptions for right living. Any student of theology will also find here a Thomas whose critical and concrete thinking enabled him to develop and even abandon earlier positions as his comprehension of the Good evolved. This analysis prompts a re-examination of our own concepts. Measuring Thomas's standards against our own, Keenan obliges us to ask whether we sufficiently understand rightness and moral intentionality. He also asks whether we correctly describe what it means to will or to desire something. He further questions whether we have surrendered our understanding of the virtues to the voluntarism and subjectivism which Thomas relentlessly critiqued. This historically sophisticated reading of the Summa Thologiae both allows Thomas to speak again as he once did, and affords us the chance to evaluate the way we describe ourselves and one another as being good and living rightly.

Goodness and Rightness in Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae (Not In A Series)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Georgetown University Press

The Moral Life: Eight Lectures (Martin J D'arcy Sj Memorial Lectures)

A profound inquiry into what prompts human beings to act morally Most foundational texts on theological ethics address either the person or society. In The Moral Life, James F. Keenan, SJ, posits that these two are inextricably linked. He presents eight stages of preparing for the moral life, describing vulnerability as the foundation for contemporary ethics. He understands vulnerability to be what establishes the human capacity for recognizing and responding to others rather than a compromised state of being. Mutual recognition emerges as the first moral act of the vulnerable human. He shows how conscience guides the activity of one who has first vulnerably recognized others. The Moral Life offers scholars and students of Christian ethics a novel perspective on what we need to know not only to be and live morally but also to teach and share with others what they need to know.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Keenan, James F.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Keenan, James F.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Keenan, James F.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Moral Wisdom: Lessons and Texts from the Catholic Tradition

Moral Wisdom: Lessons and Texts from the Catholic Tradition

The Works of Mercy: The Heart of Catholicism (Church Book (shw))

A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century: From Confessing Sins to Liberating Consciences

History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century

Goodness and Rightness in Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae (Not In A Series)

The Moral Life: Eight Lectures (Martin J D'arcy Sj Memorial Lectures)

The Moral Life: Eight Lectures (Martin J D'arcy Sj Memorial Lectures)