This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "The Future of Catholic Theological Ethics" that was published in Religions

Theological ethicists confront key questions and issues from around the globe to provide a 'state of the art' volume in 21st-century moral theology.

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.

Traditionally, Catholic moral theology has been based upon an approach that over-emphasized the role of normative ethics and subsequently associated moral responsibility with following or disobeying moral rules. Reframing Catholic Theological Ethics offers an alternative ethical method which, without destroying any of the valuable insights of normative ethics, reorients the discipline to consider human motivation and intention before investigating behavioral options for realizing one's end. Evidence from the New Testament warrants the formation of a teleological method for theological ethics which is further elaborated in the approach taken by Thomas Aquinas. Unfortunately, the insights of the latter were misinterpreted at the time of the counter-reformation. Joseph A. Selling's analysis of moral theological textbooks demonstrates the entrenchment of a normative method aimed at identifying sins in service to the practice of sacramental confession. With a firm basis in the teaching of Vatican II, the "human person integrally and adequately considered" provides the fundamental criterion for approaching ethical issues in the contemporary world. The perspective then turns to the crucial question of describing the ends or goals of ethical living by providing a fresh approach to the concept of virtue. Selling concludes with suggestions about how to combine normative ethics with this alternative method in theological ethics that begins with the actual, ethical orientation of the human person toward virtuous living.

"If Catholic and Protestant ethicians were asked to name a single theologian who was qualified to write a comprehensive overview of the historical divergences of Catholic and Protestant positions on ethical questions, the bases for those divergences in fundamentally different philosophical and theological perspectives, and the possibilities for future convergences of the traditions, my guess is that James Gustafson would be the one. . . . This brilliant and tightly argued book . . . will be the most important book on moral theology to appear this year."—John Coleman, National Catholic Reporter

In this magisterial volume Charles E. Curran surveys the historical development of Catholic moral theology in the United States from its 19th century roots to the present day. He begins by tracing the development of pre-Vatican II moral theology that, with the exception of social ethics, had the limited purpose of training future confessors to know what actions are sinful and the degree of sinfulness. Curran then explores and illuminates the post-Vatican II era with chapters on the effect of the Council on the scope and substance of moral theology, the impact of Humanae vitae, Pope Paul VI's encyclical condemning artificial contraception, fundamental moral theology, sexuality and marriage, bioethics, and social ethics. Curran's perspective is unique: For nearly 50 years, he has been a major influence on the development of the field and has witnessed first-hand the dramatic increase in the number and diversity of moral theologians in the academy and the Church. No one is more qualified to write this first and only comprehensive history of Catholic moral theology in the United States.

An international meeting in Trento in July 2010 brought together some 500 theological ethicists from nearly 75 countries. This volume represents the "state of the art" in mural theology from around the globe, with contributors from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Divided into three main parts (the past, the present, and the future), contributors include John W. O'Malley (foreword); Monsignor Luigi Bressan, Archbishop of Trento; James F. Keenan; Archbishop Bruno Forte; Mercy Amba Oduyoye (Ghana); Ahmad Syafii Ma'arif, Ma'arif Institut (Indonesia), Paolo Prodi (Italy), Laurenti Magesa (Kenya), Regina Ammicht-Quinn Germany, Alberto Bondolfi (Switzerland), Diego Alonso-Lasheras (Italy), Roger Burggraeve (Belgium), Anne Nasimiyu (Kenya), Bryan Massingale (US), Antonio Moser (Brazil). ric Gaziaux (Belgium), Margaret Farley (US), Benezet Bujo (Switzerland), Brian Johnstone (US), Miguel ngel S nchez Carlos (Mexico), David Kaulem (Zimbabwe), Leo Pessini (Brazil), Pushpa Joseph (India), Margaret Ogala (Kenya), Julie Hanlon Rubio (US), Aloysius Cartagenas (Philippines), Christa Schnabl (Austria), Simone Morandini (Italy), Myroslav Marynovych (Ukraine), Peter Henriot (Zambia), Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich-Freising (Germany), Julie Clague (Scotland), Shaji George Kochuthara (India), and Mar a Teresa D vila (US).