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The article proposes a Catholic ethical method for the 21st century. To that end, the authors first address the magisterium's concerns with relativism and distinguish relativism from Bernard Lonergan's perspectivism. After proposing perspectivism as an epistemological tool that accounts for a plurality of Catholic ethical methods, the authors explore virtue ethics, virtue epistemology, and a Christian stance that contribute to a reconstructed Catholic ethical method. The article concludes with a definition of chastity from two methodological perspectives that have different anthropological and normative implications., A RECENT NOTE in this journal addressed the issue of ethical method and highlighted its fundamental importance for Catholic theological ethics in the 21st century. (1) We would add to [...]

The article seeks to give an account of Christian virtue ethics. To this end, it first examines virtue and natural virtue ethics deriving from the Aristotelian tradition and its' contemporary incarnation. It then considers Christian virtue ethics deriving from the following of Jesus the Christ, and compares and contrasts this virtue ethics with natural virtue ethics. It concludes by offering an account of virtues necessary to human flourishing in the contemporary world., JESUS' PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN provides the keynote to what follows: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and [...]

The authors argue that Lee and George (hereafter, L/G) use a reductionist anthropology and ethical method to defend a classicist approach to absolute sexual norms. After describing Lonergan's understanding of scotosis, which can distort one's insight into ethical theory and ethical issues, the article demonstrates this distortion in L/G's sexual anthropology. It further argues that, in formulating their sexual anthropology, L/G fail to address the significance of sexual orientation, and that their method inadequately integrates human experience and reason as sources of moral knowledge., IN THE CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH of the article discussed by Patrick Lee and Robert George (hereafter, L/G), (1) we cited the International Theological Commission's judgment that the theologian's task 'brings with [...]

This disputatio is an inquiry into the nature of the truly human sexual act. The authors first present and critique the types of complementarity--heterogenital, reproductive, communion, affective, and parental--that the magisterium finds in a truly human sexual act. They then suggest that heterosexual or homosexual orientation as part of a person's sexual constitution requires adding orientation complementarity to the equation. This addition yields the conclusion that holistic complementarity--an integration of orientation, personal, and biological complementarities--is a more adequate sine qua non of truly human sexual acts., AN IMPORTANT ARTICLE recently appeared in this journal analyzing and critiquing the magisterium's argument against same-sex marriages. (1) This disputatio continues the discussion begun in that article by focusing on [...]

Civil marriages between baptized nonbelievers should be recognized as valid by the Roman Catholic Church. For believers, marriage is a sacrament which requires faith; therefore, a civil marriage in their case would not be valid. However, the question of the separability of sacrament and marriage contract for nonbelievers has occasioned much theological debate. In spite of the juridical closure of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, theologically the debate remains open.

LA TEOLOGIA DELLA STORIA DELLA SALVEZZA NEL SECOLO XX. By Gianluigi Pasquale. Bologna: Dehoniane, 2001. Pp. 609. 34 €. LA STORIA DELLA SALVEZZA: DIO SIGNORE DEL TEMPO E DELLA STORIA. [...]

Based on a national sample of Christian couples, interchurch respondents reported lower levels of religiosity than same-church respondents on a number of religious variables. Respondents in same-church marriages were similar in religiosity regardless of whether the relationship was initially interchurch or same-church. The study did not find evidence that interchurch respondents were more likely than same-church individuals to drift away from church practice. Strength of denominational identity at engagement was the strongest predictor of religious behavior among interchurch respondents, while church attendance at engagement was the strongest predictor among same-church respondents. Interchurch respondents and their spouses were less likely to emphasize religion in raising children than same-church respondents, and were more likely to differ as a couple on their emphasis on religion in raising children. Interchurch parents predominantly raise their children exclusively in one parent's church, although 12 percent reported raising their children in both churches.

UN CONCILIO PER IL MONDO MODERNO: LA REDAZIONE DELLA COSTITUZIONE PASTORALE 'GAUDIUM ET SPES' DEL VATICANO II. By Giovanni Turbanti. Bologna: Societa Editrice il Mulino, 2000. Pp. 839. L. 100,000. [...]

HISTORY OF VATICAN II, VOLUME 3. THE MATURE COUNCIL: SECOND PERIOD AND INTERSESSION. Edited by Giuseppe Alberigo and Joseph A. Komonchak. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2000. Pp. xiii + 532. $80. [...]

FROM SACRAMENT TO CONTRACT: MARRIAGE, RELIGION AND LAW IN THE WESTERN TRADITION. By John Witte, Jr. Louisville: Westminster/Knox, 1997. Pp. xii + 315. This is the rarest of books these [...]