The Origins of Moral Theology in the United States: Three Different Approaches.

The title of Curran's book may tempt only those interested in moral theology, American Catholic intellectual history, or a combination of the two. The three different approaches of the subtitle refer to the work of three priest-scholars, active in the United States in the late nineteenth century: the Italian-born Jesuit Aloysius Sabetti (died 1898); the Belgianborn Thomas Boquillon who taught at The Catholic University until his death in 1902; and John Hogan, an Irish-born but French-educated priest, who taught both in Boston and at The Catholic University until his death in 1901. As Curran notes, these three priests, who at one time lived within fifty miles of each other, had quite different views on the teaching of moral theology. Sabetti was a manualist with a keen interest in casuistry. Boquillon was more theoretical and speculative as a thinker, with a deep interest in fundamental moral issues. Hogan's reflections on seminary education were quite critical of the manualist tradition.

Curran analyzes in some depth the writings of all three men as well as offers a concise and illuminating history of the development of moral theology, with special attention to the influence of Alphonsus Liguori (died 1787). Though scholarly, this study should be of interest to anyone concerned with theology. First, Curran's close reading of the texts reminds us that all moral theology before Vatican II was not neoscholastic. Nor were all moral theologians, even those in the "manualist" tradition, rigorists with an undue interest in sexual matters. In fact, moral theologians did their work from different premises and employed a variety of methodologies. Even though moral theology was mostly oriented toward the education of future confessors, there were real moral questions that demanded real moral discrimination.

Second, this book amply demonstrates the limits to Thomism and the degree to which moral theologians leaned on casuists who favored the moral theology of Liguori. Likewise, it is in the 'nineteenth century that theologians had to sort out what was meant by the "ordinary magisterium" of the pope (a term first used by Pius IX) as well as what weight must be given to the pronouncements of the Holy Office on doctrinal and moral issues. In other words, a careful reading of Curran helps frame issues in ecclesiology as well as questions in the development of moral theology.

Finally, Curran shows how one can benefit from reading even rather unpromising material (Latin textbooks) if you have the right questions in mind and the right historical knowledge at hand. Rather than making a caricature of the older casuist approach or lamenting the sterility of the "scholastic" method, Curran is able to show how a compelling moral vision was derived from a model of morality rooted in a framework of law. This legal model was amenable to the syllogism, but it possessed its own limitations and inevitably left some areas of Christian morality unexplored. The moral theology of this period was, in Bernard Lonergan's phrase, "classicist." It is especially interesting to see how Hogan sensed the need for a more historically nuanced approach. Had Hogan written after the 1890s there is every chance, as Curran notes, that he would have been condemned as a modernist.

In an epilogue, Curran looks back ironically to the times of these three American professors. Judging their legal approach to moral theology inadequate, he calls for a more holistic framework (none of the three authors studied, for instance, ever thought of human experience as an important element of moral reasoning), and encourages a model of moral reasoning that stresses relationality and responsibility. Finally, Curran notes that moral theology was mainly practical and legal because Rome encouraged the use of Liguori (who had been named a "Doctor of the Church" during the reign of Pius IX) to the detriment of a more rounded theological approach of Thomas Aquinas. What is needed, Curran concludes, is a Catholic "both/and" approach that is rooted far deeper than in the matrix of law and that combines a broad theological set of principles with genuine attention to individual cases. The burning contemporary ethical issues just in the area of medicine and technology illustrate how correct Curran is.

Lawrence S. Cunningham teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame.