Todd A. SALZMAN and Michael G. LAWLER. Introduction to Catholic Theological Ethics: Foundations and Applications. Orbis Books, 2019. pp. 348. $35.00 pb. ISBN: 978-1-62698-324-3. Reviewed by Dolores L. CHRISTIE, Shaker Heights, OH 44122.

It is not often that I review a book, particularly an introductory text, that gets me excited. This one does. Not only is it dedicated to some of my heroes and draws from the subject of my dissertation, it offers an audacious take on many important moral issues.

The first section presents a matrix for subsequent discussion of particularly pesky moral questions. The authors cite four sources: scripture, tradition, science and reason, and experience. Throughout the book they root their arguments on a rigorous, knowledgeable, and scholarly approach to scripture. Including as well as critiquing respectfully pertinent church documents, the authors discuss metaethics, virtue, and normative ethics. They lay out the two models of moral thinking that emerged after the council, pointing out, almost as a throw-away line, that the historical model was similar that of the early church and the a-historical methodology that characterized pre-Vatican II thinking was not!

Noteworthy is the authors’ inclusion of perspectivism, which honors both individual experience and the discoveries and limits of the moral viewpoint accessible at any point in history. In contrast to relativism, though, perspectivism does not discard objective good. Development of conscience requires use of reason as well as personal, historical, and cultural experience. Finally the authors draw extensively on the anthropological model found in Gaudium et spes as the lens through which moral issues should be analyzed.

The second portion of the book considers contemporary “sticky issues” from the point of view of the four sources (listed above). The authors examine hook-up culture, homosexuality, and sexual activity as a step toward marriage. Their take on issues of economics and social justice. With each topic they offer pertinent contemporary data followed by comparison of past and present church documents and cultural reality.

Medical moral issues are included among the topics in this second section. Prominent in the discussion is the anthropology of the person adequately considered. This “personalist criterion” as well as application of proportionalism brings fresh insight into both beginning of life and end-of-life issues, artificial reproduction and medical nutritional intervention at life’s end.

The final section of the book looks to the future. The authors use Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia to illustrate a significant shift in Catholic moral thinking. The document emphasizes the hegemony of human dignity, conscience, virtue, and discernment—the pastoral part of moral decision-making. While the pope cautions that rules and norms are not to be discarded, he notes that sometimes “the principle will be found to fail, according as we descend further into detail.”

Although there are some portions of the book about which I would love a vigorous discussion with the authors, I have only a few minor negative comments. First, the objectives set out at the beginning of each chapter feel a bit more like questions to be listed at the end. The authors do provide thoughtful discussion questions after the chapters, however. Second—and this is a minor preening point on my part—is to take issue with the commonly-held idea noted in the book that Louis Janssens drew on Gaudium et spes in his later writings. Actually, Janssens was largely responsible for the inclusion in the council document of the notion of the person adequately considered. His development of the concept preceded Vatican II. Following the council he quoted his own ideas in later writing, now with the superior authority of church teaching. A small joke from a mountain of a man. Third, the pastoral conscience-centered approach which the book champions might have included a discussion of the level of moral development of the moral agent.

All in all, this volume is one of the better introductory texts I have read. There is a sensitivity to  more conservative approaches both in methodology and specific issues, even as the authors espouse a development that goes considerably beyond more conservative church teaching. Their positions (particularly in the chapters on marriage and things sexual), while exciting and reasonable, could be used by those who do not think deeply to conclude that anything they personally subjectively embrace is indeed good. For this reason I would recommend the book highly only for graduate students and for more thoughtful undergraduate students, especially those who are willing to engage in dialogue about issues that touch their lives directly. Even if not used as a text, it could be fodder for academic discussions over lunch in the university cafeteria. The book does justice to the belief that Catholic moral tradition has and will develop. And it’s a good read.