Book of the Week
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Ethics and Spirituality: Readings on Moral Theology, edited by Charles E. Curran and Lisa A. Fullam.
Paulist Press, 2014
Based on articles written by fifteen noted authors, this book is divided into three sections, namely,
reconnecting ethics and spirituality, reimagining the tradition, and refocusing ethical topics.
Section one focuses on the nature of the two disciplines, their historical divergence, and the need, the challenges, and possible modalities for their rejoining.
Section two is concerned with how a more integrated ethics and spirituality reshape traditional concepts.
The third part examines ethical issues and categories renewed by integrating spirituality. This section seems to be the most practical part of the book.
In part three, five well known authors, among whom are Walter Burghardt and Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, write about refocusing ethical topics and the interplay of spirituality with justice, ecology, the body, the common good, and ministerial ethics.
The integration of ethics and spirituality arose in the mid-twentieth century. Theologians shifted in moral theology from a rule-based system to a
more holistic mode of Christian discipleship when there was a turn to scripture and ascetical theology. This marked a turn for moral theology to a following of Christ, instead of following a definite set of rules.
Conscience came to be called a "the most secret core and sanctuary with God whose voice echoes in our depths". "Spirituality designates a way of living that strives to integrate our
diverse experiences into a meaningful whole by connecting all of life in what we believe gives ultimate meaning and value to our lives."
(Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this review)
Paperback
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Saint of the Week
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Blessed. Romuald: (950-1027) June 19
After a wasted youth, Romuald saw his father kill a relative in a duel over property. In horror he fled to a monastery near Ravenna in Italy. After three years some of the monks found him to be uncomfortably holy and eased him out.
He
spent the next 30 years going about Italy, founding monasteries and hermitages. He longed to give his life to Christ in martyrdom, and got the pope's permission to preach the gospel in Hungary. But he was struck with illness as soon as he arrived, and the illness recurred as often as he tried to proceed.
During another period of his life, he suffered great spiritual dryness. One day as he was
praying Psalm 31 ("I will give you understanding and I will instruct you"), he was given an extraordinary light and spirit which never left him.
At the next monastery where he stayed, he was accused of a scandalous crime by a young nobleman he had rebuked for a dissolute life. Amazingly, his fellow monks believed the accusation. He was given a severe penance, forbidden to offer Mass and
excommunicated, an unjust sentence he endured in silence for six months.
The most famous of the monasteries he founded was that of the Camaldoli (Campus Maldoli, name of the owner) in Tuscany. Here he founded the Order of the Camaldolese Benedictines, uniting a monastic and hermit life.
His father
later became a monk, wavered and was kept faithful by the encouragement of his son. americancatholic.org site
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