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(More customer reviews)I am a cradle Catholic who has been fascinated by the changes in moral theology post Vatican II...particularly the paradox of how Catholics think and act vs. how the Church teaching (magisterium) approaches modern dilemmas...I have followed the personal saga of Fr. Charles Curran through my college, medical training and teaching practical medical ethics...then became a friend of a friend of Fr. Curran and briefly met him twice at Catholic Theological Society of America meetings...
This book chronicles his life's journey from his upbringing, through his international notoriety...some call him a courageous Saint who will be recognized long after he is gone...others see him as a destructive evil force...
But all acknowledge that he is one of today's most well-known, controversial, published and knowledgeable Catholic theologians.
Fr. Curran spends much of this book chronicling his stance that the Papal teaching against birth control is not an "infallable teaching"...and that this distinction makes it subject for debate and open discussuion...and within one's conscience, certainly not obligatory.
While the first seven chapters of Fr. Curran's life journey is worth reading...readers unfamiliar with him or his contributions to the discipline of Moral Theology should first read Chapters 8 'My Moral Theology' and 9 'The Development of Theology in the Past 50 years'...then go back to Chapter 1 'Beginnings'...
Those who are not familiar with the academic world may find the description of Father Curran's removal from his Professorship at Catholic Univ a bit too detailed and tedious... (that's why they are ACADEMICS, right!) but an important chronicle for him to restate from his detailed memory and perspective...
Those not familiar with the Catholic Church upheavals after Vatican II may question what all the fuss was about...
And those who have not read any of Fr. Charles Cuurran's many well written works on moral and social theology will not gain the sense that they know this man...
This was an important book to be written...it gives the memoir of a singular priest-scholar who studied, reflected and began a dialogue at the heart of Christian meaning. It creates a context for his many works, and my suggestion would be to read it in parallel with one of his better known books ("The Moral Theology of Pope John Paul II" , "Catholic Social Teaching :1891--Present" , The Catholic Moral Tradition Today: A Synthesis" , "the Origins of Moral Theology in the United States:Three Different Approaches" ) because it is through his theological expositions, coupled with this highly personal memoir...that his ideas come to life.
It would be a great thing if every person with such a reputation would write their memoir...so that we could know the woman or man behind the headlines...the person who held a belief beyond their own day and beyond the boundaries of conventional thinking.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Loyal Dissent: Memoir of a Catholic Theologian (Moral Traditions)
Recounts the journey of one of the leading theologians of the Catholic Church.
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