The Development of Moral Theology: Moral Traditions series

Curran traces the historical development of five strands or themes in the shaping of Catholic moral theology: sin, reconciliation, and the manuals of moral theology; Thomas Aquinas and the Thomistic tradition; natural law; the papal teaching office; and the Second Vatican Council. By analyzing these key strands, Curran argues, one can more easily understand how moral theology functions today in the United States and the world. Curran suggests that each of these strands has evolved in different ways during different periods, revealing an ongoing tension within the Catholic Church: continuity v. discontinuity. This discontinuity is a reality that the Church hierarchy in Rome has tended to gloss over; Curran has made a career out of contending that Catholic moral theology is an organic, not static, endeavor, and that just as the Church has adapted to evolutions in political and scientific thought it should also adapt to evolutions in moral thought, viz., on issues of race and gender and sexual orientation. The Church, he argues, must continue to develop a moral theology that remains true to the reforms and progressivism of Vatican II.