Böcker av Michael G. Lawler

A call to reform Catholic health care ethics, inspired by the teachings of Pope Francis

Two principles capture the essence of the Catholic position on the morality of sexuality: first, that any human genital act must occur within the framework of heterosexual marriage; second, every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life. This work offers an overview of Catholicism and sexuality, and examines these principles.

Lawler develops a theology of the sacraments which seeks to respond to the many pressing pastoral issues of today.

This work emanates from the ecclesiology of Vatican II as a systematic treatment of the vision of communion from the central document, "Lumen Gentium". It is about a Church in communion with the laity, the hierarchy and with all the Churches.

Disputed Questions

The genesis of this book was sown in 1961 in a seminar on theological method under the guidance of Bernard Lonergan. Lonergan was convinced that something new was happening in history, and that a living theology required a new theological approach.In this book, Michael Lawler is concerned with three characteristics of this new approach: that theology must be historical, empirical, and in interdisciplinary collaboration with the social sciences. The book thus explores the relationship between practical theology (which is concerned with the church as it is and as it ought to be) and sociology, and specifically the theological realities of sensus fidei and reception. The exploration is concretized by a consideration of the sociological data and theology of two Catholic moral doctrines: artificial contraception and divorce and remarriage without prior annulment. In addition to being a useful primer on the relationship between theology and sociology (both theoretical and empirical), the book provides a wonderfully clear description of the sea-changes that have occurred in Roman Catholic theology worldwide over the past 70 or so years. Among those elements are the turn to the subject; the sociology of knowledge; the distinctions between uncreated and created grace and between original and dependent revelation; a complex, non-fundamentalist understanding of Sacred Scripture; the preferential option for the poor; the notion of the church as communion rather than hierarchy; and, finally, the necessity for church teaching to be "received," accepted, by the whole church. If a Catholic Rip Van Winkle had fallen asleep 40 or 50 years ago, he would read this book, upon opening his eyes, with amazement.

This book has two objectives, one explicit and one implicit. The explicit objective is to explore the normative implications for both general and sexual ethics of the methodological and anthropological developments in Catholic tradition. The implicit objective is to stimulate dialogue in the Church about ethics, particularly sexual ethics, a dialogue that must necessarily include all in the communion-Church, laity, theologians, and hierarchy. Since we believe that genuine and respectful dialogue about sexual morality is sorely needed to clarify Christian truth today, we intend this book to be part of that genuine dialogue.

The authors of this collection are all Christian theologians living and working on the Great Plains, and sharing the life of the intellect and spirit of the Plains. The book reflects on the theologial truths that make up the Christian tradition and discusses how these truths are incarnated in life.