A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century: From Confessing Sins to Liberating Consciences by James F. Keenan, SJ

Reflecting and Advancing the Transformation: Catholic Theological Ethics and the Journal of Religious Ethics, 1973–2023

“…This strand of the renewal, (loosely categorized as proportionalism), ultimately ran aground, however. Keenan concludes that it ran aground because it failed to develop a positive vision of the moral life and simply repeated the logic of the manuals, albeit without the absolutism (2010, 158). Kalbian draws similar conclusions.…”

“…Each has sought to reverse many of the claims and conclusions of revisionist moral theologians, especially those related to the nature of moral truth and the role of reason in its apprehension. The moral theology of John Paul II has also been especially important for the “new natural law.” In his encyclical Veritatis splendor (1993), he denounced the revisionist accounts of conscience and truth, the relationship between freedom and law, and the nature of the moral act (Keenan 2010, 130) and concluded with a “reaffirmation of the universality and immutability of the moral commandments, particularly those that prohibit always and without exception intrinsically evil acts” (John Paul II 1993, para. 115).…”