James F. KEENAN. A History of Catholic Theological Ethics. New York: Paulist Press, 2022. pp. 434. $49.95 pb. ISBN 978-0-8091-5544-6. Reviewed by Michael G. LAWLER, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 68178.

There is no one better equipped to write a history of Catholic theological ethics than Jesuit James Keenan. His grasp of the breadth and depth of the topic and its development from first century biblical times to the present day is unmatched and is on full display in this book. A word of warning to begin with: Keenan is not a historian and anyone expecting the kind of history that records who taught what when will be disappointed. Keenan is not writing that kind of history. He is more interested in why particular stances and propositions about Catholic ethics arose and flourished at a particular time and then were replaced by other stances and propositions at a later time. He is interested, in other words, in the development of the Catholic ethical tradition that is always something not fully formed at one time in history but always something to be traditum or handed on to a new generation in a new form.

Keenan traces the tradition in eight chapters from its biblical beginnings to its present stances and propositions, themselves waiting to be handed on. Chapter One examines the biblical tradition of Jesus the Christ, the inspiration and foundation of Catholic theological ethics. Chapter Two examines the tradition of mercy up to the year 500, a favorite theme in Keenan’s writings. Chapter Three deals with the pathways of holiness established between the fourth to the sixteenth centuries. The Good Samaritan features prominently in this chapter, serving as allegory for Jesus who saves humankind as the Samaritan saves the man injured on the roadside. The exposition of the parable is accompanied by Jesus’ command, “God and do likewise” (Luke 10:37), the sure Christian pathway to ethical life. Chapter Four deals with the twelfth to the sixteen centuries, the age of the scholastics. It examines the usual suspects, including Thomas Aquinas, and also the oft-ignored Duns Scotus, who points to modernity.

Chapter Five considers ethical pathways to modernity, with a long exposition of casuistry, particularly that of the lesser-known John Mair, sometimes presented as John Major. Keenan judges Mair to be the “father of modern casuistry” (p. 180). Chapter Six continues reflection on the pathways to modernity and deals at length with the School of Salamanca and its development of the foundations of international law and of human rights. The latter belong to humans as created in the image of the Creator God. Chapter Seven deals with the reformation of Catholic theological ethics between the eighteenth century and the Second Vatican Council. Featured is Alphonsus de Liguori whose renewed theological ethics with a focus on mercy towards sinners eventually led to his being named by Pope Pius XII the patron saint of Catholic ethicists and confessors. Chapter Eight introduces another of Keenan’s favorite themes, the necessarily global nature of theological ethics. This global nature embraces both the entrances of lay men and lay women into the field of theological ethics and the extension of the field beyond its European and American birthplace. Both these extensions, Keenan points out, were met with male and Vatican resistance. It is important to note in this respect that Jim Keenan is the founder and inspiration of a global network of Catholic theological ethicists called Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church. That network has already produced several works pointing a way forward in Catholic theological ethics.

I feel obliged to point out that the beginning of Keenan’s book has not always been the beginning for Catholic theological ethicists, namely a consideration of the biblical tradition. In the sixteenth century, the identity for theological ethics was not biblical ethics but casuistry that became established in the moral manuals of the eighteenth to twentieth century. That casuistry handed on the sins and the vices priests should address in confession. Biblical ethics, Keenan judiciously points out, asks not what are the sins and vices to be addressed in confession but, rather, is what is being taught in theological ethics true to the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ. The Second Vatican Council in 1965 taught that theological ethics, then known as moral theology, should be “nourished more by the teachings of the Bible, should shed light on the loftiness of the calling of the [Catholic] faithful in Christ” (Optatum totius, 16). That inspired Catholic ethicists to turn to the Bible and to think about discipleship and the virtues of love, justice, mercy it demands rather than to focus on sin and confession. Jim Keenan’s new book forces us to think about discipleship and virtue as we and the Catholic Church open up new ethical pathways that are valid and productive for the third millennium.