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A Morally Complex World: Engaging Contemporary Moral Theology

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A Morally Complex World: Engaging Contemporary Moral Theology by James Bretzke is a wonderful book for anyone interested in moral development and theology. Bretzke does not write down to the reader but challenges them to think. He does a wonderful job bringing morals and ethics from Aristotle to the modern day thinkers. His chapter on conscience is definitely the peak reading of this book, making the reader look for more on the subject. A conscience in this morally complex world is more than Jiminy Cricket.

A good book for the layman who wishes to become familiar with moral theology. Easy to read, clear, complete, and useful for spiritual growth.

In this book Fr. Bretzke teaches complex methods for evaluating the morality of actions - while Catholics who follow traditional teachings would call the same actions "sins" without Bretzke's methods. Putting individual conscience above Church teachings identifies Fr. Bretzke with a breed of theologians who believe the Vatican II Council licensed them to redefine what the Church teaches and to claim that traditional Catholic morality is wrong. People who think the way Fr. Bretzke does never bother to explain why they stay in a Church they believe was so misguided for so long, or how they were granted the grace to understand more than the great saints that came before them.

Fr. Bretzke impugns the maturity of people who base their values on what the Magisterium teaches, using statements like the following: "To sit back and wait for a clear-cut response from any outside moral authority, even if it be the Pope, would result in a sort of moral infantilism."

Fr. Bretzke does not credit the writings of others who defend the Church's traditional teachings, prominently Pope John Paul II.

The following quote from the Pope's encyclical on moral theology seems to apply to theologians like him.

" Certain currents of modern thought ... exalt freedom to such an extent that it becomes an absolute, which would then be the source of values. . . [T]he traditional doctrine ... is rejected; certain of the Church's moral teachings are found simply unacceptable; and the Magisterium itself is considered capable of intervening in matters of morality only in order to `exhort consciences' and to `propose values,' in the light of which each individual will independently make his or her decisions and life choices."