Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader [Paperback]

Janet Smith (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1993

Edited by Janet E. Smith For the 25th anniversary year of the historic document Humanae Vitae (1968), Janet Smith has gathered together twenty-one outstanding essays and articles by well-respected thinkers to provide the demonstration that Pope Paul VI was not simply correct, but prophetic. While this document is still widely neglected and misunderstood, the Church continues to proclaim that contraception is a moral evil and that the view of man, sexuality, and marriage that leads to the use of the Pill is not one that is compatible with human dignity, sexual responsibility and spousal love. Many are unaware that there have been energetic and persuasive worth defenses of this teaching. The general reader, as well as the ethicist and moral theologian, will find much here to stimulate his thinking on this issue. Contributors include William May, Paul Quay, Elizabeth Anscombe, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Carlo Caffara, Cormac Burke, Ralph McInerny, John Kippley, John Finnis and Janet Smith. "From the perspective of the 1960s, few but the Pope saw the dire future consequences of a distorted understanding of human sexuality which separates conjugal love from its life-giving dimension. This Humanae Vitae `reader' puts at our disposal for layperson, professional, or priest, twenty one significant essays in a series of well-reasoned defenses of the Catholic position." - Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Archbishop of Philadelphia "We now have more reason to believe than ever before that Humanae Vitae, the encyclical that many Catholics fought against, scoffed at, dissented from, and even left the Church over, is right. Janet Smith's scholarly compendium will provide ample evidence for the open-minded reader of Humanae Vitae's personalistic foundation, philosophical breadth, practical soundness, and prophetic inspiration." - Donald DeMarco, Author, Biotechnology and the Assault on Parenthood "A superb collecti

Product Details

• Paperback: 591 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (June 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898704332
• ISBN-13: 978-0898704334
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks to Janet Smith..., November 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader (Paperback)

...my husband decided to not use any method of artificial birth control. It was a struggle for both of us, but this book really put the moral law into perspective. Janet Smith does a wonderful (and very non-preachy job) of explaining what contraception does to a marriage. In particular, the "testimony" chapter in this book was a thump on the head as we read about couples whose marriages improved when they started embracing their fertility as a gift, not a disease. Janet Smith believes contraception makes couples fight each other, and forces a woman to become constantly infertile to accomadate the constant fertility of a man. Thats one of the best reasons given in the book for the use of Natural Family Planning, so that the man must acclimate himself to his WIFE'S cyclical fertility.

This book is a must read no matter what you believe about the Catholic position on artificial birth control. Get the facts.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convincing, June 11, 2001

By 

Erik N. Fain (Lake Charles, La United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader (Paperback)

As a Catholic I once had my doubts about the Church's teaching on contraception. Later I came to oppose contraception for practical reasons and out of obedience. Then one day I stumbled accross WHY HUMANAE VITAE WAS RIGHT and once I started reading there was no putting it down. The beauty of this work is that it is a collection of writings from a variety of authors each with a unique perspective and each with his own unique style. So then, there is something for everyone. Whether the reader preferrs to hear personal experiences or wants to see it all in a syllogism, this book delivers. This is a must read for anyone who is feeling pressured to disregard the Church's teaching for it shows the wisdom, beauty, and bottom line common sense of the Church's stance.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prophetic Teaching, August 30, 2003

By 

Oswald Sobrino (Traverse City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader (Paperback)

In this book, Prof. Janet Smith collects essays written before and after the issuance of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968 reaffirming the Catholic rejection of contraception. It is a wonderful collection of essays, with my personal favorite being the incisive and crisp essay by the late British philosopher G.E.M. Anscombe (a woman, by the way) who cuts with brilliance through much of the muddled thinking about birth control. Another outstanding essay is by John Crosby on the philosophical personalism of John Paul II. In addition, included is a translation of the encyclical itself by Janet Smith based on the official Latin text.

The prophetic nature of the Church's teaching against contraception is seen in the current approval by some liberal Christians of the gay lifestyle. This outcome is not surprising because once the ban on contraception is rejected, there is no logical basis for objecting to nonprocreative homosexual acts. Even the liberal Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who favors actively gay clergy, is on record as admitting that the embrace of contraception logically and eventually leads to the approval of the gay lifestyle.

Thus, the defenders of Humanae Vitae have been shown to be right. The Church's ban on contraception is central to Christian sexual morality. That is why the essays collected in this book are more important today than ever before.