Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: On Being the Church: Essays on the Christian Community, eds Colin E. Gunton and Daniel W. Hardy. Congregation: Stories and Structures, ed. James F. Hopewell. Long Night's Journey Into Day: Revised Retrospective on the Holocaust, eds Alice L. Eckardt and A. Roy Eckardt. Inter-religious Dialogue in the Catholic Church since Vatican II: an Historical and Theological Study, ed. Robert B. Sheard. Religious Education Encounters Liberation Theology, by Daniel S. Schipani. Theological Roots of Pentecostalism, ed. Donald W. Dayton. Roman Catholic/Pentecostal Dialogue (1977–1982): a Study on Developing Ecumenism, ed. Jerry L. Sandidge.     

Much Ado About Something: An Ethic of the Common Good for Information Technology

As the culture of information technology grows and with it the exacerbation of associated problems, so does the body of literature that seeks to reflect on its impact and prospects. The advancements in information technology tend to be outpacing critical reflection and solid ethical analysis. The quality of the foundational ethical work done in information technology ethics has been inadequate, consisting of applied ethics or an appeal to law. This article considers how the richer perspective—the common good, as expressed through the lens of the Roman Catholic Church—can serve as a hermeneutic in the field of information technology ethics, offering a more substantial foundation to address pressing controversial issues associated with this burgeoning field and function as a guide for future developments in this industry. The common good can supplement the operative ways of appealing to law and business ethics to address crime and abuse associated with the World Wide Web with a specifically Roman Catholic paradigm and, in turn, offer a broader and richer appreciation of the societal-wide context that information technology impacts.     

Gender and Sexuality in the Pastoral Encounter

Abstract

At the ‘Embodied Ministry: Gender, Sexuality and Formation’ conference at which the articles in this special issue were delivered, three people in active ministry in different denominations — United Reformed Church, Metropolitan Community Church and Roman Catholic — were invited to take part in a panel discussion on gender and sexuality in the pastoral encounter. Their remarks were originally delivered in this conversational context. Martin Pendergast chaired this panel discussion.     

Introduction and overview: Global information ethics

This is an introduction to a set of papers on Computer Ethics from the conference ETHICOMP95. Taken as a whole, the collection of papers provides arguments and concepts to launch a new development in computer ethics: ‘Global Information Ethics’. A rationale for globalization is provided, as well as some early efforts which move in that direction. ETHICOMP95, an international conference on Computer Ethics, was held 28–30 March 1995 at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Co-directors were Terrell Ward Bynum and Simon Rogerson.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Claims in Conflict : Retrieving and Renewing the Catholic Human Rights Tradition , by David Hollenbach . The Church and Unity , by B. C. Butler . Missionstheologie , by Horst Bürkle . Protestant and Roman Catholic Ethics : Prospects for Rapprochement , by James M. Gustafson .     

Healing as Constitutive of Jesus’ Mission Handed to the Church

After a basic statement of the Catholic doctrine on healing ministry, this article adopts the understanding of the World Council of Churches’ document Healing and Wholeness: The Churches’ Role in Health, adopted in 1990 by the central committee. The document views health, healing, and wholeness not just as medical issues, but as embracing the political, social, economic, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. Building on the above, this article proposes an integral approach to sacramental healing for the African Catholic Church, arguing that alongside healing of physical ailments and deliverance from evil and malignant forces, healing must include working for social justice and peace for the people.     

The ethics activities of the World Medical Association

Since its formation in 1947, the World Medical Association (WMA) has been a leading voice in international medical ethics. The WMA’s principal ethics activity over the years has been policy development on a wide variety of issues in medical research, medical practice and health care delivery. With the establishment of a dedicated Ethics Unit in 2003, the WMA’s ethics activities have intensified in the areas of liaison, outreach and product development. Initial priorities for the Ethics Unit have been the review of paragraph 30 of the Declaration of Helsinki, the expansion of the Ethics Unit section of the WMA website and the development of an ethics manual for medical students everywhere. An earlier version of this paper was presented at an international conference, “The Ethics of Intellectual Property Rights and Patents,” held in Warsaw, Poland on 23–24 April, 2004.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Keith Clements, Faith on the Frontier: A Life of J. H. Oldham James F. Keenan SJ ed., Catholic Ethicists on HIV/AIDS Prevention Myriam Wijlens, Sharing the Eucharist Edy Korthals Altes, Heart and Soul for Europe: An Essay on Spiritual Renewal Elizabeth C. Nordbeck et al. eds, Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ: Consolidation and Expansion     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Understanding the Word: Essays in Honour of Bernhard W. Anderson. Edited by James T. Butler, Edgar W. Conrad and Ben C. Ollenburger. A Word in Season: Essays in Honour of William McKane. Edited by James D. Martin and Philip R. Davies. The Prophet Amos: A Translation and Commentary. By J. Alberto Soggin. Her Price is Beyond Rubies: The Jewish Woman in Graeco-Roman Palestine. By Léonie J. Archer. JSOT Supplement Series 60. The Gospel of Luke (Sacra Pagina 3). By Luke Timothy Johnson. The Acts of the Apostles (Sacra Pagina 5). By Luke Timothy Johnson. Mark and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies. Edited by Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen D. Moore. Jesus the Exorcist: A Contribution to the Study of the Historical Jesus (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2/54). By Graham H. Twelftree. The Death of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. By Raymond E. Brown. Paul and rhe Popular Philosophers. By Abraham J. Malherbe. History of New Testament Research, Volume One: From Deism to Tubingen. By William Baird. Theological Ethics of the New Testament. By Eduard Lohse. Living a Christian Life: Vol. 2 of The Way of the Lord Jesus. By Germain Grisez. Moral Demands and Personal Obligations. By Josef Fuchs. Plurality and Chrisrian Ethics. By Ian Markham. The Nature of Moral Thinking. By Francis Snare. Ethics (Oxford Readers). Edited by Peter Singer. Goodness and Rightness in Thomas Aquinas's ‘Summa Theologiae’. By James F. Keenan. Divine Power: The Medieval Power Distinction up to its Adoption by Albert, Bonaventure and Aquinas. By Lawrence Moonan. Preserving the Creation: Environmental Theology and Ethics. Edited by Kevin W. Irwin and Edmund D. Pellegrino. Religion and the Making of Society. By Charles Davis. The Good Stewards: Practical Applications of the Papal Social Vision of Work. By Michael Naughton. Things Old and New: Catholic Social Teaching Revisited. Edited by Francis P. McHugh and Samuel Natale. The Church Faces the Modern World: ‘Rerum Novarum’ and its Impact. Edited by Paul Furlong and David Curtis. Catholic Social Thought and the New World Order: Building on One Hundred Years. Edited by Oliver F. Williams and John W. Houck. The Church and Morality: An Ecumenical and Catholic Approach. By Charles E. Curran. God, Truth and Reality: Essays in Honour of John Hick. Edited by Arvind Sharma. Christianity and Chinese Religions. By Hans Kiing and Julia Ching. The Catholic Church in Modern China: Perspectives. Edited by Edmond Tang and Jean-Paul Wiest. Education And Meaning: Philosophy in Practice. By Paddy Walsh. Detachment and Concern: Conversations in the Philosophy of Teaching and Teacher Education. By Margret Buchman and Robert Floden. Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics and the Movies (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communications). By Gregory D. Black. Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, 1000–1300 (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks). By Janet Burton. The Early Reformation in Europe. Edited by Andrew Pettegree.     

Reviews

Books reviewed in this article: Justin J. Meggitt, Paul, Poverty and Survival. J. Trebolle Barrera, The Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible: an Introduction to the History of the Bible. Bonnie Thurston, Women in the New Testament: Questions and Commentary. Lewis Ayres and Gareth Jones (eds), Christian Origins: Theology, Rhetoric and Community. Malcolm Lambert, The Cathars. Jan Bonda, The One Purpose of God: An Answer to the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment. H. Richard Niebuhr, Theology, History, and Culture: Major Unpublished Writings. Michael Northcott (ed.), Urban Theology: A Reader. C. Dale White, Making a Just Peace: Human Rights & Domination Systems. Colin Buchanan, Is the Church of England Biblical? An Anglican Ecclesiology. Darrell L. Guder (ed.), Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Bert Hoedemaker, Secularization and Mission: A Theological Essay. Walter Klaiber, Call and Response: Biblical Foundations of a Theology of Evangelism. Walter Brueggemann & George Stroup (eds), Many Voices, One God: Being Faithful in a Pluralistic World. Michael Root & Risto Saarinen (eds), Baptism and the Unity of the Church. S.M. Heim (ed.), Grounds for Understanding: Ecumenical Resources for Responses to Religious Pluralism. Yirmiyahu Yovel, Dark Riddle: Hegel, Nietzsche, and the Jews. Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner, Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness. M. A. Ryan & T. D. Whitmore (eds), The Challenge of Global Stewardship: Roman Catholic Responses. Rodger Charles SJ, Social Witness and Teaching: The Catholic Tradition from Genesis to Centesimus Annus. Rowena Robinson, Conversion, Continuity and Change: Lived Christianity in Southern Goa. James Luther Adams and Wilson Yates (eds), The Grotesque in Art and Literature: Theological Reflections. C. Gestrich, The Return of Splendor in the World: The Christian Doctrine of Sin and Forgiveness. D. Watts, Religion in Late Roman Britain: Forces of Change. Peter Byrne, The Moral Interpretation of Religion.     

A team-taught interdisciplinary approach to engineering ethics

This paper outlines the development and implementation of a new course in Engineering Ethics at the University of Tennessee. This is a three-semester-hour course and is jointly taught by an engineering professor and a philosophy professor. While traditional pedagogical techniques such as case studies, position papers, and classroom discussions are used, additional activities such as developing a code of ethics and student-developed scenarios are employed to encourage critical thinking. Among the topics addressed in the course are engineering as a profession and its role in society; ethical successes and failures; risk, safety, and the environment; professional responsibilities; credit and intellectual property; and international concerns. The most significant aspect of the course is that it brings both engineering and non-engineering points of view to the topics at hand. This is accomplished in two ways. First, as mentioned previously, it is team-taught by engineering faculty with an interest in ethical and societal issues, and by philosophy faculty with expertise in the field of professional ethics and an interest in science and technology. Second, the course is offered to both engineers and non-engineers. This mix of students requires that all students must be able to explain their technical and ethical decisions in a non-technical manner. Work teams are structured to maximize interdisciplinary interaction and to foster insights by each student into the professional commitments and attitudes of others. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 conference, Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology, Linking Workplace Ethics and Education, co-hosted by Gonzaga University and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 9–10 June 2005.     

Is It Still a Movement?

In this address from 1971, the second general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Eugene Carson Blake, sets out the challenges facing the WCC at the beginning of the 1970s, identifying three key changes within the ecumenical movement: a shift in power and decision making away from the Protestant churches of North America and Western Europe; an organization more representative of churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and of Orthodox churches; and the ecumenical involvement of the Roman Catholic Church. It goes on to set out how the WCC, particularly since its conference on Church and Society held in Geneva in 1966, has been attempting to make Christian faith and morals relevant to a world experiencing rapid social, economic, and political change.     

Called to be holy: the transformative potential of Christian service programmes in Catholic schools

This is the second in a series of four papers which seeks to articulate theologically and practically the consequences of the ecclesial identity of the Catholic school. The series is based on the principle that the ‘marks’ of the Church – one, holy, catholic, and apostolic – are also marks of the Catholic school, since the Catholic school is within the Church and derives its ecclesial identity from the Church. Each paper analyses one of these ‘marks’, discerning what it means theologically and practically for the Catholic school. In this paper, the second of the marks of the Church and therefore of the Catholic school – holiness – is discussed in terms of what it means to be, and to continually become, holy. In reference to a current research project, Christian service programmes in Catholic schools are analysed in regard to what they already contribute to the formation in holiness of Catholic students, but also in terms of what more they may become. It is argued that for their potential for growth in holiness for teachers and students to be fully realised, Christian service programmes need to be more than just charitable works, and that they need to engage critically with inequity and injustice in keeping with the Church’s radical social teaching.     

Reading Against the Grain,Readings of Substitution: Catholic Books as Inspiration for Judaism in Early Modern Iberia

Forced conversion produced a large number of converts, many or at least some of whom sought to continue to practice their former religion. For many crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims, polemical literature was actually a source of knowledge about their old religion—sometimes the only source. It was not unusual for Iberian New Christians, lacking access to Jewish or Islamic books, to make use of Catholic works either to gather information about Judaism and Islam or to borrow from their expressions of spirituality and piety. In this essay I explore the unintended readings and reception of polemical works among converts, in particular the Christian books of piety and devotion that persons of converso origin read and used in their own writings. In the end most of these books were included by the Inquisition and Church censors in the Index of Forbidden Books, affecting in this way the perception of these orthodox books by Catholic Church authorities. On the one hand, I am interested in how a heterodox (or Jewish or Muslim) spirituality could be constructed using Catholic books; on the other hand, in how this phenomenon had an impact on orthodox Catholics. I argue that Catholic books were sometimes condemned to the Index simply because they were read by New Christians who the Inquisition considered to be judaizers or crypto-Muslims.

     

Is the Catholic Church in America Experiencing Internal Secularization? Priests’ Assessments of Pope Francis and the Condition of the Church

This study addressed internal secularization in the Catholic Church by testing the role of several factors in priests’ assessments of the state of the Church in the United States, priests’ views of whether the Church's situation is getting better or worse, and their attitudes toward Pope Francis. Comparisons with identical questions fielded in 2002 revealed a striking pessimistic turn among priests over the last two decades. In addition, regression analyses using the 2021 Survey of American Catholic Priests revealed that “in-house” factors—namely, attitudes toward Pope Francis and perceptions of how well bishops have restored confidence in the Catholic Church following the sexual abuse crisis—most powerfully predicted priests’ current pessimism. On top of this, politically conservative priests and priests ordained more recently tended to be most critical of how Francis is handling his duties, signaling a pronounced tension inside the Catholic Church over religious authority, a defining feature of internal secularization.     

Reviews

Books reviewed: William Schweiker, Theological Ethics and Global Dynamics: In the Time of Many Worlds.
Reviewed by Brian Brock Margaret R. Miles, The Word Made Flesh: A History of Christian Thought.
Reviewed by William C. Placher Daniel Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology.
Reviewed by John Flett Karen Kilby, Karl Rahner: Theology and Philosophy.
Reviewed by Michael Purcell Kevin D. Kennedy, Union with Christ and the Extent of the Atonement in Calvin.
Reviewed by Iain Taylor C. Helmer and C. Landmesser, eds., One Scripture or Many? Canon from Biblical, Theological and Philosophical Perspectives.
Reviewed by Andrew T. Lincoln Gabriel Flynn, Yves Congar's Vision of the Church in a World of Unbelief.
Reviewed by Paul M. Collins Paul Helm and Oliver D. Crisp, eds., Jonathan Edwards: Philosophical Theologian.
Reviewed by W. Ross Hastings Henrique Pinto, Foucault, Christianity and Interfaith Dialogue.
Reviewed by John Flett David Lauber, Barth on the Descent into Hell: God, Atonement and the Christian Life.
Reviewed by Nathan R. Strunk     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: “HISTORY”, AS PRESENTED IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION: Time and History — A Study on the Revelation, by Mathias Rissi, translation by Gordon C. Winsor. WORSHIP AND MISSION: The Church Worships (Concilium, Vol. XII), by Johannes Wagner and Helmut Hucke. WORSHIP AND MISSION: Worship and Mission, by J. G. Davies. ASIAN ECUMENICAL HERITAGE: Asia and the Ecumenical Movement 1896–1961, by Hans-Ruedi Weber CHURCH AND SOCIETY, VOLUMES I, II, III: Responsible Government in a Revolutionary Age, Edited by Z. K. Matthews CHURCH AND SOCIETY, VOLUMES I, II, III: Christian Social Ethics in a Changing World. Ed. John C. Bennett. CHURCH AND SOCIETY, VOLUMES I, II, III: Man in Community. Ed. Egbert de Vries. “GRANDCHILDREN, MEET YOUR GRANDPARENTS”: Brief Outline on the Study of Theology, by Friedrich Schleiermacher, translated by Terrence N. Tice. “GRANDCHILDREN, MEET YOUR GRANDPARENTS”: Faith and the Vitalities of History: A Theological Study Based on the Work of Albrecht Ritschl, by Philip Hefner. RESPONSIBILITY AMID CHANGE: Welt im Umbruch. Gesellschaftliche und geistige Probleme in den Entwikklungsländern, by Karl Heinz Pfeffer.     

Teaching ethics: More than an honor code

An honor code is certainly a good place to start teaching engineering students about ethics, but teaching students to live honorably requires far more effort than memorizing a code of ethics statement or applying it just to academic performance. In the School of Engineering at Grand Valley State University, we have followed the model provided by the United States Military Academy at West Point. For our students this involves an introduction to the Honor Code as part of a larger Honor Concept at the very beginning of their studies and then making it an integral part of their preparation as engineers. The challenge is significant because the culture at large does not support living with an Honor Concept. This paper will begin with a discussion of the cultural context in which we must teach, because that context has changed significantly in the years since many faculty members were students themselves. The rest of the paper will detail the approach that we have taken to teach ethics as an engineer’s way of life. “The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be. All human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” Plato An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 conference, Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology, Linking Workplace Ethics and Education, co-hosted by Gonzaga University and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 9–10 June 2005.     

What Really Happened: A Tribute to John C. Fletcher

John C. Fletcher, a pioneer in the field of bioethics and friend and mentor to many generations of bioethicists, died tragically on May 27th at the age of 72. The son of an Episcopal priest from Bryan, TX, Fletcher graduated in 1953 with a degree in English Literature from the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. After completing a Masters in Divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary and a stint as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Heidelberg in 1956, he was ordained in the Episcopal Church and received a doctorate in Christian ethics from the Union Theological Seminary in New York. After ordination, Fletcher worked in various Episcopal churches and founded the Interfaith Metropolitan Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. However, despite his religious faith, he was also a skeptic, and renounced his ordination in the mid-1990s due to his need for ‘intellectual honesty.’

Fletcher began his bioethics contributions in the early 1970's, when he became a founding Fellow of the Hastings Center and eventually the first Chief of the Bioethics Program at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health. At the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, he was the Founding Director of the Center for Bioethics and a professor of biomedical ethics at the medical school, and became the Kornfeld Professor of Biomedical Ethics until his retirement in 1999. Fletcher was a prominent authority and voice in the national and international bioethical dialogue through his talks, his testimonies before scientific and congressional panels, his many articles, and his bioethical and religiously-orientated books, including: An Introduction to Clinical Ethics (1997), Coping with Genetic Disorders: a Guide for Clergy and Parents (1982), Ethics and Human Genetics: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (1989), which he wrote with sociologist Dorothy C. Wertz. Dr. Fletcher received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities in 2000. With the passing of Dr. John C. Fletcher, bioethics has lost one of its great voices, a dedicated teacher and mentor, and a friend and colleague to scholars in bioethics and a host of other fields. Below is a touching tribute from one of his former students.