PREFACE
When I was in the process of writing an earlier book on divorce and second
marriage, a friend of mine asked me what kind of reader I was writing
for.
I found that a difficult question to answer. In the end I replied that I was
probably writing the book for myself. I felt that if I could get my own thinking
clearer on that difficult and complex theological and pastoral issue, that
might be of some help to others too. I suppose I would say the same thing if
I was asked who I was writing this book for. When the publisher approached
me about it, I was very hesitant at first. In the end I agreed to have an attempt
at it. I thought that it might force me to clarify my own thinking on a number
of topics which I have discussed with my students without committing myself
to one side or the other in the debate.
I do not claim to be an original thinker, nor a deep thinker. I am a
run-of-the-mill teacher of moral theology who has read fairly widely in the
field and who has tried to listen a lot. I am convinced that moral theology
at the present time is facing questions of immense importance at the level
of both methodology and practice. Most of this book deals with the first of
these two levels but I believe that the questions involved have far-reaching
practical implications.
My thinking is not original but I hope it is personal. I have tried to listen
carefully to the thinking of other people but that does not mean I have listened
uncritically. In other words, I have tried to evaluate this thinking and look
at its implications for practical moral living. My own personal situation is
PREFACE
helpful to this process. As well as lecturing in Christian Ethics at Heythrop
College in the University of London, I am also charged with pastoral
responsibility for the parish of Our Lady's, Eldon St, in the northern sector
of inner-city Liverpool. There is no doubt in my mind that the people in whose
midst I am privileged to live in Liverpool play an important role in my
understanding Christian ethics. The very down-to-earth love and wisdom that
is evident in their everyday living, despite all its hardship and ambiguity,
provides an important resource for Christian ethics. I am fortunate in being
able to draw on their 'expertise', crafted in the school of experience over
many generations. Moreover, what bearing, if any, a topic discussed in
Christian ethics has on their lives provides me with a touch-stone for testing
out how important such a topic might be for real life. Someone writing about
life in the city of Liverpool recently spoke of it as a "universe-city". I
honestly believe that this book owes at least as much to my belonging to the
universe-city of Liverpool as it does to my involvement in the University of
London.
Obviously, writing a book like this involves being open to self-criticism when
some ofthe thinking in it touches on some fundamental moral questions about
which there is evidence of deep concern in the church. A good friend of mine
once remarked that he would love to hear a Pastoral Letter beginning with the
words, "I may be wrong but...". In a sense, I would like the reader to imagine
those words written at the top of every page of this book. This is because
I believe that truth statements on some highly debated issues in the field
of morality are difficult to arrive at and hence any attempt to articulate
PREFACE
them must be presented with due modesty and must lay itself open to critical
questions.
Moreover,
these
truth
statements
have
a
certain
note
of
provisionality about them. Insofar as they are true, they are a partial
statement of the truth. They are certainly not the whole truth, nor are they
necessarily the best expression of this partial grasp of the truth. But more
of that later in the book.
Here and there in the book what I have written impinges on Roman Catholic moral
teaching. I could have written a "safe" book. If I had done so, I believe I
would have been unfaithful to my "ecclesial vocation" as a moral theologian.
I believe strongly in my church. It is this belief which gives me the confidence
to say what I regard as the truth within the Catholic church. I believe there
is great wisdom and love in my church. I recognize too that there is also
unwisdom and unlove in my church. To be afraid to voice what I think is true
would be tantamount to saying that I believe that unwisdom and unlove is
stronger than wisdom and love in my church. And that I do not believe. Moreover,
I hope I am ready to recognize that there is a fair share of unwisdom and unlove
in me. And since to a large extent that can be presumed to take the form of
blindness, I am probably unaware of its operation in me and its influence on
my thinking and writing. That is an added reason for the subliminal message,
"I may be wrong but..." inscribed at the top of every page. If my unwisdom
and unlove have led me to put forward some foolish or unloving moral positions
in this book, I believe that there is enough wisdom and love in my church to
cope with that and set the record straight.
PREFACE
I have already called on some of that wisdom and love by showing parts of the
draft of my book to
a number of fellow-Christians whom I would regard as
"experts" either because of their professional competence or their experience
at the coal-face of life in the raw. I also respect them for their wise and
loving living and I know that
their wisdom and love would lead them to point
out to me any unwisdom and unlove in what I have written. In this connection
I would like to thank particularly Dr Bernard Hoose, Professor Ellen Leonard,
Dr Gerard J Hughes and Dr Anne Murphy. I would never have been able to write
this book without the encouragement and practical help given me by Fr Jim
Dunne. Thanks to his hard work and dedication I knew that the people back home
in Liverpool would not be neglected while I busy on my word-procedssor at
Heythrop College. I must also thank Anne King from Geoffrey Chapman. She first
talked me into writing this book and her gentle patience and understanding
kept the project alive when the going was hard.
In the Nash Lecture for 1988 Richard McCormick offered his dream for moral
theology in the year 2000 and expressed his hope that such a future moral
theology would be both "universal" and "ecumenical". In saying that he is not
ditching the specifically Christian dimension nor is he wanting to deny the
existence of a Catholic tradition of moral theology. He is saying, however,
that moral theology must have "some persuasiveness in general experience" and
hence must not be sectarian and outside the normal domain of public moral
discourse. The purpose of this book is to explore some of the implications
of such a moral theology.