A History of Catholic Theological Ethics

Lisa Cahill
Boston College
Daniel Daly
Boston College
M. Cathleen Kaveny
Boston College
Brett O'Neill
Boston College
Katherine Ward
Boston College
Date: Friday, November 11, 2022
Time: 4 - 5:30pm听 听听
Location: Hovey House Library
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Abstract
James Keenan, S.J., one of the most important Catholic scholars of theological ethics in the United States, traces the revered history of moral theology from the New Testament to the present in听A History of Catholic Theological Ethics.听The book has garnered praise from a variety of scholars for his compelling insights in the relevance of that tradition for our own time. Drawing on his own scholarly themes of mercy, conscience and virtue, Keenan moves thatr history into contemporary concerns about the view from the "margins," the emergence of women's voices, and the view from the global south.
Speakers Bios

Lisa Sowle Cahill, Ph.D., is the J. Donald Monan, S.J. Professor in the theology department at Boston College. Dr. Cahill is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America (1992-93) and of the Society of Christian Ethics (1997-98). She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her works include Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War and Peacebuilding (Fortress, 2019); A Theology and Praxis of Gender Equality (Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2018); and Global Justice, Christology and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Daniel Daly, associate professor of moral theology, earned his Ph.D. in theological ethics at Boston College in 2008. Before joining the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, he was associate professor of theology at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH. He served as the theology department chair for five of his thirteen years at Saint Anselm.
Daly is an experienced clinical medical ethicist, having served on the ethics committees of the Catholic Medical Center and the Elliot Hospital in Manchester, NH. He was also a member of the Catholic Health Association鈥檚 Theologian/Ethicist committee. Daly is an active member of the Catholic Theological Society of America, The Society of Christian Ethics, and the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church initiative.
His monograph,听The Structures of Virtue and Vice, was published in 2021 by Georgetown University Press and was awarded first place in the Theological and Philosophical Studies category by the Catholic Media Association in July of 2022.听

M. Cathleen Kaveny听is a scholar who focuses on the relationship of law, religion, and morality, serves as the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, a position that includes appointments in both the department of theology and the law school. She is the first faculty member to hold such a joint appointment. A member of the Massachusetts Bar, Kaveny clerked for the Honorable John T. Noonan Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as an associate at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray in its health law group. She was the 2018-2019 Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress.
Kaveny has published four books and over a hundred articles and essays, in journals and books specializing in law, ethics, and medical ethics. She serves on the masthead of听Commonweal听as a regular columnist. Her books include听Law鈥檚 Virtues: Fostering Autonomy and Solidarity in American Society听(Georgetown University Press, 2012);听A Culture of Engagement: Law, Religion, and Morality听(Georgetown University Press, 2016);听Prophecy without Contempt: Religious Discourse in the Public Square听(Harvard University Press, 2016); and听Ethics at the Edges of Law: Christian Moralists and American Legal Thought听(Oxford University Press, 2018).
Kaveny is the chair of the board of trustees of the听Journal of Religious Ethics. She has been the president of the Society of Christian Ethics, the major professional society for scholars of Christian ethics and moral theology in North America. It meets annually in conjunction with the Society of Jewish Ethics and the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics.
Kaveny has served on a number of editorial boards including听The American Journal of Jurisprudence,听The Journal of Religious Ethics, the听Journal of Law and Religion, and听The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. She has been a visiting professor at Princeton University, Yale University and Georgetown University, and a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago鈥檚 Martin Marty Center. From 1995 until 2013 she taught law and theology at the University of Notre Dame, where she was a John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law.听

Brett O'Neill, S.J. is a doctoral candidate at 亚色影库's theology department,听concentrating in theological ethics.听Before entering the Society of Jesus, he worked in public policy with the Australian Government.听His dissertation will focus on Catholic Social Teaching concerning nation-states' regulation of immigration.

Katie Ward is a graduate student in the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and will earn her Master of Theological Studies degree in May 2023. Prior to coming to Boston College, Katie served as a fourth grade teacher in Minneapolis, MN and earned her Master of Education degree at the University of Notre Dame through the Alliance for Catholic Education Teaching Fellows program. Her research focuses on the intersection of faith, culture, and schooling in Native American Catholic schools and other Catholic schools serving culturally and linguistically diverse students. Katie has published and presented across academic and practitioner spaces on Native American boarding school truth and healing and the role that culturally sustaining Catholic schools play in this movement.
Read More
James Keenan. A History of Catholic Theological Ethics. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2022.
__________, Kristin Heyer and Andrea Vicini, eds. Building Bridges in Sarajevo: The Plenary Papers of Sarajevo 2018. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, July 2019.
__________ and Mark McGreevy, eds. Street Homelessness and Catholic Theological Ethics. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis books, July 2019.
__________ and Grant Gallicho, eds. Amoris Laetitia: A New Momentum for Moral Formation and Pastoral Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2018.
__________, You Sing L煤c谩s Chan, and Ronaldo Zacharias, eds. The Bible and Catholic Theological Ethics. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2017).
__________, Yiu Sing L煤c谩s Chan, and Shaji George Kochuthara, eds. Doing Catholic Theological Ethics in a Cross Cultural and Interreligious Asian Context. Bangalore: Dharmaram Press, 2016.
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__________. 鈥淭he Color Line, Race and Caste: Structures of Domination and the Ethics of Recognition.鈥 Theological Studies 82, no. 1 (2021): 69-94.听
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__________. 鈥淐havarul, Virtue Ethics, and Amoris Laetitia.鈥 In Vocation and Mission of the Family: Reflections on Chavarul and Amoris Laetitia. Shaji George Kochuthara, editor. Bangalore: Dharmaram Publication, 2021: 34-48.
__________. 鈥淰ulnerable to Contingency,鈥 Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 40, no. 2 (2021): 221-236.
__________. 鈥淩egarding Amoris Laetitia: Its Language, Its Reception, Some Challenges, and the Agnosticism of Some of the Hierarchy,鈥 Perspectiva Teol贸gica 听53, no. 1 (2021): 41-60.听
__________, Philip Landrigan, and Lilian Ferrer. 鈥淐OVID-19 and Health Disparities: Structural Evil Unmasked.鈥 Annals of Global Health 86, no. 1 (April 1, 2021): 1-5.听
__________. 鈥淛oe Biden und der Katholizismus in den USA,鈥 Stimmen der Zeit 146 (2021): 355-364.
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In the News
in America, Sean Salai discovers that the moral theology of Pope Francis is one characterized as a 鈥渧ery pastorally engaged moral theology鈥 and one focused on mercy. This focus on mercy, Keenan argues, is Ignatian in that it is only achieved through prayer. Keenan further argues that Francis鈥檚 focus on prayer and asceticism is a particular challenge to the United States and other wealthy nations that believe they can survive any threats鈥搒uch as environmental鈥搃nstead of focusing on the global common good.


