Abstract
Published in 1989, Richard Gula’s Reason Informed by Faith, very quickly became a standard text for introductory courses in moral theology. Indeed it is still prominent in the select bibliographies that induct undergraduates into the field of Christian moral reflection. Gula’s style is clear, frequently drawing on the work of contemporary theologians and incorporating sociological and historical insights. Commonly, the select bibliographies balance this approach with a text published just two years later, namely William E. May’s An Introduction to Moral Theology (1991). May’s method is classicist, relying on a neo-Thomist account of natural law and its interpretation by key texts of the Magisterium.
What these two influential books share however is that relatively little attention is given to the virtues. Admittedly, they are touched upon but they do not have an architectural role. How things have changed! Fast-forward a few short years and the most accessible introductory texts in moral theology are consciously shaped according to the structure of virtue-ethics. Most explicitly this occurs in William C. Mattison’s Introducing Moral Theology: True Happiness and the Virtues (2008); other examples include the contributions in Paul Waddell, Happiness and the Christian Moral Life: An Introduction to Christian Ethics (2008) and, with Patricia Lamourex, The Christian Moral Life: Faith Discipleship for a Global Society (2010). A further distinctive mark of this new wave of authors is the use of the scriptures. Unlike May, Gula confronts the methodological issues implicit in the encounter of scripture and ethics. However, in the texts above, the self-consciousness of Gula has faded away. In spite of this, they do not maintain a sustained exegesis of the scriptures.
It is in this setting that Chan’s book offers a helpful contribution. He continues the current trend in using virtue-ethics as an organizational and normative framework while presenting an approachable and exegetical rigorous account of key scriptural texts that have moral import. I have purposefully placed Chan’s book within the above context, partly because of my experience in introducing Christian ethics to students and interested people but also because of Chan’s own stated goal. By the remit of its own subtitle, it is not meant to be a complex academic treatise, but aims to provide an ethics for real life by way of Biblical studies. It is therefore an introductory text.
Chan exegetically attends to each of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, providing an ethical reflection for each by way of one of the virtues. Although the centrality of these two passages is undeniable, Chan justifies his decision by simply reasserting the importance of these specific passages in the tradition and as proposed by the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s document The Bible and Morality: Biblical Roots of Christian Conduct (2008). However, this straightforward assertion brackets out other key elements of the scriptures—particularly Paul, the Prophets and the Creation narrative—with a silence. To be fair, it would become a long and dense book to include everything, yet methodological decisions in choosing some passages over others are best acknowledged and defended. It seems to me that this speaks to a certain methodological naiveté.
The chapters each cover one of the Ten Commandments and eight Beatitudes. Taking each in turn, he begins by asking what ‘what did the text command?’ and ‘what does the text proclaim?’ After the subsequent exegetical reading of the particular passage, he presents an associated virtue. Virtues, as habits of a person’s character, are fostered by practices, inspired by exemplars and maintained by social and communal supports. It is this dynamic that allows him to relate each command and proclamation to real life. For example, after a close reading of the Seventh Commandment (Exod 20:15), he proposes the virtue of valuing property and the liberty of others, which among the many associated virtues he primarily equates with justice. He names sharing and hospitality, tithing, and a preferential option for the poor as accompanying practices. Then he offers Jesus, Martin Luther King, and Catholic Social Teaching as models of such virtues. Finally, the social and communal aspect is of justice is reaffirmed by way of a short reflection on globalization.
This book draws together the best of recent scholarship in both scripture and ethics, most especially of the English-speaking world. It is therefore best termed as descriptive work. At its best, it is succinct and well laid out, and very approachable. At other times however, it becomes repetitive and indeed derivative. I wish to restate that this is an introductory text. As such, I would highly recommend it but for the same reason I would disagree with the claims that are being made for it. For instance, in the foreword James Keenan and the late Daniel Harrington write that this book represents ‘a major breakthrough.’ This would seem to me quite overstated. It is not a revolutionary text: it weaves from others rather than constructing anew from foundational or core ideas. Instead, any influence will be at a pedagogical level, reaffirming for either undergraduates or interested persons the necessary interrelationship of scripture and ethics for Christian living. Of course, if it achieves this, it will be welcome.