The Virtues, or the Examined Life by Romanus Cessario (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 143 helpful contribution since this tradition is something moral theologians, to their discredit, often bypass. An essay by Thomas Hibbs on post-Vatican II interpretations of Aquinas's ethics should simply be required reading in every master's and doctoral program in Christian ethics. The final two contributions depart from this narrative mode. Ludger Honnefelder investigates the interplay of contemporary "teleological" theories of morality, with their emphasis on the evaluation ofconsequences, within current Thomisticmoral philosophy. Finally, as mentioned above, Frederick Lawrence presents the work of Bernard Lonergan, in its own way as vast and rich as that of Aquinas, as the result of Lonergan's lifelong "hermeneutical exchange" with Aquinas. That exchange enabled Lonergan to formulate his distinctive account of human experience, or more precisely, his account of human consciousness as experience, informed by the rhythms of both gift (grace) and achievement. In this respect, and in the implications of his method for a sustained critique of modern politics, culture, and philosophy, Lonergan exemplifies both the enduring power of Aquinas's moral thought and the inescapably theological nature of his project. In books of this sort and size there is always room to quibble about what might have been included, but wasn't. For example, there is virtually no explicit attention given to the influence of the Thomistic tradition on the development of magisterial moral pronouncements (especially those ofJohn Paul II), or in the various strata of liberationist ethics, or in the ongoing ecumenical encounters between Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, and Orthodox theologians. But these omissions are far from serious, and one is not left with the sense that the book is somehow incomplete because of them. The Ethics ofAquinas is still worthy of becoming one ofthe more frequently consultedsecondarysources in the ongoing and lively investigation of Aquinas's moral thought. University ofSt. Thomas St. Paul, Minnesota PAULJ.WOJDA The Virtues, or the Examined Life. By ROMANUS CESSARIO, 0.P. New York: Continuum, 2002. Pp. viii+ 202. $26.95 (paper). ISBN 0-8264-1389-7. This volume, intended to serve as a textbook, consists of seven chapters that examine the three theological virtues and the four cardinal virtues (acquired and infused), along with the associated gifts of the Holy Spirit and beatitudes. As such, it provides a thorough introduction to Aquinas's theology of the virtues. The great achievement of the book consists in displaying how the analysis of the theological and cardinal virtues provides a richly textured, supple outline of the Christian life. 144 BOOK REVIEWS Some moral theorists today reject moral absolutes on the grounds that the complex situations of real life militate against normative depictions of Christian holiness. In contrast to casuistry or to moral theories that focus upon the will, however, the study of the virtues offers an account of the acting person that properly contextualizes, in light of creation and grace, the explication of the moral absolute (102). The virtuous life is predicated upon the reality that certain ends-a just society, for example-are perfective of human nature. These ends follow from the kind of beings that human persons are, namely, rational animals called to a supernatural vocation of union with the Trinity. Human beings thus have hierarchically ordered ends that correspondto the psychological intellective and appetitive powers (knowing and loving), as well as to the operation of properly directed human passions. When adequately set forth, Cessario points out, the theology ofthe virtues exposes the rich relationship ofthe psychological powers and the human passions, thus identifying important foundations notonly for moral theology, but also for the applied science of psychology. The theology of the virtues nicely illumines the fallacy of the two-tier model of nature and grace. The study of the virtues displays the profound integration of nature and grace in two ways: by identifying the guiding supernatural ends inscribed by the theological virtues (above all charity), and by appreciating the distinction between acquired and infused moral virtues (101). Reflection upon moral virtue as acquired enables the theologian to give due weight to the significance of creation in understanding the human person. Without supposing that Adam, after sin, was an instance of "pure human nature" (69), the theologian becomes attentive to "the...