The Law of Christ. Vol. I, General Moral Theology by Bernard Häring, C. SS. R. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS The Law of Christ. Vol. I, General Moral 'J'heology. By BERNARD HXIuNa, C. SS. R. Translated by Edwin S. Kaiser, C. PP. S. Westminster, Md.: The Newman Press, 1961. Pp. xxxi, 615 with notes, bibliographies and index, $8.50. Father Haring's work has received high praise both in the original and in translation. It is to be expected that his chosen approach to this important branch of theology will likewise gain the acclaim of a new audience. The author lays down his guidelines in the Foreword. "A textbook or manual of moral theology is written primarily to suit the purpose proposed by its author.... Our purpose is an integration and synthesis of various systems. . . . First, we shall endeavor to describe the perfect ideal of the life in Christ and with Christ. This is the ideal of radical conformity with Christ through the exercise of the Christian virtues. Secondly, in conjunction with the treatment of the virtues, we shall point out the limits of the law . . . beyond which our conduct becomes a ·contradiction to the life of Christ and a hazard to the i~itation of Christ. . . . This leads to our third point. Moral theology must reveal how the good, like an arch resting on solid foundation, has its sound basis in law, but reaches to the summit of perfection. The dynamic character of morality is explicitly treated in the special chapter on conversion placed between the chapters on sin and virtue, but it is implicit in all the chapters of our work. ... With this end in view, the author attempted to keep the technical terminology at a minimum and to provide a text within the grasp of the earnest layman and also suitable for ready use by preacher and confessor for whom it should lighten the burden of presenting the eternal truths in a manner befitting our times. The very fact that a moral theology has been adapted to the capacity of the interested non-theologian may prove to be its best recommendation to the theologian and director of souls." (pp. viii-ix) How Father Haring develops his purpose is first judged by a survey of the content of the book. The first volume is divided into six parts with atotal of fourteen chapters. Part One: Introduction has two chapters, the first being an historical survey of moral teaching from the time of Christ to the moral theology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A relatively extensive treatment is accorded to St. Thomas and the magnificent beginning. which he gave in the Second Part of his Summa Theologiae to what is now known properly as moral theological science. Beginning with Sailer and Hirscher in the nineteenth century, the author concentrates on the German moralists, especially of the Tiibingen school, of which he is an alumnus. He makes 157 158 BOOK REVIEWS clear his sympathy with those authors who have reacted against the emphasis upon law and duty or obligation (" minimal legalism " and " the extreme bias of the juridical approach,") and who have approached moral matters in the light of freedom in the grace of Christ, of conformity to Christ, of love as at least an equal principle in moral theology. This outlook underscores the succeeding chapters. The second chapter, Essential, Concepts of Moral Theology, considers morality as responsibility, as fellowship, and as imitation of Christ. A grea\ role is assigned to the virtue of religion and responsibility is emphasized as the concept which expresses the Christian moral life. " Hence responsibility means that in a community between man and God, man responds to God's word with the responsibility of his personal decision and action " (p. 46} . The attention of the reader is arrested by the many lofty thoughts concerning religion, prayer and imitation. Part Two: The Subject of Moral Values, Theological Anthropology, devotes two chapters to the consideration of man, the subject of moral. values, in his vocation as disciple of Christ-" the whole man with all that he is and has from the standpoint of the call of Christ to man" (p. 61). Chapter three, Christ Invites Man to Follow Him, has as its theme that " moral value belongs to man in the integrity of...