John Cuthbert Ford, SJ
Moral Theologian at the End of the Manualist Era
Publication Year: 2007
Published by: Georgetown University Press
Contents
Download PDF (61.6 KB)
pp. vii-
Foreword
Download PDF (55.2 KB)
pp. ix-xi
For many years, John Cuthbert Ford, SJ, and Weston School of Theology were synonymous: he was the embodiment of moral theology at the Jesuit seminary in the Massachusetts town of Weston. Gracious, bighearted, and opinionated, Ford was the face of the institution....
Preface
Download PDF (34.2 KB)
pp. xiii-xiv
John Cuthbert Ford, SJ, was a major figure in the history of moral theology in the United States from the early 1940s up to the late 1960s. Contemporary references to Ford’s work, however, have been limited to his writings on obliteration bombing, contraception, and alcoholism. The...
Acknowledgments
Download PDF (50.5 KB)
pp. xv-
I would like to thank Fr. Paul Nelligan, the archivist of the New England Jesuit Province during the time of my research. I also thank Heidi Marshall for her help in photocopying and cataloging my research and Alice Howe for her assistance in facilitating permission for publication....
CHAPTER ONE: The Life and Career of John C. Ford, SJ
Download PDF (79.6 KB)
pp. 1-4
John Cuthbert Ford was born on December 20, 1902, in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Boston College High School and, at the age of seventeen, entered the Maryland–New York Province of the Society of Jesus. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1932.1 He received his doctorate...
PART I: METHOD
CHAPTER TWO: John Ford’s Moral Theology and the Manualist Tradition
Download PDF (135.2 KB)
pp. 7-34
Richard McCormick described the manualist moral theology of the 1940s and 1950s as “all too often one-sidedly confession-oriented, magisterium-dominated, canon law-related, sin-centered, and seminary controlled.” Nevertheless, he qualified these comments, characterizing...
CHAPTER THREE: John Ford’s Two Modes of Resolving Moral Cases
Download PDF (179.8 KB)
pp. 35-76
John Ford had two ways of proceeding in resolving moral cases: a standard mode and a crisis mode. I begin by presenting his interpretation of church teaching and his use of probabilism in the standard mode; then I show how Ford made selective use of probabilism and unconventional...
CHAPTER FOUR: The Development of Doctrine
Download PDF (144.8 KB)
pp. 77-102
This chapter deals with John Ford’s approach to doctrinal development, particularly as his approach contrasts with that of historian John Noonan, who had proposed an alternative way of understanding the development of church teachings. The case of periodic continence...
PART II: MORAL OBJECTIVITY
CHAPTER FIVE: Objective Moral Norms and Situation Ethics
Download PDF (73.7 KB)
pp. 105-113
The manuals presented the eternal law of God as the ultimate, objective norm of morality. Since the eternal law could not be known directly by human beings, the divine law and the natural law served as the proximate, objective norms of morality that could be known by reason and...
CHAPTER SIX: Subjective Culpability
Download PDF (91.2 KB)
pp. 114-128
This chapter examines Ford’s nuanced approach to evaluating factors that can diminish subjective culpability of penitents. Ford presented moral presuppositions to assist moralists in judging a penitent in a manner that is neither too lenient nor too strict. He also investigated the...
CHAPTER SEVEN: John Ford and Josef Fuchs
Download PDF (154.3 KB)
pp. 129-156
Another way to understand and appreciate John Ford’s moral method as a manualist is to compare his approach with that of another leading moralist of his time, Josef Fuchs. Both Ford and Fuchs were appointed to the papal birth control commission; each wrote a report presenting a...
PART III: MORALITY AND LAW
CHAPTER EIGTHT: Opposing Totalitarianism and Protecting the Vulnerable
Download PDF (153.6 KB)
pp. 159-192
We have seen how Ford encountered Noonan and Fuchs, and we have seen how different his moral method was from the contemporary mindset with regard to development of doctrine and moral objectivity. At the same time, we have seen throughout his writings and case treatments...
CHAPTER NINE: John Ford and His Legacy
Download PDF (75.7 KB)
pp. 193-197
John Ford’s legacy includes both the advance of an approach to moral theology that was falling out of favor even as he refined it, and profound human and pastoral insights that have borne fruit in the theological world and in actual human lives....
APPENDIX: Time Line of the Life and Career of John C. Ford, SJ
Download PDF (40.9 KB)
pp. 199-200
References
Download PDF (60.7 KB)
pp. 201-208
Index
Download PDF (336.4 KB)
pp. 209-217
E-ISBN-13: 9781589013513
E-ISBN-10: 1589013514
Print-ISBN-13: 9781589011816
Print-ISBN-10: 1589011813
Page Count: 240
Publication Year: 2007
Series Title: Moral Traditions
Series Editor Byline:
