The Moral Theology of Pope John Paul II

AbstractAs Pentecostals develop their own approach to theological ethics, the Catholic tradition may turn out to be their most promising dialog partner. At its core, Catholicism is a holiness movement with deep resources for ethical renewal. As Pentecostals appropriate their own quirky catholicity bequeathed by Wesley, they have much to learn from the narrative of Catholic moral theology given by Servais Pinckaers in The Sources of Christian Ethics. Negatively, Pentecostals have already developed some of the same destructive tendencies in their short history that took centuries for Catholic moral theologians to develop. Yet while the story of Catholic moral theology will at times be a cautionary tale, there is equal potential to shape Pentecostal ethics constructively, as exemplified by Pinckaers, Pope John Paul II and ultimately Herbert McCabe. With his approach to ethics as language, McCabe's important but still largely underappreciated Love, Law and Language is an especially provocative resource that could help Pentecostals articulate ethics as a pneumatically formed new language.

Download Full-text

Charles E. Curran, The Moral Theology of Pope John Paul II. Moral Traditions Series. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2005. xi+262 pp. $26.95 (cloth).

The Journal of Religion ◽

10.1086/507736 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 86 (3) ◽

pp. 484-486

Author(s):

Elizabeth Bucar

Keyword(s):

Moral Theology ◽

Washington Dc ◽

Pope John Paul Ii ◽

John Paul Ii ◽

Georgetown University

Download Full-text

John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus

10.1093/oso/9780190660130.003.0014 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Matthew A. Shadle

Keyword(s):

Common Good ◽

Free Market ◽

Human Person ◽

Economic Life ◽

Pope John Paul Ii ◽

John Paul Ii ◽

Human Creativity ◽

God's Grace ◽

Centesimus Annus

Pope John Paul II wrote his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus to offer a Catholic vision of political and economic life after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the democratization of many countries in Latin America and Asia. The encyclical provided a stronger defense of the free-market economy than had previous Catholic social teaching, and neoconservative Catholics saw it as a vindication of their views. Centesimus Annus also harshly condemns consumerism, however, and proposes that the state has a greater role in ensuring that the economy serves the common good than do the neoconservatives. John Paul II recognizes the essential role of human creativity and ingenuity in the economy, but balances this by emphasizing that the human person is the recipient of God’s grace.

Download Full-text