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Learning More About God's Plan in a Worldwide Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Bernard Häring
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Extract

Through a number of profound studies the Honorable John T. Noonan Jr. (on Scholastic Analysis of Usury, on Contraception. A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and the Canonists, on Abortion and marriage tribunals) has made visible how relevant the study of the historical context is for any scientific approach to burning issues of “natural law.” What was said by Christian churches on ethical questions makes sense for us only if we give full attention to the historical context. This is also a principle for the study of ethical questions in the Bible. While the biblical scholars concentrate mainly on what a teaching meant in illo tempore hermeneutics turns its main attention to the present contest of reflexions.

The role of sharing experience and reflexion so central in natural law questions, as Noonan sees it, is also central for the worldwide ecumenical learning community of all Christian churches. And this is for the Christian churches an absolute condition for their dialogue with all people of our time; for Christians a prerequisite for their becoming light for the world, salt for the earth.

Type
Symposium in Honor of Judge John T. Noonan, Jr.
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1994 , pp. 177 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1994

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References

1. Alphonsus de Liquori, Learning the Love of Jesus (“Pratica di amar Cesù Cristo”).

2. Häring, Bernard, The Law of Christ: Moral Theology for Priests and Laity (Newman Press, 1954) translated in 14 different languagesGoogle Scholar.

3. Gal 6:2.

4. I draw attention to only a few of his publications: Gustafson, James M., Christ and the Moral Life (Harper & Row, 1968)Google Scholar; Gustafson, James M., Christian Ethics and Community (Pilgrim Press, 1971)Google Scholar; Gustafson, James M., Can Ethics be Christian? (U of Chicago Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Gustafson, James M., Protestant and Roman Catholic Ethics: Proposals for Rapprochement (U of Chicago Press, 1978)Google Scholar. A similar ecumenical openness is found in many other important authors; compare Bennett, J.C., ed, Christian Ethics in a Changing World, (Association Press, 1966)Google Scholar; Long, E. LeRoy, Survey of Christian Ethics (Oxford U Press, 1967)Google Scholar.

5. Hampe, Johann Christoph, ed, Die Autorität der Freiheit. Gegenwart dis Konzils und Zukunft der Kirche im Öekumenischen Disput (Kosel, 1967/1972)Google Scholar.

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8. Nethöfel, Wolfgang, Moral Theologie nach dem Konzil, Personen, Programme, Positionen (Vandenhoek & Ruprect, 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9. Kelly, Kevin T., Life and Love: Towards a Christian Dialogue on Bioethical Questions (Collins, 1987)Google Scholar. The author, who is also a pastor, teaches at the renowned Heythrop College in London.

10. Margaret A. Farley gives an excellent presentation of the results of all these efforts and the share which McCormick had in it: “Divorce, Remarriage and Pastoral Practice,” in Curran, Charles E., ed, Moral Theology: Challenges for the Future. Essays in Honor of Richard A. McCormick S.J. at 213–39 (Paulist Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

11. Id at 313.

12. Lachner, Gabriele, Die Kirchen und die Wiedeheirat Geschiedener (Beiträge zur ökumenischen Theologie, Band 21) (Paderborn, 1991)Google Scholar.

13. Matt 19:6.

14. Matt 19:9.

15. Schmemann, Alexander, “The Indissolubility of Marriage: The Theological Tradition of the East” in Basset, William W., ed, The Bond of Marriage: An Ecumenical and Interdisciplinary Study at 111 (U of Notre Dame Press, 1968)Google Scholar.

16. Matt 19:9.

17. “Statement of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland,” Lachner, , Die Kirchen at 134, note 131 (cited in note 12)Google Scholar.

18. I Cor 7:15.

19. 1 Cor 7:14.

20. 1 Cor 7:9.

21. “Orthodox-Roman Catholic Marriages”, Statement of the Joint Committee of Orthodox and Roman Catholic Bishops in the United States, released Oct 17, 1990, Origins Nov 29, 1990, vol 20, no 25, at 410-12.

22. Id at 412.

23. Id.

24. Farley, , Moral Theology at 232 (cited in note 10)Google Scholar.

25. Id.

26. Id.

27. Id at 233.

28. Compare Häring, Bernard, No Way Out? Pastoral Care of the Divorced and Remarried (St. Paul Publications, 1989)Google Scholar. The book is available in 6 languages. Sudbrack, Josef, writes, S.J.: “The fact that B. Häring's book is everywhere welcomed shows how intensively the problem is studied,” 65 Geist und Leben 52 (1992)Google Scholar. In the same sense, but even more cautiously speaks the well-known document of three outstanding German bishops (Karl Lehmann, Oskar Saier, Walter Kasper) of July 10, 1993: “Zur Seelsorge von Menschen aus zerbrochenen Ehen, Geschiedenen und wiederverheirateten Geschiedenen. It was quite a shock when the Congregation for the Doctrine rejected this approach. A thoroughgoing response by a joint work of out-standing German and foreign scholars: Geschieden Wiedervereheiratet Abgewiesen? Antworten der Theologie, hrsg. von Theodor Schneider, Herder, Freiburg 1995; Compare also B. Häring, Pastorale Lösungen in der Moral, in: Moraltheologie im Abseits? Antwort auf die Enzyklika “Veritatis splendor”, hrs. von D. Mieth, Herder 285-295 (Freiburg 1994).

29. II Tim 2:13.

30. II Tim 2:12.

31. Matt 5:48.

32. Luke 6:36.

33. Charalambidis, Stephanos, “Marriage in the Orthodox Church” in One in Christ. A Catholic Ecumenical Review 204, 218 (London, 1975)Google Scholar.

34. Compare Lachner, , Die Kirchen at 16 (cited in note 12)Google Scholar.

35. Rom 6:14.

36. Gaudium et Spes, N 16.