Each year the insurers of the English Province of the Order of Preachers ask how many retired clergy we have, to which I reply that there are no retired Dominicans in the Province. The same is true no doubt for Benedict Ashley’s Province of St Albert the Great in the United States. Born in 1915, Ashley’s essays in this collection span a period of 20 years from 1981 to 2001, with most written while he was in his 70s. They build on an already substantial body of work to confirm Ashley as one of the most significant English-speaking moral theologians post-Vatican II.
The collection begins with a 30-page introduction to Ashley’s life and work by Matthew McWhorter, the editor of the collection. This is helpful not only in providing an overview of this important theologian but also in enabling the reader to see the connections between the three sections into which McWhorter divides Ashley’s articles. The first section brings together articles which examine the foundations of moral theology in the philosophy of nature. This remains a minority interest in contemporary Catholic moral theology, but one which has gained some momentum over the last 20 years. Ashley’s interest was longstanding and can be traced back to his 1951 doctoral thesis. Here, through the influence of William Kane, Ashley argued that without a philosophy of nature metaphysical reflection becomes empty conceptualism (see pp. 4–5). After completing his doctorate, Ashley taught at the Dominican studium at River Forest, contributing to its distinctive emphasis on the importance of physics for metaphysics.
The essays contained in this first section are not highly technical reflections on morals and nature, but provide the fruits of distilled wisdom for both specialists and non-specialists with an underlying depth of theoretical reflection. Ashley engages with key questions in moral theology, such as the nature of personhood, natural law, and conscience. For the specialist, the essays provide road maps for further development, whereas for the non-specialist, Ashley provides succinct summaries of key arguments and ideas without oversimplifying matters.
The second section of the collection focuses on questions of authority and method in moral theology. Here Ashley’s reading of tradition and history is crucial. Whereas the first section broadly focuses on more speculative matters, the second section looks at the work of the moral theologian as a member of the Church, under the authority of Jesus Christ as it is exercised through the Church’s magisterium. These papers, while remaining faithful to Church authority, provide an analysis of the contemporary social and cultural context within which this authority is exercised, and the difficulty of exercising authority in a world where on the one hand individualism is supreme and on the other totalitarianism remains a threat.
In the third section of the book the editors bring together seven of Ashley’s papers on bioethics and related matters in sexual morality. Ashely is perhaps best known as the co-author with Kevin O’Rourke, OP, of a 1986 introduction to healthcare ethics. This move from the foundation of theology to an area which requires the use of specialist medical knowledge may at first sight seem something of an intellectual leap, but Ashley’s earlier work on the relationship between the philosophy of nature and metaphysics proves crucial here. When examining topics such as abortion and cloning Ashley draws on the latest medical research, but he shows how the interpretation of the medical data when used to construct moral arguments requires the careful application of physical and metaphysical criteria. If Iris Murdoch, by sketching a dazzling canvas of ancient and modern thinkers, has shown why metaphysics is crucial for morals, Ashley takes us into the particularities of the creature we are and why we need physics and metaphysics to understand these particularities. Like St Albert the Great, Ashley combines a philosophical and theological depth of reflection with the observational skills of a scientist and places this all at the service of his neighbour.
Each of the three sections is accompanied by commentaries: with Cajetan Cuddy OP, providing the commentary for the first section, Matthew K. Minerd for the second, and Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco OP for the third. These commentaries not only help to illuminate Ashley’s work but show how his influence is present in the work of a new generation of moral theologians. Such is the depth and breadth of Ashley’s work that the topics covered in this collection could be supplemented by his writings on a variety of further topics, ranging from St Thomas and the liberal arts to the Dominican tradition of spiritual direction. As a collection of essays, however, they not only provide an introduction of Ashley’s reflection on moral theology and its foundations but provide valuable starting points for the discussion of many key questions in moral theology today. The reader will not find extended treaties on topics such as the historical development of Church authority or a full introduction to topics in medical ethics, but rather a collection of writing which resonate with a lifetime of study and reflection. Wisdom is in short supply, so we should drink it in where we find it.
