Reviews for Intimate Spirituality: The Catholic Way of Love and Sex

The average rating for Intimate Spirituality: The Catholic Way of Love and Sex based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-10-24 00:00:00 Becky Ruechel This is an indispensable book for anyone considering the role of authority and Tradition in Catholic moral teachings. Picking up where Bl. John Newman left off in his thought on development of Catholic teaching more generally, this respected appellate judge and intellectual historian examines the Church's development around five topics: slavery, contraception, usury, nonCatholics' salvation status, and divorce. While he has addressed the latter four in previous work, the emphasis is on his novel work around the Church and slavery. His insights around how long and drawn out the moral development on this issue and how much it had to from outside the Church, including from the British Foreign Office, inspires interesting thoughts around the Church's relationship with natural law. I found that in particular the divorce discussions--especially of untranslated Vatican opinions around the so-called "Petrine privilege" which, as he points out, end up being awfully difficult to distinguish from many civil divorce cases--are particularly timely. While he ultimately does not draw generalizations about how moral development in the Church occurs, the historical exploration is certainly worth a read for those interested in how the Catholic Church works.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-14 00:00:00 Darby Butler The author lays out the history of Catholic moral teachings on slavery, usury (lending money with interest), and divorce. The details sometimes get tedious, but in the process the author is making a powerful argument. Catholic teaching has not merely developed on these moral questions. It sometimes done complete reversals. Because of this history, we should be very cautious of any attempt to turn a moral theology into a dogmatic principle.