Catholic Library World Noonans real intent is to craft an argument. Noonans writing is tight, the examples are striking, the one-liners abundant, and the treasure-trove of amazing (and egregious) ecclesial statements is eye-popping. He treats Church teaching on slavery, usury, religious freedom, and divorce. As Newman had his test cases, things like Nicea and devotion to the saints and the papacy, so Noonan has his test cases. Just as Newman showed there have been developments in the Churchs understanding of the creed, so Noonan wants to show there have been developments in the churchs understanding of morals.

Commonweal John Noonan wants to do for the commandments what John Newman did for the creed. Review Quotes Crisply written and immensely learned, documents profound change in Catholic teaching on three topics-slavery, usury, religious liberty-and significant development with regard to a fourth, the dissolution of marriage. As our capacity to grasp the Gospel grows, so too, our understanding and compassion, which give life to the Gospel commandments of love, grow. But in the context of the specific facts and events he discusses in this book, an answer bes clear. Given this absolute, how can the moral teaching of the Church change? Noonan finds this question unanswerable when asked in the abstract. Noonan also states that the Church cannot change its commitment to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He contends that the impetus to change comes from a variety of sources, including prayer, meditation on Scripture, new theological insights and analyses, the evolution of human institutions, and the examples and instruction given by persons of good will. In these changes Noonan perceives the Catholic Church to be a vigorous, living organism answering new questions with new answers, and enlarging the capacity of believers to learn through experience and empathy what love demands. He also offers a close examination of the change now in progress concerning divorce. Specifically, Noonan looks at the profound changes that have occurred over the centuries in Catholic moral teaching on freedom of conscience, lending for a profit, and slavery.

Noonan, Jr., demonstrates that the moral teaching of the Catholic Church has changed and continues to change without abandoning its foundational commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Book Synopsis Using concrete examples, John T.

About the Book Noonans analysis of the development in Catholic moral teaching on usury, contraception, religious freedom, slave-holding, and divorce.

Contraception by John T. Noonan Jr.