Description
Book SynopsisHow is moral theology related to pastoral theology? In this first English translation of "Living the Truth", Klaus Demmer answers this question by offering a complete theory of action. Its crucial element is truthfulness, which Demmer claims is a basic attitude that must be translated concretely into our individual decisions. Demmer demonstrates that the demand for truthfulness offers a critical corrective to the usual praxis whereby ethical norms are formulated. This has significant consequences for every area of ethical directives, including questions about celibacy and partnerships. Demmer moves away from the act-centered morality that dominates the neo-Scholastic manuals of moral theology. His concern is to show how our actions embody and carry out a more original anthropological project. Not only does this anthropological project condition our insights into goods and values, it provides the criteria by which our actions are judged morally. This book will be welcomed by all who are looking for ethical norms, and by all whose task it is to formulate such norms.
Trade ReviewIn understanding Demmer better, we may also better understand ourselves and our horizons. -from the foreword by James F. Keenan, SJ In this book, English-speaking moral theologians for the first time have access to the very influential hermeneutical ethical method of one of Europe's foremost moral theologians... a veritable mind opener. -Charles E. Curran, Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values, Southern Methodist University
Table of ContentsForeword Introduction Chapter OneThe Existential-Historical Form of ThoughtThe Theological-Anthropological Form of ThoughtGod's Action and Human Action Chapter TwoPerson and PersonalityStanding Firm in the TruthMoral Theology-A School of Truthfulness Chapter ThreeTruthfulness as the Basic Attitude of the Ethical PersonalityUntruthfulness as a Source of Personal DisintegrationThe Principle Features of a Metaphysics of Ethical Action Conclusion
