Fordham University Press

This work is an investigation of the ongoing methodical reconstruction of Catholic moral theology. As such it is based on and honors the work of Norbert Rigali, S.J., one of the most important contributors to this reconstruction.

The decisive break from the traditional manual approach to moral theology represented by Vatican II reoriented moral theology away from universal natural law morality based on the commandments to a morality based on specifically Christian sources. This reorientation, however, was not an either/or but a both/and proposition. Father Norbert Rigali, S.J. has been an inspiration and a challenge to moral theologians working toward reconstruction. This essays in this collection address four questions in the renewal movement: an investigation of normative methods, a clarification of sources, an investigation of the tension between natural law morality and Christian ethics and/or morality, and a combination of methodical insights of philosophy and traditional Christian sources in their investigation of biomedical ethical issues.

The ongoing debate over abortion serves as a clear indication that the Supreme Court decision of 1973 did little to settle the question of abortion’s legitimacy. If anything, in fact, the debate has grown, with more strident voices and, in some cases, more violent dimensions than ever before. On both sides, the debate has been dominated by passionate but not always rational arguments. It seems as thought there are no tame opinions about abortion in this country, that public policy is the product of slogans, sound bites, and placards, instead of principled argument. By presenting the balanced, rational argument for the Catholic position on this highly charged subject, Abortion and Public Policy makes a major contribution to public policy discourse in our pluralistic society.

R. Randall Rainey, S.J., LL.M., is Senior Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

Gerard Magill Ph.D., is Chair of the Department of Health Care Ethics and Director of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University.

This work is an investigation of the ongoing methodical reconstruction of Catholic moral theology. As such it is based on and honors the work of Norbert Rigali, S.J., one of the most important contributors to this reconstruction.

The decisive break from the traditional manual approach to moral theology represented by Vatican II reoriented moral theology away from universal natural law morality based on the commandments to a morality based on specifically Christian sources. This reorientation, however, was not an either/or but a both/and proposition. Father Norbert Rigali, S.J. has been an inspiration and a challenge to moral theologians working toward reconstruction. This essays in this collection address four questions in the renewal movement: an investigation of normative methods, a clarification of sources, an investigation of the tension between natural law morality and Christian ethics and/or morality, and a combination of methodical insights of philosophy and traditional Christian sources in their investigation of biomedical ethical issues.

Until recently little attention was paid to the role of art in constructing the “story” of the
Irish nation. This wide-ranging study of Irish pictures and sculpture opens up the subject by
providing a fresh interdisciplinary approach. Each work is analyzed beyond its strictly art
historical relevance. A deeper investigation into the context in which a work was produced
reveals much about the aspirations and ideological ambitions of artists, those commissioning
works, and the viewing public. The study of such diverse topics as the representation of the
Irish peasant, the behind-the-scenes tensions in setting up a national gallery for Ireland, the
erecting of political monuments, Church art, West of Ireland landscape painting, and the difference
in nationalistic fervor among artists as diverse as Albert G. Power and Jack B. Yeats unveil
fascinating testimony about Ireland’s collective national “needs” and its constructs of identity.

Medical and ethical decision concerning treatment for handicapped newborns have always been difficult. Despite technological advances, parents and health-care professionals still search for criteria that will address treatment categories from an ethical standpoint. Richard A. McCormick, a leading Roman Catholic moral theologian, has proposed a patient-centered, quality-of-life approach to treatment decision that appears to meet the needs of decision-makers.

Peter A. Clark applies McCormick's ethical approach to five categories of handicapped newborns as a practical demonstration of the treatment decision process.

"Clark constructs, analyzes, and criticizes McCormick's developing methodology which McCormick himself never explicitly elaborated in his own writings." -Charles E. Curran, Southern Methodist University

"Modern neonatology has worked wonders in the care of the newborn. Some of its successes have however resulted in the most difficult clinical and ethical dilemmas. Physicians, families and nurses will need and appreciate Fr. Peter Clark's judicious, sensitive and practical guidance through both the philosophical and the theological issues." - Edmund D. Pellegrino, Georgetown University Medical Center

Redshaw gathers twenty-one original essays on the influential Irish poet and novelist, which provide a critical context for Montague’s Collected Poems (1995) and the tales and portraits in Company (2001). Montague played a pivotal role in the international evolution of Irish poetry from the late 1950s in Dublin through the worst years of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland. Here, American, English, and European critics and scholars touch upon every aspect of Montague’s essays, stories, and poetry. Redshaw offers a survey of the criticism and a descriptive checklist.

"A stunning tribute to a masterful poet [with] seminal
essays by some of the finest critics of contemporary Irish
poetry . . . mandatory reading."-Michael Patrick Gillespie, Marquette University, President, The American Conference for Irish Studies.

In Circling the Stones: A Journey (Poems From Ireland), author Michael D. Riley would agree with the notion that all significant journeys are finally the same journey. Pilgrim-Tourist, he takes the reader through a landscape both public and private, secular and spiritual. These poems, varied in form and content¡—with a liberal dose of sly humor—respond deeply to Ireland the modern country grafted on a land almost beyond time. The ¡§touchstone¡¨ of these concerns is the image of ¡§stone¡¨ itself, which weaves many strata of meaning throughout the collection, from the inertness of being itself (the absolute other) to the structures
we build to shield ourselves from it (ring fort, clochan, cottage), remember our dead with (passage grave, cairn), and even to celebrate its beauty and mystery with (stone circle, menhir, church). Newgrange is the most haunting example: tomb, work of art, church of a culture with no voice but incised stone. Yet on the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, Newgrange floods with dawn light; for exactly 1000 seconds death is put by for the promise of resurrection. Catholic in sensibility and often in imagery, these poems find grace where we expect it and where we do not. They become powerfully affirmative but do so by the light of a clear eye. It is a trip worth taking.