Vol. XXXVIII / 1 - Studia Moralia

64 DENNIS J. BILLY
The variety of ways in which the relationship can be understood
does not by any means imply that the two disciplines have no
distinct boundaries. On the contrary, the great number of
perspectives helps one to appreciate the changing historical
contours of the relationship, which is made possible by virtue of
the fact that boundaries emerged from the past, still exist, and
continue to emerge. The changing shape of these boundaries
points not to the collapse of these disciplines or their simple
merging (e.g., spirituality into moral theology – or vice versa),
but to the development of distinct traditions that focus on
different aspects of the logical web of insights tying them
together. These traditions will themselves be complementary in
nature and offer great possibilities for the post-hierarchical
reintegration of the fields referred to earlier. The use of a logical
web of insights, in other words, will help to create the context
within which complementary traditions of the relationship
between spirituality and moral theology can arise and flourish.
Concluding Remarks
The multivalent approach adopted in this essay allows for a
variety of simultaneous correspondences in the interface
between the disciplines of spirituality and moral theology. It
gives the theologian a number of perspectives from which to
view their ongoing interaction and encourages him or her to
take advantage of the various insights they provide. Not all of
these viewpoints will be helpful at any given time – but some
will. The good theologian is one who is able to draw key
connections from within this logical web of insights and apply
them in concrete ways to the experiential, instructional, and
analytical dimensions of the two disciplines.
The use of models in drawing up the parameters of the
ongoing interaction between spirituality and moral theology
presupposes the limited nature of theological language in its
attempts to explain the mystery of God and, by analogous
extension, its own internal functioning. The logical gap between
the model and the reality it seeks to express (in this case, the
interaction between the two disciplines) incorporates the best
insights of what traditionally has been referred to as positive