School of Theology Catalog 2021

Rahner’s moral theology is highly
significant, especially for its
impact on modern fundamental
moral theology.
MS830 American Catholic Social
Thought and Activism
This course will examine individuals,
group and issues that have
shaped the history of American
Catholic involvement in social
action to the present time, i.e.
John Ryan, Charles Coughlin, the
CentralVerein, the Catholic
Worker, immigration, and
Church-State relations.
MS835 Readings in the History of Moral
Theology
This course will study selected
historical figures whose controversial
moral approaches eventually
became widely accepted, if
not normative, in the tradition,
including St. Paul on homosexuality;
St. Augustine on just war;
Bartolomeo de Las Casas on slavery;
St. Alphonsus on the doubtful
conscience; and John Courtney
Murray on religious freedom.
MS836 Readings in Contemporary
Moral Theology
This course will be a reading seminar
focused on several of the
major modern writers in Catholic
moral theology, including Bernard
Häring, Josef Fuchs, and Richard
McCormick.
MS840 Moral Theology in the Writings
of St. John Paul II
This seminar will examine key
encyclicals and pastoral statements
of Bl. John Paul II on various
aspects of moral theology, i.e.
themes in fundamental moral theology,
sexuality, marriage and family,
social ethics. It will also
explore his poetry as well as biographical
and autobiographical
material.
MS872 Virtue Ethics
Moral theologians routinely distinguish
between right and wrong,
which refer to actions, and good
and bad, that refer to agents.
Virtue serves as a significant
bridge between action and
agency. Virtues are stable dispositions
enabling us effectively to
appropriate human goods and
perform right actions; the task of
virtues is to acquire and develop
practices that perfect the acting
person and make it possible for
her or him to do the good well.
Rather than arguing that all saints
are the same and all human excellence
is identical, the seminar will
pursue the idea that there are key
virtues and significant practices
that minimally construct and
identify a good acting person.
The seminar will examine
acquired virtues and infused
virtues, intellectual virtues and
moral virtues, resume virtues and
eulogy virtues. In addition to considering
Aristotle, Augustine and
Aquinas, the seminar will focus on
the work of Alasdair MacIntyre,
James Keenan and William
Mattison.
Pastoral Theology
PS503 Survey of Canon Law
3 credits. This course provides a
general introduction to the Code
of Canon Law as it relates to pastoral
ministry, including the
notion of law in general and in
Church usage; the source of the
governing power in the Church
and its nature; the rights and obligations
of the Christian Faithful
in the Church; distinctions
between laypersons and clerics
and their respective roles in the
life and governance of the
Church.
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