Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

StMor 44 (2006) 15-40JOSEPH A. SELLINGDISTINCT BUT NOT SEPARATE:THE SUBJECT-OBJECT RELATIONIN CONTEMPORARY MORAL THEOLOGYIn his recent article in Studia Moralia, 1 Brian V. Johnstonehas drawn attention to the fact that contemporary moral theologyappears to be characterized by a basic methodological division.Different moral theories said to be inspired by either anobject orientation (“objectivism”) or a subject oriention (“basichuman goods” and “proportionalism”) have abandoned the“unified vision” of the pre-modern era that comprehendedmoral living in the context of some “all embracing framework”(97). Johnstone proposes that this “unified vision,”…came apart in that cultural and philosophical phenomenonwhich has been called the detachment or separation of object andsubject. This may be dated from the “modern era,” that is fromthe seventeenth century. The same movement may also be calledthe “turn to the subject” (101)Johnstone’s starting point is his interpretation of ThomasAquinas’ theology and moral psychology. In his opinion, theAngelic Doctor considered the “structure of things” to be amanifestation of divine wisdom (98). That structure consists of“direction giving patterns” (law) that create an “order, willed byGod.” That same order is manifested in the subject throughparticipation in divine wisdom and somehow “orders the inclinations,”resulting in “natural law.” The order of “direction givingpatterns” is also described as “meaning-guided” and “meaningfullyordered” and it is “’written’ in the fabric of the uni-1“’Objectivism,’ ‘Basic Human Goods,’ and ‘Proportionalism,’ AnInterpretation of the Contemporary History of Moral Theology,” StudiaMoralia 43 (2005) 97-126.