Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

242 MARTIN MCKEEVERparticular concerning research aimed at therapy. Häring balancesthis with an insistence on the sacredness of human lifeand the urgent need for medicine to take cognisance of broadercultural, anthropological and ethical issues. With a touch ofirony, Römelt acknowledges that while the broad approach ofopenness and competence proposed by Häring is essential, thisof itself does not resolve delicate ethical, social and politicalproblems posed by the burgeoning difficulties and controversiesin this field.Klaus ArntzThe theme taken up by Klaus Arntz is nothing less that thenature and role of moral theology, particularly with regard tothe historical and cultural context in which it is pursued.Drawing on the closing scene of Shakespeare’s The Taming ofthe Shrew as an example of hard-won equilibrium in tensehuman relationships, Arntz proposes an understanding ofmoral theology as a critical presence to changing times (kritischeZeitgenossenschaft). He sets out to illustrate this understandingby studying the role of three different theological figuresin three different historical periods: the figure of St.Alphonsus in the relations between Rome and Germany in the19 th century, the figure of Joseph Mausbach as a promoter ofreform in moral theology in the early 20 th century and that ofBernard Häring in his efforts to renew moral theology in thelatter half of that century. For our purposes it is of course thefigure of Häring which is of most interest, but it is worth notingbriefly Arntz’s account of the other two.The 19 th background, particularly in Germany, to 20 thefforts at renewal is extremely important in that it reminds usof the different paces at which renewal took place and the differentmodes in which it was conceived. The clash is onebetween a basically casuistic approach to theology and the aspirationto give it a more rigorously scientific base (119). The keypoint made by Arntz, drawing heavily on the historical investigationsof Otto Weiß, is that in this clash of views Rome tendedto promote St. Alphonsus as a counterbalance to efforts atchange. The obvious paradox consists in the fact that St.Alphonsus, who had been accused in his time of an excessive