Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

Reviews / RecensionesBonandi, Alberto, Il difficile rinnovamento. Percorsi fondamentalidella teologia morale postconciliare. Assisi: Cittadella Editrice,2003, 364 p.This is an unusually stimulating book. Part history of fundamentalmoral theology since Vatican 2, part projection of how theauthor sees the immediate future for this sector of the overall disciplineof moral theology, it is a difficult book to classify within a literarygenre. The reader should pay particular attention to the firstchapter where Bonandi explains his project. What he calls the‘material object’ of his study (p.8) is an investigation of the foundationsof moral action as presented in manuals (textbooks) of theperiod. The ‘formal object’ (p. 10) of Bonandi’s study is a progressiveanalysis of the critical theory on which fundamental moral theologyis based. Bonandi accepts that this approach has its drawbacks,but he does succeed within those limits in presenting a sustainedstudy of the theory of fundamental moral theology. The book can beconsidered as a more thorough and updated version of viewsBonandi had presented in a series of articles in La Scuola Cattolicabetween 1987 and 2000.Bonandi begins his analysis with manuals of the 1970’s, twelvein all. The better known authors, such as Häring, Curran, Böckleand Vidal are obvious choices: Bonandi does well to record also theuseful projects of lesser known moralists like Capone, Günthör, vanden Marck and Chiavacci. The 1970’s were unusually difficult yearsfor those plying their trade as moral theologians. A stark void left bythe sudden demise of the Latin manuals was the immediate problem:the tensions aroused by the publication of Humanae vitae(1968) meant that moral theology became ‘a house divided’ at a timewhen energies were dispersed in theological wars instead of beingunited in resolving common problems. A judgment on the funda-