Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

THE SUBJECT-OBJECT RELATION IN CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC MORAL THEOLOGY 61vague “weighing” of values that are proposed by proportionalismand revisionism. There are many interesting historical andanalytical questions which could be pursued here, but that taskmust wait for another article.One of the outcomes of my investigation was the discoveryof some indications that proportionalism and revisionismemerged from the Suarezian tradition. It is somewhat disappointingthat the proponents of these views did not pay moreattention to the historicity of their own theory. There is a topicfor research here.ConclusionI appreciate Selling’s concern that “the rediscovery of proportionatethinking makes a plea to restore our understandingof human activity as an integrated whole.” There is nothing inmy article that ignores that plea, indeed the whole tenor ofwhat I wrote is to take that plea seriously. It is how this integratedwhole could be explained that is the issue. Selling seemsbothered that, were we to reject his view of proportionate reasoning,moral theology would become abstract, being unable todeal with the particularities of life, such as the case of theectopic pregnancy which he revisits. I share his concern as isclear from the discussion of the ectopic fetus in this article. Butwhat I do not find in his article, or in the writings of proportionalistsand revisionists in general, is an adequate theory onthe basis of which we can make sense of the unity of the moralrelationship, or, if you will, of the “moral event.” That is what Iseek to provide with the theory of gift.—————BRIAN V. JOHNSTONE, C.Ss.R.The author is Ordinary professor at the Alphonsian Academy.El autor es profesor ordinario en la Academia Alfonsiana.—————