Catholic Theological Ethics Past, Present, and Future: The Trento Conference. Edited by James F. Keenan. Mary Knoll, New York, USA 2011. Pp. xv + 337. $40.00.
The original Council of Trent was held in Trento and Bologna, between 1545 and 1563, and was one of the Catholic Church’s most important councils. Although prompted by a request for an encounter between Protestants and Catholics, the original Council unfortunately did not include any Protestant voices. The Council itself has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation. As well as decrees, the Council issued condemnations of what it considered to be heresies within Protestantism and, in response to them, key clarifications of the Church’s doctrine. These clarifications addressed a wide range of subjects, including Scripture, the biblical canon, tradition, original sin, justification, salvation, the sacraments, Mass and the veneration of saints.
On July 8, 2006 nearly four hundred theological ethicists from sixty-three countries gathered at the University of Padua and inaugurated the “First Cross Cultural Conference on Theological Ethics.” At Padua, the attendants decide to meet again for a second international conference – at Trento. For the opening session at Trento, the conveners invited three scholars – one Muslim, one a Protestant, and one a Catholic. In closing the conference, the panel focused on young scholars. They also brought together voices from the Church’s hierarchy. Another group represented healthily at the conference were women theologians. Yet another group represented at the conference was what could be termed “young scholars,” comprised of over forty doctoral students. The also invited a group of senior theological ethicists to the conference, whether as plenary speakers or participants. The “local” communities in Trento were represented as well.
It was clear to the conveners of this conference at Trento that the face of moral theology was changing: though nearly half of the participants were priests, there were at least two hundred ethicists who were religious and laywomen. At the conference, there were 31 plenary sessions, 30 posters, and 240 concurrent presenters. Among the latter, there were four sessions where one could choose from twenty different panels of three presenters. Some of the panels discussed included such diverse areas as a Catholic ethics of risk for immigration reform; the issue of subsidiarity and asylum; what evolutionary biology is bringing to sexual diversity; a discussion of vulnerability; general economics; the right to food by all people; the common good; the ethics of dying; various issues of human rights; bioethics; global sustainability; children as moral agents; and teaching casuistry and truth-telling.
The text is comprised of contributions by John W. O Malley (foreword); Archbishop Monsignor Luigi Bressan (Welcome); and an Introduction by James F. Keenan, the editor. Divided into four main parts, the rest of this text covers the ethics and interreligious dialogue in a globalized world, the theological ethics of the past, the heological ethics of the present, and the theological ethics of the future. Contributors to this volume regarding ethics and interreligious dialogue in a globalized world include Archbishop Bruno Forte (Italy), Mercy Amba Oduyoye (Ghana), and Ahmad Syafii Ma’arif (Indonesia). Contributors to this volume regarding the theological ethics of the past include Paolo Prodi (Italy), Laurenti Magesa (Kenya), Regina Ammicht-Quinn (Germany), Alberto Bondolfi (Switzerland), Diego Alonso-Lasheras (Italy), Roger Burggraeve (Belgium), Antonio Moser (Brazil), Anne Nasimiyu-Wasike (Kenya), and Bryan Massingale (USA). Contributors to the volume with regard to the present state of theological ethics include Éric Gaziaux (Belgium), Margaret Farley (USA), Benezet Bujo (Switzerland), Brian V. Johnstone (Australia), Miguel Ángel Sánchez Carlos (Mexico), David Kaulemu (Zimbabwe), Leo Pessini (Brazil), Pushpa Joseph (India), and Margaret A. Ogala (Kenya). Contributors to the text regaring theological ethics with respect to future include Julie Hanlon Rubio (USA), Christa Schnabl (Austria), Aloysius Cartagenas (Philippines), Simone Morandini (Italy), Myroslav Marynovych (Ukraine), Peter J. Henriot (Zambia), Archbishop Richard Cardinal Marx (Germany), Julie Clague (Scotland), Shaji George Kochuthara (India), and María Teresa Dávila (USA).
Ethicists believe that they must find the truth, and in part that means naming what is lacking, what is not yet seen, not understood, or not yet articulated. It also means being aware of those not heard, rejected, oppressed, or abandoned. They are called to read the signs of the times as they actually are. The editor of this volume points people who desire further information about the conference, its actual papers in pdf format or a link to the published essay, as well as dozens of commentaries on the conference, including plans for the future, to the conference’s website: www.catholicethics.com. In sum, I aver that historians and theological ethicists will gain much from this volume, and it is to them I recommend it.