What do you think?
Rate this book
The Tyranny of the Banal: On the Renewal of Catholic Moral Theology
Catholic positions on contested moral issues are rejected by the majority in the secular West and are increasingly rejected by Catholics themselves. In this book, David Deane argues that there are two main reasons for this. First, the dominance of secular approaches deprives Catholic positions of their claim to coherence. Second, the Catholic positions, Deane shows, have lost contact with the theology on which they were originally based. In response, Deane undertakes a deconstruction of the dominant secular positions, and seeks to restore Catholic positions to their theological roots. The result of this is a moral theology reconnected with the Trinitarian understanding of God and God’s relationship with the world. Restored to its doctrinal foundations, the moral theology that Deane offers is more coherent, more beautiful, and more convincing than has been found in Catholic moral discourse for centuries.
290 pages, Hardcover
Published June 21, 2023
3 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 22, 2024
I found what he had to say so explanatory of modernity and the difficulty to convince others regarding Catholic teaching on moralilty:
"It is important to note that I am not juxtaposing modernity, as a whole, with Christian moral thought. I am suggesting that *core elements* in the genetic code of modernity—for example, a reduction of the real to the phenomenal and a reduction of reason to the measurable—are wholly parasitic upon Christian moral theology Where they abide, Christian moral perspectives die. Hence the renewal of Christian moral theology, which this book calls for, requires that the hegemony of these ideas ends. Not modernity as a whole, but these specific epistemological elements, are Carthage to the Christian moral imagination’s Rome."
"Kant sought to defend reason, God, and morality, but the very moves he made to defend them became the very basis for their dissolution in the Western imagination."
The only thing dissapointing about this book is that it is put out by an academic press and is realtively pricey. There is so much to consider here.
"It is important to note that I am not juxtaposing modernity, as a whole, with Christian moral thought. I am suggesting that *core elements* in the genetic code of modernity—for example, a reduction of the real to the phenomenal and a reduction of reason to the measurable—are wholly parasitic upon Christian moral theology Where they abide, Christian moral perspectives die. Hence the renewal of Christian moral theology, which this book calls for, requires that the hegemony of these ideas ends. Not modernity as a whole, but these specific epistemological elements, are Carthage to the Christian moral imagination’s Rome."
"Kant sought to defend reason, God, and morality, but the very moves he made to defend them became the very basis for their dissolution in the Western imagination."
The only thing dissapointing about this book is that it is put out by an academic press and is realtively pricey. There is so much to consider here.
Displaying 1 of 1 review