The author then asserts the tenet of natural law that men naturally seek what is good, and that to know the good and not pursue it is to reject God (99, 101-102). Balthasar closes with a comparison of the freedom of an individual and his membership in an aggregate social group -- the only true way to combine the two identities, he says, is in Christ, where the two identities converge.
All three of these discussions attempt to explain a modern facet of Christian belief and practice-Schurmann in his examination of a New Testament interpretation, Ratzinger in his reconciliation of praxis and theory, and Balthasar with his overview of justifications for action based on faith. Each man treats a subject that is distinctly modern in its discussion, most notably Ratzinger's response to the Marxist concept of praxis, but all three topics can be related back to moral theology and trace the origins of each question to an older debate-Schurmann's interpretation is similar to debates over the superiority of the New or Old Testament in previous eras of Church history, Ratzinger's theory vs. practice topic has been an issue among Christians since the inception of the faith, and Balthasar's exploration of the underlying moral and ethical motives behind actions has been relevant since time immemorial.
The essays are all applicable to any era of Church history, and all are well reasoned and theologically sound. In the interest of space, however, only one will be analyzed in detail here, that of Schurmann. In his piece, Schurmann asserts why the Gospels can be understood as the most relevant commandments on how to live in accordance with Christian principles, and gives a basic rationale for seeming contradictions in the Old Testament. He notes that "a historically determined obfuscation" occurs in the parables and recollections of the Old Testament, which allows the stories to be interpreted to...
Of course, since these views are based on those who are high-ranking members of the church, Hennesey's narrative is somewhat biased, yet it does provide an excellent overview of many important topics related to American Catholicism. Hurley, M. (2002). The unholy ghost: Anti-catholicism in the american experience. Huntington, IN: Sunday Visitor Press. In this carefully-documented study of prejudice against Catholics in the United States, Bishop Mark Hurley examines the entire history of
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