The Christian Moral Life, by Patricia Lamoureux and Paul J. Wadell

Patricia Lamoureux and Paul Wadell have written a text in fundamental Catholic moral theology with a creative twist. The topics of several of the chapters are unconventional and fresh, but even when the topic is traditional, the approach contains refreshing elements. The book consistently responds to Vatican II's call to the church to renew moral theology by making it biblically based, centered on Jesus Christ as the model of Christian life and engaged in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.

The authors explore various interrelated facets of Christian discipleship. The connections between spirituality and morality and between philosophy and theology are woven throughout the text. Lamoureux and Wadell begin with the pattern of call and response, gift and task that characterizes all aspects of faithful discipleship, and they contend that virtue is inseparable from vision—that to live morally we must correct our vision and see as Jesus sees. They argue that virtues are key to a good life and to human flourishing and that virtues are both infused into us as a result of God's grace and acquired habits born of practice.

Christian discipleship is about relationship—with God, with others, with self, with the Earth and with other species. Sin is a violation of all these relationships and an act of self-sabotage. Thus we need a conversion, a radical transformation. We need to put on Christ, to see and think with Christ, to be incorporated into the community of disciples and to take up the mission and ministry of Christ. The reign of God is already here because of the Paschal mystery—the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus—but because it is not yet complete, it requires our cooperation, our service and our work for justice.