Horizons, The Journal of the College Theology Society – December 2017

KATHERINE A. GREINER, Carroll College

Toward Thriving Communities: Virtue Ethics as Social Ethics. By Brian Stiltner.

Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2016. 292 pages. $28.95 (paper).

 

How do we in American society define the good life? How do we understand and promote authentic human flourishing in our personal lives and in our communities? What do virtue ethics have to do with social ethics, and how can they be practiced in meaningful ways in our communities? What virtues do we value, and how do we cultivate them at the personal, communal, and social levels? Brian Stiltner addresses these key questions in his introductory book, Toward Thriving Communities: Virtue Ethics as Social Ethics. Clear, accessible, and well researched, Toward Thriving Communities is a valuable resource for teachers and students of virtue and social ethics.

Toward Thriving Communities is divided into two parts. After a general overview of the study of ethics, Stiltner shows how virtue ethics can be used to frame the pursuit of the good life and human flourishing at the personal, communal, and social levels. Stiltner argues that the teleological vision to which virtue ethics subscribes, as first set forth by Aristotle, adopted for Christianity by Aquinas, and continuously developed and applied today by contemporary philosophers such as Alasdair MacIntyre and Julia Annas and Christian ethicists such as James Keenan and Julie Hanlon Rubio, can and should guide contemporary American society—in all its complexity and diversity—toward a greater commitment to the common good.

In the second part of the book Stiltner applies his argument to four communities that are common building blocks of contemporary American society: families, schools, workplaces, and service organizations. Stiltner describes how each of these communities helps develop the moral character of its members and contributes to the overall good of society. He argues that the health of contemporary American society depends on how empowered these communities are to live out and cultivate virtues such as justice, love, courage, and prudence at the personal and communal levels. In each of these four chapters Stiltner provides a different case study that shows how virtue ethics can be practiced to benefit each of the communities. For example, in the chapter “Family: First Teachers and Promoters of the Common Good” Stiltner describes the Jenkins family, a typical middle-class family in the suburbs of Chicago. Stiltner uses this case study to demonstrate how families help develop the moral character of each of their members and to examine the internal and external challenges families face today that prevent them from thriving.

This example illustrates the book’s greatest strength: its pedagogical method. Stiltner skillfully guides the reader through the thicket of ethical questions and challenges communities face today in a way that is accessible and practical—not intimidating or pedantic. He does so by weaving together scholarship in sociology, theology, and philosophy with a plethora of relatable narratives and case studies. Stiltner wrestles with thorny political issues such as economic discrepancies between races and classes, public versus private education, and health-care accessibility in the United States in balanced and reasonable terms. He models how thoughtful reflection on questions regarding the good life, human flourishing, and the common good must rise above the unhelpful confines of “conservative” or “liberal” agendas that tend to derail public debate. Stiltner’s presentation of issues is designed to spark lively discussions informed by thoughtful and well-reasoned analysis. This balanced approach will prove valuable in undergraduate classrooms today.

The format and structure of the book are also pedagogically useful. Each chapter opens with clear learning objectives and ends with comprehension subject to the Cambridge questions, discussion questions and activities, and suggested reading lists. These resources will prove to be particularly helpful for instruction.

One minor shortfall of the book is its lack of an integrative conclusion that ties together Stiltner’s application of virtue ethics to family life, schools, the workplace, and service organizations. Explicitly showing how these four communities are interconnected would strengthen the book’s central argument that these communities play a vital role in promoting human flourishing in society.

That said, Toward Thriving Communities provides an excellent introduction to virtue ethics and its implications for people committed to cultivating flourishing communities that promote the common good in society. Toward Thriving Communities should be on the bookshelf and the syllabus of any professor in need of an accessible, academically rigorous, and relevant introduction to virtue ethics and social ethics, particularly at the undergraduate level.

God in Cosmic History

Where Science & History Meet Religion

Ted Peters

Winona, MN:  Anselm Academic, February  2017. 358 pages.

$39.95. Paperback.  ISBN  9781599828138.  For other formats: Link to Publisher’s Website.

Review

God in Cosmic History describes the cosmos’ beginning with an exploding cosmic singularity. Ted Peters extends the interdisciplinary study of big history with theology. The questions are: Whether the universes originated from natural processes? Was God the author of the cosmos? or Might there be an argument for co-authorship?

Discussion of cosmic origins proceeds from “why there is something rather than nothing?” The prevailing responses include: 1) God created this unique universe from nothing ex nihilo as described in the Bible; 2) God created the universe and its natural laws and process which He conserves and continues to be active with; 3) God designed and created the cosmos as a mechanism which does not require His ongoing interaction; or 4) ours is a daughter universe destined by the laws of thermodynamics to fail and to spawn offspring. Having described the complexity of cosmic formation—including stars, earth, and moons—Peters next attends to the origins of life.

Peters frames development of life questioning, “How did the inorganic become organic?” (48). The two leading scientific theories are: 1) that material developed in a primordial soup on land; and 2) that life arose from compounds suspended in the ocean. Theory one states that an electric charge from lightning animated material containing chemicals—carbon, iron, hydrogen, etc. The second theory claims that chemicals and non-living material existed in the ocean. These material compounds were adrift on the currents and met volcanic energy. The inorganic material became living by heat energy, organisms crawled out of the pond or sea and then evolved.

A counter theory is that the bible is literal fact. God created life by the work of His hands. There is evolutionary doubt in the neo-creationist view. God instantaneously created the universe and life. He molded Adam from the earth then drew Eve from Adam’s side. The distance between then and now has been short, raising criticism that the fossil record or current scientific research does not correspond well with this view. There is another theistic evolutionary hypothesis.

Theistic evolution presents God creating the material essence, physical laws, and means for life to evolve. God is active in conserving life. Human people evolved to what they are today over a long natural process. Kenneth Miller, in Finding Darwin’s God: A scientist search for common ground between God and evolution (Harper Perennial, 2000) shows it is through the evolutionary process that the human brain and intellect developed the ability to receive the true revelation of God’s existence. Peters provides a dynamic analysis of Genesis as a faith and historical document that addresses the biblical creation story in contrast with Babylonian culture and science. Peters shows that Genesis is an account of natural cosmic and human development. The biblical account may reconcile with the Big Bang. God spoke the cosmos into existence out of nothing and breathed life into the instantaneous creation. Further, that any interpretation of Genesis and creation must address of a teleological future.

The biblical text presents God commanding that the primal duo of Adam and Eve abstain from the fruit of the Tree of Life. Eve, tempted by a spirit appearing as a serpent, eats the restricted fruit. In expression of free will, she succumbs to temptation. She shares the fruit with her mate and, exercising his free human will, he also partakes. The action breaks communion with the divine—visiting death upon creation. Peters states, “To replace God with oneself as ultimate is what the Greek myths called hubris and what the Latin Christians called pride” (119).

A break with God was initiated by the first humans, and communion with God is interrupted. That distance from God would forever place all human beings in a natural state of sin (original sin). The initially created environment described in Genesis was perfect and imbued with good. Peters reminds us that, “There is no abject evil in this story, only competition between a variety of good things” (120). Original sin is one of transmission rather than commission. Regardless, the story of Genesis prompts a reflection on an essentialness of human beings and points to universal violence and death.

At first, the way Peters locates the question of war and human violence appears strange. However, human beings seem to display the need for hope and reconciliation within themselves and with each other. Human beings are oriented toward goodness, but cannot fulfil or sustain that orientation in word, thought, or deed. Out of this tension, transformative critique and thought emerged that gave rise to new schools of thought, of science, and belief.

The axial advance was a dramatic progression of human understanding. In the ensuing historical period, we find breakthroughs in thinking in the Chinese, Indian, Greek, and Mesopotamian regions. Axial philosophers, seers, and thinkers developed a transformative means to conceive and critique ultimate reality, models for God were advanced, means for just and peaceful social order created, and the nature of what it means to be human is addressed. Peters’s exposure of the axial philosophical inquiry is broad. We are next led to consider the possible links with the future.

Gaudium et spes (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 1965) states we, “sincerely professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the rightful betterment of this world in which alike live; such an ideal cannot be realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue.” Peters’s work presents the questions of God in the context of being called out from cosmic and world history. The critical questions called forth are: does the personal good that human beings seek end with the grave, or is there a possibility of eternal existence in which we find ourselves reconciled and in full communion with a loving, almighty, and sovereign God? God in Cosmic History is commended for evoking a sincere and prudent dialog.

About the Reviewer(s):

David C. Martin is an independent Roman Catholic academic with foci in worldviews, religion, spirituality, social contructionism, and higher education.

 

About the Author(s)/Editor(s)/Translator(s):

Ted Peters is coeditor of the journal Theology and Science, published by the Francisco J. Ayala Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. He is Research Professor Emeritus in Systematic Theology and Ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley

Science and Religion: Beyond Warfare and Toward Understanding. By Joshua M. Moritz.

Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2016. Pp. 317. $30.95.

I have not read, and cannot imagine, a better introduction to the science and religion dialogue than this book. If you are looking for a primer that is comprehensive, scholarly, readable—and will be engaging for students—look no further.

The first four chapters of the book provide a solid foundation in the history and philosophy of the relationship between religion and science. M. hits all the major flash points (such as Columbus, Galileo, and others), debunking the warfare myth from every conceivable angle. Six subsequent chapters take the reader into key areas of interaction between religion and science.

Historically and philosophically, scientifically and theologically, the erudition in the book can only be described as massive. Footnotes from Church Fathers sit side by side with footnotes on the latest scientific research and contemporary theological discussion. Yet the book is still easy to read. No one will get lost in jargon here.

Chapter 6 is a good snapshot of the book’s method. M. begins with a detailed linguistic and thematic analysis of what the Bible means when it speaks of God creating. He follows with a detailed scientific analysis of evolutionary biology—including some intriguing findings in evolutionary developmental biology that will call to mind discussions of “cosmological fine-tuning.” Every detail is put to work in showing that there need not be a conflict between creation and evolution from either a religious or a scientific perspective. Chapters on cosmology, human uniqueness, miracles, suffering, and the end of the world all unfold with similar detail and aim.

But M. does not stop with great research and approachable writing. He has also packed the book with discussion questions that are genuinely synthetic, suggested 536 Theological Studies 78(2) readings for those who want to dive deeper, and internet resources for those who want to see related videos. With these features, the book has everything you need for a semester long course on science and religion.

M. not only demystifies the warfare myth, he invites the reader to experience the intellectual and spiritual satisfaction that come from developing a more cordial relationship between religion and science.

The Bible Today, March, 2017, Donald Senior, CP

Daniel J. Scholz, The Catholic Epistles, Hebrews, and Revelation. Introducing the New Testament. Winona, MN: Anselm Academic (anselmacademic.org), 2016. Pages, 236. Paper, $20.95.

The New Testament books covered in this helpful introductory study include the nine books beyond the gospels, Acts, and Paul’s letters. They are probably the least read or studied part of the New Testament. Scholz, associate professor at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, provides a thorough introduction to each in this rich array of texts. Along with an exposition of the canonical texts, he also includes brief surveys of other related extra-canonical texts dated to roughly the last quarter of the first century and into the middle of the second. This can serve as a very informative resource for college and graduate-level courses on the New Testament and early Christianity.

ANSELM ACADEMIC STUDY BIBLE: Catholic Edition: New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) 2015. Anselm Academic, 702 Terrace Heights, Winona, MN 55987-1320 paperbound 398 Pages $43.95 ISBN 978-1-59982-632-5 www.anselmacademic.org.

Organized and developed with the twenty-first reader in mind, the Anselm Academic Study Bible is a late entry into useful and informative editions of the New American Bible Revised Edition that will be welcomed especially by Roman Catholics yet valuable for all Christians. In addition to its excellent translation and notes, it has articles on important and neglected topics such the social context of the Bible, the Christian Bible and Jews, and Contextual and Transformative Interpretation. Other topics in the in-depth, scholarly articles by thirteen writers are informative and compelling features of this Bible. They are The Formation of the Bible; Geography, Archaeology, and the Scriptures; Deuterocanonical and Noncanonical Scriptures; Jewish Biblical Interpretation; The Distinctiveness of Jesus; The Many Faces of Jesus; The Lectionary: A Canon within the Canon; A Brief History and Practice of Biblical Criticism; Critical Issues in Contemporary Interpretation; and Sacred Scripture in the Catholic Tradition. Other important features of this complete study Bible are Engaging scholarship. Recognized and emerging scholars, all expert teachers, present the best and latest research on the formation and interpretation of the Bible. Distinctive approach. Addresses diverse readership and sound pedagogy that encourages critical thinking and informed dialogue. Navigation-friendly organization. Two introductions immediately precede each biblical book, and other resources are sensibly and accessibly arranged. Rich support materials. Full-color and black-and-white photographs, charts, maps, and timelines enhance learning, with online resources available as well. The NABRE is the first major update of the New American Bible (NAB) in twenty years. Reflecting the work of nearly 100 scholars and extensively reviewed and approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, it takes into account the best current scholarship as newly discovered ancient manuscripts improve knowledge and understanding of the biblical text. A statement on the copyright page states, “It is permitted by the undersigned [bishops] for private use and study.” In any case, it is a welcome addition to the many new translations and revisions being published, some commemorating the 400^th anniversary of the King James Bible in 2011. The difference between the New American Bible Revised Edition and the New American Bible is that the NABRE is considered to be more verbally equivalent and the NAB more dynamically equivalent, although like most modern translations, each has elements of both translation philosophies. These words to the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s preface to its Interpretation of the Bible in the Church is apt: “This study is never finished; each age must in its own way newly seek to understand the sacred books.”