Love, Reason, and God's Story
An Introduction to Catholic Sexual Ethics
About This Book
Overview
Designed for College Students Taking a Course on Sexual Ethics
In Love, Reason, and God’s Story: An Introduction to Catholic Sexual Ethics, Dr. David Cloutier provides readers with a basic understanding of the history of Catholic teaching on sexual ethics, particularly as it has evolved in the last half century. By engaging students in serious intellectual discussion, this author allows them to integrate that discussion with the practical questions that affect their lives.
This text explores the historical, spiritual, practical, and normative elements of Catholic sexual ethics in a way no other book does. Love, Reason, and God’s Story is faithful to the Catholic tradition, engaging, accessible to students, and pedagogically structured to encourage critical thinking about dating, marriage, and sexuality.
Details
| Weight | 1.05 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 7.25 × 1.5 × 9.125 in |
| Format | Softcover |
| Print ISBN | 978-0-88489-945-7 |
| Pages | 292 |
| Item # | 7006 |
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Customer Reviews
“Cloutier knows how to engage undergraduates, introduce them to the tradition broadly conceived, and show them (by example) how to reason.”
Saint Louis University, MO
“I have decided to use the Cloutier book in the fall. It is a marvelous combination of official teaching and diverse views. It sparkles.”
“I found Cloutier’s book Love, Reason, and Gods Story: An Introduction to Catholic Sexual Ethics to be faithful to the Church tradition while also having some of the cool factor that college students enjoy.”
Oblate School of Theology
”Cloutier understands today’s college students and presents Christian sexual morality in a way that can reach them.”
About the Author
Table of Contents
Part 1 Sexuality and Catholicism: Telling the Stories
- Love and Reason
Your Heart or Your Head?
Two Descriptions of Romantic Love: Completion and Sickness
Romantic Love among the LovesAvoiding Ranking:
Practicing the Loves in Everyday Life
Friendship and Romance: How Do You Decide?
ReasonOrdering Multiple Desires: Narratives and the Ultimate End One Last Piece: Virtues and Vices Conclusion - Love Stories
Ingredients of a Love Story
Scholarly Love Stories: Biology, Psychology, Society
Fisher, Freud, Foucault, and Our Everyday Lives
Conclusion - God’s Story
What Is a God Story?
The Bible as God’s Story
God’s Story and Love Stories: Some Preliminary Observations
Conclusion - God’s Story and Sexuality
Some Initial Controversies
Men and Women
Gender and Sexual Attraction
What Is Sexual Orientation?
Conclusion and Transition
Part 2 Sexuality and Catholicism: Exploring the Practices
- Practices of Sexuality: The Purposes of Dating
Dating in Historical Context
Dating and Ethics: Reason and God’s Story
Purposes for Dating: Only Marriage or Also Intimacy?
Practicing Dating: Latitude, Anarchy, or Chastity?
Conclusion - Rules of the Practice: Sexual Activity in Dating
Absolute Norms: A Primer
Evaluating Sexual Actions: Relationship Sex
Evaluating Sexual Actions: Sex and Procreation
Not-Quite-Sex Sexual Actions
Masturbation
Conclusion - Practices of Sexuality: The Purposes of Marriage
Marriage and Contemporary American Society
The Two Purposes of Marriage
Contemporary Reflection and Discussion on the Purposes of Marriage
Debating the Purposes of Marriage
Why Have and Raise Children?
Conclusion - Rules of the Practice: Sexual Activity in Marriage
Marriage, Quasi-Marriage, and Cohabitation
The Purposes of Marriage and Moral Norms
A Brief Reflection on Temperance
Conclusion - Practices of Sexuality: The Purposes of Sacramental or Vocational Marriage Marriage and Family in the City: The Problem of Locating Love
Marriage and Family within the Horizontal God Story Celibacy
Recovering Marriage as a Vocation for the Kingdom
The Kingdom and the Sacraments
Sacramental Marriage in the Kingdom-Household: New Families in the New Family Conclusion - Rules of the Practice: Society and Sacramental Marriage
The External Transformations of Vocational Marriage
The Interior Transformation of Vocational Marriage: Natural Marriage Transfigured
Love Transformed: Indestructible and Sanctifying
Parenting Transformed: Children as Sacrifice
Special Issues: Vocation and Mixed Marriages
Conclusion - Epilogue Forgiveness and Reconciliation: The Final Word of Ethics
Forgiveness, Guilt, and Righteousness
The Process of Reconciliation Sex, Confession, and Forgiveness
ConclusionEndnotes and Further Reading
