A Virtuous Church

An exploration of how the Catholic Church can demonstrate the power and possibility of unity and love.

How can a church founded more than 2,000 years ago respond to the needs of the 21st century? Fr. Seasoltz begins by discussing the cultural sensibilities of today's multicultural and multi-traditioned world, showing how current trends affect the life of Christian churches. Such trends include globalization, the migration of peoples, the ecological crisis that, and the geographical shift in the center of Christianity from the North to the South.

Seasoltz then turns to the origins of moral teaching in the Bible, demonstrating that the key teaching is the need to practice virtue. The following review of the development of moral theology ranges from the early church Fathers through Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, and others up to the work of Bernard H ring in the 20th century and the new emphasis on virtue morality.

The last three chapters clarify the meaning of virtue morality and then apply its practice to today's Roman Catholic Church in its celebration of the liturgy and the sacraments. The book concludes with a short summary, a select bibliography, and an index.