The fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Second Vatican Council includes remembering the council's challenge that moral theology should be much more influenced by the Bible than it had been previously (see Optatam Totius, §16). Lisa Sowle Cahill's most recent book is an exemplary response to that challenge, since it identifies and applies implications of several major biblical themes. Six of the book's eight chapters explore, respectively, the themes of creation and evil, the kingdom of God, Christ, Spirit, the cross, and hope. The other two chapters present an introduction to Cahill's vision of Christian social ethics (chapter 1) and a revision of Thomistic natural law theory (chapter 7).
Chapter 1, “The Politics of Salvation,” asserts presuppositions shared by realists, pragmatists, and liberationists, such as equating love of God and love of neighbor, seeing faith more as praxis than belief, and defining theology as reflection on experience. Although these presuppositions are said to be consistent with modern Catholic social teaching (18–19), specific themes and documents of the latter are not cited. For example, elaborations upon the distinction between culture and politics (e.g., as taught in Gaudium et Spes) and the distinction between society and state (e.g., as taught in Dignitatis Humanae) are especially missed. Also surprisingly omitted in chapter 1 are explanations of natural law and justice theory, which would arguably fit better here than in chapter 7. A strength of chapter 1 is Cahill's appreciation of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a theological symbol that illustrates the inseparability of religious truths, their political implications, and Christian prayer (24–28).
Chapter 2 includes the claim that biblical narratives such as Genesis 3 reveal—contrary to simplistic interpretations given in traditional theodicies—the ambiguous origin and perpetuation of moral evil (54). This chapter also reminds us of feminist interpretations of Genesis 3 wherein God is seen as announcing—not authorizing—evil consequences of sin such as systems of domination (60–61). The chapter helps us to see moral evil as a persistent mystery that can and should be resisted via the assistance of God's more powerful salvific presence.
Chapters 3 through 6 constitute the book's explicitly Christological contributions. These focus on Jesus as “the prophet of God's kingdom” (76), whose life, ministry, and death call for and inaugurate a Christian politics wherein evils such as poverty, patriarchy, and prejudice are to be actively opposed (101–21). Chapter 5, on the Holy Spirit, does not examine Aquinas' thought on the relationship between charity and justice, but the chapter does include a comparison of Aquinas and Luther that reflects Cahill's hope for continuing ecumenical dialogue (170).
In chapter 7, Cahill's revision of Thomistic methodology challenges ethicists to recommend moral priorities as these materialize in diverse social contexts (251). Finally, in chapter 8, Cahill recommends the work of peace building as an expression of her vision of Christian politics (302–3).
It is not obvious which specific audiences—if any—Cahill is addressing, but it is clear that this book will be a valuable resource in undergraduate and graduate courses on Catholic social teaching as well as Christology. Those committed to these fields will also welcome a revision of, or successor to, this text, one that adds chapters applying other prominent biblical themes, such as church, prayer, reconciliation, Eucharist, and service.
