Anglican Moral Theology and Ecumenical Dialogue

Peter Sedgwick

doi:10.3390/rel8090199

Abstract

This article argues that there has been conflict in Roman Catholic moral theology since the 1960s. This has overshadowed, but not prevented, ecumenical dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Communions, especially in ethics. Theologians from the Anglican tradition can help both the debate in Roman Catholic moral theology and the ecumenical impasse. The article examines the contributions of Richard Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, and Kenneth Kirk from 1600–1920, in the area of fundamental moral theology.

Highlights

There are contributions which Anglican ethics can bring both to the Catholic debate, and to ecumenism, in the area of moral norms and the nature of a moral absolute
The first is that Roman Catholic moral theology has been in a state of sustained engagement, and sometimes outright conflict, on the nature of moral theology, and the place of the human agent, since the 1960s
This is at the heart of Joseph Selling’s recent and very valuable book, Reframing Catholic Theological Ethics (Selling 2016). It is this book which was honoured by a conference at Heythrop College, London, in January 2017, both for its own sake and as a way of exploring what the future direction of Catholic theological ethics might be

Summary

Introduction

There are contributions which Anglican ethics can bring both to the Catholic debate, and to ecumenism, in the area of moral norms and the nature of a moral absolute. None of these questions uses the methodology of ‘the object of the human act’, in the way the traditional manuals of moral theology had done, and which Veritatis Splendor was to revive.

Results

Conclusion