Four Challenges for Moral Theology in the New Century

Abstract

The English Metaphysical poet, Richard Crashaw, in his poem, “Wishes to His (Supposed) Mistress,” encourages his mistress to regard the challenges of life as friends. The use of the term “friend” is suggestive. A core feature of the classical conception of friendship is that friends reveal their secrets to each other. Perhaps, therefore, the poet is suggesting that challenges can be revelatory, that they have something to teach us once we face them. If this, at least in part, is what the poet means to tell us, then we who aspire to have theology as our mistress would do well to follow the poet’s example and encourage our mistress to make friends with her challenges—to encourage moral theology to confront squarely the challenges that