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Free and Faithful in Christ
By Bernard Häring
Vol. I. - General Moral Theology for Clergy and Laity. New York,
Seabury Press, 1978. 492 pp. $17.50.
Vol. II: The Truth Will Set You Free. New York, Seabury Press,
1979. 580 pp. $17.50.

It is twenty - five years since Bernard Haring published his three - volume work, The Law of Christ. That work, which was translated into fourteen languages, was important for Catholic moral theology since it

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signaled a return to a more scripturally - based methodology and because it began to bridge the unnatural gap between Catholic ethics and systematic theology. This new tbree - volume work (two volumes of which have appeared) is in a sense more important since it has more ecumenical significance than The Law of Christ and is a more creative work. Though many distinctly Catholic questions are treated in these volumes, this work is a service to all Christians. Moral theology, says Häring, is "either under the authority of the word of God or it is not theology at all" (I, 337). It is not, however, "biblicistic," and it embarks on a broad conversation with social science and the modern world.

Häring's faith stance is an interesting one. In one sense, his orthodoxy is foursquare and traditionally Catholic. Jesus is the Jesus of the Bible in Chalcedonic perspective, the second person of the triune God. Häring is confident that the church was "founded by Jesus Christ" (II, 193). The sacraments are seven in number, the "state of grace" and mortal and venial sin are working terms, and hell as eternal punishment remains as a stark possibility. However, the concepts of church, sacraments, and sin are now in a broader and more biblical setting. "The Roman Catholic Church is Catholic only by emphasizing more its catholicity than its 'Romanity' " (II, 162). Häring quotes with favor the Anglican Canon Alchin: "The gifts of the Spirit have never scrupulously observed canonical boundaries" (II, p. 276). Ecumenism does not mean that "the separate parts of Christianity can simply be invited to return to the Roman Catholic Church" (II, 279). It is rather a: matter of "reintegration." Needed is a "thoroughgoing conversion of all parts of Christianity to the one Lord, and a conversion to each other" (II, 279). The church is basically a "fellowship in the Holy Spirit" (I, 80), and concretely, Häring approves of a member of the Orthodox Church being received into the Roman Catholic Church but continuing to participate in the life of the Orthodox Church, since there is no need to be alienated from "one's native Church" (II, 324). He is not a proponent of "the one true Church." The sacraments have a more ecclesial meaning and are not semi - magical conduits of grace. He opposes "any kind of ritualism opposed to faith" (II, 226). What the sacraments ultimately mean is that we are saved "not as separate individuals, but in the community of faith" (II, 226).

As the size of these volumes would indicate, Häring is out to write a "comprehensive presentation" of moral theology (I, 1). He notes the neo - conservative trends in church and society and states that there will always exist "a number of people who understand fidelity as staying where they were born and where they were located by conditionings and by the will of others." He is convinced, however, that "the era in which almost everyone was content to be born and to live as a member of a certain church or 'organized religion' is over." He addresses these volumes to those who "will live their own lives as discerning people and with the creativity and fidelity that characterizes those who believe in the living God" (I, 4).

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The Leitmotif and normative base of the books is in being "responsible, free, creative, and faithful in Jesus Christ" (I, 82). Each of the categories in this Leitmotif is explored. He then goes on to consider the idea of "the fundamental option," leaning not only on the Bible and Vatican II, but also on the insights of people such as Erik Erikson, Edward Spranger, Soren Kierkegaard, Abraham Maslow, and Viktor Frankl. He discusses virtues and life - style, sin and conversion, and the hazards of individualism with its mis - estimation of our intrinsic sociality. His chapter on conscience is the best one in volume I. He includes anthropological insights and the data of developmental psychology. Also, he gives the back of his hand to any idea that there is no such thing as a distinctively Christian conscience. He also reasserts the valuable Catholic theory of probabilism which validates dissent and leaves room for insight and the inspiration of the Spirit, and is thus an essential tool against the abuse of authority by officeholders in the Catholic communion. He argues, with Cardinal Newman, that "conscience is the original vicar of Christ" (II, 221).

Volume II on the theme of liberating truth ranges broadly. He is mindful of not only the biblical significance of truth but also the phenomenology and sociology of truth. Chapter two of this volume is the piéce de résistance of this work. He discusses beauty as a dimension of God's revelation, the human and religious significance of art and the artist, the place of feast, celebration, and liberating play, and humor as reconciling and liberating. This chapter on beauty and glory is beautiful. This volume also treats such things as the ethics of communication, both private and journalistic, orthodoxy and orthopraxis, faith - education, ecumenism, sexism, racism, unbelief, hope, the relationship of love and justice, human sexuality, and more.

Häring is passionately concerned lest the church become a "fossil church" armed with "fossil theology" (II, 387). His work is filled with human pastoral sense in the best Liguorian tradition. He worries about Christians who care more about chastity than justice. He recognizes in a way that is, sad to say, timely (in Catholicism and in other Christian confessions) that "plain heterodoxy can take the form of the most intolerant orthodoxy, leading to inquisition, persecution, and torture of those who think differently" (II, 234). He calls forth the biblical notion of parrhesia, the courage to speak the truth forthrightly, and he laments the times with dissent from official documents has come forth "too late and after many losses" (I, 281).

Moving with gingerly step, he shows the new flexibility in Catholic thought on issues once under rigid cloture. He shows openness to therapeutic abortion, condemning only "an intervention that is not life - saving" (II, 486). Sterilization, which is "therapeutic in a broad sense," is not condemned (II, 486). He is pastorally open on the question of contraception. He allows that there can be good reasons for asking dispensation from religious vows and from the exercise of priestly ministry (II, 76). In certain African contexts, he would permit

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polygamous families to full participation in the sacramental life of the church (II, 538).

There are problems in the book. Haring is too repetitious and at times boringly preachy. His incantational multiplication of scriptural texts is often tedious. His insistence on "the fundamental option" is unfortunate since this concept implies a simplicity that is not available in the volitional recesses of personality, and so he must constantly qualify the meaning of the term. His effort to redeem the categories of moral and venial sin is valiant but futile since these categories inevitably tilt toward a quantitative simplism. Mortal sin is all the more unredeemable when tied to a notion of eternal damnation. With all of his stress on sexism and communication he does not face up to the message the Catholic Church is communicating when it bars from ministry both women and men married to women.

Still, these books are important. All Christians will find much in them that is heart - warming and wise and much that could lead to the end of our sinful separateness.

Daniel C. Maguire
Marquette University
Milwaukee, Wisconsin