The widespread distribution of the first volume in the Contemporary Moral Theology series gave way to great expectation for the authors continued researches. Volume one is a brilliantly executed work which includes questions in fundamental moral theology that are singularly interesting or difficult. This year the authors presented their second volume, Marriage Questions. The text reflects a remarkable scholarship which has mastered not only the totality of Catholic teachings on marriage, but a deep, sound grasp of the radical transformation in the theology of our separated brethren and particularly what has occurred in the last thirty years. A sympathetic and exact understanding of the clinical discoveries of newer sciences like depth psychology is also shown.
This second volume may be regarded as the fruit of two lifetimes of study. It is divided into two sections: The Ends of Christian Marriage, and The Christian Use of Marriage. Part one vindicates theologically and canonically an essential place for the controversial "personalist" or secondary ends of marriage, while defending their essential subordination to the "primary" ends. Part two deals exhaustively with certain problems which concern the sexual use of marriage. The authors do not consider their work a "treatise on moral theology”. Yet the very intricacy of the pages of both current volumes, the depth and insight of the solutions offered, and the creative approach surprising to some, individually and together claim for it a classic place in the annals of moral theology.