I have added two new books to the library. The newer one is medical Ethics by Richard
A. McCormick. The title is, Health and Medicine in the Catholic Tradition. Subtitled,
Tradition in Transition. The moral theology department of Creighton University, Omaha,
Nebraska singles out McCormick. See Tod Salzman at Creighton U. and look under
deontology.
The best thing about McCormick is that he writes an American English. There are very
organic, very meaty examples taken from life. Those examples can bring us up short,
as when McCormick takes us inside a heroin addict house in New York City. Or goes
into a cancer ward with the famous Alexander Solzhenitzen. Or he drops a line about
a friend who went insane. Was anything worth that? McCormick asks us why? do we
really believe that these self-ruined people are God’s special creation? Is this really His
way of revealing? We can’t know. But until we ask this unanswerable question the rest
makes no sense at all.
McCormick is very careful to identify his own position: he features himself as “the radical
middle,” an identity that he acknowledges could be arrogant. The book is a great read.
No harm in skipping to the last chapter on abortion and sexual ethics. It is the best part.
Not to mention the great footnotes. A tour de force, McCormick spells out his opinions
and our options. ... really! It is a book that can fully reward a fifteen minute quick-skim
read. Then, dare you to put it down.
The other is the 1963, essays on The Renewal of the Liturgy. Skip to the last one, The
Future, its Hopes and Difficulties, for a frank and open discussion of the obstacles.
Not to be outdone, there is a reflection posted. By me.
Egypt and the Arab world are one the edge of a cultural explosion. Some of it, at
least, was anticipated by Egypt’s Nobel Laureate. Naguib Mahfouz. Many Arabic
speaking people grew up with his novels and the movies made from them. His Nobel
Laureate Address is recommended for a fresh insight into the world view of an Arabic
writer.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/
1988/mahfouz-lecture.html
For another view of the moral theology of Richard McCormick, see http://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/MCCORMIC.TXT
ReplyDeleteA comment from Frank Freeman:
ReplyDeleteIt is Lent and we should be reading Micah and Zephaniah. Micah, because there is no more beautiful way of teaching us our moral obligation to love dearly and tenderly. And Zephaniah because he points out the bad conscience of corrupt merchants: they were sealing their everyday business contracts with an oath to the living God. Yeah, they were using “Yahweh.” They invited their god to do harm to whoever broke the contract.
We need to learn everything that these minor prophets teach. They go way beyond either of the two moralists, Father Most and Father McCormick. Father Most teaches us to evaluate what we do; and Father McCormick tries to get us to see the big picture. Father Most is the more basic. You have to believe in “right and wrong” or the big picture will never come into focus. But all of that is wasted effort until you come to terms with your own conscience. You need to have sincerity; love deeply and tenderly; and, yes, be willing to tolerate evil in another person when the attractive alternative means trying to use God vindictively.
Our annual CSC Lenten Meditation booklet brings us to where those minor prophets went. The meditations are highly recommended. The “Lenten” prophets, were the “Conscience of Israel” (Vawter, 1961). Our CSC booklet adds to that foundation. We add on to what we get, not by being passive. I hope that the analytic materials matter to some of you. And that the CSC Lenten Meditations serve you well. Vawter’s book should be somewhere in our library - will try to surface it.
A follow-up comment from Frank Freeman:
ReplyDelete2 Maccabees was written in Koine Greek,[1] probably in Alexandria,[2] Egypt, c 124 BC.[3] It presents a revised version of the historical events recounted in the first seven chapters of 1 Maccabees, adding material from the Pharisaic tradition, including prayer for the dead and a resurrection on Judgment Day.[3]
In this cleverly done Biblical unit we can see that the three considerations needed for success are those prescribed by Father Most.
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit draws deeply on the resourcefulness of the human spirit. To work here requires a very strong person. As well as a resourceful one. In my opinion, Father McCormick is the better guide in this area where the human spirit has to draw on its own resources.
As a hospital chaplain, I would need to have to have the capacity to support both. The units which need the skills of Father Most; and those where persons need the spiritual support of Father McCormick.
The two types of moral support differ. Father Most would probably do best on the underlying issues in doing an MRI which might be prescribed by a cardiologist prior to an invasive heart procedure to check the strength of the individual and to see if the person will withstand the surgery. The MRI should not be done without the need.
Father McCormick would do the best job on providing the moral support that the neonatal care unit needs if it is to be effective in going beyond just saving the babies lives. They need to produce psychologically whole babies, attached to their parents and ready to go at take-home time.