The National Catholic Bioethics Center is offering a two-book bundle, featuring Contemporary Bioethics: Catholic Wisdom for a Confused Culture, edited by Marilyn Coors, and The Dialogue between Tradition and History: Essays on the Foundations of Catholic Moral Theology by Fr. Benedict Ashley, OP. The observations presented in Contemporary Bioethics are perfectly complemented by the essays in The Dialogue between Tradition and History. In this work, Ashely provides keen insights on the basis of Catholic anthropology and moral theology.

Individually, Contemporary Bioethics costs $21.95, and The Dialogue between Tradition and History costs $31.95. Now you can preorder the two-book bundle for just $29.95!

Contemporary Bioethics: Catholic Wisdom for a Confused Culture

edited by Marilyn E. Coors

In this apostolic age, when Christians’ moral beliefs are opposed to those of the dominant culture, we must be prepared to present a countercultural, Christian vision in science, health care, politics, and everyday life. In few places is this clearer than in bioethics, the conscience of our technological civilization. Unfortunately, most lay faithful feel ill-equipped to witness to the ethical teachings of Christ in the world as it is, and new depths of knowledge, grace, and courage will be required of them.

In Contemporary Bioethics, nine interdisciplinary authors from medicine, law, theology, and philosophy empower readers to speak to contemporary issues from informed and reasoned positions grounded in the light of truth, including

• How historical intellectual dynamics led to contemporary cultural perspectives that reject the complementarity of men and women and deny the unitive and procreative nature of marriage.

• How redefining one’s own existence by disassociating meanings from words such as existence, good and evil, and tolerance prevents societal improvement.

• How free will, moral capacity, and natural law can help society discern a path toward the use of artificial intelligence that contributes to human development and overcomes serious harms of manipulating people and the environment for profit.

• How Catholic social teaching is not politics or activism but an interior transformation of every person to live with love among others and to work for the well-being of every other person.

Using these insights as a roadmap, readers with an interest in the pressing issues presented here can better witness to the moral and ethical teachings of Christ and the Church in the world through personal conversations, community involvement, and civil engagement.

ISBN 978-0-935372-81-6 (paperback)
6” x 9”
121 + x pages

Read Christopher Reilly’s Chapter, “Seven Christian Principles for Thriving with Artificial Intelligence,” here.

The Dialogue between Tradition and History: Essays on the Foundations of Catholic Moral Theology

by Fr. Benedict Ashley, OP

Following the Second Vatican Council, Ashley witnessed the redirection of moral theology from a classically oriented tradition to an empirically conditioned historicism. The result was moral confusion and intellectual controversy within the Church. Rather than subjectivity, relationality, and language of historical mindedness, Ashley preferred a theological method that favors a focus on Scripture, the Magisterium, natural science, and a carefully nuanced consideration of subjectivity and objectivity. In addition to essays on a wide range of topics, such as natural law, conscience, autonomy, infallibility, and medical ethics, the volume contains an intellectual biography of Fr. Ashley by Matthew McWhorter and commentaries by contemporary scholars Rev. Cajetan Cuddy, OP, Matthew Minerd, and Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, OP.

978-0-935372-73-1
5.5” x 8.25”
333 +vi pages