The Question of Christian Ethics

In the early 1930s, Emile Brehier inaugurated a dispute regarding whether or not true philosophy could have existed during the ages of faith, the assumption being that real philosophers are untouched by faith and are, ideally, non-believers. Etienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain, among many others, entered the fray, seeking to clarify what is meant by "Christian philosophy". Both of these philosophers were very much in the tradition of St Thomas Aquinas, and together they might be said to have set the stage for present-day discussions of just whether and what such a thing as a Christian philosophy might be. Ralph McInerny, both a Catholic philosopher in the Thomistic tradition and a writer, recounts the historical background of what might be called the autonomy of philosophy in a properly Christian philosophy and moves to his own resolution of the conflict, differing from both Gilson and Maritain. Chiefly concerned with the implications of this debate for moral doctrine, McInerny argues for a conception of Christian ethics that relies on the distinction between the activity of philosophising and the content of philosophy. "The Question of Christian Ethics" should be a valuable text for scholars working in the area of Aquinas's moral theory and in the area of natural law theory as well as for professors and students who cover this territory in both undergraduate and graduate courses.