Renewing Moral Theology

While ethical issues are being raised with new urgency, Christians are increasingly unfamiliar with the moral grammar of their faith. The need to reengage the deep-down things of the Christian moral tradition has seldom been more urgent. Moral theology has a long history in the Catholic and Anglican traditions. The tradition of theological ethics, influenced by Aristotle by way of Aquinas, offers a distinct emphasis on the virtues and character formation. Now Daniel Westberg infuses this venerable ethical tradition with a biblical confidence in the centrality of the gospel and the role of the Holy Spirit in forming character, while also laying down a sound moral psychology for practical reason and ethical living. Christians-whether of Anglican, Catholic or of other traditions-interested in vigorously retrieving a great moral heritage, will find here common ground for ethical reflection and discipleship.

Daniel A. Westberg (1949-2017) was professor of ethics and moral theology at Nashotah House, a seminary of the Episcopal Church in Nashotah, Wisconsin. He grew up in Japan where his parents were missionaries and after his ordination he served as an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Toronto for ten years, in both rural and city parishes. He also taught ethics at the University of Virginia for eight years. Westberg is the author of Right Practical Reason: Action, Aristotle and Prudence in Aquinas and many articles in journals such as The Anglican Theological Review, The Thomist and New Blackfriars, as well as several short articles in The New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology. He divides his time between Wisconsin and Sweden, where his wife Lisa lives and works, and together they have four adult children.