Sunday, November 28, 2010

“Jesuitical” As A Pejorative Term

.......casuistry, or “case-based” moral thinking that Catholic philosophers elaborated in the 17th century to help believers make the best decision when faced with vexing options. This kind of thinking was often linked to highly educated priests of the influential Jesuit order and helped coin “Jesuitical” as a pejorative term for a brainy ethics that critics saw as a way to find loopholes to justify immoral actions. 
Link (here) to the full article at the New York Times by liberal Catholic David Gibson
Go (here) to read some excellent commentary at What Does The Prayer Really Say by Fr. Z 

1 comment:

TonyD said...

I'm not sure why so many people seem to have trouble with the concept of a "lesser evil". Each of us makes such trade-offs in our routine decisions. (Stated another way, our decisions often reflect our values.)

And claiming that something is an "intrinsic evil" does not mean that there will not be trade-offs to consider. (unless you are a theologian who has not encountered real evil. All those "intrinsic evils" look pretty small compared to the real thing.)

We are doing something serious in this existence. I hear Catholics keep saying that "evil is real" yet acting as though it is not.