Bernard Häring's Influence on American Catholic Moral Theology

Abstract

Bernard Häring’s monumental The Law of Christ marked a critical break with the moral manual tradition, the system that had shaped moral theology for the past two hundred years. Inheriting and building upon an up-and-coming and vitalizing “reivisionist” movement that sought to return moral theology to its place before the Summa de casibus. Häring’s impact on the thought of Vatican II is unmistakable, offering a unique and compelling style grounded in Scripture (the return of which to moral theology he is almost solely responsible), virtue ethics, and prominence of freedom of conscience.