Formed in the Image of Christ

The Christian life is an imitation of Christ's response to God-a religious response to God's initiative. We are called to make all responses-religion and morality-acts of adoring worship and praise. This sacramental theology is the fundamental moral theology of Bernard Häring, CSsR, whose contributions as a twentieth-century theologian have prepared the way of renewal in Catholic theology today. Part One of this book introduces Bernard Häring and his place in the history of Roman Catholic moral theology. Part Two examines the central concepts of Häring's sacramental-moral theology: responsibility, Christ as Word of God and High Priest, the human person as word and worshiper, and the sacraments as dialogue and response. In Part III the author illustrates how Häring takes a minor category-the virtue of religion-and places it at the center of moral life. Chapters underPart I: Bernard Häring and Roman Catholic Moral Theologyare "Reassessing Bernard Häring's Moral Theology," and "Moral Theology and Sacramental Practice." Chapters underPart II: The Dogmatic Foundations of Häring's Sacramental-Moral Theologyare "Word and Response: The Theological Foundations of the Religious-Moral Life," and "Sacraments as Word and Response." Chapters underPart III: The Christian Moral Life and the Virtue of Religionare "The Theological and Moral Virtues and the Virtue of Religion," and "The Interior and Exterior Acts of the Virtue of Religion." Chapters under the Conclusion are "Bernard Häring and Contemporary Proposals in Liturgy and Ethics: Critique and contributions."