An Introduction to Catholic Ethics since Vatican II (Introduction to Religion)

Excellent look at how the Second Vatican Council built upon the consistency of theological principals while coming to grips with the world of change.

Excellent book. Easy to understand and comprehensive.

Ideal for any beginner to Catholic ethics, Kim’s book is intentional in its structure that considers as its first task, dismantling the secular ideologies whose foundations so often lie undetected in the malaise of the modern mind. He uproots contemporary trends such as moral relativism and emotivism, to create space for the reader’s comprehension of Catholic teaching that is coherent and consistent.Kim accomplishes well, a comprehensive treatment of Catholic morality in four sections, its foundations, grace at the heart of virtue, catholic social teaching and bioethics—without doing them injustice for the sake of brevity.He bypasses superficial placement of his writings into the category of liberal or conservative. Instead, he goes to the heart of the Church’s, Christ’s, teaching with an honesty that is sober and refreshing. Kim presents the luminosity of a Catholic ethic based on freedom understood as the ability to choose what is truly good, finding its roots in the encyclical Veritatis Splendor.Refusing to speak above his reader as a beginner to Catholic moral teaching, he writes plainly and does not disregard contemporary issues. Rather, he engages them with analyses that are transparent, thorough and compelling in their conclusions.Kim reinforces the orthodoxy of his claims with excerpts from Scripture, Church documents and the saints. But what attests even more clearly to the universality of his conclusions is his incorporation of non-Catholic thinkers from whom he draws upon the kernels of truth in their comments.This book is certainly in continuity with and a stepping-stone for the student who aspires to later digest thinkers such as Pinckaers, and embody moral freedom as a deepening in conformity to the natural law and the beatitudes. However, it is also a sufficient formation for the reader who is curious for his or her own personal sake.A pearl of a book, Kim is masterful in crafting its structure, clarity and scope.

It is with great enthusiasm that I highly recommend An Introduction to Catholic Ethics Since Vatican II. Dr. Kim has taken on the formidable task of making Catholic morality and ethics accessible to both undergraduate and graduate level students. The textbook is very well organized, thorough and highly engaging due to its very conversational style of writing. He tackles moral relativism, natural law and the virtues in a very concise and practical manner. Dr. Kim then weaves a fabric of moral understanding as professed by the Catholic Church while remaining sensitive and considerate of other ideologies of morality and ethics. The concluding part focuses on the application of Catholic moral tradition and theology in the study of Bioethics, particularly as it pertains to discerning a good and acting accordingly, respecting the sanctity and dignity of the life of all human persons at its extremes. Dr. Kim skillfully avoids any hint of preaching, promoting the reader to engage in exploring morality and ethics from the earliest discussions of Socrates and Aristotle through Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and onto documents of the Second Vatican Council and papal encyclicals of the last half century. Additionally, he draws from the work of many prominent theologians, and details these contributions in meaningful footnotes and an extensive bibliography. Dr. Kim has joined the ranks of thoughtful educators and theologians who challenge the reader to grow in the discipline of morality and ethics. I look forward to future contributions to the literature by Dr. Kim.

Excellent work that does a great job introducing Catholic ethics in a (relatively) easy-to-understand way. Kim writes with a great deal of sensitivity, allowing even open-minded people who don't accept Catholic morality to at least understand it.

I found this book to clearly explain Catholic moral teaching in a manner that was easy to understand and written in plain English. It's given me a deeper understanding of my faith.

The content is clear and interesting, however I`ve given only one star because of the very poor quality of the E-Kindle versión, which contains many typo mistakes which makes its reading quite difficult. Some letters and typographical signs are automatically replaced by other ones such as â€" or â€TM. There could be more than 5-6 types of signs in one page creating a lot of confusión about the real wording intended by the author. I would highly ask the Publisher to correct such errors in the text and provide a new corrected vesion to the buyers (such as me) of the current E-Kindle versión.