What Is and What Ought to Be

Book excerpt: Michael Lawler sets out a new approach for theology which must, he says, be historical, empirical, and in interdisciplinary collaboration with the social sciences. He explores the relationship between practical theology (which is concerned with the church as it is and as it ought to be) and sociology, using as example two Catholic moral doctrines: artificial contraception and divorce and remarriage without prior annulment. In addition to being a useful primer on the relationship between theology and sociology (both theoretical and empirical), the book provides a wonderfully clear description of the sea-changes that have occurred in Roman Catholic theology worldwide over the past 70 or so years.