1.Opening the Questions
2.The Questions and Their Past
3.Difficult Crossings: Diverse Traditions
4.Constructing and Ethic
5.Same-Sex Relationships
6.Marriage and Family
7.Celibacy
8.Sex and the Potential for Violence
9.Just Love: A Sexual Ethic Revisited
This long-awaited book by one of American Christianity's foremost ethicists proposes a framework for sexual ethics whereby justice is the criterion for all loving, including love that is related to sexual activity and relationships.
Margaret A. Farley holds the Gilbert L. Stark Chair in Christian Ethics and Professor Emerita at Yale University Divinity School. She was awarded the 2007 St Elizabeth Setan Medal and 2008 Grawemeyer award. She is also a past president of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Reference & Research Book News/ August 2006
*mention*
Just Love carries to a new level Farley's analysis of different
world-views and cultural systems....As a theologian, Farley gives
us a social ethic of sex that incorporates both the biblical
"option for the poor" and the orientation of Catholic social
thought to the universal common good. As a feminist, she reminds
Catholics that their tradition should make its global option for
women more consistent, more explicit and more effective, especially
in the areas of sex, motherhood, marriage and family.' ~ Lisa
Sowell Cahill, America, December 2006
*Lisa Sowle Cahill*
"This book is a serious primer for anyone who wants to think about
sexual ethics in some depth. The scholarship is impeccable,
and the footnotes not only give the broad sources but are often
interesting in themselves." - Catholic Herald
"she intelligently examines the evidence surrounding the questions
from a variety of perspectives ...The book is broad enough to be
relevant and appeal to a wider audience than solely the
Christian...The book is very readable." INTAMS ( Journal for the
study of Marriage and Spirituality), vol.13/2, autumn 2007
*Anna Abraham*
"This spring I taught a course to undergraduates at Macalester
College on the topic "Religion, Gender, and Sexuality", in which
Farley's book was a required text. In that context it proved to be
an invaluable tool for two reasons. First, it provided my students
with clear and readable summaries of much literature already
covered but which is not as stylistically lucid as Farley's prose.
Second, her book was a marvellous manual for teaching students what
goes into the making of an ethical argument and how they might go
about constructing such a normative position on secular ethics for
themselves. Since most of the secular literature we read was mainly
of a descriptive or explanatory nature, while the religious and
theological literature articulated those normative views on gender
and sexuality that are problematic for this current generation of
college students, Farley helped them to synthesize various
contemporary viewpoints critical of the Christian tradition with a
revised approach to ethical reflection. Her book validates the
experiential and intellectual reasons persons have to be critical
of the church's inherited sexual morality, at the same time that
she clarifies why Christian faith itself provides a warrant for
ethical revision on behalf of its distinctive vision of what human
life may and should be when lived out of a love that just is. There
is no better book on Christian sexual ethics. Tolle, lege: take and
read." --Paul E. Capetz, Touchstone
*Paul E. Capetz*
"In 2008, Margaret Farley received the Grawemeyer Award in Religion
for her achievement in Just Love. This prize, which places
Just Love in the company of works such as Marilynne Robinson's
Gilead and Jurgen Moltmann's The Coming of God, indicates the
respect the book commands...Just Love represents both a
contribution to the developing literature of relational ethics and
a 'creative reconstruction' of the natural law tradition, broadly
conceived...Reflecting on the natural realities of human nature and
experience, she outlines a universally applicable justice ethic and
undertakes to identify common ground upon which all persons of good
will can reason together about moral perplexities relating to our
interactions as embodied, gendered, sexual beings...This book,
then, consolidates and systematizes the central themes and
intentions of Margaret Farley's truly remarkable career." -D.M.
Yeager, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Sept. 2009
"Farley's eagerly anticipated book delivers exactly what it
ambitiously promises: a framework for Christian sexual ethics....
Consistent with her earlier works, such as Personal Commitments
(1986) and "An Ethics for Same-Sex Relations" (in A Challenge to
Love [1983]). Through them all she is developing tools by which we
can thoroughly and thoughtfully evaluate practices within their
particular situations and cultural contexts, rather than laying out
permanent norms (which she believes often function as taboos,
short-circulating moral reflection). New here is her careful
demonstration of means for employing diverse contemporary, global,
and cumulative Western thinking on sexuality. For the benefit of
students and informed general readers F. efficiently surveys the
important primary and secondary sources but she also performs a
subtle service for specialists.... Her broad norms and caveats are
clear and convincing; copious footnotes guide the reader to all the
major sources and controversies in the Western history and ethics
of sexuality, and to many global ones. The book is highly
recommended for scholars in the field and for graduate students as
an introduction to ethical method generally."- Cristina L. H.
Traina, Theological Studies
*Theological Studies*
The double entendre of the title, Just Love, is only the start of
an excellent book. Margaret Farley examines the meaning of human
sexuality and how this meaning can be incorporated into what she
terms "a moral view of human and Christian life." Eschewing simple
answers to what can be murky questions, and withholding judgment
based in either a strictly deontological approach or a relativized
culturally conditioned ethic on sexual issues, Farley sets out to
establish adequate criteria to judge the goodness or rightness of
the human sexual interaction. While she neither denies or dismisses
the insights of western culture, including the teaching and
tradition of the Catholic Church, she embraces the healthy
anthropology of that tradition that assumes human beings can
continue to learn more about themselves and their sexuality.
Insights can be found in many areas, including the conclusions of
alternative sexual ethical frameworks proposed by contemporary
thinkers. New knowledge may press beyond past conclusions,
resulting in the development of new normative positions. The author
does not promise answers, but rather proposes a framework from
which answers can be derived. The marvel of the book is that she
has managed in just 300 pages to cover so much ground and do it so
well. "...Farley's work, the patina of her practical
wisdom and passionate caring gives heart to what is a highly
scholarly work. The author's colleagues, students and other
readers—dare I say "devotees"—will not be disappointed in Just
Love. Farley has, in her usual fashion, covered the topic with
impeccable scholarship, practical wisdom and a compassion and
acceptance for the existential reality of human beings in a sexual
world. The book, while clearly not an ideal beach book, will keep
the reader interested to the end.
*Catholic Books Review*
"Margaret Farley's, latest and long awaited book Just Love is
a thoughtful reexamination of ‘justice in loving' within the sexual
sphere, including lesbian/gay relationships. Subtitled A Framework
for Christian Sexual Ethics, the new work offers a fundamental but
updated set of ethical principles, based on well articulated norms
of justice. Farley's book can be recommended for scholar and
novice alike. The work is eminently readable, despite the
profundity of its subject matter. It is extensively documented,
with clarifying and often lengthy footnotes, which the average
person may simply ignore...nearly 300 works are cited in the
explanatory notes."
*Bondings*
"This book offers both the comprehensive presentation of the voices
that have shaped the present state of the question and a
constructive proposal that argues that these voices require a
consistent and comprehensive account of justice as the foundation
for sexual ethics ... This is why classics are - and should be -
read broadly by those within and outside of a field of study, by
experts and the general reader. This is why Farley's Just Love is,
at the least, a contemporary classic in Christian sexual ethics." -
Timothy F. Sedgwick, Anglican Theological Seminary, May 2007
"This book is a gigantic contribution to the discourse and
understanding of human sexuality. It is monumental. It turns the
entrenched dictates of the Vatican on their head...opens the
subject of sex to rational discourse by Christian people, and
acknowledges the direction from which the source of light
comes—reason and science informed by just love open to all."
Richard Sipe
"Just Love responds eloquently to the quest for enduring meanings
of embodiment, gender identity, and sexuality that might ground
moral wisdom in the face of cultural diversity and a growing
skepticism about the adequacy of normative frameworks in sexual
ethics...Farley has written a text that is at once compassionate
and wise, inclusive, and moving. She draws on poetry as well
as philosophy, historical studies, scientific research, and the
meanings of sexuality. Theologians and their advance
students, pastoral guides, and adults searching for wisdom in
relationships will all appreciate this book." —Rosemarie E. Gorman,
Religious Studies Review, Vol. 33, No. 2, April 2007
*Rosemarie E. Gorman*
Mention of title winning Grawemeyer Religion Award in Earth Times,
December 2007
"This important book by Margaret A. Farley, professor emerita of
Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School and member of the Sisters
of Mary, won the prestigious Grawemeyer award, administered by the
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary...Young people,
parents, and pastors are challenged to work together to help us all
lead sexually responsible lives in the light of Farley's challenge
to practice ‘just love.'" -The American Catholic
*Joseph Cunneen*
"Farley (Yale Divinity School) offers a comprehensive historical
overview and analysis of sexuality and sexual ethics, capping it
with a proposal for a revisioned contemporary Christian sexual
ethic. The book draws heavily throughout on her feminist
perspective, and endeavors to balance Scripture, religious
tradition, and insights of secular disciplines and contemporary
experience in providing a framework based on a somewhat qualified
definition of justice as the foundation for norms of love and
sex.." CHOICE February 2007
"What distinguishes a contribution and a classic in a field of
study is the difference between works that further a conversation
and works that reconstruct the conversation. This is why classics
are (and should be) read broadly by those within and outside of a
field of study, by "experts" and the "general reader." This is why
Farley's Just Love is (at the least) a contemporary classic in
Christian sexual ethics." - Anglican Theological Review
*Anglican Theological Review*
'In a world of moral confusion and ethical compromise, the
principles for which Margaret Farley stands have shone as a
lodestar of hope. Or perhaps like a beacon, for her life and work
guide us though the haze of uncertainty in which we nowadays
perforce live, leading us always toward the good and the real.' -
Sherwin Nuland, author of How We Live and How We Die.
*Blurb from reviewer*
'On a topic about which too many angry polemics are written,
Farley's calm, commonsense style comes as a relief...This will be a
wonderful book to use with students...In a society where sex is
used to sell nearly everything...Margaret Farley has the guts and
the clarity of mind to give as a third alternative to "narrowly
constituted moral systems and rules" on the one hand and sexual
chaos on the other.' William C. Placher, Christian Century, October
17th 2006
*Christian Century*
This is an excellent work by a leading Roman Catholic feminist and
ethicist, written with flair, clarity, and absence of jargon. The
many changing circumstances surrounding sexuality are well
described. The influence of Foucault and Freud is critically
introduced. The Christian traditions of thinking abut sex, and
their indebtedness to Graeco-Roman assumptions, are helpfully
summarised.
*Church Times*
Farley is best known for her largeness of spirit and for the
demanding intelligence she brings to her teaching and writing. Her
new book exudes those qualities...Farley's manner is academic but
not obscure, and once readers grow comfortable with it, they will
reap the benefits of wisdom gleaned from decades of teaching and
scholarship...I consider Just Love an important resource and spur
for further collaboration among Christians and others on the knotty
issues of sexual ethics. Throughout her book, Farley evinces the
sort of intellectual modesty that comes from great learning and an
open mind....Just Love does not provide all the answers concerning
sexual ethics. But it does lay out a serious and solid framework
for thinking about them.
*Commonweal*
"Margaret Farley's Just Love won the 2008 Louisville Grawemeyer
Award in Religio...The award is well deserved for Just Love, which
takes the powerful idea that justice is the criterion for morally
good human love and applies it to sexual ethics in a style that is
clear yet substantive, learned yet free of academic jargon" "Just
Kove forwards a substantive framework for thinking about sexual
ethics and handles concrete moral issues with sensivity and
compassion. This volume will become a standard in university ethics
courses and should be welcomed as a resource for parish adult
education groups" 1 July 2009
*Theology*
This book is the best on sexual ethics I have ever read. The
originality is in the approach which puts justice in loving as the
key to sexual ethics. It is not justice and love in equilibrium,
but a necessity for justice in loving. She asks what sort of a
person we need to be in order to love justly. This is not a
reductive ethic, looking at individual acts, but covers a wide
field, and she suggests there are fields where we have never
applied sexual justice. The tone of the book is exploratory. While
based on formidable scholarship it is easily accessible
reading.
*Network– the magazine of Women, Word, Spirit*
[A] fascinating account of the theory and possible practice of
sexual relations in different cultures … This review does not do
justice to the extensive study and profound reflection on all
aspects of human sexual relations in Margaret Farley’s book. She
has made an immense contribution to the study of virtue ethics.
*Renew*
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