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Book Review: Liberating Conscience: Feminist Explorations in Catholic Moral Theology

Anne E. Patrick is a Catholic educator, writer, and ethicist. She is currently Professor of Religion at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She has served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and as director of the Society of Christian Ethics. Patrick opens Liberating Conscience with a reflection on the story of Noah's drunkenness as an allegory of patriarchal models that are "Inebriated with power." Her purpose is to explore ways feminist theology can operate to enable and empower Christians to use the gospel as a means to liberation and justice. The opening chapter, "Conscience and Community: Catholic Moral Theology Today," examines the tension between Catholic Fundamentalism and Catholic Revisionism with particular reference to Charles Curran's removal from teaching at Catholic University. For Patrick, these tensions rise from the need for the church more maturely to address contemporary concerns. She suggests that such will require a paradigm shift not unlike that required in the first century when the Church was faced with a growing Gentile membership, or when the Church was forced to respond intelligently to Copernican theory, or when the Church was faced with the Reformation. This can best be attained through abandonment of the patriarchal traditions that have often heavily