Conscience and Calling: Ethical Reflections on Catholic Women's Church Vocations

This volume probes the meaning and ethical implications of the powerful symbol of vocation from the vantage of contemporary Catholic women, with particular attention to the experiences of women religious. Intended as a follow-up to Liberating Conscience: Feminist Explorations in Catholic Moral Theology, the new book will benefit many readers, including Catholic leaders, laity, and religious, as well as persons interested in Christian ethics and American religious history more generally. The work treats twentieth-century history and more recent developments, including tensions between the Vatican and progressive Catholics, the development of lay ministries, and the movement to ordain women deacons, priests, and bishops.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction 1. "His Dogs More Than Us": Virtue in Situations of Conflict Between Women Religious and Their Ecclesiastical Employers. 2. Women and Church Authority: A Map of Responses to Injustice 3. A Ministry of Justice: The 25-Year Pilgrimage of the National Assembly of Women Religious (NAWR/NARW) 4. "Framework for Love": Toward a Renewed Understanding of Vocation 5. Vocation in a Transformed Social Context SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

About the Author :
Anne E. Patrick, SNJM is William H. Laird Professor of Religion and the Liberal Arts, emerita, at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. She is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and a founding vice-president of the International Network of Societies for Catholic Theology. Her writings on religious, ethical, and literary topics have appeared in many books and journals, and she is the author of Liberating Conscience: Feminist Explorations in Catholic Moral Theology and Women, Conscience, and the Creative Process.

Review :
Conscience and Calling is a beautifully written and powerful tribute to the courage and dedication of women religious. In a volume filled with penetrating insight into the present situation in the Catholic Church, Patrick describes how women religious have both worked and struggled with church authorities but have emerged with their consciences and vocations intact and renewed. This book opens up a history that needs to be known and celebrated while offering its readers a moral framework for understanding what it means for all of us to answer our callings. -- Susan A. Ross, Loyola University, Chicago, USA