To Delight in His Will and Walk in His Ways
By The Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Kidd, ’12
Daniel A. Westberg, Renewing Moral Theology. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Academic, 2015.
The Rev. Dr. Daniel Westberg’s Renewing Moral Theology is thoroughly “one of our own.” Not only has he been teaching Ethics and Moral Theology at Nashotah House for the past fifteen years, the book itself was openly conceived in and incubated by the Nashotah classroom as a textbook for the seminarian’s first course in Ethics. Indeed, I myself remember working through an earlier draft of this text, then under the working title, “To Delight in His Will and Walk in His Ways.” Steeped in the Nashotah ethos of prayer, work and study, the significance of Fr. Westberg’s contribution in Renewing Moral Theology extends far beyond the boundaries of the extended seminary community. What Fr. Westberg has achieved a synthesis of the best of moral reasoning within the historic Catholic and Evangelical traditions.
In an age when much public debate pertains to moral issues, it is immensely refreshing to follow Renewing Moral Theology back to the basic mechanisms of moral decision making. Fr. Westberg leads us to reconsider the ethical implications of the Christian faith from the ground up. This is a season for many of deep uncertainty, and this book offers a living articulation of an ancient tradition of practical wisdom of “peace that passes understanding”.
The central success of Fr. Westberg’s book is its quiet demonstration that moral theology can indeed be “renewed” in our times without being “revolutionized” according to secularism, or becoming distracted by the blunders of well-intended but ill-considered church or societal policies. By representing a deep and comprehensive Christian moral vision, he shows us that the Church’s tradition of moral reasoning speaks, not just to a handful of moral and social issues, but to the entire essence of humanity.
Beginning his exploration in the basic processes of moral reasoning and character formation, Fr. Westberg deepens and expands on the growing conversation about virtue ethics. He parses the complex tradition of moral psychology communicated through Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas in a way that is clear and accessible, enabling the ordinary reader to grasp easily the logic of these sophisticated ancient understandings of the human soul. To this classical foundation, Fr. Westberg appends the historic church’s emphasis on sin and the need for conversion, rooting the philosophical discourse more clearly in the existential narrative of Christianity, once again bringing together the best of the traditions he seeks to represent.
In Part Two of the book, Fr. Westberg surveys the seven classical virtues, turning first to the four cardinal virtues: prudence (as “wisdom in action”), justice, fortitude and self-control; and then to the theological virtues of faith, love, and hope. The net result of this thoughtful composition is a text broadly applicable in pastoral ministry: to be used in a discipleship-oriented adult book study; as a resource for a sermon series emphasizing Christian character formation; or simply as a supplement to the ethical section of catechetical instruction.
Finally, Fr. Westberg alludes to major moral questions of the day, but these are not his focus, nor does he offer any easy solutions to these problems. Indeed, the questions only become more complicated when we undertake the kind of comprehensive reflection that he prescribes and to discover that in the process of giving ourselves to the work of “renewing moral theology,” much more than moral theology is renewed. It is a wonderful gift to the Church, and one we should pray will, in the long run, have the impact that is its due and facilitate the renewal for which it calls.
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The Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Kidd, ‘12, is the executive director of Whatcom County LOVE Inc. in Washington. Fr. Nathaniel is an Anglican priest who settled in Bellingham with his family as a church planter in September of 2018. He completed Masters of Divinity at Nashotah House in 2012, and a Doctorate in Religious Studies (with an emphasis in Historical Theology) at Marquette University in 2018.
Fr. Nathaniel’s ministry portfolio involves serving in college chaplaincy, and with two urban mission churches, one of which was composed mostly of homeless people. With his wife Sarah, he has also taught at Lahore College of Theology in Lahore, Pakistan.
The Rev. Daniel A. Westberg, D.Phil., was Professor of Ethics and Moral Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary until his death on October 18, 2017. Fr. Westberg grew up in Japan where his parents were missionaries with the Evangelical Covenant Church. While in graduate school in Toronto he became an Anglican, and experienced a call to ordained ministry. After seminary training and ordination in 1978 he served in the Diocese of Toronto for ten years, in both rural and city parishes. His books include Right Practical Reason: Action, Aristotle and Prudence in Aquinas (OUP, 1994), and a collaboration with the late Reginald Fuller resulted in the 3d edition of Preaching the Lectionary (2006). Many articles have been published in journals such as The Anglican Theological Review, The Thomist, and New Blackfriars, as well as several short articles in The New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology (InterVarsity Press).
The preceding article was originally published in Nashotah House’s Missioner magazine, 2015.