This exceptional book shows how the Catholic Church is unable to challenge the current ‘banal’ consensus around questions of life, death, and sexuality because it fails fully to question the metaphysical undergirdings of that consensus which it even, historically, helped to shape. Catholic ethics will only become credible once more if we restore its basis in a philosophical account of the soul-body relation, that is itself grounded in Christian doctrine. This book is crucial reading for all Christian ethicists.

John Milbank, University of Nottingham

This work explains why Catholic moral teaching is so little understood. As with many other areas of theology, the problems have their roots in late medieval ideas, in the project of Immanuel Kant and in post-Conciliar theology wafting across the Anglosphere from Belgium and Holland. Deane explains not only what the Church teaches but the “engines” or foundations upon which an authentic Catholic moral theology is based. His thesis is that unless we get the foundations right and understand them, magisterial teaching will continue to have little persuasive force. This should be on every seminarian’s moral theology reading list!

Tracey Rowland, University of Notre Dame, Australia

In this sharply argued book, David Deane shows us the murderous consequences of the Enlightenment’s anthropology which reduced humanity to the choosing power, and so clouded our ability to see reality. By clearing such obstacles, Deane helps us to see reality better. He charts a postliberal path to a more truly humane anthropology that sees the person by the light of right worship.

C.C. Pecknold, The Catholic University of America

A very valuable book. Deane rightly emphasizes the wider contexts in which Catholic moral theology is (or increasingly isn't) "heard" in the contemporary world — and offers promising ideas as to what to do about it.

Stephen Bullivant, St Mary's University, UK