Self-Gift : Essays on Humanae Vitae and the Thought of John Paul II (Renewal Within Tradition)

by Janet E. Smith

Publisher:

Emmaus Academic

, 2018

Overview

Janet E. Smith has been among the world’s preeminent voices in the study of the issues raised by Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical letter Humanae vitae. Self-Gift: Essays on Humanae Vitae and the Thought of John Paul II presents Smith’s critical collection of essays on the vocation of marriage, human sexuality, contraception, and more. Her groundbreaking scholarship touches on all the areas implicated in Humanae vitae: from natural family planning to parenthood and natural law to personalism. This collection not only includes Smith’s English translation of the encyclical from the original Latin text, but also helpful background on the development and release of this authoritative magisterial document. With a particular emphasis on the personalist and Thomistic philosophy of Pope St. John Paul II and how it illuminates the two-millennia tradition of Catholic teaching on human sexuality, Self-Gift delivers crucial insight into the Creator’s plan for human sexuality and our full flourishing in Christ.

Key Features

• Includes Smith's English translation of the encyclical from the original Latin text
• Delivers crucial insight into the Creator's plan for human sexuality and our full flourishing in Christ
• Contains a helpful background on the development and release of this authoritative magisterial document

Contents

• The Importance of the Concept of Munus to Understanding Humanae Vitae
• Translation of Humanae Vitae
• The Moral Use of Natural Family Planning
• A Critique of the Work of Germain Grisez, Joseph Boyle, John Finnis, and William May
• Children: The Supreme Gift of Marriage
• John Paul II on the Family as a Communion of Persons
• Faith as a Preamble to Reason
• Natural Law and Personalism in Veritatis Splendor
• The Universality of Natural Law and the Irreducibility of Personalism
• Conscious Parenthood
• Concerning the Principles of Conjugal Life
• The Krakow Document
• The Sensus Fidelium and Humanae Vitae
• The "Many Faces of AIDS" and the Toleration of the Lesser Evil
• The Morality of Condom Use by HIV-Infected Spouses
• Reviews of Turning Point by Robert McClory; John Cuthbert Ford, S.J. by Eric Marcelo O. Genilo, S.J.; and Catholics and Contraception by Leslie Woodcock Tentler
• The Heart of Humanae Vitae: An Invitation to Life

Praise for Self-Gift

Janet Smith is one of the most significant—and one of the ablest—defenders of Humanae vitae in the English-speaking world. It is a wonderful resource to have her work on this theme, spanning thirty years, gathered into a single volume. This book is timely, not only because of the fifty-year anniversary of the document, but because the need for a defense that penetrates to the profound anthropological vision at its heart has never been greater.

—D.C. Schindler, Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, The Catholic University of America

Even when disagreeing with scholars who criticize or support the teaching of Humanae vitae in ways that differ from her own defense, Smith writes clearly and irenically and helps her readers focus on the deeper issues at stake. An excellent text for advanced undergraduate or seminary courses on marriage or sexual ethics, but scholars too will find much to profit from in these essays.

—John S. Grabowski, The Catholic University of America

Students and scholars of all theological persuasions will find these essays to be required reading. Janet E. Smith demonstrates her keen ability to make essential distinctions, elucidate key arguments, and reframe the tired debates that have beset theological thinking since the 1960s

—Angela Franks, St. John’s Seminary

In the wake of the contraceptive revolution the Catholic Church insisted—contra mundum—that contraception is beneath the dignity of the marital embrace. For over a quarter of a century, Janet Smith has been the leading defender of a teaching which was almost everywhere supposed to be wrong. This volume assembles her finest contributions in a magisterial collection which should be of special interest to interdisciplinary readers, especially from the social and cultural sciences. Students and scholars alike will find this a necessary resource to assist the Church as Humanae vitae matures and inevitably suffers new attacks. A masterpiece.

—Catherine R. Pakaluk, Busch School of Business and Economics, The Catholic University of America

Product Details

• Title: Self-Gift: Essays on Humanae Vitae and the Thought of John Paul II
• Author: Janet E. Smith
• Series: Renewal within Tradition
• Publisher: Emmaus Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2018
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 395
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Catholic Church. Pope (1963-1978: Paul VI). Humanae vitae; Birth control › Religious aspects--Catholic Church
• ISBNs: 9781947792708, 9781947792722, 9781947792715, 1947792709, 1947792725, 1947792717
• Resource ID: LLS:SLFGFTSSYSTRDTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:53:26Z

About Janet E. Smith

Janet E. Smith (1950-) is a professor of moral theology and the Fr. Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Issues at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. She previously taught at the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Dallas. She is a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family. For the fall semester of the 2008-2009 academic year, Smith is a visiting lecturer at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) in St.