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Table of Contents | Cover Page | Editors | Contributors | Introduction | Web Version |
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| CASUISTRY | ||||
| The study of cases, especially those of conscience, or doubtful situations
where it is not easy to distinguish the good from the bad, and where it is insufficiently
clear to which rules or principles one should refer. For several centuries in the Roman
Catholic Church, priests have been trained to deal with hypothetical cases so as to be
able later on to resolve them in reality, especially in administering the sacrament of
reconciliation (or "confession") and generally in spiritual guidance. The word jesuitical
is sometimes used in a pejorative sense for this practice. Currently, casuistry is widely
used in the field of birth control and in bioethics—for example, in relation to
artificial insemination, donation of organs, and euthanasia. —Roberto Cipriani |
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Hartford
Institute for Religion Research hirr@hartsem.edu
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