# Structure of Theological Revolutions: How the Fight Over Birth Control Transformed American Catholicism - Hardcover

by **Mark S. Massa** (Author)

On July 29, 1968, Pope Paul VI ended years of discussion and study by Catholic theologians and bishops by issuing an encyclical on human sexuality and birth control entitled _Humanae Vitae_: "On Human Life." That document, which declared that "each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life," lead to widespread dissent and division within the Church, particularly in the United States. The divide that Humanae Vitae opened up is still with us today.  
Mark Massa argues that American Catholics did not simply ignore and dissent from the encyclical's teachings on birth control, but that they also began to question the entire system of natural law theology that had undergirded Catholic thought since the days of Aquinas. Natural law is central to Catholic theology, as some of its most important teachings on issues such as birth control, marriage, and abortion rest on natural law arguments. Drawing inspiration from Thomas Kuhn's classic work _The Structure of Scientific Revolutions_, Massa argues that _Humanae Vitae_ caused a paradigm shift in American Catholic thought, one that has had far-reaching repercussions.  
How can theology-the study of God, whose nature is imagined to be eternal and unchanging- change over time? This is the essential question that _The Structure of Theological Revolutions_ sets out to answer. Massa makes the controversial claim that Roman Catholic teaching on a range of important issues is considerably more provisional and arbitrary than many Catholics think.  

### Author Biography

  
**Mark S. Massa, S.J.** is Professor of Church History and Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. His most recent book is _The American Catholic Revolution: How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever_ (OUP, 2010).  

**Number of Pages:** 232

**Dimensions:** 0.8 x 9.3 x 6.3 IN

**Publication Date:** August 01, 2018

## Details

- **Price:** 75.22 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

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- Structure of Theological Revolutions: How the Fight Over Birth Control Transformed American Catholicism - Hardcover

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