8th Annual Costan Lecture in Early Christianity: “Pathways to Holiness: Early Christianity and Ethics” with James Keenan, SJ

For the past forty years moral theology has understood its history to be very much rooted in the early medieval penitential manuals. This Costan Lecture argues that those manuals were rooted, not simply in a confessional practice, but much more in the context of what today we would call spiritual direction. Monks and nuns were primarily not focusing on their sins but rather pursuing holiness. With that key insight we look to the earlier history of moral theology and find pathways to holiness as a worthy key to understanding Christian expectations.

James F. Keenan, S.J., is the Canisius Chair, Director of the Jesuit Institute and Vice Provost of Global Engagement at Boston College. A Jesuit priest since 1982, he received a licentiate and a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.