Morals and Man

By Gerald Vann, O.P. “Man is born free,” Rousseau famously observed, “and everywhere he is in chains.” For modern man, these chains are often forged not by ignorance, but by information. As Gerald Vann, O.P., describes: “With so much to occupy the surface of the mind and imagination, so much work and so much play, it is possible to pass one’s whole life without really thinking at all…” For those who shirk this possibility and seek to know the meaning of life, two instruments are essential: philosophy and theology, directed toward producing a system which can comprise “the whole of life, the directing of all one’s life to God.” In guiding this endeavor, Vann addresses the theoretical, surveying the wisdom of Thomistic moral thought regarding freedom, happiness, and law, and then addresses the practical, applying the insights of Thomistic “theory” to politics, economics, “modern” Christianity, liturgy, marriage, and more. First published in 1937 as Morals Makyth Man, with a second editio