Josef Fuchs, S.J. (1912-2005) was one of the most important Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century. A German Jesuit priest, he taught at the Gregorian University in Rome for almost thirty years. While serving on the Pontifical Commission on Population, Family, and Birth from 1963-66, Fuchs experienced an intellectual conversion on two levels: his understanding on the issue of artificial means of birth control within marriage and his understanding of natural law, appropriating the theological anthropology of fellow Jesuit Karl Rahner. This set the stage for Fuchs' work to achieve in moral theology what Rahner had accomplished in systematic theology. Fuchs chaired the Commission's majority report, only to have it rejected by Pope Paul VI in the encyclical Humanae Vitae. Fuchs' theology focuses mostly on moral objectivity.
Selected books by Fuchs available in English
- Christian Morality: The Word Becomes Flesh
- Moral Demands and Personal Obligations
- Personal Responsibility and Christian Morality
See further
- Josef Fuchs on Natural Law by Mark E. Graham
- Feminist Ethics and Natural Law: The End of the Anathemas by Cristina L. H. Traina
