Church Ethics and Its Organizational Context: Learning from the Sex Abuse Scandal in the Catholic Church: 1

Bartunek, Hinsdale, and Keenan have edited an impressive volume of multi-disciplinary perspectives on unethical behavior. Analyzing sex abuse in the Catholic Church, the chapters explore the complex causes underlying the scandal and show how the larger organizational context contributed to it. The book goes far beyond church abuses to provide a comprehensive understanding of how unethical behavior can emerge in all kinds of social contexts and how it should be handled. Anyone with a serious interest in ethical behavior in modern organizations will find it a compelling read.

Drawing on multiple disciplines, this book sheds light on factors that created the conditions for the sex abuse scandal and initiates a conversation about the possibility of a professional code of ethics for church leaders…[it] invites church leaders and academics to continue this important conversation that promotes ethical reflection on professional ministry.

Readers will benefit from the various perspectives that multiple disciplines provide, which will undoubtedly allow them to consider the crisis and professional ethics through new categories.

The essays collected here are unparalleled in the breadth and depth of their analysis of a church in crisis. Moreover, the authors take us beyond their penetrating analysis to a realistic vision of renewal and reform.

This book of essays is well put together…[the] volume in its focus and style will appeal to anyone concerned about the future of the Catholic Church….All college libraries should definitely have it.

This book should be required reading for all members of all churches, and especially for all church leaders or anyone in a particular office or role in the church. The interdisciplinary essays in this book never lose their clear and solid focus on ethical guidelines for the internal life of the church and its external mission. We have here, therefore, a remarkable new set of insights into church relationships and roles, and a significantly new understanding of the church itself. Moral responsibility is finally brought together in very specific ways with profound faith and accountable service. The result holds great promise for new life in the multiple concrete situations of every church.

While drawing from a rich range of perspectives, the volume presents a set of common themes….The volume should be useful to those seeking to understand the causes and consequences of the scandal, to suggest or implement corrective action, or to apply its lessons in other contexts.