Paul J. Wadell

When I rate books on goodreads, I think, "Would I recommend this to some random person?" And honestly, unless you have a special interest in ethics from a Christian perspective, you probably would not appreciate Happiness and the Christian Moral Life. It was (as 2 stars indicate) okay - not great, but not bad. By and large, almost everything of what Wadell had to say is what you would expect for a Christian primer on ethics. So, if that's what you're looking for, this would be a good choice. He does a fine job of introducing ethics from a Christian perspective (as the subtitle indicates).

He began the book with the premise that ethics (i.e. the moral life) are fundamentally shaped by the universal motivation of happiness. We do what we think will make us happy, and when done right, this will lead to happiness. Happiness and goodness are connected - for Wadell "the study of morality can best be understood as training in happiness (4)." Everything else he has to say stems from this idea. Parts of the book were insightful, particularly his chapters on freedom and conscience.… (más)

From Publishers Weekly
While this book and its chapter titles promise challenging insights about the nature of Christian friendship, Wadell only occasionally gets beyond platitudes and statements of the obvious. Everything he says rings true, and a few of his observations provoke thought and self-examination, but he almost never moves from stating evident truths (e.g., "friendship should not be self-serving") to providing strategies for living these truths. He begins by challenging readers to worship authentically, thereby risking true friendship with God. This could be a provocative idea, but it doesn't go anywhere. Instead, Wadell gets bogged down in restatement of this thesis. This unfortunately happens in other chapters, such as those about the goodness of friendship and the importance of justice. Some chapters promise analysis and exegesis of the work of other authors, such as Aelred of Rievaulx and Augustine, but in these Wadell does little more than summarize. These shortcomings are regrettable, because he correctly identifies many of the barriers to intimacy that we have constructed in contemporary society, such as our addiction to busyness and unwillingness to be troubled by the needs of others. Such flaws obviously grieve him, and he wants the church (he writes to all Christians, but most specifically to his fellow Catholics) to create a radical counterculture in which true love and friendship abound. This book would have been well served by generous helpings of detailed stories of Christian friendship in action, but contains only a few brief and superficial illustrations.
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