The Structure of Theological Revolutions - How the Fight Over Birth Control Transformed American Catholicism

Drawing inspiration from Thomas Kuhn''s classic work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Mark Massa argues that Pope Paul VI''s encyclical Humanae Vitae caused a paradigm shift in American Catholic thought, one that has had far-reaching repercussions. How can theology-the study of God, whose nature is imagined to be eternal and unchanging- change over time? This is the essential question that The Structure of Theological Revolutions sets out to answer. Massa makes the controversial claim that Roman Catholic teaching on a range of important issues is considerably more provisional and arbitrary than many Catholics think.