Reasonable and Holy was a series of blog posts by the author. In an age where biblical scholars are not logicians, and theologians find the bible incoherent, Fr. Haller brings theology and scripture together. This is applied Willi Marxen.
Fr. Haller notes that liberals and conservatives seem to talk past each other. For this reason he carefully builds a coherent conservative position. He examines the concept of complementarity; the purpose versus the ends of marriage. He demonstrates the fragility of the view that procreation is necessarily primary to the bonds of joy.
Fr. Haller interrogates the concept of "abomination" and what constitutes "porneia." He also convincingly shows that liberals do not "cherry pick" but that the foundational law is the one by which all other laws are judged.
Haller reminds us that the purpose of scripture is to save; not to close people from the Gospel.
His strongest chapter is his chapter on Jesus: WWJD. Here he is completely convincing. On page 139 he offers a powerful paraphrase of Jesus' commands. His last chapter would be useful enough to offer those who still can't understand the progressive position.
This is the most important contribution to the subject since Countryman's Dirt, Greed and Sex.
G. F. de Leeuw (at Amazon.com)
