Pope Francis' 2016 Apostolic Exhortation The Joy of Love, and Walter J. Ong's Thought

Abstract

In my 3,000-word review essay "Pope Francis' 2016 Apostolic Exhortation The Joy of Love, and Walter J. Ong's Thought," I first highlight the American Catholic lay moral theologians Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler's article "Conservative defense of Humanae Vitae is not just about contraception" in the National Catholic Reporter (dated February 6, 2023). In it, they highlight Pope Francis' rather lengthy 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love): On Love in the Family. I, in turn, further highlight the first Jesuit pope's 2016 apostolic exhortation. Next, I highlight certain aspects of the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong's beautiful 1967 book The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History (Yale University Press), the expanded version of Ong's 1964 Terry Lectures at Yale University.