It is hard to imagine why Karl Hörmann's Introduction to Moral Theology has been translated into English. The author states that the book was written for lay people. In fact, it is the kind of book which is most at home in the pocket of the seminarist at examination time. The publishers claim that it is ‘a guide to principles and practice in modern life’. In fact, many of the infrequent practical examples are hot from Aristotle or the thirteenth century. Every page is leprous with jargon. We read of ‘the positive method’, of ‘substantial union’, of ‘ontological goodness’, of ‘the sense-appetite’; words such as ‘convenience’, ‘determine’, ‘incomprehensible’ and ‘elevated’ are used in senses quite alien to their English usage. Frequently the examples take us back to that quaint and vivid world where men set fire to their neighbours’ houses and kill their friends while hunting, where captains throw overboard their merchandise to lighten the ship, and where maidens miss mass to avoid being put to the blush by their banns.