The Downfall of the Manuals of Moral Virtue

The manuals were there to help priests simply know what is right and what is wrong in particular situations. The genre did soon die out after second Vatican Council as people became obsessed with theory. If we have the choice between one or the other, all of us should choose the habit rather than science. But nowadays people are going to tell somebody do such because they're going to ask well why is that good? And I think a stronger intellectual appetite then perhaps it didn't correspondingly follow this trajectory.