Christian Moral Life Final Exam

Dissipating Lust

lust through counterfeit sexual pleasure that diminishes the capacity for real sexual union

Truncating Lust

lust that reduces the other person to a means of pleasure

Social Sin/Structures of Vice

systems of laws, policies, and bureaucratic institutions that perpetuate injustice in large-scale ways

Avarice (Avaritia)

inordinate love of possessing → consumeristic tendency

Consumerism

the desire to accumulate and buy new things. Not about having more but about having something else

Sloth/Acedia

sorrow in the face of spiritual good, apathy towards relationships of friendship, opposite of pride → failure to accept that we are Imago Dei, avoidance of love of God or others b/c I doubt my own goodness

Marriage

a bond between a man and a woman that is free, total, faithful, and fruitful

Vanity

an inordinate desire to manifest one’s own excellence

Presumption

presuming your own goodness, presuming being saved without conversion, or presuming that God will forgive you anyways without you truly repenting from your sins

Specific virtues to combat specific vices

chastity over lust, generosity over greed, temperance over gluttony, humility over pride

Why are the Seven Deadly Sins considered “deadly”?

they are deeply rooted sources of other sins

What are the three types of gluttony covered in the readings?

Excess, delicacy, consumption

What are the moral laws governing Catholic sexual ethics?

chastity and (true) marriage?

What is marriage and what are its goals, according to Catholic moral teaching?

Marriage is a free, total, faithful, and fruitful union between man and woman that will lead to the procreation and education of children, push people towards selfless and sacrificial love in families, and drive people to serve in their communities

How does consumerism hide the vice of greed and avarice in our culture?

makes it look attractive and makes it popular and okay. Also separates us from the consequences of consuming too much and from the production, producers, and products

How does consumerism “detach” us from production, producers, and products?

production: people mainly focus on just buying and consuming goods rather than participating in creating them

produces: dehumanizes workers

products: just about getting the product, no attachment is made to it and it doesn’t really matter what the product is

How can we recognize the presence of the vice of sloth/acedia in our lives?

laziness, lack of interest in anything, not wanting to participate in prayerful practices, sorrow

What are the “daughters” of sloth/acedia?

malice, spite, faint-heartedness, despair, sluggishness in regard to commandments, wandering of the mind after unlawful things

What are the various causes of envy covered in class?

Explain the meaning(s) of the settings (locations, climate, stucture, etc…) in The Great Divorce.

Describe the vices or obstacles portrayed in the Big Ghost & Len

Describe the vices or obstacles portrayed in The Ghost in the bowler hat (Ikey)

Describe the vices or obstacles portrayed in The Mother Ghost and Michael

Describe the vices or obstacles portrayed in Sarah Smith and her Dwarf Ghost Husband

Explain why the people from the city are ghosts and why the city is the way it is

Explain why, according to the content of The Great Divorce, people end up in heaven or hell. Connect your answer to concepts of desires, actions, habits, virtues, and vices as defined throughout the class

Individualism

Instrumental Reason

Soft Despotism

Ethic (or Ideal) of Authenticity

Self-Determining Freedom

Horizon of Meaning

Dialogical Reasoning

Need for Recognition

Poesis

Mimesis

Subjectivation

What are the three malaises of modernity?

What is the “ethics of authenticity”?

In what respects does Charles Taylor think the ideal of authenticity is a bad, even dangerous, idea?

In what respects does Charles Taylor think the ideal of authenticity is a positive ideal worth preserving?

How does Taylor think that the history of art provides an analogy for the rise of the ideal of authenticity?

What must be added to the ethics of authenticity for it to become ‘authentic authenticity’?

Vocation

Maximizers

Satisficers

Image of God

Intellect

Will

Telos

Threshold Magnitude

Original Holiness

Original Justice

The Fall

Original Sin

Sin

Freedom for Excellence

Freedom of Indifference

Happiness

Four levels of happiness

Pleasure

Joy

Explain why it is difficult to know what we want and discern our vocation, according to Cavanaugh

Describe the difference between a maximizer and a satisficer and how each one seeks happiness

Explain the resources Cavanaugh describes as helpful to choosing our vocation

What does it mean to say that man is in the “image of God”?

Explain the meaning of the following equation: intellect + will = freedom → communion → happiness

What does it mean to say that man always acts for an end?

What is the ultimate end of human life?

How does intellect and will relate to freedom?

How did the devil tempt Adam and Eve in Genesis 3?

What were the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve?

Explain the two descriptions of sin described by Ratzinger.

Explain what makes a sin “mortal”.

Identify and explain the four levels of happiness as explained by Fr. Robert Spitzer

Why are there different levels of happiness?

Define happiness and explain the necessary components for an act of happiness to take place.

What is the difference between natural, supernatural, and perfect happiness?

What are the different types of freedom covered in class?

What is the difference between pleasure and joy? Are they incompatible?

What is the paradoxical claim that Christian morality makes about happiness? How is this claim antithetical to the ideal of authenticity?

Is the Catholic understanding of happiness capable of being reconciled with authenticity as described by Charles Taylor?

How does Catholic moral theology provide “horizons of meaning” by which a person could pursue authentic authenticity?

How does Catholic moral theology account for “dialogical reasoning” in order for a person to pursue authentic authenticity?