Module 2.1-2.2

Christian Vocation

• Values of Kingdom of God

• Moral Theology

• Christian Ethics

International Theological Commission, In Search of a Universal Ethic: A New Look at Natural Law, 20 May 2009:

• “39. Every human being who attains self-awareness and responsibility experiences an interior call to do good. He discovers that he is fundamentally a moral being, capable of perceiving and of expressing the call that, as we have seen, is found within all cultures: “One must do good and avoid evil”…

• ITC made this because of moral relativism/skepticism

Relationship between morality and religion

• “Religious faith brings to morality a depth, intensity, and urgency by situating it in relation to the person’s fundamental response to God who calls… Religious faith, therefore, challenges individuals to stretch their horizons of meaning, to seek more and become more.” (Astorga, Catholic Moral Theology and Social Ethics: A New Method, 82 and 83)

Human Person ←→ God

• Response to transcendent being (Human Call)

• Religion can add depth, intensity, and urgency

  • To be ultimately loving, righteous persons

Types of Morality

• Objective Morality → Actions → Right or Wrong

• Subjective Morality → Actor → Good or Bad (Sinful)

Sources of Catholic Moral Tradition

• Scripture

  • Written Form

  • Decalogue/10 Commandments

• Tradition

  • Non-written form/Oral

• Human Experience

  • World

• Magisterium

  • For the Catholic Church

What is natural law?

• Two premises:

  • Ontological

    • World & Relationship has order → precedes existence

    • There’s an objective moral order of right and wrong that’s not of human origin and can be expressed in ethical norms to which humans area accountable

  • Epistemological

    • Humans have reason → capable of discovering the order

    • Humans can know through their own with the use of reason alone the demands of this objective moral order

• Various NL traditions

• Thomistic NL tradition

  • Most robust among Christian theories

• Non-Christian in origin

• “What I ought to do?” → “What is natural?”

  • Humans have basic natural inclinations

Natural?

• “Natural” = does not require supernatural revelation/faith (God)

• “Natural” ≠ imposed, but = “given”

Christian adaptation (Thomas Aquinas)

• NL tradition started from the Greek Stoic Philosophy

• NL as participation in God’s Eternal Law ≠ divinely imposed.

  • God’s Eternal Law → God’s Governance (how God would direct the World and the ways human community according to a plan conceived in God’s wisdom and love)

  • Divine Revelation → Needed to guide

• NL is rational direction of life (self-preservation, goods shared with animals, and goods proper to our own nature)

  • Like Co-creators (OT Vocation)

• Human finitude (Limited/Finite) → divine revelation, ≠ necessity of faith

  • 4th-10th commandments are matters of natural law

  • Recognizes complexity of life

• NL aligned to human good & flourishing

  • Rational direction of life

  • Sin → unnatural → harms our relationship with others and God

Importance

• Supports moral realism (vs. moral relativism)

  • Don’t throw scripture and rely on reason (Natural Law)

• Springboard for dialogue with other cultures, religious beliefs, and peoples. (Pluralistic Society)

• Recognizes complexity of moral life.

Clarification and nuances

• Two possible ways to proceed with NL: pluralist and universalist (E.g. informed consent)

  • Tension is not necessarily bad

  • Pluralist → Multiple cultural → allow some variations

  • Universalist → one standard across → device specific norms

• Challenge: balancing act → individual exercise of practical wisdom (prudence) in pursuing eudaimonia in the context of a teleological view of the human person.

  • “Telus” → goal

  • Goal-oriented view