I

I. Introduction to course:

A. Subject: moral theology

1. Definition:

a. Moral: L. mores: “customs” or “morals”

b. Theology: the systematic study of God and all creation in relation to God, especially in the light of revelation as preserved in scripture and tradition.

c. Moral theology is the branch of theology that considers the values, principles and norms of morally acceptable human conduct

(1) especially in the light of revelation as preserved in scripture

(2) and tradition, which here means the way gospel message preached by the apostles and recorded in the scriptures has been interpreted in the Church.

2. Course: Catholic Christian moral teaching: general principles and specific applications.

a. Catholic moral teaching has much in common with other intellectual and religious traditions

(1) western philosophical tradition: objective morality

(2) world religions: agreement on the objective character of morality and on many of the principles of good behavior...

(a) Eastern

(b) Western

i) Biblical (Jewish and Christian)

ii) Islam

(3) Our civil laws express much of the commonality present here.

b. And even more much in common with other Christian churches

(1) More agreement than not.

(2) Principal differences derive from

(a) different views of how Scripture is to be read.

(b) different understandings of the effects of original sin and of grace

c. NOTE: Always a fair question: whether something taught in this class is unique to Catholic Christianity – and why it is or is not.

B. Texts (discussion of books and their particular features):

1. Para numbering in CCC and cross references in the margins. Index. Glossary in back. Text is on-line.

2. QQ #’s in Compendium. Text is on-line.

3. Relationship between the two books: see cross-references in the margins of the Compendium.

4. Living the Good Life

5. Other texts posted on website and distributed in class

C. Requirements

1. See handout entitled “course requirements.”

2. Students are expected to know the meaning of every term that is presented in class and/or in the reading assignments (see the Glossary in the back of the CCC).

3. Mastery of the course material involves both knowledge of the “facts” presented in the readings and lectures, and understanding the interrelationships among them. As the course progresses, proficiency in moral reasoning will require that students are able to determine which moral principles apply (or, of those which do apply, which one has priority) in a given situation and apply it correctly.

D. Grading Policy –- See Course Requirements: Day or Night

E. Class room policies -- – See Course Requirements: Day or Night

II. Objective vs. Subjective:

A. Something is objective if it is has being or existence independent of the mind of the subject (the person who is thinking or feeling). Something is objective if it is real or actual (which is not to be confused with being material).

B. Something is subjective if it is affected by or produced by the mind or a particular state of mind, or if it results from the feelings or temperament of the subject (the person doing the thinking or feeling).

C. Example: the standard Rorschach test:

1. Objective: Ink blots on a piece of cardboard.

2. Subjective: Millie says the inkblots look like a man in armor on a horse and Jake says they look like a clown holding balloons.

D. Relevance of the terms “objective” and “subjective” to this course:

1. Many people say that particular thoughts, words and actions are not good or bad in themselves, but rather insist that whether something is good or bad depends on the view of the person doing it. Such people hold that morality is subjective. “I know that would be wrong for me to do, but I cannot say whether it was wrong for him.”

2. The classical philosophical tradition and all world religions, however, maintain that some thoughts, words, and actions are always bad and others are always good. That is, classical philosophy and most religious traditions insist that morality is objective.

E. Check for understanding: there was a headline last June which reported a study had found that juries get the verdict wrong in one out of six cases. Now if juries are supposed to find for justice – does the person who says they get it wrong one out of six time have an objective or subjective understanding of justice? [answer: objective].

III. Why do human beings do anything at all? [Why are you here at Caldwell taking a course in moral theology?]

A. Human being acts for a purpose.

B. The ultimate reason we do anything at all is so that we can be happy – if not immediately, then eventually.

C. The desire for happiness is inscribed in our nature – that is, every human being desires to be happy because God put the desire for happiness into us when he created us. God put the desire for happiness in us because he wishes to satisfy it:

D. If we consider these ideas more carefully, we can see that there are actually three of them:

1. Every human being wants to be happy – how do we know this? (From reason and experience)

2. The reason why everyone longs for happiness is two-fold

a. Because God put in our hearts a longing for happiness

b. And he did so because he wants to satisfy it.

c. How do we know this? Not from reason, but from revelation....

3. Much of what we will study in this class will have these two aspects:

a. something accessible to human reason and

b. something revealed by God which is not at odds with what reason knows but fills it out in some way.

E. Absolute happiness [know this term]: Absolute happiness is the permanent possession of the greatest possible good in the deepest possible way; absolute happiness is a state of being in which a human person rests in complete satisfaction.

1. Is absolute happiness possible in this life – do you think? [No].

2. Because the being totally satisfied that absolute happiness consists in is something that corresponds to our human nature – which is objective – absolutely happiness itself is objective.

a. In other words a human being is something specific, and not just anything a particular human being might want to be or feel like he is. Human beings have a certain form and certain abilities.

b. A bird can fly, a human being cannot. If someone stabs a human being, he will bleed.

c. Certain types of things nourish human beings (foods); others poison them (arsenic), and this is constant across the human race.

d. Just as our nature is objective, so the deepest possible good which satisfies it utterly is objective.

3. Only God can make us absolutely happy.

F. Is it possible to be relatively happy in this life?

2. And happiness in this life is always under threat – for example, the one we love can become sick and die.

1. Can these things make us completely happy? (No, for they are inanimate, and less than we are and, moreover, can be lost).

2. Can we be happy in this life without some measure of these goods? No, not usually.... We need some measure goods and health and favorable regard from others for a fully human life.

1. Happiness as a feeling is subjective (all feelings are subjective), as is what makes a particular person happy in this life (Sammy is happy on his bicycle and Mary when she is dancing; Sammy hates to dance).

2. But happiness as we will speak of it in this course is a quality of soul – a resting in a possessed good that corresponds to the deepest longing of human nature and objective.

I. What is the goal (or ultimate end) of human life? Or why did God make human beings? In the Christian view, do all human beings have the same end?

1. The goal or end of human life is an interpersonal relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that lasts forever. Happiness, while it is what everyone longs for is not the answer to the question, “what is the goal of human life?” According to Christian faith, ONLY this interpersonal relationship with God will make us happy in the way we long to be.

2. Why did God make human beings – to be happy by knowing him and being known by him, by loving him and being loved by him, forever.

3. Yes, in the Christian view, all human beings are called to this same end – the only difference is that some human beings know in faith that they are so called and others do not know that God wants this for them.

1. According to the classical philosophical tradition, Jewish scriptures and Christian theology, the good life is the happy life – in this life (not just in the next). If you want to be happy – be good. If you are good – you will be happy, not absolutely happy but happier than you would be if you were bad.

a. Our culture tells us that doing whatever we want to do will make us happy – but this is a lie for anyone who has both a conscience and desires that run counter to his conscience.

b. We are built so that doing bad things bothers us. If we abuse our bodies with drugs or alcohol we may be “happy” for the moment but there is a price to pay – in terms of the evil done to ourselves, the pain we cause others, the trouble we can get into, and the consequences which follow from our failure to fulfill our obligations.

c. The good man who loves his wife and children and acts on their behalf to the best of his ability is “happier” than the man who cheats on his wife and abuses his children. Just in the natural order of things, the first enjoys the love of his wife and kids, a happy home, and good relations with the members of his family. The other does not.

2. Why is the good person happy in this life? Because moral good is what is good for us – that is, good moral action is good for human nature. Just as eating and drinking the right foods and beverages are good for the body, so living in a good and honorable way is good for one’s whole being.

3. Additionally – from the biblical perspective: God made us this way; God gave us a nature that thrives in goodness (moral goodness) and is destroyed by evil – again, goodness is good for us and what is good for us makes us happy.

1. The answer to the question what is the goal of human life is not "to be happy."

2. "Goal" here does not mean: what does every person want (the answer to which is to be happy), but what is the end or reason for which we exist? The "goal of human life" is the reason for which God created us.

3. When we define "goal" as we do here (and will throughout this course), the answer to the question "what is the goal of human life?" is "to enjoy an everlasting interpersonal relationship with the Trinity," or "to be happy with God in heaven."

4. Happiness is only the goal of human life in the sense that God made us to enjoy loving and being loved by him forever and THIS (and only this) will make us truly and completely happy. In the words of Saint Augustine: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

5. So when you are asked “what is the goal of human life?” do not answer “to be happy.”

a. Man is a creature composed of a material body and an immortal, spiritual soul. God is pure spirit and has no body. Man’s being created in the image of God does not refer to material likeness.

c. This is the way in which “image” has been interpreted by many Christian theologians and the way we will use the term in this class. Man, unique among all God’s earthly creatures, is created in his image – by which we mean that man is endowed with an immortal soul and possessed of a rational nature – that is, he like God, can understand and love, think and choose.

3. Likeness – one interpretation of likeness that is prominent in the Christian tradition is that God made man enough like unto himself that the man and the woman were able to friends of God.

a. When Adam left the garden he was no longer God's friend, nor were the human beings born after him. What kept these persons from being friends of God?

(b) Mary and John can be friends; John and Fido cannot because John is a rational creature and Fido is not a rational creature.

b. The Catholic Christian tradition calls the likeness unto God which Adam and Eve enjoyed “Original Justice.” [know this term]

(1) "Original justice" or "original holiness" or "original righteousness" refers to the state in which God created Adam and Eve and which they enjoyed before the fall – that is, before they sinned.

(2) That is, Adam and Eve were created in a state of holiness, a state of being in right relationship with God, of being his friends because at creation they given a "likeness" to him.

(3) Another way of saying this is that Adam and Eve were created in grace – grace is discussed more fully below --by which we mean that Adam and Eve had been given a share in divine nature (or likeness to God) which made them friends of God.

1. Adam and Eve sinned by wanting to be like God on their own terms – that is, by pursuing a path that God had explicitly forbidden.

a. All sin is a matter of not trusting God to give us or allow us what is good for us, what is in our best interests, what will really make us happy.

(2) Original sin (definition, CCC glossary p. 890): the sin of the first human beings who disobeyed the commandment of God, choosing to follow their own will rather than God’s will. As a consequence they lost the grace of original holiness [or original justice], and became subject to the law of death.

(3) For us... the definition continues: Besides the personal sin of Adam and Eve, “original sin” describes the fallen nature which affects every person born into the world and from which Christ, the new Adam, came to redeem us.

b. In the terms already described: when Adam and Eve sinned they lost their likeness to God but retained his image. That is,

(1) They retained all that is integral to human nature: they remained creatures composed of a material body and an immortal soul, endowed with a rational nature having intelligence and free choice,

(2) but they lost grace, “original justice.” Justice here means being in right relationship with God.

(a) through it they lost both their friendship with God and, in a certain sense, the capacity for it.

(b) And they “damaged” their nature and passed on the damage to their descendants: in consequence of their sin, their intellects were darkened, their wills were weakened, their bodies became subject to illness and death, and they became inclined to evil and they passed all these things on to their descendents and so the same things are true of us.

i) deprived of original justice or holiness (alienated from God; not his friends)

(d) c above indicates the Catholic understanding. The Protestant Reformers held a darker view of the effects of original sin saying that through it human nature became “depraved” or "perverted" – of themselves (that is, without grace), human beings are capable only of sin [see 406 on page 103)

c. Endowed with intellect (intelligence, reason, understanding) and free will (free choice). [The words in parentheses are synonyms for the word or expression which is immediately preceding].

a. Creation in the image and likeness of God [which embraces possession of an immortal soul, reason and free will)

3. Original sin. According to Catholic teaching the sin of Adam and Eve had these effects on all their descendants – that is, the results of their sin for us are the five following:

1. Unlike Jews and Muslims who believe in one God like Christians do – indeed the same God, Christians believe that God is a Trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

2. In the fullness of time (that is, when God had prepared the human race receive him -- the preparation is recorded in the Old Testament) the Second Person of the Trinity became man (incarnation): Jesus Christ

a. Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human – that he is one Person, the Second Person of the Trinity, but from the time he became man (after the incarnation) he exists in two natures.

(2) "Incarnation" refers to the central Christian belief that the Son of God assumed human nature and, as stated in the Nicene Creed, “became flesh and dwelt among us.”

b. Jesus Christ not only taught us what God is like and what God desires of us, he died for us – that is he died on the cross in order to satisfy for our sins and restore us to friendship with God.

c. When Adam and Eve sinned they forfeited the original justice in which they were created. And death was the penalty for their sin. Christ, who was a sinless man, did not deserve to die; he was always in right relationship with the Father. By undergoing a death that he did not deserve to die, Christ satisfied the penalty required of all of us who have sinned.

(1) When Christ died he made us right with God – that is he “justified us.”

(a) definition, CCC p. 885: "justification" is the gracious action of God which frees us from sin and communicates “the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ” (Rm 3.22). Justification is not only the remission of sins but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.

(b) definition, p 885 continues: but since we cannot be in right relationship with God without being like him – Christ also made us holy – that is he “sanctified us."

(a) Justification, in the Catholic understanding, is not only the remission of sins but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.

3. When Christ died on the cross, he saved every human being who ever lived in principle – he sacrificed himself for our sakes, for all our sakes.

a. But is every human being necessarily going to be saved just because Christ died for him or her?

b. No, because Christ's saving death is not enough; because we, like Adam and Eve, have free will we can turn away from Christ and refuse his grace just as they turned away from God and hid from him.

4. So the question becomes – how do we receive the saving effects of Christ’s death?

b. Through the sacraments – in the Catholic understanding of Christian faith the saving grace of Christ is communicated to us in the sacrament

(1) Sacraments are visible signs (holy rites) with invisible effects. Not magic, but the action of God, through which we receive the new life that Christ won for us.

(2) Catholics believe there are seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony; Protestant Christians believe there are two, Baptism and Eucharist.

(3) Catholics and Protestants also have different understandings of how the sacraments “work.”

a. No. The Christian tradition asserts that no one, from Adam to....whomever, none of the saints of the Old Testament, entered heaven before Christ’s death which “opened the gates of heaven.” Rather, the souls of the just of the Old Testament awaited the redemption of Christ in the “abode of the dead.”

b. Unlike some other Christian denominations, Catholic Christians do hold that those who through no fault of their own do not believe in Christ can be saved if they seek the truth and do the good as they know it.

(1) Yet, according to Catholic teaching, anyone who is saved is saved through the death and resurrection of Christ.

(2) In other words the Catholic Church holds that it is not necessary to know Christ or believe in him to be saved, but that everyone who is saved is saved by Christ.

E. Grace is the very love of God given to us as a gift; it is a sharing in God’s own life; a participation in God’s own nature. [know these definition].

1. Grace – and this is very important – is a kind of energy or goodness that not only makes us friends of God (by giving us a "likeness to him"), but enables us to do as God commands us.

2. That is, Christians believe that God does not simply give us commandments; he gives us the strength we need to keep his commandments.

a. Indeed Christian life is called that because grace comes to us from Christ – and him alone.

(1) In the Catholic view grace comes to us from Christ’s death and resurrection through faith and sacraments.

(2) In the Protestant view graces comes to us from Christ’s death and resurrection through faith alone.

b. Christian life is not in the first place a set of beliefs, but a sharing in divine life through the grace of Christ which is available to the human race only because God loved us and sent his Son to live with us and die for us.

C. Pay special heed to: Spirit...Church (will come up later in course); forgiveness of sins; the communion of saints; resurrection of the body (ours!); life everlasting. They will come up again later in the course.

VII. The relationship between Christian beliefs (faith), worship (sacraments) and the moral life:

A. Christian faith or belief refers to the truths that God has revealed to us in Christ. Put another ways, the truths that God wants human beings to know – things that have been revealed to us in Christ – so that we can know him as he truly is and be saved. These are summarized in the creed. (Apostles’s Creed).

3. We look forward to the resurrection of our own bodies and the life of the world to come because Christ has saved us.

B. These things that Christian believe are not simply historical facts but saving truths that give life – give us new life, make a new life (the life of grace) and eternal happiness possible for us because they tell us where we came from and why – what God who loves us wants to give us and how we are to receive it.

C. Christian moral theology teaches us how we are to respond to the love of God by preserving and nurturing the divine life that God has given to us. It teaches us what is sinful, so that knowing what is wrong, we can shun sin; it teaches us about the good so that we can cling to it.

D. When we speak of the origins of the divine life (grace) within the Christian there are two aspects to it:

1. Its source: which is, always and only, Christ: his life, death, an resurrection

2. How we receive the grace of Christ – that is, how it is communicated to us and remains in us:

a. By Sacrament: the holy rites that communicate the life or grace that Christ won for us: Baptism, Holy Eucharist, etc

c. By charity: that is the love of God given to us in grace by which fulfill the commands to love God, our neighbors and ourselves.

3. Christian moral teaching spells out what love of God and neighbor require of us.

E. Faith brings us to the sacraments that confer the grace and love needed to make faith and Christian life possible – that is they give the strength, the virtues and the love that we need to live the new life that we receive in Christ. Grace makes us capable of living morally.

1. First, Christian belief (truths), worship (sacraments), and life (morality) are intimately and essentially related. And if at any time as we go through the course this does not seem to be the case to you, please ask about it.

2. Second, the Christian theology of grace means that God does not ask us to do anything that he does not give us the power, the grace, to do.

A. How is the moral life of the Christian tied to Christian faith (beliefs) and the Sacraments of Christian life? Compendium #357

E. What is the goal of human life, for whom is it intended, and how is it reached?

G. Who initiates the relationship between God and a human person? Does any human being deserve to be saved? Explain. Is there any human person who merited that Christ should die for him?