Catholic moral theology

Last updated

Catholic moral theology is a major category of doctrine in the Catholic Church, equivalent to a religious ethics. Moral theology encompasses Catholic social teaching, Catholic medical ethics, sexual ethics, and various doctrines on individual moral virtue and moral theory. It can be distinguished as dealing with "how one is to act", in contrast to dogmatic theology which proposes "what one is to believe".

Contents

Overview

Sources of Catholic moral theology include both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and philosophical ethics such as natural law that are seen as compatible with Catholic doctrine. Moral theology was mostly undifferentiated from theology in general during the patristic era, and is found in the homilies, letters and commentaries on Scripture of the early Church fathers.

Examples of Catholic moral theologians include St. Alphonsus Liguori (author of Theologia Moralis ), Bartolomé Medina (originator of Probabilism), Dominic Prümmer (Compensationism), Bernhard Häring (Dialogical Ethics), Servais Pinckaers (Nouvelle théologie), Germain Grisez and John Finnis (New Natural Law).

Moral theology tends to be advanced most authoritatively through official statements of doctrine, such as papal encyclicals, which are based on the dogmatic pronouncements of Ecumenical Councils (e.g., Vatican II), Sacred Scriptures, and Sacred Tradition. In addition, moral theologians publish their own works and write in a variety of journals devoted in whole, or in part to moral theology. These scholarly journals are helpful in making the theology of the Church more clear and accessible to others, and serve as a forum in which scholarly discussion of understanding and application of issues occurs. However, these journals per se do not add or remove anything from Catholic teaching.

The curriculum for formation of priests commonly includes required and elective courses in Catholic moral theology.

History

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, moral theology developed in precision and scope through scholasticism. Much of the Catholic Church's current moral theology, especially regarding natural law, is based in the Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, which is regarded as one of the best treatises of Catholic moral theology. [1]

Baroque period and Reformation

Although many theologians found inspiration in Aquinas from his death onwards, moral theology did not become its own separate field of scholarship until after the council of Trent at the dawn of the baroque period and the reformation, one of the wishes of the council fathers was to set out the more rigorous training of priests which would lead to the genesis of seminaries. Through the renewal of learning in the Church specialisation would begin to take root in the curriculum, with theology becoming fragmented into different 'fields' such as dogmatic, moral, spiritual theology and so on. This would lead to the birth of the genre of the 'Manual'.

Birth of manualism

Manualism designates an approach to Christian ethics, especially in Catholic moral theology, [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] , associated with Alphonsus Liguori [9] [10] and the tradition of "moral manuals" (instruction manuals teaching explicitly right and wrong) [11] [12] [13] [14] which came from him. [15]

Alphonsus Liguori Kloster St Josef Neumarkt - Innenraum 32.jpg
Alphonsus Liguori

The manualist tradition has an ambivalent relationship with scholasticism. [16] [17] [13] [18] David Bentley Hart [12] among others [10] [13] [18] state that much of contemporary Thomism has more manualism than Aquinas himself.

The manualist tradition is related to casuistry  – Reasoning by extrapolation. [14]

Manualism is associated with the theology surrounding artificial birth control. [19]

The first manual of moral theology was written by the Jesuit, Juan Azor in three volumes, his Institutionum Moralium published in the 17th century. Although claiming patrimony to Aquinas, nominalism was most prolific at the time among the intellectual elite which seems to have influenced Azor's outlook in his work, instead of focusing on the beatitudes and virtues in the moral life as Aquinas in his Summa, nominalism emphasises the obligatory and legal nature of God's commands as a result of the arbitrary will of God and a person's conscience before the law, many would follow Azor's model with few modifications and this outlook would influence the whole manualist tradition of moral theology which would become less dominant after Vatican II, during this period it became more common for alternative approaches or attempts to return to a biblical, patristic or scholastic approach before the influence of nominalism and outgrowth of casuistry which was characteristic of the tridentine period.

Contemporary

Contemporary Catholic moral theology is developed by acts of the Magisterium, by the Pope, other bishops, and by the works of lay Catholic moral theologians, which include magisterial teachings, as well as (in some matters) theological opinions.

Approaches

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casuistry</span> Reasoning by extrapolation

In ethics, casuistry is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve moral problems by extracting or extending abstract rules from a particular case, and reapplying those rules to new instances. This method occurs in applied ethics and jurisprudence. The term is also used pejoratively to criticise the use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions. It has been defined as follows:

Study of cases of conscience and a method of solving conflicts of obligations by applying general principles of ethics, religion, and moral theology to particular and concrete cases of human conduct. This frequently demands an extensive knowledge of natural law and equity, civil law, ecclesiastical precepts, and an exceptional skill in interpreting these various norms of conduct....

Theological virtues are virtues associated in Christian theology and philosophy with salvation resulting from the grace of God. Virtues are traits or qualities which dispose one to conduct oneself in a morally good manner. Traditionally the theological virtues have been named Faith, Hope, and Charity (Love). They are coupled with the natural or cardinal virtues and opposed to the seven deadly sins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scholasticism</span> Medieval school of philosophy

Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translated scholastic Judeo-Islamic philosophies, and thereby "rediscovered" the collected works of Aristotle. Endeavoring to harmonize his metaphysics and its account of a prime mover with the Latin Catholic dogmatic trinitarian theology, these monastic schools became the basis of the earliest European medieval universities, contributing to the development of modern science; scholasticism dominated education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. The rise of scholasticism was closely associated with these schools that flourished in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and England.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christian theology:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analytical Thomism</span> Philosophical movement

Analytical Thomism is a philosophical movement which promotes the interchange of ideas between the thought of Thomas Aquinas, and modern analytic philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomism</span> Philosophical system

Thomism is the philosophical and theological school which arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contrition</span> Christian concept of repentance for sins

In Christianity, contrition or contriteness is repentance for sins one has committed. The remorseful person is said to be contrite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alphonsus Liguori</span> Italian Catholic bishop (1696–1787)

Alphonsus Liguori, CSsR, sometimes called Alphonsus Maria de Liguori or Saint Alphonsus Liguori, was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, in November 1732.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Busenbaum</span>

Hermann Busenbaum was a Jesuit theologian. He attained fame as a master of casuistry.

Aeterni Patris was an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in August 1879. It was subtitled "On the Restoration of Christian Philosophy in Catholic Schools in the Spirit of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas". The aim of the encyclical was to advance the revival of Scholastic philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo-scholasticism</span> Scholasticism revival

Neo-scholasticism is a revival and development of medieval scholasticism in Catholic theology and philosophy which began in the second half of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange</span> French theologian

Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange was a French Dominican friar, philosopher and theologian. Garrigou-Lagrange was a neo-Thomist theologian, recognized along with Édouard Hugon and Martin Grabmann as distinguished theologians of the 20th century. As professor at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, he taught dogmatic and spiritual theology in Rome from 1909 to 1959. There he wrote The Three Ages of the Interior Life in 1938.

In Catholic moral theology, probabilism provides a way of answering the question about what to do when one does not know what to do. Probabilism proposes that one can follow an authoritative opinion regarding whether an act may be performed morally, even though the opposite opinion is more probable. It was first formulated in 1577 by Bartholomew Medina, OP, who taught at Salamanca.

Mental reservation is an ethical theory and a doctrine in moral theology that recognizes the "lie of necessity", and holds that when there is a conflict between justice and veracity, it is justice that should prevail. The doctrine is a special branch of casuistry developed in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. While associated with the Jesuits, it did not originate with them. It is a theory debated by moral theologians, but not part of Canon law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second scholasticism</span> 16th and 17th century scholasticism revival

Second scholasticism, also called Modern scholasticism, it is the period of revival of scholastic system of philosophy and theology, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The scientific culture of second scholasticism surpassed its medieval source (Scholasticism) in the number of its proponents, the breadth of its scope, the analytical complexity, sense of historical and literary criticism, and the volume of editorial production, most of which remains hitherto little explored.

Catholic dogmatic theology can be defined as "a special branch of theology, the object of which is to present a scientific and connected view of the accepted doctrines of the Christian faith."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernhard Häring</span> German Catholic moral theologian (1912-1998)

Bernard Häring, CSsR was a German moral theologian and a Redemptorist priest in the Catholic Church.

Francis Jeremiah Connell, C.Ss.R., was a Redemptorist priest, professor, author, and noted Catholic American theologian. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and died in Washington, D.C.

Reformed orthodoxy or Calvinist orthodoxy was an era in the history of Calvinism in the 16th to 18th centuries. Calvinist orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Lutheranism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the Counter-Reformation. Calvinist scholasticism or Reformed scholasticism was a theological method that gradually developed during the era of Calvinist Orthodoxy.

Moral Theology is a nine-volume work concerning Catholic moral theology written between 1748 and 1785 by Alphonsus Liguori, a Catholic theologian and Doctor of the Church. This work is not to be confused with Theologia moralis universa ad mentem S. Alphonsi, a 19th-century treatise by Pietro Scavini written in the philosophical tradition of Alphonsus Liguori.

References

  1. Lehmkuhl, Augustinus (1912). "Moral Theology"  . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics - Page 508 Gilbert Meilaender, William Werpehowski · 2007 FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 508 the manualists: 'no period is more important in the history of moral theology than the late 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries'. But he then added, 'this is perhaps less a criticism of M. than a reXection on our almost complete ...
  3. Boersma, Hans (2012). "Nature and the Supernatural in la nouvelle théologie: The Recovery of a Sacramental Mindset". New Blackfriars. 93 (1043): 34–46. doi:10.1111/j.1741-2005.2011.01434.x. JSTOR   43251594.
  4. Hart, David Bentley (2020). Theological Territories: A David Bentley Hart Digest. University of Notre Dame Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv19m638q.15. ISBN   978-0-268-10717-8. JSTOR   j.ctv19m638q.[ page needed ]
  5. Genilo, Eric Marcelo O. (2007). John Cuthbert Ford, SJ: Moral Theologian at the End of the Manualist Era. Georgetown University Press. ISBN   978-1-58901-181-6. JSTOR   j.ctt2tt41x.[ page needed ]
  6. Senz, Nicholas. "Shifting Away From Manualism: On Forming Consciences". Church Life Journal. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  7. Engelhardt, H. Tristram (November 2011). "Orthodox Christian Bioethics: Some Foundational Differences from Western Christian Bioethics". Studies in Christian Ethics. 24 (4): 487–499. doi:10.1177/0953946811415018. S2CID   147395651. the Counter-Reformation, the manualist tradition produced a wealth of reflections between
  8. Wicks, Jared (1986). "Review of Foundational Theology. Jesus and the Church". Gregorianum. 67 (2): 374–376. JSTOR   23577203.
  9. Haddorff, David W. "Relying on Aquinas, Prudently." (1998): 562-564. position of Alphonsus Liguori. It was not only Liguori's manualist method of applying...
  10. 1 2 KROM, MICHAEL P. "Review" (PDF). Journal of Moral Theology . manualist tradition's focus on the distinction between material and formal cooperation with evil as well as on the intention of those who so cooperate is at least implicit in our modes of argumentation.
    Flannery begins by showing the inadequacies of the approach to cooperation with evil found in St. Alphonsus Liguori and the subsequent manualist tradition. Most pointedly, Liguori uses Aquinas's theory of morally indifferent acts in order to clarify his own position on material cooperation and yet, as becomes even clearer in the later manualists, this ends up revealing the problems with his own analysis. In chapter 2, Flannery finds the answer to these problems by focusing on Aquinas's account of how circumstances factor into the morality of indifferent acts. Rather than focus on the intention of the cooperator, Aquinas looks at the broader issues of whether or not an action is consistent with reason, justice, and charity. Chapter 3 helps to clarify all of this via the issue of scandal: Alphonsus ignores all others affected by acts of cooperation as well as "how the actions performed relate to the ultimate end and order of the moral universe" (122).
  11. Thomas Worcester (2017). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Jesuits. After the Council of Trent until the twentieth century, moral theology was shaped by the moral manuals used in seminaries to form future confessors. Manualist moral theology was concerned with avoidance of sin and obedience
  12. 1 2 Hart, David Bentley (2015-06-01). "Romans 8:19-22". First Things . Institute on Religion and Public Life (254): 72–74. In theological circles, the term "Thomism" (or "traditional Thomism" or "manualist Thomism" or "two-tier Thomism") typically refers not to the writings of Thomas himself, or even to any given scholar [...] who happens to study Thomas's thought, but to a particular faction of Baroque neoscholasticism, which began in the sixteenth century, principally with Domingo Banez, and which largely died out in the twentieth, principally with Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange.
    This was the tradition that produced the infamous Thomist "manuals," and that a succession of Catholic scholars [...] assailed as an impoverished early modern distortion of the medieval synthesis,
  13. 1 2 3 "A brief history of the Catholic Church's teaching on mercy and sin". America Magazine . 2022-12-15. Retrieved 2023-03-12. In fact, scholasticism and not manualism better conveys the tradition's long-term interests and purpose.
  14. 1 2 McDermott, John (2014). "The Collapse of the Manualist Tradition". Faith Magazine. Since manualist moralists sought to uphold universal norms even while exercising casuistry for difficult cases, it became fashionable to denounce casuistry and leave individual choices to the individual's informed conscience. For that, manuals were superfluous, especially once proportionalism was introduced into Catholic morality. Universal concepts no longer satisfied.
  15. Atkinson, Gary M. "Cooperation with Evil: Thomistic Tools of Analysis." American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 95.2 (2021): 337-339.
  16. Flanagan, Patrick (2013). "James F. Keenan, A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century: From Confessing Sins to Liberating Consciences (New York: Continuum, 2010), pp. viii + 248, £17.99, ISBN 978-0-8264-2929-2 (pbk)". International Journal of Public Theology. 7 (2): 229–230. doi:10.1163/15697320-12341290. neo-scholastic Manualist tradition in the second chapter
  17. Breckenridge, Robert L (March 1993). "Gallagher, John A., 'Time Past, Time Future: An Historical Study of Catholic Moral Theology' (Book Review)". Church History. 62 (1): 101. neo-Thomist manualist tradition
  18. 1 2 Curran, Charles (1995). "Thomas Joseph Bouquillon: Americanist, Neo-Scholastic, or Manualist?". Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America. His [ Thomas Bouquillon's] neo-scholastic adherence to Thomas Aquinas served as the ultimate basis for his criticism of the manuals.
  19. Petri, Thomas. Aquinas and the Theology of the Body. CUA Press, 2016. |quote=... in response to the manualist tradition rather than to Aquinas’s ... successively shown the shift of manualist theology away from the work of ... of the manualist tradition that the birth control de- ...
  20. Bernhard Häring, Free and faithful in Christ. Moral Theology for priests and laity, I/General Moral Theology. For freedom Christ has set us free (Gal 5,1), Slough 1978, focus on chapter 3
  21. Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal (Pope Benedict XVI). Introduction To Christianity, 2nd Edition (Communio Books) (Kindle Locations 304-306). Ignatius Press.

Further reading

Manualism