Theology vista

• Sources of Moral Theology

  • Divine revelation as interpreted by the Church
  • Human reason
  • Human experience
• Fr. Pasquale Giordano, S.J.: '“Moral Theology is about making decisions in life that enable us to become more fully human, to enable us to come to God as our final end.”'
• Biblical aspect of Catholic morality

  The word of God is authoritative in matters of faith and morality
• Christocentric aspect of Catholic morality

  Deals with the way of following from the Christian’s being-in-Christ
• Life as a Catholic involves thinking (Catholic theology), living (Catholic Morality), and believing (Creed)
• Personalistic aspect of Catholic morality

  Emphasizes the human person in its totality
• According to Vatican II, characteristics of Catholic morality include being theocentric, Christocentric, ecclesial, biblical, sacramental, personalistic, and ecumenical
• Ecclesial aspect of Catholic morality


  Emphasizes the communitarian dimension of Christian life
• Sacramental aspect of Catholic morality

  Develops the sacramental dimension of the Christian life
• Ecumenical aspect of Catholic morality

  Emphasizes the universality of the Gospel of Christ
• Christian moral theology


  • Interested in the implications of Christian faith for the type of persons Christians should be and the actions they should perform
  • Focuses on ethics of being or character ethics and ethics of doing
• Moral Theology


  • Moral Theology is sometimes called Christian or theological ethics
  • It focuses on the implications of faith for the way of life
  • Concerned with God’s revelation of divine love in Jesus and through the Spirit
  • Views response to God’s offer of love as the soul of moral life
  • Shows how faith shapes Christian life
• Man was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to him
• Man possesses the dignity of a person, capable of self-knowledge, self-possession, and freely giving himself
• Man is the only creature on earth able to know and love his creator
• Man, whole and entire, is willed by God
• Man's salvation is of great importance to God, to the extent that He did not spare his own Son for the sake of man
• All men are truly brethren, united by the law of human solidarity and charity
• Man is more precious in the eyes of God than all other creatures
• Man is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer a response of faith and love that no other creature can give
• Man


  God has willed man for his own sake, to share in God's own life
• Human person


  Created in the image of God, a being at once corporeal and spiritual
• Man forms a unity as the human race has a common origin
• Soul


  Refers to the innermost aspect of man, the spiritual principle in man
• Soul


  The innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God's image; the spiritual principle in man
• Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity
• The spiritual tradition of the Church emphasizes the heart as the depths of one's being
• The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God and is immortal
• Man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator
• God created man and woman together and willed each for the other
• The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the "form" of the body
• In Sacred Scripture, the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human person
• Man and woman reflect the Creator's wisdom and goodness in their "being-man" and "being-woman"
• Man and woman were made "for each other" to be a communion of persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other
• Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God, in perfect equality as human persons
• Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit
• The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God" as it is animated by a spiritual soul
• By the radiance of grace, all dimensions of man’s life were confirmed
• Man is predestined to reproduce the image of God’s Son made man
• Work is the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation