An Introduction To Moral Theology, 2nd Edition. William May
Читать онлайн книгу.
A. Principal Ideas Set Forth in Chapter One
I. The Religious and Existential Significance of the Young Man’s Question
II. The Sovereignty of God Over the Moral Order
III. The Essential Link Between Obedience to the Commandments and Eternal Life
IV. The ‘Fulfillment’ of the Law in Jesus; the Universal Call to Perfection
V. Moral Life, the Unity of the Church, and Revelation
VI. The More-than-human Authority of the Magisterium on Moral Questions
B. Dionigi Tettamanzi’s Analysis of Chapter One
I. The Christocentric Meaning of Our Moral Life
II. The Ecclesial Dimension of Christian Moral Life
Chapter Two: The Church and the Discernment of Certain Tendencies in Present-day Moral Theology
Introduction
I. Freedom and the Law
II. Conscience and the Truth
III. Fundamental Choice and Specific Kinds of Behavior
IV. The Moral Act
Chapter Three: Moral Good for the Life of the Church and of the World
Introduction
I. The Relationship Between Human Freedom and the Truth
II. The Intimate and Inseparable Unity of Faith and Morality
III. The Relationship Between Respect for Personal Dignity and Refusal to Engage in Intrinsically Evil Acts
IV. The Absolute Need for God’s Grace to Live a Morally Upright Life
V. The Service of Moral Theologians
VI. The Responsibility of Bishops
Reactions to the Encyclical
The Selling-Jans Book: The Splendor of Accuracy
Richard McCormick’s ‘Some Early Reactions to Veritatis Splendor’ and Martin Rhonheimer’s Critique of McCormick
J. A. DiNoia’s ‘Veritatis Splendor: Moral Life as Transfigured Life’
Conclusion
Notes for Chapter Eight
APPENDIX Christian Moral Life and the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. A Synopsis of the Catechism’s Teaching on the Christian Moral Life
2. Essential Meaning of Christian Morality According to the Catechism
A. The Moral Life as an Endeavor on the Part of Human Persons to Become Fully the Beings God Wills Them to Be
B. Our Absolute Dependence Upon God to Enable Us to Become Fully the Beings He Wills Us to Be
C. The God-given Authority of the Church as Mother and Teacher
D. What We Must Do in Order to Become Fully the Beings God Wills Us to Be
Notes for Appendix
FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION
It is a pleasure for me to introduce Dr. William May’s An Introduction to Moral Theology. In succinct and perceptive fashion, Dr. May introduces the reader to fundamental notions of Catholic moral teaching. I commend this volume to the clergy, to seminarians, to catechists, and to all who wish to discover more profoundly what it means to follow the Lord Jesus.
We live in an age that seems to have lost its moral moorings. Too many people are genuinely confused about what is right and what is wrong; some doubt that an authentic standard for judging human behavior exists. Church teachings, particularly those related to the transmission and preservation of human life, often meet with rejection. All too often, Catholic morality is regarded as a series of arbitrary obligations having nothing to do with our dignity as human persons called to eternal life in Christ Jesus.
This introduction counters such confusion with clarity and depth. It helps us understand how the Church’s moral teaching is rooted in the nature of the human person created in the image and likeness of God. Indeed, as the grace of Christ takes hold of our lives we see ever more clearly the wisdom of the Church’s moral teaching.
Dr. May has devoted his life to studying the Church’s moral teaching and to communicating that teaching to others. He is a man of deep faith and scholarship, and we are privileged that he has shared his wisdom with us. This latest book of his deserves a very warm welcome.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION
Almost ten years have passed since this work was first revised (1994) in order to incorporate the teaching on the moral life presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and in Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on “fundamental questions of the Church’s moral teaching,” Veritatis splendor (“The Splendor of Truth”). Since 1994, important new works in moral theology have appeared, and it will be useful to refer to some of these and to incorporate particularly helpful matter found in them. I will expand my own presentation of moral theology, in particular to provide a consideration of the role that virtue plays in the moral life. Although I have sought to integrate biblical teaching on the Christian moral life in the chapter “Christian Faith and Our Moral Life” (Chapter Six in this revised edition), I believe it appropriate and necessary to consider the biblical foundation of moral theology more explicitly. Consequently, I have devoted a part of a new first chapter to this question. Finally, I will correct some errors I made in the earlier editions.
In preparing the present edition, I have reorganized the text. I have incorporated the opening pages of the “Introduction to the First Edition” (1991), which was included in the 1994 edition, into a new first chapter, entitled “Moral Theology: Its Nature, Purpose, and Biblical Foundation.” In this chapter, I expand considerably the brief observations made in the 1991 and 1994 editions on the subject of moral theology and also, as noted already, consider more explicitly the biblical roots of moral theology.
The chapter on human dignity, free human action, and conscience, which was Chapter One in both the 1991 and 1994 editions, is now Chapter Two; in it I have added for this edition a section on the role of virtue in the moral life.
The subsequent chapters — which are concerned with the natural law and moral life, moral absolutes (with appendices on the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope John Paul II on this issue), sin and the moral life, Christian faith and the moral life, and the Church as moral teacher — present material covered in Chapters Two through Six of the first two editions. I have, however, made significant and substantive revisions especially in (1) the chapter devoted to natural law (Chapter Three), both to take into account important recent literature (for example, Martin Rhonheimer’s Natural Law and Practical Reason: A Thomist View of Moral Autonomy and a recent essay of Germain Grisez that develops his own understanding of natural law) and to clarify and correct positions taken in earlier editions, and (2) the chapter on the “Church as Moral Teacher” (Chapter Seven), where I have taken into account more recent magisterial teaching and in light