An Introduction To Moral Theology, 2nd Edition. William May
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theology at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. I also appreciate the help of two of my former students: the Rev. Paul deLadurantaye, director of religious education for the Arlington, Virginia, diocese and lecturer in moral theology at the Notre Dame Catechetical Institute of Christendom College; and the Rev. Emmanuel Afunugo, professor of moral theology at St. Vincent’s Seminary, Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I also wish to thank my students for their encouragement, intelligent questions, and stimulation, and in particular Robert Plich, O.P., a Polish Dominican completing doctoral studies at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Father Plich, as my research assistant the past year, has been of great help to me.
KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS OF BIBLICAL BOOKS
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Old Testament Books
Am — Amos
Bar — Baruch
1 Chr — 1 Chronicles
2 Chr — 2 Chronicles
Dn — Daniel
Dt — Deuteronomy
Eccl — Ecclesiastes
Es — Esther
Ex — Exodus
Ez — Ezekiel
Ezr — Ezra
Gn — Genesis
Hb — Habakkuk
Hg — Haggai
Hos — Hosea
Is — Isaiah
Jer — Jeremiah
Jb — Job
Jdt — Judith
Jgs — Judges
Jl — Joel
Jon — Jonah
Jos — Joshua
1 Kgs — 1 Kings
2 Kgs — 2 Kings
Lam — Lamentations
Lv — Leviticus
Mal — Malachi
1 Mc — 1 Maccabees
2 Mc — 2 Maccabees
Mi — Micah
Na — Nahum
Neh — Nehemiah
Nm — Numbers
Ob — Obadiah
Prv — Proverbs
Ps — Psalms
Ru — Ruth
Sg — Song of Songs
Sir — Sirach
1 Sm — 1 Samuel
2 Sm — 2 Samuel
Tb — Tobit
Wis — Wisdom
Zec — Zechariah
Zep — Zephaniah
New Testament Books
Acts — Acts of the Apostles
Col — Colossians
1 Cor — 1 Corinthians
2 Cor — 2 Corinthians
Eph — Ephesians
Gal — Galatians
Heb — Hebrews
Jas — James
Jn — John
1 Jn — 1 John
2 Jn — 2 John
3 Jn — 3 John
Jude — Jude
Lk — Luke
Mk — Mark
Mt — Matthew
Phil — Philippians
Phlm — Philemon
1 Pt — 1 Peter
2 Pt — 2 Peter
Rom — Romans
Rv — Revelation
1 Thes — 1 Thessalonians
2 Thes — 2 Thessalonians
Ti — Titus
1 Tm — 1 Timothy
2 Tm — 2 Timothy
CHAPTER ONE
Moral Theology: Its Nature, Purpose, and Biblical Foundation
The Moral Life — An Introductory Description
I believe that our moral life, if viewed from the perspective of a person seeking to be morally upright, can be described as an endeavor, cognitively, to come to know who we are and what we are to do if we are to be fully the beings we are meant to be, and, conatively, to do what we ourselves come to know we are to do if we are to become fully the beings we are meant to be.
Describing the moral life in this way rests, of course, on some presuppositions. It presupposes that we do not know, when we come into being, who we are and what we are to do if we are to be fully the beings we are meant to be, but that we have the capacity to find out. It further presupposes that we are not, when we come into existence, fully the beings we are meant to be, but that we are capable of becoming such. In addition, it presupposes that we have a destiny to which we are summoned in the depths of our being. And, finally, it presupposes that we are in charge of our own destiny, that we can, through our own free, self-determining choices, shape our own lives.
In both (1) our cognitive endeavor to come to know who we are and what we are to do if we are to be fully the beings we are meant to be and (2) our conative effort to do what we come to know we ought to do if we are to be fully the beings we are meant to be, we can be both crippled or disabled and helped or enabled. Sin — original, personal, social — is, as we shall see, the great disabling factor in these endeavors. The God made known in Jesus Christ is, as we shall also see, the great enabling factor in these endeavors. And an enabling factor, too, is the Church, Jesus’ beloved spouse. All this is matter to be taken up in this book.
THE NATURE, PURPOSE, AND RENEWAL OF MORAL THEOLOGY
1. Who We Are and Who We Are Meant to Be in the Light of Faith
The systematic effort to discover who we are and what we are to do if we are to be fully the beings we are meant to be is, when carried out exclusively by the use of human intelligence, the domain of moral philosophy or ethics. When this effort is systematically undertaken by those whose human intelligence is informed by Christian faith, it is the work of moral theology. But before considering more precisely the nature of theology and in particular the nature of moral theology, I want to first briefly indicate how Christian faith helps us in our cognitive endeavor to discover who we are and what we are to do if we are to become fully the beings we are meant to be, i.e., the beings God himself wants us to be.
In the light of faith, we know who we are. We are the only creatures made “in the image of God” (Gn 1:27), the “only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake” (Gaudium et spes, no. 24). Through faith, we know that God created man “as an intelligent and free being” and that, over and above this, man “is called as a son to intimacy with God and to share in his happiness” (Gaudium et spes, no. 21). We know, in other words, that we are not only unique among earthly beings in our dignity as persons made in God’s image and