The Christian Moral Life. Timothy F. Sedgwick
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Ten Commandments themselves, however, do not constitute a Christian ethic. They state the basic claim of Christian faith and the moral life, that the Christian life is a moral life grounded religiously, given in worship. The last six commandments detail basic, moral obligations between persons. They do not, though, offer an account of how we come to know and do what is good and right. In turn, the first four commandments prohibit idolatry and call for keeping the Sabbath holy. But these commands do not indicate what is the nature of true worship and, more broadly, what is the nature of the relationship with God given in worship or how this grounds and enables the moral life. In short, the Ten Commandments command the love of God and the love of neighbor but do not develop the nature of these loves or how the two are related. The Christian tradition may be understood as the attempt to answer these questions.
For the first thousand years in the life of the church, understandings of the Ten Commandments were offered mainly through sermons, which were in large part biblical commentaries. Alongside preaching, other writings offered accounts of particular aspects of the Christian life. For example, in the fourth century Augustine wrote about the nature of love, about the nature of the good and the nature of evil as idolatry, about freedom and the knowledge of God, and about practical matters such as marriage, political obligation, and the use of force. Together, the broad-ranging explorations of Augustine contain the elements of a systematic account of the Christian life. In Western Christianity these elements were later developed in different ways by Roman Catholics and Protestants. A comparison of these two strains of Christian ethics, Roman Catholic and Protestant, provides the opportunity to identify what are common claims central to understanding Christian faith and the moral life.13
Roman Catholic and Protestant Perspectives
In the thirteenth century all Catholics were required to make a confession of sin to a priest at least once a year. The confession of sin soon became a weekly obligation. The priest as confessor was responsible to declare God’s forgiveness of sin and to offer pastoral support in the amendment and renewal of life.14 In order to provide moral judgment regarding sin and pastoral guidance in light of sin, the Roman Catholic Church developed moral theologies. Judgments and counsel often became mechanical, in part from the sheer number of confessions heard each week. The purpose of the confession, however, was to enable persons to name those actions and attitudes that separated them from God, from their neighbor, and from themselves. To name sin was to identify what was contrary to a person’s deepest desire and true identity. The naming of sin was, therefore, pastoral, to bring people back into relationship with God and with their neighbor. Where there was sorrow for sin there was forgiveness, the release from guilt, and the reestablishment of the bonds that give life wholeness. As priest, the confessor thus declared to the penitent absolution, the forgiveness of sins. Again, while confessions often devolved into mechanical judgments of sin and absolution, the deeper purpose was reconciliation.
In order to offer direction to confessors, moral theologies developed an understanding of moral responsibility and sinful acts. Often written as a separate volume called general moral theology, the first focus of moral theology was on what has been called “moral agency.” The concern was how persons come to know and do the good, how mind and will are perfected or corrupted in the actions that form their lives. A second volume of moral theology then focused on what a person should do. Often called special moral theology, this volume addressed specific cases and sought to offer practical moral judgments in order to determine sinful acts.15
The general Roman Catholic account of the Christian moral life began with a description of the purpose or end of human life as being in relationship to God. In the end the person was to “see God.” Called the beatific vision, this visual image drew together experience and purpose. The end of life was to live in the presence of God. Such a presence was to share in the mind of God. That is to say, to be in the presence of God is to be drawn into God’s purpose or work. In terms of content, this end is called “blessedness.” Happiness is not a matter of individual pleasure but a matter of sharing in what is ultimately good and purposeful. Persons can rest in this relationship because nothing is wanting. They are content and at peace, filled with a sense of glory, joy, praise, and thankfulness.
Following a discussion of the end of life, general moral theologies describe the human person in terms of virtues and vices. Virtues and vices are moral terms for describing the perfection or corruption of human powers and capacities. In matters of value, as in all matters of life, we become what we do. As such, virtues are good moral habits. Vices are bad moral habits. As developed in the ancient Greek philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, the basic human virtues are called temperance, courage, practical wisdom, and justice. These virtues were called cardinal virtues, from the Latin cardo, meaning “hinge,” because they were understood as pivotal to human fulfillment.
Perfecting of the body is a matter of temperance, of forming bodily pleasure in right proportion so that one seeks neither excessive consumption nor excessive denial. A healthy person eats and enjoys eating. He or she is neither anorexic nor obese. The perfection of the will was a matter of the development of courage or, from the Latin translation of the Greek word for courage, also called fortitude. A person of courage is steadfast, able to act in the face of danger without becoming foolish or reckless. With fortitude a nurse is able to serve those with highly contagious diseases, taking appropriate caution, masking and gloving. Perfection of mind is a matter of practical wisdom or, from the Latin translation of the Greek, prudence. Prudence is knowing when to do what, gained through practical experience. A farmer with prudence knows when to plant and when to wait until the ground can be plowed.
As this suggests, temperance, fortitude, and prudence complement one another. For example, the young lack the experience necessary to be wise and therefore are more often foolish and intemperate. In turn, a hangover from partying into the morning hours provides knowledge more vivid than admonitions to drink in moderation. The moral life in this sense involves a harmony, a balancing of activities in order to create wholeness to life. Justice is then the last of the cardinal virtues: to give each what is appropriately due. As such, justice is a political virtue focusing on what is needed to form a community of people. Again, these excellences were understood as habits. By doing what was good, a person came to experience the good in his or her heart. Once known, the good was done naturally, almost spontaneously.
At the heart of virtue is knowledge of the good. Roman Catholic moral theology understood that such knowledge was not given simply in “growing up,” or in other terms, given naturally. Instead, to know the good ultimately was a matter of the experience of God. The experience of God, in turn, formed the self. Again, the powers or capacities of the self were perfected. This ultimate — or what was called supernatural perfection — comes from God. The specific virtues were, therefore, called the theological virtues: faith, hope, and love.
Faith, as a virtue, refers both to the knowledge of God and to the act of knowing God. The experience of God was a matter of both knowledge of God and trust in God. Hope refers to the will. Instead of anxiety and despair, cynicism or bitterness, the experience of God instills hope as an openness to the future and an expectation of new opportunities and joys. Finally, love as a theological virtue refers to the experience of God as a matter of being loved. As with faith and hope, love does not simply develop from a life lived. Instead, love first comes to the Christian. As Christians have expressed this, God first loves us.
These three theological virtues are integrally related. There is no knowledge of God except knowledge born in relationship to God. Faith arises from the experience of being loved; hence faith is a matter of love. In turn, love is not simply a feeling but is a relationship to what is ultimately good. Love is grounded in what is trustworthy. Love is a matter of faith. Hope also is grounded in faith and love, just as there is no faith and love apart from hope. Together, faith, hope, and love give expression to the experience of God as acting upon us and changing us. As such they are virtues. They perfect the human power and capacity to act. Because they first arise from the experience of God as acting upon us, they are called supernatural virtues. They do not arise from making sense of life in general or from human effort and achievement. They are not in this sense ideals to be achieved. Instead, they are gifts from God. They are not matters of human