An Introduction To Moral Theology, 2nd Edition. William May

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