Notes in Moral Theology

Definitions of Moral Theology

1. Subject to moral law- morality becomes a matter of obligations, classified according to
the commands issued.
2. Conform to the duty and norms imposed on us by reason and will of God in the light of
revelation.
3. Studies human acts in order to direct them to the attainment of true happiness and
ultimate end of a person by means of virtues and this is in the light of revelation.
4. Values contributing to human enrichment and this is in the light of revelation.
 Values-oriented
 Vital values
 Ascetical values
 Social, moral, spiritual, religious, and mystical values.
The contemporary theory of Moral Theology
 A reaction from the traditional definition of morality.
 Freedom and personal conscience override law- personal, individual way of acting yields
to social projects.

History of Moral theology

 We need to trace how moral theology evolved through time.
 Anachronism- one that is chronologically out of place.
 In discussing history, we need to put ourselves from their own specific timeline and
context.
Apostolic era
 Didache- the doctrine of the 12 apostles. It is a brief anonymous early Christian treatise
written in Koine Greek.
 Didache is the first manuals for morals.
Patristic era
 Objectives of the moral writings of the Fathers can be seen through their writings,
preaching, and catechesis.
 It has a strong foundation in the sacred scripture, and at the same time uses philosophy. –
philosophy is purified through the knowledge of FAITH.
 Maintains unity with dogma and spirituality.
Patristic era in 3rd century
 Reflected profoundly the significance of every Christians to do good and avoid evil.
  Famous individuals- Tertullian, Origen, and St. Cyprian.
4th century Fathers (during this era, Christianity is ‘publicized’)
 Christians’ preoccupation during this time concerns as to how to live a holy life.
 There happened to have a decline in moral standards because CHRISTIANITY has
become the standard of morality.
 The fathers encouraged everyone to live a holy life.
The teaching of the Fathers
 Spiritual life
 Ascetical life- asceticism- severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence.
Well-known individuals
 Clement of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil, St. Ambrose. The most notable
among them is St. Augustine.
St. Augustine- speculated various thoughts about morality. – to live a moral life is to live a holy
life in accord with faith.
Pelagianism- knowledge that we can be saved even without God’s grace.
Manicheans- they believed that matter is evil.
5th- 12th century
St. Thomas Aquinas
 The Book of Penance emerges. – this is geared towards penitents to live an upright life
and leave sinful life.
Characteristic of St. Thomas’ moral teachings
1. The centrality of morality of ultimate of man end of man is consist in contemplation of
God.
2. Freedom- to value and know the will of God for the love of God.
3. Primacy of interiority in life.
4. Emphasizes intrinsic character of Divine of natural and supernatural law.
5. Considers conscience as judgment of the intellect of the goodness and badness of the act.
6. Virtues are required and infused united with the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are the
principles of the Christian moral life.
Infused Virtues/Theological virtues- Faith, Hope, and Love
Acquired Virtues/Cardinal/Moral Virtues- Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, and Prudence
Peter Abelard
  His ERROR is that the role of conscience is not that matter at all. “as long as I have a
good intention it is A-OKAY!”
 PAG BASA ANAY SAN IYA KINABUHI HEHEZ
 Pluralism of moral standard. It is the agent who will make his own moral law.
Peter Lombard
 He is the first one to synthesize moral theology in his work THE SENTENCES.
St. Raymond Penafort
 His work? – the Manual for Confessions.
 As the priest, you should be the master of your freedom.
The Scholastic Morality- philosophy and theology in the middle ages.
 Early period – 12th century
 High period- 13th century
 Late period- 14th century
13th century- the prime of Franciscans and Dominicans
Franciscans Schools
Alexander of Hales- the same school where the Seraphic Doctor St. Bonaventure were trained. –
school of Paris.
Summa Theologica of Hales
 First part- God: Trinity
 Second part- Creation
 Third part- Christ: redemption
 Fourth part- sacraments
St. Bonaventure- he united theology and mysticism.
Dominican Schools – St. Dominic de Guzman, founder of the order
St. Albert the Great is the mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas- they ‘baptized’ and adopted Aristotle
William of Ockham- Franciscan friar, boang, matig-a an alintarakan, waray mamati sa
simbahan, excommunicado (dasruv!)
Nominalism- a view that only particulars are real and that universals are but observable likeness
among the particulars of sense experience.
Ockham’s error- too much adherence to nominalism, extreme subscription to empiricism.
FREEDOM OF INDIFFERENCE.
 Ockham divorced Faith and Reason – the supernatural and natural operates in different
spheres with different concerns.
  Faith and reason are so distinct that reason may on occasion contradict faith i.e. it may be
possible to prove the contradictory of certain dogmas.
 For him, φιλοσοφια ανσιλλα θεολογια νον εστ.
 He held that neither God’s existence nor his unity nor his infinity can be proved.
Central idea of Ockham
 Freedom- the freedom of indifference
 Separation of different realities.
Freedom comes first and then law. The law is there to guide freedom. – cf. Veritatis Splendor
Laxism- the moral system according to which a person in a doubt of conscience about the
morality of a certain course of action.
Rigorism- in every doubt of conscience as to the morality of a particular course of conduct, the
opinion for law must be followed.

Moral theology before and after the Council of Trent

 Remnant/effect of Ockham 15th century.
 A need to go back to St. Thomas Aquinas
 This is the moment were the glory of University of Salamanca is visible
 With the influence of Ockham, morals are now centered in precepts and obligations, and
it separated from spirituality and pastoral theology.
 Moral theology loses its function- serves as guide for the union of man with God. And
taught on how to live the virtues having Christ as the model.
St. Francis de Sales with work entitled, Introduction to Devout Life gears towards a return to
the unity of the knowledge of theology and mystical experience.
 Thanks to his literary genius he conveyed theological knowledge, the spiritual
experience of God’s love, and pastoral concern in a manner that placed his works
within the reach of all.
 The split of between moral theory and mysticism was reinforced when the distinction
between precepts and counsels was applied to moral theory in its entirety.
St. Antoninus of Florence (1389-1459) created his summa that is geared toward the study of
virtue and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
One of the major preoccupations of the Council of Trent was the establishment of seminaries
where future priests would receive a formation adapted to their ministerial needs, particularly the
administration of the sacrament of penance.
In 1586, a Jesuit commission was formed to draw up a syllabus of theological studies, a “Ratio
Studiorum” of the Society of Jesus. – Ratio studiorum is a standardized the globally influential
system of Jesuit education in 1599.
The Jesuits distinguished between cursus maior and cursus minor. The maior pertains to the
speculative studies such as, dogmas, theories, etc. the minor on the other hand, deals about the
practical aspect, that is, it is oriented towards solutions of concrete cases.
The Institutiones Morales of Juan Azor
 Conscience is the point of departure between good and evil.
 A movement from morality of virtue to morality of obligations
 It abolished all aspects about dogma and doctrine.
Division of Moral Theology in the mindset of Juan Azor
1. The Ten Commandments of God
2. The Seven Sacraments
3. Ecclesiastical censures and penalties and indulgencies
4. State of life and final ends.
Characteristics of Institutiones Morales of Juan Azor
1. It abolished almost every aspect about doctrine and dogma.
2. Materials are divided:
 10 commandments
 7 sacraments
 The censures and ecclesiastical penalties and indulgencies
 State of life and ultimate end
3. Has great influence from the morality of obligation
 It replaced the traditional organization according to virtues to obligations.
Because of William of Ockham there happened to have a shift from the morality of virtues into
morality of obligations! It was you who caused all this mess! You William!!!!
Intitutiones Morales – geared on the formation and its approach is out of obligation not out of
love.
*side trip la ini
Approaches in Moral Theology
 Virtue centered
 Obligation centered
 Natural law centered

Moral Theology from 17th-18th century

The paradigm has shifted again, from obligation centered morality into conscience centered
morality.
The trends during these days were the doubtful cases or conflicting laws.
Approach: PROBABILISM- when you are in doubt use your OWN REASON. – overthink
malala!
Probabilism- a principle of action grounded on that premise (casuistry) that, when one does not
know whether an action would be sinful or permissible, he may rely on a ‘probable opinion’ for
its permissibility even though a more probable opinion calls it sinful.
Problem of Probabilism- it has the greatest tendency to disregard the law.
Requirements to consider that an action is mortal sin:
1. Grave matter
2. Full knowledge
3. Deliberate consent
Tutiorism- follow what is favorable to the law. – conscience is disregarded. Obeying the law
without knowing the reason behind it.
The result of Tutiorism is Rigorism (kitaa nala sa igbaw kun nano iton)
Equi-probabilism- side with TRUTH.
St. Alphonsus Liguori
1. Tries to overcome the crisis to the truth that had fallen in moral theology because of
probabilism and tutiorism.
2. Look for a solution in accordance to the truth, it sides with the truth. – it should be
respectful to what the gospel tells us and respectful to conscience.
3. Practical and pastoral character- synthesis the casuistic approach in unity with Christian
perfection. – pastoral because the priest should guide the conscience of the people.

Moral Theology in the turn of the Vatican Council 19th century- early 20th century
There is a need for a renovation of moral theology.
Vatican Council – there’s no particular document/decrees on moral theology. – it can be found
scattered all throughout the documents.
Characteristics:
1. They reduce moral theology into obligatory precepts and laws and they transferred the
evangelical counsel to mysticism and spirituality.
2. They use the Sacred Scripture as support to their arguments.
3. The law tells what is permissible and prohibited, it abandons the function of the person to
orient himself to holiness according to what Jesus tells us.
 4. Love does not occupy a place in contrast to what Jesus told us. Love is only subordinate
to the commandments.
Morality of obligation- focuses more on laws and precepts.
Morality of counsels- geared towards perfection of life.
Renovation of Moral Theology
School of Tubingen- claims that the central thought of Christian life/moral life is the life of
grace.
 Moral life has its foundation in the sacred scriptures.
 They would like to construct an organic moral theology with some fundamental principle.
 Moral life is something dynamic. – it is a constant struggle to sanctity.
Pope Leo XIII’s approach- Thomistic approach. He revived Thomistic thought.
 Encyclical – Aeterni Patris
Some moral norms
Movement of moral theology approach Vatican II
Tillmann (1934) – held the idea of following Christ or imitation of Christ should be done in
order to live a moral life.
 He taught morality through charity especially the Beatitudes.
 He would like to overcome the division between morality of obligation and morality of
counsels.
Mersch (1937) Louvain- his work entitled, Moral and Mystical Body
 He proposed that it must be our incorporation with Christ. – it is Christ who is the first
principle in Christian morality or Christian action.
 Mersch wants to emphasize the participation in the mystical body, the church is there to
guide us. That is why we need the church so that we might not got astray.
Bernard Haring- his work is entitled, Law of Christ.
Points:
 He would like to present the idea of Christian life which is the radical way of following
Christ. That is, living with virtues.
 He would like to teach us the defense of the law. – the law is like a fence; the law is there
to safeguard us. If you trespass the fence, you’re dead meat.
 He would like to show for the Christian life that it has something related to perfection.
Different currents of Moral Theology in Vatican II
School of Natural Law- pertains to which practical and identifying ourselves with the law of
Christ.
The school of natural law received lots of critisms
1. Obligatory precepts, laws, sacraments, and evangelical counsels was transferred to the
realm of spirituality and dogma.
2. It emphasizes a move and presents laws and something negative and prohibition. – it does
not confront the problem of modern man.
School of Theological virtues – authors in this school of thought ought to focus on the
following:
1. Sacred scriptures, specifically on New Testament
2. Importance of grace
3. Gives more attention to human values. Under this, there are two directions as to how to
study human values.
a. Study of anthropology- integrations of earthly reality in moral life.
b. The understanding of the practicality of human life.
4. Centrality of identification of our life – conception of Christian life and specific vocation.
5. Shows us the knowledge of ultimate end. – ordered by faith and gives sense in every
meaning that we do.
6. Primacy of charity in Christian life.
7. Shows to us the relation of moral life in the church and it opens to us the dimensions
especially the sacraments.
Situation Ethics- the tendency to look of the situation. Situation only. And to disregard present
moral standards.
This kind of thinking were influenced by the existentialist philosophy.
Problem of Situation Ethics: the negation of the validity of Christian morals
 Problem of conscience: it is the individual conscience that will judge a particular
situation.
Situation Ethics was condemned by Pope Pius XII!

Veritatis Splendor
Natural law- participation of the eternal law in the rational creature. – 43.
Truth enlightens man’s intelligence and shapes his freedom, leading him to know and love the
Lord.
Only the FREEDOM which SUBMITS to the TRUTH leads the human person to his true good.
– 84.
The law of God is always the one true good of man. – 84
Cenderesis- 54.
Conscience is the witness of God himself, whose voice and judgment penetrate the depths of
man’s soul, calling him fortiter et suaviter. – 58
Conscience is the application of the law to a particular case; this application of the law thus
become an inner dictate for the individual, a summons to do what is good in this particular
situation. – 59. Conscience thus formulates moral obligation in the light of the natural law it is
the obligation to do what the individual, through the workings of his conscience, knows to be
good he is called to do here and now.
The judgment of conscience does not establish the law, rather it bears witness to the authority of
the natural law and of the practical reason with reference to the supreme good, whose
attractiveness the human person perceives and whose commandments he accepts. – 60

HUMAN PERSON
 A created being obviously has a CREATOR.
 Man’s purpose of living is to know, to love, and to serve God His Creator
 God created man out of love.
 The ultimate end of creation is the glory of God.
 Revealed anthropology- God created us in His image and likeness.

Aspects of Human dignity

 Endowment- man is a composite of body and soul
 Achievement- how we actualize, intellect and will.

 Human person is called, man has vocation. And the primary calling of God to man is
communion with him.

HUMAN ACTS AND FREEDOM

 Human acts- acts that are proper to man, actions done with full knowledge and of his own
will. Human acts are therefore those acts that proceed from a deliberate will.
 When man acts in a deliberate manner, he is so to speak the father of his acts.
 In human acts, the intellect and the will cooperates and is doing their ‘jobs’ as they ought
to do.
Acts of Man
  Opposed to human acts, man performs these acts without being master of them
through his intellect and will.
 The natural acts of vegetative and sense faculties: digestion, the beating of the heart,
growth, corporal reactions, and visual or auditive perceptions
Freedom
 By adhering to him, man could freely reach his full and happy perfection.
 Freedom gives man power over his actions
 Sirach 15:14, “God, left him (man) in the power of his own inclination”
Advertence
 This is the necessary presence of knowledge in the human act. – full knowledge.
 Advertence is actual if the light of the intellect is present in the action through an actual
consideration of the mind. It is virtual if that light is present because of a previous
consideration whose strength remains in the action as it is performed. E.g. the priest has
distracted in giving the absolution to the penitent, however, his intention is to give the
absolution, it so happened that he was intruded. Thus, the absolution is valid.
 Full advertence is when the agent is in his full knowledge and is completely aware of
what he does. Partial advertence is when the agent partially realizes what he does or the
morality of the act.
 Advertence is distinct if one is clearly and exactly aware of the act and of its morality.
And confused if the agent is not fully aware of it. For example, a person might be in his
mind has committed mistake but as to what specific and concrete sin, he is not aware of
it.
The perfect/complete use of freedom is to do the good of the other.
The Freedom to Love
 This is the freedom and acting in accord with Christian love of God and love of neighbor
 You’ve chosen the person whom you will love. Ikaw it nag pili han tawo nga imo
hihigugmaon.
 Adultery- abuse of love.
 Love is jealous, you cannot divide one’s heart.
 Exercise of freedom to give ourselves to others and perfection of man. Self-perfection=
self-giving.
 We became slaves when we don’t know how to love.
 Another thing of freedom is that, it has the capacity to repair/rectify oneself.
*(side trip) attitude refers to how people look at you, while character refers on how you look at
yourself.
Freedom and Slavery of Sin
  When man commits sin, his will and intellect is clouded and thus cannot function as it
should be.
When man commit sin, he loses his self so to speak.
 Man destroys his own freedom.
 Man loses his dignity as a person.
 The moment Adam and Eve committed sin, they lost their original state, the immaculate
innocence state.
In response to committing sin, man must acquire virtues in order to regain his self.
Virtues- repeated good acts. This also allows us to master our freedom. -IN CONTRAST TO
VICES – committing vices is literally choosing the ‘apparent good’.
Sin blinds our intellect
*e.g. two seminarians filled with vices cannot guide each other. – they are both blind!
Will pertains to love. We will or we love which is good.
Intellect= eyes will= love
We can regain our lives from sin through virtues and grace of God.
Freedom and Responsibility
 Every act that we do we are the master of it. And we should be responsible of it.
 Because of sin, we are not responsible of our action.
Genesis complex- blaming others. Not accepting one’s fault.
WE ARE THE FATHER OF OUR ACTIONS.
Christian Understanding of Freedom
*Very important element of Christian understanding of Freedom is GRACE.
 Love is not slaving us, rather it makes us free.
 It is Christ who set us free.
Freedom in the Christian POV- total surrender and total gift of oneself to God and neighbor.
 Yes, to be free is to submit oneself to God. however, it doesn’t procure the idea that we
won’t do anything. One element of freedom is also PROACTIVITY.
Passions
 Are intellectual appetite.