Our country is going

through its most profound

moral crisis since the days
of Martial Law.
 Questions???
 How can a predominantly Christian nation turn
out to be like this?
 How can many pious Church members
continue to act as abusive landlords, oppressive
employers or unreliable employees?
 Why do many graduates of our best Catholic
schools turn out to be corrupt government
officials, unfaithful husbands and wives, or
cheating businessmen?
“Lord knows kids need
a hero. . . Courageous,
self-sacrificing people
setting examples for all
of us. Everybody loves a
hero. People line up for
them, cheer them,
scream their names.
And years later, they’ll
tell you how they stood
in the rain for hour just
to get a glimpse of the
one who taught them to
hold on a second
longer.”
“I believe there’s a hero in all of us that keeps us
honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and
finally allows us to die with pride. . . even though
sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the
thing we want most . . . even our dreams.”
“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
“How can one be well...when one suffers morally?”
Leo Tolstoy
“Here is your country. Cherish these natural
wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the
history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your
children and your children's children. Do not let
selfish men or greedy interests skin your country
of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”
Theodore Roosevelt
 Terminologies
 Morality – part of theology that
searches for the norms of free
human conduct in the light of
revelation. (Franz Bockle, a
German theologian)
 2 elements in the definition :
 1. morality if concerned with free moral
conduct – the assumption that people can
freely perform human acts. Morality
presupposes freedom. It takes for granted that
humans are not absolutely determined (means
that either one’s heredity or environment or
both totally cause the person to act in a certain
way, theories of absolute determination claim
that humans are not free- they only think they
are)
 2. unlike ethics, which reaches for the norms
of the human conduct in the light of reason
alone , Christian Morality is guided by
revelation, meaning a person has more than
reason to help him. God reveals himself in
human history, thus, Christians believe that
reflection on and praying with (the scriptures)
are powerful helps in solving moral problems.
 Terminologies
 Morality – (latin “moralis”, pertaining to manners). The
rightness or wrongness of an action in relation to a standard or
norm of conduct. The term also refers to a doctrine or a system
of ideas that is concerned with conduct.
 Christian morality/Moral theology –A branch of theology that
deals with the rightness and wrongness of human actions
(morality) in relation to God. It is also termed Christian ethics.
 Ethics – The study of human conduct, focusing particularly on
attitudes and actions that are considered to be “right” or
“wrong”. Ethics is a philosophical discipline. When ethics is
treated from the point of view of Christian faith, it is called
Christian ethics. The term moral theology is also used to refer
to ethics.
 Morality and Ethics
 Morality: set of beliefs and practices about how to
live a good life
 Ethics: conscious reflection on the adequacy of our
moral beliefs.
 Moral Life: a process of becoming authentically
human. It is about growing in love and holiness with
others in community.
 Christian Moral Life: experiencing the liberating and
transforming presence of Christ through the grace of
his Spirit.
Moral & Ethical Spheres
 Approaches to Morality
 Morality as Law (Duty, Obedience)
 Reward vs Punishment
 Morality as Inner Conviction (Conscience, Integrity)
 Inner Peace vs Disquiet
 Morality as Personal Growth (Value, Conversion)
 Wholeness vs Fragmentation
 Morality as Love (Faithfulness, Response)
 Communion vs Isolation
 Morality as Social Transformation (Justice,
Solidarity)
 Social Peace vs Division
 There is no moral precept that does not have
something inconvenient about it
Denis Diderot

 Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself

out of much life. So aim above morality. Be
not simply good; be good for something.

Henry David Thoreau

 Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

LEVEL STAGE SOCIAL ORIENTATION

Pre-conventional 1 Obedience and Punishment
2 Individualism, Instrumentalism, and Exchange

Conventional 3 "Good boy/girl"

4 Law and Order

Post-conventional 5 Social Contract

6 Principled Conscience
Historical Development of Morality
 OT – Covenant Code (Ex 20:22- 23:33)
Parallel to the Hammurabi’s Laws
 Yawhist Ritual Decalogue (Dt 12 – 26 & Ex
34:17-27) – on festivals, offerings, prohibition
of images, prohibits the worship of other gods
 Holiness Code (Lev 17 – 26) – on diet,
worship, hygiene, marriage and sexual
morality
Historical Development of Morality
 NT - Jesus Message
 Kingdom of God
 The Call to Conversion and Repentance
 Demand for Faith
 Call to Discipleship
 The Law
 The Commandment of Love
 Women, Marriage and Family
 Reward and Punishment
Historical Development of Morality
 Early Christianity
 Gospel as the New Law
 Pagan Society and Culture, Martyrdom,
Persecution, Virginity and Prayer
 Need of Confessor
 Systematization of Moral Theology
 Scholastics and Theologians (Summa Theologica)
 Renewal of Moral Theology
 Manuals after Trent
 Act-oriented
 Law-oriented (natural law)
 Classicist worldview
 Deductive method
 Vatican II Renewal
 Person-oriented
 Holistic
 Historical Consciousness
 Empirical and Inductive method