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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
The discipline of moral theology is undergoing noticeable self-evaluation. Moral theologians are exploring the connections between moral theology and Scripture, moral theology and virtue ethics, moral theology and Christology, moral theology and Patristics, moral theology and liturgy, and moral theology and spirituality. Moralists are looking for new conversation partners in order to stretch the discipline beyond the now familiar relations that once bore fruit between moral theology and philosophy, and natural law in particular. There are some stirrings to converse again with philosophy, but the noted activity most relevant to the intent of this essay encompasses the explicitly theological.
My own “Moral Theology and” discourse has centred on the theme of prayer. In so doing I am looking to reinvigorate a discipline that seems to be dying pastorally. I have come to the conclusion that the best way to form the conscience is not through formal moral theology courses and all the inner disputations that moralists have with one another. The best way to form the conscience is to teach parishioners to pray, to love God in prayer, to come to know God in prayer and worship. In this I would dispute the thematic ordering of the Catechism: the section on ethics should appear last, after a theology of prayer. In saying this, I am not arguing that moral dilemmas are immediately apprehended and solved in prayer. I am not saying that spirituality delineates specific steps to moral decision-making or that it clarifies a method to be used in such decision-making.
1 Black, Peter and Keenan, James, “The Evolving Self‐Understanding of the Moral Theologian: 1900‐2000,” Studia Moralia 39 (2001): 291–327Google Scholar.
2 See Spohn, William, What Are They Saying About Scripture and Ethics, (NY: Paulist Press 1995 revised edition)Google Scholar, ‘The Recovery of Virtue Ethics’, Theological Studies 53 (1992)Google Scholar; Melina, Livio, Sharing in Christ's Virtues (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Pinckaers, Servais O.P., The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1995)Google Scholar; Smith, Harmon, Where Two or Three are Gathered: Liturgy and the Moral Life (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1995)Google ScholarPubMed; and Anderson, E. Byron and Morrill, Bruce, ed., Liturgy and the Moral Self (Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1998)Google Scholar; O'Keefe, Mark OSB, Becoming Good, Becoming Holy: On the Relationship of Christian Ethics and Spirituality (New York: Paulist 1995)Google Scholar.
3 Cessario, Romanus, Introduction to Moral Theology, (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2001)Google Scholar e.g. 73. Throughout the text Cessario dialogues with philosophy as he develops his own Thomistic realist ethic. See also, Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason, 1998).
4 Billy, Dennis and Keating, James, Conscience and Prayer: The Spirit of Catholic Moral Theology (Minneapolis: Liturgical Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Keating, James and McCarthy, David, “The Habit of Holiness: The Ordering of the Moral Mystical Life,” Communio (Winter 2002)Google Scholar; Keating, James, “Religious Piety and Public Catholicism,” Logos (2002)Google Scholar; Keating, , “The Conscience Imperative as Prayer,” Irish Theological Quarterly 63:1 (1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keating, , “Prayer and Ethics in the Thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar,” Irish Theological Quarterly 62 (1996-1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keating, , “Prayer and Ethics in the Thought of Karl Rahner,” Studies in Spirituality 7 (October 1997)Google Scholar; and Keating, “Listening to Christ's Heart: Moral Theology and Spirituality in Dialogue,”Milltown Studies 39 (Summer 1997).
5 See Anthony Ciorra's and my effort to reinvigorate reflection on pastoral moral formation, Moral Formation in the Parish (New York: Alba House, 1998).
6 Peyrot, Mark and Sweeney, Francis, “Determinants of Parishioner Satisfaction Among Practicing Catholics Sociology of Religion (61:2, 2000) 218CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Few Catholics are going to change objectively immoral behaviour because the authority of the Church says to, and since blind obedience is beneath our dignity (Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor [The Splendor of Truth, 1993], no. 42), that is not an incorrect stance. Negative reactions against church teaching authority may be present for many subjective, political, or philosophical reasons. Some of these objections may be better grounded than others.
8 Billy, Dennis, “Mysticism and Moral Theology” Studia Moralia (Vol 34 n.2 December 1996) 410Google Scholar.
9 Ciorra, Anthony, Everyday Mysticism (New York: Crossroad, 1995)Google Scholar, see also, Stoeber, Michael, “Mysticism and the The Spiritual Life: Reflections on Karl Rahner's View of Mysticism” Toronto Journal of Theology 17/2.2001 263–275CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10 Billy, Dennis, “Moral Mysticism in the Parish setting” in Keating, James, ed. Spirituality and Moral Theology (New York: Paulist Press, 2000) 11Google Scholar.
11 Ibid. 13–17.
12 Billy, Dennis, “The Unfolding of a Tradition” in Billy, Dennis and Orsuto, Donna, eds. Spirituality and Morality: Integrating Prayer and Action (New York: Paulist 1996) 9–31Google Scholar.
13 Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, no. 112.
14 Howells, Edward, “Mysticism and The Mystical” in The Way Supplement (Christianity and the Mystical, 2001) 25Google Scholar.
15 Dennis Billy, “Moral Mysticism in the Parish Setting” 20.
16 Melina, Sharing in Christ's Virtues, 145–46.
17 Harrison, Victorian, “Personal Identity and Integration: Von Balthasar's Phenomenology and Human Holiness,” Heythrop Journal 40, n.4 (1999), 426CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
18 Dennis Billy, “Moral Mysticism in the Parish Setting” 30.
19 Keating, James, “Religious Piety and Public Catholicism,” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, (vol.5:2 Spring, 2002)Google Scholar
20 Hayes, Zachary, “Bonaventure: Mystery of the Triune God” in Osborne, Kenan OFM, ed. The History of Franciscan Theology (St. Bonaventure N.Y.: Franciscan Institute Publications, 1994) 84Google Scholar.
21 Dennis Billy, “Mysticism and Moral Theology” 414.
22 Stolz, Anselm, The Doctrine of Spiritual Perfection (New York: Crossroad, 2001), 171Google Scholar.
23 St. Bonaventure, Breviloquium II, Part IV, Chap. 7, p. 165.
24 Ibid., 194.
25 Ibid., 258.
26 Rahner, Karl, The Spirit in the Church (New York: Seabury Press, 1979), 20Google Scholar.
27 New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality, ed. Downey, Michael (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1993) s.v. “Mysticism,” 688–9Google Scholar.
28 Van Fleteren, Frederick, et.al. eds. Augustine: Mystic and Mystagogue, (New York: Peter Lang, 1994) 143Google Scholar.
29 Ibid., 274.
30 Louth, Andrew, The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981) 197–8Google Scholar.
31 Romanus Cessario, Introduction to Moral Theology xviii, xxi.
32 Billy, “Mysticism and Moral Theology”, 407.
33 Cessario, xx.
34 Stolz, The Doctrine of Spiritual Perfection, 180.
35 McDonagh, Enda, Doing The Truth (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979) 60Google Scholar.
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