Morality: The Catholic View - Hardcover

Pinckaers, Servais

4.2

124 ratings by Goodreads

9781890318567: Morality: The Catholic View

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1890318566 ISBN 13: 9781890318567

Publisher: St Augustine's Press, 2001

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In this slender and elegantly written volume, Pinckaers offers us the biblical and patristic conception of the moral life as this conception was developed by St. Thomas Aquinas. From this perspective, the moral life is a life of virtue rooted in the human person's natural desire for happiness. God's grace elevates and heals his natural desire so that the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the moral life becomes a 'life in Christ' guided by the Spirit. Father Pinckaers sharply distinguishes this view of morality from modern 'moralities of obligation,' which regard the moral life primarly as obedience to rules that limit human freedom and curb human desires. Pinckaers sees moralities of obligation as the logical outcome of a new understanding of human freedom. Instead of regarding freedom as the capacity to engage in excellent acts of virtue (freedom for excellence), the modern view understands freedom as the radical ability to do good or evil indifferently (freedom of indifference). Pinckaers argues convincingly that this view of freedom and morality from an impoverished Catholic understanding of the moral life and that the problem can only be redressed by a return to a biblical, patristic view. This book is an ideal introduction to the Catholic view of morality and happiness which is accessible to all readers.

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Review:

"The proposal of 'Morality' is thoroughly Christ-centred [and] humanistic...Warmly recommended." -- First Things

"[A] mature, grounded view of morality..." -- National Catholic Register

1
The Gospel Sources
Ancient Moral Catechesis
The New Testament contains numerous moral texts, both in the words of the Lord as reported by the evangelists and in the apostolic preaching. This teaching has its roots in the Old Testament, but deepens its doctrine and imparts a new dimension by placing it in relation to the person and life of Jesus.
The apostles and the first Christian communities took particular care to compile and transmit a precise moral catechesis faithful to the teaching of their Lord. The most representative example is the Sermon on the Mount. It gathers together in one great discourse, after the manner of the historians of antiquity, the teachings of Christ that present the rules of life, rules that will enable his disciples to attain a "justice surpassing that of the scribes and Pharisees."
In order, however, to appreciate adequately the ethical character of these texts, we must remove from our minds certain modern notions that inhibit our ability to interpret them correctly. Moral theology has become the domain of obligations and legal imperatives and has set aside the question of happiness or perfection. Hence, it especially separates itself from spirituality and from parenesis, which is a form of exhortation. Such divisions were unknown in antiquity; one cannot apply them to the writings of the New Testament without being anachronistic. These divisions have led many interpreters, theologians, and exegetes to view the scriptural texts that go beyond the level of strict obligations as not properly belonging to moral theology; this explains why these texts generally attract so little attention. This mindset is a major intellectual obstacle inhibiting our return to the ancient sources of the Christian life.
The Gospel texts presuppose a different conception of the moral life. Their moral teaching is a response to the question of happiness and of salvation. It offers a description of the ways of wisdom that lead to holiness and perfection through living the virtues and the precepts. From this perspective, moral theology encompasses a larger domain. It recovers the sapiential and spiritual dimensions essential to it. The Sermon on the Mount, for example, responds directly to the moral question understood in this way. It begins by announcing the Beatitudes; it then extends the moral pathways traced in the Ten Commandments to the precept: "be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

The Sermon on the Mount
Let us review rapidly the principal passages of the New Testament that offer moral catechesis, focusing above all on two characteristic texts. The Sermon on the Mount stands out at once. It is the first of five discourses that are the linchpins of Matthew's Gospel. It assembles the essential elements of Jesus' teaching on justice and the moral rules offered to his disciples. It is an explanation of the call to conversion: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 4.17).

This discourse, which draws together into an ordered whole words that might well have been spoken on different occasions, is a model of the ancient moral catechesis. It can justly be called a "charter of the Christian life." The Sermon enjoys the authority of the Lord, expressed in categorical formulas: "Unless your justice surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven"; "you have heard it said.... But I say to you. . . ." The text has undergone a work of redaction that has not been sufficiently recognized. It is composed of short phrases, often arranged together to form compact units such as the Beatitudes. They are bundles of condensed doctrine fashioned for oral transmission as well as for meditation. Assembled together they form a body of doctrine inspired by a single guiding wisdom. The Sermon is not a mosaic of disparate sayings. Although it does not follow the logic of abstract reason, it does exhibit an underlying unity. It conforms to the often contrasting movements of the deep intelligence of the human heart revealed in human experience. As John Chrysostom and Augustine well understood and explained to their people, the Sermon is addressed to all, beginning with the poor and the afflicted. Thus, contrary to what will too often be claimed later, it is not reserved to a religious elite.

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