RBWords - Volume 19 - Number 7: July 2006
Something to Think About
My summer has been unexpectedly busy. I was invited to be one of several authors of a textbook in Fundamental Moral Theology for a distance learning program in Ireland. I didn\'t travel to the Emerald Isle, but it was much on my mind as I wrote four chapters of the textbook. Even more on my mind has been the content of those chapters: THE NEW LAW OF CHRIST, Prudence, Temperance (Moderation) and Courage (Fortitude). (Someone else wrote on \'Justice.\') If the subjects of prudence, justice, temperance and courage seem familiar to you from your catechism days, they are considered to be the four \"moral virtues.\" They didn\'t originate with Christianity but showed up in ancient Greek philosophy, notably Plato and Aristotle. They got into Christian theology through Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, primarily. It has been a long time since I had to focus on this material and I found the process both educational and troubling.
The experience was educational in that I have never studied the text of Thomas Aquinas\' Summa Theologiae quite so thoroughly on this subject. I also learned how valuable the subject matter of the moral virtues is for bioethics, which I teach at St. Catharine College. I found the subject troubling because I see so little moral reflection in the political process in our country nowadays, or else I see only \"utilitarian\" values being legislated. The way in which decisions are made shows little prudence (other than doing what is necessary to get re-elected), little temperance (a consumer society running rampant), little justice (racism, for example, still permeates all levels of our social life) and little courage (principles and commitments are taken up and discarded at the first sign of difficulty in living up to them.) Perhaps the broader picture is more gloomy to me than the truly prudent, just, temperate and courageous individuals I know personally. Yet, that broader picture is composed of human persons living in society. The current level of drug-related violence, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, legislation that would turn a human embryo into a crop - these are just examples from that broad picture that disturb me. A moral way of living is available to everyone on the planet. Why is it not chosen? IT\'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
The name Christians was first given at Antioch (Acts 11:26) to \'the disciples\', to those who accepted the teaching of the apostles. There is no question of its being restricted to those who profited by that treaching as much as they should have. There is no question of its being extended to those who in some refined, spiritual, inward fashion were \'far closer to the spirit of Christ\' than the less satisfactory of the disciples. The point is not a theological or moral one. It is only a question of using words so that we can all understand what is being said. When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say he is not a Christian.
from MERE CHRISTIANITY by C.S.Lewis