LESSON 1 Introduction To Christian Morality
Morality judges (what is) right and
Morality – Latin word mos, moris which
means custom
Custom – refers to a “more or less
permanent moral behavior in
accordance with the precepts of the
natural moral law which is universally
known and common to all men.”
Examples of such custom are:
1. Telling the truth
2. paying debts
3. honoring one’s parents
4. respecting the life
5. property of others
morality
 refers to the “rightness or
wrongness of an action in relation to
a standard or norm of conduct
” 
 is “the science of what man ought to
be by reason of what he is.”
 Antonin Sertillanges – Dominican
and French theologian and
philosopher
Michael Pennock- provides a brief
elaboration of these
three important elements:
1. Morality is a science.
 The more human knowledge
expands, the more refined
mankind’s moral sense can
become.
 The more we learn about ourselves,
the more we learn about what is
right and wrong.
2. Morality is concerned with what
ought to be.
 Morality is not content with how
things should be.
 It is interested in how people should
act; it asks persons to be better.
 Concerned with what is ideal (to
cooperate with the God-given help
available to them).
3.
wrong in the light of what humanity
is.
 This is the most important element
in Sertillange’s definition.
 Morality asks people to be the
persons they are meant to be.
 People vary widely on what they
think is a proper definition of
humankind.
 Example: a Christian’s point of view;
an atheistic view
 Decision-making for a Christian is
greatly helped by asking:
 “What is the human thing to do?”
 “How should I act as a child of
God?”
These are good questions before
acting on something because as:
 St. Ireneaus of Lyons says:
“The glory of God is man fully alive.”
How can MORALITY be summed up
according to Michael Pennock?
 MORALITY can be summed in the
word RESPONSIBILITY. Response
and ability.
 For Christians, morality
1. is a response to God’s incredible,
2. freely given love and his gift of
salvation offered to us through Jesus
Christ.
3. It is a YES to Jesus’ gift of himself to
us.
 living a morally upright life can be
very challenging and difficult.
 The society has become so
permissive and contaminated with
ideologies that are opposite to the
values of Christ and the teachings
of the Church.
 Sexual promiscuity
 infidelity
 dishonesty
 drug addiction
 pervasive acceptance of lying
 Cheating
 Bullying
 cursing
What has happened to the world, that
people today appear so bereft of
values?
MORALITY
 is the ability to respond to God,
 the ability to love
 the ability to say YES to God.
 This ability is itself a gift of the Holy
Spirit to us at baptism. This is grace.
 God, our Father has given us the
calling to love and at the same time
the power to respond.
 “The love of God has been poured
out in our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us”
(Rom 5:5)
 Living a morally upright life can be
difficult and challenging. But it is not
impossible. As Christians, we
believe that the grace of God is
enough to help us overcome our
weakness.
 children of the Father.
CHRISTIAN MORALITY
AND
CATHOLIC MORALITY
WHAT IS CHRISTIAN MORALITY?
 It is concerned with identifying
and explaining the principles that
determine the quality of human
behaviour in the light of
Christian revelation.
 It disposes the human person to
pattern his behaviour to the life
lived by Jesus.
Ex: Christ’s life of loving and humble
service to the Father and
humankind. His commandment is:
“To love God and to love one’s
neighbor”
 Christian morality is a call of the
human person to live a life of
constantly following Jesus Christ.
 Is it easy to become disciples
of the Lord?
 Mark 10:17-31.
 It is never easy. The human
person is always faced with
different challenges. But Jesus
never abandoned us. The Holy
Spirit was sent to be our Helper
and Friend; will always inspire us
to live in unity with others; to
support each other in order to
attain our vision of living as
disciples of Jesus Christ and
WHAT IS CATHOLIC MORALITY?
 CATHOLIC MORALITY is
CHRISTIAN MORALITY guided
by the Teachings of the Church.
 “A Catholic faithful believes that
Jesus has entrusted his teaching
authority to the Church, and the
Church has the responsibility to
offer guidance, help and
direction in solving moral
problems.” – Michael Pennock
FUNCTIONS OF CATHOLIC
MORALITY
 The fundamental concepts of
Catholic morality include
1. FREEDOM
2. TRUTH
3. NATURAL LAW
4. CONSCIENCE
1.FREEDOM
 God creates us in the state of
freedom.
 We are at liberty to choose,
 based on reason and will
 whether to act or not to act in a
specific situation.
 We are RESPONSIBLE for our
choices! With our choices, we
also choose our destiny: eternal
life with God or eternal
damnation.
2. TRUTH
 We believe that moral truth is
objective,and not relative to the
subjective whims of culture or
taste.
 Moral truth is valid at all times
and everywhere because God is
its ultimate source.
3. NATURAL LAW
 Human beings have an innate
sense of basic moral truth.
 Using reason, man can deduce
the principles of natural law.
 But because sin clouds our
vision and truth, God has chosen
to directly reveal the law to us.
4. CONSCIENCE
 We use our natural facility called
conscience to apply the general
principles of the law to specific
situations, judging specific actions
to be right or wrong in accordance
with objective law.
IMPORTANCE OF MORALITY
By: Fr. Michael Moga, SJ – Jesuit
priest
 He briefly outlines the basic purpose
or importance of morality as a guide
to fullness of freedom,
 the entrance of the eternal into the
life of man,
 a guide to the fullness of human
development,
 a guide towards reality,
 and a guide toward meaning.
1. a guide to fullness of freedom
2. the entrance of the eternal into the
life of man
3. a guide to the fullness of human
development
4. a guide towards reality
5. a guide toward meaning
LESSON 2
 Our concept of ourselves as human
persons can influence our decisions
and behaviors as agents of morality.
 Knowing ourselves makes it easier
for us to understand what Christian
Morality is.
 It will also help us realize that our
moral character depends directly on
the answers we give to the question:
“Who am I as a person in a
community and as a disciple of
Jesus today?”
THREE BASIC WAYS BY WHICH WE
KNOW “WHO WE ARE AS
PERSONS.”
1. Nature of things – the way things
are (Natural Law)
2. God’s Revelation – salvation history;
Old Testament
3. Word spoken to us by God
through Jesus Christ
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF MAN
I. Persons are created in God’s image
and likeness.
 Gen 1:25 - “Let us make man in our
image and likeness.”
 This passage emphasize the
following truths:
a. Persons as created by God.
b. Persons as images of God.
c. Persons as the likeness of God.
d. Persons as fundamentally good.
Gen 1:31 – “God looked at everything He had
made, and He found it very good.”
e. Persons as God’s partners.
Gen 1:28 “Be fertile and multiply, fill the
earth and subdue it”
II. Persons Are Redeemed By Jesus
Christ
How did Christ redeem us?
 It is through His blood that we have
been redeemed and our sins
forgiven.
 His total self-giving on the cross
reveals His immeasurable love for
all human persons. He does bring
sinners back to Himself.
III. PERSONS ARE SANCTIFIED BY
THE HOLY SPIRIT
 The presence of the Holy Spirit in
the human person sanctifies him
and makes him the Temple of God.
 “Are you not aware that you are the
temples of God, and that the Spirit
of God dwells in you? If anyone
destroys God’s temple, God will
destroy him. For the temple of God
is holy and you are that temple.” (1
Cor. 3:16-17)
IV. PERSONS ARE CALLED TO BE
CHILDREN OF GOD
 God created the human person, you
and me. This truth reminds us that
God is our Father and we are His
children.
What does it mean to be a child of
God?
 To be children of God and for God
to be our Father means to place our
complete trust and confidence in
God, allowing Him to guide us to the
truth and to bring us to honor and
worship Him in our day to day life.
 Jesus Christ gives us an example of
what it is to be a child of God.
V. PERSONS ARE DESTINED FOR
ETERNAL LIFE
 The first man and woman destroyed
their access to God when they
sinned against Him.
 But God offered salvation through
His Incarnate Son Jesus Christ so
that all will be reconciled to God.
 For man’s blessed destiny is to be in
communion with God (Father, Son
and Holy Spirit).
THE NATURAL/EXPERIENTIAL
VIEW OF MAN
A. PERSONS ARE OPEN AND
RELATIONAL
 God created man as a social
being.
 He gave man a companion,
 the woman, in order not to be
alone.
 “No man is an island.”
 To be fully human, it is not good for
man to be alone and apart from
people of God.
 We live in a network of
relationships.
B. PERSONS ARE CONSCIOUS
BEING
 God created man with
intelligence and freewill:
 to obey His commandments with
faith and understanding.
 Man is endowed with the power of
reasoning to distinguish good from
evil.
 He is conscious of his acts and is
therefore responsible for his
actions.
 Reason is part of how people can
know God and know what he wants
for this world .
 To be fully human, man must use
his rationality in rejecting evil and in
choosing good according to God’s
will and commandment.
C. PERSONS ARE EMBODIED
SPIRITS.
 God breathed life into man with
body and soul.
 There’s unity between the body and
the soul.
 It is through the body that people
interact with the world, and through
the body that the people worship
God.
 To be fully human, body and soul
cannot be dichotomized from each
other; both body and soul must be
nourished and sanctified.
 How did Jesus emphasize this in his
ministry?
 The soul gives life to the body and
the body is the instrument that can
lead the soul, after death, either to
eternal damnation or blissful union
with God.
 St. Paul said that the “spirit is
willing but the body is weak”; but
he also emphasized that “the body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit.”
 Therefore, the body is an essential
part of man’s being fully human and
not merely an instrument of man
according to his whim and caprice.
D. PERSONS ARE HISTORICAL
REALITIES.
 As a historical reality, man
undergoes the basic stages of
human growth and development.
 Man’s fullness of his being human
also progresses as he continues his
journey as a pilgrim on earth toward
God’s kingdom.
 He may stumble and fall, but he has
the capacity to stand up and
continue the journey.
 He is not stagnant; there is always
room for change and growth for
man as a human person.
E. PERSONS ARE UNIQUE, YET
EQUAL.
 As a human person, man is unique
and distinct from each other.
 No twin is identical. Man’s
uniqueness is manifested in
physical differences, attitude,
character, talent, intellectual and
moral capacities.
 Yet, despite these differences, men
are fundamentally equal when it
comes to human dignity, not for
what a person “has” but for what a
person “is” – the image and likeness
of God – with same origin, destiny
and divine calling.
THE NON-CHRISTIAN VIEW OF
MAN
A. PLAYBOY PHILOSOPHY OF
HEDONISM
 Man is seen as an object whose
purpose is to help others attain
happiness, especially of the
physical type.
 Man escapes total commitment
which involves sacrifice or pain
because it diminishes pleasure.
 Hedonism makes and glorifies
pleasure, a god and an ultimate end
of life.
B. HUMANISM
 This philosophy is atheistic in nature
and materialistic in application.
 Man has no moral responsibility and
no eternal purpose.
 Man is exalted as the highest
being; God is dethroned, man is
deified.
 As the highest being, man’s
thoughts and actions are always
right.
 Humanists advocate unbridled
freedom and is a self-serving,
self-centered philosophy.
C. MARXIAN-COMMUNISM
 Man’s worth is only in so far as he
helps the interest of the state;
 he is an entity subordinated to the
society. Thus, individual rights such
as rights to worship, life, work as
one pleases, private ownership,
speech, education, etc, can only
exist if the state thinks them useful.
D. ATHEISTIC-EXISTENTIALISM
 Believes that man is radically alone
and separate from others and
believes that a person is born into
absurdity and feels nauseated as he
realizes this.
 Man sees no meaning in life
because no one can help him, even
God.
 Life after all is void of meaning and
purpose.
 There is no human nature, since
there is no God to conceive it.
 Not only is man what he conceives
himself to be, but he is also only
what he wills himself to be after this
thrust toward existence"
(Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism)
E. ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY
 Exponents:
1. Buddha
2. Lao Tzu
3. Confucius
G. NIHILISM
 Philosophy that denies the
existence of genuine moral truths
and asserts the ultimate
meaninglessness of life or of the
universe.
 A nihilist believes that there aren't
absolutes - no absolute meaning or
purpose for life, no absolute moral
standards. That does not exclude
belief in a god.

 Believes that man should live a life WHAT NOW?

of gentle submission to the cosmic
powers flowing in the universe –  Our concept of ourselves as human
powers that control man’s persons can influence our decisions
happiness and destiny in life. and behaviors as agents of morality.

 Knowing ourselves makes it easier

F. GREEK PHILOSOPHY for us to understand what Christian
Morality is.
 Proponents:
1. Socrates
2. Plato
3. Aristotle

 This view believes that man is a

knower (all-knowing) before his
birth.

 His soul pre-existed his body.

 His soul is pure and his mind knows

all things, but because of his exile in
the world of sense (earth) he blurred
or forget all or almost all of what he
knew.

 The solution to his ignorance is to

achieve all that he knew in his
former self. Evil is mostly due to
ignorance or the limitation of man’s
present knowledge.
LESSON 3: HUMAN ACT

ACTS OF MAN Human Act

 Acts of man as animal.  an act which proceeds from the

deliberate freewill of man.
 Not deliberately done nor voluntary
 They are actions which man
 Performed without the freewill of the performs knowingly, freely and
agent. voluntarily
(deliberate or intentional).
 Do not demand responsibility from
the agent.
 Each human act can be
 Amoral acts (not subject to classified as moral, indifferent
morality). (amoral) or immoral.

Example:  In the moral aspect, a human act

senses: can be considered as good, evil
1. Hearing and indifferent.
2. Sight
3. Smelling  Acts of man do not give the
4. Touch person the moral responsibility.
5. taste Actions that proceeds from
bodily tendencies that a man
blood circulation may perform the exercise of free
1. Perspiring choice.
2. Digestion
3. Feelings  Morality is not concerned with
4. Stomachache the acts of man but rather with
5. involuntary facial movements; human acts since it is in human
6. Heartbeat acts when man is deemed
7. circulations of body organs worthy to be punished or merited
or to be praised or blamed.
 Actions that proceed from these
bodily tendencies are not human
acts. They do not concern our
study about Christian Morality
ELEMENTS OF HUMAN ACT
1.KNOWLEDGE
 Awareness of the act man does.
 The doer must have an
awareness that he is doing
something and he has the
command of it and has it in mind.
2. FREEDOM
 A human act is always
determined by the will.
 Every act that comes from the
will is called a free act.
 Freedom therefore is an
essential element of human act.
3. VOLUNTARINESS
 Comes from the Latin word
voluntas which means will. For
an act to be voluntary,
 the human act must be a will-act.
 For voluntariness to be present,
there must be both knowledge
and freedom in the agent.
QUIZ PART 1
1. It is a Christian Morality guided by the
teachings of the Church:
 Catholic Morality
2. We are at liberty to choose, based on
reason and will, whether to act or not to
act in a specific situation. This speaks
about: Freedom
3. How did Antonin Sertillanges define
morality?
 The science of what man
ought to be by reason of what he is
4. Discovering God in ourselves will
help us in understanding who we really
are as human persons. This words are
inspired by:
ST AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
5. The following speak about acts of
man EXCEPT:
Demand responsibility from the
agent
6. It refers to the awareness or
consciousness of the act that a man
does:
KNOWLEDGE
7. The following speak about person as
created in God's image and
likeness EXCEPT:
 Man is endowed with absolute
freedom which he can use in
whatever way he wanted.
8. According to him, man's body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit:
 St. Paul
9. Which of the following set of
actions/acts describe human acts?
 b. Resting, yawning, walking,
dreaming
RESTING,YAWNING,WALKI
NG & DREAMING
 10. Which of the following is the
meaning of man as homo viator?
we are pilgrims toward the heavenly
city
11. Believing that man’s life has no
ultimate meaning is an example of
Nihilism
12. Which of the following speaks about
Christian morality?
 principles that determine the
quality of human behavior in the light
of Christian revelation  Dignity as children of God
13. Which of the following is one of the
proponents of Atheistic Existentialism?
Jean-Paul Sartre
14. How did Michael Pennock summed
up the word morality?
Responsibility
15. The following speak about
the human acts EXCEPT:
Does not require responsibility from the
person
16. It refers to man's natural facility to
judge specific actions whether they are
right or wrong in accordance with the
objective law.
Conscience
17. As the highest being, man’s
thoughts and actions are always right.
This is the philosophy pushed by:
Humanism
18. Which of the following is the
meaning of the Latin mos and moris?
Custom
19. Which of the following speaks about
playboy philosophy of hedonism?
Man is an object whose purpose is
to help others attain happiness
20. Which of the following speak about
Acts of Man?
Hearing, seeing, feeling physical
pain
21. Which of the following is the basis of
our equality as human persons?
22. Which of these was said by St.
Irenaeus of Lyons?
The glory of God is man fully alive.
23. This means that the person has the
command of what he is doing and the
act is determined by his will.
VOLUNTARINESS
24. Which of the following defines
morality?
The rightness or wrongness of
an action in relation to a standard or
norm of conduct
25. Which of these speak about Oriental
Philosophy?
 Man should live a life of
gentle submission to the cosmic
powers
 PART 2
1. Persons as historical realities mean
that man is conscious of what he is
doing because he is gifted with the
faculty of reason and intellect.
False
2. Sarah is suffering from stomachache
due to poor digestion. She took some
medicine from the kit to ease the pain
that she felt. Sarah's stomachache is an
example of human act and taking the
medicine is an example acts of man.  True
False
3. The best example of how is it to live
as children of God is the person of Jesus
Christ who entrusted everything to the
will of the Father.
True
4. Using the faculty of reason man has
the capacity to deduce the principles of
natural law but his vision of truth was
clouded due to the entrance of sin.
True
5. The Church has no authority to speak
and teach about social concerns,
matters of faith, and morality because
She has no business meddling with the
affairs of the state.
False
6. Persons as God's partners mean that
we can use all the resources in the world
according to our whims and fancies
because God made them exactly for us
to use.
False
7. Atheistic existentialism believes that
the ultimate purpose of man is to help
others achieved pleasure or happiness
especially of the physical type.
False
8. Actions which man perform
knowingly, freely and voluntarily are
called human acts.
 True
9. The nihilists believe that man's final
destiny is to be in communion with God
at the end of his earthly life.
False
10. As God's children we are all called
to put our complete trust and
dependence on Him as our Father.
11. God made man both body and soul
but it is only the soul that needs to be
nourished and sanctified.
False
12. Christian Morality is concerned with
acts of man rather than human acts.
False
13. Conscience is the "inner voice" of
God in each person's heart, telling him
to do what is right and avoid what is
wrong.
True
14. As Catholics we believe that Jesus
Christ has entrusted His teaching
authority to the Church therefore the
Church has the responsibility to guide,
help and direct her members in solving
moral problems.
True
15. Man is the owner of his body so he
may use it in any manner that he wants
to.
False