CHAPTER 1

CHRISTIAN MORALITY:
PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS
AND RELIGIOUS ETHICS
•What does it mean to live
as a Christian?
 MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY
• Philosophy from the greek word “philein” meaning “love” and
Sophia means “wisdom.” Etymologically, philosophy means the
love of wisdom. It is the science of beings in their ultimate
reasons, causes and principles acquired by the aid of human
reason alone.

• Theology is the science, which explores to apprehend and

rearticulate the life giving good news of God in jesus. It is an
essential function within the church. To speak revelation is to do
theology. It is a sort of bridge between revelation and culture.
To speak theology is to speak both from profound faith and from
broad cultural sensitivity.
• Christian Ethics or Moral Theology is the thematic, systematic ,
reflective study of Christian morality[McBien885]. It is a
configuration of the theological enterprise, which attempts to
discern the implications of revelation of human behavior to answer
the query: “ how ought we, who have been gifted by God, to live?
• Moral Theology or Christian Ethics is a branch of ethics. Ethics
is divided into philosophical ethics and religious ethics.
Philosophical Ethics or Moral Philosophy uses only human reason
and experience in their reflection and systematization {McBien
885]. It is the philosophical analysis of the morality of human acts,
the exploration for living a good life and the ultimate foundation of
what is good or evil. Moral is practical and is concerned with
acting, in other words ethical and because morals consists in acting
well.
Religious Ethics uses the sources of a specific religion such as scripture,
tradition, and teaching authorities. The concern of moral theology is how the
christian scriptures should be used in the discipline [Mcbien,885]

• Meaning of Ethics [Nery, Ethics. Katha Publishing Co., 2-3]

• Ethics is deduced from greek word “ethos”, meaning custom or
behavior. The term “moral” is deduced from Latin mos (mores),
meaning “custom.” It is a general study of moral life, which deals
with two types of question, one critically normative and the other
theoretical. What is a critically normative question? First what is a
moral norm? It is a standard of reference to which a particular
action can be judged morally good or bad. It attempts to show that
certain norms are correct or incorrect. The ethicist are confronted
with the following: what is it that makes an action a moral action?
 The study of such questions and their solutions is not normative act but a theoretical study.
It explicates what is, not what ought to be. The elements such as judgment and a choice are
not stating a norm concerning what ought to be. It is stating what is in fact the case such as
in the field of medicine (prescription).

• On the level of practice- concerning the practice of medicine, the physician

uses general truths but focuses on something particular- the particular person
who has a particular ailment necessitating a particular treatment.
• On the level of general study ( the science of medicine) – one studies
particular cases but one focuses on the general statements, which apply entire
classes of cases. Not only to one particular case of pneumonia for example
but also to an entire class of cases.
• So as in moral life: on the level of practice, e.g. refusing to pay a debt ( it
focuses on something particular:the action of paying a debt). On the level of
general study, it focuses on general statements.
 FORMAL ELEMENTS OF ETHICS
• An understanding of the good as the goal of the
moral life and the basic reason for being moral.
The basic conviction that God is good. God is the
center of value, the fixed point of reference.
• Human person as an agent. Moral character can
be distinguished by the perspectives, dispositions,
affections, and intentions, which a human
person’s beliefs engender.
• The points of reference, which serve as the criteria
for a moral judgment.
 TYPES OF ETHICAL JUDGMENT AND ETHICAL
REASONING

• Descriptive ethics. Describes the particular values and

principles that someone holds. It involves describing, classifying,
listing, and summarizing ethical beliefs. Its primary goal is to
constantly stretch our understandings, shifts our perspectives
and consciousness and help us escape the limitations implicit in
common ways of thinking.

• Normative ethics. Involves making ethical judgments,

suggesting advice, offering ethical evaluations. Prescriptive
Ethics. Most ethical judgments that include an ought or should
are normative claims.
 • Philosophical Ethics

• it is called moral philosophy. It is a higher level of

generality and abstraction in which normative judgments and
their supporting reasons are analyzed and evaluated. This is
the sphere of the general concepts. It evaluates reasons that
support or criticize a normative judgment or seek to clarify
the concepts involved in the essence of philosophical ethics. It
reflects on the nature of the moral life and what constitutes
right and wrong behavior without any reference whatsoever to
God’s revelation and to Christian beliefs.
• Ethics of being – character ethics. It focuses on the
interiority of the person, or the persons character. It
focuses on what is happening to the person performing
actions rather than the actions the person performs.

• Ethics of doing – focuses on the right action. It makes

the decision to resolve conflicts of moral values so that
we might do the right action.
 POSTULATES OF ETHICS
• The Existence of God. God is the author of life and is the only
center of our values. It gives the human person a reason for being
moral. He is moral because God is good. The goodness of God
enables and requires us to be responsible for the goodness of the
world.
• Human intellect and free will. By free will one shapes one’s own
life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth
and goodness. It attains its perfection when directed toward God,
our beatitude [CCC 1731] Freedom is so central to the moral life
without it we cannot properly speak of being moral persons at all.
God created man a rational being , conferring on him the dignity of
a person who can initiate and control his own actions.
• Basic Freedom or the Freedom of Self-determination. We
recognize the limitng conditions to who we can become and to what is
possible for us to achieve. Fundamental option is a choice that
emerges from a personal depth or reinforces the fundamental direction
of our lives. It must be rooted in a deep knowledge of self and a
freedom to commit oneself.
• Freedom of Choice – freedom is the power rooted in reason and will,
to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate
actions on one’s own responsibility. Freedom makes man responsible
for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Freedom of choice
has to do with realizing our capacity to be ourselves through the
particular choices we make.
• Threats to Freedom – the exercise of freedom does not impliy a right
to say or do everything.
 ETHICAL PARADIGMS

• Atheistic Paradigm – the negation to acknowledge the

existence of God. Only matter exists and man is
accountable only to himself. There is no God who created
and rules the universe. Morality is simply an invention or
a fabrication to preserve man and his society. Moral
truths are tentative. The notion of good and evil is relative
and static.
Methodological atheism brackets the existence of God for
inquiry. It is the negation of the
supernatural as an explication to the
phenomena being assessed. It
neither negates nor upholds the
existence of God for it is beyond their
boundaries.

Reductionist atheism Advocates that religion can be

exemplified without reference to the
supernatural
Existential atheism A negation of God for believing in God
prohibits people from being fully
human.

Christian Atheism A negation of God since the beginning

of the enlightenment.

Evidential Atheism Theoretical philosophical perspective

advocating that there is a good reason
in not believing in god and negates his
existence. Adherents are the
Agnostics.
• Theistic Paradigm is the threshold for postulating that
God is the supreme Lawgiver and Creator. Contingent
beings conform to God’s eternal plan of creation, the
necessary Being.
AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM