Morality Midterm Review

Morality Midterm Review

Introduction

Definition of morality

Knowledge based on human experience, human reason and divine revelation that discovers what we ought to be and what we ought to do to live fully human lives.

In the Catholic view, what is the relationship between living a moral life and true happiness?

One of the ways we know what the good is is that it leads to full human flourishing. Hence, if we live moral lives, we will find true happiness.

True happiness:

                Deep joy

                Not shallow pleasure

                Not immediate gratification

                Ultimate joy and fulfillment is in God

Character: Who we are and who we are becoming through our choices and our actions.

                “You are what you are when no one is looking.”

Virtue: A habit that disposes us to do good.

                You cultivate virtue by forming habits in your thoughts, words and deeds

                By doing generous things over and over again, eventually you become a generous person

                Most of the time, human beings act out of habit without thinking

                                By cultivating virtues, the habits they default to are good

Vice: a habit that disposes us to do evil

You cultivate vices in the same way you cultivate virtues (forming habits in your thoughts, words and deeds)

Seven Deadly Sins (the vices at the root of all other sins)

                Pride

                Greed

                Anger

                Lust

                Sloth

                Envy

                Gluttony

Name the cardinal virtues and define the cardinal virtues

                Prudence – right reason in action

                Justice – the rendering of that which is due

                Fortitude – courage

Temperance – moderation aimed at making sure your passions don’t control you, especially in matters of food, drink and sex. 

Name the theological virtues

                Faith

                Hope

                Love

Human Dignity

The Great Chain of Being

                God

                Angels

                Humans

                Animals

                Plants

                Minerals

Human beings are made of spirit and matter

Our corporeal nature (bodily nature) makes us lower than angels

                Our spiritual nature makes us higher than animals

                Unlike animals, human beings have intellect and free will

                This spiritual nature reflects the fact that humans are made in the image and likeness of God

                                Like all creation, we were made fundamentally good

Because we have a spiritual nature, we have dignity that other animals do not

                Human dignity – the inherent worth of a human person

                Inherent – simply part of being human

                                Not earned

                                Not based on talents or abilities

                                Not able to be taken away

Human beings are social creatures by nature

                We depend on other human beings in order to survive

                Subsidiarity – the larger communities must interfere minimally with the smaller ones

                                The smaller communities are best equipped to care for their members

                Solidarity – the virtue of social charity and friendship

We are one human community and therefore have an obligation be concerned for all human beings

Original sin – the sin of our first parents

STOP Method

Search out the facts

Think about alternatives and consequences

Others

Pray

The STOP Method is a method of moral decision making

Moral object – the action in question

                If the moral object is wrong, the action is wrong

Intention – why the action is done

                A good intention cannot justify an otherwise evil action

                The ends do not justify the means

Circumstances – the who, what, when, where and how of an action

                Circumstances cannot make an evil action good

                However, circumstances can make an action better or worse

You can only be morally responsible for what you freely and knowingly chose

Authentic Christian Life

Love – willing the good of the other

                Christians love like God loves us: until it hurts

                                True love is all about the other person

According to Jesus the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.

We were made for greater things: to love and to be loved – Mother Teresa

                Our greatest joy is found in loving others

                Our deepest wounds come from being unloved

Forgiveness – pardon or remission of an offense

                Christians are called to forgive every time

                                Jesus says not seven times, but seventy seven times (i.e. all the time.)

You are not obligated to forgive a person who is unrepentant, although you are called to love them

Christians forgive regardless of the crime committed

Humility – A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a lowly opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God's sake.

                Christians choose to be lowly and humble

                                What makes Christian humility strange is that we value it at all

For the Christian, the poor, the mourning, the persecuted, the meek are all blessed, not the rich and powerful

Since love is all about the other person, humility enables you to put yourself second and others first

“Whoever wishes to be greatest among you must be the servant of all” – Jesus

                The mother of James and John ask Jesus that her two sons sit at His right and His left

                Jesus says that His disciples will be great by being servants, not being served

Radical dependence on Christ - Choosing to go wherever Christ sends you, relying on whatever He gives you to accomplish the task.

Christians let go of control of their lives and hand that control over to Christ. Most people try to get control over their lives whereas the Christian intentionally loses it.

                Christians are called to depend on Christ in everything

The vine and the branches

                Christ is the vine and we are the branches

                Apart from Him, we can do nothing

                Through Him, we can do all things

The four types of love

                Storge – familial love

                Philia – love between friends

                Eros – romantic love

                Agape – Christian love

The Great Divorce

The basic premise of the book

                Ghosts from hell get on a bus to Heaven

                They are free to choose to stay or leave

                If they stay, their time in Hell would have been a form of purgatory

                If they leave, they will have always been in Hell

The guide of the narrator – George MacDonald

Why do some ghosts choose to stay in Hell?

                There is always something they cling to even at the price of misery

The Big Man

                Met by Lenny, a former employee who committed murder

                Clings to his rights even at the price of misery

                Refuses to accept mercy and goes back to Hell

The Embarrassed Ghost

                Hiding in the bushes because people can see through her

                Clings to shame even at the price of misery

                A herd of unicorns is sent to make her think about something other than herself for once

Sir Archibald

                Obsessed with survival

                Leaves Heaven because everyone has survived already

                No interest in Heaven because of it

The painter

                Clings to his art and reputation even at the price of misery

                Not interested in Heaven unless he can paint it

                Goes back to Hell to defend his artistic reputation

The possessive wife

                Forced her husband to change jobs

                Drove her husband’s old friends away

                Forced her husband to get a nicer house

                Clings to control even at the price of misery

The Lizard

                Whispers in the Ghost’s ear

                The angel offers to kill it

                The Ghost isn’t sure whether or not he wants the angel to kill it

                The Lizard turns into a stallion after it is killed

                The Lizard represents lust

The Dwarf and the Tragedian

                The Dwarf holds a chain attached to the Tragedian

                Every time he shakes the chain, the Tragedian speaks for him

                He wants to be missed by his wife, he wants her to be miserable without him

                                But she is happy in Heaven

                Clings to the need to be needed

God’s mercy is infinite

                God doesn’t send us to Hell

                We choose to go there

Sin has both temporal and eternal consequences

                Temporal – how it affects us here on earth

                                We don’t flourish as human beings

                                We aren’t as happy as God made us to be

                                Sin separates us from God

                Eternal – how it affects us after we die

                                The choices we made on earth are respected in Heaven

If we chose to live apart from God on earth, we will choose to live apart from God after we die

CS Lewis based his account of The Great Divorce on how people live in this life

The reasons the ghosts choose to stay in hell are the same reasons people in this life choose to avoid God and stay in sin