Christian Moral Anthropology

Reference:Richard Gula, Reason Informed FaithCatechism of the Catholic ChurchKarl Peschke, Christian Ethics, updated versionNotes of Fr. Gerry Santos

Relation toOthers

Relation toGod

Relation toOneself

Relation toMaterial Things

Relation toOthers

Christian AnthropologyChristian Humanism

BLF Manualnamocw

Christian Anthropology

Embodied Spirit

Unique and Equal

Open/Relational

Historical Being

Conscious Being

CCC,GULA, PESCHKEnamocwab

Flows out of the Mystery of

Creation and Redemption

Endowed with: Intellect to know the Truth

Will to desire the Good

Dignity is Intrinsic/Innate:

InviolableInalienable

Created in the Imageand Likeness of

God

Notes from Fr. Gerry Santosnamocwab

Christian Anthropology

HUMAN PERSONHas DIGNITY

which flows out of the MYSTERY of

CREATION

REDEMPTION

Such DIGNITY & RIGHTS

is

INALIENABLE

INVIOLABLE

Because it is

INTRINSIC

INNATE

CREATED IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD (IMAGO DEI)

IMAGO DEI

TO KNOW

(INTELLECT)

TO WILL

(VOLITION)

REASON

LOVE

(PRODUCT)

TRUTH

GOOD

(OBJECT)

Natural Law: Knowing by Being Image and Likeness of God is the gift of

rationality Grace builds on nature. Grace (through the use of rationality) perfects

nature. Seek enjoyment and fulfillment

The use of reason enables us to make moral decisions.

Choices… to lie, tell the truth, get up each day, go to school, study, listen, etc…

Role of Students

Decisions are “moral” because they are choices about VALUES

What we want to preserve What we ought TO DO What we want TO BE

See Charles Bouchard..pp. 14-45

Moral Decisions: Social Justice Morality as Feeling Morality as Duty Morality as the Search for

Happiness/Fulfillment The things that contribute to real well-being and

long term happiness are what we call morality. Small h = temperance, community Big H = real human values that makes us truly

human. Grace perfects nature Enhancing what is naturally good in us by grace

Knowing by Being: Search for Moral Wisdom Finding happiness through experience and reason Moral means what we ought to do

Firstly, belief that the human person is naturally good. Grace means our sense of well-being Law of attraction=grace to trust our minds and hearts to know

what is morally good and choose it.

Imago Dei (St. Thomas Aquinas) Not static image but “into the image of God” Dynamic movement toward fuller union with God Reason or common sense as the one ability humans alone

possess, understood as making us closest to God

Natural Law: Knowing by Being

Christian Humanism

Open and Relational

Embodied Spirit

Conscious Being

Historical Realities / Being

Unique and Equal

Open and Relational Community of the Trinity:

Relational Aspect of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Human Person is capable of self-gift

To be human is to relate / being with others

We grow into our full SELVES only in relating with others

Quotes

Quotable Quotes “Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of

God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one's self, and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another.”

 Thomas Hughes quotes (British reformer, Jurist and Novelist. 1823-1896)

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

Mother Teresa

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.”

Mother Teresa

Embodied Spirits Our Bodies are Sacred

Body: Temple of the Holy Spirit

We relate with others through our bodies

I am my body. (Marcel)

The body is the instrument to reach out to others

Quotes

Quotable Quotes “There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments

when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.”  

Victor Hugo quotes (French romantic Poet, Novelist and Dramatist, 1802-1885)

“You can kill the body but not the spirit.”   Robert Louis Stevenson quotes (Scottish Essayist, Poet and Author of

fiction and travel books, 1850-1894)

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”  

Buddha quotes (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

Conscious Beings Endowed with Intellect

and Free-Will

Moral Life depends on Freedom and Knowledge

Our capacity for self-reflection, choices, decision-making

Quotes

Quotable Quotes

“Know yourself.” Lao Tse

“An unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates

To do good thing in the world, first you must know who you are and what gives meaning to your life.”

Historical Beings / Realities Who we were, who we are, who

will be

Human person (Life) seeks growth, fulfillment, self-realization

Dynamic, Progressing

Pilgrims on the way (we value experience (joy, suffering, etc)

Quotes

Quotable Quotes

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”

 Albert Einstein quotes (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955)

Unique and Equal “All human beings are born free

and equal, in dignity and rights.” (from Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948) Art. 1

“… without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” Art. 2

Quotes

Quotable Quotes

“A human being is a single being. Unique and unrepeatable.”

Eileen Caddy quotes (Scottish Writer and Spiritual leader