finding the key for our lives in a
DESCRIPTION
Finding the Key For Our Lives In a. Presented by Rev. James T. Bretzke, S.J., S.T.D. [email protected]. Some Starting Questions. Who Do We See Ourselves To Be? How Do We Look Upon God? How Do We Consider Right & Wrong? How Do We Consider Sin? What Should Our Response To Sin Be? - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Finding the KeyFor Our Lives In a
Presented by
Rev. James T. Bretzke, S.J., S.T.D.
![Page 2: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
MORAL COMPASS
Our Contemporary Moral Compass
![Page 3: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Some Starting Questions
¨ Who Do We See Ourselves To Be?¨ How Do We Look Upon God?¨ How Do We Consider Right & Wrong?¨ How Do We Consider Sin?¨ What Should Our Response To Sin Be?¨ How Do We Live In The World?
![Page 4: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Cultural
Transcendental
Sexual
4 Basic Modalities or Ways of Being Truly Human
Conscience
The Social Identity (Cultural<>Sexual) and Personal Integrity (Conscience<>Transcendental) Axes Intersect in these 4 Modalities To Help Constitute Our Core Human Identity
![Page 5: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Culture As Framework
¨ Culture as our principal mode of being human, thus the way we are truly human beings
¨ There is no such thing as a non-cultural or “a-cultural” human being
¨ Thus, to speak of “human nature” one must do so always in a cultural context
¨ Likewise, there is no truly “universal” theology in an “a-cultural” sense
![Page 6: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Much of Culture Is “Hidden”
![Page 7: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Theology of Culture
¨ Gaudium et spes states that humans "can achieve true and full humanity only by means of culture”[#53]
¨ Culture as our only way of being is God-given, and thus essentially good
¨ For us culture can be a means by which we act as co-creators with God
![Page 8: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Fundamental Values & Root Paradigms¨ Fundamental Values express assumptions about
the world as a whole, and in particular about human nature and concomitant appropriate behavior.
¨ These values are incarnated in Root Paradigms, e.g., The Way of the Cross for Christianity
¨ Karl Rahner termed these “global pre-scientific convictions” that get “smuggled” into our reflection—usually unawares
¨ These also account for a good deal of tension and even serious odium theologicum
![Page 9: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Ethnocentrism
¨ Culture tends to produce ethnocentrism as a way of viewing the world and especially other cultures in terms of one’s own culture.
¨ Ethnocentrism is a natural result of culture’s functioning, but poses great challenges to intercultural communication
¨ Can we speak of theological “ethnocentrism” too?
![Page 10: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Historico-Theological Context
¨ The Context of the Israel Covenant¨ The Role of the Prophets¨ The Public Ministry of Jesus¨ The Passion and Death of Jesus¨ The Resurrection Experience¨ Jesus’ Commission to the Apostles
![Page 11: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Community of Disciples
¨ We are all called, individually, to enter into this community of followers of Jesus Christ
¨ Look at the picture of the disciples in the Gospels– Not the “best and the brightest”– But chosen by the Lord, and those who in the last
analysis remain with him,– And who are called to be fishers of persons and
entrusted by Jesus with the Church’s mission to make disciples of all nations
![Page 12: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
![Page 13: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Fishers of Persons
¨ What does it mean to “catch” someone?¨ Not in the web of sin, but in the net of God’s grace¨ Thus, the primary Gospel response to sin and
injury is not punishment and retaliation, ¨ but forgiveness and reconciliation. ¨ St. Paul speaks of this as being a “ministry” of the
Church, and in this spiritual ministry we are all “ambassadors of Christ” (cf. 2 Cor 5: 18-21).
![Page 14: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
The Early Christian Community
¨ Early Tensions¨ Christian Identity and the Moral Life
– New Creation in Christ– Discipleship Community
¨ Efforts of the Church to Live a Gospel-Grounded Spirituality
![Page 15: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Key Themes in Moral Theology
¨ Human Flourishing: Gloria Dei vivens homo (The Glory of God is the Human Person Fully Alive)
¨ The Moral Person in the Moral Community¨ Conscience and Its Development¨ The Natural Law and Moral Norms¨ The Common Good¨ Understandings of Sin, Grace, and Redemption
![Page 16: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Sources & Methodologyfor Moral Theology¨ Scripture: The Sacred Text¨ Tradition: The wisdom of the community¨ Human Experience¨ Rational Reflection on the Truly Human
![Page 17: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Sacred Texts
Tradtion(s) ofthe community
![Page 18: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Sacred Claim Axis
¨ Scripture, as the revealed Word of God, must exercise a normative “sacred” claim on individual Christians and the whole Christian community
¨ However, this claim is grounded in the tradition of the community, and must also be in essential harmony with reason and human nature.
![Page 19: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
![Page 20: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
![Page 21: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Scriptural Axis Cuts Both Ways¨ Scripture comes out of the Tradition of the
community, but it acts as the “norming norm” norma normans on both the individual and the community. No one stands above the Scripture (cf. Dei verbum #10)
¨ Both the individual and the community must seek and follow God
¨ This does not demand “perfection” of us, but rather ongoing conversion; We are all members of a Church always in need of and being reformed (ecclesia semper reformanda), or as Vatican II stressed, the Pilgrim People of God.
![Page 22: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Attend to the Sacred Claim with True Discernment of Spirits
![Page 23: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
HumanExperience
NormativelyHuman
![Page 24: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Rational Claim Axis
¨ Since the Roman Catholic view of moral agency is grounded primarily in an understanding of the natural law we begin our consideration along the “Rational Claim” axis
¨ However, keep in mind that both poles of this axis must figure in the discussion, and that the starting point is in human experience
![Page 25: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
The Rational Axis Also Cuts Both Ways¨ Our reflection often begins based on human
experience; but once we can establish a principle as being normatively human it does bind on us as a norma normans [non] normata moral norm
¨ However, given that key aspects of human nature include culture and historicity, any moral principle must be tested, verified, retested, and refined according to human experience, which may change according to time and/or place
![Page 26: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
The Rational Claim Takes Effort
![Page 27: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
And Community Discussion
![Page 28: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Sacred Texts
HumanExperience
NormativelyHuman
Tradtion(s) ofthe community
![Page 29: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Summary of the Moral Sources
¨ The Sacred Claim Axis– Scripture– Tradition
¨ The Reason Claim Axis– Data from Human Experience– Understanding of Normatively Human
¨ Both Axes Operate in Each Person
![Page 30: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Source Content Questions
¨ What is used, and why?¨ What is ignored, and why?¨ What is rejected, and why?¨ What is reinterpreted, and why?¨ Which source(s) is (are) decisive when
there is a conflict, and why?
![Page 31: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
But Are The Sources So Neat?!
![Page 32: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Competing Moral Paradigms¨ Only God Can Know the Whole of Reality¨ Thus for the rest of us this knowledge is
necessarily incomplete and partial, and we tend to understand complex realities according to models and paradigms
¨ Can we speak of authentic cultural paradigms for morality and ethics?
¨ Necessary Openness to Revision of All Paradigms—especially in light of new insights
![Page 33: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Morality Is Necessarily Complex
¨ Thomas Aquinas’key distinction between speculative and practical reason
¨ In the abstract, speculative realm truth could be universal and unchangeable,
¨ But in the concrete, practical reason rules:
¨ “in matters of action, truth or practical rectitude is not the same for all, as to matters of detail, but only as to the general principles
¨ and where there is the same rectitude in matters of detail, it is not equally known to all.”
¨ ST I-II, Q. 94, art. 4
![Page 34: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
What & Whose Truth?
¨ “Truth,” moral or otherwise exists always in a context
¨ In that context what we see, and how we see it, will help “shape” the truth for us
¨ Therefore, seeing broadly and diversely is part of seeing “correctly”
¨ Even the same site will truly look different depending on time & circumstance
![Page 35: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Two Basic Moral Theories
¨ Deontology (duty-based)¨ Teleology (goal-based)
![Page 36: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Moral Theory #1: Deontology¨ The word "deontological" comes from the Greek *,@<, [deon] which means "duty."
¨ Deontological ethical theory stresses clear moral norms which establish parameters, or limits, of what must not be done (prohibitions and proscriptions)
¨ as well as prescriptions of what must be done. ¨ The latter are given as moral duties which often
indicate at least a certain basic minimum set of moral expectations
![Page 37: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Moral Theory #2: Teleology
¨ Comes from J,8@H,[telos] the Greek word for "end" in the sense of goal or purpose.
¨ In general teleological ethics stresses two aspects of a moral telos, – end-as-goal, which should orient proper moral
action, and – end-as-ideal, which furnishes a goal and a
vision which supports us in our ethical growth and moral striving
![Page 38: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Contra Naturam
¨ “Against nature”¨ Not against the “laws of nature”¨ But against the “nature” or purpose of a
faculty of the human person¨ Thus, contraception was traditionally
considered to be wrong since it frustrated the “nature” of sexual relations in blocking procreation.
![Page 39: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Further Points on Teleology
¨ stresses the "becoming" aspect of our moral nature, – such as genuine moral growth and integration, often
expressed in terms of moral character, and what aids this process, such as an understanding of our moral identity (e.g. as disciples of Jesus),
– coupled with a guiding moral vision, which in turn is sustained and nourished by the virtues to be cultivated and the vices to work against and to root out.
![Page 40: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Teleology, Discipleship and Discernment¨ In moral conflict situations:
– i.e., in cases when one is confronted with the dilemma of having two or more "evils,"
– one must always choose the lesser evil, or when faced with two or more options which seem to be good, then one must choose the better one.
![Page 41: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
A Last Reminder
¨ The foregoing discussion has been situated largely along the “Rational Claim” axis, moving from human experience to an understanding of the normatively human
¨ Both poles of this axis (human experience and reason) are indispensable
¨ However, for Christians, the Sacred Claim axis of Scripture and Tradition must also play a role in our moral reasoning.
![Page 42: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
Sacred Texts
HumanExperience
NormativelyHuman
Tradtion(s) ofthe community
Recall Our Methodology of Moral Theology
![Page 43: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
What Might Shift?
¨ If we move to integrate the Sacred Claim Axis, what might change?
¨ Different emphases?¨ Different insights?¨ Different pastoral
responses?
![Page 44: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
Neither the Answers Nor the Processes Are Simple….¨ Need for genuine
search for the truth¨ Need for openness
to the Spirit wherever it moves
¨ Need for prayer¨ Need for dialogue
![Page 45: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
Prayer of St. Theresa Avila
¨ Christ has no body on earth but yours¨ No hands on earth but your hands.¨ Yours are the eyes through which He looks
out with compassion on the world.¨ Yours are the feet with which He chooses to
go about doing good.¨ For as He is the Head, so you are the
members¨ and we are all one in Christ Jesus.
![Page 46: Finding the Key For Our Lives In a](https://reader037.vdocuments.us/reader037/viewer/2022110213/568143ae550346895db03813/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)