How is moral theology determined?

[guanophore]

2nd_Adam:

How is moral theology determined?

This very excellent question came out of the "Can Protestants use birth control, and it is not a sin?" thread.

In that thread, a significant degree of moral relativism was expressed. The Catholic Church reserves the right and responsibility to guide the faithful in all areas of moral behavior. We do not restrict this guidance to Scripture, however.

 

[CWBetts]

This very excellent question came out of the "Can Protestants use birth control, and it is not a sin?" thread.

In that thread, a significant degree of moral relativism was expressed. The Catholic Church reserves the right and responsibility to guide the faithful in all areas of moral behavior. We do not restrict this guidance to Scripture, however.

So do you mean “How is moral theology determined?” Or is a better question “How does one determine if a given action is moral?” or is it “What gives the Church that authority to determine morals?” I need to know how the question is read before a proper answer cna be given.

 

[fix]

Well he can read this encyclical as a starting point:

Because the Church’s morality necessarily involves a *normative *dimension, moral theology cannot be reduced to a body of knowledge worked out purely in the context of the so-called *behavioural sciences. *The latter are concerned with the phenomenon of morality as a historical and social fact; moral theology, however, while needing to make use of the behavioural and natural sciences, does not rely on the results of formal empirical observation or phenomenological understanding alone. Indeed, the relevance of the behavioural sciences for moral theology must always be measured against the primordial question: *What is good or evil? What must be done to have eternal life?

…*From the theological viewpoint, moral principles are not dependent upon the historical moment in which they are discovered. Moreover, the fact that some believers act without following the teachings of the Magisterium, or erroneously consider as morally correct a kind of behaviour declared by their Pastors as contrary to the law of God, cannot be a valid argument for rejecting the truth of the moral norms taught by the Church. The affirmation of moral principles is not within the competence of formal empirical methods. While not denying the validity of such methods, but at the same time not restricting its viewpoint to them, moral theology, faithful to the supernatural sense of the faith, takes into account first and foremost the spiritual dimension of the human heart and its vocation to divine love…

Opposition to the teaching of the Church’s Pastors cannot be seen as a legitimate expression either of Christian freedom or of the diversity of the Spirit’s gifts…

 

[bleh_confused]

i was reading something by Aquinas today (im sorry i cant remember exaclty) but it said that an act is evil insofar as it goes against reason…or something along those lines. the main point was that if an act is totally logical (and i mean it fits within TRUE logic, not the secular stuff many a person will claim to be logical) then it is good