Was Morality Written on the Hearts of Men Prior to Christ's Resurrection?

[Kei]

We know that morality is written on the hearts of men. In seeing which is more moral, democrats or republicans, the scores turn out to be a tie. In truth, we all have the same moral values more or less, but prioritize and utilize them differently. For instance, we recognize that modesty is a good thing in dress, but does that imply wearing loose clothing or does it imply covering the head?

This is an idea long in moral theology, that basic morality is written in our hearts. Yet, was it always like this, or is this an effect of Jesus’ conquering death and evil?

 

[Maximilian75]

I feel like it had to be… If men had no sense of morality, then God would have been very much unjust in punishing Cain for the death of Abel.
Since there were no 10 Commandments, how would Cain know?
Based upon his conscience and the morality written upon his heart.

 

[Trishie]

To your question, ‘yes’
Jesus’ Redemption reaches back and forward in time. Remember His visit to the souls of the dead that we acknowledge in the Creed

This is the Church’s teaching regarding morality and the human spirit:

MORAL CONSCIENCE

1776 "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths."47

I. THE JUDGMENT OF CONSCIENCE

1777 Moral conscience,48 present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.49 It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a6.htm

 

[Kei]

And the fruit they ate of was from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

[fhansen]

You don’t have to be Christian to have morals. Our consciences have been dimmed and hardened by the Fall, and so, speaking about a later event, Augustine could say that “God wrote on tablets of stone that which man failed to read in his heart”. The natural law is there, but we often override it,failing to heed God, an act made possible by free will.

 

[Kei]

Yes, the morals are written on the hearts of all men, universally, but I was wondering if this was the same prior to Jesus defeating death and evil in the Resurrection.

 

[fhansen]

Well, in the case of Augustine there, he was referencing the giving of the Law to Moses, well before the advent of Jesus. And so I believe that this natural law is universal always, given to man at thebeginning ofcreation