The Sources of Christian Ethics

512 Pages·1995·25.736 MB·English

by  Servais Pinckaers

THE SOURCES OF
CHRISTIAN ETHICS
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Servais Pinckaers, O.P.
THE SOURCES OF
CHRISTIAN ETHICS
Translated from the third edition by
Sr. Mary Thomas Noble, O.P.
T&T CLARK
EDINBURGH
Copyright © The Catholic University of America Press, 1995
Originally published as Les sources de la morale chretienne,
copyright © University Press Fribourg, 1985, 1990, 1993. The
translation was funded in part by a grant from the Council of
the University of Fribourg.
The original French edition won the 1985 Lichtenstein Prize awarded by
the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
This English translation first published in the United States of America by
The Catholic University of America Press, 610 Michigan Avenue, N.E.,
Washington, D.C. 10064.
This edition published under licence from The Catholic
University of America Press by
T&T Clark Ltd
59 George Street
Edinburgh EHZ ILQ
Scotland
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of T&T Clark Ltd.
First published 1995
Reprinted 2001
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Dedicated in faithful love
to Our Lady of La Sarte*
and to my parents
*F6r readers unfamiliar with this title of Our Lady, the author's dedication refers to
a shrine of Our Lady in La Sarte, a town near Huy in Belgium. Since the seventeenth
century, La Sarte has been an important center for Marian pilgrimages. Until 1967 it was
also the site of the Dominican Novitiate and House of Studies where Father Pinckaers
taught. La Sarte evokes too the memory of Father Dominique Pire, O.P., one-time pastor
there, founder of the organization "Aid for Displaced Persons" in the wake of World War
II. Because of his outstanding work with the "hard core refugees," Father Pire was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958.
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Contents
Foreword to the English Edition ix
Introduction xvii
i. What Is Christian Ethics? The Search for a Definition i
2,. Overview of Christian Ethics: Some Basic Questions 14
PART ONE: ETHICS, HUMAN AND CHRISTIAN
3. The Human Aspect of Christian Ethics 47
4. Christian Ethics: Its Distinctive Character 95
5. Christian Ethics according to St. Paul 104
6. The Sermon on the Mount and Christian Ethics 134
7. Is St. Thomas's Moral Teaching Christian? 168
PART TWO: A BRIEF HISTORY OF MORAL THEOLOGY
Introduction: The Advantage of a History of
Moral Theology or Christian Ethics, and the
Difficulties Involved 191
8. The Patristic Period 195
9. Moral Theology in the Period of
High Scholasticism 216
10. Moral Theology in the Late Middle Ages:
The Nominalist Revolution 240
11. Moral Theology in the Modern Era of the Manuals 2.54
Vll
viii Contents
i z. Catholic Moral Theology and Protestant Ethics 2.80
13. Moral Theology Today 298
PART THREE: FREEDOM AND NATURAL LAW
14. Freedom of Indifference: The Origin of
Obligational Moral Theory 3x7
15. Freedom for Excellence 354
16. Human Freedom according to St. Thomas Aquinas 379
17. Natural Inclinations at the Source of
Freedom and Morality 400
Conclusion 457
Select Bibliography 469
Index 479
Foreword to the English Edition
ROMANUS CESSARIO, O.P.
A Recovery of Moral Teaching in the Church
The Sources of Christian Ethics reaches its English-speaking reader
ship at a particularly opportune moment. Dominican Father Servais
Pinckaers provides both professional theologians and educated readers
with an invaluable compendium for practicing and studying moral the-
ology in the aftermath of Veritatis splendor. As one who has benefited
immensely from Father Pinckaers's learning, I am honored to introduce
this edition of his book published through the good services of The
Catholic Unversity of America Press.
The 1993 encyclical Veritatis splendor represents a new initiative in
the history of magisterial teaching. It undertakes to expound "funda-
mental questions of the Church's moral teaching" and so provides au-
thoritative norms for establishing the morality of particular human
actions of all kinds. In other words, the encyclical takes up the challenge
of helping each believer answer what Pope John Paul II calls "the pri-
mordial question: What is good and evil? What must be done to have
eternal life?" (no. in). The encyclical gives technical precision to the
moral teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which presents
Christian moral teaching as an instruction about living in Christ. The
present volume offers precious commentary on these two documents of
the Magisterium and thereby helps the reader develop his or her own
response to the question concerning moral conduct and Christian sal-
vation.
Prudence, working through the moral virtues, disposes a person to
good actions. In Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II appropriates this
central thesis of Thomist moral theology for the common teaching of
the Church: "It is the 'heart' converted to the Lord and to the love of
ix