Chapter III: The Difference Between Catholic Moral Theology and Protestant Ethics

1. Catholic Moral Theology is based on the dogmatic teaching of the one true Church. Protestant ethics rests on arbitrary doctrinal assumptions. ¹ Hence the fundamental difference between the two sciences. Catholics acknowledge an infallible authority in questions of both dogma and morals, whereas Protestants possess no objective rule for either, but are buffeted to and fro by the winds of subjectivism and error.

¹ The dogmatic differences in the systems of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin may be clearly traced in their moral teaching. Cfr. H. Denifle, O.P., Luther and Lutherdom, tr. by R. Volz, Vol. I, Somerset, O., pp. 53 sqq.; C. von Kügelken, Ethik H. Zwinglis, Leipsic 1902; P. Lobstein, Ethik Calvins, Strassburg 1877.

Besides these there are other points of difference. Thus Catholics, unlike Protestants, do not regard the Bible as the sole source of knowledge in matters of faith and morals. Nor do they hold that man by the fall of Adam and Eve has lost his freedom, or that God overpowers the will by grace. Catholics regard free-will as an essential condition of morality and hold that man could perform no moral act if he were not free.

Furthermore, Catholics do not look upon justification as a wholly subjective and purely internal act, but regard it as an ethical process, conditioned (ordinarily) upon the reception of the Sacraments, either in re or in voto.

Finally, true liberty, i. e., the "liberty of the children of God" (sanctity), is not the beginning but the end and object of morality and religion. ² It is not faith in Christ, making sin harmless, but victory over sin and passion, the result of a constant and patient cooperation with grace.³

² John VIII, 32; Rom. VIII, 21.

³ Cfr. 2 Cor. III, 17-18.

Whoever denies the above-mentioned truths has no foundation upon which to erect a system of moral teaching. Protestant ethics really owes its existence to an inconsistency and in some measure also to the fact that Protestants, consciously or unconsciously, retain many Catholic practices, though they have long ago rejected the principles underlying them.

2. Protestant writers deny or ignore the fundamental distinctions just outlined. They claim that the chief difference between Catholic Moral Theology and Protestant ethics lies in the fact that the former is addicted to a false empiricism, which wrongly distinguishes between mortal and venial sin and between perfect and imperfect contrition, thereby catering to human frailty and derogating from the spirit of the Gospel.

They furthermore allege that the Catholic Church attributes a magical effect to her Sacraments and regards the process of justification as independent of the disposition of the sinner.

Another favorite accusation is that the Church, harking back to the Old Testament, imposes purely human laws and thereby inculcates a false morality, which, like that of the ancient Pharisees, exaggerates external acts at the expense of character and thus breeds servility and hypocrisy. All this, they declare, is opposed to the Protestant idea of morality, which claims to be drawn from the teaching of St. Paul.

The fourth and last objection against Catholic Moral Theology is that it is dualistic because it makes a distinction between precepts and counsels, and measures religious and seculars by a different rule, discriminating against the latter in favor of the former.

All these charges will be refuted in the course of this treatise. Here let us merely remark that the erroneous notions which so many non-Catholics entertain of the Catholic teaching on perfection, are to a certain extent pardonable in view of the hyperbolic language sometimes employed by Catholic writers in describing the religious state. Perfection is not a matter concerning solely the select few or attainable by a small minority only. On the contrary, it is within reach of all. There is but one perfection, and that is charity, or the love of God, which manifests itself by obedience to the divine will, i. e., keeping the commandments and doing good. Christian perfection is nothing more or less than a complete and willing observance of the law of God.

READINGS. —J. Mausbach, Catholic Moral Teaching and its Antagonists, New York 1914, pp. 131 sqq. —P. Höveler, Harnack und die kath. Aszese, Düsseldorf 1902. —H. A. Kröse, S.J., Der Einfluss der Konfession auf die Sittlichkeit, Freiburg 1900. —Ph. Kneib, Die "Jenseitsmoral" im Kampfe um ihre Grundlagen, pp. 65 sqq., 79 sqq. —V. Cathrein, S.J., Die kath. Weltanschauung, 2nd ed., pp. 441 sqq., 453 sqq. —Hettinger-Stepka, Timothy; or Letters to a Young Theologian, pp. 376 sqq. —A. Devine, C.P., art. "Perfection" in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, pp. 665 sq. —IDEM, A Manual of Ascetical Theology, London 1902. —E. Müller, Theol. Mor., Vol. I, 5th ed., pp. 40 sqq., Vienna 1887. —Thos. Slater, S.J., The Foundation of True Morality, N. Y. 1920.