Chapter — Koch–Preuss
Chapter VII: The Sources of Moral Theology
The sources from which Moral Theology draws its data and maxims are two—reason and Revelation.
I. REASON. —Reason is the depositary of what we may call natural Revelation, i. e., the moral law of nature.1 Though impaired by sin, reason is able to form moral concepts.
1 Cfr. Rom. II, 14 sq. —F. X. Linsenmann, Lehrbuch der Moraltheologie, Freiburg 1904, pp. 28 sq. Chr. Pesch, S.J., Praelectiones Dogmaticae, Vol. I, 4th ed., p. 407.
To act in accordance with the dictates of reason is moral (morally good); to act against those dictates is immoral (morally bad).
It is necessary, however, to test in the light of supernatural Revelation the moral concepts furnished by reason. In adapting these concepts to the teaching of Revelation, reason again plays an indispensable part,2 in so far, namely, as it is a necessary condition of Revelation and of the positive divine law.3
2 Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 1a 2ae, qu. 19, art. 3 and 4; qu. 90, art. 1: "Reason is the rule and measure of human acts, and is the first principle of human acts. For it belongs to reason to order things toward the end, which is the first principle in matters of action." This passage is sufficient to disprove the oft-repeated charge that the Scholastics deduce morality from "the revealed will of God, which is incomprehensible." (Cfr. C. Lühr, Ist eine religionslose Moral möglich? Berlin 1899, p. 26). —St. Thomas clearly admits that reason is the rule of morality, though, of course, he means that reason which, in its last analysis, is "the divine Intellect manifesting itself in us." —Cfr. Cicero, De Officiis, I, 28, 100: "Naturam si sequemur, nunquam aberrabimus."
3 Cfr. St. Thomas, De Veritate, qu. 14, art. 9, ad 8; Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 1, art. 4, ad 2; Conc. Vatic., Sess. III, c. 3 and 4; St. Augustine, Epist., 120, n. 3: "Far be it, I say, that we should believe for this reason, so that we may neither receive nor seek an account: since we could not even believe unless we had rational souls. Therefore, in certain matters pertaining to saving doctrine which we are not yet able to perceive by reason, but shall someday be able to perceive, let faith precede reason, so that the heart may be purified and may receive and bear the light of great reason; this assuredly is itself reasonable." (Migne, P. L., XXXIII, 453); IDEM, De Ord., II, n. 16, 26 (P. L., XXXII, 1002).
Reason is the first and principal source of human knowledge, not in the ontological, but in the logical order. Unless man uses his reason properly, he cannot receive revealed truths or make an act of faith in God.
Nevertheless experience teaches that in most matters pertaining to salvation faith precedes reason and prepares it for the light of Revelation.
II. REVELATION. —The second source of Moral Theology is supernatural Revelation, as contained in the writings of the Old and New Testaments and in the oral tradition of the Church (traditio ecclesiastica).4 1. The Sacred Scriptures of both Testaments are called immediate divine sources of Moral Theology because they embody God's supernatural Revelation to mankind and the manifestation of His will. "What things soever were written, were written for our learning: that through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope." 5 a) The Old Testament contains many moral precepts and examples. It is true these precepts and examples are far inferior to the ideal set up by the Gospel, nay some of them even fall short of the postulates of unaided reason.6 Nevertheless they deserve careful study. In order to be able to estimate the moral teaching of the Old Testament at its true value, however, we must first consider the general character of the Ancient Covenant, and, secondly, distinguish between universally valid laws on the one hand, and, on the other, mere personal opinions and such precepts as owe their origin to the peculiar ethos of the Chosen People. Christ Himself clearly indicated the true relation of the moral teaching of the Old to that of the New Testament.7
4 Cfr. Conc. Trident., Sess. IV, Decr. de Canon. Script.: "And perceiving that this truth (the dogmas of the faith) and discipline (moral teaching) are contained in written books and unwritten traditions which, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself, or handed down as it were from hand to hand by the Apostles themselves under the dictation of the Holy Spirit, have come down even to us, [the holy synod], following the example of the orthodox Fathers, receives and venerates with an equal affection of piety and reverence all the books both of the Old and of the New Testament, since the one God is the author of both, and likewise the traditions themselves pertaining both to faith and to morals, as dictated either orally by Christ or by the Holy Spirit and preserved in the Catholic Church by continuous succession." (Conc. Vatic., Const. dogm. de fide cath., c. 2); St. Augustine, Contr. Epist. Manich. Fund., c. 5, n. 6: "I would not believe the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved me. " (Migne, P. L., XLII, 176). 5 Rom. XV, 4.—Cfr. Leo XIII, Encyclical "Providentissimus Deus," of Nov. 18, 1893 (English tr. in H. Pope, O.P., The Catholic Student's "Aids" to the Bible, London 1913, pp. xi-xl—H. Höpfl, Das Buch der Bücher, Freiburg 1904, pp. 190 sqq.
6 Cfr. St. Augustine, Contra Gaudent., I, c. 31, n. 37 (Migne, P. L., XLIII, 729); IDEM, Epist., 204, n. 7 (P. L., XXXIII, 941); St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 110, art. 3, ad 3.
7 Matth. V, 21-28, 31-45; cfr. 1 Tim. I, 8-10. —Cfr. J. B. Hirscher, Die christliche Moral, Vol. I, 5th ed., Tübingen 1851, pp. 20 sqq.
b) While the New Testament infinitely transcends the Old in its ethical teaching, it does not contain a complete code of morality, but merely points out certain fundamental truths, which, as Christ Himself declared, are to be interpreted spiritually rather than literally.8 These truths are for the most part couched in parables and proverbs, which, though picturesque and impressive, are quite often indefinite. Even the life of our Saviour —the highest ideal of morality set up for our imitation 9 —cannot always be followed literally.10
8 Matth. V, 29, 39; XIX, 29; John XVIII, 22; 1 Cor. VI, 12. —St. Jerome says (In Galat., I, n. 12): "And let us not think that the Gospel is in the words of Scripture, but in the meaning; not on the surface, but in the marrow; not in the leaves of utterances, but in the root of the discourse." (Migne, P. L., XXVI, 322). —Cfr. Kneib, Die "Jenseitsmoral," pp. 213 sqq.
9 Matth. XI, 29; John XIII, 15; Rom. VIII, 29; Phil. II, 5; 2 Pet. II, 21.
10 A good many things recorded in the lives of the saints are mere eccentricities; see E. Lucius, Das monchische Leben, pp. 145 sq., 152 sq., 154, and O. Zöckler, Aszese und Mönchtum, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Frankfort 1897.
- Ecclesiastical Tradition is the third source of Moral Theology. The Church, through her teaching office, preserves and interprets both the natural and the divine laws, and issues precepts and decisions of her own, some positive, some negative,11 applying the principles of morality and enforcing external obedience to the law (e. g., the sanctification of the Lord's Day, the discipline of Penance, matrimonial impediments, etc.)
11 The negative precepts of the Church usually take the form of propositiones damnatae. —Collections of the more important theses officially condemned at various times have been made by Denzinger in his Enchiridion Symbolorum, already referred to, and by D. Viva, S.J., Damnatae Theses... ad Theologicam Trutinam Revocatae, 3 vols., Naples 1708. Cfr. J. Bucceroni, Enchiridion Morale, 4th ed., Rome 1905; Aug. Rohling, Medulla Theol. Mor., St. Louis 1875, pp. 473 sqq.
Such disciplinary ordinances, in contradistinction to universal laws, often have only a temporal or local importance.12
12 Cfr. Benedict XIV, De Synodo Dioecesana, X, 8, 1: "Discipline varies according to place and time, and it can happen that some ordinance, although useful to most dioceses of the Christian world, is nevertheless judged less suitable for some province or particular diocese." Ibid., V, 3, 8: "Human customs change from day to day, circumstances change, and what was useful at one time afterward becomes useless and sometimes harmful."
Needless to add, the Apostolic traditions handed down from the early days of the Church excel in dignity all later ecclesiastical precepts, and general laws are of greater weight than purely local ordinances.
- Another important source of Moral Theology is found in the lives of the saints, which reflect the Christian ideal more or less perfectly.13 However, not everything the saints have done, or are alleged to have done, is so exemplary that we may take it for our guidance. Rather must we apply to them the rule given by St. Augustine in regard to certain Biblical characters —"We should not imitate everything we read about these holy persons." 14 St. Francis de Sales observes that some of the things the saints did are to be admired rather than imitated.
13 Cfr. St. Ambrose, De Joseph Patr., c. 1, n. 1: "Sanctorum vita caeteris norma vivendi est." —Ibid., n. 4: "... and let us recognize that they were not of a more excellent nature, but of more excellent observance, and that they did not lack knowledge of vices, but corrected them." (Migne, P. L., XIV, 641, 643). —Cfr. T. Halusa, Ord. Cist., Flores S. Bernardi, Ratisbon 1898, p. 87, n. 232; H. Joly, Psychology of the Saints, London 1898, pp. 6 sq., 24 sqq.
14 "Non omnia, quae a sanctis vel iustis viris legimus, transferre debemus in mores." (Contra Mendac., c. 9, n. 22; Migne, P. L., XL, 532).
The biographies of the saints contain a wealth of materials for a history of the religious life and for a general history of civilization. But they present a difficult problem to the critical historian because many of them are not as old as they claim to be, and most of them embody unauthenticated legends. In order properly to estimate the lives of the saints, particularly those that have been handed down to us from the Middle Ages, we must pay due regard to the fact that they were professedly written for the edification of the faithful, and that the compilers frequently dressed up scanty and unreliable data to "point a moral and adorn a tale." Historic accuracy, as a rule, was far from the purpose of these pious scribes, and the most that can be said for their productions, from the historian's point of view, is that the things they relate may conceivably have happened in the manner described.15
15 See E. Michael, S.J., Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, Vol. III, Freiburg 1903, p. 392; the Fortnightly Review, St. Louis, Mo., Vol. XXIV (1917), No. 7, p. 100. —M. Huber, S.J., Die Nachahmung der Heiligen, 2 vols., Freiburg 1914.
Recent researches leave no doubt that the great majority of medieval hagiographers worked mechanically in accordance with a ready-made scheme. Miracles they had read or heard about others they attributed to the saint whose story they were engaged in writing. We have instances of entire legends being transferred from one saint to another or taken from pagan mythology.
In view of these facts it is rather remarkable that of the saints' lives that have come down to us comparatively few are wholly fictitious. The majority contain a kernel of truth. This is admitted even by such hyper-critics as Harnack.16
16 Cfr. Harnack's paper on "Legends as Historical Sources" in the Preussische Jahrbücher, 1890, pp. 249 sqq.; H. Achelis, Die Martyrologien, Berlin 1900; H. Quentin, O.S.B., Les Martyrologes Historiques, Paris 1908.
A legend, in the strict sense of the term, is a story or incident unauthenticated by history. It is the work of the people, that "mysterious and many-headed agent, uncontrolled in his methods, swift and unfettered, perpetually in labor with fresh products of his fancy... Beside him there is the man of letters, the editor, who stands before us as one condemned to a thankless task, compelled to follow a beaten track, but giving to all he produces a deliberate and durable character. Both together have collaborated in that vast undertaking known as The Lives of the Saints, and it is important for us to recognize the part played by each in this process of evolution, which, though the work of all time, is incessantly renewed." 17 Legends are mainly poetry, and should be judged as such. Poetic fancies may give pleasure, but the Truth alone has a claim to veneration and assent. St. Francis de Sales' famous dictum that the lives of the saints are "the Gospel put into practice," 18 applies only to the historic lives, not to the poetical inventions of authors who could not have recorded the facts even if they had set out to do so, for the simple reason that they had no reliable knowledge of them.
17 H. Delehaye, S.J., Les Legendes Hagiographiques, 2nd ed., Bruxelles 1906 (English tr. by Mrs. V. M. Crawford, The Legends of the Saints: An Introduction to Hagiology, London 1907, p. 11). Cfr. H. Günter, Legendenstudien, Cologne 1906; K. A. H. Kellner, Heortologie, 2nd ed., Freiburg 1906, pp. 155 sqq. (English translation by a Priest of the Diocese of Westminster, under the title, Heortology: A History of the Christian Festivals from their Origin to the Present Day, London 1908, pp. 203 sqq.); H. Menge, Haben die Legendenschreiber des Mittelalters Kritik geübt? Münster 1908; L. Zopf, Das Heiligenleben im zehnten Jahrhundert, Leipsic 1908, pp. 6 sqq., 31 sqq., 108 sqq.
18 Avis sur la Vraie Manière de Prêcher, ch. 3, n. 2: "Qu'est-ce autre chose la vie des saints que l'Évangile mis en œuvre?" —Cfr. St. Gregory the Great, Hom. in Ezech., I, 10, n. 38: "In the lives of the holy Fathers we learn what we ought to understand in the volume of Sacred Scripture. For their conduct opens to us what the page of the Testaments says in its proclamations." (Migne, P. L., LXXVI, 901).
- The teaching of Catholic moralists (doctrina)19 is a source of Moral Theology in so far as these writers testify to the belief and practice of the faithful at different times and in different countries, and digest and develop moral ideas and principles with due regard to political and social conditions. Note, however, that whereas the basic principles of morality are unalterable and never lose their binding force, particular duties and rights may change. General laws must be constantly adjusted to varying conditions.
19 Cfr. Pesch, Praelect. Dogmat., Vol. I, 4th ed., pp. 388 sqq., 400 sqq.
The teaching of Catholic moralists has to be judged in the light of the following considerations:
(1) There is a clear-cut distinction between an author's testimony to the teaching of the Church and his private opinions. Every man is more or less a child of his age and country, and ethical views change somewhat with social and other conditions.
(2) The highest authority belongs to those writers who have been officially proclaimed "Doctors of the Church," especially St. Thomas Aquinas (1567), St. Alphonsus de' Liguori (1871), and St. Francis de Sales (1877).20 However, the approbation given to these authors does not mean that the Church endorses all their teachings. Even the oft-quoted decrees in favor of the writings of St. Alphonsus are negative rather than positive and have no dogmatic character.21
20 In the Bull of Clement VII (Nov. 26, 1523) proclaiming the canonization of St. Antoninus of Florence, that eminent writer, too, is styled "Doctor."
21 Pius VII, on May 18, 1803, approved a decree of the S. C. R., which that sacred Congregation declared that it had found nothing deserving of censure in the writings St. Alphonsus ("nothing deserving of censure was found in them"). The S. Penitentiary, on July 5, 1831, replied to two questions: "(1) Whether a professor of sacred theology may safely follow and profess the opinions which Blessed Alphonsus de Liguori professes in his moral theology," and "(2) Whether a confessor who follows all the opinions of Blessed Alphonsus de Liguori in the practice of the sacred tribunal of penance is to be disturbed, solely for the reason that nothing deserving of censure was found in his works by the Holy Apostolic See." The answer was: "To 1: Affirmatively, without, however, judging that those who follow opinions handed down by other approved authors are to be reproved on that account. To 2: Negatively, regard being had for the mind of the Holy See concerning the approval of the writings of Servants of God for the purpose of canonization." Gregory XVI confirmed this decision of and in the Bull of canonization (1839) declared: "The works of the same [Saint Alphonsus] can be traversed by the faithful with an entirely untroubled step." Pius IX declared, March 23, 1871: "[Saint Alphonsus] laid out a safe way amid the entangled opinions of theologians, whether laxer or more rigid, along which the directors of the souls of Christ's faithful could walk with untroubled step." All these approbations and declarations mean nothing more than that the writings of St. Alphonsus contain nothing contrary to the teaching of the Church.
(3) Due attention must be paid to an author's position in the Church, —pope, bishop, or priest, —and to the purity of his morals.
The principle, "Tantum valet quantum probat" applies to all theologians. Not even St. Thomas is an exception. "Neither in Dogmatic nor in Moral Theology," says a recent writer, "is it sufficient to appeal to the authority of St. Thomas without regard to the arguments on which he bases his opinion. To proceed by mere appeal to authority is contrary to the principles of Scholasticism, of which the Angelic Doctor was the leading exponent.22 As far as possible, reason should endeavor to demonstrate the truths proposed by faith. The maxim, 'Fides quaerit intellectum' must never be set aside in favor of authority, because even the highest authority is, after all, but human. To adopt an opinion for no other reason than that it was held by St. Thomas, would be foreign to the spirit of Scholastic theology." 23 St. Thomas, as Lacordaire has rightly said, is a light to guide, not a rod to check.24 Where the Church has issued no positive decision and Revelation offers no definite guidance, we must follow the light of reason and the advice of competent experts. When the theologians agree, it would be rash to reject their opinion. 25 If a considerable number of reputable authors defend a proposition, it is at least permissible to follow their teaching.26
22 For St. Thomas' own statement see Turner, History of Philosophy, p. 354.
23 Innsbruck Zeitschrift für kath. Theologie, 1898, p. 530.
24 "S. Thomas est un phare, mais ne doit pas être une borne."
25 Cfr. Melchior Cano, Loci Theologici, 1. VII, c. 4.
26 Cfr. the Zeitschrift für kath. Theologie, 1884, p. 788.
READINGS. —M. Cronin, The Science of Ethics, Vol. I, Dublin 1909, pp. 14 sq. —Aug. Lehmkuhl, S.J., in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIV, pp. 602 sq.—H. Gerigk, Die wissenschaftliche Moral und ihre Lehrweise, Breslau 1910. —M. Cano, Loci Theologici, Salamanca 1563. —Ad. Tanquerey, S.S., Synopsis Theologiae Moralis, Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 5 sqq.