Prooemium

Permit me, kind reader, to set forth briefly the reasons which have led me to publish this Summa of Moral Theology. Besides the wishes of friends who urged me to this, there were chiefly two reasons for publishing it.

The first lies in this: often a great usefulness already comes to readers from the fact that the same doctrine is found set forth in different ways by different authors. For such is the condition of human understanding that things said in this way seem obscure to some, while those same things seem clear to others. And while I pondered this, a great hope held me: that my own manner of speaking also might not be without all usefulness, at least for some readers. This consideration gave me the greater courage when I found it confirmed by these words of St. Augustine:

"Whoever, when he reads, says: this has not been well said because I do not understand it, let him blame my expression, ... and perhaps it truly could have been said more plainly; nevertheless no man has spoken in such a way that in all things he was understood by all. Therefore let him to whom this in my discourse is displeasing see whether he understands others who are engaged in such matters and questions, while he does not understand me, and let him spend his effort and time rather on those whom he understands. Yet on that account let him not think that I ought to have been silent, ... For not all things which are written by all come into the hands of all; and it can happen that some who are able to understand even these writings of ours do not find those plainer books and at least come upon these. And therefore it is useful that many books be made by many persons, in different style, not with different doctrine, even about the same questions, so that the matter itself may reach very many: to those in this way, and to others in that way" (De Trinitate, book I, chapter 3, number 5).

The other reason is founded on a wish which, as I read the authors who have treated moral doctrine, often came into my mind. For it is certain that clarity and perspicuity in teaching chiefly receive a greater increase in proportion as the different treatises of doctrine and their different chapters cohere with one another in a more continuous connection, and follow one another in a more lucid order. I thought that this intimate connection of order in books written on moral doctrine often had not escaped the notice of an attentive reader as something wanting. For that reason I also tried to direct my labor in writing to this: that order and connection, both in the various treatises and in the different chapters of each treatise, and also in the very handling of the matter, should be observed as much as possible, hoping that by acting thus I might be able to bring some advantage.

But, to use again the words of St. Augustine, "I am mindful not only of my will, but also of my weakness. From those also who are going to read these things I ask that they forgive me where they notice that I have rather wished than been able to say what either they themselves understand better, or do not understand because of the difficulty of my expression: just as I forgive them where, because of their own slowness, they are unable to understand" (De Trinitate, book V, chapter 1, number 1).

I was writing at Nijmegen, in the College of St. Alphonsus, on 2 August 1932.

L. Wouters, C. SS. R.