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CHAPTER FIVE Conscience Formation Prayer: Jesus said: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Matthew 6:19–24 A. The Value of Ethics 1. What is Ethics? Ethics & Right Action Human Nature Sin Natural vs. Unnatural A. The Value of Ethics 2. Is Ethics Christian? -Is Jesus an Alternative to Ethics? B. Rightness & The Human Being 1. Rightness & Acts of the Body -Where is the Locus of Sin? Matthew 5:27-28 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Feeling לֵ ב Heart Ecclesiastes 1:13: “I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven.” לֵ ב Heart 1 Corinthians 4:20 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. 1 John 4:13 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 1. WHY BE GOOD? What is our reason for being good? לֵ ב Heart WHAT MANNER OF GOOD? What are good actions? How should we act? לֵ ב Heart RULE Mean/Right Amount |________________|______________| Excess Defect Giving to the poor WHAT MANNER OF GOOD? “For many people, ethics is not only tied up with religion, but is completely settled by it. Such people do not need to think too much about ethics, because there is an authoritative Code of instructions, a handbook of how to live. It is the word of Heaven,…. We have ... a text ... sufficiently in touch with the divine will to be able to communicate it to us. Then we know what to do.” Simon Blackburn, Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 10 WHAT MANNER OF GOOD? What we are calling ‘rules’ tell us what to do generally, but what specifically we should do still has to be determined. – Why would we think it was more Christian or more religious to think that God tells us everything? To think that we determine nothing? 3. WHAT STANDARD OF GOOD? If the good action is not fully spelled out, to what can we turn to discover what specifically to do? In the case of unspecificity, or ambiguity, what tells us what is good and bad? Genesis 38:6-10 6 Now Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord took his life. 8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform your duty as a brotherin-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. 10 But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord; so He took his life also. (4) GOOD BY WHAT MEANS? And what is it that will enable me to act in that way? What MEANS will move me to do what I ought to do, against my will. Romans 12:1-2 12 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Four Divisions of Ethics (1) Why be good: what is our REASON? (In a way, this is the final cause of being good: the for-what of our goodness.) (2) What is the MANNER or way in which we should act, specifically? (3) How do we “discern what is the will of God” (Rom. 12:2)? What is my STANDARD or procedure of discernment, in the event of uncertainty? (4) And what is it that will enable me to act in that way? What MEANS will move me to do what I ought to do, against my will. “The form of [Christ’s] ethical teaching was very different from that of other ethical teachers. They adopted one of two methods. Either they argued – like the Greeks – from the purely human level and elaborated a system of ethics; or else – like the Jewish rabbis – they Codified revealed ethical laws.” [Lindsay Dewar, An Outline of New Testament Ethics (1949), 13–14] “[Jesus] is by a wide margin the most admired and influential moral teacher of all time. But what is distinctive, what is different, what is new about His answer to the moral question? His morality was not new. There is no such thing as a new morality, only new immoralities. Everyone always knew what was good and what was evil. No sane individual and no sane society ever believed that justice, charity, honesty, selfcontrol, mercy, loyalty, and wisdom were wicked or immoral, or that injustice, hatred, lying, addiction, cruelty, betrayal, and folly were moral goods or obligations. Jesus’ morality was only the fullest flower of the plant that God had already planted in the nature of man, in all human hearts and consciences by creating us in His image…. Jesus’ moral appeals, therefore, were appeals to a moral conscience that was already there.... If you look at Jesus’ Jewish tradition you will find that there is hardly any moral saying of Jesus in the Gospels whose equivalent cannot be found somewhere in the scriptures or in the sayings of the rabbis.” [Peter Kreeft, The Philosophy of Jesus (2007), 93–95] 426. Not to build an altar of hewn stone (Ex. 20:22) 515. That sacrifices of cattle can take place only when they are at least eight days old (Lev. 22:27) 588. That a Nazarite [like Samson] shall not eat fresh grapes (Num. 6:3) 590. That he shall not eat the kernels of the grapes (Num. 6:4) 591. That he shall not eat of the skins of the grapes (Num. 6:4) 592. That the Nazarite shall permit his hair to grow (Num. 6:5) Four Divisions of Ethics (1) Why be good: what is our REASON? (In a way, this is the final cause of being good: the for-what of our goodness.) (2) What is the MANNER or way in which we should act, specifically? (3) How do we “discern what is the will of God” (Rom. 12:2)? What is my STANDARD or procedure of discernment, in the event of uncertainty? (4) And what is it that will enable me to act in that way? What MEANS will move me to do what I ought to do, against my will. Exit Journal Please define the following terms Metanoia Justification Grace Sanctifying grace Actual grace Sacramental grace Contemplative orders Apostolic orders