Coffee Talk Redux is a reflection on things God is teaching me. In some cases the ideas for these topics may arise from some conversation I may have had with someone, or a thought that crossed my mind, something I have written, or perhaps something I read somewhere, or maybe a combination of all of these. In any case think of this as a discussion on what God is teaching us to help us grow in our understanding of His will for us.
There is a compelling need to reestablish the relationship between Christian morality and Sacred Scripture. The current state of affairs in Christian morality has tended to move away from its roots of being based on Scriptural themes and the Gospel message. Christian morality is no longer focused on the teachings of Christ as given in His Sermon on the Mount or on St. Paul’s Gospel teachings on morality. Nor is it based on the finality of the joy and peace to be found in the beatific vision. Instead, there has been a drift of moral thought that has lead to a morality founded on the idea of obligation wherein moral choices are based on one’s adherence to laws, commandments, and prohibitions. Today Christian ethical thought is not rooted firmly in Scripture. In many respects it can be argued that Christian morality is not even Christian since it is no longer focused on Christ.A Christian morality that is based on duties and obligations runs the risk of being confused with Greek philosophy and wisdom as well as with the moral precepts, laws, and commandments that are found in the Old Testament. When Christian morality is viewed in this way one is left with the result that there is very little that is new in Christian morality since these earlier writings are found to have much in common with the moral teachings of the New Testament. So in the end we have nothing new but the commandment of love for one another and to forgive our enemies.
When Christian morality is based on the same duties and obligations that are also found in other religious or philosophical systems then Sacred Scripture and especially the New Testament become irrelevant. Within this framework the Scriptural point of view is narrowed to just those texts that support a moral imperative based on duties, obligations, precepts, and commandments. This tunnel vision approach to Scripture then misses the broader view of God’s plan for man’s salvation that really teaches a morality based on salvation and the happiness that is only found in God. A morality based on duties and obligations then misses those Gospel lessons from the New Testament that teach what it means to be a follower of Christ.
A moral theory based on duties and obligations leads a fragmented approach in the use and exegesis of Sacred Scripture. This fragmented approach simply reduces the texts of Scripture to small fragments that support a particular point of view on a moral issue. To find what is unique about Christian morality these Scriptural fragments are then compared with other texts from the Old Testament, philosophy, or other religions that have a similar meaning. Whenever these other texts duplicate those from Scripture then the scriptural texts are viewed as superfluous and eliminated, and all that remains will be those biblical texts that are specifically Christian. The result of the fragmented approach is that there is really very little that is new or that can be contributed by Christianity to morality. This is because much of what may be found in the New Testament was already expressed in some form in these earlier philosophical and Jewish works. This fragmented approach to Scripture also supports the humanistic view that morality, as a philosophical system, is something that was already developed before the appearance of Christ. Hence in the view of a humanist Christ was just another man who taught what was already known. Because of this fragmented approach Christian morality loses its uniqueness with the result that morality is no longer viewed in the Christian sense as the norm of behavior.
However, the fragmented approach is flawed in that it fails to understand that the New Testament authors purposefully drew on the Old Testament texts in order to show that the Christian teaching on morality not only fulfilled but transcended these earlier works. Furthermore, even St. Paul freely adopted whatever he found to be good and true in the Greek philosophers to support his message on the Gospel and its application to Christian morality. Faced with Jewish justice from the Old Testament and the wisdom of the Greek philosophers, St. Paul adopted a holistic approach to Christian morality that transcended these earlier thinkers by proclaiming a new virtue which was faith in the crucified and risen Jesus who is the source of God’s justice and wisdom. Faith became the foundation stone of morality something the Greeks were not prepared for and the Jews could not understand.
St. Paul recognized that this idea of faith in Jesus was scandalous to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. However, for St. Paul and his view of Christian morality the basis had to be faith in Jesus Christ. This means that Christian morality needs to be viewed and compared to other moral systems on its own unique basis of the Gospel. This approach is the total method that reunites Scripture with moral theory so as to make the latter more Christian in its focus.
By using the total approach one’s perspective changes allowing one to grasp the fact that Christian morality is more than just a variation on earlier moral themes but is itself the fulfillment of Christ’s Gospel message. Only from Sacred Scriptures can man understand his origins and God’s plan for man’s salvation through the redemptive act of His Son Jesus Christ. In order to do what is good and behave in a moral way man must understand that his ultimate happiness lies in God. Man’s challenge is therefore to use his intellect and free will and conform them to the highest standard of goodness, which is being in the image and likeness of God. Man has the choice to conform his way to the highest good which is God or man can choose the way of the world as his highest good, that is focusing on pleasure, power, and possessions and worshiping these in a prideful way that ultimately leads to sin and evil. In this way Christian moral theology can be seen as man striving to make the best use of his free will, to seek God for his happiness and to do the good and avoid what is evil. This requires that Scripture be viewed in a total sense and not in the fragmented sense seen in a moral theory based on duties and obligations.
Christian morality guided by Sacred Scripture is then about changing one’s life in an interior sense and following Christ who leads man to that complete happiness that can only be found in the loving vision of God. When Christian morality is viewed using the total approach it is found that faith in Jesus and the power of His Holy Spirit is the source of all holiness and wisdom, a human moral system cannot do this. A Christian morality that is based on this total approach to Scripture brings man into a personal union with Christ through faith. Through faith in Christ man’s inner most being is transformed, there is a death to self and a rebirth as a new man in Christ. As a new man in Christ there is a conversion or a metanoia, what Thomas Merton in his book Contemplative Prayer calls that deep change of heart in which we die on a certain level of our being in order to find ourselves alive and free on another, more spiritual level. St. Paul recognizes the opposition between this choice of either life in the flesh of the old man or life in the spirit of the new man when he says in Ephesians 4:22-24, Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. St. Paul is speaking to the heart and soul and defines an interior sense of morality based on an inner spiritual conversion where one abandons their ordinary human life and commits to following and imitating the life of Christ.
Any definition of moral theology must recognize that the true source of moral theology and Christian ethics is rooted in Sacred Scripture and especially the New Testament Gospel of Christ. Only through the total approach to Scripture can man understand his origins and God’s plan for man’s salvation. The essence of moral theology is therefore this biblical call of man to make the right choices by following Christ and to seek the highest good, which is God. This leads man to live a moral life according to Christ and brings him to his final destiny of eternal life in the Kingdom of God. (Ronald L. Fournier © 2009)
