MORAL THEOLOGY AND CATHOLIC DECISION MAKING fileMORAL THEOLOGY AND CATHOLIC DECISION MAKING Part V: Life of Virtue ... ÒA virtue is an habitual and Þrm disposition to do ... MORAL

MORAL THEOLOGY AND CATHOLIC DECISION MAKING

Part V: Life of Virtue

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT...especially in morality.


εθικε


VIRTUE ETHICS

Nichomachean Ethics by

Aristotle“So virtue is a purposive disposition,

lying in a mean that is relative to us and determined by a rational

principle, by that which a prudent man would use to determine

it.” (Book II)


HAPPINESS!The true meaning of life.


EUDAIMONIA

“Happiness...no one chooses for the sake of [honour, pleasure, reason] nor, in general, for anything other than itself. . . . Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient,

and is the end of action.”


WHAT GOVERNS THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS?


VIRTUE“A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.” (CCC #1803)


“Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of

intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our

conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life.

The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.” (CCC #1804)


THREE CATEGORIES OF VIRTUE:

✦ Intellectual

✦ Moral

✦ Theological


INTELLECTUAL✦ Understanding

✦ Science

✦ Wisdom

✦ Art

✦ Prudence/Practical Wisdom

✦ These do not make us better people but better at doing our tasks.


MORAL✦ Courage

✦ Temperance

✦ Liberality

✦ High-Mindedness

✦ Civility

✦ Sincerity

✦ Wittiness

✦ “The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love.” (CCC #1804)


THEOLOGICAL

✦ Faith

✦ Hope

✦ Charity/Love


the four cardinal virtues


Cardo = Hinge

• Prudence

• Justice

• Fortitude

• Temperance


moderate the bases of human operations:

• Prudence = Intellect

• Justice = Will

• Fortitude = Irascible Appetite

• Temperance = Concupiscence


Virtue Lies in the MeanTuesday, November 5, 2013

theological virtues

The theological virtues perfect the soul.


As Catholics, we trust in the sure teaching of our mother the Church.

These teachings are ordered to friendship with Christ.

There is an objective framework within which we live that fosters the building up of this friendship: law.

Law is for the sake of forming one’s conscience in order that it might be capable of making decisions.

Decisions always pertain to the same question, “What is the virtuous thing to be done here?”

NEXT WEEK: from discernment to ACTION.


“The Moral Act”Learning and discerning the three parts of all moral action.

TUNE IN NEXT WEEKTHURSDAY, 7 NOVEMBER @ 7PM


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MORAL THEOLOGY AND CATHOLIC DECISION MAKING fileMORAL THEOLOGY AND CATHOLIC DECISION MAKING Part V: Life of Virtue ... ÒA virtue is an habitual and Þrm disposition to do ... MORAL