How to Order This Course
International
Catholic University
Too often Christian morality as taught by the Catholic Church is presented either as a code of laws legislated by the Church or a dry philosophical argument about the natural law. Sight is lost of the fact that it is the guidance of an all wise and loving Creator who has revealed to us what it is to be truly human according to his marvelous design fully revealed to us in his beloved Son and Mary, his Son's mother. Vatican II called on moral theologians to recover the biblical roots of their disciplines and free it from certain historical accretions and philosophical confusions that had in the course of centuries dimmed its splendor and humanity. Far from compromising with the aberrations of our age, however, such a biblically founded morality can essentially transcend time and place. Yet it requires to be wisely applied to changing circumstances. In this course we will look at some of the problems, and they are not easy, of recovering this biblical teaching in the light of modern scholarship and the latest documents of the Church. The video-taped lectures for this course are 8 in number, with 2 lessons per lecture; 16 lessons total. Required readings and five study questions follow each lesson.
1) Benedict M. Ashley, O.P., Living the Truth in Love: A Biblical Introduction to Moral Theology (Staten Island, NY: Alba House, 1996). The course is based on this book and for additional readings its bibliography is very extensive. [Available in paperback from Amazon for $19.96]
The following two books answer in terms of modern scholarship many of the usual questions that readers have about the modern approach to the Bible as approved by the Church.
2) Raymond E. Brown, Responses to 101 Questions on the Bible (New York: Paulist, 1996). [Available in paperback from Amazon for $7.96]
3) Roland E. Murphy, Responses to 101 Questions on the Biblical Torah (New York: Paulist, 1996).