Theology
Moral theology is also known as Christian ethics; it is concerned with elucidating as well as identifying the rules and principles which will be used to determine the quality of human behavior during the Christian revolution. It is differentiated from the philosophical subject of ethics which depends on the authority of reasoning and in its daily progress can call sanctions for moral failure. The Catholic moral theology is one among many doctrines that are found in the Catholic Church, it is equated to religious ethics. The sources Catholic moral theology has its sources from the bible, both the New Testament as well as the New Testament.
Pope John Paul II was a Catholic pope in the year 1978 and he was prepared fully to be Catholic and Faithful to ethics. During his introduction, the pope clearly indicated the reasons why he wrote the encyclical. The main reason is to exercise the teaching authority by using a confronting way to the crisis which has developed in the moral theological reflection during the period. His main purpose is to clearly set certain aspects of the church which are very important in dealing with the crisis since the problems which endanger have serious impacts on the moral life of the Christian faith as well as the holy community as well (John 44).
In fact, in his teaching, the pope affirms that they are necessary for reflecting on the communion’s moral teachings. It is with a clear goal of recalling a number of fundamental truths of the Catholic Christians that the risks have long been denied. In his teaching, he stated that the simple occasional as well as limited dissent is an overall as well as a systematic calling which is of traditional doctrine which is on the basis of the anthropological as well as ethical presuppositions. During the presupposition which is less obvious influencing its current thought which by the end it will detach human freedom from its constructive and essential relationship to truth. As a better way of confronting a crisis head, the pope proposes setting forth in regarding the challenges which are being discussed in the rule of moral teaching which is based on the sacred scripture as well as the living apostolic traditions at the same time which sheds on proposing light to the consequences of the dissent which the teaching has met.
The difficulties posed to the traditional families by redefining the meaning of marriage. In his teaching, Pope John Paul devoted a number of series in the second half of 1984 reflecting on Paul VI’s conical human vitae which defends the condemnation of artificial contraception for the married individual or couples. In his general teaching, Pope John Paul condemned the use of artificial contraceptives which have a significant truth to the plan of God. In his discussion about the marital act, he stated that humanity is dealing with nothing other than reading the body language of the body truth as well as what has been previously said in the Biblical teachings. A criterion for a divine plan of faithfulness is the principle of conjugal morality which is taught by the church. In his teachings, the pope appealed to the hierarchical magisterium in human vitae especially in elaborating a complete personality as well as biblical aspects and teaching that are found in the doctrine of human vitae (John 89).
The Pope insisted that there are inseparable connections that are mainly established by God and that man has his own initiative which may not be broken. The proactive, as well as the punitive significance, are both known to be inherent to the marriage act. John accepted the Vatican proposed criterion which is based on human sexual morality on the human activities and personalities. In terms of the theological marriage act, the body shows the value of total self-giving and the innate language expresses a lot of reciprocal in the human body. The wife should be down to earth with her husband as well as be ready to conceive children for her. The issue has raised a number of debates where many believe that the Catholic Christian or believers subject of contraceptives and divorce lie their argument beyond the boundaries lied. Despite the fact that John Paul insisted on the total irrevocable self-gift of the spouses to each other regarding the indissoluble marriage he did not explain the essentiality of love as communion as well as the reciprocity aspects of love in many relationships. By trying to have a clear understanding of what love is all about one must try to understand three crucial things that are communion, mutuality as well as self-gift. Lack of understanding of these three aspects of love that leads to so many marriages breaking down, its cases have increased (John 105).
For many years now the rumor has circulated that the pope’s encyclical was in preparation for declaring the Catholic church bishops in reach the believers on the control of the confront Catholic theologians. A good number believed in the so-called Cologne Declaration which was signed by some Europeans Catholic churches in the year 1989. Due to this act, we can simply say that the shoe of the Pope has gradually started to drop and the thud is getting much softer than the way it was feared to be harder. However, the contraceptive teachings were not mentioned directly to the theologians nor were they told how to use them. However, the mentioning of the contraceptive happened as a by the way or as a passing motion and not anything that was to be discussed openly or wholeheartedly. It was this introduction of lament that in fact created a dissent against the Catholic teachings on moral issues. It was clear that the teachings were occasional as well as limited but it called them in questioning the overall as well as systematic way. The encyclical was targeted at combating the challenge and dissent in challenging the underlying theological as well as philosophical pre-assumption which are stated to be incompatible with the revealed truth (Northouse 34).
The second chapter of the encyclical is the heart of it since it is like a compressed kind of treatise which is fundamental moral of theology. However despite the fact that the pope has been in stating it, he was clear that his intentions were not supposed to impose upon all the believers of any specific theological system, it is, therefore, a less philosophical one. For any individual who is familiar with the Catholic Church during the 20th century, the Catholic might think it is clear and evident that each section has been written with a Neo-Scholastic perspective which they believed has led to the phenomenological personals of philosophies of the school known as Lublin. This perspective clearly shows that it was derived from the Pope’s Dissertation mentor as well as an adviser at the University of Rome which was known to be a conservative one.
In Pope John Paul’s teachings and writings are written with personals and phenology explorations. All the time in the two centuries the pope whether individually or when together with other Bishops have proposed as well as developed a number of moral teaching in regarding the many spheres of human life. In their mission, they, in fact, had a new situation and to support the efforts of humanity with the guaranteed assistance of the spirit of truth. In today’s teaching it is important to reflect on the whole teachings of morality when targeting to recall a specific fundamental truth doctrine which in today’s situation is being denied (Northouse 34).
In chapter two the pope has clearly stated the importance of freedom of law conscience of truth as well as the primary behavior and choice, and lastly the moral act. In this chapter, the pope was specific in stating the purposes as well as identifying the major issues which required to be looked into. This chapter is stated to be a dedicated discernment of specific tendencies in contemporary theology in the light of sound doctrine. In addressing a number of issues such as the principle required for discerning what is contrary may sound doctrine in trying to address the Encyclical to one individual. The chapter is all about discernment of one capable of acknowledging what is said to be legally valuable as well as useful and at the same time pointing fingers at the errors, dangers, and ambiguities. According to John, Paul’s discernment is a nest of the complex as well as diverse issues which are reducible in answering one fundamental question, on the main relationship between the human being as well as the truth.
The human issue is one of the most debated things and it had differently revolved around a contemporary moral reflection that is closely related to curing an issue of human freedom. In order to determine the critical discernment of a number of these tendencies of freedom on the fact, this has been found as a clearer and most authoritative expression in the words of Christ. The popes viewed the relationship between humans and truth and approach it from two perspectives. One perspective is the law of God which is either universal or personal through conscience. The second perspective is freedom. Freedom can lead to immorality. If individuals are not guided on what religious freedom really means they may end up having a number of immoralities that it is clear in this chapter the pope has clearly indicated the relationship between the individuals as well as freedom and the truth. In his writings the holy person in the Catholic theologians clearly that there are a number of referring directly in questioning the morality of hu8man acts where he found it necessary in emphasizing the ethical issue which presupposes as well as expressing anthropology (Northouse 34).
The main argument that was being raised here is the fact that there is a real conflict going on between free choice as well as moral law. The moral law is the one that has brought all this conflict which God is the author of all. It is not in the legalistic sets that the truth was meant in helping human beings achieve good moral choices. However whenever one complies with the morality laws one is able to set the truth on what an individual wants to gain in fulfilling and achieving their dignity. The pope indicated that there are a number of issues that have a greater influence on human autonomy as well as having a sphere in Catholic moral theology. Theologians today have proposed a more radical revision of the relationship between moral acts as well as the persons. The speaking of human fundamental freedom has helped in different freedom of choice which is needed in considering the human actions as well as evaluated.
Works cited
Pope John Paul II. The theology of the body: Human love in the divine plan. Pauline Books & Media, 1997.
Paul II, Pope John. Love and responsibility. Ignatius Press, 1993.
Northouse, Peter G. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications, 2018.
