Mar 28, 2024  
2013-2014 Saint Joseph’s College Online 
    
2013-2014 Saint Joseph’s College Online [Archived Catalog]

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TH 505 - Foundations of Moral Theology


This course examines the basic principles of Catholic moral theology. It focuses on the roles of scripture, tradition, and the magisterium in ethical decision making and explores the following themes: freedom, conscience, sin and conversion, natural law, virtues, and moral norms as criteria for ethical judgment.

Assignment Overview
  • Assignments: 6 Units
  • Interactivity: Discussion Board

 

Course Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to do the following: 

  • Describe what faith and reason reveal about the nature of human personhood, especially man as created in the image of God, as bodily and spiritual, and as social. 
  • Explain how Christian moral teaching responds to the basic human question, “How does one attain happiness?” 
  • In the light of metaphysical and moral realism, analyze the prevailing ideology of moral relativism, tracing its sources in Medieval nominalism and describing how it distorts human freedom. 
  • Explain how baptismal insertion into new life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ transforms one interiorly, in terms of both the natural law and the New Law of grace. 
  • Discuss how the virtues perfect the powers of the human soul, enabling the spontaneous embrace of the goods concretely indicated by the Ten Commandments. 
  • Apply moral reasoning to analyze the fate of love and sexuality in a culture of death, showing the intrinsic connection between moral theology and Catholic social doctrine. 


Credits: 3



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