Christ and the Moral Life

Review Questions for the Final Exam

16. Creation, History, and Meaning

Click links below to get questions on the following two reading selections:

1. Oliver O'Donovan, Resurrection and Moral Order, "Created Order"

2. William Carroll, Creation and Science

17. Respecting the Created Order

1. Please describe Robert Sokolowski's distinction between "human purposes" and "natural ends."

2. Please explain what Josef Pieper (interpreting Thomas Aquinas) means by "right."  Distinguish this notion of "right" from the modern notion of an "inalienable right."

3. What is the relationship between "right" (as Aquinas understood the term) and "justice"?  What is the ultimate yardstick of justice?

4. What, according to Cicero, are the natural ends human beings share with other animals?  What are the ends that are "proper" (uniquely belong to) human beings?  What consequences does Cicero draw from this analysis of human nature?  How does this analysis lead to his discussion of the cardinal virtues?

18. Human Nature and Human Flourishing: Body and Soul

1. What does the article "The Magic of Touch" suggest about the bodily character of human beings?

2. What does the article "Healing and the Mind" suggest about the mental and spiritual character of human beings?

3. What do the Genesis creation accounts (Genesis 1 and 2) tell us about the bodily and spiritual character of human beings?  Does that claim make any sense given the discoveries of modern science and medicine?

4. What, according to Hubert Dreyfus, is missing from “virtual” experiences?

5. Why, according to Dreyfus, can nurses not just be taught by means of live, interactive video distance learning: that is to say, by watching a video of a doctor who has a camera strapped to his head so that the video shows everything the doctor sees?

6. Why can’t football players learn what they need to do on the field simply by watching hours of film about the other team?  What is missing?

19. The Passions

1. Describe Plato’s “Allegory of the Chariot” from the Phaedrus.  Please discuss the interpretation of the allegory that suggests the passions are completely bad, and then discuss the interpretation that puts the passions in a more positive light.

3. According to Thomas Aquinas, is the Old Law binding on all people at all time?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?  What threefold distinction helps Thomas to answer this question?

4. What sort of reply might a Christian give to the criticism that the moral commandments found in his or her tradition are not particularly original — that, indeed, they are to be found in other religions and moral traditions throughout the world?

5. If everyone can know the natural law by the light of his or her natural reason, they why do we need the Ten Commandments?  Why is our reason not a sufficient guide to what is right and wrong?

6. According to Thomas Aquinas, what are the two "first and common" principles of the moral law, which are intuitively known by all people?  Does Thomas have any scriptural warrants for suggesting that these are, in fact, the first principles of all the Law of the Old Testament?

7. According to Thomas Aquinas, what are the "simple judgments, of which even the unlearned are capable" that are derived from the two first and common principles of the moral law?  Please list these in order!

8. According to Thomas Aquinas, are there any other moral precepts in the Old Law other than the two first and common precepts and the Ten Commandments of the Law?  If so, name two.

9. According to Thomas Aquinas, all the precepts of the Old Law should be seen as applications of what basic principles?

10. Keeping in mind the two first and common principles of the moral law, what should we say about all the other precepts of the Old Law?  How should we view them?

11. If we observe the requirements of the Ten Commandments, but we do so not out of love, but out of fear (or greed, or pride), have we, according to Thomas Aquinas, really fulfilled the law?  In other words, is the mode of charity required by the law?

12. According to Thomas Aquinas, of what two things is man proud?  How does God cure our pride over each?

13. What's the basic problem with the written law?  To what element of the human person does a written law appeal?  What can happen with laws that are apprehended only in this way?

14. The traditional Catholic position is that the truths of faith and the truths of reason cannot ultimately contradict, because the One God, who is both Creator and Revealer, is the Author of both.  How would this principle apply to the relationship between the Ten Commandments and what our natural reason tells us is good.?

15. Why should we consider the moral law — as revealed in the Bible and given to us by God through the light of natural reason —  as a gift and not as a burden?  Did the Jewish tradition view it as a gift or a burden?

 
23. The Ten Commandments

1. Does Thomas Aquinas hold that there are other moral precepts in the Old Law (the Mosaic Law) beyond the Ten Commandments?  Please be able to give three clear examples.

2. Thomas Aquinas argues that the so-called "judicial precepts" of the Old Law are precepts of the positive law:  rules made that applied to the Jewish people during the time before the coming of Christ, but not necessarily in the same way now.  That is to say, they are not universally binding the way the basic precepts in the Ten Commandments are.  Do they, therefore, have no value for us in the modern world?  Explain and give several examples.

3. What secondary precepts does one find in The Catechism of the Catholic Church related to the commandment "You shall not murder"?

4. What secondary precepts does one find in The Catechism of the Catholic Church related to the commandment against adultery?

5. What secondary precepts does one find in The Catechism of the Catholic Church related to the commandment "You shall not lie"?

6. What point does Langdon Gilkey make in The Shantung Compound that can help us understand the relationship between the love of God and the love of neighbor --- between "faith" (as Gilkey understands it) and the moral life?

24. The Virtues

Magda and the Great Virtues”

1. What are some of the dispositions that allowed the villagers of Le Chambon to save Jews during the Second World War?  Compare these to the dispositions that allowed the "ordinary men" of Reserve Police Battalion 101 to kill Jews during the Second World War?

2. How might we say the Kingdom of God was made present in the village of Le Chambon when they rescued Jews during the Second World War?

3. Describe each of the cardinal virtues and what role it would have played in helping the villagers of Le Chambon save Jews during the Second World War.  (In particular, you will want to note the role of prudence in forming the other three virtues.)

4. Describe each of the theological virtues and what role it might have played in helping the villagers of Le Chambon save Jews during the Second World War.  (In particular, you will want to note the role of charity as the form of all the other virtues, including the cardinal virtues.)

5. At one point in his chapter, author Philip Hallie repeats the slogan: “If there is room in the heart, there is room in the home.”  What does Hallie means when he insists that things are not always that easy?  Explain in terms of the virtues.  In a related vein, why is it often not sufficient to say that Christian morality can be summed up in one word:  love?  (In your answer, you will want to include material from Hallie's article, but also insights gained reading about Aeneid and Dido and St. Augustine and his mistress.)

6. The article you read was entitled “Magda and the Great Virtues.”  What are the “great virtues,” and what distinguishes them from the “little virtues”?  What relevance does this point have to our understanding of the true nature of the virtue of prudence?

8. How does Pieper describe the virtue of prudence?

9. How does he describe the virtue of justice?

10. How does he describe the virtue of fortitude?

11. How does he describe the virtue of temperance?

12. How does he describe the role of the virtue of faith?

13. How does he describe the role of the virtue of hope?

14. How does he describe the role of the virtue of love?

16. How might the virtue of prudence informed by faith, hope, and charity differ from prudence not informed by charity?

17. How might justice informed by charity differ from justice not informed by charity?

25. Sin and the Failures of Character

1. In what way, according to Fr. Roch, does sin bring about a threefold alienation?  Describe each of the ways in which it alienates us and why.

3. What reasons did the “ordinary men” of Reserve Police 101 give for not stepping out and refusing to kill Jewish woman and children in Jozefow, Poland?  Compare the dispositions that would have led them to make these excuses with the dispositions that allowed the villagers of Le Chambon to save Jewish refugees? 

4. What are the key factors which, according to author David Blumenthal, make the doing of good and the doing of evil banal or dull-and-ordinary?  Please explain each.  (You need to pay attention to the twofold structure of this chapter.)

5. If we took Blumenthal’s account seriously, what sort of education would we be giving our students at UST to try to ensure that they would act more like the villagers of Le Chambon and less likely to act like the “ordinary men” of Reserve Police Battalion 101 (especially given that our motto used to be “training leaders of faith and character” and is now "Be your bold self: Become the best version of yourself")?  What is the "best version of yourself"?  What would that version of you do in these situations?  Is UST helping you to become that version of you?
 

26. Grace and Charity

1. Consider again this questions:  What's the basic problem with the written law?  To what element of the human person does a written law appeal?  What can happen with laws that are apprehended only in this way?  What help does Thomas Aquinas think God offers? 

2. In the article on grace, the author states that “the Christian message” involves the claim that “salvation does not come from the world but is nonetheless the salvation of the world.”  Explain in relation to each of the following important concepts:

a) The “new creation” (redemption) does not violate the first.

b) Nature and God are not contraries.

c) Grace does not violate nature, but perfects it.

d) Grace does not violate the law, but perfects it.

e) The New Testament (and New Covenant) does not negate the Old, but perfects it.

3. How does this discussion of grace help reinforce the view we found in the section of "Created Order" in Oliver O'Donovan's book Resurrection and Moral Order?

4. Discuss how, according to the article, our redemption and our salvation consists in our participation in the life of the Spirit and the Triune God.

5. Discuss the article’s account of the notion of “justification by faith.”  How is it to be understood as a transformation of life?  How are we transformed? 

 
6. How might this notion of grace, in conjunction with the idea of history we examined above, help us think about the role of grace in a fallen world?  How might it help Christians think about their role in a fallen world and a world of "unbelievers"?

7. Does the Catholic Church claim that the Church is "necessary for salvation"?  Does the Catholic Church claim that all non-Catholics and atheists are going to hell?  Is it the case that the Church argues that all religions are just as good as one another and that salvation for non-Christians comes by their following their own religion faithfully?  If the Church holds that non-Christians are not necessarily going to hell, why does the Catholic Church continue its efforts at evangelization?  Is "evangelization" just for people who were born Catholic?

8. Josef Pieper ("Prudence and Charity") poses this conundrum.  "No moral virtue is possible without prudence."  And yet, it is also true that "Without the moral virtues there is no prudence."  Only the prudent man can be just, brave, and temperate; yet he who is not already just, grave, and temperate cannot be prudent.  How does Pieper resolve this seeming contradiction?  What is needed for people to become virtuous?

9. From what source, according to Josef Pieper, does the original desire for the good take its energy?

10. The will to do the good is an important prerequisite, but what, according to Pieper, determines the content of a prudent decision?  Why is it important that the will to do the good comes first? 

12. What are the "seven gifts of the Holy Spirit"?

27. Prudence

1. How, for James C. Scott, does the story of Squanto's advice to the early New England settlers help illustrate his concept of mētis?  How is this knowledge different from scientific knowledge?

2. Explain what Scott means by "the art of the locality."

3. What, according to Scott, is the relation between episteme [eh-piss-TAY-may] (scientific knowledge), technē (technical skill), and mētis?  How are they related?  How are they different?

4. How does Scott contrast practical knowledge with scientific explanation?

5. Why, according to Scott, are there some areas in which learning must be "learning beyond the book"?

6. Why, according to Scott, is it wrong to think of "tradition" and "practical knowledge" as rigid, fixed, and unchanging?

7. What social contexts are beneficial to the preservation and development of mētis, and which are destructive of it?

8. Why, according to Scott, would it be a serious error to believe that the destruction of mētis was merely the inadvertent and necessary by-product of economic progress?  What replaces mētis?

9. What is Scott's warning against "imperial knowledge"?  Is he against science?  If not, what is he warning against?

10. What can we learn from this chapter that might be valuable in our understanding of the virtue of prudence and how to develop it?

11. How does Josef Pieper describe the virtue of prudence (in this longer treatment of prudence)?

29. The Beatitudes and the Lesson of the Martyrs

The Beatitudes

1. As Pope Benedict XVI points out: "The Beatitudes are not infrequently presented as the New Testament's counterpart to the Ten Commandments, as an example of the Christian ethics that is supposedly superior to the commands of the Old Testament."  What is the Pope's response to this thesis?

2. Discuss Pope Benedict's understanding of the relationship between the Beatitudes and texts such as those found in Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17.7-8.

3. According to Pope Benedict: "What the Beatitudes in Luke's Gospel present as a consolation and a promise, Paul presents as the lived experience of the apostle."  Please explain what the Pope means.

4. "The paradoxes that Saint Paul experienced in his life," says the Pope, which correspond to the paradoxes of the Beatitudes, thus display the same thing that John expresses in yet another way."  Please explain.

5. Consider once again the previous two questions.  "This reflection upon Paul and John," says the Pope, "has shown us two things."  What are they?

6. On p. 74, the Pope makes the following comment: "the Beatitudes present a sort of veiled interior biography of Jesus, a kind of portrait of his figure."  Please explain.

7. Please be ready to discuss the Pope's interpretation of each of the following Beatitudes:

(a) Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God.  Consider especially the following:

i. According to Pope Benedict, it was no longer possible for Israel to maintain the older vision according to which the righteous prosper and poverty is a consequence of a bad life.  Now Israel recognized that its poverty is exactly what brings it close to God.  Explain the notion of poverty underlying this statement.
ii. Pope Benedict suggests that there is a relationship in the Jewish world between piety and poverty.  Explain the notion of piety and poverty exemplified in characters such as Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna, Zachariah and Elizabeth, and the shepherds of Bethlehem.
iii. Connect this Beatitude with Paul's notion of "justification."   
iv. What, according to Pope Benedict, does St. Francis teach us about possessions?

(b) Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

i. Who in the Old Testament is described as "meek"?  Who in the New Testament is characterized by his actions as "meek"?
ii. How, according to Pope Benedict, is Jesus's kingship different from the kings of the earth?
iii. What, according to Pope Benedict, is "the promise of the land" in this Beatitude?

(c) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

i. The promise of the previous Beatitude was, according to Pope Benedict's interpretation, that Christ would bring peace.  This Beatitude deals with "peacemakers."  If there is to be peace in the world, where must there be peace first?  How does this consideration help link the current Beatitude with the previous one?
ii. Consider this counter-cultural claim.  According to Pope Benedict, "When men lose sight of God, peace disintegrates and violence proliferates to a formerly unimaginable degree of cruelty."  Which is it?  Does religion cause war and violence?  Or is violence the result when we turn away from God (especially from the mind-set embodied in Beatitudes I and II)?

(d) Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

i. What are the two types of mourning described by Pope Benedict?  Which is the sense of mourning being used in this Beatitude?
ii. How do Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene offer the perfect example of "those who mourn"?  (Please don't simply say "because they wept for Jesus."  The answer begins there;  but you must go further.)
iii. Please explain how this Beatitude affirms the opposite of an attitude of cynicism toward the world's suffering.

(e) Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

i. Pope Benedict's exposition of the previous Beatitude ends with praise for those who resolve to suffer evil rather than giving in to it (they are the ones who "mourn").  That brings him naturally to this Beatitude: those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.  Explain the relationship Pope Benedict describes between "mourning" and "righteousness."  With regard to this topic, explain first, what "righteousness" is?  Second, why does "righteousness" tend to lead to "persecution" and thus to "mourning"?
ii. Why is this Beatitude very much like the Beatitude that says "Blessed are you when they persecute you and speak every kind of evil against you in my [Jesus's] name"?

(f) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

i. Pope Benedict says:  "This Beatitude describes those who are not content with things as they are and refuse to stifle the restlessness of heart that points man toward something greater."  Please explain what he means.

(g) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

i. What, according to Pope Benedict, is "the organ for seeing God"?
ii. Pope Benedict says, "If you say, ‘show me your God,' I should like to answer you, ‘show me the man who is in you.'" Please explain what he means and how it relates to this Beatitude?
iii. Pope Benedict asks:  How is man's inner eye purified?  What is his answer?
iv. What, according to Pope Benedict is the "precondition" for seeing God?  The "ascent to God," he says later on, "occurs precisely" in what?  Please explain.

8. Has Pope Benedict supported the thesis that the Beatitudes are NOT at odds with the Ten Commandments?  Please explain.

9. In the Gospel of Luke, the four Beatitudes that Jesus presents are followed by four proclamations of woe.  What are they?  Pope Benedict asks: "Are these things really so bad?"  What is his answer?  (Please don't answer, "Yes, they're bad because Christians shouldn't like money or pleasure now; they should look forward to heaven."  That's just too shallow, and it's not what the Pope says.  So please just read the text!  What he says might surprise you.)  In this regard, the Pope discusses what he calls "the fundamental Christian option."  Please describe what he means.

The Lessons of the Martyrs

1. Is authentic Christian martyrdom life-denying?  Do martyrs seek out punishment and suffering?  What light is thrown on this question by the lives of St. Polycarp and St. Thomas More?

2. What, according to John Paul II is the lesson of the martyrs.  What challenge do they pose for us, even those of us who are not being asked to sacrifice our lives?