Study Questions for Final Exam

You will have to answer #8 and three other questions


1. Drawing on the material covered in the second half of the course, lay out the basic elements of Christian moral theory. Indicate briefly what such a theory has to say about (i) the ultimate end or purpose of human existence, (ii) our starting point, (iii) the means for getting from where we start from to our ultimate end, and (iv) faith (or authority) and reason as sources of moral knowledge.

2.  Reflecting on the story of the rich young man in the synoptic Gospels, show how Christian moral theory attempts to bring together two possible goals of the moral life that have seemed to many philosophers to conflict with one another, viz., (a) the attainment of genuine human happiness or fulfillment and (b) conforming one's will to the will of God (or, alternatively, obedience to the moral law).

3.  According to Christian moral theory, our road to fulfillment essentially requires God's healing and elevating us through grace. Describe what this grace does to us and briefly describe the way in which the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) which flow from this grace enable us to participate in the very life of the Blessed Trinity.  In your answer, be sure to say something intelligent about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

4. One popular modern conception of human freedom is that freedom is our ability as autonomous individuals to do what we want to do and the ability, in effect, to create the standards of good and evil by our choices.  So conceived, freedom is in conflict with any law--including God's law--that is imposed on us and constrains our choices from without.  Even when such constraints are justifiable, they impede, rather than enhance, our freedom and moral autonomy.  In Veritatis Splendor Pope John Paul rejects this conception of freedom or moral autonomy as fallacious and detrimental to human flourishing. He claims, to the contrary, that obedience to genuine or true law actually enhances human freedom and is not, as is sometimes charged, 'heteronomous'. Explain his argument for this claim and lay out the alternative conception of freedom and law that undergirds it.

5. Explain the fundamental ideal set forth by the Christian view of conjugal (or married) love, and show how, given this view, the Christian prohibition of sexual intercourse outside of marriage makes sense. Your answer should include a discussion both of the idea that sexual intercourse is a special form of self-giving and of the idea that married love is analogous to the love between Christ and the Church. Then discuss the following quotation from an article entitled "In Defense of Sexual Promiscuity":

    "The Catholic view of sexuality, with its inhuman demand for fidelity and commitment to a single person, has been a great source of oppression. Commitments are chains that bind us to some and exclude us from others. Full sexual growth requires, to the contrary, a liberation from emotional ties and the freedom to engage without guilt in physically and emotionally pleasureable activities. Only thus can we achieve true sexual maturity."
6. Non-Christian philosophy, as represented by (a) Cicero's Hortensius, (b) Manicheanism, (c) Academic skepticism, and (d) the writings of the "Platonist philosophers" played a major role in Augustine's intellectual and spiritual journey toward the Catholic faith. In each of these four cases, show what new horizons the philosophers in question opened up for Augustine and also explain why in the end he found their doctrines too limited to provide a satisfying worldview in their own right.

7. Ponder the following passage from Book 6 of Augustine's Confessions and explain both (a) its significance in Augustine's ongoing personal search for wisdom and (b) its general implications for the question of how faith and authority (i.e., an affective commitment to Christ in the Church as a teacher) are related to reason:

    "From this time on I found myself preferring the Catholic doctrine, realising that it acted more modestly and honestly in requiring things to be believed which could not be proved, than the Manichees, who derided credulity and made impossible promises of certain knowledge and then called upon men to believe so many utterly fabulous and absurd things because they could not be demonstrated. Next, Lord, with gentle and most merciful hand You worked upon my heart and rectified it. I began to consider the countless things I believed which I had not seen, or which had happened with me not there .... [Now during this time] I always believed that You exist and that You have care for us .... Thus, since men had not the strength to discover the truth by pure reason and therefore we needed the authority of Holy Writ, I was coming to believe that You would certainly not have bestowed such eminent authority upon those Scriptures, unless it had been Your will that by them men should believe in You and in them seek You."
8. [Note: You will have to answer this question.] On the basis of the readings, lectures, and discussions in this course, give an intelligent assessment of Bertrand Russell's paper "Why I am not a Christian". (See http://www.nd.edu:80/~afreddos/courses/264/whynot.htm .)