Outline of Christian Moral Teaching

Part one. General reasoning and provisions on moral Christian life I. Fundamentals of Christian Life 1. The root of the Christian life is in the incarnate economy 1) The removal from us of the guilt of sin and the legal oath, or our justification, cannot take place without the incarnation of God a) Only the God-Man, or God incarnate, could bring a sufficient sacrifice for sin b) Only the works of the God-man can make up for the time of life spent in sin by deeds of righteousness 2) But our renewal, or the giving of new life to us, is also impossible without the incarnation of God 2. The second foundation of Christian life, inseparable from the first, is a living union with the body of the Church, of which the Lord is the head, life-giver and mover. 3. The norm of Christian life 1) The original norm of human moral life b) The question is, what is the path to this goal, or how is a person adapted to it? c) Do the will of God in order to be in communion with God or remain in communion with God by actively fulfilling His holy will 2) The norm of moral Christian life a) Communion with the Lord Jesus Christ d) Grace (co-operating) 3) The norm of moral Christian life and its character II. Characteristics of Christian activity as moral 4. Conditions for the morality of actions - general and Christian 2) Free initiative 5. Production of moral acts 1) Consciousness of the will of God in the work undertaken 2) Inclination of the will to an obligatory matter 3) Prayer as part of Christian deeds 6. How is the moral worth of deeds determined? 1) Subject in moral actions a) About duties or commandments c) About the actions of indifferent 2) About the purpose of moral acts 3) About the circumstances of moral acts 7. Types of morality and ages of moral life in a good and bad direction a) About three types of manifestation of virtue and, firstly, about virtue as the mood of a Christian spirit b) About virtue as various good dispositions c) About virtue as a good deed d) About the ages of virtuous Christian life 3) Sin in three types of its manifestation b) About sin as a disposition c) About sin as a state, or sinful mood d) Ages of sinful life III. Consequences and fruits of a good Christian life and a life opposite to it 8. In what ways does the Word of God depict a true Christian and a non-Christian? 9. The state of the constituent parts of human nature, its essential properties and powers in a true Christian and a sinner. 10. The state of cognitive, desirable, feeling forces in a Christian and a sinner 1) State of cognitive forces a) The state of the highest faculty of cognition or reason c) The state of lower cognitive abilities e) State of memory and imagination f) The state of recollection, or reproductive imagination 2) The state of human active forces c) State of lower desires 3) The state of the sentient forces, or the heart a) About the heart as a point of contact or seat of sympathy b) About the heart as the center of strength of the human being c) The heart as a friend and container of spiritual feelings d) The heart as a container for emotional feelings d) About the lower, sensual-animal feelings Part two. True Christian Life in Action IV. Commandments and rules of life obligatory for a Christian as a Christian 12. Piety - living in the spirit of faith 1) Feelings and dispositions on the path of reunification with God a) Feelings and dispositions on the path of union with the Lord Savior b) Feelings and dispositions on the path of ascent from the Lord Savior to the Trinitarian God 2) Feelings and dispositions of a Christian abiding in God a) Feelings and dispositions towards God arising from the consciousness or contemplation of His infinite perfections b) Feelings and dispositions towards God - from contemplation of His creativity and providence c) Feelings and dispositions - from the contemplation of God, the Perfecter of all things d) Prayer is the container and arena of life in faith and piety d) Education through prayer 3) Communication with God through communication with the Holy Church a) Feelings and dispositions from the attitude towards the Church as a repository of grace-filled means for salvation b) Feelings and dispositions from the attitude towards the Church as the receptacle of the saved and being saved c) How should a Christian maintain and educate himself in order to be in living union with the Church, and through it with God? V. Commandments and rules of life, obligatory for a Christian in those positions and relationships in which he has to find himself in real life 13. Family responsibilities 1) General responsibilities of the whole family 2) Mutual responsibilities of different family members 6) Other, random persons accepted into the family 14. Church duties 4) Responsibilities of monastics 15. Responsibilities of civil society 1) Christianity is the economy of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Since man cannot be saved without God, and God cannot save man without man, the Christian faith teaches, on the one hand, what God did to save man, and on the other, what man himself must do in order to improve salvation. The latter is the subject of Christian moral teaching. He who seeks salvation, enlightened by faith, must have a thorough knowledge of what faith requires of him, how he should live and act as a Christian. 2) Such knowledge can be acquired through reading and listening to the Word of God, the writings of the Fathers, conversations and teachings offered from the church pulpit, and from each other in mutual relationships with Christians. But the surest way to achieve this is to depict Christian life in a general overview, where the various rules of Christian life would be set out in order, in mutual subordination of one to the other and in possible completeness. In this case, the rules of life can be more easily learned and more accurately understood. If you put together all the rules that apply in life, you will find that you are excluding yourself from other demands of Christianity, giving others a false meaning, others limiting them to the conditions of external circumstances - and in general there will be a great confusion in the concepts of the proper Christian life and the proper moral behavior of a Christian. All this is due to the fact that the rules of Christian morality are brought to the attention of people in parts, and separately, another rule may seem very strict, another, allowing for a variety of interpretations and applications. The easiest way to ward off this wrong is by fully depicting the entire Christian moral teaching. And St. Basil the Great in his time noticed a similar confusion in the concepts of moral life, when “everyone autocratically presented his thoughts and principles as the true rule of life, and the deep-rooted customs and traditions of man made it so that some sins were excused, while others were indiscriminately punished; some, apparently small ones, were indignant, while others did not even deserve a slight reprimand.” And therefore, in order to heal this ailment, he considered it necessary to “select from the God-inspired Scripture everything that pleases and displeases man to God, and all the prohibitions and commands scattered in different places, for the easiest understanding, to present collectively in rules, so that it is all the more easy to wean people from acting according to the habit of their will or according to human tradition” (Creations of the Holy Fathers, vol. 9). For the same purpose, the present outline of the image of true Christian life is offered. 3) The life of a Christian is characterized by faith, therefore Christian moral teaching must be characterized by faith. Just as in life faith and works of faith enter into each other, intertwine and mutually assist each other, so in teaching - doctrine and moral teaching should not lose sight of each other. Doctrine has always gone into unnecessary digressions and refinements when it does not adhere to moral goals; and moral teaching took inappropriate directions when it was not illuminated by religious teaching; most importantly, it then did not differ in any way from philosophical moral teaching. The last remark does not hint that speculative moral teaching built on natural principles has no place at all in Christian moral teaching. On the contrary, it is impossible to do without it. Christianity restores our nature and puts it in its proper order. Our nature, thus, serves as the point of departure for the influence of Christianity on it. The same is true in moral teaching - the indication of what a person should be by nature serves as an interpretation of why this and that is required of him if he wants to become his true rank, which is for the purposes of Christian moral teaching. This is our mark everywhere. 4) There is nothing to say much about the sources of Christian moral teaching. They are the same as the sources of doctrine. It is enough to remember that here, in addition to the Word of God and the consistent teaching of St. Fathers of the Church, should be guided especially by the ascetic writings of the ascetic fathers, the lives of saints and church hymns, in which Christian virtues are glorified. The most suitable tool for outlining Christian moral teaching could be Christian psychology. In the absence of it, we had to be content with our own concepts about mental phenomena, with the instructions of our ascetic fathers. 5) Our outline has two parts: the first contains general discussions and provisions about moral and ethical Christian life; and the second sets out the very life of a Christian, as it should be, or proposes rules for the life of a Christian as a Christian and as a person who is sometimes in different states and positions. You might be interested in: