The Moral Theology

Summary

The study of the principles of the pursuance of a certain scientific discipline is related over all to the question of its identity, its specificity and that is why also of its separateness from other disciplines. This methodological reflection is very essential for maintaining the unity of the scientific discipline but also for its correct and easier pursuance. When the moral theology is concerned it is particularly essential today because contemporary discussions about postcouncil restoration of this discipline have resulted in the new research for the status of this discipline.

The concern about the identity of the moral theology should be connected with the concern about the future development of this discipline. It depends on the one hand on a better, fuller and more and more integral recognition and utilization of the specific Christian sources. On the other hand it depends also on a bolder utilization of the sources in general as well as also these non-theological which are connected over all with a development of the human sciences. It must not be forgotten that the moral theology as a separate discipline of the scientific reflection on the Gospel, guarding its status as a normative science, can 'cannot be reduced to a body of knowledge worked out purely in the context of the so-called behavioural sciences. The latter are concerned with the phenomenon of morality as a historical and social fact; moral theology, however, while needing to make use of the behavioural and natural sciences, does not rely on the results of formal empirical observation or phenomenological understanding alone' (Veritatis Splendor 111). The aspiration for the development of this scientific discipline can not take no account of the fundamental truth that it still remains the theological discipline, it means it is the science springs from the faith and it is fundamentally connected with the salutary mission of the Church.