Thomas Aquinas said that it is better to let a person live outside the church in agreement with their conscience, than to live inside the church in disagreement with their conscience. All church teaching on morality is intended to inform our conscience, but although we are called to live our lives in primacy with our conscience it's important to realize that our conscience sometimes makes mistakes. Christian optimism includes the belief that God became man and lived among us, and in light of the fact that we believe He will come again we believe that human history is capable of doing it again.
Essentially, there are four sources for moral theology; the Bible, natural law, experience, and tradition. Christians in general have relied on the Bible and experience, while Catholics have traditionally relied on all four. Catholics specifically are the faith tradition that uses the "AND" statement, such as scripture AND tradition. It's a bit tricky however; on the one side we would say that a narrow consultation on any subject is a bad idea, while at the same time recognizing that the newest latest document by the bishops may not be the one that holds sway. All four of the sources on moral theology interact. The Bible and tradition are closely related just as natural law and experience are closely related. In fact it's important to realize that the Bible we have today is a product of tradition and that the tradition we have today is a product of scripture. Experience contributes to our understanding of natural law while natural law is a reflection of our experience.
How do we use narratives to tell stories? People tell stories to entertain, build relationships, recall the history of persons or communities, and to highlight the characters and their choices. Narratives tell us how things have come to be, give meaning to symbols and rituals, and communicate values. Repeating stories such as at annual family events helps re-create the family, which in turn helps family members sustain their relationships with each other. Likewise stories have symbols that help us share and sustain moral identity within the family. Stories always have a setting which is built using three essential pieces; characters, choices, and consequences.
Morality is also about characters, choices, and consequences. We listen to a story to understand the characters, so that we can understand their choices, which helps us understand the consequences. It's interesting to note that older stories generally focused on a small number of characters, and weren't necessarily about community. Newer stories generally focus on the nuclear family, but include a larger community component. Stories with evolving promises grow in time, such as the story of God's promise to Abraham and Sarah, which evolved into one that included Hagar and Ishmael. All stories include interesting characters that make interesting choices that result in interesting consequences.
There are basically four varieties of discourse in the Bible. Prophetic discourse is the denunciation and annunciation of events, which are either really good or really bad. Narrative discourse is an appeal to persons and communities, which are symbolic assessments and interpreted experiences specific to a faith community. Ethical discourse is an appeal to a common language, which crosses traditions. Policy discourse is an appeal that seeks a shared way of life within society. These stories teach us what to see, and they have taught us how to make sense of our experiences.
Naturally there are some challenges in understanding these stories. The Bible is not a rule book and asking what the Bible says about ______ (fill in the blank) does not always work. For one thing the Bible is multi vocal and not always harmonious. For another, the world the Bible emerged from had different moral standards from our own. As a result the Bible is not a unique moral source for Christian ethics. It does not always trump and should not be relied on "in all things"; although it does have primacy. An example is the story of slavery which was accepted and permitted when the Bible was written, but is no longer considered moral behavior.
So how do we proceed in our attempt to understand the moral implications found in the Bible? Exegetical analysis is applied to examine and understand the text to help us interpret the Bible. Hermeneutical analysis is applied to understand what the text means for us. Methodological analysis is applied to understand how the text serves as a guide for our lives. Theological analysis is applied to balance the interpretation of specific text with broader theological themes. Obviously, we must be guided by exegesis which is drawing meaning out of the text, rather than by isegesis, which is reading meaning into the text.
No comments:
Post a Comment