Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 82 No. 3, 2012.
Original scientific paper
Paul’s Moral Doctrine
Ivan Dugandžić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Paul’s ethical doctrine is closely related to the Gospel and founded on Christology. It is contained almost exclusively in the Apostle’s cautionary sentences. The motive behind his caution is a new life that is given to Christians by the mercy of God in Baptism. The Apostle reminds the people of the greatness of that gift so that they may not fall into a life of sin. The true aim of the warning is not just to warn the people of their faults in their moral behaviour or to correct already established Christian communities faced with the constant threats of the world, but to enable them to grow in faith. Even though the threats of the world are sufficient reason for Paul to call Roman Christians not to adapt to the world he does not tell them to withdraw from that world but to accept it with love and to give themselves to God in sacrifice in order to save the world (cf. Rm 12). He describes this as Christian servitude in the world in which a Christian life unfolds. That sort of behaviour could be comprehended and accepted even by non-Christian thinking. In today’s atheistic and secularised world this is the only way for Christians. Perhaps this could be seen as the only possible and acceptable form of New Evangelisation so often referred to in the modern world. In the situation when Christian proclamation has lost its power, can help only the example of a successful life according the Gospel.
Keywords
moral doctrine; apostolic caution; Gospe; philosophical ethics; theological ethics; love; freedom
Hrčak ID:
90424
URI
Publication date:
8.11.2012.
Visits: 1.795 *