Moral Theology

Moral Theology is the part of theology that studies of human acts under the light of human reason and divine revelation with the goal of ordering these acts toward the loving vision of God as the full and true beatitude and ultimate end of the human person attained by grace, the virtues and the gifts.

Servais Pinckaers, o.p., Sources of Christian Ethics

 

Fundamental Moral Theology

Fundamental Moral Theology is concerned with the foundations of morality, while Special Moral Theology concerns its practical applications. The division between the two is made at Fribourg according to the tradition inherited from Saint Thomas Aquinas, fundamental morality corresponding to the content of the Prima Secundae of the Summa of Theology and special morality being organized from the Secunda Secundae. The former is taught in the Bachelor's program and the latter in the Master's program. 

 

Sources and collaborations

The Chair of Fundamental Moral Theology belongs to the bilingual Department of Moral Theology and Ethics of the Faculty of Theology and therefore maintains close collaboration with all the other entities of this Department, in particular the French-speaking Chair of Special Moral Theology. Fundamental moral theology mobilizes aspects of philosophical ethics, spirituality and even speculative psychology. It draws on the rich heritage of the Bible, tradition, the Fathers and the great theologians, and is consistent with the Catholic Magisterium in an ecumenical perspective. This discipline is articulated with the other teachings of systematic theology, particularly those of the French-speaking Chairs of Dogmatic Theology. Participating in the center of competence of the Faculty of Theology of Fribourg, which is theology in the Dominican tradition, it makes use of the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the perspective of the School of Salamanca (Montesinos, Las Casas, Vitoria...) to propose an ethics that responds to the challenges of the world and the Church of our time.