Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Moral Truth

The manualist tradition says that there are absolute moral truths and each person fits themselves into the absolute truth come from on high.  Your conscience and situation are of no significance.  Truth is unchanging.  In times past there were differing manualists.  The papacy did not try and point to one or another.  In the 20th century neo-manualists tried to say that there was only one way, and the pope/bishops would tell you what that is.  This idea of church is a church of the hierarchy.  When people say, "What does the church teach,?" they are coming out of this mind-set.  It allows us not to grow up, or mature, or take reponsibility to decide.  It allows us to feel that we are absolutely certain.  If we fail to keep the absolute rule, well, we always have confession.

2 comments:

  1. What appears to be truth can be manipulated - it changes depending on what one knows and where one stands. To give the responsibility for ONE truth over to a group of men, however well intentioned they might be, is frought with the potential for power abuse. History has shown this to be so - in the Church and without. Somehow personal conscience has to factor into moral truth. Is there a name for that tradition?

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