Assessment

Formative Assessment: Online Quizzes 30% + Formative Assessment: Weekly Reflections on Readings 30% + Exam 40%

Module Aims

This module explores the biblical, moral-theological, and magisterial treatments of sin, conversion, and virtue. It considers the reality and nature of sin, the call to conversion of persons, society and the church, and the life of discipleship as growing in moral and theological virtues.

Indicative Syllabus

• Introduction to module, its aims and objectives, and requirements.
• Introduction to moral theology and why sin, conversion and virtue are addressed.
• Penance, the Penitentials, and the history of moral theology
• Sin: in the Bible, in the Catechism and magisterial teaching, in moral theology
• Conversion: in the Bible, in the Catechism and magisterial teaching, in moral theology
• Virtue: in the Bible, in the Catechism and magisterial teaching, in moral theology

Learning Outcomes

• — Recall and relate biblical accounts and moral-theological concepts of sin, including types of sin, gravity of sin, habitual sin (vices), and social sin.
• — Recognise and reproduce the biblical, moral-theological, and magisterial models of conversion, both personal and communal, especially as entailing sequela (following) and imitatio (imitation) Christi, i.e., a life of discipleship.
• — Describe and differentiate traditional and contemporary virtue ethics and the virtues, including the cardinal and theological virtues, along with the personal and communal dimensions for growth in the virtues in the Christian moral life.
• — Examine and assess magisterial documents and works by theologians that have expanded our understanding of sin, conversion, and virtue in recent decades.

Bibliography

• — Barton, John. 2015. “Sin in the Psalms.” Studies in Christian Ethics 28, no. 1 (February): 49-58.
• — Bretzke, James T. 2004. A Morally Complex World: Engaging Contemporary Moral Theology. Collegeville: Liturgical Press.
• — Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1993. Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
• — Conn, Joann Wolski and Walter E. Conn. 1989. “Discerning Conversion.” The Way 64, no. 1 (Spring): 63-79.
• — Connolly, Hugh. Sin. 2002. London: Continuum.
• — Hannon, Patrick. 2005. Moral Decision Making. Dublin: Veritas Publishing.
• — John Paul II. 1984 Reconciliatio et paenitentia. Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
• — Keenan, James, SJ. 2004. Moral Wisdom: Lessons and Texts from the Catholic Tradition. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
• — Mattison III, William C. 2008. Introducing Moral Theology: True Happiness and the Virtues. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press.
• — McDonagh, Enda. 1982. The Making of Disciples: Tasks of Moral Theology. Wilmington: Michael Glazier, Inc.
• — O’Donovan, Oliver. 2015. “Pride's Progress.” Studies in Christian Ethics 28, no. 1 (February): 59-69.
• — Wadell, Paul J. 2002. Becoming Friends: Worship, Justice, and the Practice of Christian Friendship. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press.
• — -----. 2016. Happiness and the Christian Moral Life: An Introduction to Christian Ethics, 3rd edition. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
• — Weaver, Darlene Fozard. 2021. “Sin and the Subversion of Ethics: Why the Discourse of Sin Is Good for Theological Anthropology.” In T&T Clark Handbook of Theological Anthropology, edited by Mary Ann Hinsdale and Stephen Okey, 99-110. London: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark.