Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE MRT2030

 
TITLE Christian Moral Thought

 
UM LEVEL 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Moral Theology

 
DESCRIPTION Law students following the Theology Stream need to be aware of the Church's response to a wide variety of social and ethical issues in its dialogue with the modern world. This study-unit will present fundamental premises of the Christian life as a growth in virtues, the Catholic understanding of the human person as moral subject, and models of ethical reasoning. It will then go on to focus on a number of contemporary social issues addressed in Catholic Social Teaching, such as human rights, the relationship between the state and the family, the rights and duties of the state, work and the relationship between employer and employee, poverty and development, duties towards the environment and immigration.

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit aims to outline the subjective dimensions and objective qualities of moral reflection, to enable Law students in the Theology stream understand how to make moral decisions after a mature ethical discernment. The study-unit will also discuss contemporary social justice issues from a Christian perspective in dialogue with contemporary secular ethical theory, thus empowering prospective law professionals with the tools needed to identify, discuss and evaluate contemporary issues related to social ethics.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
- articulate a theology of the Christian life as a flourishing towards virtue;
- appreciate the nature of conscience and its formation;
- have a grasp of the various ethical theories used in ethical argumentation;
- appreciate the basic notions of social justice and the issues involved;
- know and interpret the major documents of the Church's teachings on social justice.

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
- appropriate methods of moral reasoning and apply them in their daily life;
- articulate the various ethical theories in the classroom and identify them in life situations;
- analyse arguments on issues of social justice in terms of the theories and concepts involved;
- lead a discussion on issues related to social justice with reference to the teaching of the Church.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

For fundamental Christian Ethics:
- Servais Pinckaers, Morality: The Catholic View. South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine’s Press, 2001.
- Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics, T&T Clark, 1995.
- Timothy E. O’Connell, Principles for a Catholic Morality (Rev. ed.). New York: HarperCollins, 1990.
- Richard M. Gula, Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality. New York: Paulist, 1989.
- Bernard Haring, The Virtues of an Authentic Life: A Celebration of Spiritual Maturity. Liguori, Missouri: Liguori Publications, 1997.

For Catholic Social Thought:
- Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, The Social Agenda: A Collection of Magisterial Texts, Robert A Sirico – Maciej Zieba (eds), Città Del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. (Available online)
- Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2004.
- Coleman John, One Hundred Years of Catholic Social Thought: Celebration and Challenge, New York 1991.
- O’Brien David J – Shannon Thomas A, Catholic Social Teaching: The Documentary Heritage, New York 1992.
- Dwyer Judith A (ed.), The New Dictionary of Catholic Social Thought, Minnesota: 1994.

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Co-requisite Study-unit: The study-unit is NOT to be taken with MRT2010 or MRT3010

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment Yes 50%
Essay Yes 50%

 
LECTURER/S Nadia Delicata
Raymond Zammit

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit