Catholic Tradition and Moral Change

天主教传统与道德变革

• 批准号: AH/E001351/1
• 负责人: Julie Clague
• 金额: $ 2.8万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FE001351%2F1
• 关键词: Catholic; Tradition; Moral; Change

The RC Church is doctrinal in character. As such, its self-understanding and identity is in large part shaped by doctrinal content that has proved resistant to historical change (though not immune to it), linked as it is to the idea of a Church in historical continuity with the apostolic tradition. For much of the Church's history, theologians resisted the idea that the so-called 'deposit of the faith' was subject to the forces of history. A key hermeneutical task in the age of historical consciousness has been to understand and theologically justify the doctrinal change that has occurred with regard to faith and morals. The aim of this research study is to address this task with regard to morality.In the modern era, principles of morality have become as important as articles of faith in defining Christian identity. However, there has been considerable change in Catholic moral teachings: what was previously condemned is now approved, and what was previously approved is now condemned. This renders Catholic identity less secure and makes Christian tradition seem subject to historical relativism. This fascinating theological area, and the important issues it raises about faith and history, have never been studied in any adequate depth by moral theologians. The key focus of this research project is the question: how can and should Catholic tradition and moral change be reconciled?The concept of 'doctrinal development' frequently employed to describe the interplay between Catholic tradition and historical change is problematic and inadequate. With Vatican II the development of doctrine emerged as an ecclesiological question that was 'solved' under the hermeneutic of continuity: strategically, doctrinal reversals such as to the right to religious freedom were explained in terms of continuity to Church tradition. The notion of doctrinal development was further sedimented into Catholic tradition through John Paul's appeal (in Veritatis Splendor) to doctrinal development with regard to morals, in which it is linked to a belief in moral progress. As with the notion of doctrinal development, the idea of moral progress offers tantalising theological possibilities, but is also subject to conceptual difficulties.I argue that an alternative understanding of moral change is required which better articulates the historically and culturally conditioned nature of morality. I have chosen to address the issue by drawing on work done on the nature of human knowledge in the disciplines of epistemology and philosophy of science, where the model of paradigm change has been employed. In theology, doctrinal change can occur when alternative paradigms of understanding open up hermeneutical horizons that allow the tradition to been seen anew. This insight has ramifications for theological ideas about the development of doctrine, fidelity to tradition and reception of teaching. The contrasting approaches of Toulmin and Kuhn, while both working from the assumption that conceptual change occurs in models of human knowing, provide useful parallels to the debates about evolutionary and revolutionary change within doctrinal development. To my knowledge this has not been noted before. I believe it offers a fruitful resource for further theological reflection. To imagine history as merely 'one damn thing after another' would be theologically untenable for a Church committed to the idea of the Holy Spirit guiding it towards the truth. Even when a Church admits past error in its teaching, the idea of moral progress need not be jeopardised and the progressivist eschatology that views humankind's faltering advance towards the City of God can remain intact. I would hope that this study will become a resource for understanding contemporary Catholic moral theology, and will go some way to reuniting morality to theology in Catholic studies.

RC教会在性质上是教条主义的。因此，它的自我理解和身份在很大程度上是由教义内容塑造的，这些教义内容已被证明抵制历史变化(尽管不能幸免于历史变化)，因为它与教会与使徒传统保持历史连续性的想法有关。在教会历史的大部分时间里，神学家都反对所谓的“信仰沉淀”受制于历史力量的观点。在有历史意识的时代，一个关键的解释学任务是理解信仰和道德方面发生的教义变化，并从神学上证明这种变化是合理的。这项研究研究的目的是解决这项关于道德的任务。在现代，道德原则在定义基督徒身份时已经变得与信仰条款一样重要。然而，天主教的道德教义已经发生了相当大的变化：以前被谴责的现在被批准，以前被批准的现在被谴责。这使得天主教身份变得不那么可靠，并使基督教传统似乎受制于历史相对主义。这个引人入胜的神学领域，以及它提出的关于信仰和历史的重要问题，从来没有被道德神学家充分深入地研究过。这一研究项目的关键焦点是：天主教传统和道德变革如何以及应该协调一致？经常被用来描述天主教传统和历史变革之间的相互作用的“教义发展”概念存在问题和不足。随着梵蒂冈二世的出现，教义的发展成为一个教会学问题，在连续性的解释学下得到了‘解决’：从战略上讲，教义的逆转，如宗教自由权，是从教会传统的延续性的角度来解释的。教义发展的概念通过约翰·保罗(在《真理辉煌》中)对教义发展的呼吁进一步沉淀到天主教传统中，在道德方面，教义发展与道德进步的信念有关。与教义发展的概念一样，道德进步的想法提供了诱人的神学可能性，但也受到概念上的困难。我认为，需要对道德变化的另一种理解，更好地阐明道德在历史和文化条件下的性质。我选择通过借鉴认识论和科学哲学学科中关于人类知识本质的工作来解决这个问题，在这些学科中，已经采用了范式变化的模式。在神学中，当另一种理解范式打开解释学的视野，允许传统被重新看到时，教义就会发生变化。这一见解对神学关于教义的发展、对传统的忠诚和对教学的接受的思想产生了影响。图尔明和库恩截然不同的方法，虽然都是从人类认知模型中发生概念变化的假设出发的，但也为关于理论发展中的进化性和革命性变化的辩论提供了有用的相似之处。据我所知，以前没有人注意到这一点。我相信它为进一步的神学反思提供了丰富的资源。对于一个致力于圣灵引导它走向真理的想法的教会来说，仅仅把历史想象为一个又一个该死的事情在神学上是站不住脚的。即使当教会承认过去的教义错误时，道德进步的想法也不需要受到损害，认为人类向上帝之城蹒跚前进的进步主义末世论可以保持不变。我希望这项研究将成为理解当代天主教道德神学的资源，并将在天主教研究中重新将道德与神学结合起来。