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Theologian · Contemporary

Servais Pinckaers, OP

1925–2008 · Thomist virtue ethics; renewal of moral theology

Catholic Latin Thomism · Sapiential and spiritual Thomism

Belgian Dominican; professor at Fribourg; consultor to the CDF; a major influence on Veritatis Splendor and the Catechism's moral section.

A Dominican moral theologian whose “The Sources of Christian Ethics” traced how nominalism replaced St. Thomas's morality of beatitude and virtue with a “morality of obligation,” and contrasted Ockham's “freedom of indifference” with Thomas's “freedom for excellence.” He argued that the Sermon on the Mount, the New Law of the Spirit and the virtues, not the casuistry of the manuals, are the heart of Christian ethics.

Why he matters: The theologian behind the virtue-centerd structure of the Catechism's third part and the critique of proportionalism in Veritatis Splendor; he gave Catholic moral theology back its Thomist shape.

School of Thomism · Sapiential and spiritual Thomism

Pieper, Chenu, Pinckaers and Bouyer: Thomas as a spiritual master and a theologian of the Gospel, whose Summa is built on the beatitudes and the gifts of the Spirit, whose ethics is a morality of happiness and virtue, and who ended by calling all he had written straw. The recovery of Thomas's own spirituality against the manuals.

Others in this strand: Josef Pieper, Marie-Dominique Chenu, OP, Louis Bouyer, Dante Alighieri, St. Catherine of Siena

Reading

  • The Sources of Christian Ethics
    Servais Pinckaers, OP · The book that renewed Catholic moral theology.
    Journal
  • Morality: The Catholic View
    Servais Pinckaers, OP · The short version.
    Journal
  • The Pinckaers Reader
    ed. John Berkman and Craig Steven Titus · Key essays on freedom, virtue and the New Law.
    Journal

Documented positions

Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.

Settled teaching Its center Open question Beyond teaching, not condemned Condemned error
I

God and Being · What is, and whence it is.

Can reason know that God exists? Natural theology
Fideism or agnosticism Natural theology
How is God related to the world? Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose? Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism Providence and final causes
Do natures and essences really exist? Realism
Nominalism Realism
God's essence and His energies Absolute simplicity
Essence–energies distinction Absolute simplicity
How should we speak of God? Cataphatic (analogical) way
Apophatic (negative) way Cataphatic (analogical) way
Is 'being' said of God and of creatures in the same sense? Analogy of being
Analogy of being Univocity of being
How does creation speak of God? Between
Natures studied in their own right A book of signs and vestiges
II

Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.

Faith and reason: who has the last word? Between
Rationalism Fideism
Where does knowledge begin? Senses and abstraction
Senses and abstraction Illumination and innate ideas
Is truth objective? Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism Objective truth
Who interprets revelation? Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment Living Tradition and Magisterium
How should Scripture be read? Fundamentalist literalism
Critical reductionism Fundamentalist literalism
What is theology for? A wisdom ordered to loving
A science ordered to knowing A wisdom ordered to loving
Does doctrine develop? A living development
Always the same, in the same words A living development
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift? A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem A gift to be baptized
III

The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.

Is there a spiritual soul? Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain Immortal spiritual soul
Is the body really you? Body–soul unity
Dualism Body–soul unity
Are you free? Free will
Determinism Free will
How fallen is human nature? Between
Totally depraved Basically good
Does nature desire God? Natural desire for the vision of God
Pure nature Natural desire for the vision of God
The body and its desires Between
Contempt for the flesh Desire as its own law
Person and community Between
Individualism Collectivism
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace Defined by consent and identity
What makes you this one and no other? This matter, this body
This matter, this body A positive thisness (haecceity)
What is suffering for? A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved A share in the Cross
IV

The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.

Is morality objective and knowable? Natural law
Relativism Natural law
Why is the good good? Eternal law (intellectualism)
Divine command (voluntarism) Eternal law (intellectualism)
Are some acts always wrong? Intrinsically evil acts
Consequentialism Intrinsically evil acts
Rules or character? Morality of virtue and beatitude
Morality of obligation Morality of virtue and beatitude
What is conscience? Conscience bound to truth
Autonomous conscience Conscience bound to truth
In doubtful cases Between
Rigorism Laxism
What is happiness? Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing Beatitude in God
What is heaven's happiness, at its heart? The intellect's vision of God
The intellect's vision of God The will's love and enjoyment of God
V

Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.

How does grace move the will? Thomist (Bañezian)
Thomist (Bañezian) Molinist
How are we made right with God? Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation Infused, transforming grace
Who can be saved? Strict exclusivism
Strict exclusivism Indifferentism
What is salvation for? Deification
Pardon and escape Deification
Hell and hope The many are lost
The many are lost All will be saved
Would the Word have become flesh had Adam not sinned? Christ came to redeem sinners
Christ came to redeem sinners Christ was willed first (absolute primacy)
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity? Between
The eternal Word made flesh The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI

Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.

Church and state Social kingship of Christ
Laicism Social kingship of Christ
The economic order Between
Socialism Laissez-faire capitalism
Where does authority come from? Authority from God
Social contract Authority from God
Reform or tradition? Guided by tradition
Remake by reason Guided by tradition
The nation and the Church Nation does not matter
Nation or race first Nation does not matter
May the state restrain false religion? Civil liberty for every religion
The confessional state: error has no rights Civil liberty for every religion
Which form of government best suits a Christian people? Democracy and participation
Monarchy and hierarchy Democracy and participation
May a Christian take up the sword? Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
VII

Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.

Liturgical development Receive and develop organically
Reconstruct and innovate Receive and develop organically
Icons and images Veneration of images
Iconoclasm Veneration of images
The way of prayer Discursive meditation
Stillness and the Jesus Prayer Discursive meditation
The procession of the Holy Spirit From the Father and the Son (Filioque)
From the Father through the Son From the Father and the Son (Filioque)
The office of Peter Universal and immediate primacy
Conciliarism Universal and immediate primacy
What do the sacraments do? Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only Efficacious ex opere operato
The Second Vatican Council Between
Reject the Council A new beginning
When the Pope speaks Every word binds
Resist and judge Every word binds
Holy Orders and the Church's constitution A clerical Church
A clerical Church Reformable by the people
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters? The Gospel in each people's own forms
One form everywhere The Gospel in each people's own forms
What are the Eastern Catholic Churches? Sister Churches with their own rights and theology
Rites of the one Roman Church Sister Churches with their own rights and theology
Contemplation or action? Contemplation: the one thing needful
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy Contemplation: the one thing needful

A profile of your philosophical and theological leanings, measured against the settled teaching of the Catholic Church, East and West. It is a tool for examination and reading, not an instrument of judgment.

Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.