Moral Theology Final Test Reflection

Name   : Marie-Louise CW    

Std. #  : 141214047               

MORAL THEOLOGY FINAL TEST REFLECTION

            First of all, I want to say thank you to God who has led me to do this assignment. God also leads me to be a better person by learning Moral Theology this semester. Besides giving skills to the students, Sanata Dharma University also gives some courses that help the students to develop their personalities which are expected to be a provision for their future.

            When the first time I got this course, I was so challenged because of the lecturer used English as the introduction of the course. It was so difficult. However, this course had helped me to develop both of my personality and my English. In group, we made two papers about basic moral and special moral then we presented those in front of our friends in English. Our group got Voluntariness and Responsibility for basic moral and Gender Equality for special moral which is included in moral of sexual.

            Moral is goodness or badness as human being. It can be evaluated based on norm. Look to the human’s actions then evaluate the acts whether the acts are proper to the human being or not. However, ethics is about right or wrong in act as human being. You have to obey the norm and rules so that people can evaluate if your acts are right or wrong.

            Moral theology is the concerns of a general or fundamental nature as well as those of a particular or special nature. Moral theology is a particular expression of systematic theology which focuses on the implications of faith for the way we live. However, moral philosophy is the reflection on the nature of the moral life and what constitutes right and wrong behavior without any reference whatsoever to God revelation and to Christian beliefs.

            Human act is the free voluntary acts of man. The acts are done with knowledge and consent. Without knowledge and consent, there can be no human act. Acts which are proper to man as man because, of all animals, he is the only one who has knowledge and freedom of will. Acts, which we are conscious, are under our control and responsibility. Human acts are those of which man is master, which he has the power of doing or not doing as he pleases.

            Conscience is the practical judgment of reason upon an individual act as good and to be performed, or as evil and to be avoided. When conscience is a judgment in accordance with facts, it is correct or true. When conscience is an altogether firm and assured judgment, it is called certain conscience.

            There are some kinds of special moral. There are moral of life, moral of sexual, moral of marriage, and moral of social. Each kind of special moral has its own cases.

Moral of life has death penalty and contraception as the cases. Death penalty is one of the acts that show how people do not respect the life given. Although the accused cannot be forgiven by any punishment besides death penalty, human must not decide when the accused should be dying. Contraception is one of the ways to reduce the number of births. On the other hand, contraception that is permitted by Christian beliefs is natural contraception.

Moral of sexual has sexual fantasy and gender equality as the cases. Everyone experiences how sexual fantasy can make them satisfied. It is natural but it is morally wrong. For gender equality, people are invited to respect each other especially between man and woman. Woman was created from man’s rib. Both woman and man have the same standing. They have their own works but they still in the same line, God’s creation.

Moral of marriage has divorce as the case. Divorce nowadays is like a habit that is happened when the things in a marriage go wrong. A couple will not fix the things and maintain the marriage but they destroy it like no loves ever be added in their relationship. Divorce is forbidden for Christians. A marriage only can be separate by death. What is united by God cannot be separated by human.

Moral of social has corruption, poverty, and environment as the cases. Corruption that is happening now is so apprehensive. Corruptors take the things that must not be theirs. The poverty is also apprehensive. Besides it is a sadness to see the poor people, sometimes the poverty is happened to them who do not want to seek them for work. The environment is also one of our concerns now. Illegal logging and global warming are the examples of cause-and-effect of the damages caused by human.

Moral Theology class has led me to be a better person by the invitation from the lecturer to pay attention to the groups presenting in front of the class, to ask some questions from the presentations, and to answer the questions given when my group presented our presentation. I was not an active student in the class. I asked when it was my turn. I could not fully pay attention to the presentations presented. I thought that my group was not comfortable enough because of ‘someone’ that I could not talk to. However, although it needed two times revisions of our paper, finally our group could get a good score for Gender Equality paper.

Finally, although my score in midterm test was not good, I still try my best to do this take home final test. It is not a perfect reflection but this is the lesson that I can share. Life is not only about theory, but also about the balance between acts and theory. Thank you for the lesson given. God bless.