What is christian moral theology?

Question

is christian moral theology different from moral theology (or does it have a slightly different sense?) please provide sources...;p

Answer 1

it is christian ethics.
Christian ethics developed while early Christians were subjects of the Roman Empire. Christians eventually took over the Empire itself. Saint Augustine adapted Plato, and later, after the Islamic transmission of his works, Aquinas worked Aristotelian philosophy into a Christian framework.

Christian ethics in general has tended to stress grace, mercy, and forgiveness; it stresses doubt in human (as opposed to divine) judgement. It also codified the Seven Deadly Sins. For more see Christian philosophy and the Seven virtues.

Paul teaches (Rom., ii, 24 ff) that God has written his moral law in the hearts of all men, even of those outside the influence of Christian revelation; this law manifests itself in the conscience of every man and is the norm according to which the whole human race will be judged on the day of reckoning. In consequence of their perverse inclinations, this law had become, to a great extent, obscured and distorted among the pagans; Christian understand their mission as, to restore it to its pristine integrity. The New Testament generally says that all moral rules follow from the duty to love God with all one's self and one's neighbor as oneself. The sense that "follow" has in this claim is, however, controversial. Ecclesiastical writers, as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine of Hippo all wrote on ethics from a distinctly Christian point of view. Interestingly, they made use of philosophical and ethical principles laid down by their Greek (pagan) philosopher forbears.

The Church fathers had little occasion to treat moral questions from a purely philosophical standpoint and independently of Christian Revelation; but in the explanation of Catholic doctrine their discussions naturally led to philosophical investigations.

This is particularly true of Augustine, who proceeded to thoroughly develop along philosophical lines and to establish firmly most of the truths of Christian morality. The eternal law (lex aeterna), the original type and source of all temporal laws, the natural law, conscience, the ultimate end of man, the cardinal virtues, sin, marriage, etc. were treated by him in the clearest and most penetrating manner. Hardly a single portion of ethics does he present to us but is enriched with his keen philosophical commentaries. Late ecclesiastical writers followed in his footsteps.

A sharper line of separation between philosophy and theology, and in particular between ethics and moral theology, is first met with in the works of the great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, especially of Albertus Magnus (1193–1280), Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), Bonaventure(1221-1274), and Duns Scotus (1274–1308). Philosophy and, by means of it, theology reaped abundant fruit from the works of Aristotle, which had until then been a sealed treasure to Western civilization, and had first been elucidated by the detailed and profound commentaries of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas and pressed into the service of Christian philosophy.

The same is particularly true as regards ethics. Thomas, in his commentaries on the political and ethical writings of Aristotle, in his Summa contra Gentiles and his Quaestiones disputatae, treated with his wonted clearness and penetration nearly the whole range of ethics in a purely philosophical manner, so that even to the present day his words are an inexhaustible source from which ethics draws its supply. On the foundations laid by him the Catholic philosophers and theologians of succeeding ages have continued to build.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, thanks especially to the influence of the so-called Nominalists, a period of stagnation and decline set in, but the sixteenth century is marked by a revival. Ethical questions, also, though largely treated in connection with theology, are again made the subject of careful investigation. We mention as examples the great theologians Vitoria, Dominicus Soto, L. Molina, Suarez, Lessius, and De Lugo. Among topics they discussed was the ethics of action in case of doubt, leading to the doctrine of probabilism. Since the sixteenth century special chairs of ethics (moral philosophy) have been erected in many Catholic universities. The larger, purely philosophical works on ethics, however do not appear until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as an example of which we may instance the production of Ign. Schwarz, "Instituitiones juris universalis naturae et gentium" (1743).

Far different from Catholic ethical methods were those adopted for the most part by Protestants. With the rejection of the Church's teaching authority, each individual became on principle his own supreme teacher and arbiter in matters appertaining to faith and morals. The Reformers held fast to the Bible as the infallible source of revelation, but as to what belongs or does not belong to it, whether, and how far, it is inspired, and what is its meaning — all this was left to the final decision of the individual.

Philipp Melanchthon, in his "Elementa philosophiae moralis", still clung to the Aristotelean philosophy; so, too, did Hugo Grotius, in his work, "De jure belli et pacis". But Cumberland and his follower, Samuel Pufendorf, moreover, assumed, with Descartes, that the ultimate ground for every distinction between good and evil lay in the free determination of God's will, a view which renders the philosophical treatment of ethics fundamentally impossible.

In the 20th century, some Christian philosophers, notably Dietrich Bonhoeffer questioned the value of ethical reasoning in moral philosophy. In this school of thought, ethics, with its focus on distinguishing right from wrong, tends to produce behavior that is simply not wrong, whereas the Christian life should instead be marked by the highest form of right. Rather than ethical reasoning, they stress the importance of meditation on and relationship with God.

Answer 2

Probably very similar to Muslim. The one big difference is that Muslims can fight and even kill if there's a strong enough moral case for it; that is in their belief system like. Christians aren't alowed to kill period. Apart from that most things are the same, stealing etc, adultery, all outlawed. Or it used to be, but now that women don't need men anymore, and now that women initiate 93% of divorces, then adultary is fine. - but as we're a dying breed it matters little to the world. [you can't abuse men and expect the world to flourish.]

Answer 3

moral theology is more of a general term because other religions each have their own moral theologies.... christian moral theology..well.. it simply is the moral theology in christian standards...

Answer 4

Theology -- study of God
moral -- how one should live
Christian -- follower of Christ.

As a follower of Christ, we look to God (via revelation) on how we should live.

The are other meanings, but this should be the basis (centered).

In other words, it starts with God, fulfilled by Christ, and it guides us with our daily actions.

Answer 5

An oxymoron.