The Collaborative International Dictionary
Moral \Mor"al\, a. [F., fr. It. moralis, fr. mos, moris, manner, custom, habit, way of life, conduct.]
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Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those intentions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects right and wrong, so far as they are properly subject to rules.
Keep at the least within the compass of moral actions, which have in them vice or virtue.
--Hooker.Mankind is broken loose from moral bands.
--Dryden.She had wandered without rule or guidance in a moral wilderness.
--Hawthorne. -
Conformed to accepted rules of right; acting in conformity with such rules; virtuous; just; as, a moral man. Used sometimes in distinction from religious; as, a moral rather than a religious life.
The wiser and more moral part of mankind.
--Sir M. Hale. -
Capable of right and wrong action or of being governed by a sense of right; subject to the law of duty.
A moral agent is a being capable of those actions that have a moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a moral sense.
--J. Edwards. Acting upon or through one's moral nature or sense of right, or suited to act in such a manner; as, a moral arguments; moral considerations. Sometimes opposed to material and physical; as, moral pressure or support.
Supported by reason or probability; practically sufficient; -- opposed to legal or demonstrable; as, a moral evidence; a moral certainty.
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Serving to teach or convey a moral; as, a moral lesson; moral tales.
Moral agent, a being who is capable of acting with reference to right and wrong.
Moral certainty, a very high degree or probability, although not demonstrable as a certainty; a probability of so high a degree that it can be confidently acted upon in the affairs of life; as, there is a moral certainty of his guilt.
Moral insanity, insanity, so called, of the moral system; badness alleged to be irresponsible.
Moral philosophy, the science of duty; the science which treats of the nature and condition of man as a moral being, of the duties which result from his moral relations, and the reasons on which they are founded.
Moral play, an allegorical play; a morality. [Obs.]
Moral sense, the power of moral judgment and feeling; the capacity to perceive what is right or wrong in moral conduct, and to approve or disapprove, independently of education or the knowledge of any positive rule or law.
Moral theology, theology applied to morals; practical theology; casuistry.
Theology \The*ol"o*gy\, n.; pl. Theologies. [L. theologia, Gr. ?; ? God + ? discourse: cf. F. th['e]ologie. See Theism, and Logic.] The science of God or of religion; the science which treats of the existence, character, and attributes of God, his laws and government, the doctrines we are to believe, and the duties we are to practice; divinity; (as more commonly understood) ``the knowledge derivable from the Scriptures, the systematic exhibition of revealed truth, the science of Christian faith and life.''
Many speak of theology as a science of religion
[instead of ``science of God''] because they disbelieve
that there is any knowledge of God to be attained.
--Prof. R.
Flint (Enc.
Brit.).
Theology is ordered knowledge; representing in the
region of the intellect what religion represents in the
heart and life of man.
--Gladstone.
Ascetic theology, Natural theology. See Ascetic, Natural.
Moral theology, that phase of theology which is concerned with moral character and conduct.
Revealed theology, theology which is to be learned only from revelation.
Scholastic theology, theology as taught by the scholastics, or as prosecuted after their principles and methods.
Speculative theology, theology as founded upon, or influenced by, speculation or metaphysical philosophy.
Systematic theology, that branch of theology of which the
aim is to reduce all revealed truth to a series of
statements that together shall constitute an organized
whole.
--E. G. Robinson (Johnson's Cyc.).
Usage examples of "moral theology".
Brother Armbruster pored gloomily over his records in a puddle of lamplight in his cubbyhole at the foot of the stone stairway, and one lamp burned in the Moral Theology alcove where a robed figure huddled over ancient manuscript.
But then, even if he had studied little moral theology, he became aware that it was not even licit for him to love a sisterat least not with the tremors and the intensity of passion that the sight of Beatrice inspired in him.
It would have been futile to try to form Denis's conscience, for instance, by referring him to treatises on ethics or moral theology.
The conundrum she had set them was just the kind of moral theology puzzle they could debate endlessly.
The vast majority of sexual proscriptions associated with and attributed to Christianity are actually outgrowths of the thought and writings of later Christian theologicians, and most of this moral theology was not actually propounded until long after Christ's death.
Aloysius X Sullivan, yclept Sullivan-Tonn Ninety-six years old, rejuvenated, resident in the Pliocene nearly thirty-two years Once Kung Professor of Moral Theology at Fordham University, and later a highly placed supervising psychokmetic under Lord Velteyn of Finiah Tonn' s primary metafunction was enormous (he was capable of levitating forty people or nearly five tons of inert matter), but his usefulness to the Tanu was limited by his pacifism, which masked an invincible timidity He was notorious for having refused point-blank lo use his PK in Grand Combats, Hunts, or any other aggressive activity, but he had performed his other duties faithfully After the fall of Finiah he .
But rather than a moral theology or a cookbook course on getting to heaven, these groups offer their followers a scientific or quasi-scientific method of achieving heightened awareness or a transcendent consciousness in the here and now.
His chief literary work is the Summa Theologica Moralis, partibus IV distincta, written shortly before his death, and marking a very considerable development in moral theology.