This course will study the personal character and meaning of the body as a foundation for sexual ethics. Starting with the specificity of the moral point of view, the course will develop the main lines of an ethics of sexuality in which the human person as a created whole, corpore et anima unus, is “the subject of his own moral acts” (Veritatis splendor, 48). As John Paul II said, we find in the body “the anticipatory signs, the expression and the promise of the gift of self, in conformity with the wise plan of the Creator” (ibid.). Particular issues will include the ethics of conjugal relations, contraception, homosexuality, and the use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS. (Fundamental Moral Theology: Freedom and Human Action is highly recommended as a background.)
Selected Texts
Karol Wojtyła, Love and Responsibility.
John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body.
John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio.
John Paul II, Letter to Families.
Paul VI, Humanae Vitae.
Pius XI, Casti Connubii.
Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Christian State of Life.
Faculty
David S. Crawford
Dean
Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Family Law
Dr. Crawford’s teaching spans the areas of moral theology and philosophical ethics, the theological and philosophical anthropology of marriage and family, and legal and political philosophy. His publications address human action, natural law, homosexuality, “gender identity,” and the anthropological implications of modern civil law.
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