Date of Award
Summer 1994
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
Abstract
Narrative ethics, in its attempt to broaden the scope of moral analysis, seems consistent with recent attempts within Catholic moral theology to consider the range of "morally relevant circumstances" of human action. Following what I take to be an important lead in St. Augustine's Confessions, I analyze the Manichaean context of the work and focus upon the theology of creation implicitly proposed in the text. In that context the fullest extent of our status as moral characters within the narrative of God's creation is fully realized. Pope John Paul II, in Veritatis Splendor, reaffirming the teaching of Vatican Council II, emphasizes the primacy of the Creator in adequately appropriating a proper understanding of ourselves as human beings. "Without its Creator," he says, "the creature simply disappears." I see my own efforts in developing a theological relationship between Augustine and narrative ethics as consistent with his efforts.