03 January 2012

Future Moral Theologians

In mid-December, the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family announced the results in the 2011 Father Michael J. McGivney College Essay Contest.

What God Has Joined Together Let No Man Separate: Truth and Freedom in Contemporary Moral Discourse
Michael A. Wahl
Providence College

On the Relationship of Freedom, Truth, and Faith as Found in the Theology of Pope Benedict XVI and Blessed John Paul II
Stephen C. Barany
University of Notre Dame

The essay contest, which takes place annually, asked students to respond to the following question:

Commenting in 1993 on problems in modern ethical thought, John Paul II spoke of a general tendency of "detaching human freedom from its essential and constitutive relationship to truth" (Veritatis Splendor, 4). He also made the following claim: "The attempt to set freedom in opposition to truth, and indeed to separate them radically, is the consequence, manifestation and consummation of another more serious and destructive dichotomy, that which separates faith from morality" (Ibid., 88). What does it mean to speak of an "essential and constitutive relationship" of freedom to truth? If freedom needs truth, does truth need freedom? How do both need faith? Write an essay discussing these questions.

Through the Father Michael J. McGivney College Essay Contest, which is named for the founder of the Knights of Columbus, the Pontifical John Paul II Institute seeks to encourage deeper reflection on the themes of culture, person, God, love, marriage, and family, especially as developed in the theological work of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. The contest is open to college students who are in their junior or senior years in the given academic year.

+AJPM

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