The Role Of Ethics In The Catholic Religion

While taking a quick look at the Catholic faith, one might say that Jesus’ teachings are the only sources used for the foundation of ethics for Catholics, but this is not true. By taking a deeper look into the history of the Catholic religion, one will discover there are many other figures that helped establish the foundation of ethics in the Catholic faith. One of these figures is Aristotle. He was actually one of the first to define ethics and place it in a systematic way. Aristotle really started to play a part in the Catholic religion when Saint Thomas Aquinas took his teachings and related it to the faith. Jesus is still the main and primary source of our ethical faith, but Aristotle also played a part in creating the foundation. While both their views of ethics are similar, they also differ in several ways.

Aristotle differs

from Jesus’ views of ethics mainly because Aristotle based his beliefs off of reasoning, while Jesus’ were mainly related to God.

Aristotle believed that a key factor of happiness was friendship. “Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods” (Aristotle). In this quote Aristotle explains that if someone has no friends or no genuine friends, they are more likely to be depressed. Even if they live a fulfilling life filled with blessings, if a person has no friends that cannot be truly happy. Aristotle believed in three types of friendship, and if any friendship is based of anything but virtue, it is not a true friendship. If it is based off of pleasure or usefulness it isn't a true friendship. It isn’t genuine if you base a friendship off of how useful or convenient a friend is to you. To have a real friendship it must be based of virtue and ethics. Aristotle created the term nicomachean ethics which is a philosophical inquiry into the

nature of the good life for a human being. He believed we all had an ultimate good or goal we all work for over the span of our life. Aristotle defined the purpose of our lives the “Telos of humans.” Our purpose or goal is happiness which he called “eudaimonia,” and it means blessed living or happiness in greek. We see his belief that everything in our lives was built for a purpose or goal reflected in ethics for the Catholic religion. Saint Thomas Aquinas took Aristotle’s view and transformed it into a key factor of Catholic ethics. As Christians, St. Thomas Aquinas made our ultimate goal God. That as Catholics we dedicate our lives to loving God and serving by spreading the word of God. Even though Aristotle’s views were not from a religious background, he paved the foundation for the Christian ethical teachings.
In Catholicism, our Lord Jesus Christ is our ultimate role model; after all, he is the founder of the religion. Christ spent his ministry years teaching and spreading the Word. One of his many famous ethical teachings is the golden rule. In Matthew chapter seven verse twelve, Jesus says, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.” This is a key teaching that Catholics take from the bible and relate it to their ethical views. It is not a complicated teaching, and its simplicity is what makes it so important. Everyone can relate to the concept that if you do not want to be treated unfairly then treat others the way you want to be treated. God created us all in his image and likeness, and with that we each receive an undeniable trait called dignity. With this, we all must treat each other equally and with respect. Although two wrongs do not make a right, if you treat someone poorly then you can not be surprised when they treat you poorly as well. According to Jesus, the second greatest commandment is: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37–40). This follows the same ethical view that we should love others how we want to be loved. This teaching is one of many of Jesus’ ethical beliefs and is very important to the ethical foundation of the Catholic religion.
Aristotle and Jesus are both significant founding members of what ethics really is. They have many similar and many different views and beliefs on what ethics really is. A difference between Aristotle’s teachings from Jesus’ is that Aristotle really focused on what the right thing to do is, not what the right type of person someone should be. While the both of them focus on ethical living and character, Jesus really narrows in on what it means to live as an ethical person, and Aristotle focuses on what it means to live an ethical life. Aristotle believed that or goal as humans is to achieve happiness by living a moral and ethical life. Jesus believed that our goal is to love and treat people with dignity by being a moral and ethical person. Another difference between the two is our ultimate goal as humans. Aristotle believed that our goal was happiness, or as he called it, “eudaimonia.” For Jesus and Saint Thomas Aquinas, our ultimate goal is to reach heaven and live in Salvation with God.
All in all, both Aristotle and Jesus were, and still are primary sources of Christian ethics. They have many similarities and differences in their teachings, but all are important. We owe the both of them and their teachings for helping develop and ultimately create the foundation and definition of ethics.