Morality for Catholic Students

Morality for Catholic Students by Thomas J. Centrella is an excellent book on morality. This book is clearly written and contains many profound insights. This book contains an excellent definition of goodness, as follows: The good is any freely chosen act that is in accordance with the Will of God. The good is defined by the purpose the Creator designed a thing or a purpose for. The creator’s purpose defines what is good. The book then goes on to explain the Ten Commandments and other first principles of morality. Author Thomas J. Centrella points out that the human will is the faculty of the soul through which we decide what to believe and what to do. So the human will influences both what we believe and what we do. That partly explains the human tendency to believe what one wants to believe. There is an interesting point which notes that faith comes from God, and faith leads to God. That follows, since everything came from God and returns to Him. And the author notes that not only is atheism wrong and opposed by right reason, it is also a mortal sin that violates the First Commandment.] Other books on ethics have stressed that ethics is not feeling good, but being and doing good. Morality for Catholic Students supplements that truth by pointing out that knowing the truth is critical to our happiness and the happiness of others. However, knowing the truth is not enough; we must also act on the truth. So happiness requires truth and goodness. A happiness based on a false idea of what is good wouldn’t be a true happiness. This textbook also points out that the human conscience (the sense of right and wrong) needs to be educated, so we all have a duty to study ethics in order to educate our conscience as to what is truly good. Morality for Catholic Students will educate your conscience with truth, goodness and beauty, and do it in an engaging, inspiring way.