The fundamental option

 

Q. 24 The fundamental option, the virtues and for concrete moral acting.

 

Introduction : The fundamental option theory is an understanding of sin and grace that must be recognized not primarily in terms of individual acts for good or evil, but in the light of a person’s basic life direction. Fundamental option refers to a theory of morals according to which each person gradually develops in a basic orientation of his or her life, either for or against God.  It is a person’s basic orientation in life either for or against God.

According to Saint Augustine, “The human race is ultimately composed of two cities: the City of God, whose members love God even to the contempt of self, and the City of Man, whose members love themselves even to the contempt of God.”

 

FUNDAMENTAL OPTION: The term fundamental option became popular in the 1960s. It represented an attempt to describe the basic orientation of one's moral life as a continuous process with a definite moral direction rather than as a sequence of discrete, unconnected actions. Particular acts are seen as expressing and modifying the fundamental option, confirming and developing it or diminishing and ultimately reversing it. Existentialist and personalist analyses, combined with dynamic psychological insights, alerted theologians to the inadequacy of any atomistic picture of human actions, good or bad, into which the theological manuals had drifted.

 

Thus, the emphasis was shifted from the particular action to the living subject as the bearer of morality. The notion of a fundamental option has roots in several strata of the Christian tradition: in the prophet Jeremiah the new covenant is said to be written in the hearts of men; the New Testament insists on the interior dimension of morality; Paul frequently insists upon the centrality of a total conversion in expressions such as "life in Christ"; and also in Thomas Aquinas's discussion of the new law (Summa theologiae 1–2, 106).

On the level of moral analysis, discussion of the "first moral act" (Summa theologiae 1–2, 89, 5) has led to the recognition of a person's overall commitment through his actions, so that further actions expressed and reinforced or contradicted and weakened that commitment. To understand such a commitment it may be better to consider it as gradually gathering momentum through the responses of the agent. Depending upon whether the acts are predominantly other-centered or self-centered, the person is characteristically ordered toward an altruistic or selfish life-stance. In the Christian context of love of neighbor involving love of God, the predominantly other-centered person will also be open to the Absolute other and hence in the state of grace; the predominantly self-centered person will be closed to God and hence in sin. A transition from one state to the other through conversion or mortal sin will not occur easily, but will remain an actual possibility through some serious involvement of the agent and frequently as the climax of a process. Thus the term "fundamental option" has a definite value when describing the basis of one's overall commitment, although the actual state itself is better described as a basic orientation, thereby avoiding any implications of unique dramatic choice—an experience quite foreign to most people's moral lives.

The term appears in Church documents. The Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1975) and Pope John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis splendor adopt the concept of fundamental option but link it more closely to particular acts. They insist that mortally sinful acts, done with full knowledge and consent, constitute a turning away from God and, thereby, imply the exercise of a fundamental option.

But this is not the way fundamental option theorists present their system. The fundamental option theory makes a distinction of levels in the moral subjects. “As a result the debate comes to a head in the question as to whether a fundamental option against God can take place in a particular act of choice. They typically claim that one can commit acts such as adultery, homosexuality, and masturbation, which the Church has always regarded as mortal sins, without changing one's fundamental option.

According to Catholic Dictionary: A theory of morals that each person gradually develops in a basic orientation of his or her life, either for or against God. This fundamental direction is said to be for God if one's life is fundamentally devoted to the love and service of others, and against God if one's life is essentially devoted to self-love and self-service.

As such, the idea of a fundamental option is not new. It was reflected in St. Augustine's teaching that the human race is ultimately composed of two cities: the City of God, whose members love God even to the contempt of self, and the City of Man, whose members love them even to the contempt of God.

What is new is the use of this idea to explain mortal sin. In 1975 the Holy See issued a formal declaration, Persona Humana, in which certain theories involving the fundamental option were condemned. "There are those," the document stated, "who go so far as to affirm that mortal sin, which causes separation from God, only exists in the formal refusal directly opposed to God's call, or in that selfishness which completely and deliberately closes itself to the love of neighbor. They say that it is only then, that there comes into play the 'fundamental option', that is to say, the decision which totally commits the person and which is necessary if mortal sin is to exist."

The Holy See admitted the description of a person's basic moral disposition as a "fundamental option." What is not admissible is to claim that individual human actions cannot radically change this fundamental option. A person's moral disposition "can be completely changed by particular acts, especially when as often happens, these have been prepared for by previous more superficial acts. Whatever the case, it is wrong to say that particular acts are not enough to constitute a mortal sin" (Persona Humana, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, December 29, 1975, number 10).

Implicit in the proscribed theory is the notion that there can be serious sins, such as murder or adultery, because the actions are gravely wrong. But no mortal sins, with the loss of sanctifying grace, is committed unless a person subjectively rejects God. This would subvert the whole moral order of Christianity, which believes that the essence of mortal sin is the deliberate choice of some creature which is known to be gravely forbidden by God.

The Nature and Systems of Virtues: Virtue is a habit that gives both the inclination and the power to do readily what is morally good. Some of the natures of virtues are: 1. Genuine virtue flows from the correct fundamental option, which is grounded in the unequivocal and definite orientation towards the supreme goal. Virtue must centre in the in the love of God. 2. Man is elevated / infused by the supernatural virtues. Common teaching of the Church (Trent)- faith, hope and charity are infused in man. 3. Virtue does not centre in the human person. Christian virtue has its source in Christ through the transforming grace of the Holy Spirit for the glorification of the Father and imitation of Christ.

 

The Fundamental Requirements of Virtues for Concrete Moral Acting: The fundamental requirements for virtues are 1) Moral knowledge and Prudence, 2) Love of Moral Value and 3) Dominations over Passions:

1) Moral Knowledge and Prudence:  Man cannot develop a virtue unless he has some insight and knowledge of the moral values. Hence it is needed the proper education, instruction and formation to perceive the moral values and to gain an understanding why certain things are good and therefore ought to be done. For the practice of virtue is further imperative to apply the demand of the moral value rightly to the concrete situation. This is the task of prudence. Prudence disposes a man to discern correctly what measure he must take to realize the demand of a virtue as well as possible in the concrete circumstances.

2) Love of Moral Value: In order to develop virtue, one must not only know the value but love the value. It is attained and developed by deepening and faithful pursuance of the right existential choice. This will necessarily lead to growing love for the good and discovery of always new value. The greatest examples for Christians are the Person of Christ. 

3) Dominations over Passions: Knowledge and love for value are certainly most essential conditions for the acquisition of virtue, but the realization of the moral value can still be impaired by insufficiently controlled passions. They can even suffocate the very love of virtue. Hence Dominations over Passions is essential and this dominion is to be acquired by repeated practice of moderating restraint or demanding engagement.

Conclusion: It is clear from the above discussion that sin the disobedience of God’s will. It opposes us to receive God’s grace. However, It is conversion, a joyful invitation to return to God. It also helps us to form our conscience to go to God as fundamental option and thus make us to attain different virtues. The pope John Paul II in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor writes: “There is no doubt that Christian moral teaching, even in its Biblical roots, acknowledges the specific importance of a fundamental choice which qualifies the moral life and engages freedom on a radical level before God. It is a question of the decision of faith. But he opposes the theological assertion that such a fundamental choice can be separated from particular actions, stating that it is contrary to Scripture as well as to long-held Catholic teaching on sin and salvation. He also opposes it on philosophical grounds, writing, "To separate the fundamental option from concrete kinds of behaviour means to contradict the substantial integrity or personal unity of the moral agent in his body and in his soul."