Chrześcijański sytuacjonizm etyczny? Próba Odpowiedzi księdza profesora Seweryna Rosika

Abstract

The first anniversary of the death of the Reverend Professor Seweryn Rosik, who had worked for many years at the Section of Moral Theology of KUL, is an opportunity to reflect on his contribution to Polish moral theology. The paper depicts and evaluates a Christian interpretation of a moral situation as presented in his book Ethical Situationism versus Christian Prudence. A Study in Moral Theology (Poznan 1986, pp. 219). Following the structure of the book, the paper presents first a critical discussion of the radical ethical situationism, made by the Rev. Rosik. The point was to render such issue as: the foundation of situational ethics and its basic assumptions; the criterion of practical conscience in situation ethics; the criticism of the situation formation of conscience. Then he goes on to show the problem of the proper understanding of ethical situationism as it is rendered by the Rev. Rosik, i.e. in the so-called “prudential grasp” Thus he discusses also his analysis of prudence as intellectual, moral, and supernatural skill. This is given in order to consider the applicative function of this prudence in a proper rendition of an ethical situation with regard to moral principles. The paper stresses that the Christian interpretation of an ethical situation, as proposed by the Rev. Rosik, has taken on the form of a compact system which may be described as “Christian ethical situationism” This proposal is still current, although it should be read today in the light of the encyclical Veritatis splendor and all that has been added in the course of the following discussion in the milieu of moral theologians.