About

Taught by one of Catholicism's great professors, this course will help you live a better life. Fr. Dennis Billy holds three doctorate degrees and has published forty books, but his humble approach to teaching and quiet wisdom will make him one of your favorite professors. This is much more than just a theology and philosophy course: it's an invitation to grow and deepen one's friendship with God. Central to the work of Aristotle and other great philosophers, the "good life" is one of the most fundamental aspects of humanity's search for meaning. Now, you can explore the good life in the Catholic tradition. By reflecting upon the good life, you'll strengthen your relationships with others, and find greater personal purpose. After exploring how the Trinity imbues life with meaning, you'll reflect upon conscience and how it helps us discern between good and evil. You'll also turn to scripture, learning how the Ten Commandments and Beatitudes provide blueprints for the good life. Following an in-depth study of the cardinal and theological virtues, you'll see how prayer can help you overcome evil and how living in the Spirit leads to happiness. Finally, you'll explore the threefold path of purgation, illumination, and transforming union. The Good Life: A Course on Moral Theology will inspire and guide you. Begin this essential journey today.

Related Subjects

Episodes

1. Introduction to the Good Life

25m

How we understand "The Good Life" depends on the tradition from which we speak. Traditions provide the context within which rational discourse can then take place. Catholic tradition affirms that we were created to be happy. It affirms the reality of God and recognizes him as Goodness itself. God creates, redeems, and sanctifies and wishes us to share in his creative, redemptive, and sanctifying action.

2. The Good in the Catholic Tradition

25m

We were created in God's image. Our human makeup has physical, mental, spiritual, and social dimensions. Because of the humanity's primeval sin, our human makeup has become disfigured and out of sync with itself. Christ redeems us to sanctify us through the grace of his Spirit. With Christ, and in his Spirit, we are able to live virtuous lives that give glory to the Father. The theological cardinal virtues renew the soul and transform it.

3. What is Happiness? Friendship with God

25m

We are called to be friends of God. There are three marks of friendship: benevolence and actively seeking the other person's good, reciprocity, and mutual indwelling. God created us to enter into intimate union with him. The saints are known as the "friends of God" because they share in this special intimacy with the divine. We are all called to be saints. The way to holiness involves a process of purgation, illumination, and transforming union.

4. Conscience and Natural Law

25m

We know the good by means of our conscience, which according to the Second Vatican Council is the voice of God written in our hearts that enables us to discern the principles of the natural law. Conscience is a capacity, a process, and a judgment. Conscience helps us discern the natural law, the fundamental principle of which is, "Do and pursue good, and avoid evil."

5. Commandments of God

25m

God's moral law is theonomous, meaning that it is both internal and external, inscribed in our hearts and revealed to us during the course of salvation history. God's law reveals God's will for humanity; it is an instrument of grace which heals the weakness of human nature and restores what humanity lost as a result of its primal fall from grace. The Decalogue, the ten moral precepts of the Old Covenant, pertain to both God and neighbor. Jesus summarizes the whole of the law and the prophets by drawing an intimate connection between love of God and love of neighbor.

6. Freedom and Grace

25m

Living "The Good Life" is to live a life of freedom based on Gospel values as expressed in the Beatitudes. We cannot do so without help from God. We need the grace of Christ's Spirit. Grace heals and perfects human nature. It enables us to keep God's commandments. It enables us to live a life for God and neighbor. The Beatitudes provide the content of the New Law; the Spirit empowers us to live it by showering us with its manifold gifts.

7. The Theological Virtues

25m

St. Paul tells us that there are three things that last: faith, hope, and love; and that the greatest of these is love. Faith gives us knowledge about God, the power to trust in God, and the desire to serve God. Hope enables us to live in the "already-but not-yet" stage of the Christian journey; it helps us to avoid despair and steer clear of presumption. Love enables us to live for others in a reciprocal manner. Jesus says, "There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." These virtues relate to one another in a circular fashion.

8. The Cardinal Virtues

25m

The cardinal (or moral) virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance direct the appetitive powers of the soul by bringing them under the gentle rule of reason's reign. These virtues are acquired through practice and, once under the influence of God's grace, become infused.

9. The Law of Grace and the Law of Prayer

25m

Prayer is the great means of salvation; it gives everyone access to God's grace. In the words of St. Alphonsus de Liguori, "If you pray, you will be saved." Prayer turns natural bodies into supernatural organisms; it embraces every dimension of our human makeup: the physical, mental, spiritual, and social. All of these dimensions come together in the Liturgy. When the Church is at prayer the supernatural organism of Christ's mystical body divinizes the human community by enabling it to participate in the intimate life of the Trinity.

10. Life in the Spirit

25m

Life in the Spirit is the mystical life. It involves an intimate sharing in the divine life. The creative, redemptive, and sanctifying action of God comes to fruition in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the human soul. "Paradise for God," St. Alphonsus says, "is to dwell in the human heart." This intimacy with God manifests itself in one's openness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, which guide one along the path of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. These holy dispositions build up the kingdom of God both within us and in our midst.

Reviews

"Fr. Dennis Billy is an inspiring writer who communicates the Good News in a way that touches the heart. Over the years, he has consistently shown a capacity to make important classical Christian writings accessible to a wider audience. If you want to delve deeply into Christian spirituality, Fr. Billy is a trustworthy guide."

"Dennis Billy has spent years bridging the gap between spirituality and morality in academic settings ranging from undergraduate to doctoral students and in retreats to a broad spectrum of audiences. Author of numerous books and widely sought as lecturer and retreat director, Dennis will enrich and encourage any listener's own pursuit of the good life with his informative, inspirational, and engag

"Father Dennis Billy is a master teacher and expert in both the Catholic moral life and the ways of prayerful contemplation. He is a leader in the integration of theology and spirituality and speaks from a heart which abides in profound love for the Trinity and the Church. Sit at his feet for a while and be refreshed, consoled, inspired."

Extended Details

SeriesGood Life: A Course on Moral Theology

Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

Rev. Dennis J. Billy, C.Ss.R., D.Theol., S.T.D.Director

Rev. Dennis J. Billy, C.Ss.R., D.Theol., S.T.D.Actor

Good Life: A Course on Moral Theology - Season 1