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Christ's moral code is religious in its very essence. To express it another way, Christian morality should in structure correspond to religion. Indeed, this is true of all genuine morality, morality which sees man as a creature made in the image of God. This chapter will develop the parallel structure of religion and morality in the following stages.

First, if religion is considered phenomenologically, i.e., not as a doctrinal system but rather as something lived, as religious life, we will see that its structure is essentially a dialogue between persons. Secondly, having established the dialogic structure of religion, we will have a criterion by which to evaluate the most widespread moral systems as well as the key ideas of Christian morality, such as salvation of the soul, law, etc. In this way we will try to determine which key idea or category best expresses the structure proper to a religious morality. The category of "response-responsibility" will be shown to do this best. In the light of this category we can then situate in its proper place the fundamental idea of salvation. Finally we will show how morality based on the imitation of Jesus Christ most perfectly fulfils all the requirements of a "response-morality," and at the same time includes and sanctifies in itself all the other traditional moral categories.

As matters now stand, religion seems to be the motivating force of morality. Yet the terms "moral" and "religious" are not interchangeable. They are not even necessarily linked together. A certain morality still seems possible where religious feeling has lost all vitality. There even exist moral systems which are deliberately nonreligious. All the duties, norms, and laws of these systems find their complete explanation and full flowering in the "I" of man without any reference to God.

It is a subtle snare that morality can draw its rationale from this source even though it claims to be and wants to be religious! But in this case it is religious only from the outside and extrinsically. For such a morality, religion is a mere superstructure, or better, a veneer on a moral code which remains essentially human.

A genuinely religious morality, however, should in structure correspond exactly to the structure of religion: it should have the very form of religion. For religion -- and we must plumb the depths of this -- appears as a dialogue: it is a response to the divine Word. . .

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