ETHICS
247
Whatever one may think of Rahner's metaphysic of "religious life," it makes no ethical sense, as classical theology thought it did, to say that "religious life" in itself is more perfect than "the life of the commandments." For, ethically, "religious life in itself" is a life of the individual; and to attempt to measure one authentic individuality against another is to misunderstand individuality profoundly by confusing it with essence. In summary, the above reflections were not intended to answer the question left open by Curran, namely, the question of the inter-relations among Christian consciousness, the ethical judgment of the Christian, and ethics. The purpose here has been to try to show that the first step toward an answer is to recognize the ethics itself in the light of the contemporary understanding of reality must be here a fourfold reality: essential ethics, existential ethics, Christian essential ethics and Christian existential ethics.