Feelings are contingent phenomena. They indicate what concerns us, how we interpret and evaluate our experiences—or more precisely, what we have learned to perceive as meaningful. Emotions are neither arbitrary impulses, nor merely individual matters; they also reflect social practices. This insight, however, has thus far received little attention in Catholic moral theology. The present study addresses this desideratum. Drawing on ancient theories and biblical texts, it uncovers the contingent formation of human emotional worlds and, on this basis, opens up new perspectives for the theological-ethical evaluation of emotional experience