Transcript Alternatives within Christian Ethics

Alternatives within Christian Ethics
Roman Catholic
 Begin with philosophy
 Vatican Council II, 1962-1965
 Morality based on law: divine, natural, human
 Objective right and wrong
 Double effect to resolve conflicts:
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nature of act is good
good effect be intended (evil is indirect)
simultaneous
proportionality
(cont’d.)
 Other methods: hierarchy of values;
prima facie claims
 Faith affects vision and motive, but not
content. Morality is the same for
all people.
Protestant approaches
– Begin with Bible
– Ethical Center
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Reinhold Niebuhr: “impossible possibility”
Sacrificial love
Paul Ramsey; Christocentric Ethics.
Obedience to Jesus
(cont’d.)
– Situation Ethics
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Joseph Fletcher. Love is only absolute
Four working principles:
pragmatism
relativism
positivism
personalism
Paul Lehman. Matter of faith rather of ethics
(cont’d.)
– Absolutist Ethics
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Robertson McQuilkin. Bible has all the answers
We need only to search the Scriptures
No need for Philosophy or Science
(cont’d.)
– Evangelical Ethics
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Lewis Smedes. Mere Morality. Morality is universal
God’s demands apply to all, even to
nonbelievers
Ten Commandments = starting point
“direct commands” vs. “abiding laws”
(cont’d.)
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Justice and Love
“Respect” for values
Focus on commands, not on exceptions
(cont’d.)
– Theocentric Ethics
James Gustafson
Eight central emphases:
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humankind is not central in creation
human life and rest of creation are interdependent
moral thinking vs. judging over natural impulses
piety as natural response
(cont’d.)
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everything described within larger whole context
concern for common good is essential
awareness of moral ambiguity in life
strong emphasis on self-denial and self-sacrifice
Powerful sense of the “Other,”
piety, order (God’s purposes)
Liberation Ethics
– Begin with the experience of the poor
and oppressed
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Commit oneself to liberation
Read Bible texts that speak of Liberation
(especially Exodus)
(cont’d.)
– African-American Themes
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James Cone: denounces evils, sees them in
“white church.” “Blackness of Jesus”
J. Deotis Roberts: ignores “white church,”
emphasizes what black churches have done
and ought to do
(cont’d.)
– Feminist Themes
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reaction against patriarchal order of society, and of the
church
want a renewed vision of the community
“womanist” – term used by black women
Julian of Norwich – “motherhood of Jesus”