Transcript Christian Ethics

RELIGIOUS ETHICS
Religious Ethics
 For a Christian, making ethical decisions will
be guided by a combination of –
 The Bible (All)
 Conscience (All, especially Orthodox)
 Christian Tradition and Church teaching
(Catholic, Orthodox)
 Natural Law (Catholic)
 Situation Ethics (Anglican)
CHRISTIAN SOURCES OF
MORALITY
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Christians since the Reformation have disagreed
about a series of moral issues. The division of the
church has lead to the development of three main
traditions, each turning to a different source for
moral teaching:
Authority – Roman Catholic (the encyclicals or papal
teachings and the belief that the pope and Church
Councils are infallible)
Bible – Protestant (belief that the bible is the
literal word of God)
 Conscience – Orthodox (belief that the conscience
is the literal voice of God)
MAIN ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
 God created human beings in his image and
called us to a life of responsibility and
freedom
 Ignorance and sin have lead to the misuse
and corruption of human freedom
 Christian ethics therefore does not ask
the question “what ought we to do?” but
“what kind of moral persons are we called
to become?”
KINGDOM OF GOD
 The announcement of the coming of the
Kingdom of God called humankind to put
right their relationship with God as
preparation. In New Testament times the
church thought the Kingdom was on its way
soon.
JESUS CHRIST
 Jesus was both God
incarnate and man who
understood man’s fear
and weakness
THE HOLY SPIRIT
 The Holy Spirit is a
life-giving force that
Christians turn to for
guidance on modern
ethical issues – It has
come to continue the
work of Jesus Christ
after his death and
resurrection.
MORAL DECISION MAKING
To make moral decisions Christians look to:
 The Holy Spirit
 The Bible
 The Church community
OLD TESTAMENT
 Christianity began as a Jewish sect. The
first Christians were Jews brought up to
obey the Torah and the laws set down by
the Decalogue.
DECALOGUE (Exodus 20: 1-17)
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The 10 commandments are all about:
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The commandments are:
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man’s relationship with God (first 3/4)
man’s relationships with others in society (last
6/7)
Negative commandments – prohibitive
Apodictic – categorical and absolute
After 1000 years of following the Torah,
religious officials had developed a system of
obeying the law that made the law more
important than the people and the principles it
sought to protect.
NEW TESTAMENT
 The New Testament upholds the significance of
the Old Testament law but corrects the oral law
that had evolved in order to protect the written
law. Jesus said:
 “Do not think I have come to abolish the law and
the prophets. I have not come to abolish but
fulfil” - Matthew 5:17
 Jesus’ approach therefore was not one of legal
prescriptivism, but more concerned with
demonstrating compassion through upholding to
the law e.g. the incident/parable of the woman in
adultery.
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
 The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 also took
place on a mount to reflect the authority of Jesus’
teaching. It can therefore be seen as the New
Testament equivalent of the Decalogue, as it takes
the Law set down by the Torah and updates it.
 Jesus teaches that the Law is best fulfilled by
demonstrating acts of compassion for example in the
story of the Good Samaritan. Compassion cannot be
achieved just by conforming to the apodictic negative
laws of the Decalogue as the first generation of
Christians thought. Christian Ethics is much more
demanding than this.