RELIGIOUS%20ETHICS

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RELIGIOUS ETHICS
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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)

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CHRISTIAN SOURCES OF MORALITY

• 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)

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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?

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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.

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• JESUS CHRIST
• Jesus was both God incarnate and man who
  understood mans 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.

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MORAL DECISION MAKING

• To make moral decisions Christians look to
• The Holy Spirit
• The Bible
• The Church community

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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.

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DECALOGUE (Exodus 20 1-17)

• The 10 commandments are all about
• mans relationship with God (first 3/4)
• mans relationships with others in society (last
  6/7)
• The commandments are
• 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.

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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 517
• 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.

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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.