Extract from Teachers Notes to Ethical Theory I
Situation Ethics
Background to Situation Ethics
It is possible to trace several strands that make up the background context that
eventually led to the rise of Situation ethics in the 1960s
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The form criticism of the 19th century Biblical Scholars e.g. Bultmann
The life and death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1945)
The work of Paul Tillich
The social and intellectual background of the 1960s
`Honest to God`
Biblical Criticism
In the 19th century, scholars such as Bultmann started looking at how the various
gospels differed. They noted that 3 of the 4 gospels are very similar and seem to be
copied from a common source but that not all passages occur in Mathew, Mark and
Luke. Sometimes passages occur in some but not the other gospels. This led
scholars to focus on the historical elements of the text and start to try and work out
which passages were “authentic”. Not surprisingly this had quite an effect on
theological thought.
In addition, the work of Darwin cast doubt over the literal authenticity of the Genesis
Creation Story.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Was a German Lutheran pastor. He was disturbed by Hitler’s anti-Semitism and
belonged to The Confessing Church - one of the few churches that dared to speak
out in protest at these policies. In 1939, Bonhoeffer joined a secret group of highranking military officers who wanted to overthrow the National Socialist regime by
killing Hitler. He was arrested in April 1943 after money used to help Jews escape
was traced to him. He was charged with conspiracy and imprisoned in Berlin for a
year and a half. After the unsuccessful July 20 Plot in 1944, Bonhoeffer's
connections with the conspirators were discovered. He was moved to a series of
prisons and concentration camps ending at Glossenburg. Here he was hanged at
dawn on 9th April 1945, just three weeks before the city was liberated.
From prison, Bonhoeffer wrote letters - some of which questioned the role of
Christianity and the church in a world where human beings no longer have faith in a
metaphysical God. He wrote about the possibility of a ‘religionless Christianity’ where
God would be less metaphysical and more intimately connected to the man of faith.
Some scholars have seen this kind of thinking as being a prelude to the largely
‘religionless’ view of Situationism.
Paul Tillich
Was an important theologian writing in the 1930’s and 1940’s. He challenged the
supranaturalist view of religion with the idea of a Supernatural God “out there”.
Instead, Tillich argued that God, if he exists, must be “the ground of our being” not a
deus ex machine who interferes with the world from time to time. God is more a deep
seated ‘idea’, or ultimate reality deep inside us rather than an external objective
reality
“The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in
the anxiety of doubt.”
“The first duty of love is to listen”.
“There is no love which does not become help”.
“We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea.
Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds
and the murmuring of the sea”.
“Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic
language alone is able to express the ultimate”.
All quotes from Paul Tillich
The Social and Intellectual Background of the 1960s
Women occupied an increasingly important place in the work force and demanded a
new voice and power. The shock of Kennedy’s assassination and disenchantment
with the US involvement in Vietnam led to deep unhappiness with traditional roles
and gave rise to new challenges to authority. Martin Luther King had set the scene
for a radical shift in the social power base. The sexual revolution of the 1960s was a
throwing off of the shackles of paternalism, authority, law and government. The hippy
movement and protest songs contributed to this, as did the arrival of the
contraceptive pill that gave women a new sexual freedom and self-belief.
Honest to God
In 1963 JAT Robinson, Bishop of Woolwich, published “Honest to God”, a book that
proved to be hugely controversial and threw the Church in to disarray. Based on the
work of Tillich, Robinson challenged the traditional view of God as being an objective
real being “up there” and agreed with Tillich that God should be understood as “the
ground of our being”. Robinson also supported the new morality of Joseph Fletcher
who had published an article called “The New Look in Christian Ethics”. Fletcher
wrote that Christian ethics is “not a scheme of codified conduct but an effort…. to
relate love to the world”. Robinson stated that 20th century man was man “come of
age”. In other words man has reached intellectual and emotional maturity, able to
make free moral decisions independent of rules prescribed by religious authorities.
All these strands, personalities and influences (and several others beside)
contributed to the ethical and theoretical background which provided fertile
ground for Situation Ethics to take root.
Class Activities
1.
Read through ‘Background Notes to Situation Ethics’ then invite students to
research and make a timeline of 20th century history, including the following:
Assassination of President Kennedy
World War 1 – over 60 million dead
World War 11 – over 70 million dead
Paul Tillich writes `symbolic language alone is able to express the Ultimate`.
German Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged
Contraceptive Pill available for the first time
Economic Depression
Bishop John Robinson writes `Honest to God`
Joseph Fletcher writes ‘Situation Ethics’.
Colour code the timeline to allow students to show their impressions of how the
following things might have changed:
a)
The undermining of authority figures such as the State and the Church
b)
Growth of individuality and sense of empowerment
c)
Numbers of traditional church goers
d)
Sense of dissatisfaction with the old way of doing things
2.
Match the following definition with the correct word or phrase
Eros
The sense that we are free to make our own rules
Philia
A particularly strict group in following Mosaic law
Storge
Deep Friendship
Agape
The belief that laws should govern our behaviour
Antinomianism
Being in love
Legalism
Family love
Pharisee
Unconditional love for the stranger
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