Christian Ethics
revision summary
Key Words to be happy with
 Autonomy – self rule (freedom with reason)
 Heteronomy – rule by other influences
 Theonomy – rule by God
 Divine command – rule by God’s laws
 Situation ethics – good is most loving result
 Natural law – morality observable in nature, by reason
 Biblical ethics – good derived from the Bible
 Golden rule – “do to others as you would be done by”
Matthew 7:12
Key assumptions
 God exists
 God is good
 God reveals and speaks
Divine Command
 William of Ockham , Luther (1483-1546), Calvin (1509-
1564)
 Applies to modern evangelicals eg Chicago Statement
1978 “God’s word is of infallible divine authority..to be
obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires”.
 Modern divine command theorists Philip Quinn, Karl
Henry
 Open to Euthyphro’s dilemma
Euthyphro’s dilemma
 A. Is something good because God commands it?
or
 B. Does God command it because it’s good?
 If A then problem of arbitrary (random) and
abhorrent (evil) commands eg Joshua 8:1 God
commands genocide or…if B then problem is, why do
we need God at all? (Reason, experience etc will do)
A way out of the dilemma
 Euthyphro’s dilemma contains a fallacy: the either/or
leaves out the correct answer….
 Goodness depends on God’s character not his
commands.
 God’s character is revealed at the same time as the law
is given to Moses in Exodus 34:6 “I am the LORD,
compassionate and gracious, abounding in steadfast
love and faithfulness…”
 So any commands need to be evaluated by God’s
character of love, mercy, truth, holiness, patience, and
justice.
Situation Ethics
 Christian Relativism with just one absolute: agape
 Agape means unconditional love for the stranger
 Fletcher (1905-1991) argues “love and justice are the
same” as “justice is love distributed”.
 Calculate the most loving outcome (teleological)
 Four working principles
1. Personal
2. Pragmatic
3. Positivist (faith comes before action)
4. Relativist
Valkyrie
 1944 Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrested for supporting
Stauffenberg plot to kill Hitler
 Bonhoeffer takes situation ethics view…absolute rules
like “thou shalt not kill” cannot apply where most
loving outcome is to kill a tyrant.
 Liberal Christians argue the same thing today about
abortion or euthanasia.
 The film Valkyrie (codename of the plot) revisits this
situation.
Natural Law
 Good is defined by the ends rational people pursue
 People by nature “do good and avoid evil” the
synderesis rule
 These rational purposes give us five primary precepts
POWER (acronym Preserve Life, Ordered society,
Worship God, Education, Reproduction)
 Secondary precepts are applications of these eg do not
abort, no contraception
 Tends to be Roman Catholic view eg in Veritas
Splendor (see Revision ppt on Natural Law)
Discuss
 “If God doesn’t exist everything is permissible.” Ivan
Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov
 What does this quote suggest about the source of
moral values?
 How many other sources of moral values are there?
 Aquinas argues for reason (both a priori in the
synderesis rule and a posteriori, because goodness is
observable in ends we pursue).
 Fletcher argues for a reasoned calculation of the most
loving outcome.
Biblical Ethics
 The Bible is the divine law in Aquinas’ theory (four
types of law: eternal law, divine law, natural law,
human law). But the revelation is only partial: natural
law completes the picture.
 The Bible is the source of divine commands as “God
spoke to Moses” (Leviticus 1:1, Exodus 20:1) and speaks
through Jesus, “the word became flesh” (John 1:12).
 The Bible, particularly the parables, such as the Good
Samaritan (Luke 12) are the inspiration for Fletcher’s
situation ethics.
The ethics of Jesus
 An ethics of love, not law.
 Overturns key ideas of the Mosaic law eg
Touches lepers (Mark 1)
Calls a haemorhaging woman his daughter (Mark 5)
Works on Sabbath (picks grain) (Mark 9)
Declares all foods clean (Mark 7)
 Teaches a revolution in attitudes in the Sermon on the
Mount.
 Teaches by open-ended parable, not rules eg “go and
do likewise” (Good Samaritan ending).
The reversals of the Sermon on
the Mount Matthew 5-7
 Love your enemies (see also Mark 12:38-44)
 Love the foreigner (Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37)
 Love of sinners (see also Mark 2:15-17)
 Love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34)
 Golden rule: do to others as you would have them do to
you (Matthew 7:12)
“Jesus’ purpose was to reshape human intentions and
establish a new will, that he wants to claim for God not
juts a body, but the heart, the whole person” .
Wolfgang Schrage
Conclusion: variety of Christian
ethics so don’t over-generalise!
 Christian ethics varies from teleological (situation
ethics) to deontological (Divine Command) and
theories that have elements of both (Natural law).
 Liberal Protestants dislike natural law because it
assumes people want to “do good and avoid evil” and
also can appear rigid.
 Different emphases on the Bible derive from different
views of authority of Bible v Church v reason.
Evangelicals defend the inerrancy of Scripture eg in
the Chicago statement 1978.