3.3A- Christian moral principles

Question 1

What is the order of the Bible?

Answer 1

The Bible is seperated into 2 sections, the Old and New Testament, with the Old Testament also doubling as the Jewish Scriptures.

Question 2

What are the different approaches to the Bible?

Answer 2

• The idea that it is literally true, written by the Holy Spirit, and is dictating to the authors in some way.
• Fully authoritative, inspried by the Holy Spirit, but perhaps showing the context of the writers (often called a conservative appproach).
• As an inspirational approach (book), that tells the story of Christianity but that does not hold authority today specifically. This approach is also called the Metaphorical approach.

Question 3

The literalist approach

Answer 3

-No intelligent reading of the Bible takes it at face value.
-Even very conservative Biblicist Christians would understand it’s context and it’s metaphors.

Question 4

Biblioadultery

Answer 4

-The example of ‘plucking your eye out’ in Matthew illustrates the dangers of limited understanding.
-Despite the high status he gave to the Bible, Karl Barth, also warned of the dangers of literalism, because it falsely gives the Bible a divine status which only can be attributed to God, called Biblioadultery.

Question 5

Non-literalist view

Answer 5

-The idea of taking the Bible as a whole is challenging for some Christians, who point to the range of genres, writing styles, inconsistencies and contradictories. An example is the different descriptions in Genesis 1 versus Genesis 2.

Question 6

Propositional knowledge

Answer 6

-knowledge comes in different forms, propositional knowledge refers to knowing or accpeting that something is. For example, who wrote Great Expectations (Charles Dickens).
-acceptance as truths written by God.

Question 7

Non-propositional knowledge

Answer 7

-from experience (A Posteriori)
-non-propositional faith and revelation is belief or faith in God.
-Faith of a personal encounter.

Question 8

Propositional and non-propositional knowledge

Answer 8

-These two differnet kinds of knowledge often work together in everday life.
-Not incompatible or mutually exclusive.

Question 9

Propositional approaches to the Bible

Answer 9

-accepts as truth that the words of the Bible are messages from God. God is revealed directly to the reader through the words on the page.
-Leads some Christians to view the commandments as fixed moral principles.

Question 10

Non-propositional approaches to the Bible

Answer 10

-Jesus lived a human life, how God revealed himself, this therefore demonstrates a more perosnal and experiemental approach to the Bible.

Question 11

Heteronomous Ethics

Answer 11

-Morally authority comes from the combination of Church, Bible and reason. This is typically a Catholic view.
-Catholic Christians believe the Bible grew out of the Church, believing the Church formed the canon of scriptures (the Bible).
-Some protestants seek to exclusively follow the Bible (sola scriptura), whilst other hold the early Church grew out from the Bible.
-The Bible is the principal source of authority.
-Richard Hayes and William Spohn argue you cannot examine scripture without reference to the Church communities and traditions in which it functions.
-Church communities and traditions are shaped by scriptures and these communities express the stories, symbols and moral convictions that shape the characters of their members.
-Also, the Christian Church has a concept of synod, meaning council or assembly, convened to discuss and agree together on issuees of teaching, doctrine or administration. Each church may havr a different idea of synod are.

Question 12

Catholicism verus Protestantism

Answer 12

-Catholicism created in 1st Century, whereas Protestantism was created in 16th Century.
-Catholics believe in Purgatory
-There is a difference in knowledge soruces: Catholics rely on the Catholic Church, whereas Protestants rely on the Bible.
-Catholics follow seven sacraments, whilst Protestants only follow two.
-Catholics are more formal/traditional whereas Protestantism is more contemporary.

Question 13

Catholic Church: tradition

Answer 13

-Tradition is a significant source of authority for Catholics
-Religion particularly prefers continuity
-Tradition is how the Holy Spirit makes the risen Jesus present amongst Christians today.

Question 14

Catholic Church: Apostolic Succession

Answer 14

-It is the basis on which the Catholic Church claims to be an authoratitive source of Christian moral principles.
-The Catechism of the Catholic Church interprets Jesus instructing Peter to do something without consulting the Bible, as it didn’t exist, as Christ telling them to preach, thereby giving them authority to create their own teachings.
-Apostles left the bishops as the successors to their own positions. The latest Catholic Church is the latest iteration of that history.
-This created ‘sacred tradition’.

Question 15

Sacred tradition

Answer 15

-Sacred tradition and sacred scripture are closely linked and both have the same source; God. Scripture is the word of God put into writing by the power of the Holy Spirit.
-Tradition transmits the word of God that Christ and the Holy Spirit have entrusted the Apostles, which transmits to their successors, (the Church), so they can preach it.

Question 16

Apostolic succession and the Magisterium

Answer 16

-The Magisterium of the Catholic Church claims that the Apostolic succession means it alone can interpret the word of God and that it is the servant of the word of God, teaching ‘only what has been handed on to it’.
-The Roman Catholic affirmed this idea in the document titled ‘Dei Verbum’.

Question 17

Magisterium

Answer 17

-The Pope is seen as a direct succession of Apostolic succession
-From time to time the collective wisdom of Church leaders and teachers is published in a Papal Encyclical on contemporary moral issues.
-These encyclicals express the Magisterium or official teaching of the Church. As the Magisterium has authority it is expected that in all ordinary circumstances it will be followed.

Question 18

Papal infalliability

Answer 18

-Associated with the power of the papcy and the Magisterium is dogma of papal infalliability. This was declared at the First Vatican Council in 1869-1870.
-In Roman Catholic theology, there are serveal areas in which the pope might speak ‘infallibly’: on revelation, scripture, tradition and the magisterium.
-If the pope wishes to speak ‘infalliably’, he speaks ex cathedra (from the chair, the symobl of his authority). What he says will have to confrom to already-established beliefs understood as being derived from scripture and tradition.
-Ex cathedra statements are considered to have Apostolic and divine authority. This power was declared in 1870, and has only been used extremely rarely. The best-known example was when, in 1950, Pope puis XII defined the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary as an article of faith.

Question 19

Natural Law

Answer 19

-In Romans 1:20, the apostle Paul argued that God’s law may be seen in the world. He said it has been “clearly percieved in the things that have been made.”
-Christian theologians, particularly Aquinnas, in the 13th Century, used this statement to develop a belief that, because God has his moral law clear in the world, humans can have no excuse for disobeying it. God provided humans with the power of reason, so that they would be able to dislearn God’s law in nature.
-For Roman Catholics today, Natural Law is still an important source of authority, particularly when it comes to moral issues.
-One of the strengths of the natural law is that it appeals to people’s sense that morality is more than just people’s opinions about what is right and what is wrong.

Question 20

Papal Encyclical

Answer 20

-one particularly important recent encyclical on moral theology is veritatis Splendor, issued by Pope St John Paul II. It reasserts the centrality of reason, conscience, natural law and the Magisterium in Catholic moral theology.

Question 21

The Protestant Church

Answer 21

-Although there are many Protestant natural law theologians, the Protestant tradition has tended the begin with the Bible as a primary source of authority. Modern Anglicans, for exmaple, consider that as the Bible did not appear as a single document but evolved over time and developed out of the reflections and needs of communities, then ethics should continue to develop in the worshipping community.

Question 22

Stanley Hauerwas

Answer 22

-American Methodist
-influenced by Karl Barth
-Controversial due to arguing Christian Ethics can only be done legitimately within the worshipping Christian community.
-argues Christian Ethics has lost it’s teleological voice.

Question 23

Criticisms of the Bible, Church and Reason approach (4 ways)

Answer 23

-Corruptions in the Catholic Church
-Protestants concerns about ‘sacred traditions’
-Concerns about exclsuions of women’s perspectives (Ruether)
-Cocncerns about reason being sex against faith

Question 24

Theonomous ethics

Answer 24

-moral authoirty comes from God, which we access trhough God;s revelation in the Bible.
-It is a typically Protestant view

Question 25

Sola Scripture

Answer 25

-‘Sola Scriptura’ is a form of theonomy involving Christians who think the Bible alone is the source of Christian moral principles, not the Church.
-Luther, seen by many as a founding figure of Protestantism thought the Catholic Church was corrupt.
-Role of the Church was merely to preach the Bible.

Question 26

Criticisms of Sola Scripture

Answer 26

John 14:26-27 and 1 Timothy 2:5 suggests the Bible should be a source of Christian moral principles, but don’t claime it’s sole importance.

Question 27

The priesthood of all believers

Answer 27

-A doctrine developed by Luther that all people have the status of priest.

Question 28

Importance of the Bible

Answer 28

-The Bible says that ‘Puach’- God’s breath, was breathed into the authors of the Bible- directly inspiring them.

Question 29

Richard Mouw

Answer 29

-Specifically rejects those who take a situational approach or those who focus on love exclusively.
-Also, it would be wrong to see the whole Bible in terms of a long list of commands. There is much in the Bible that is not a command- in the histories and the poems, for example.
-For Christians using the Bible in this way, their approach to life is framed by the commandments and teachings.
-Issues which are not directly mentioned in the Bible may be approached with referecnes to the virtues implied by the teaching of Jesus.

Question 30

Neil Messer

Answer 30

-Discusses that there are different ways in which you can draw on the Bible and there are different kinds of scripture: histroy, saga (epic narratives), law, biography, instruction and warnings.

Question 31

Autonomous Christian Ethics

Answer 31

-Are person-centred, rather than Bible or Church-related.
-Individual, so no universal rulers.

Question 32

Types of love

Answer 32

Storge
Family Love
Philia
Brotherly Love
Eros
Romantic Love
Agape
God’s Love

Question 33

Reinhold Niebuhr

Answer 33

-Wrote about Orthodox Christianity
-Tended to become 1 of 2 contrasting types of religion, one that denies the relevance of love in ordinary moral matters, and another which tries to reduce moral behaviour to conformity of tradition and the common sense of generations.
-On the other hand, a prophetic tradition in Christianity insists on the relevance of the ideal of love to the moral experience of mankind on every conceivable level. The ultimate law of life is love, Niebuhr wrote, and this is the basis of all moral standards.

Question 34

Rudolf Bultmann

Answer 34

-The challenges of Christian moral behaviour is to move beyond laws and judgements to forgiveness based on love.

Question 35

Hans Kung: Roman Catholicism and Agape

Answer 35

-Swiss Catholic Priest
-rejects Papal Infallibility, leading to the removal of his license tot each by the Church.
-Had a particular concern about the environment
-his motivation for calling the Church to speak out about the environment was Jesus’ command of ‘love thy neighbour’.
-So, for example, Kung argues that although Euthanasia is contrary to offical Catholic moral teaching, it is not contrary to the principles of Catholic reasoning and conscience to conclude that keeping someone alive at all costs cannot be morally right.
-teachings were censored by the Magisterium.

Question 36

Paul Tillich: Protestantism and Agape

Answer 36

-important German Protestant
-taught that if Christian Ethics is to be taken seriously, there are three principles that must be observed; justice, love and wisdom.
-believes all four aspects of ‘love’ should be included.
-he describes love as ‘the drive towards the unity of the seperated’.
-For Tillichm agape love should be about each Christian individual making a postivie contribution.
-He centres loving decision-making on individuals, not on institutions.

Question 37

Joseph Fletcher

Answer 37

-Was heavily influenced by Tillich’s idceas about Agape love and used them to develop his own distinctive theory of situation Ethics.
-The morality of actions is to be judged on their consequences rather than on obedience to divine commands.
-therefore, it is wrong to suggest that agape as the only source of Christian Ethics is an ‘easy way out’ because it is about applying the process of reason to decide wwhen existing moral guidelines should be carried out and when they should be broken.

Question 38

Neil Messer

Answer 38

-Doesn’t like Situations Ethics, believing Fletcher saw himself fighting legalism, emphasising love and realism, similar to Augustine and Luther.

Question 39

Pope Pius XII

Answer 39

-Rejected Situation Ethics as opposing concrete circumstances, condemning it subjective.

Question 40

Alternative viewpoints: J.S. Mill

Answer 40

Mill argued that neither Jesus nor the apostles intended the New Testament to be a complete system of morals, as it always referes to the pre-existing morality of the Old Testament and is often about the correction or superseding of that morality.