Christian Moral Principles Flashcards
Theonomous
The Bible as the only authority
-Scripture is inspired by God and thus the only authority for moral instruction
-Bible = infallible, and if misinterpret our own fault
Teaches through e.g. David and Bathsheba to illustrate a moral life
Stories should be read in the context of a covenant (agreement) expressed through Jesus
‘Sola scriptura’
By scripture alone
2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture is inspired by God, and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness
sources of Christian ethics
Ten Commandments (summarises ides of ethics being personal/social) Jesus Sermon on the Mount (focal point of moral teaching, reforming biblical ideas in the OT)
Criticism of Theonomous - symbolism
No one can read Bible at face value, ‘if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.’
-Not literal but a metaphor for changing the way one sees thing
Criticism of Theonomous - Barth
Christian’s literalism can lead to ‘bibliolatry’ worship of Bible, by giving Divine Status
-Gods work, but worked through many centuries
-Supreme source, but read as inspiration
Passage could be symbolic/ metaphorical/ literal
Contradictions within the Bible
OT
- permits war and retributive justice through ‘eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth’
-Capital Punishment used by God for blasphemy
-Deuteronomy – sets out rules of law, including permission to kill foreign woman and children
NT
-Sermon on the Mount
-Reconciliation and love of enemies
-Stress future Kingdom, and war and violence are necessary evils for now – Augustine / promotes pacifism and non-violence
Advantages of Theonomous Ethics
- Clear / easy to follow
- All the teachings within one place
- Revealed word of God - Jeramiah 1:9 ‘I have put my words in your mouth’
- Bible - infallible so there are no errors
Disadvantages of theonomous
- Barth and literalism
- impossible not to be subjective as will interpret according to culture
Heteronomous - RC
Ethics biblical/ accessible through reason, the world, conscience. Church authority – Natural Law
Church authority has a place on informing Catholics of their morality:
- Church Leaders (Magisterium) meet and publish papal encyclical on modern issues
Advantages of Heteronomous - RC
-Humans are weak and sinful and need the church as their guide
-Authority as Catechism: ‘the church…has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth…’
How does the modern world differ from Bible e.g.
-Changes with the world to reflect modern values i.e. places of men and woman diff from St pail 14:33-35
Disadvantages of Heteronomous - RC
- What sources are greater authority
- Magisterium (Liberation Theologians) power
- Radford Ruther: shaped almost exclusively by male experiences of life
- Reason corrupt
- Distracts from moral commands: Jesus condemns tradition of the Pharisees as distracts from commandments (Mathew 15:2-9) as interpretations rather than law itself
- Undermines sorveignity of God
Heteronomous - Protestant
Hugo and Grotius:
View the bible not as a single document, but a slowly developed set of books that reflects its own time and contemporary traditions.
- Moral authority always rests with the Bible
- Reason - how to interpret
-More individual than communal
Advantages Heteronomous - Protestant
Bible grew out of Church and living source of Gods revelation
- Use reason to interpret what should be taken literally/metaphorically
- Changes with the world, so interpretations fix context of time
Disadvantages Heteronomous - Protestant
-Humans fallible, make mistakes
- Original Sin
Autonomous
Guiding principle: agape - summarised in Jesus’ life and sacrifice, and his teaching on being outwardly, not inwardly, focused.
Quotes of Agape NT
Love your neighbour as yourself’ Mathew 22:37
‘Be kind to the grateful and forgiving to the wicked’ - Luke 6:35
Advantages of NML
‘law written on their hearts.’ - St Paul Romans
Autonomous - advantages
-Flexible
- Agape root of all Jesus’ teachings
- ‘Global ethics’ allows us to save environment - come together as a community
- Advocates a loving world
Autonomous - disadvantages
- Jesus teaches more than love alone, does not dispense law but guides us on how to fulfil it
- Original Sin
- Undermines Gods sorveignity and biblical teaching
Situation Ethics: 4 working Principle
-Pragmatism – what should be done to be most loving
-Relativism – No absolute duties
-Positivism – Religious laws not God-given but human
-Personalism – Humans should not be treated as a means to an end
Why Bible is the only source for Christian Ethics
- Bible is the only means of knowing how to behave morally
-human based morality leads to moral confusion and endless debates about what is right and wrong
-Original Sin, only God’s Word as revealed in the Bible can provide a sound basis for Christian ethics
-If Christian ethics are not based on the Bible then they cannot be truly Christian and could otherwise simply be the product of human reason and wishes
Why Bible is not the only source for Christian Ethics
- Bible contradicts itself and does not offer a clear set of moral principles
-most important authority for Christian ethics is the Church or Christian community
-whether biblical commands are literal or symbolic, prescriptive or descriptive
-the only command which the New Testament prescribes is love or agape;
-as the writers of the Bible wrote according to their circumstances and were limited in their knowledge of the world
