christian moral principles Flashcards
heteronomy
Moral authority comes from the combination of Church, Bible and reason. This is typically a Catholic view.
theonomy
Moral authority comes from God, which we access through God’s revelation in the Bible
- often involves suggesting the Church has less authority than the Bible
- typically a protestant view.
autonomy
Individual people have to figure out for themselves what is right or wrong. E.g. situation ethics.
state the three main views of christian moral principles
heteronomy
theonomy
autonomy
apostolic succession
heteronomy view that is the basis of the catholic church
- those that first spread word of christ are apostles - succession created when the apostles appointed bishops to continue their work
how are sacred tradition and scriptures linked through god
tradition - christ and holy spirit
scriptures - holy spirit
sacred traditions origin
apostles created teachings to help interpret the bible and is distinct from sacred scriptures
what does the dei verbum (second vatican councils doc) state
sacred scripture is ‘word of god’ since it was written under ‘inspiration of divine spirit’
sacred tradition ‘takes the word of god’ entrusted by christ…and holy spirit’ to the apostles and their successors
- both tradition and scriptures are equal
- entrusted church to interpret word of god
what was the second vatican council doc called that defended sacred tradition and scriptures as equal
dei verbum
why do catholics believe the bible is ‘without error’ despite being written by humans
inspired by holy spirit
evaluation of dei verbum
catholic church has a history of corruption and paedophilia - do not act as if guided by the holy spirit
- sale of indulgences
what was the sale of indulgences
the policy of the Catholic Church to accept money in return for forgiveness of sins.
- included paying for relatives to get out of purgatory faster
- looks as tho they created purgatory - a false doctrine- just to exploit people for money - corrupt
what does luther say about purgatory
‘fabricated by goblins’
- he wrote a 95 thesis critique of sale of indulgences
catholic response to accusations of corruption an a counter eval
church is populated with humans - of course they will sin
protestants would argue they are too corrupt to continue having this authority. arguably too much corruption - goes beyond human flaws
what 3 theists reject use of human reason due to the fall
luther
calvin
barth
Aquinas’ natural theology states human reason can discover what 3 things
- knowledge of gods existence
- knowledge of natural moral law
- knowledge of gods nature
why did aquinas believe human reason couldnt provide absolute proof god existed
would make faith useless
(why he rejects ontological arguments)
what does natural theology argue at its simplest form
that human reason supports understanding in god
how does barth critique aquinas’ natural theology
- places a dangerous overreliance on human reason
- makes no sense - if humans could know god through reason why would there be revelation
barth quote on why we cannot comprehend god
‘the finite has no capacity for the infinite’
sola scriptura overview
- form of theonomy involving typically protestants
- stems from luther thinking catholic church was too corrupt
- church can interpret bible but should be subject to correction by bible
the priesthood of all believers
what is The priesthood of all believers
- doctrine by luther that states all ppl have the same status as a priest
- counteracts catholic view of priests having special status
- bible says jesus is only mediator between god and humanity
what is ru-ah and what is its significance
- bible states ‘ruah’ gods breath - was breathed into authors of bible to inspire them
- importance of bible
evaluation of sola scriptura
- not mentioned in bible - self contradictory
- the bible grew out of the church - it wasnt decided upon until 4th century - why should the protestants trust those catholics in charge and not current ones
why does fletcher reject heteronomy and sees it as a form of legalism
it doesnt take situations into account
how is situation ethics christian ethics
focused on jesus’ teachings of agape love
jesus said greatest commandement is to love thy neighbour
William Barclay on situation ethics
gives men a dangerous amount of freedom
- if every man was a saint it would be perfect
- link to hobbs - man is by nature individualistic and needs laws to govern us
how would fletcher and robinson respond to someone like barclay who says this amount of freedom is dangerous
- how does barclay respond to this
man has now ‘come of age’ and matured
in medieval times they were less educated and needed more control and rigid rules
we are more civilised now and should have more autonomy
- if given chance, barclay says, ppl will choose selfish option. power corrupts
fletcher vs sola scripture
- why does he face criticism from traditional scripture
- only follows the command to love, ignores most of the teachings in the Bible
- goes against sola scriptura - only bible
fletcher vs sola scripture
- how does he respond to criticism from traditional scripture
- theres already so many interpretations of the bible - would already be choosing two options - deciding between interpreations or taking it literally
