Good Conduct and Key Moral Principles

Question 1

Justification by faith of works

What is Justification by faith?

Answer 1

• This is Paul’s doctrine, found principally in Romans, that humans are ‘counted as righteous/ declared innocent by faith in Jesus Christ.
  o Justification is eschatological and cannot come simply by obeying the Jewish Law: only God can justify humanity.
  o Justification is the free gift of God’s grace, because all have sinned through Adam, so God freely redeemed humanity through the atoning suffering and death of Jesus.
  o Justification includes those who died before Jesus was incarnated: they too (as with Abraham) are justified by faith.
  o We are justified, therefore, by grace and faith, not by good moral conduct.
  o This seems to say clearly that good moral conduct is less important than having faith.
• Martin Luther, especially, defended justification by faith alone (sola fidel. Justification comes through Jesus atonement.
  o The faith of the sinner is passive, not active, and justification is not brought about by human achievement or works but by what God brings about through Jesus Christ.
  o The righteousness of Christ is literally attributed by God to the believing Sinner. Righteous works are the result of being justified by God and being born again through the Holy Spirit.

Question 2

Justification by faith of works

What is Justification by works?

Answer 2

• The Letter of James, however, argues that Christians are justified by works.
  o If we ignore someone who has no food or clothing, then our faith is useless - ‘faith without works is dead’.
  o Rather, faith is shown by works.
  o Even the demons believe in God! Abraham was justified by works - he was going to sacrifice Isaac; equally, Rahab the prostitute was justified in what she did to help Joshua’s conquest of Jericho.
• Those who prioritise faith point to Ephesians 2:8-10, where Paul explicitly states that Christians are saved by faith and not by their own works: God saves the person through the channel of their faith.

Question 3

Justification by faith of works

What is Justification by both faith and works?

Answer 3

• This was the position taken by the Catholic Church in response to Luther, at the Council of Trent: some human effort must be involved in the process of justification, since Jesus himself constantly emphasised the need for good works.
  o Grace comes to the individual through baptism, which is the sacrament of faith, so faith is developed in the context of the Church.
  o This leads to new life in Christ and to good works.
  o Faith is not just intellectual assent to God’s existence: it must entail obedience and good works:
• He who says “I know him” but disobeys his commandments is a liar.’ (1 John 2:4).
• On this interpretation, then, James is comparing two kinds of faith: the kind that leads to works and the kind that does not, and the second kind of faith is dead.

Question 4

What is Predestination?

Answer 4

• Predestination is the view that all events have been willed by God, and that the fate of each individual with regard to the Kingdom has also been willed by God.
• Paul gives an explicit statement of predestination in Romans 8, in which he says that God ‘conformed to the image of his Son those who in his foreknowledge he knew would be righteous.
  o If this is the case, then this seems to imply that their conduct is morally good because God has willed that also, and this implies further that good moral conduct in human beings is less important than God’s will.
  o Whatever God decides will happen.
• As for those who are not predestined to heaven, in Romans 6, Paul says that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’, so perhaps Paul thought that they simply died without entering God’s Kingdom.”

Question 5

What are the problems with predestination?

Answer 5

• There is a logical problem with predestination in that it clashes with the belief that God gave humans free will.
• Pelagius rejected predestination on this basis, rejecting also the idea of original sin, and arguing that God’s ‘grace’ was God’s gift of free will to humans.
• In opposition to Pelagius, Augustine proposed the doctrine of ‘double predestination’: God predestines some to the Kingdom through his grace, but leaves others immersed in their sin to be condemned to hell.
  o During the Reformation, John Calvin added to this by arguing that God ordains some to glory and some to eternal torment.
• The modern debate about predestination links to the debate about the problem of evil, because of the doctrine of God’s omniscience: if God knew, before creation, that some would inevitably merit hell, why did God bother to create such beings in the first place?
  o Does Hick’s theory of universal salvation help or does this in effect destroy the doctrine of the Atonement?
  o How do we reconcile the idea of predestination with the concept of human free will and the issue of God’s relation to time?
  o Is there any realistic way of reconciling predestination with the belief held by most Christians that good moral conduct is essential to Christian living and Christian faith?

Question 6

What is sanctity of life?

Answer 6

• To say that life has sanctity means that it is holy or sacred to God, and this is the basis of the Sanctity of Life Principle.
  o The principle derives from the Genesis texts that humans are made in the image of God (1:26-27) and have a soul (2:7], which together are taken to mean that humans are sacred to God because they reflect his image and alone were given a soul.
• The principle therefore holds that human life has intrinsic value.
  o The principle is sometimes described as ‘strong (forbidding any kind of killing, for example, through contraception, abortion, euthanasia or removal of life support) or weak’, which argues that the situation should be taken into account.
  o The weak form of the principle is also associated with a Quality of Life Principle, which suggests that there are some human conditions where the quality of life is such that a strong Sanctity of Life Principle is inappropriate, and that humans have been given reason and free will to judge these conditions.

Question 7

What are the different views about applying the sanctity of life principle to issues concerning the embryo and the unborn child?

Answer 7

• Applying the Sanctity of Life Principle to these issues is largely about the question of ‘personhood’.
  o The strong Sanctity of Life Principle holds that personhood begins at conception, because all the necessary genetic material that will form the person is present.
  o The Catholic Church supports this understanding, arguing that there is a continuous development of each life from conception to birth.
  o The strong Sanctity of Life Principle is founded in Scripture, and human conception can be seen as analogous to the incarnation of Jesus conceived in Mary’s womb’.
  o The strong Sanctity of Life Principle rejects the Warnock Report’s 14-day limit for experimentation on human embryos, regarding it as a licence to murder.
  o Equally it rejects embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning, along with Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis, and rejects abortion at any stage and for any reason: the child’s right to life overrides the quality of life of the mother.
• Although the weak Sanctity of Life Principle shares the same scriptural basis as the strong principle, those who support the weak Sanctity of Life Principle reach different conclusions, since the weak Sanctity of Life Principle takes into account both the situation and a Quality of Life Principle.
  o The Church of England allows abortion for quality of life considerations for both the mother and the foetus, and different Protestant groups use the same kind of logic to argue that the various forms of embryo experimentation can be legitimate because they support the sanctity of the lives of all who suffer from disease or disability.
• The strong Sanctity of Life Principle protects the value of life, and protects those who suffer disabilities, and the weak Sanctity of Life Principle is in line with Jesus teachings on love and compassion.
• However, the strong principle can be seen as unscientific, ignoring the evolution of all species, and ignoring the fact that scientifically, human life is no more special than any other form of life. The view that humans are made in God’s image can be seen as an anthropomorphic/ gender-specific red herring leading to speciesism.

Question 8

What is the Just War Theory?

Answer 8

• Just War theory was mainly developed in Christian circles, for example, Augustine and Aquinas, mainly within a natural law tradition, in order to clarify (for example, in relation to Matthew 5:38-41) the idea of justifiable violence.
• It outlines the principles of ius ad bellum (conditions under which it would be legitimate to go to war) and of ius in bello (rules under Which a war must be fought once it has begun).
• ius ad bellum principles include just cause, legitimate authority, right intention, probability of success, last result, proportionality.
• ius in bello principles include discrimination (re non-combatants) and proportionality of means to ends.

Question 9

How can Just War Theory be applied to the use of weapons of mass destruction?

Answer 9

• As a term, weapons of mass destruction refer primarily to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
• All of these appear to lie outside the boundaries drawn by Just War theory.
• Most theologians argue that weapons of mass destruction cannot discriminate between military and civilian targets (principle 1 of ius in bello); also that they meet neither of the proportionality clauses principle 6, ius ad bellum; principle 2, ius in bellol.
• It is also doubtful that they could meet the possibility of success clause (principle 4, ius ad bellum).
• If, then, Just War theory cannot be applied to weapons of mass destruction, does this mean that the theory is pointless?
• The weapons cannot be uninvented, and if smaller countries give up a nuclear deterrent, they would be incapable of resisting attack from a more powerful country.
• Many of the Christian Churches describe nuclear weapons as ‘intrinsically evil’ and advocate global nuclear disarmament, although most see this approach as unrealistic and potentially as more dangerous than retaining a nuclear deterrent.
• Some Christians argue that a nuclear deterrent is justifiable, since that gives the greatest chance of avoiding the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Question 10

What is dominion and stewardship?

Answer 10

• Dominion as virtually unrestricted power over animals.
• Psalm 8 describes humans as having been made a “little less than God’ and having dominion over what God has made.
• This understanding is reinforced by the belief that humans were created in the image of God.
• This concept of dominion means that the Earth is to be subdued and ruled over by humans, to the extent that the fear and dread of humanity should be over all animals.
• This understanding has a strong anthropocentric and anthropomorphic understanding that is detrimental to the care of the environment, so that animals are not valued for what they are but for how useful they are to humans.
• Some Christians therefore use the environment to satisfy their needs, regardless of the effects of this policy.
• The problem has arguably been made worse by Aquinas teaching that mistreating animals is a kind of property damage; by the Protestant view that accumulating wealth is a sign of God’s approval; and by the Christian belief that animals do not have souls.

Question 11

What are the beliefs about the role of Christians as stewards of animals and the natural environment?

Answer 11

• Dominion as caring stewardship of animals and the entire environment.
• Other Christians interpret ‘dominion’ as caring stewardship of the entire environment, seeing humans as caretakers of God’s creation who are fully responsible to God in what they do.
  o This view is also rooted in the Bible (for example, in God’s description of creation as ‘good’. It is also reflected in Augustine’s Principle of Plenitude.

Question 12

How have changing understandings of the effects of human activities on the environment affected the role of humans as having dominion and stewardship over the world?

Answer 12

• The rejection of ‘dominion’ as unrestricted power over’ has been accelerated by a new Christian understanding of the effects of environmental degradation brought about by human activities, and a number of Christian scholars argue that there must be an increased emphasis on stewardship of the environment as a whole, for example, through eco-theology.