Good Conduct and Key Moral Principles: Key Information

Question 1

Justification by Faith or Works?

Answer 1

• Paul’s doctrine and is found in Romans - humans are counted as ‘righteous’ or declared ‘innocent’ by faith in Jesus.
• Justification = Eschatological, cannot come just by obeying Jewish Law.
• Justification includes those who died before Jesus was incarnated - these were justified by faith.
• Justified by grace and faith, not by good moral conduct.
• Ignoring someone with no food or clothing, faith becomes useless - ‘faith without works is dead.’ Faith is shown by works.
• Sermon on the Mount and The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: No mention of faith; righteous are sent to heaven, unrighteous to hell.
• Prioritise faith: Ephesians 2:8-10: ‘ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’
• Martin Luther: Sola Fide. Justification comes through Jesus’ atonement. Faith of sinners = passive.
• Righteousness of Christ = attributed by God to the believing sinner.
• Both faith and works (taken by Catholic Church)
• Jesus emphasised the need for good works.
• Grace = individual through baptism, which is the sacrament of faith.
• ‘He who says ‘I know him’, but disobeys his commandments is a liar.’ (1 John 2:4)
• James compares two types of faith: one that leads to works and the kind that does not.

Question 2

Predestination

Answer 2

• All events are willed by God
• Romans 8:1-2: ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you [a] free from the law of sin and death.’
• Seems to imply that their conduct in human beings is less important than God’s will
• Logical Problem: 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.
• Double Predestination: Predestines some into his kingdom through his grace and leaves others immersed in their sins and condemned to hell.
• Reformation: Calvin added to this by arguing that God ordains some to glory and others to eternal torment.

Question 3

The concept of the Sanctity of Life

Answer 3

• Life is holy or sacred to God.
• Principle derives from Genesis 1:26-27 (humans were made Imago Dei) and also 2:7 (humans have a soul)
• Together mean that humans are sacred to God because they reflect his image and alone were given a soul.
• Weak form of the principle: Associated with the ‘Quality of Life Principle’: 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 the reason and free will to judge these conditions.

Question 4

Different views about applying the Sanctity of life principle to issues concerning the embryo and the unborn child

Answer 4

• Largely about personhood
• Strong SOL: Personhood = conception, all genetic material that will form the person is present; supported by the Catholic Church
• Strong SOL found in scripture: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.’
• Strong SOL rejects 14 day limit for experimentation
• ESC, TC, PGD, Abortion = rejected
• Weak SOL: Takes into account situation and the quality of life principle; COE allows abortion for quality of life considerations; same ideas applied by different Protestant groups about the experimentation phase on embryos.
• Strong SOL: 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 (imago dei) can be seen as anthropomorphic and gender specific red herring leading to speciesism.

Question 5

The Just War Theory

Answer 5

• Developed by Christian circles like Augustine and Aquinas
• Matthew 5:38-41: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[a But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
• Outlines Ius ad Bellum (conditions under which it must be legitmate to go to war) and Ius in Bello (rules under which a war must be fought once it has begun)..
• Ius ad Bellum intentions: Right intention, probability of success, legitimate authority, just cause and proportionality.
• Ius in Bello principles: Discrimination and proportionality of means to ends.
• There are difficulties with each of these principles, not least their application to modern weapons of mass destruction.

Question 6

The application of Just War Theory to the use of weapons of mass destruction

Answer 6

• Nuclear, Chemical and Biological weapons (lie outside of the boundary of JWT)
• Most theologians aruge WMD cannot discriminate between military and civilian targets (1st principle Ius in bello); meet neither of proportionality clauses (6th Ius ad Bellum, 2nd Ius in Bello).
• Doubt over possibility of success (principle 4 Ius ad Bellum)\
• 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.
• Christian Churches = wmd = intrinsically evil and advocate global nuclear disarmament, unrealistic and potentially dangerous.
• Some Christians: Nuclear detterent = justifiable since that gives the greatest chance of avoiding using weapons of mass destruction.

Question 7

Dominion and Stewardship: The belief that Christians have dominion over animals

Answer 7

• Psalm 8: ‘Little less than God’ and have dominion over what God has made. Reinforced by imago dei
• Dominion: Power/power over
• View = anthropomorphic and anthropocentric 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: Use environment to satisfy their own needs regardless of the effects of this policy.
• Aquinas’ teaching that mistreating animals is a kind of property damage; by the protestant view that accumulating is a sign of God’s approval; and by the Christian belief that animals do not have souls.

Question 8

Beliefs about the role of Christians as Stewards of animals and the natural environment

Answer 8

• Some Chirstians: Dominion = caring stewardship of the entire environment, seeing humans as caretakers of God’s creation who are fully responsible to God in what they do.
• Rooted in the Bible (God said ‘good’)
• Augustine’s Principle of Plenitude: All forms of existence that are possible existence somewhere. Many species is much better than a universe with one, because having a huge variety of species shows the depths of God’s power and the beauty of his creation.

Question 9

How changing understandings of the effects of human activities on the environment have affected that role

Answer 9

• Rejection of Dominion: Accelerated by Christian understanding of the effects of environmental degradation brought about by human activities .
• Christian scholars: Increase emphasis on stewardship of the environment as a whole, e.g. eco-theology.