Pauline Ethics

Question 1

Explain Pauline ethics

Answer 1

1. Individual conscience in faith
   - ethics without belief in God is redundant
   - form of DCT as God is the source of goodness
2. Have to accept Jesus and his sacrificial death in order to live ethically => soteriological
3. Jesus law of the OT has been replaced by Christ
   - the law was made for a different era before Christ where salvation did not exist
   - Christ offered us a path to salvation
4. Deontological ethics of OT have been replaced by aretaic virtues of Christ
5. Eschatological view
   - urgency + puts ethics into a soteriological context

Question 2

Strengths of Pauline ethics

Answer 2

• writings are closer to the time of Jesus than that of the gospels and is consistent with what JC is saying
• it is only by faith in jesus that one attains salvation (cf Kierkegaard)
• parts of letters which are universal in scope where they concern all men => it is Paul’s universal salvation
• Barth: Paul place JC at the centre of Christianity
• more aretaic => focuses on self-improvement; “The Sabbath was made for man, not man made for the Sabbath” => challenging blindness in deontological laws

Question 3

Weaknesses of Pauline ethics

Answer 3

• Paul’s letters show little evidence that they were intended to endure as permanent documents
• contradiction between submitting to governing authorities and moving away from deontology
  CP: Luther
• only applicable to Christians => not a very good applied ethical theory as it is very exclusivist
• deontology, ethically, seems clearer due to its prescriptivism, making it more practical and communal
  CP: Kierkegaard: faith is an individual commitment to God