RE DCT: Living Flashcards
what are the 3 sources of moral authority for Christians?
- the bible alone (sola scriptura)
- bible, tradition, reason (heteronomy)
- natural law
how might Christians use the bible for making moral decisions?
- the bible provides a rich source of moral guidance in the form of the 10 commandments etc.
- the jewish people at the time thought they had a covenant with god
how might Christians use a combination of the bible, tradition and reason to make moral decisions?
- the bible is outdated and can contradict itself, we need to use a range of sources.
- the church teaching compliments the bible and teaches us how to live.
how might Christians use natural law in order to make moral decisions?
Christians use primary precepts for strict guidance, secondary precepts add some flexibility.
how does the magisterium help Christians to make moral decisions?
the pope writes the papal encyclical which expresses the official views of the church. the doctrine of papal infallibility states that the pope is always correct and that the holy spirit helps the pope to write this document.
how might some christians use love as the only guide to ethical behaviour?
- instead of obeying the bible, some may use love as the only ethical guide, situation ethics for example.
- my must use our reason to find the most loving thing.
what did joseph fletcher say about agape love?
- love is the soverign good
- we should always do the most loving thing for this reason.
how are christian ethics personal/individual?
- each person reads scripture and is guided by the holy spirit and commanded by god via scripture to act in a certain way. god speaks to everyone individually and offers moral guidance.
- joseph fletcher would argue that christian ethics are personal.
how are christian ethics not personal and require support from the church?
- the catholic church believes the individual needs support in order to understand the bible and see how it applies to life. a person must be a part of the church due to the wisdom of the community and tradition is passed on.
- thomas aquinas argues that christian ethics are universal, everyone has an innate sense of what’s right and wrong.
how is the bible a comprehensive moral guide?
- due to the fall, humans must rely completely on god’s word (christian theologians)
- protestant theologians argue that we need to take a theonomous approach to ethics, this is because the bible is dictated by god and contains his direct speech.
- the bible contains the 10 commandments so it has many moral guidelines.
- the bible contains the direct teachings of jesus
how isn’t the bible a comprehensive moral guide?
- karl barth warns of the dangers of this view of scripture. bibiolarty - worshiping the bible. he says that the bible is a witness to truth, not an actual truth itself.
- joseph fletcher argues that the sola scriptura approach is too rigid and not appropriate when making moral decisions. he believes in using situation ethics instead.
- catholic theologians would argue that the bible is central but it isn’t the one and only comprehensive guide.
- some catholics believe in using church tradition and the magisterium to make moral decisions.
briefly describe the life of dietrich bonhoeffer.
- german protestant christian executed near the end of the second world war.
- be became a pastor in the lutheran church and trained in 1923.
- condemned the nazis.
- executed as he was associated with those who tried to assassinate hitler.
what was bonhoeffer’s teaching on the relationship between church and state?
- his views were very similar to others of the lutheran church.
- you have 2 duties, one to god and the other to the state.
- god and the church involved your private life, your duty to the state is your public duty.
public life of a christian:
- be a good citizen
- be obedient to the state
- wait for god to change the world.
how did bonhoffer change his opinion on the relation between church and state?
- it changed when hitler came into power due to his persecution of the jews and he also demanded that all churches show complete obedience to him as fuhrer.
- he then advocated political resistance, despite it being against lutheran belief.
what were his 3 courses for possible action outlined in ‘the church and the jewish question’?
- the church provides care for victims of injustice
- protest and question rather than staying silent
- actively seek to disrupt the state if it’s doing immoral things.
