53 Facts About Christian ethics

Christian ethics, known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system: it is a virtue ethic which focuses on building moral character, and a deontological ethic which emphasizes duty.

Christian ethics derives its metaphysical core from the Bible, seeing God as the ultimate source of all power.

Christian ethicists use reason, philosophy, natural law, the social sciences, and the Bible to formulate modern interpretations of those principles; Christian ethics applies to all areas of personal and societal ethics.

Christian ethics, referred to as moral theology, was a branch of theology for most of its history.

Christian ethics is a virtue ethic which focuses on developing an ethical character, beginning with obedience to a set of rules and laws seen as divine commands reflecting behaviors which are morally required, forbidden, or permitted.

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Christian ethics takes from the Bible its normative rules focusing on conduct, its basic understanding of natural law, its patterns of moral reasoning which focus on character, and the ideals of a community built on social justice.

Philip Wogaman writes that Christian ethics has had a "sometimes intimate, sometimes uneasy" relationship with Greek and Roman philosophy, taking some aspects of its principles from Plato, Aristotle and other Hellenic philosophers.

Christian ethics's positions were eventually developed into the school of thought known as Thomism, which contains many ethical teachings that continue to be used, especially within the Roman Catholic Church.

Martin Luther, in his classic treatise On the Freedom of a Christian ethics argued that moral effort is a response to grace: ethically, humans are not made good by the things they do, but if they are made good by God's love, they will be impelled to do good things.

The secular ideologies of the Age of Enlightenment followed shortly on the heels of the Reformation, but the influence of Christian ethics was such that J Philip Wogaman, pastor and professor of Christian ethics, asks "whether those ideas would have been as successful in the absence of the Reformation, or even whether they would have taken the same form".

Christian ethics humanism taught the radical new idea that any Christian ethics with a "pure and humble heart could pray directly to God" without the intervention of a priest.

Christian ethics promoted the Christian ethic as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount.

Christian ethics says these discussions are divided by beliefs about how claims ought to be addressed, since both sides assume there is a polarity between human reason and the authority of scripture and tradition.

Meyer asserts that the answer to this difficulty lies in modern Christian ethics embracing secular standards of rationality and coherence, while continuing to refuse the secular worldview and its premises and conclusions.

Christian ethics metaphysic is rooted in the biblical metaphysic of God as "Maker of Heaven and earth".

In Christian ethics metaphysics according to Beach, "Eternal Law is the transcendent blueprint of the whole order of the universe.

Christian ethics avoided the high Atticistic Greek style of rhetoric, but invented his own style of rhetoric by making "recognizable, sophisticated and original use of the strategies common to the [Greco-Roman] orators".

Christian ethics employed Jewish strategies for interpretation, and used the traditions for reading Jewish scriptures, including the apocalyptic ones, both sectarian and what would later be rabbinic, but he was aware of the Greco-Roman philosophical discussions of his day.

Christian ethics asserts that it is possible for humans to know and recognize truth and moral good through the application of both reason and revelation.

Christian ethics systematically contends that, if the God of Christianity exists, this God would not be evident to persons who are simply curious, but would instead, only become evident in a process involving moral and spiritual transformation.

Christian ethics says the Christian ethic assumes either a condition of piety, or at least a longing for piety.

Christian ethics defines piety as an attitude of respect evoked by "human experiences of dependence upon powers we do not create and cannot fully master".

Christian ethics ethic asserts the ontological nature of moral norms from God, but it is accountable to standards of rationality and coherence; it must make its way through both what is ideal and what is possible.

Christian ethics says there are at least seven ethical principles that Christian ethicists have perennially reinterpreted.

Since the Christian ethics ethic begins with God as the source of all, and since God is defined as the ultimate good, the presence of evil and suffering in the world creates questions often referred to as the problem of evil.

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Christian ethics ethic offers three main responses to the problem of evil and a good God.

Christian ethics's argues that nature can be understood as an intertwined mix of the perfect and the corrupted, that God could not have made one without allowing the existence of the other, and that this is because of the natural laws involved in creation.

Wogaman argues that: "Part of the biblical legacy of Christian ethics is the necessity somehow to do justice to both" law and grace.

Author Stanley Rudman asserts that human rights is the language through which the Christian ethics ethic is able to relate these concepts to the world.

Christian ethics is, and has been repeatedly, divided over this interaction between obedience to authority and authority's power to enforce that obedience in contrast with one's personal responsibility to love and forgive.

Christian ethics has not traditionally contained concepts of self-love as a good.

The Christian ethics ethic is not an opponent of poverty since Jesus embraced it, but it is an opponent of the destitution that results from social injustice.

The many Christian ethics denominations vary from condemning homosexual acts as sinful, to being divided on the issue, and to seeing it as morally acceptable.

Christian ethics adds that "contemporary standards tend to view these laws of capital punishment as cavalier toward human life", however, the ancient ethic of "covenantal community" suggests the value of life was as much communal as individual.

Christian ethics argues that it interferes with creating a just and humane society, negatively impacts the families of victims, and race issues, and can be seen as "cruel and unusual punishment".

Traditional Christian ethics recognizes the command to "love thy neighbor" as one of the two primary commands called the "greatest commands" by Jesus.

Christian ethics feminism defines itself as a school of Christian ethics theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women.

At this time, the Christian ethics view was that morals were a matter of obedience to the ordained hierarchy of God and men.

Christian ethics did indirectly articulate a social ideal through the Pauline virtues, the "faith, hope and love" of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, by designating love as the highest of all virtues; and he indirectly undermined the mistreatment of women, children and slaves through his teachings on marriage and through his own personal lifestyle.

Rio says criticism of the trade in Christian ethics slaves was not new, but at this time, opposition began to get wider support, seeing all those involved in the trade as what Rio calls "symbols of barbarity".

David VanDrunen, professor of systematic theology and Christian ethics, opines that with the tremendous benefits of medical advances, have come the "eerie forebodings of a future that is less humane, not more".

Protestant Christian ethics ethic is rooted in the belief that agape love is its central value, and that this love is expressed in the pursuit of good for other persons.

Christian ethics reasons that since diseases are the result of sin coming into the world, and because Christian ethics asserts that Jesus himself began the process of conquering sin and evil through his healings and resurrection, "if there is a condition in a human being [understood as disease], and if there is something that genetic technology could do to address that problem, then use of this technology would be acceptable.

Moral philosopher Peter Singer in Practical Ethics describes the Christian argument as "It is wrong to kill an innocent human being; a fetus is an innocent human being" therefore it is wrong to kill a fetus.

Rudman asserts the Christian ethics ethic is more than a simple syllogism, it is "a narrative that includes the child in God's family, takes into account the entire context surrounding its birth, including the other lives involved, and seeks harmony with God's redeeming activity through Christ.

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Christian ethics ethic concerning alcohol has fluctuated from one generation to the next.

Cook asserts that the primary question for Christian ethics revolves around the fact that alcohol misuse is a "contemporary social problem of enormous economic significance, which exacts a high toll in human suffering".

The Christian ethics ethic takes seriously the power of addiction to "hold people captive, and the need for an experience of a gracious 'Higher Power' as the basis for finding freedom".

Battin, Rhodes and Silvers conclude that the Christian ethics ethic asserts "life and its flourishing are gifts of God, but they are not the ultimate good, and neither are suffering and death the ultimate evils.

Michael Northcott, professor of Christian ethics, says both issues will have to be dealt with: the reorientation of modern society toward recognizing the biological limits of the planet will not occur without a related quest for justice and the common good.

Christian ethics says that, based on convictions which include the future transformation and liberation of all creation, a Christian view is obligated to take animal welfare seriously.

Therefore, he concludes that the Christian ethics ethic sees an emphasis on animal welfare as a better approach than the use of concepts of personhood and divine rights for addressing inhumane treatment of animals.

Northcott adds that the Christian ethics ethic, with its concepts of redemption of all physical reality and its manifestation of responsible stewardship in community and relation to others, is "a vital corrective to modern individualism which devalues both human and non-human distinctiveness".