Christian Ethics in Modern Medicine

3 foundational ideas for ethical theories

1. duties

2. virtues

3. consequences

special revelation

• God’s communication to his people of his nature, character, and particular plan for redemption of mankind

• God’s word: inspired, infallible, authoritative, clear, necessary, sufficient

general revelation

• moral knowledge obtained thru reason and observation of the created order

• related to intuition, conscience, and common sense

• enough to condemn us in our sins and tell us that there is a God we are responsible to, but not to show us the means for our redemption

Christian ethics interprets _________ revelation through ________ revelation

General/special

3 pieces of building a Christian ethical framework

1. virtue

2. deontology

3. teleology

Moral goodness is defined by ______ and does not change

God

all Christian duties and virtues are derived from God’s Word and thus align with _____________

God’s moral goodness

positive duties vs negative duties

positive = show honor, pursue peace, perform good works, bless those who persecute

negative duties = have no other gods, don’t take the name of the Lord in vain, don’t murder/steal

biblical morality is simply _________ or _________ without the Gospel

legalism/moralism

telos

end, goal, outcome (the glory of God)

for the Christian, ethical decision-making emerges from a consistent pattern of:

following Jesus Christ

descriptive task question

what does the Bible actually say?

synthetic task question?

what does the whole Bible say?

hermeneutical task question

how does the Bible relate to our situation?

pragmatic task question

what fruits are produced by our reading and actions

Magnuson’s model for moral decisions

• pre-reflection

• reflection

• deliberation

• evaluation