Christian moral principles

Christians take many different approaches to moral decision making

  • The Bible (scripture)

  • Tradition (including the Church)

  • Reason(Aquinas, natural law)

  • Situational love(situation ethics, agape love)

Bible- believing Christians

  • if a Christian ONLY uses the Bible as a source of ethics= sola scriptura (scripture alone)

The Bible is:

  • Supreme authority in all matters of doctrine and practice

  • self authenticating, the idea that its true within itself

  • read it and accept it as it is

  • clear and obvious in it’s meaning

  • direct word of God

“then the Lord reached out his hand and touch my mouth and said to me, ‘I have put my words in your mouth’” Jeremiah

Faith and Revelation

Propositional

  • Truths revealed by God

  • To be accepted, not questioning the word of God

  • God speaking to his people- passing information to his listeners

  • God is revealed directly to the reader through words on the page

  • Commandments and teachings are fixed moral principles

Non propositional

  • Belief or faith in God

Gaining knowledge of God through:

  • Experiencing a sense of God’s presence or guidance

  • Nature, teleological

  • When God revealed himself in Jesus, there was no book or set propositions. It was about a human life and death

  • = more personal and about how the Bible is experienced in the believer’s life

Bible- believing Christians: evaluation

Strengths

  • Belief that the Bible is the direct and without mistake word of God= infallible source of information

  • means that the Bible is without error

  • no need for interpretation

Weaknesses

  • How is it possible to read the Bible straight without any interpretations?

  • If God really did dictate the words of the Bible, why are there so many styles of writing?

  • some rules don’t seem relevant to an ethical life

Hays warns “The interpretation of Scripture can never occur in a vacuum.” = The idea that you can just have scripture solely scripture was written many years ago, not reliable.

Rosemary Radford Ruther argues that both tradition and the Bible are shaped almost exclusively by male experiences of life

Agape

  • For many Christians, the fundamental New Testament principle of love is the essential guide throughout their lives

  • Principle of love is the root of Jesus’ teachings and actions

Tillich argues that agape includes all dimensions of love:

  • Eros: love of goodness and beauty

  • Philia: love of friendship and trust

  • Libido: sexual love

Tillich argues that rules must be interpreted through love in accordance with the people involved

Even Pope Francis advocates a more compassionate approach and questions attempts to control people using rules

For him, the Bible contains both wisdom and is the reality of family life such as marriage difficulties.

Agape: the problems

  • Richard Mouw in “From Christ to the world” argues that just because one Biblical passage focuses upon love this does not rule out the possibility of other Biblical teachings.