Considered as a rationally justifiable set of claims about an objective something, ethics is illusory. I appreciate that when somebody says 'Love they neighbor as thyself', they think they are referring above and beyond themselves.


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Morality is just an aid to survival and reproduction,. There thus seems to be no universal agreement of what ethics 'is'; on what foundation it rests; or, on how it is to be accessed. Differing ethical foundations result in valid criticism of each others' truth claims. Ethics thus may claim to be absolute and universal, but it is relativised by the particular; 9 it presents its truth objectively, but its truth cannot be separated from human subjectivity and belief systems; it purports to be reasonable but cannot bypass supernatural intuition; it objectively reflects the values of individuals and society but these values become norms by which to criticise other ethical value systems; it may claim to reflect God's will, but it is also used to critically evaluate God and hold him accountable to its norms; it focuses on the other, but in the process may serve the self; it claims to be knowable, but nobody knows how it is known or whether what is known is 'real' in any sense of the word.

Internal questions operate within the framework of the system and can therefore be answered reasonably in the light of this framework. According to Mackintosh Christian ethics are ethics for Christians. But, one may reasonably ask, an existential jump to what? The different foundations proposed for ethics all seem to crumble when tested. Unless this first question be fully understood, and its true answer clearly recognized, the rest of Ethics is as good as useless from the point of view of systematic knowledge.

Moore then continues and points out that the concept 'good' is ultimately analytically indefinable: There is nothing more which can be added or detracted from the concept: This only leaves the option of seeing 'good' as an operational term. Good is what is good in the context in which it is utilised and by the values that are attached to it within such a particular context. Many philosophers of religion have welcomed Wittgenstein's notion of 'language games' Harris Since religious discourse is a separate unique language game, different from those of science, religious statements, unlike scientific ones, are not empirically testable.

To demand that they be, is a serious misunderstanding of that form of discourse. According to Martin If we apply this analogy to ethics we may conclude that the intention of the 'game' of ethics establishes a foundational first norm which, in turn determines the operational rules of the game which, finally determine the outcomes of the game in conformity with the original intention of the game. The first rule, norm or foundation is thus constituted by the internal logic of the operation of the game in line with its intention to do so.

In this understanding ethics does not rest on anything else than the willingness of people to play this game. But why should people play 'ethics'. Ultimately, there is no other reason than that people believe it necessary or important to do so. Reflecting on Christian ethics Ralph MacInerny warns: Perhaps the greatest temptation facing the faith in our times is fideism.


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  • Just as Wittgensteinian fideism attracted believing philosophers after decades of having the statement of their beliefs called meaningless, so theologians may be tempted to join in the disparagement of reason and commend the faith as its full alternative. While we will argue in this article that reason is not an adequate foundation for theological ethics, MacInerny is nevertheless correct in challenging the notion that Christian faith may be used to isolate the church from criticism for the ethical choices it makes.

    Such isolation ultimately results in religious fideistic fundamentalism. By allowing itself to enter into critical dialogue with other ethical systems and to be held accountable for its responses, Christian action escapes the hubris of always being right because it is in accordance to its own definition of 'right'. The brokenness of the world within which Christians find themselves, and in which they also participate, challenges any notion of a final answer. Christians bring an alternative but participatory voice to the ongoing ethical debate in the world.

    Meta-ethical problems with Christian ethics. The Christian faith cannot be co-opted to directly support any particular foundation for ethics. Christian ethics, in turn, cannot proceed from any secular ethical foundation that does not do justice to the theological presuppositions undergirding Christian action and behaviour. As Kierkegaard has suggested in Fear and trembling, such theological presuppositions must ultimately deconstruct many of the meta-ethical presuppositions that ground secular ethics. Christian ethics is grounded on the theological scope of its operations flowing from the Christ-event which constructs certain ontological, epistemological and anthropological presuppositions for Christian 'right behaviour'.

    Christian ethics remains dependent on a God who refuses to be co-opted within any one ethical system, but who, through the Christ-event, has created an alternative theological interpretive frame within which to operate. All moral action presumes the free agency of those who endeavour to act morally. Freedom is indeed, also a core element of Christian living. Believers are called to live out of the freedom that the Spirit gives rather than simply submitting to external coercive laws. This freedom is a by-product of the Spirit's presence; it is a gift from God. The freedom that the Spirit gives the church, however, is not the freedom of individual choice.

    The Spirit instead, binds believers to 'the other'. Jones in Gill The presence of the Spirit within believers, and the subsequent 'fruit of the Spirit' that shows itself through the actions and dispositions of believers, ultimately also challenges the free agency of the moral actors that all ethical systems require.

    As we have seen, the freedom that the Spirit offers is not the freedom to choose between 'good' and 'bad', but rather to be free from such choices. In Christ believers are free from sin and free to serve God. Believers can, however, never own their good character or behaviour. They cannot improve themselves. They can only 'remain' within the vine Jn 15 and look to the Spirit to bear fruit in and through them. It is theological' Hoose A second limitation that the good news about Christ places on utilising the concept of ethics within the context of the Christian faith lies in the gospel's message of grace.

    Those who are under grace know that they belong on the side of those who are shown to be in the wrong. Grace does not allow those affected by it to take up the position of judging other people or even themselves. Christian ethicists, according to Wogaman He further comments that: The recurring dilemma is that moral rules and even moral activism, apart from grace, derive from self-centredness; but grace apart from moral actions is empty - indeed, it is not even grace.

    Somehow Christian ethics must link grace and moral action, even while it affirms the priority of grace. In contrast to this, grace should be seen as first of all linking those who experience it to a deep awareness of being in the wrong; to the conviction that they, themselves, are in need of forgiveness. Christians do experience this forgiveness; by grace they do believe that they have been put right with God.

    Grace, however, always binds them to the confession that they do not possess this 'righteousness' in and of themselves, but only indirectly in Christ. Without faith in Christ, the resurrected human, has no possibility of being in the right with God or with other people. Grace thus places the righteous next to the sinner.

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    The righteous remains a sinner - simul iustus et peccator - the phrase that Luther famously used to describe the position of believers. Luther , in his classic work Concerning Christian liberty correctly indicates that grace frees the Christian from external moral works by which to earn salvation In his discussion Luther still continues to use moral categories for describing the Christian life, even though 'with Luther there is no longer an objective content to morality' Wogaman This is because grace, when correctly perceived, only knows the confession of guilt when focused on the self, and forgiveness and righteousness when focused, by faith, on Christ.

    Grace strips away all moral righteousness; moral and religious righteousness are instead shown to be the enemies of the gospel of grace. It is the man who delights in not being like the robbers, evildoers, adulterers Lk There is no objective distance between Christians and those who do wrong. Christians cannot set themselves apart from, or over against the sins of others, for the grace of God convicts them that they too, are in the wrong; they have to confess their own wrongdoing before God even while becoming aware of the sins of others.

    Grace convicts Christians that they too are -and will continue to be - in need of God's forgiveness. The role of conscience. Conscience, the voice of morality, is often linked to the voice of God. Jerome used the term syneidesis to refer to a holy transcendent element that is present as a moral ability in all humans, driving them to a good conscience. It is surely unacceptable to say that Christian ethics here find one of its most important concepts, that of a special moral organ through which man can escape the effects of the corruption and can respond in obedience, with the whole of his existence, to God's command.

    The term syneidesis does occur in the New Testament, but then mostly in a positive context such as in 1 Peter 3: Conscience does not refer to some form of 'moral organ', Berkhouwer notes: This consciousness is closely related to salvation, to baptism, to sanctification, to purification Heb.

    Doing justice to justice :

    We find ourselves not in the context of an autonomous moral organ but rather in that of practical action. The conscience is not an organ wholly separate from the heart with which men believe. The conscience expresses the richness of life in communion with God and the prospect of salvation, which resonates into the deepest regions of man's heart and life, and so leads to godly boldness.

    This transformation of the conscience, from condemning to affirming is closely linked to God's gracious forgiveness of sinners Rm 8: It can praise and blame, but never forgive. The act of forgiveness needs the personal dimensions of grace and love. Morality may call for sacrificial actions to enable the guilty to redeem him or herself for past transgressions, but morality can never deliver a free pardon to the guilty.

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    This is, however, exactly what God does. The scandal that the unjust are forgiven without having to do anything to deserve it stands at the very heart of the gospel. It is the task of human beings, MacIntyre quoted in McMylor suggests: To forgive the guilty, however, is to shatter the moral concept of justice. Summary The Christian church's teaching on justice uniformly employs the fundamental distinctions of justice advanced by Thomas Aquinas. He distinguishes, for example, justice as a universal concept from particular instances of justice.

    Nonetheless, these distinctions are applied inconsistently in Christian social ethics. This has led to competing frameworks of interpretation in the examination of questions that concern justice. The phrases social justice and economic justice, for instance, have been associated incorrectly with distributive justice.

    This essay attempts to unravel the distinct applications of all the species of justice in modern Christian social thought in order to set up a framework for justice that properly distinguishes each species of justice and also clarifies the relationships between instances of these species. Notes Includes bibliographical references p.

    View online Borrow Buy. Set up My libraries How do I set up "My libraries"? This single location in All: This single location in Australian Capital Territory: None of your libraries hold this item. The Vice of Luxury. Medieval Foundations of International Relations. Two Treatises of Government. Doing Well and Doing Good. Catholicism's Developing Social Teaching. The Church and Abortion. American Catholics, American Culture. The Victory of Reason - Rodney Stark. States of Emergency in Liberal Democracies. Franciscans and their Finances. Myth of Universal Human Rights. Oakeshott on Rome and America.

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