Daniel L. Smith-Christopher
Christopher C. Cook (M.D.)
Separated
from its anchorage in religion, ethics has followed the social sciences
in seeing human beings as fundamentally characterised by self-interest,
so that altruism is either naively idealistic or arrogantly
self-sufficient. Colin Grant contends that, as a modern secular concept,
altruism is a parody on the self-giving love of Christianity, so that
its dismissal represents a social levelling that loses the depths that
theology makes intelligible and religion makes possible. The Christian
affirmation is that God is characterised by self-giving love (agape),
then expected of Christians. Lacking this theological background, the
focus on self-interest in sociobiology and economics, and on human
realism in the political focus of John Rawls or the feminist sociability
of Carol Gilligan, finds altruism naive or a dangerous distraction from
real possibilities of mutual support. This book argues that to dispense
with altruism is to dispense with God and with the divine
transformation of human possibilities.
Robin
Gill argues that once moral communities (such as churchgoers) take
centre stage in ethics - as they do in virtue ethics - then there should
be a greater interest in sociological evidence about these communities.
This book examines recent evidence, gathered from social attitude
surveys, about church communities, in particular their views on faith,
moral order and love. It shows that churchgoers are distinctive in their
attitudes and behaviour. Some of their attitudes change over time, and
there are a number of obvious moral disagreements between different
groups of churchgoers. Nonetheless, there are broad patterns of
Christian beliefs, teleology and altruism which distinguish churchgoers
as a whole from non-churchgoers. However, the values, virtues, moral
attitudes and behaviour of churchgoers are shared by many other people
as well. The distinctiveness of church communities in the modern world
is thus real but relative, and is crucial for the task of Christian
ethics.
Christian
Political Ethics brings together leading Christian scholars of diverse
theological and ethical perspectives--Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and
Anabaptist--to address fundamental questions of state and civil
society, international law and relations, the role of the nation, and
issues of violence and its containment. Representing a unique fusion of
faith-centered ethics and social science, the contributors bring into
dialogue their own varying Christian understandings with a range of both
secular ethical thought and other religious viewpoints from Judaism,
Islam, and Confucianism. They explore divergent Christian views of state
and society--and the limits of each. They grapple with the tensions
that can arise within Christianity over questions of patriotism, civic
duty, and loyalty to one's nation, and they examine Christian responses
to pluralism and relativism, globalization, and war and peace. Revealing
the striking pluralism inherent to Christianity itself, this pioneering
volume recasts the meanings of Christian citizenship and civic
responsibility, and raises compelling new questions about civil
disobedience, global justice, and Christian justifications for waging
war as well as spreading world peace. It brings Christian political
ethics out of the churches and seminaries to engage with today's most
vexing and complex social issues. The contributors are Michael Banner,
Nigel Biggar, Joseph Boyle, Michael G. Cartwright, John A. Coleman,
S.J., John Finnis, Theodore J. Koontz, David Little, Richard B. Miller,
James W. Skillen, and Max L. Stackhouse.
This
book investigates the intersection of theology and social theory in the
work of Jürgen Moltmann. In particular, it examines the way in which
his concept of the Exodus Church can illuminate the importance of the
idea of civil society for a Christian public theology. The concept of
civil society can aid in moving from the narrower category of political
theology, a term used frequently by Moltmann to emphasize the church's
public commitment, to a broader understanding of theology's public task,
which takes into account the plurality of ends and institutions within
society. The idea of the Exodus Church enables deeper understanding of
Christian ethical participation within a complex modern society.
Engaging
variously with the legacy of Paul L. Lehmann, these essays argue for a
reorientation in Christian theology that better honours the formative
power of the gospel to animate and shape doctrine and witness, as well
as ethical and political life.The authors explore key themes in
Christian theology and ethics - forgiveness, discernment,
responsibility, spirituality, the present day tasks of theology and the
role of faith in public life - making plain the unabated importance of
Lehmann's work at this juncture in contemporary theology. The
internationally recognized contributors draw crucial connections between
the gospel of reconciliation, the form of Christian theology and
witness, and the challenges of contemporary ethical and political
reflection. This book demonstrates why this close friend of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, and author of Ethics in a Christian Context and The
Transfiguration of Politics continues to influence generations of
theologians in both the English speaking world and beyond.
The
early followers of Christ desisted from carrying and using weapons that
threaten and cause physical violence. None of the Church leaders and
patristic writers was in favor of participating in armies and militias.
But by the fourth century CE, with Christianity becoming the dominant
religion in Eurasia, the Christian stance towards war and violence
changed from non-acceptance to approval. Was this a result of a
rectification of the misinterpretation of Christ's teachings by his
early followers or by the later theologians? If that is the case, did
the early Christians deliberately misinterpret Christ's teachings
because of the precarious political position they found themselves in or
did they actually see in Christ's teachings an exhortation towards
non-violence? What are the arguments given by the later Christian
thinkers in favour of just war? These are some of questions tackled by
W. Michael Slattery in his book Jesus the Warrior?
Reinhold Neibhur