Lesson 2 - Christian Ethics

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Concordia University *

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Philosophy

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Jan 9, 2024

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The First 400 Years Faith vs Reason  The relation between “faith” and “reason” shaped the history of the Christian tradition’s reflection on moral life. What is Faith  Confidence, reliance, trust (in the ability, goodness, etc., of a person; in the efficacy or worth of a thing; or in the truth of a statement or doctrine  Belief proceeding from reliance on testimony or authority  Belief in the truths of religion; belief in the authenticity of divine revelation (whether viewed as contained in Holy Scripture or in the teaching of the Church), and acceptance of the revealed doctrines.  That kind of faith (distinctively called saving faith or justifying faith ) which, in the teaching of the New Testament, justifies a sinner in the sight of God. Theologians variously define this, but there is general agreement in regarding it as a conviction practically operative on the character and will, and thus opposed to the mere intellectual assent to religious truth.  The spiritual apprehension of divine truths, or of realities beyond the reach of sensible experience or logical proof. What is Christian Faith?  The New Testament was written in Greek and the Greek noun “pistis” is translated “faith” in many translations of the Bible.  In the New Testament, the word “faith” meant “to trust someone”, it is a word that connotes relationship, one’s relationship to God. Faith is to trust in God. Faith in the New Testament did not mean “firm belief in that for which there is no proof”. That is a modern understanding of the term “faith”. What is Reason?  The intellectual power, the capacity for rational through, and related senses. The power of the mind to think and form valid judgements by a process of logic; the mental faculty which is used in adapting thought or action to some end; the guiding principle of the mind in the process of thinking.  A cause, ground or motive. A fact or circumstance forming, or alleged as forming, a motive sufficient to lead a person to adopt or reject some course of action or belief. Christian Influences  The earliest Christian writers depended heavily upon Hebrew scriptures. These scriptures are the sacred texts of the Jewish religion. Many Christian denominations refer to these sacred texts as the “Old Testament”. Hebrew scriptures are used by both contemporary Judaism and Christianity, but these texts are interpreted in different ways.  Early Christian writers were also influenced by ancient philosophical traditions. We will consider four important Greek philosophical sources.

Four Important Greek Philosophers Plato:  Platonism: The Greek philosophy of Plato (429-347 BCE)  Truth is universal and eternal  The world of things is fleeting and corruptible – an imperfect imitation of pure ideas  Confidence in the capacity of the human mind to discover truth through reason  Moral life is patterning one’s behaviour in accordance with universal ideals Aristotle  Aristotle parted ways from his mentor Plato. Plato believed that Form over Matter equalled life, and, that Form was superior to Matter. Aristotle disagreed and asserted that Form (soul) and Matter were one substance. Plato is considered a Dualist, whereas Aristotle is a Realist. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was Plato’s pupil.  He was the reversal of Plato; ideas reflect things.  For Aristotle, the good consists in the realization of the end’s potential in one’s nature. Zeno  Zeno of Cititum founded the school of Stoicism where he taught from approx. 300 BCE. His philosophy valued peace of mind which he believed was a result of living reasonably, virtuously and in harmony with nature.  Stoicism: this focuses on how God is rational, humans reflect this same rationality, to be true to one’s humanity is to center oneself on reason. Epicurus  Epicurious was influenced by Democritus, his predecessor, who has a material list, and who is regarded as the first to identify the atom at the building blocks of materiality. He lives by a form of controlled Hedonism (pleasure is the greatest good).  Epicureanism: this focusses on how life has no enduring meaning, and therefore must maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Furthermore, to avoid social relationships and political responsibility. New Testament Ethics  The last of the New Testament writings are dated from early in the 2nd century and it is from these writings that we see diversity rather than unity in the scriptures. The Bible does not have a single ethical perspective, but instead has a variety of ethical perspectives. Biblical morality is very much of a contextual character rather than stating universal rules.  However, there were certain distinctive features about the approach of the people of the Bible to morality:  The Bible regards people's behaviour as the direct and immediate response to God's revealed will.  In the New Testament, God is revealed through Christ. When proposing a way of life that is Christian, the New Testament writers constantly draw attention to the pattern of Jesus'

earthly life as well as to the demands the resurrected Christ makes on those who believe in him.  Christ formed a new covenant that built on the old covenant, so there is a basic unity between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, at the same time there is a shift away from following the "letter of the law" to following the "spirit" of the law. Central Theme of Jesus  The central theme of Jesus' (New Testament) message is "the kingdom of God is at hand." (Mark 1:14) Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God is central. The "kingdom" is present in and with his own person.  The phrase 'the kingdom of God' does not refer to territory or to a state of "kingship". Rather, it refers to a person's acceptance of the God who graciously approached and to that person's consequent adherence to a certain way of life.  Jesus demonstrated what this acceptance meant and what this way of life was. This was the central point of his mission as he understood it. His teaching on morality, with regard to both content and motivation, was based on it.  The main concern of Jesus was to live out God's kingdom and its demands. Jesus' life was a pattern of behaviour in accord with the nature of the kingdom. It was a pattern others could follow. There is not fully worked out moral system in the New Testament. For Jesus, perfection meant acceptance of the kingdom and its demands. It means "repentance" and obedience to the divine will (discipleship). Characteristics of New Testament Ethics  Jesus rejected the formal authority of the Scriptures as absolutely binding. He did not hesitate to interpret the Scriptures for his contemporaries not as a scribe who spells out their every implication, but as one who can oppose one passage to another and show how they correspond with God's kingdom in the present.  Jesus condemns ritual law. For Jesus, it is the human heart that is important, as the prophets had previously insisted, and ritual prescriptions cannot determine a person's total acceptance or rejection of God. (Mark 7).  Jesus' basic request is 'follow me', that is, imitate the selfless pattern of his life. He emphasized this rather than spelling out a detailed moral code.  So we see in John - Jesus' moral teaching is chiefly seen in his command to love. It is spelled out mainly in the concrete acts of forgiveness, practical caring and unlimited self- sacrifice. Rather than laws and commands, Jesus uses parables or stories to teach ethical behaviour. Christian Concerns  The implications of the Gospel proclamation on the behaviour of the early Christians continued to be an important concern as the first Christian disciples exited the scene and second and third generation Christians wrestled with what being a Christian meant in terms of moral living.  Again, this ethical concern did not result in any comprehensive moral systems, let alone any single, universally accepted system. Rather, the writing of the period was

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characterized by a desire to respond to the concrete needs of the community in a way that is still authentic to the core of the Christian faith.  This dialectic of faith (in the teachings of Christ) and experience (the concrete situation at that moment) was differently handled by various early Christian theologians. We will look at five of these key figures who spanned the 2nd to the 5th century c.e. Clement of Alexandria  He combined Christianity with the Platonism that was common in Alexandria.  Clement of Alexandria (Greek Theologian) (c.150-c.211) in creative dialogue with the prevailing thought patterns of his culture. The central theme in Clement's teachings is the true knowledge of Jesus Christ. He gives place to the primacy of love against stoic self-sufficiency. A key theme in his teachings was that the human person is created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, the moral life is responding to this vocation. Clement had an optimistic vision of life; he saw the world as good. He wanted to integrate the Gospel with insights from the pagan world. Clement argued against Gnosticism and Manichaeism. Origen  Origen was a student of Clement's who saw Christ as the centre of history. He was also against Gnosticism - strongly defending freedom of the will. Origen was more negative having a pessimistic view of human life. He was much more inclined to dichotomize the life of Christian faith and the life of the world.  Origen lived through a turbulent period of the Christian Church, when persecution was widespread and little or no doctrinal consensus existed among the various regional churches. In this environment, Gnosticism flourished, and Origen was the first truly philosophical thinker to turn his hand not only to a refutation of Gnosticism, but to offer an alternative Christian system that was more rigorous and philosophically respectable than the mythological speculations of the various Gnostic sects.  He is unique among Platonists of his era for introducing history into his cosmological and metaphysical speculations, and his insistence on the absolute freedom of each and every person, thereby denying the fatalism that so often found its way into the more esoteric teachings of the various philosophical and mystery schools of his day. Primary consideration was given at this time to divine laws or to what were regarded as the eternal laws of the universe, over which man had no control. But subordinate to these divine and eternal laws was the law of nature.  That the theory of natural law was given an important place in early Christian thought may be gathered from the writings of Origen, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome. Referring to a passage of St. Paul (Rom. ii, 12-14) they spoke of natural law as equivalent to the law of God and as universal in contrast with the written laws made by human beings. Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was Ambrose’s discipline and is, to some, considered Attributed to human beings the ability by themselves to choose the good and so He used Paul's metaphor in Romans 5 - humanity had fallen in Adam and Eve's a between materialis m and the life of the Spirit The tension is between valuing this material world, our life on earth and all it means to us versus the life of the Spirit, which points us to something more than this world. So, Jesus says to the rich young man: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21) b between universali sm and group identity Here the tension is between belonging to a group (the Christians) and being outside the group. One of the questions the early Christians asked themselves had to do with their relationship with those who believed in Christ and those who did not. Has Christ come to save all human beings or only a few select ones? c between grace and law Grace is a theological concept. It refers to God’s relation to human being. It is a relation that is utterly gratuitous and does not depend on any effort of the human person to warrant God’s love. So, God’s love is generous, free, totally unexpected and undeserved. The law refers to God’s law, for example, the Ten Commandments but it also refers to the laws of human beings, for example, what our law (in Canada or in the country in which we live) tells us about what we can and cannot do. The early Christians debated about their responsibility to the law. Some felt they were no longer obliged to follow the law because they had been saved through Christ. Christ freed them from the law. Others argued that just as Christ followed the law when he lived on earth, so Christians should follow the law. d between revelation and reason Revelation is knowledge given to persons of faith. It is a knowledge that is gained through an experience of God’s self-revelation to the world. It is a knowledge that is initiated from God. It comes from God and human beings receive this knowledge but do not initiate it. Reason is the capacity to understand (or gain knowledge) through reflection on one’s experience. It is a knowledge that one comes to through one’s own effort, by reflecting on one’s experiencing and judging the correctness of one’s understanding.

Lesson 2 - Christian Ethics

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