Христиан этикасы: Құдайлық принциптер мен моральдық ізденістер

Branch of theology that defines virtuous and sinful behavior from a Christian perspective

Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi faceted ethical system. It is a virtue ethic, which focuses on building moral character, and a deontological ethic which emphasizes duty. It also incorporates natural law ethics, which is built on the belief that it is the very nature of humans – created in the image of God and capable of morality, cooperation, rationality, discernment and so on – that informs how life should be lived, and that awareness of sin does not require special revelation. Christian ethics derives its metaphysical core from the Bible, seeing God as the ultimate source of all power. Evidential, Reformed and volitional epistemology are the three most common forms of Christian epistemology. The variety of ethical perspectives in the Bible has led to repeated disagreement over defining the basic Christian ethical principles, with at least seven major principles undergoing perennial debate and reinterpretation. Christian ethicists use reason, philosophy, natural law, the social sciences, and the Bible to formulate modern interpretations of those principles; Christian ethics applies to all areas of personal and societal ethics. Originating in early Christianity from 27 to 325 AD, Christian ethics continued to develop during the Middle Ages, when the rediscovery of Aristotle led to scholasticism and the writings of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). The Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the subsequent counter Reformation, and Christian humanism heavily impacted Christian ethics, particularly its political and economic teachings. A branch of Christian theology for most of its history, Christian ethics separated from theology during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For most scholars of the twenty first century, Christian ethics fits in a niche between theology on one side and the social sciences on the other. Secularism has had significant influence on modern Christian ethics.

Christian ethics, also referred to as moral theology, was a branch of theology for most of its history. Becoming a separate field of study, it was separated from theology during the eighteenth and nineteenth century Enlightenment and, according to Christian ethicist Waldo Beach, for most 21st century scholars it has become a "discipline of reflection and analysis that lies between theology on one side and the social sciences on the other". Christian ethics is a virtue ethic which focuses on developing an ethical character, beginning with obedience to a set of rules and laws seen as divine commands reflecting behaviors which are morally required, forbidden, or permitted. Although virtue ethics and deontological ethics are normally seen as contrasting with one another, they are combined in Christian ethics. Claire Brown Peterson calls the Christian ethic a natural law ethic. According to Peterson, the New Testament contains "the expectation that humans are capable of knowing much of how they should live apart from explicit divine instructions  Thus Gentiles who lack the revelation of scripture are said to have the law 'written on their hearts' (Romans 2:15) so that they can [legitimately] be held accountable when they violate what they are capable of seeing is right." The four sources of Wesleyan theology are the Bible, tradition, reason, and Christian experience (an experience of the decisive adoption of Christianity). Christian ethics takes from the Bible its normative rules focusing on conduct, its basic understanding of natural law, its patterns of moral reasoning which focus on character, and the ideals of a community built on social justice.

Christian ethics began its development during the early Christian period, which is generally defined as having begun with the ministry of Jesus (c. 27 AD–30) and ended with the First Council of Nicaea in 325. It emerged from the heritage shared by both Judaism and Christianity, and depended upon the Hebrew canon as well as important legacies from Greek and Hellenistic philosophy.

In the centuries following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, monks on missionary journeys spread practices of penance and repentance using books known as penitentials. Crusade historian Jonathan Riley Smith says that the Crusades were products of the renewed spirituality of the High Middle Ages (1000–1250), when the ethic of living the Apostolic life and chivalry began to form. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance saw a number of models of sin, listing the seven deadly sins and the virtues opposed to each. Inaccurate Latin translations of classical writings were replaced in the twelfth century with more accurate ones. This led to an intellectual revolution called scholasticism, which was an effort to harmonize Aristotle's thoughts and Christian thought. In response to the dilemmas this effort created, Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) wrote "one of the outstanding achievements of the High Middle Ages", the Summa Theologica. His positions were eventually developed into the school of thought known as Thomism, which contains many ethical teachings that continue to be used, especially within the Roman Catholic Church. These reformers contributed ideas of popular sovereignty, asserting that human beings are not "subjects of the state but are members of the state". Protestants also valued virtue ethics. After the Reformation, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics continued to be the main authority for the discipline of ethics at Protestant universities until the late seventeenth century, with over fifty Protestant commentaries published on the Nicomachean Ethics before 1682. Max Weber asserted that there is a correlation between the ethics of the Reformers and the predominantly Protestant countries where modern capitalism and modern democracy developed first. The secular ideologies of the Age of Enlightenment followed shortly on the heels of the Reformation, but the influence of Christian ethics was such that J. Philip Wogaman, pastor and professor of Christian ethics, asks "whether those (Enlightenment) ideas would have been as successful in the absence of the Reformation, or even whether they would have taken the same form". In the church type (i. e., Roman Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism), the Christian ethic is lived within the world, through marriage, family, and work, while living within and participating in their respective towns, cities and nations. This ethic is meant to permeate every area of life. The ethic of the sect (i. e., Amish, Mennonites, some monastic orders) works in the opposite direction. It is practiced by withdrawing from the non Christian world, minimizing interaction with that world, while living outside or above the world in communities separated from other municipalities. The mystical type (i. e., some monastic orders, some parts of the charismatic movement and evangelicalism) advocates an ethic that is purely an inward experience of personal piety and spirituality and often includes asceticism. Meyer asserts that the answer to this difficulty lies in modern Christian ethics embracing secular standards of rationality and coherence, while continuing to refuse the secular worldview and its premises and conclusions. According to Rolf Knierim, the Bible's metaphysic is "dynamistic ontology" which says reality is an ongoing dynamic process. According to Roger E. Olson, the Christian view of the nature of reality can also be called "biblical theism" or "biblical personalism": the belief that "ultimate reality is a personal God who acts, shows and speaks " Humanity is the highest level of development in creation, but humans are still creatures. Modern scholarship has broken up these old paradigms. "Christianity began its existence as one among several competing Jewish sects or movements. Judaism was not one thing, either in Judea and Galilee or in the Diaspora, nor were the boundaries among the varieties of Judaism fixed or impermeable". When the Corinthian church begins in fighting, Paul responds by saying they have abandoned their core teachings: the cross and the centrality of God. These were the themes that formed the foundation of Paul's preaching. "Paul has more to say about human nature [and ethical behavior] than any other early Christian author", Rabbinic scholar Michael Fishbane goes on to add that human knowledge of God is understood through language, and "It is arguably one of Judaism's greatest contributions to the history of religions to assert that the divine Reality is communicated to mankind through words." Evidentialism in epistemology, which is advocated by Richard Swinburne (1934–), says a person must have some awareness of evidence for a belief for them to be justified in holding that belief. People hold many beliefs that are difficult to evidentially justify, so some philosophers have adopted a form of reliabilism instead. In reliablilism, a person can be seen as justified in a belief, so long as the belief is produced by a reliable means even when they do not know all the evidence. He says this Christian knowing engages the affections, and takes the form of a sense of gratitude.

The Christian ethic asserts the ontological nature of moral norms from God, but it is also accountable to standards of rationality and coherence; it must make its way through both what is ideal and what is possible. Addressing this requires a theological and philosophical response which John Hick thinks is the Christian ethic's greatest challenge. Todd Calder says there are at least two concepts of evil applicable to this question: a broad concept and a narrow one. A broad concept of evil defines it as any and all pain and suffering, but this quickly becomes problematic. Evil cannot be correctly understood on a simple scale of pleasure vs. pain, since the National Institute of medicine says pain is essential for survival. Marcus Singer says that a workable definition of evil requires that: "If something is really evil, it can't be necessary, and if it is really necessary, it can't be evil." The Christian story "is a story of the salvific value of suffering", The narrow definition of evil is used instead. It is defined as the attempt or desire to inflict significant harm on a victim, without moral justification, perpetrated only by moral agents capable of independent choices. The soul making theodicy advocated by John Hick (Irenaean theodicy) says God allows suffering because it has value for building moral character. Christian ethicists such as David Ray Griffin have also produced process theodicies which assert God's power and ability to influence events are, of necessity, limited by human creatures with wills of their own. Nicola Hoggard Creegan says natural evil exists in the form of animal suffering, and she offers a theodicy in response that is based on the parable of the wheat and the tares She argues that nature can be understood as an intertwined mix of the perfect and the corrupted, that God could not have made one without allowing the existence of the other, and that this is because of the natural laws involved in creation. Christian ethicists such as Christopher Southgate have also produced evolutionary theodicies which use evolution to show that the suffering of biological creatures, and belief in a loving and almighty God, are logically compatible. Generally, Christians ethicists do not claim to know the answer to the "Why?" of evil. Plantinga stresses that this is why he does not proffer a theodicy but only a defense of the logic of theistic belief. The approach of Christian ethics to pain and evil is summarized by Sarah Pinnock who asserts that: "Direct contact with God does not answer Job's questions, but it makes meaning, and the acceptance of suffering, possible."

There is an inherent tension between inclusivity and exclusivity in all the Abrahamic traditions. According to the book of Genesis, Abraham is the recipient of the promise of God to become a great nation. The promise is given to him and his "seed", exclusively, yet the promise also includes that he will become a blessing to all nations, inclusively (Genesis 12:3). The God of the Bible is the inclusive God of all nations and all people (Galatians 3:28), and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) is a command to go to all nations, yet Wogaman points out that Christians are referred to in the New Testament as the "elect" (Romans 8:33 Matthew 24:22) implying God has chosen some and not others for salvation. During the Reformation, Christians pioneered the concept of religious freedom which rests upon an acceptance of the necessity and value of pluralism, a modern day concept often referred to as moral ecology.

Christian ethics emphasizes morality. The law and the commandments are set within the context of devotion to God but are deontological standards defining what this morality is. The prophets of the Old Testament show God as rejecting all unrighteousness and injustice and commending those who live moral lives. In a convergence of opinion among Catholics, Lutherans, Reformed, and others, this has led to a support of human rights becoming common to all varieties of Christian ethics. Christian ethics has not traditionally contained concepts of self love as a good. However, Koji Yoshino asserts that, within the Christian ethic, "altruistic love and self love are not contradictory to each other. Those who do not love themselves cannot love others, nevertheless, those who ignore others cannot love themselves."

There are a variety of Christian views on poverty and wealth. At one end of the spectrum is a view which casts wealth and materialism as an evil to be avoided and even combatted. At the other end is a view which casts prosperity and well being as a blessing from God. The Christian ethic is not an opponent of poverty since Jesus embraced it, but it is an opponent of the destitution that results from social injustice. Some Christians argue that a proper understanding of Christian teachings on wealth and poverty requires a larger view where the accumulation of wealth is not the central focus of one's life but rather a resource to foster the "good life". Professor David W. Miller has constructed a three part rubric which presents three prevalent attitudes among Protestants towards wealth: that wealth is (1) an offense to the Christian faith (2) an obstacle to faith and (3) the outcome of faith.

Classicist Kyle Harper writes that sexuality was at the heart of Christianity's early clash with its surrounding culture. Rome's concept of sexual morality was centered on social status, whereas the Christian ethic was a "radical notion of individual freedom centered around a libertarian paradigm of complete sexual agency". This meant the ethical obligation for sexual self control was placed on the individual, male and female, slave and free, equally, in all communities, regardless of status. In Paul's letters, porneia was a single name for the array of sexual behaviors outside marital intercourse that became a central defining concept of sexual morality, and shunning it, a key sign of choosing to follow Jesus. For Paul, "the body was a consecrated space, a point of mediation between the individual and the divine". Views on sexuality in the early church were diverse and fiercely debated within its various communities, and this continues. Throughout the majority of Christian history, most Christian theologians and denominations have considered homosexual behavior as immoral or sinful. In contemporary Christian ethics, there are a variety of views on the issues of sexual orientation and homosexuality. The many Christian denominations vary from condemning homosexual acts as sinful, to being divided on the issue, and to seeing it as morally acceptable. Even within a denomination, individuals and groups may hold different views. Further, not all members of a denomination necessarily support their church's views on homosexuality.

Christian involvement in politics is both supported and opposed by the different types of Christian ethics. Political scientist Amy E. Black says Jesus' command to pay taxes (Matthew 22:21), was not simply an endorsement of government, but was also a refusal to participate in the fierce political debate of his day over the poll tax. Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham says: Jesus' response "implied loyalty to a pagan government was not incompatible with loyalty to God".

The Christian ethic addresses warfare from the differing viewpoints of pacifism, non resistance, just war, and preventive war which is sometimes called crusade. Where pacifism and non resistance can be seen as ideals in action, evangelical theologian Harold O. J. Brown describes just wars, preventive wars and crusades as "actions in support of an ideal". In all four views, the Christian ethic presumes war is immoral and must not be waged or supported by Christians until certain conditions have been met that enable the setting aside of that presumption. They both presuppose the supersession of the New Testament over the Old, and believe in the separation of church and state to the degree the Christian does not owe obedience and loyalty to the state if that loyalty violates personal conscience. Preventive war/crusade can also be seen as an attempt to set right a past act of aggression that was not responded to at the time it occurred. It is not necessarily religious in nature or focus, but "attempts to undo what no one had the right to do in the first place": the First Crusade of the Middle Ages, the First Gulf War, and World War II. The last 200 years have seen a shift toward just war in the moral focus concerning the state's use of force. Justification for war in the twenty first century has become the ethic of intervention based on humanitarian goals of protecting the innocent.

Early criminal justice began with the idea that God is the ultimate source of justice, and is the judge of all, including those administering justice on earth. Within Christian ethics, this view places the greatest responsibility for justice on judges with moral character, who are admonished not to lie or be deceptive, not to practice racial prejudice or discrimination, or to let egoism lead them to abuse their authority, as central to the administration of justice. Biblical ethicist Christopher Marshall says there are features of covenant law from the Old Testament that have been adopted and adapted to contemporary human rights law, such as due process, fairness in criminal procedures, and equity in the application of law. How justice is defined has varied. Aristotle's classic definition of justice, giving each their due, entered into Christian ethics through scholasticism and Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages. For Aristotle and Aquinas that meant a hierarchical society with each receiving what was due according to their social status. This allows for the criminal justice system to be retributive, to discriminate based on social standing, and fails to recognize a concept of universal human rights and responsibilities. Philip Wogaman says that after Aquinas, the Radical Reformation, the social gospel and liberation theology redefined getting one's due into what became the Marxist formula: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Along these lines, justice had an egalitarian form while retaining male domination, and defining justice for slaves as paternalistic care. According to Jeffrey Reiman, the argument against capital punishment is not based on the offender's guilt or innocence, but on the belief that killing is wrong, and is therefore never a permissible act, even for the state. These arguments leave retribution as the primary supporting argument in favor of capital punishment, and Professor Michael L. Radelet says retribution's moral base is a problem for a Christian ethic. Capital punishment has been abolished in many countries, and Radelet predicts that increasing opposition from religious leaders will lead to its abolition in America as well.

In most ancient religions the primary focus is on humankind's relationship to nature, whereas in the Christian ethic, the primary focus is on relationship with God as the "absolute moral personality".

Traditional Christian ethics recognizes the command to "love thy neighbor" as one of the two primary commands called the "greatest commands" by Jesus. This reflects an attitude that aims at promoting another person's good in what Stanley J. Grenz calls an "enlightened unselfishness". When the Pharisee asked Jesus: "Who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29), Grenz says the questioner intended to limit the circle of those to whom this obligation was due, but Jesus responded by reversing the direction of the question into "To whom can I be a neighbor? ".

There are four primary views in Christian ethics on the roles of women. Christian feminism defines itself as a school of Christian theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women. Christian egalitarianism argues that the Bible supports "mutual submission". These views reflect the belief that Jesus held women personally responsible for their own behavior: the woman at the well (John 4:16–18), the woman taken in adultery (John 8:10–11), and the sinful woman who anointed his feet (Luke 7:44–50), are all dealt with as having the personal freedom, and enough self determination, to choose their own repentance and forgiveness. The New Testament names many women among the followers of Jesus as well as naming women in positions of leadership in the early church. Biblical patriarchy upholds the view that 1 Corinthians 14:34–35, 1 Timothy 2:11–15, and 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 represent a hierarchy of male over female authority. Before the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, ordination was dedication to a particular role or ministry, and in this capacity, women in the church were ordained up until the 1200s. When theologians of this medieval period circumscribed the seven sacraments, they changed the vocabulary and gave the sacraments exclusively to male priests. In the late twentieth century, the ordination of women became a controversial issue. Linda Woodhead states that, "Of the many threats that Christianity has to face in modern times, gender equality is one of the most serious."

According to professor of Religion Barbara J. MacHaffie, the early church fathers treated married life with some sensitivity, as a relationship of love and trust and mutual service, contrasting it with non Christian marriage as one where passions rule a "domineering husband and a lusty wife". Restriction on divorce was based on the necessity of protecting the woman and her position in society, not necessarily in a religious context, but in an economic context. Paul concurred but added an exception for abandonment by an unbelieving spouse. Augustine wrote his treatise on divorce and marriage, De adulterinis coniuigiis, in which he asserts couples may only divorce on the ground of fornication (adultery) in 419/21, even though marriage did not become one of the seven sacraments of the church until the thirteenth century. Most Protestant churches discourage divorce except as a last resort but do not actually prohibit it through church doctrine, often providing divorce recovery programs as well.

Lisa Sowle Cahill refers to sex and gender as most difficult topics in new studies of Christian ethics. As "the rigidity and stringency of traditional moral representation has collided head on with historicized or 'postmodern' interpretations of moral systems", Cowell says tradition has acquired new forms of patriarchy, sexism, homophobia and hypocrisy. Cowell says, New Testament authors challenge that which perpetuates sin, and encourage the transformation that "embodies the reign of God". there is no commandment in the New Testament that priests must be unmarried and celibate. Protestantism has rejected the requirement of celibacy for pastors, and they see it primarily as a temporary abstinence until the joys of a future marriage. Some modern day evangelicals desire a more positive understanding of celibacy that is more like Paul's: focused on devotion to God rather than a future marriage or a lifelong vow to the Church.

In the twenty first century, Christian organizations reject slavery, but historically Christian views have varied, embracing both support and opposition. Slavery was harsh and inflexible in the first century when Christian ethics began, and slaves were vulnerable to abuse, yet neither Jesus nor Paul ordered the abolition of slavery. At this time, the Christian view was that morals were a matter of obedience to the ordained hierarchy of God and men. Paul was opposed to the political and social order of the age in which he lived, but his letters offer no plan for reform beyond working toward the apocalyptic return of Christ. He did indirectly articulate a social ideal through the Pauline virtues, the "faith, hope and love" of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, by designating love as the highest of all virtues; and he indirectly undermined the mistreatment of women, children and slaves through his teachings on marriage and through his own personal lifestyle. Stanley K. Stowers, professor of religious studies, asserts the view that Paul's refusal to marry and set up a household that would require slaves, and his insistence on being self supporting, was a model followed by many after him that "structurally attacked slavery by attacking its social basis, the household, and its continuity through inheritance from master to master". Several early figures, such as Saint Patrick (415–493), himself having been enslaved as an adolescent, and Acacius of Amida (400–425), made personal sacrifices to free slaves. Bishop Ambrose (337–397 AD), while not openly advocating abolition, ordered that church property be sold to get the money to buy and free slaves. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–394) went further and stated opposition to all slavery as a practice. Later Saint Eligius (588 650) used his vast wealth to purchase British and Saxon slaves in groups of 50 and 100 in order to set them free. By the time of Charlemagne (742–814), while Muslims were coming onto the scene "as major players in a large scale slave trade" of Africans, Alice Rio, lecturer in medieval European history, says that slavery had become almost non existent in the West. Rio says criticism of the trade in Christian slaves was not new, but at this time, opposition began to get wider support, seeing all those involved in the trade as what Rio calls "symbols of barbarity". Economics drove its development, but historian Herbert S. Klein adds that the trade was abolished in the U. S., Britain and Europe while it was still profitable and important to those respective economies. Paul Harvey says that, in the 1960s, "The religious power of the civil rights movement transformed the American conception of race." This is necessary because the moral questions surrounding new medical technologies have become complex, important and difficult. David VanDrunen, professor of systematic theology and Christian ethics, opines that with the tremendous benefits of medical advances, have come the "eerie forebodings of a future that is less humane, not more". Such intervention is problematic morally, and has been characterized as "playing God". Rudman asserts the Christian ethic is more than a simple syllogism, it is "a narrative that includes the child in God's family, takes into account the entire context surrounding its birth, including the other lives involved, and seeks harmony with God's redeeming activity through Christ. It includes confidence in God's ability to sustain and direct those who put their trust in him." Ethicist Christopher C. H. Cook asserts that the primary question for Christian ethics revolves around the fact that alcohol misuse is a "contemporary social problem of enormous economic significance, which exacts a high toll in human suffering". In Christian ethics, responses to assisted suicide are rooted in belief in personal autonomy and love. Empathy toward another's suffering tells us to do something but not what to do. Killing as an act of mercy is a minimalist understanding of mercy that is not sufficient to prevent unethical acts. There appears to be a strong scientific consensus that industrialized civilization has emitted enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to create a greenhouse effect causing global warming, yet debate rages primarily over the economic effects of limiting development.

The debate over the inhumane treatment of animals revolves around the issue of personhood and animal rights. In the Christian ethic, personhood is related to the nature of God, who is understood in terms of community and inter relationship. Within this view, the nature of moral community is not limited to a community of equals: humans are not equal to God yet have community with him. On this basis, Rudman argues that animals should be included in the moral community without being required to be regarded as persons. He says that, based on convictions which include the future transformation and liberation of all creation, a Christian view is obligated to take animal welfare seriously. Therefore, he concludes that the Christian ethic sees an emphasis on animal welfare as a better approach than the use of concepts of personhood and divine rights for addressing inhumane treatment of animals. Northcott adds that the Christian ethic, with its concepts of redemption of all physical reality and its manifestation of responsible stewardship in community and relation to others, is "a vital corrective to modern individualism which devalues both human and non human distinctiveness".