Legal Environments

2. DISCUSS THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND THE THREE MAJOR CHRISTIAN VIEWS ON THE ISSUE OF THE CONFLICTS OF ABSOLUTE MORAL PRINCIPLES.

Christian Ethics
-no such thing… per se

REJECTED: relativism, nominalism, utilitarianism, situational (ex: adultery is ALWAYS wrong), antinomianism (against law or instead of law), legalism (idea that everything is based on law & status w/ god is based on whether or not u keep the law)

BELIEVED: objective moral standard, reality of ideas- source in god, correspondence to god’s order, love, care for the poor, obedience to legitimate authority, help free the oppressed when possible

NO AGREEMENT:
Suspicion of Gov’t
-piety.. .separation fr society…
-ex: Amish.. they don’t   want to be contaminated w/ society
-very suspicious of the gov’t
-pietists look at themselves that gov’t is of the anti-Christ
-others are very liberal
Values of powerlessness
-belief that God values poverty... that poverty is holy
      -there was a group in the middle ages that believed this & believed the holier u were… the less holy u were

Christians are divided in how to approach ethics

Christianity & ethics… what does this involve?
Christianity have rejected RELATIVISM (MORAL ABSOLUTES & IDEAS)
Christians believe instead in OBJECTIVE moral standards
      -classically, Christians have opposed to NOMINALISM… implying the reality of ideas… ideas find their source in God… there are a lot of nominalists now

Christianity rejects utilitarianism…. Not about maximizing pleasure or happiness… but about bringing correspondence to God’s order
Christianity supports an idea of ethics that we are to do or not do certain things… objective commands that we are to follow

CHRISTIANITY
-emphasizing ideas w/in ethics:
-love
-in Bible ( care for the poor
-concern for those who are disadvantaged
-we don’t really see this too much in the US
-obedience to legitimate authority w/ out disobeying God

ANOTHER IDEA IN... [continues]

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