The Bible, Church and reason as the sources of Christian ethical practises (Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies): Revision Notes

The Bible, church, and reason as the sources of Christian ethical practices

Heteronomy: Moral authority comes from the combination of church, Bible, and reason. This is the Catholic view.

The role of the church

The deposit of faith

• Catholics use this term to refer to when Jesus left, he gave authority to his disciples leading to the establishment of the church's tradition.
• In Catholicism the church has authority.
• Christ began the tradition when he commanded his disciples to "make disciples of all nations."
• Jesus gave the disciples great authority.
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church interprets this as Christ telling them to preach what they had learned

Sacred tradition

• The apostles left the Bishops as the successors in their positions to teach.
• Through tradition, the church transmits its moral teachings, as Jesus would have wanted

The second Vatican's council's document: Dei Verbum

• States that "sacred scripture" is the word of God as it is under the divine influence.
• Sacred scripture and tradition are accepted, and tradition must relate to scripture.

The role of the church

• It is the church's role to provide an authoritative interpretation of all Christian revelation.
• The church Interprets the bible in new circumstances.
• The church provides a community and support system for Christians
• Provides a support system for those in need.
• The Catholic Church argues that the Bible is humanly written but inspired by the Holy Spirit. Teaching authority is called The Magisterium.

Ethics as a combination of the Bible, church, and reason

• The Bible will always need interpreting, therefore it is impossible it isolate it as the only source of ethics.
• Therefore a combination approach is the best to ensure a justified and reasonable approach to decision making.
• The church allows for the information in the bible to be adapted and understood about modern life and reason allows people to make their own justified conclusions with all the information available.
• Aquinas' natural law suggests God has placed an innate ability to know God's will, which can be utilised alongside the church and the Bible.
• Reason has been corrupted by the original sin and can be wrong, the Bible and church help humans navigate past this sin.
• For Protestants, reason and the church are both tools to interpret the bible.

Using the Church as a source of ethical practice

• By following the church Christians will live their lives how Jesus wanted.
• In Protestantism, the bible is a way of communicating God's revealed Christian ethics.
• For Catholics, the church can clarify controversies.
• The statements of the Pope are invariable
• The encyclicals explain the relevance of biblical teaching today.
• Catholics are continuing authority underpinned by scripture and continuing tradition of the church.
• The fact church does have authority in an individual Christian ethics.
• Without the authority of the church, ethics become subjective and a matter of preference.
• The church continues the process begun by Jesus & representing the needs of society.

The church does not have authority over individual Christian ethics

• The Bible is God's word and should be sufficient as any other approach denies God's ability to speak through revelation.
• An institution can make mistakes, we are humans and so are still prone to mistakes and sinful behaviour.
• The Church only exists to bring the biblical message to the people.
• Reason is God-given, use it to work out the loving thing to do.
• The sale of indulgences has demonstrated how the church can abuse its power, clearly not acting in the name of God. However: The church can also sin because we are humans contaminated by the original sin. Protestants would respond to this by arguing that the extent of corruption is too large and cannot be justified

The role of reason in ethics

• The Catholic Church follows natural theology including natural law ethics.
• Humans can use their innate "God-given reason" to figure out God's primary precepts and be guided into making the correct moral decisions.
• Protestants like Luther, Calvin, and Barth reject natural theology as human reason has been corrupted by the original sin and therefore cannot be a source of Christian ethics.

Aquinas' natural theology

• Aquinas admits that human reason will never be able to fully know or understand God however it can help support our faith in God by allowing us to discover God given guidance.
• God's existence for example can be supported by the teleological and cosmological argument.
• Natural law cannot provide absolute proof for God or this would make revelations useless however it supports our faith.

Karl Barth

• Aquinas relies too much on human resources
• We cannot know God's morality through our own efforts as this would make revelations unnecessary.
• Revelation is clearly necessary as this was the purpose of Jesus.
• Our finite minds cannot grasp God's infinite being.
• Whatever humans discover through reason is therefore not divine but to think it is, is idolatry.

Tillich

• Argued that Barth is too negative to deny reason has any capacity for discovering anything.
• To deny our conscience can discover natural law is to claim that there is a gap between what we currently are and what we could be.
• To be aware of that gap is to be aware of our fallen state.
• Conscience still tells us something and helps guide us to righteousness and in the right direction.

However:

• Whatever a weak and misled conscience discovers, can surely not be trusted as how are we supposed to know if it is God's morality or not?
• Humanity thinking it has the ability to know anything about God is the same belief that caused Adam and Eve to fall.
• Humanity thinking that the morality we follow is supported by God can be extremely dangerous and lead to movements such as the Nazis.

Christian ethics are personal

• Each decision is unique and takes into account the context of a decision.
• God-given free will; ability to reason.
• Up to the individual how and whether to follow them -> God's judgement will be individual, not communal.

Christian ethics are communal

• All aspects of life take place in the context of a group of people, trying to build the kingdom of God.
• Life as a community, nourished by prayer leads to the best ethical decision making.
• Church's authority means ethical teaching comes out of the community as a whole.
• The Bible is a story of community, not individuals.

Are Christian ethics distinctive?

• Is community for a religion of a book?
• Can be said to be the outworking of God's revelation.

Non-propositional revelation

• God does not reveal himself through truth statements, so revelation might need interpretation by human reason.

Propositional revelation

• God reveals himself in truth statements - (only need the bible).

Message of the Bible

• It is an ongoing story of God's revelation.
• It focuses on God and what he does for us.
• Jesus - rules are not all there is to know about God.
• Christianity is about what God has done for us, not just the rules we follow.

Christian ethics are distinctive

• Christianity is about rules but the message of Christ is distinctive due to the challenging nature of true Christian love.
• Christians should change their narrative -> seen as backwards.

Christian ethics are not distinctive

• If you are focusing only on the bible -> follow Jesus' rules.
• All Christian ethics (e.g. 10 commandments & similar) all ethics from religions are designed to make society redeemed.