Fundamental Christian Ethics

In Fundamental Christian Ethics, Daniel R. Heimbach offers clarity and hope for ethically navigating a pluralistic culture. Heimbach engages with diverse ethical issues such as abortion, sexuality, religious liberty, and racism from biblical, theological, historical, and philosophical angles. He delivers a comprehensive textbook for scholars, teachers, pastors, and laypersons to understand God’s ethical reality and to cultivate virtuous character in the people of God.

In this excellent outline of Christian ethics, Robin W. Lovin achieves a balance between the questions and issues which form the core of the study of ethics and the life situations from which those questions arise. Eschewing a sectarian approach which dismisses other understandings of the moral life, Lovin nonetheless lays claim to a specifically Christian understanding of ethics. He begins with basic Christian convictions about the reality of God and human redemption and weaves these convictions into the fabric of moral concerns that are widely shared in contemporary society. He takes note of the problems that arise when Christians try to act on or enforce their convictions in a pluralistic society and recognizes the variety of theological and moral beliefs that are held within the Christian community, as well as in the wider society.

Gilbert Meilaender here offers reflections on the moral life from within the life of faith. Drawing on such diverse sources as E.B. White, Alasdair MacIntyre, Augustine and Felix Salten, the author of Bambi, Meilaender focuses on the particular shape of the Christian life as it pertains to the commitments of believers and to the way in which those commitments form moral vision.

Adopting a unique appraoch among inroductions to Christian ethics, Kyle Fedler's Exploring Christian Ethics guides students through the moral decision-making process by providing foundational material in both ethical theory and biblical ethics. First, Fedler introduces the reader to the discipline of ethics, then he explores the ways Scripture can be used responsibly in Christian ethics, and finally, he presents and analyzes the sections of Scripture that have been most influential in Christian morality and ethics.

A few years ago, the first distinction that ethicists drew was the line between Christian ethics and philosophical ethics. However, in our global context, Christian ethicists must now, in addition, compare and contrast various ethics. Christian ethics has become increasingly multivocal not only because of a plurality of faiths but also because of a plurality of Christianities. In light of these new realities, this book will introduce Christian ethics. It will lay out history, methods, and basic principles every student must know. The author also will include case studies for further explanation and application.

"This treatise on Christian ethics is one of the most thoughtful and comprehensive presentations of the subject we have had in many years. It should be of inestimable value not only to the general reader but also to students and classes in our colleges and seminaries".--Reinhold Niebuhr. Part of Westminster's Library of Theological Ethics series.

Let us consider the definition of ethics: “Ethics, Moral Philosophy, or the Science of Natural Law-all designations of the same study--is that science of moral rectitude, which is gathered from and based upon the principles of Natural Reason. It is, first of all, justly denominated a science, because it is a knowledge acquired from first principles. It is, in the second place, properly termed the Science of Moral Rectitude; and this for two reasons: primarily, because its material object, as we say, or subject-matter, is the moral constant, the human act; and because, secondly, its formal or specifying object is the ordination or correct adjustment of human activity to the attainment of man's final end, or destiny. Like every other department of philosophy, it is of course occupied with the pursuit of truth. But, differently from other philosophical studies, its special aim is practical, not speculative truth; that is, it seeks to establish and codify the true principles upon which human conduct should be invariably formed and regulated. It is, finally, a science based upon principles of Natural Reason, to distinguish it, in the first instance, from :Moral Theology. For Moral Theology also deals, like Moral Philosophy, with the right adjustment of human actions to man's final end, but, differently from Ethics, it deals with this adjustment upon the principles of revealed religion and ecclesiastical legislation, rather than upon principles of merely Natural Reason. Ethics is, for this reason, distinguished in the second place from every form of modern moral empiricism. These theories of moral science are built exclusively upon the laws, customs, traditions, and social features of nations, peoples, tribes, families, and not, accordingly, upon reason and the created nature of things. Finally, the Science of Ethics is based upon Natural Reason, to distinguish it from the moral conclusions gathered from any feature of exaggerated Rationalism, such as the Moral Purism ofKant, the Pessimism of Hartmann and Schopenhauer, the Moral AEstheticism of Herhart, and the Cresarism and Moral Pantheism of the Hegelian School of Ethical Science.”And let us summarize: “Ethics, thus defined as the Science of Moral Rectitude upon principles of Natural Reason, is divided primarily into General Ethics and Special Ethics.”We continue on into the Ethical Standard. This is followed by a consideration of the Natural Law, which is written on our hearts. Then the Tribunal of Conscience is considered. Father Conway closes with a lecture on the Rights of Man.

After examining what Scripture teaches about the goal and motive of the Christian life, the author addresses moral dilemmas, human-life issues, sexuality, economic justice, and truthfulness.