(Redirected from Moral theology)
Ethics is a branch of
philosophy dealing with right and wrong in human behavior. Most
religions have a moral component, and religious approaches to the problem of ethics historically dominated ethics over secular approaches. From the point of view of
theistic religions, to the extent that ethics stems from
revealed truth from divine sources, ethics is studied as a branch of
theology. Many believe that
the Golden Rule, which teaches people to "treat others as you want to be treated", is a common denominator in many major moral codes and religions.
Ethics in the Bible
Main articles: Ethics in the Bible
Western philosophical works on ethics were written in a culture whose literary and religious ideas were based in the
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the
New Testament. As such, there is a connection between the ethics of the Bible and the ethics of the great western philosophers. However, this is not a direct connection; significant differences of opinion in how to interpret and apply passages in the books of the Bible lead to different understandings of ethics. Not a few have suggested that modern understandings of the Bible are fundamentally mistaken; or that biblical morality is itself wrong.
Jewish ethics
Main articles: Jewish ethics
Jewish ethics stands at the intersection of
Judaism and the Western philosophical tradition of
ethics. Like other types of religious ethics, the diverse literature of Jewish ethics primarily aims to answer a broad range of moral questions and, hence, may be classified as a normative ethics. For two millennia, Jewish thought has also grappled with the dynamic interplay between law and morality. The rich tradition of rabbinic
religious law (known as
Halakha) addresses numerous problems often associated with ethics, including its semi-permeable relation with duties that are usually not punished under law.
Jewish ethics may be said to originate with the
Hebrew Bible, its broad legal injunctions, wisdom narratives and prophetic teachings. Most subsequent Jewish ethical claims may be traced back to the texts, themes and teachings of the written Torah.
Ethics in the Jewish Apocrypha
Ethics in systematic form, and apart from religious belief, is as little found in apocryphal or Judæo-Hellenistic literature as in the Bible. However, Greek philosophy greatly influenced Alexandrian writers such as the authors of IV Maccabees, the Book of Wisdom, and
Philo.
Much progress in theoretical ethics came as Jews came into closer contact with the Hellenic world. Before that period the Wisdom literature shows a tendency to dwell solely on the moral obligations and problems of life as appealing to man as an individual, leaving out of consideration the ceremonial and other laws which concern only the Jewish nation. From this point of view Ben Sira's collection of sayings and monitions was written, translated into Greek, and circulated as a practical guide. The book contains popular ethics in proverbial form as the result of everyday life experience, without higher philosophical or religious principles and ideals.
More developed ethical works emanated from
Hasidean circles in the
Maccabean time, such as are contained in Tobit, especially in ch. iv.; here the first
ethical will or testament is found, giving a summary of moral teachings, with the Golden Rule, "Do that to no man which thou hatest!" as the leading maxim. There are even more elaborate ethical teachings in the ''
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs'', in which each of the twelve sons of Jacob, in his last words to his children and children's children, reviews his life and gives them moral lessons, either warning them against a certain vice he had been guilty of, so that they may avoid divine punishment, or recommending them to cultivate a certain virtue he had practised during life, so that they may win God's favor. The chief virtues recommended are: love for one's fellow man; industry, especially in agricultural pursuits; simplicity; sobriety; benevolence toward the poor; compassion even for the brute (Issachar, 5; Reuben, 1; Zebulun, 5-8; Dan, 5; Gad, 6; Benjamin, 3), and avoidance of all passion, pride, and hatred. Similar ethical farewell monitions are attributed to Enoch in the Ethiopic Enoch (xciv. et seq.) and the Slavonic Enoch (lviii. et seq.), and to the three patriarchs.
The Hellenistic propaganda literature made the propagation of Jewish ethics taken from the Bible its main object for the sake of winning the pagan world to pure monotheism. It was owing to this endeavor that certain ethical principles were laid down as guiding maxims for the Gentiles; first of all the three capital sins,
idolatry,
murder, and
incest, were prohibited (see Sibyllines, iii. 38, 761; iv. 30 et seq.). In later Jewish
rabbinic literature these "Noachide Laws" were gradually developed into six, seven, and ten, or thirty laws of ethics binding upon every human being.
Modern Jewish Ethics
The
Mussar Movement is a Jewish ethical movement which developed in the
19th century, and which still exists today.
Christian ethics
Christian ethics developed while early Christians were subjects of the
Roman Empire. From the time Nero blamed Christians for setting Rome ablaze (64 AD) until Galarius (311 AD), persecutions against Christians erupted periodically. Consequently, early Christian ethics included discussions of how believers should relate to Roman authority and to the empire.
Under the Emperor Constantine I (312-337), Christianity became the religion of the state. While some scholars debate whether Constantine's conversion to Christianity was authentic or simply matter of political expediency, Constantine's decree made the empire safe for Christian practice and belief. Consequently, issues of Christian doctrine, ethics and church practice were debated openly. By the time of Theodosius I (379-395), Christianity had become the normative religion of the empire. With Christianity now in power, ethical concerns broaden and included discussions of the proper role of the state.
Saint
Augustine adapted
Plato, and later, after the Islamic transmission of his works,
Aquinas worked
Aristotelian philosophy into a Christian framework.
Christian ethics in general has tended to stress the need for
grace,
mercy, and
forgiveness because of human weakness. With divine assistance, the Christian is called to become increasingly virtuous in both thought and deed. Conversely, the Christian is also called to abstain from vice. There are several different schema of vice and virtue.
Aquinas adopted the four cardinal virtues of Plato, (justice, courage, temperance, prudence) and added to them the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love (from St.Paul, First Corinthians 13). Other schema include the
Seven Deadly Sins and the
Seven virtues. For more see
Christian philosophy.
Early Church
Paul teaches (Rom., ii, 24 ff) that God has written his
moral law in the hearts of all men, even of those outside the influence of Christian
revelation; this law manifests itself in the conscience of every man and is the norm according to which the whole human race will be judged on the day of reckoning. In consequence of their perverse inclinations, this law had become, to a great extent, obscured and distorted among the pagans; Christian understand their mission as, to restore it to its pristine integrity.
The
New Testament generally asserts that all morality flows from the Great Commandment to love God with all one's heart, mind, strength, and soul, and to love one's neighbor as oneself. In reaffirming this Great Commandment, Jesus Christ was reaffirming the teaching of the Torah.
Ecclesiastical writers, as
Justin Martyr,
Irenaeus,
Tertullian,
Clement of Alexandria,
Origen,
Ambrose,
Jerome, and
Augustine of Hippo all wrote on ethics from a distinctly Christian point of view. Interestingly, they made use of philosophical and ethical principles laid down by their Greek (
Pagan) philosopher forbears.
The Church fathers had little occasion to treat moral questions from a purely philosophical standpoint and independently of Christian Revelation; but in the explanation of Catholic doctrine their discussions naturally led to philosophical investigations.
This is particularly true of Augustine, who proceeded to develop thoroughly along philosophical lines and to establish firmly most of the truths of Christian morality. The
eternal law (''lex aeterna''), the original type and source of all temporal laws, the natural law, conscience, the ultimate end of man, the
cardinal virtues,
sin,
marriage, etc. were treated by him in the clearest and most penetrating manner. Hardly a single portion of ethics does he present to us but is enriched with his keen philosophical commentaries. Late ecclesiastical writers followed in his footsteps.
Scholasticism
A sharper line of separation between philosophy and theology, and in particular between ethics and
moral theology, is first met with in the works of the great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, especially of
Albertus Magnus (1193–1280),
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274),
Bonaventure(1221-1274), and
Duns Scotus (1274–1308). Philosophy and, by means of it, theology reaped abundant fruit from the works of Aristotle, which had until then been a sealed treasure to Western civilization, and had first been elucidated by the detailed and profound commentaries of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas and pressed into the service of Christian philosophy.
The same is particularly true as regards ethics. Thomas, in his commentaries on the political and ethical writings of
Aristotle, in his ''Summa contra Gentiles'' and his ''Quaestiones disputatae'', treated with his wonted clearness and penetration nearly the whole range of ethics in a purely philosophical manner, so that even to the present day his words are an inexhaustible source from which ethics draws its supply. On the foundations laid by him the Catholic philosophers and theologians of succeeding ages have continued to build. In his ''Summa Theologiae'', Thomas locates ethics within the context of theology. The question of ''beatiudo'', perfect happiness in the possession of God, is posited as the goal of human life. Thomas also argues that the human being by reflection on human nature's inclinations discovers a law, that is the natural law, which is "man's participation in the divine law."
[1]
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, thanks especially to the influence of the so-called Nominalists, a period of stagnation and decline set in, but the sixteenth century is marked by a revival. Ethical questions, also, though largely treated in connection with theology, are again made the subject of careful investigation. Examples include the theologians
Francisco de Vitoria,
Dominicus Soto,
Luis de Molina,
Francisco Suarez,
Leonardus Lessius, and
Juan de Lugo. Among topics they discussed was the ethics of action in case of doubt, leading to the doctrine of
probabilism. Since the sixteenth century special chairs of ethics (moral philosophy) have been erected in many Catholic universities. The larger, purely philosophical works on ethics, however do not appear until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as an example of which we may instance the production of Ign. Schwarz, "Instituitiones juris universalis naturae et gentium" (1743).
Protestant Ethics
Far different from Catholic ethical methods were those adopted for the most part by Protestants. With the rejection of the Church's teaching authority, each individual became on principle his own supreme teacher and arbiter in matters appertaining to faith and morals. The Reformers held fast to the Bible as the infallible source of revelation, but as to what belongs or does not belong to it, whether, and how far, it is inspired, and what is its meaning — all this was left to the final decision of the individual.
Philipp Melanchthon, in his "Elementa philosophiae moralis", still clung to the Aristotelean philosophy; so, too, did
Hugo Grotius, in his work, "De jure belli et pacis". But
Cumberland and his follower,
Samuel Pufendorf, moreover, assumed, with
Descartes, that the ultimate ground for every distinction between good and evil lay in the free determination of God's will, a view which renders the philosophical treatment of ethics fundamentally impossible.
In the 20th century, some Christian philosophers, notably
Dietrich Bonhoeffer questioned the value of ethical reasoning in moral philosophy. In this school of thought, ethics, with its focus on distinguishing right from wrong, tends to produce behavior that is simply not wrong, whereas the Christian life should instead be marked by the highest form of right. Rather than ethical reasoning, they stress the importance of meditation on and relationship with God.
Hindu ethics
Hindu ethics are related to
reincarnation, which is a way of expressing the need for reciprocity, as one may end up in someone else's shoes in their next incarnation. Intention is seen as very important, and thus selfless action for the benefit of others without thought for oneself is an important rule in Hinduism, known as the doctrine of
karma yoga. This aspect of service is combined with an understanding that someone else's unfortunate situation, while of their own doing, is one's own situation since the soul within is the soul shared by all. The greeting
namaskar is founded on the principle that one salutes the spark of the divine in the other.
Kindness and hospitality are key Hindu values.
More emphasis is placed on
empathy than in other traditions, and women are sometimes upheld not only as great
moral examples but also as great gurus. Beyond that, the Mother is a Divine Figure, the
Devi, and the aspect of the creative female energy plays a major role in the Hindu ethos. ''
Vande Mataram'', the Indian national song (not anthem) is based on the Divine mother as embodied by 'Mother India' paralleled to 'Ma
Durga'. An emphasis on domestic life and the joys of the household and village may make Hindu ethics a bit more conservative than others on matters of sex and family.
Of all religions, Hinduism is among the most compatible with the view of approaching
truth through various forms of
art: its temples are often garishly decorated, and the idea of a
guru who is both entrancing entertainer and spiritual guide, or who simply practices some unique devotion (such as holding up his arm right for his whole life, or rolling on the ground for years on a pilgrimage), is simply accepted as a legitimate choice in life.
Ethical traditions in
Hinduism have been influenced by
caste norms. In the mid-
20th century Mohandas Gandhi, a
Vaishnava, undertook to reform these and emphasize traditions shared in all the Indian faiths:
★
vegetarianism and an
ideology of
harms reduction leading ultimately to
nonviolence
★ active creation of
truth through
courage and his '
satyagraha'
★ rejection of
cowardice and concern with pain or indeed
bodily harm
After his profound achievement of forcing the
British Empire from India, these views spread widely and influence much modern thinking on ethics today, especially in the
peace movement,
ecology movement, and those devoted to
social activism.
Many
New Age traditions also derive from his thought and other Hindu traditions such as acceptance of
reincarnation, which is a way of expressing the need for reciprocity, as one may end up in someone else's shoes "in a future life". A cardinal virtue in Hinduism is
kindness.
Buddhist ethics
Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote: The need to internalize ethical virtue as the foundation for the Buddhist path translates itself into a set of precepts established as guidelines to good conduct. The most basic set of precepts found in the Buddha's teaching is the pañcasila, the five precepts, consisting of the following five training rules:
(1) the training rule of abstaining from taking life;
(2) the training rule of abstaining from taking what is not given;
(3) the training rule of abstaining from sexual misconduct;
(4) the training rule of abstaining from false speech; and
(5) the training rule of abstaining from fermented and distilled intoxicants which are the basics for heedlessness.
These five precepts are the minimal ethical code binding on the Buddhist laity. They are administered regularly by the monks to the lay disciples at almost every service and ceremony. They are also undertaken afresh each day by earnest lay Buddhists as part of their daily recitation.
It has to be pointed out that the five precepts, or even the longer codes of precepts promulgated by the Buddha, do not exhaust the full range of Buddhist ethics. The precepts are only the most rudimentary code of moral training, but the Buddha also proposes other ethical codes inculcating definite positive virtues. The Mangala Sutta, for example, commends reverence, humility, contentment, gratitude, patience, generosity, etc. Other discourses prescribe numerous family, social, and political duties establishing the well being of society. And behind all these duties lie the four attitudes called the "immeasurables" or
brahma-viharas — loving-kindness (
metta),
compassion, sympathetic joy (
mudita), and
equanimity.
Corresponding to the negative side of abstaining from the destruction of life, there is the positive side of developing
compassion and sympathy for all beings. Similarly, abstinence from stealing is paired with honesty and contentment, abstinence from sexual misconduct is paired with marital fidelity in the case of lay people and
celibacy in the case of monks, abstinence from falsehood is paired with speaking the truth, and abstinence from intoxicants is paired with heedfulness.
In order to develop the positive virtues we have to begin by abstaining from the negative qualities opposed to them. The growth of the positive virtues will only be stunted or deformed as long as the defilements are allowed to reign unchecked. We cannot cultivate
compassion while at the same time indulging in killing, or cultivate honesty while stealing and cheating. At the start we have to abandon the unwholesome through the aspect of avoidance. Only when we have secured a foundation in avoiding the unwholesome can we expect to succeed in cultivating the factors of positive performance.
Source
Chinese traditional ethics
Chinese traditional systems of thought are both varied and often syncretic, so it is difficult to point to a single, central structure to Chinese ethics. In addition, there is always the question of whether beliefs form behaviour, or behavior forms beliefs — in other words, whether an ethical system is something that people try to follow, or just a description of what they do. However, this being said, it is nonetheless true that there are several basic threads in Chinese traditional ethics.
Confucianism and
Neo-Confucianism emphasize the maintenance and propriety of relationships as the most important consideration in ethics. To be ethical is to do what one's relationships require. Notably, though, what you owe to another person is inversely proportional to their distance from you. In other words, you owe your parents everything, but you are not in any way obligated towards strangers. This can be seen as a recognition of the fact that it is impossible to love the entire world equally and simultaneously.
This is called relational ethics, or
situational ethics. The Confucian system differs very strongly from
Kantian ethics in that there are rarely laws or principles which can be said to be true absolutely or universally.
This is not to say that there has never been any consideration given to universalist ethics. In fact, in
Zhou dynasty China, the Confucians' main opponents, the followers of
Mozi argued for universal love, ''jian'ai''. The Confucian view eventually held sway, however, and continues to dominate many aspects of Chinese thought. Many have argued, for example, that
Mao Zedong was more Confucian than Communist.
Confucianism, especially of the type argued for by
Mencius (''Mengzi''), argued that the ideal ruler is the one who (as Confucius put it) "acts like the North Star, staying in place while the other stars orbit around it". In other words, the ideal ruler does not go out and force the people to become good, but instead leads by example. The ideal ruler fosters harmony rather than laws.
Confucius stresses
honesty above all. His concepts of ''
li'' 理, ''yi'' 義, and ''
ren'' 仁 can be seen as deeper expressions of honesty (''
cheng'' 誠, commonly translated as "sincerity") and
fidelity (''
xiao'' 孝) to the ones to whom one owes one's existence (parents) and survival (one's neighbours, colleagues, inferiors in rank). He codifed traditional practice and actually changed the meaning of the prior concepts that those words had meant. His model of the Confucian family and Confucian ruler dominated Chinese life into the early
20th century. This had ossified by then into an Imperial hierarchy of rigid
property rights, hard to distinguish from any other
dictatorship. Traditional ethics had been perverted by
legalism.
There are many other major threads in Chinese ethics.
Buddhism, and specifically
Mahayana Buddhism, brought a cohesive metaphysic to Chinese thought and a strong emphasis on universalism. Neo-Confucianism was largely a reaction to Buddhism's dominance in the
Tang dynasty, and an attempt at developing a native Confucian metaphysical/analytical system.
Laozi and other
Daoist authors argued for an even greater passivity on the part of rulers than did the Confucians. For Laozi, the ideal ruler is one who does virtually nothing that can be directly identified as ruling. Clearly, both Daoism and Confucianism presume that human nature is basically good. The main branch of Confucianism, however, argues that human nature must be nurtured through ritual (''
li'' 理), culture (''
wen'' 文) and other things, while the Daoists argued that the trappings of society were to be gotten rid of.
The
Legalists, such as
Hanfeizi, argued that people are not innately good. Laws and punishments are therefore necessary to keep the people good. Actual governing in China has almost always been a mixture of Confucianism and Legalism.
When the last dynasty of China, the
Qing (1644-1911) fell, Chinese Nationalist reformer and
Christian convert
Sun Yat-Sen introduced modern notions of ethics and
democracy. He remains the only twentieth century figure respected by Nationalist, Communist and modernizers alike.
Mao Zedong combined Classical Legalism and other native political infuences with the
Marxist-Leninist emphasis on the role of
economics in determining ethical relations. His
Quotations of Chairman Mao were mandatory reading, and perhaps a billion copies are in existence. He emphasized the relation between
power and the "mass line" of choices made by ordinary people in real life.
Maoism is not very popular today, but his absolute rule of China made it impossible to avoid this strict bottom-up, agrarian, concept of ethics. In practice, of course, power flowed from the top. Ethical discourses are still viewed with suspicion in most of China today, as the behaviour of power seems rarely to be actually motivated by ethical norms.
Still, honesty and fidelity remain central to Chinese ethical thought. Where Mao is remembered unsympathetically in China, it is less for his brutality than for not doing as he said.
Islamic ethics
Main articles: Islamic ethics
Islam is monoetheistic and emphasizes
submission to
Allah. It sees all of natural law, including that revealed by
science, as an aspect of that law. The islamic ethical system is based upon the teachings of the
Quran and
Hadith.
Shinto ethics
See
Shinto.
Animist ethics
See
Animism.
See also
★
The Golden Rule
★
Ethics in the Bible
★
Catholic moral theology
★
Neetham
★
Divine command ethics
★
Seven virtues
★
Secular Morality
★
Studies in Christian Ethics
Sources
Going for Refuge & Taking the Precepts by Bhikkhu Bodhi
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