PHL 337: Ethics

Introducing Christian Ethics helps Christians form a sound basis for making ethical decisions in today's complex postmodern world. Topics include ethical questions on issues including abortion, war, sexual ethics, capital punishment, and more. This book distills nearly two decades of teaching and study into a succinct and user-friendly volume. It is an ideal primer for Christians who desire engagement with the world around them in an intelligent and informed manner.

The field of Christian ethics is the subject of frequent conversation as Christians seek to understand how to live faithfully within a pluralistic society. The range of ethical systems and moral philosophies available can be confusing to people seeking clarity about what the different theories mean for everyday life.Christian Ethics: Four Views presents a dialogue between four main approaches to ethics in the Christian tradition. Virtue ethics focuses less on the action itself and more on the virtuous character of the moral agent.

At the heart of Christian ethics is the biblical commandment to love God and to love one's neighbor as oneself. But what is the meaning of love? Scholars have wrestled with this question since the recording of the Christian gospels, and in recent decades teachers and students of Christian ethics have engaged in vigorous debates about appropriate interpretations and implications of this critical norm. In Love and Christian Ethics, nearly two dozen leading experts analyze and assess the meaning of love from a wide range of perspectives.

This book is written by leading international experts in Christian ethics and is aimed at students in upper-level undergraduate courses, at teachers and at graduate students. Its eighteen chapters provide a thorough introduction to Christian ethics that is both authoritative and up-to-date. Topics include Christian views on Old & New Testament ethics, moral decisions, natural law, ecology, social justice, business and the family and more.

Is one position on abortion always moral and another always immoral? How should Christians use Scripture to make decisions about integrity? Has God given a 'natural law' that governs all people everywhere? Answers to such questions may differ widely, even among evangelical Christians. This can be confusing and disturbing when secular and Christian worldviews collide over matters that seem to brook no compromise.

Part 1. Ethical Options: All the options -- Antinomianism -- Situationism -- Generalism -- Unqualified absolutism -- Conflicting absolutism -- Graded absolutism -- The basis for ethical decisions -- Part 2. Ethical Issues: Abortion -- Infanticide and euthanasia -- Biomedical issues -- Capital punishment -- War -- Civil disobedience -- Sexual issues -- Homosexuality -- Marriage and divorce -- Ecology -- Animal rights

McQuilkin encourages Christians and nonChristians alike to avoid the trap of seeing the Bible as dry history or "nice words." God's Word should be the driving force behind morality.