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  3. New Studies in Christian Ethics

In recent years the study of Christian ethics has become an integral part of mainstream theological studies and there is now a more widely-held view that Christian ethics is actually central to Christian theology as a whole. Theologians increasingly have had to ask what contemporary relevance their discipline has in a context where religious belief is on the wane, and whether Christian ethics has anything to say in a multi-faceted and singularly complex secular society.The aims of New Studies in Christian Ethics are twofold - to engage centrally with the secular moral debate at the highest possible intellectual level and to demonstrate that Christian ethics can make a distinctive contribution to this debate.

  • General Editors: Robin Gill
  • Editorial Boards: Stephen R. L. Clark, Stanley Hauerwas, Robin W. Lovin

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38 results in New Studies in Christian Ethics

Page 1 of 2

Human Perfection, Transfiguration and Christian Ethics
  • Robin Gill
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2024
    Print publication:
    16 May 2024
  • Most people would agree that human perfection is unattainable. Indeed, theologians have typically expressed ambivalence about the possibility of human perfection. Yet, paradoxically, depictions of human perfection are widespread. In this volume, Robin Gill offers an interdisciplinary study of human perfection in contemporary secular culture. He demonstrates that the language of perfection is present in church memorials, popular depictions of sport, food, music and art, liturgy, and philosophy. He contrasts these examples with the socio-psychological concept of 'maladaptive perfectionism', using commercial cosmetic surgery as an example, as well as the 'adaptive perfectionism' suggested in the lives of Henry Holland, Paul Farmer, and, more ambivalently, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Gill then provides an in-depth analysis of New Testament and Septuagint usage of teleios and theological debates about the human perfection of Jesus. He argues that the Synoptic accounts of the Transfiguration offer a template for a Christian understanding of perfection that has important ecumenical implications within social ethics.

Compassion-Justice Conflicts and Christian Ethics
  • Albino Barrera
  • Published online:
    19 October 2023
    Print publication:
    02 November 2023
  • We seek to be both loving and just. However, what do we do when love and justice present us with incompatible obligations? Can one be excessively just? Should one bend rules or even break the law for the sake of compassion? Alternatively, should one simply follow rules? Unjust beneficence or uncaring justice - which is the less problematic moral choice? Moral dilemmas arise when a person can satisfy a moral obligation only by violating another moral duty. These quandaries are also called moral tragedies because despite their good intentions and best effort, people still end up being blameworthy. Conflicting demands of compassion and justice are among the most vexing problems of social philosophy, moral theology, and public policy. They often have life-and-death consequences for millions. In this book, Albino Barrera examines how and why compassion-justice conflicts arise to begin with, and what we can do to reconcile their competing claims.

Family and Christian Ethics
  • Petruschka Schaafsma
  • Published online:
    27 July 2023
    Print publication:
    10 August 2023
  • In this book, Petruschka Schaafsma offers an innovative appraisal of family. Eschewing the framework of worry and renewal that currently dominates family studies, she instead explores the topic through the concepts of 'givenness' and 'dependence'. 'Givenness' highlights the fact that family is not chosen; 'dependence' refers to being intimately included in each other's identities and lives. Both experiences are challenging, especially in a contemporary context, where independence and freedom to shape one's own life have become accepted ideals. Schaafsma shows the impasses to which these ideals lead in several disciplines – theology, philosophy, sociology, social anthropology and care ethics. She moves constructively beyond them by tapping literary, artistic and biblical sources for their insights on family. Grounded in a theological approach to family as 'mystery' rather than 'problem', she develops an understanding of the current controversial character of family that accounts for both its ordinary and transcendent character. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Healthcare Funding and Christian Ethics
  • Stephen Duckett
  • Published online:
    19 January 2023
    Print publication:
    26 January 2023
  • Healthcare has an impact on everyone, and healthcare funding decisions shape how and what healthcare is provided. In this book, Stephen Duckett outlines a Christian, biblically grounded, ethical basis for how decisions about healthcare funding and priority-setting ought to be made. Taking a cue from the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Duckett articulates three ethical principles drawn from the story:  compassion as a motivator; inclusivity, or social justice as to benefits; and responsible stewardship of the resources required to achieve the goals of treatment and prevention. These are principles, he argues, that should underpin a Christian ethic of healthcare funding. Duckett's book is a must for healthcare professionals and theologians struggling with moral questions about rationing in healthcare. It is also relevant to economists interested in the strengths and weaknesses of the application of their discipline to health policy.

Gender and Christian Ethics
  • Adrian Thatcher
  • Published online:
    15 October 2020
    Print publication:
    22 October 2020
  • In this book, Adrian Thatcher offers fresh theological arguments for expanding our understanding of gender. He begins by describing the various meanings of gender and depicts the relations between women and men as a pervasive human and global problem. Thatcher then critiques naive and harmful theological accounts of sexuality and gender as binary opposites or mistaken identities. Demonstrating that the gendered theologies of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Karl Barth, as well as the Vatican's “war on gender” rest on questionable binary models, he replaces these models with a human continuum that allows for sexual difference without assuming “opposite sexes” and normative sexualities.  Grounded in core Christian doctrines, this continuum enables a full theological affirmation of LGBTIQ people. Thatcher also addresses the excesses of the male/female binary in secular culture and outlines a hermeneutic that delivers justice and acceptance instead of sexism and discrimination. 

Science and Christian Ethics
  • Paul Scherz
  • Published online:
    04 May 2019
    Print publication:
    09 May 2019
  • There is a growing crisis in scientific research characterized by failures to reproduce experimental results, fraud, lack of innovation, and burn-out. In Science and Christian Ethics, Paul Scherz traces these problems to the drive by governments and business to make scientists into competitive entrepreneurs who use their research results to stimulate economic growth. The result is a competitive environment aimed at commodifying the world. In order to confront this problem of character, Scherz examines the alternative Aristotelian and Stoic models of reforming character, found in the works of Alasdair MacIntyre and Michel Foucault. Against many prominent virtue ethicists, he argues that what individual scientists need is a regime of spiritual exercises, such as those found in Stoicism as it was adopted by Christianity, in order to refocus on the good of truth in the face of institutional pressure. His book illuminates pressing issues in research ethics, moral education, and anthropology.

Biotechnology, Human Nature, and Christian Ethics
  • Gerald McKenny
  • Published online:
    11 January 2018
    Print publication:
    19 January 2018
  • In public debates over biotechnology, theologians, philosophers, and political theorists have proposed that biotechnology could have significant implications for human nature. They argue that ethical evaluations of biotechnologies that might affect human nature must take these implications into account. In this book, Gerald McKenny examines these important yet controversial arguments, which have in turn been criticized by many moral philosophers and professional bioethicists. He argues that Christian ethics is, in principle, committed to some version of the claim that human nature has normative status in relation to biotechnology. Showing how both criticisms and defences of this claim have often been facile, he identifies, develops, and critically evaluates three versions of the claim, and contributes a fourth, distinctively Christian version to the debate. Focusing on Christian ethics in conversation with secular ethics, McKenny's book is the first thorough analysis of a controversial contemporary issue.

Human Dependency and Christian Ethics
  • Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar
  • Published online:
    21 September 2017
    Print publication:
    05 October 2017
  • Dependency is a central aspect of human existence, as are dependent care relations: relations between caregivers and young children, persons with disabilities, or frail elderly persons. In this book, Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar argues that many prominent interpretations of Christian love either obscure dependency and care, or fail to adequately address injustice in the global social organization of care. Sullivan-Dunbar engages a wide-ranging interdisciplinary conversation between Christian ethics and economics, political theory, and care scholarship, drawing on the rich body of recent feminist work reintegrating dependency and care into the economic, political, and moral spheres. She identifies essential elements of a Christian ethic of love and justice for dependent care relations in a globalized care economy. She also suggests resources for such an ethic ranging from Catholic social thought, feminist political ethics of care, disability and vulnerability studies, and Christian theological accounts of the divine-human relation.

Hope and Christian Ethics
  • David Elliot
  • Published online:
    27 July 2017
    Print publication:
    14 July 2017
  • The theological virtue of hope has long been neglected in Christian ethics. However, as social, civic and global anxieties mount, the need to overcome despair has become urgent. This book proposes the theological virtue of hope as a promising source of rejuvenation. Theological hope sustains us from the sloth, presumption and despair that threaten amid injustice, tragedy and dying; it provides an ultimate meaning and transcendent purpose to our lives; and it rejoices and refreshes us 'on the way' with the prospect of eternal beatitude. Rather than degrading this life and world, hope ordains earthly goods to our eschatological end, forming us to pursue social justice with a resilience and vitality that transcend the cynicism and disillusionment so widespread at present. Drawing on Thomas Aquinas and virtue ethics, the book shows how the virtue of hope contributes to human happiness in this life and not just the next.

Moral Passion and Christian Ethics
  • Robin Gill
  • Published online:
    30 March 2017
    Print publication:
    06 March 2017
  • In this book, Robin Gill argues that moral passion and rational ethical deliberation are not enemies, and that moral passion often lurks behind many apparently rational ethical commitments. He also contends that though moral passion is a key component of truly selfless moral action, without rational ethical deliberation it can also be extremely dangerous. Gill maintains that a reanalysis of moral passion is overdue. He inspects the gap between the 'purely rational' accounts of ethics provided by some moral philosophers and the normative positions that they espouse and/or the moral actions that they pursue. He also contends that Christian ethicists have not been adept at identifying their own implicit moral passion or at explaining why it is that doctrinal positions generate passionately held moral conclusions. Using a range of disciplines, including cognitive science and moral psychology, alongside the more usual disciplines of moral philosophy and religious ethics, Gill also makes links with moral passion in other world faith traditions.

Lying and Christian Ethics
  • Christopher O. Tollefsen
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    28 April 2014
  • This book defends the controversial 'absolute view' of lying, which maintains that an assertion contrary to the speaker's mind is always wrong, regardless of the speaker's intentions. Whereas most people believe that a lie told for a good cause, such as protecting Jews from discovery by Nazis, is morally acceptable, Christopher Tollefsen argues that Christians should support the absolute view. He looks back to the writings of Augustine and Aquinas to illustrate that lying violates the basic human goods of integrity and sociality and severely compromises the values of religion and truth. He critiques the comparatively permissive views espoused by Cassian, Bonhoeffer, and Niebuhr and argues that lies often jeopardize the good causes for which they are told. Beyond framing a moral absolute against lying, this book explores the questions of to whom we owe the truth and when, and what steps we may take when we should not give it.

Global Justice, Christology and Christian Ethics
  • Lisa Sowle Cahill
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    17 January 2013
  • Global realities of human inequality, poverty, violence and ecological destruction call for a twenty-first-century Christian response which links cross-cultural and interreligious cooperation for change to the Gospel. This book demonstrates why just action is necessarily a criterion of authentic Christian theology, and gives grounds for Christian hope that change in violent structures is really possible. Lisa Sowle Cahill argues that theology and biblical interpretation are already embedded in and indebted to ethical-political practices and choices. Within this ecumenical study, she explores the use of the historical Jesus in constructive theology; the merits of Word and Spirit Christologies; the importance of liberation and feminist theologies as well as theologies from the global south; and also the possibility of qualified moral universalism. The book will be of great interest to all students of theology, religious ethics and politics, and biblical studies.

Market Complicity and Christian Ethics
  • Albino Barrera
  • Published online:
    16 May 2011
    Print publication:
    06 January 2011
  • The marketplace is a remarkable social institution that has greatly extended our reach so shoppers in the West can now buy fresh-cut flowers, vegetables, and tropical fruits grown halfway across the globe even in the depths of winter. However, these expanded choices have also come with considerable moral responsibilities as our economic decisions can have far-reaching effects by either ennobling or debasing human lives. In this book, Albino Barrera examines our own moral responsibilities for the distant harms of our market transactions from a Christian viewpoint, identifying how the market's division of labour makes us unwitting collaborators in others' wrongdoing and in collective ills. His important account covers a range of different subjects, including law, economics, philosophy, and theology, in order to identify the injurious ripple effects of our market activities.

Human Evolution and Christian Ethics
  • Stephen J. Pope
  • Published online:
    26 June 2009
    Print publication:
    20 December 2007
  • Can the origins of morality be explained entirely in evolutionary terms? If so, what are the implications for Christian moral theology and ethics? Is the latter redundant, as socio-biologists often assert? Stephen Pope argues that theologians need to engage with evolutionary theory rather than ignoring it. He shows that our growing knowledge of human evolution is compatible with Christian faith and morality, provided that the former is not interpreted reductionistically and the latter is not understood in fundamentalist ways. Christian ethics ought to incorporate evolutionary approaches to human nature to the extent that they provide helpful knowledge of the conditions of human flourishing, both collective and individual. From this perspective, a strong affirmation of human dignity and appreciation for the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity is consistent with a revised account of natural law and the cardinal virtues.

Forgiveness and Christian Ethics
  • Anthony Bash
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    13 September 2007
  • What does it mean to forgive? The answer is widely assumed to be self-evident but critical analysis quickly reveals the complexities of the subject. Forgiveness has traditionally been the preserve of Christian theology, though in the last half century - and at an accelerating pace - psychologists, lawyers, politicians and moral philosophers have all been making an important contribution to questions about and our understanding of the subject. Anthony Bash offers a vigorous restatement of the Christian view of forgiveness in critical dialogue with those both within and without the Christian tradition. Forgiveness is a much more complicated subject than many theologians recognize. Bash explores the relevance of the theoretical discussion of the topic to recent events such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, post-Holocaust trials, the aftermath of 9/11 and July 7 and various high-profile criminal cases.

Alcohol, Addiction and Christian Ethics
  • Christopher C. H. Cook
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    04 May 2006
  • Addictive disorders are characterised by a division of the will, in which the addict is attracted both by a desire to continue the addictive behaviour and also by a desire to stop it. Academic perspectives on this predicament usually come from clinical and scientific standpoints, with the 'moral model' rejected as outmoded. But Christian theology has a long history of thinking and writing on such problems and offers insights which are helpful to scientific and ethical reflection upon the nature of addiction. Chris Cook reviews Christian theological and ethical reflection upon the problems of alcohol use and misuse, from biblical times until the present day. Drawing particularly upon the writings of St Paul the Apostle and Augustine of Hippo, a critical theological model of addiction is developed. Alcohol dependence is also viewed in the broader ethical perspective of the use and misuse of alcohol within communities.

Health Care and Christian Ethics
  • Robin Gill
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    16 February 2006
  • How can Christian ethics make a significant contribution to health care ethics in today's Western, pluralistic society? Robin Gill examines the 'moral gaps' in secular accounts of health care ethics and the tensions within specifically theological accounts. He explores the healing stories in the Synoptic Gospels, identifying four core virtues present within them - compassion, care, faith and humility - that might bring greater depth to a purely secular interpretation of health care ethics. Each of these virtues is examined in turn, using a range of topical issues including health care rationing, genetics, HIV/AIDS, withholding/withdrawing nutrition from PVS patients, and the empirical evidence which suggests a connection between religion and health. Professor Gill also argues that these four virtues are shared by other major religious and humanistic traditions and that, together with secular principles, they can enrich health care ethics even in a pluralistic society.

Genetics and Christian Ethics
  • Celia Deane-Drummond
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2005
  • In the immediate future we are likely to witness significant developments in human genetic science. It is therefore of critical importance that Christian ethics engages with the genetics debate, since it affects not just the way we perceive ourselves and the natural world, but also has wider implications for our society. This book considers ethical issues arising out of specific practices in human genetics, including genetic screening, gene patenting, gene therapy, genetic counselling as well as feminist concerns. Genetics and Christian Ethics argues for a particular theo-ethical approach that derives from a modified version of virtue ethics, drawing particularly on a Thomistic understanding of the virtues, especially prudence or practical wisdom and justice. The book demonstrates that a theological voice is highly relevant to contested ethical debates about genetics.

Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics
  • Albino Barrera
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    08 September 2005
  • Markets can often be harsh in compelling people to make unpalatable economic choices any reasonable person would not take under normal conditions. Thus, workers laid off in mid-career accept lower-paid jobs that are beneath their professional experience for want of better alternatives. Economic migrants leave their families and cross borders (legally or illegally) in search of a livelihood. These are examples of economic compulsion. These economic ripple effects have been virtually ignored in ethical discourse because they are generally accepted to be the very mechanisms that generate the market's much-touted allocative efficiency. Albino Barrera argues that Christian thought on economic security offers an effective framework within which to address the consequences of economic compulsion.

Self Love and Christian Ethics
  • Darlene Fozard Weaver
  • Published online:
    12 November 2009
    Print publication:
    17 October 2002
  • Self love is an inescapable problem for ethics, yet much of contemporary ethics is reluctant to offer any normative moral anthropologies. Instead, secular ethics and contemporary culture promote a norm of self-realization which is subjective and uncritical. Christian ethics also fails to address this problem directly, because it tends to investigate self love within the context of conflicts between the self's interests and those of her neighbors. Self Love and Christian Ethics argues for right self love as the solution of proper self-relation that intersects with love for God and love for neighbor. Darlene Fozard Weaver explains that right self love entails a true self-understanding that is embodied in the person's concrete acts and relations. In making this argument, she calls upon ethicists to revisit ontological accounts of the self and to devote more attention to particular moral acts.

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