An Overview of Christian Ethics, as presented at the first Open Night of the Centre for Christian Living in Sydney, 14 February 2011.

1. Welcome to the Centre for Christian Living’s first Open Night An Overview of Christian Ethics with some comments about how we use our money

2. A JOINED-UP LIFE: an overview of Christian ethics Andrew Cameronwww.ccl.moore.edu.au

3. 1. Awareness:where ethics hits us 2. Unawareness:desire and groups 3. Christians and others:where we overlap

4. 1. Awareness:where ethics hits us 2. Unawareness:desire and groups 3. Christians and others:where we overlap 4. Jesus Christ:how he makes a difference 5. Christian ethics its shape and its ways 6. Bible reading and cameo:how money works

5. Where life hits us … ... How to handle sibling/parent/ex at Christmas? ... Should I use my work time on this or that priority? ... Should I obey or support this rule or policy? (at work or in society)?

6. Where life hits us … ... How to handle sibling/parent/ex at Christmas? ... Should I use my work time on this or that priority? ... Should I obey or support this rule or policy? (at work or in society)? ... Will I buy that house? ... How do I deal with this bully? ... Will I date ordivorce this person?

7. Where life hits us … ... How to handle sibling/parent/ex at Christmas? ... Should I use my work time on this or that priority? ... Should I obey or support this rule or policy? (at work or in society)? ... Will I buy that house? ... How do I deal with this bully? ... Will I date ordivorce this person? ... Should I keep this baby? ... Should I put my parent in palliative care? ... It is time to switch off that machine?

8. give it a name … Oxford English Dictionary:ethics = ‘The science of morals: the department of study concerned with the principles of human duty.’

9. give it a name … Oxford English Dictionary:ethics = ... thoughts and actions about right and wrong

10. another name … moral/morals/morality = ‘Ethical wisdom’ (!!) ... ... concerning ‘character or disposition, considered as good or bad, virtuous or vicious’ and ‘the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil, in relation to the actions, volitions or character of responsible beings: ethical’

11. another name … moral/morals/morality = ‘Ethical wisdom’ (!!) ... ... concerning ‘character or disposition, considered as good or bad, virtuous or vicious’ and ‘the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil, in relation to the actions, volitions or character of responsible beings: ethical’ (so ‘morals’ are not just about sex)

12. a classic distinction (no longer strictly upheld) ethics = the study of thoughts about and actions of right and wrong

13. a classic distinction (no longer strictly upheld) ethics = the study of thoughts about and actions of right and wrong morals/morality =specific lists of what people and community think to be right and wrong

14. Rights Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

15. to equality, autonomy, protection and security, property ownership, privacy, reputation Rights Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

16. to equality, autonomy, protection and security, property ownership, privacy, reputation to freedomfrom forced workof movementof associationof thoughtof speech and expressionof peaceful assemblyof religion and beliefof consciencefrom wantfrom fear Rights Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

17. to equality, autonomy, protection and security, property ownership, privacy, reputation to freedomfrom forced workof movementof associationof thoughtof speech and expressionof peaceful assemblyof religion and beliefof consciencefrom wantfrom fear to justice:fair hearingshumane treatmentagainst retrospective laws Rights Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

18. Values … settled patterns of action and feeling … how someone usually thinks, feels, acts Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

19. Values … settled patterns of action and feeling … how someone usually thinks, feels, acts A school: ‘responsibility, respect, care, honesty, excellence, inclusion, understanding, tolerance’ A doctor: ‘professionalism, customer focus, working together, quality, honesty, integrity.’ A student: ‘assertiveness, self-fulfilment, self-esteem, independence, self-acceptance.’ Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

20. Results Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

21. e.g. health harm-minimization education cost-cutting shareholder return Results Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

22. e.g. health harm-minimization education cost-cutting shareholder return ‘Consequentialism’: ... Only results matter (for self, family, corporation)... ‘Ends’ justify ‘means’ Results Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

23. e.g. health harm-minimization education cost-cutting shareholder return ‘Consequentialism’: ... Only results matter (for self, family, corporation)... ‘Ends’ justify ‘means’ ‘Utilitarianism’ (= consequentialism for whole society) : ... Old: ‘Greatest good for the greatest number’ ... New:‘Maximum satisfied preferences’ Results Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

24. Rules Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

25. e.g. ‘Faithfulness in Service’: 4.8: ‘You are not to disclose confidential information received in pastoral ministry ...’ 6.9: You are not knowingly to make statements that are false, misleading or deceptive.’ 8.8: ‘You are to avoid situations of conflict between your personal financial interest and your pastoral ministry responsibilities.’ 5.11: ‘When engaged in pastoral ministry you are not to administer corporal punishment to children ...’ Rules Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

26. Values Results Rights Rules Awareness: where ‘ethics’ hits us

27. Results Rights Rights and results don’t always agree

28. Results Rights Rights and results don’t always agree

29. Values Rules Values and rules don’t always agree

30. Values Rules Values and rules don’t always agree

31. Values Rights Results ? Rules

32. Values Rights Results ? Rules

33. Unawareness: desire ‘Morality is how I feel too, because in my heart, I could feel it. You could feel what’s right or wrong in your heart as well as your mind. Most of the time, I always felt, I feel it in my heart and it makes it easier for me to morally decide what’s right and wrong. Because if I feel about doing something, I’m going to feel it in my heart, and if it feels good, I’m going to do it.’ - from Chris Smith, Souls in Transition

34. Unawareness: desire includes wanting, longing, attraction, yearning, interest, enjoyment, delight ... our God-given response to whatever is good

35. Unawareness: desire includes wanting, longing, attraction, yearning, interest, enjoyment, delight ... our God-given response to whatever is good God made a ‘very good’ world;he loads it with what we want, love, delight in Augustine (4th century): humanity made for ‘the enjoyment of God and of one another in God’ + we rightly delight in all the non-human creation

36. Unawareness: desire includes wanting, longing, attraction, yearning, interest, enjoyment, delight ... our God-given response to whatever is good God made a ‘very good’ world;he loads it with what we want, love, delight in Augustine (4th century): humanity made for ‘the enjoyment of God and of one another in God’ + we rightly delight in all the non-human creation ... but our ‘loves’ (desires) are ‘disordered’

37. Unawareness: desire There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves,lovers of money,boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasurerather than lovers of God ...’ [2 Timothy 3:1-4]

38. Unawareness: desire There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love,unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God ...’ [2 Timothy 3:1-4]

39. Unawareness: groups

40. Hannah Arendt Adolf Eichmann

41. Hannah Arendt Adolf Eichmann the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.

42. Calvin (16th century): ...when we come to our own case, we forget ‘values’ “The intellect is very rarely deceived in general [but] is illusory when it goes farther, that is, applies the principle to particular cases.

43. Calvin (16th century): ...when we come to our own case, we forget ‘values’ “In reply to the general question, every man will affirm that murder is evil. But he who is plotting the death of an enemy contemplates murder as something good. The adulterer will condemn adultery in general, but will privately flatter himself in his own particular adultery.

44. Calvin (16th century): ...when we come to our own case, we forget ‘values’ “Here is man's ignorance: when he comes to a particular case, he forgets the general principle that he has just laid down.”

45. disordered desires Unawareness: ‘flesh’

46. disordered desires false belonging Unawareness: ‘flesh’

47. ‘Flesh’: disordered desires false belonging Unawareness: ‘flesh’

48. Values Rights Results(‘Consequentialism’) ? Rules Christians and others:where we overlap

49. Values Rights Creation Results(‘Consequentialism’) ? Rules Christians and others:where we overlap

50. Values Characterof God Rights Creation Results(‘Consequentialism’) ? Rules Christians and others:where we overlap

51. Values Characterof God Rights Creation Results(‘Consequentialism’) ? New future(‘eschatology’) Rules Christians and others:where we overlap

52. Values Characterof God Rights Results(‘Consequentialism’) ? Creation New future(‘eschatology’) Rules God’s commands Christians and others:where we overlap

53. Values Characterof God Rights Results(‘Consequentialism’) ? JesusChrist Creation New future(‘eschatology’) Rules God’s commands Christians and others:where we overlap

54. JesusChrist How Jesus makes a difference

55. Reveals God’scharacter JesusChrist Restores created order  How Jesus makes a difference

56. Reveals God’scharacter JesusChrist Receives God’spromises Restores created order Reframes God’scommands How Jesus makes a difference

57. Reveals God’scharacter JesusChrist Receives God’spromises Restores created order Reframes God’scommands Reconciles relationships  How Jesus makes a difference

58. ‘Saved’‘in Christ’  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging How Jesus makes a difference

59. ‘Saved’‘in Christ’  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires true inclusion (‘love’) How Jesus makes a difference

60. Community‘in Christ’ The ‘pilot project’ for true human society that teaches us (e.g.):  Mercy and forgiveness (from Christ, then to each other)

61. Community‘in Christ’ The ‘pilot project’ for true human society that teaches us (e.g.):  Mercy and forgiveness (from Christ, then to each other) New, true inclusion (from other social influences) Reordered desire (for the ‘enjoyment of God and of each other in God’)

62. Community‘in Christ’ The ‘pilot project’ for true human society that teaches us (e.g.):  Mercy and forgiveness (from Christ, then to each other) New, true inclusion (from other social influences) Reordered desire (for the ‘enjoyment of God and of each other in God’) Celebration of the powers of others (gifts, submission)

63. Community‘in Christ’ The ‘pilot project’ for true human society that teaches us (e.g.):  Mercy and forgiveness (from Christ, then to each other) New, true inclusion (from other social influences) Reordered desire (for the ‘enjoyment of God and of each other in God’) Celebration of the powers of others (gifts, submission) The needs and limits of bodies (care) How one body affects another (e.g. in speech, sexuality, exclusion)

64. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging Commands The shape of Christian ethics

65. The ways of Christian ethics God’sCharacter Creation Community‘in Christ’ Newfuture Commands

66. The ways of Christian ethics God’sCharacter Creation Community‘in Christ’ Newfuture An ‘order’: to accept, enjoy and protect [e.g. 1 Tim 4:1-5] Commands

67. The ways of Christian ethics God’sCharacter Creation Community‘in Christ’ Newfuture An ‘order’: to accept, enjoy and protect [e.g. 1 Tim 4:1-5] A goal: humanity’s communal purpose [e.g. 2 Pet. 3:3-14] Commands

68. The ways of Christian ethics God’sCharacter Creation Community‘in Christ’ Newfuture A method: the way of cross & resurrection [e.g. Phil. 2, Col. 3, Eph. 4] An ‘order’: to accept, enjoy and protect [e.g. 1 Tim 4:1-5] A goal: humanity’s communal purpose [e.g. 2 Pet. 3:3-14] Commands

69. The ways of Christian ethics A ‘character’: holy[e.g. ‘partakers of divine nature’, 2 Peter 1:1-11] God’sCharacter Creation Community‘in Christ’ Newfuture A method: the way of cross & resurrection [e.g. Phil. 2, Col. 3, Eph. 4] An ‘order’: to accept, enjoy and protect [e.g. 1 Tim 4:1-5] A goal: humanity’s communal purpose [e.g. 2 Pet. 3:3-14] Commands

70. The ways of Christian ethics A ‘character’: holy[e.g. ‘partakers of divine nature’, 2 Peter 1:1-11] God’sCharacter Creation Community‘in Christ’ Newfuture A method: the way of cross & resurrection [e.g. Phil. 2, Col. 3, Eph. 4] An ‘order’: to accept, enjoy and protect [e.g. 1 Tim 4:1-5] A goal: humanity’s communal purpose [e.g. 2 Pet. 3:3-14] Commands

71. The ways of Christian ethics A ‘character’: holy[e.g. ‘partakers of divine nature’, 2 Peter 1:1-11] God’sCharacter Creation Community‘in Christ’ Newfuture A method: the way of cross & resurrection [e.g. Phil. 2, Col. 3, Eph. 4] An ‘order’: to accept, enjoy and protect [e.g. 1 Tim 4:1-5] A goal: humanity’s communal purpose [e.g. 2 Pet. 3:3-14] for love Philemon v8 Commands … a ‘quick-start’ , for anyone whose desires are still being reordered

72. ... M. Hill, ‘mutual love relationships’ in The How and Why of Love (Matthias Media, 2002) ... the shape of relationships, as enacted by community in Christ.

73. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ New future Creation Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’) Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging  Commands

74. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ New future Creation Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’) Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging  Commands

75. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ New future Creation Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’) Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging  Commands

76. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ New future Creation Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’) Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging  Commands

77. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ New future Creation Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’) Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging  Commands

78. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ New future Creation Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’) Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging  Commands

79. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ New future Creation Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’) Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging  Commands

80. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging Commands Cameo: how money works

81. Luke 12 … v13: the brother v15: the greed v18: the fool v30: the norm v34: the heart  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging

82. God’sCharacter v24: the ravens … ‘how much more’ v27: the lilies … ‘how much more’ v32: the Kingdom 

83. God’sCharacter Creation v16: the crop v24: the ravens v27: the lilies v30: our needs 

84. God’sCharacter Creation New future v23: built for more v25: can’t change it v31: extras on the way v33b: scarcity is not the problem

85. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future  v33a: freed to care

86. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging v22: don’t worry (&29) v31: seek (& 33b) v32: don’t fear v33: sell and give Commands

87. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging v34: the heart! Commands

88. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging Commands

90. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging Commands

91. Seven areas of economic life …

92. Thanks for joining us at the first CCL Open Night www.ccl.moore.edu.au www.moore.edu.au www.sie.org.au