Christian Ethics Term Paper

Christian Ethic

This report is an attempt to explain the concept of the Christian Ethic. As the world becomes a smaller place through new technologies such as computerization and the internet, a daunting question of present-day life lingers -- can the Christian philosophies and teachings of Jesus survive globalization? Affecting a common good is difficult for a single national or ethnic community so the idea of a global Christian Ethic seems almost impossible to secure. Christianity is a philosophy that was supposed to represent the common good by all of mankind should be touched. Christians throughout history have tried to understand what God was requiring his people to be and maybe more importantly what those people need to do. The answer to these two questions seems as though they would be easy to answer, but the bible and other documented scriptures do not provide a single answer that applies to all individuals, all relationships, all social settings, all families, all governments or even all churches. Therefore, this report will probe the questions of the Christian Ethics and their true meaning or definition, the source and foundation of Christian Ethics and the overall nature of those ethics.

Christian Ethics are views that surround the doctrine of the Scriptures. In this case, Christian ethics are attempts to answer questions such as:

Are there ethical values such as right, wrong, good and evil?

What is the biblical basis for such values?

Are these ethical values essential for living properly?

How should the ethical values affect war & peace, sexual ethics, genetics, financial or any other policy making?

Christianity as a religion has been based on the awareness of the biblical laws set forth by the Ten Commandments. Therefore, the basis of any Christian Ethics conversation must begin with those Ten Commandments and the three associated Christian views that the Ten Commandments have introduced to mankind. The Ten Commandments must be considered the true source and foundation of the Christian Ethic philosophy.

The religious philosophies surrounding Jesus Christ have begun to move away from historical accounts of the biblical writers to more of a shift in the Christian Ethic. In other words, the meanings of the ethics as opposed to the historical facts have become a modern way of interpreting scripture. As the Roman Catholic Church registers a diminishing support base, there has still been an overall global rise in the following the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Christian philosophy. These interests are being fueled on more or less the New Testament ethics because apparently the historical teaching methods have not been able to make it as teaching tools in the modern world. The appeal of the Christian biblical studies about Jesus no longer uses history as a tool for understanding the biblical texts or Christian Ethics.

The biblical texts and the Ten Commandments created a foundation for Christian Ethics. The concepts that are presented by the Ten Commandments are:

Civil restraint

Spiritual mirroring

Striving of positive deeds.

The laws Moses received from God seem to first address the problems of the social order and preserving the peace. "In order that there may be morality, or that conduct may be regarded as moral, there must be not only behavior, or action or conduct. There must be reflection on behavior, ideas about and attitudes towards action, and beliefs about conduct, which find expression in judgments that the actions are right or wrong, the conduct good or bad." (Macbeath) The Ten Commandments were at the least a very successful ploy to control the masses and mainly controlling those who may not have been concerned with what the majority saw as right or good. When individuals or groups go against the ideas of the social order, the Commandments basically provide an opportunity to institute consequences to all violators. The Christian Ethic must then first take into consideration the…