Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system. It is a virtue ethic, which focuses on building moral character, and a deontological ethic which emphasizes duty. It also incorporates natural law ethics, which is built on the belief that it is the very nature of humans – created in the image of God and capable of morality, cooperation, rationality, discernment and so on – that informs how life should be lived, and that awareness of sin does not require special revelation. Other aspects of Christian ethics, represented by movements such as the social Gospel and liberation theology, may be combined into a fourth area sometimes called prophetic ethics.
Christian ethics derives its metaphysical core from the Bible, seeing God as the ultimate source of all power. Evidential, Reformed and volitional epistemology are the three most common forms of Christian epistemology. The variety of ethical perspectives in the Bible has led to repeated disagreement over defining the basic Christian ethical principles, with at least seven major principles undergoing perennial debate and reinterpretation. Christian ethicists use reason, philosophy, natural law, the social sciences, and the Bible to formulate modern interpretations of those principles; Christian ethics applies to all areas of personal and societal ethics.
Originating in early Christianity from 27 to 325 AD, Christian ethics continued to develop during the Middle Ages, when the rediscovery of Aristotle led to scholasticism and the writings of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). The Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the subsequent counter-Reformation, and Christian humanism heavily impacted Christian ethics, particularly its political and economic teachings. A branch of Christian theology for most of its history, Christian ethics separated from theology during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For most scholars of the twenty-first century, Christian ethics fits in a niche between theology on one side and the social sciences on the other. Secularism has had significant influence on modern Christian ethics.
Definition and sources
Christian ethics, also referred to as moral theology, was a branch of theology for most of its history. Becoming a separate field of study, it was separated from theology during the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Enlightenment and, according to Christian ethicist Waldo Beach, for most 21st-century scholars it has become a "discipline of reflection and analysis that lies between theology on one side and the social sciences on the other".
Christian ethics is a virtue ethic which focuses on developing an ethical character, beginning with obedience to a set of rules and laws seen as divine commands reflecting behaviors which are morally required, forbidden, or permitted. Although virtue ethics and deontological ethics are normally seen as contrasting with one another, they are combined in Christian ethics. Claire Brown Peterson calls the Christian ethic a natural law ethic. According to Peterson, the New Testament contains "the expectation that humans are capable of knowing much of how they should live apart from explicit divine instructions ... Thus Gentiles who lack the revelation of scripture are said to have the law 'written on their hearts' (Romans 2:15) so that they can [legitimately] be held accountable when they violate what they are capable of seeing is right." Wilkins says that in this view, the primary moral laws are universally known, are discernible through reason, are innate in all people (and, therefore, binding on all), and their practice contributes to individual and community well-being. Elements of each of these theories can be found in the Bible and the early church.