Tag: Morality

Herman Bavinck’s understanding of ethics

In his 1902 essay titled “Contemporary Morality,” Herman Bavinck starts by admitting that there is a lack of discussion regarding moral principles and issues in his society and his church. For him, the importance of paying attention to moral principles and moral issues is that by their own nature human beings have needs, which differ from visible things. In order to live their lives well, he says, people should know the rule by which they organize their lives. Bavinck claims that morality discussions can go from questions such as what is good and what is evil to practical matters such …

Sexuality series – Stanley Hauerwas on the purposes of human sexuality

First, it is important to note that Prof. Hauerwas is doing sexual ethics outside of the mainstream Christian theologians such as Augustine and Aquinas. Therefore, his position and discussion must be understood as a reaction against the Western moral tradition. Bearing in mind these clarifications could help us to avoid misunderstanding him. Hauerwas is very critical of the Christian large tradition on this topic. He believes the tradition has failed when discussing human sexuality/sexual ethics in a very broad sense by clinging exclusively to natural law. This is something that the church must correct if she wants to avoid confusion …

Sexuality series – Oliver O’Donovan on the importance of sexual differentiation

For Christian ethicist Oliver O’Donovan, God’s revelation in the gospel is the basis and primary authority of Christian ethics. So it is also the means Christians can discern the truths about the natural world through the work done in the resurrection of Christ. In other words, the renewed order, revealed through the resurrection of Christ, allows us to be aware and understand fully the created order. Here we note that O’Donovan defends an objective and realized-eschatological approach to Christian ethics, including his approach to human sexuality. This allows him to claim a clear distinctive differentiation between the creator and the …

Sexuality series – Does Aquinas leave room for the separation between gender and sex?

Although Aquinas has certain similarities with Augustine regarding sexuality, he departs from him in some other particular respects. Aquinas’s discussions in Summa Theologia about sexuality are brief; one clearly sees, however, how Aquinas interpreted human sexuality through the lens of natural law and rational abstraction. Through his holistic view of the human being as a composite of soul and body, Aquinas does not leave room for a separation between gender and sex. The soul informs the human body of this essential information. For instance, the gender or sex is randomly assigned by the soul. In addition, without a doubt, Aquinas …

Sexuality series – Augustine on being created male and female

As part of the mainstream Christian tradition, Augustine has significantly shaped the conversation about how Christianity has understood and approached sexuality throughout the years since the early Church, including the fact that human beings were created both male and female. However, something we must consider when one tries to find out Augustine’s views on human sexuality is that his understanding of marriage and social norms strongly influenced his views. To make things even more difficult, Elizabeth A. Clark (Professor of Religion, Duke University) asserts that Augustine links women with the physical world and such a link affected Augustine’s conclusions on …

Caring for words as a moral issue

One of the most interesting experiences I had in dealing with language precision using the English language has to do with the word progressive. A couple of years ago, I was part of a church group discussing a controversial topic which led to a heated debate. There were people from different religious affiliations who were holding both liberal and conservative sides. In our table, there were six persons, two of them representing the liberal side of the group. While we were discussing the assigned topic, a college student holding a liberal position, said to the other three conservative peers and …

What I believe series – Why the church needs to engage in morality?

When the Scriptures speak of the church as an assembly, one should remember that the church is not a human project, but a God’s project that He has given to us so that every Christian can participate in communion with Him. This makes morality of high significance in the church. In this short post, I will offer three reasons the church must firmly engage in morality. The Church Is Called to be a Community of Saints. Even though the visible church is not made of morally perfect persons, the church is called to be a community of saints — of …