Can Scripture be of Value for Contemporary Christian Ethics?
How can Scripture be of value for contemporary Christian ethics?"Christians are often described as 'people of the Book'... we acknowledge the Bible as embodying divine revelation and for this reason continually look to Scripture for instruction as to what we should believe and what we should do." (Page ?? paragraph 4)Stanley Grenz sums up very well the desire of most Christians. Our difficulty though is that, as Hays points out,"...everybody wants to claim the Bible." (Page 2 paragraph 3)The Bible, whilst not taken seriously by secular culture, still has a certain recognised authority or inherent honesty that politicians especially will want to claim. Hays gives us a few examples from the USA, where the Christian vote is quite large, but in the UK, where the church in general is less right wing, the appeal is more subtle. Tony Blair, for example, when campaigning for office made sure that publicity was given to his and his family's church attendance, this had a twofold effect; first the Christians felt an affinity with him and second, secular culture perceived him trustworthy. This was not a direct appeal to Scripture but an indirect use of Scripture's perceived authority.Hays makes it quite clear that the task
The Bible is essentially the revelation of God and therefore should form our response to him. This is very much the proof of the pudding in the eating, what are the effects of the ethical decisions we make or, to use the language of Paul, what fruit do we see? This takes us back to the means of the mission in Genesis 18:19 and the point of the light in the Sermon on the Mount. The Old Testament seems to have different social stratums but the law did not distinguish between them. I his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 18:19 there is responsibility on Abraham to,". We have seen that both Old and New Testaments point to ethical living as a response to the Creating and Redeeming God and that the one requirement of this life is to life in relationship with God and other people. "On the one hand this is the reason why God chooses Abraham, not because he was righteous but so that he would be righteous, and on the other hand it is the means to Abraham's mission, because he would be righteous he would achieve God's purpose. Mark wishes to emphasise God's purpose in creation; Matthew, surpassing righteousness; Luke, the care for the poor and powerless; John, that the Father's love seeks mutual love; Paul, the renewing of the mind, and there are more each with a slightly different ethical emphasis. How, in the past, has this been interpreted and what does tradition have to say on this? What does our God given, Holy Spirit inspired reason tell us? What is our experience of this and the experience of the community of faith to which we belong? It is interesting to note that in the reformation it was tradition that was challenged and in the enlightenment reason was applied, however now we are finding that the relationship between Scripture and experience is key. Similar to being bound by a physical order so human kind is bound by a moral order. " (Exodus 19:6)The function of the priest was as mediator between God and man. The people of God also had a purpose; they were to be,". If Scripture says something that is contrary to a person's experience it is unlikely to be believed and even less actually wrestled with. The introduction to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 4 that the motivation for obeying God's commandments is gratitude for what God has done in rescuing his people.
Common topics in this essay:
Holy Spirit,
Commandments Exodus,
Bible Paul,
Creator God,
Tony Blair,
John Father's,
Ignatius Whenever,
Bible God's,
Word God,
Abraham Genesis,
holy spirit,
god covenant,
community faith,
god creator,
relationship god,
people god,
descriptive synthetic tasks,
human life,
god people,
experience community,
god's created,
experience community faith,
god creator god,
god covenant maker,
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Acceptance Essays
