As a religion professor at a Christian liberal arts university, my responsibilities call for me to participate in the moral as well as spiritual and ministry formation of students. Not long ago an intelligent, culturally savvy, ministry-bound student who was studying Christian ethics with me included in his final paper a telling admission. To be more precise, this young man in his mid-to late twenties prefaced his paper with a two-fold confession: First, prior to taking this ethics course, he had neglected to give any serious consideration to the process by which he had been making ethical decisions. Second, as a result of this lack of ethical reflection, he had been guilty of making important moral choices just like many non-Christians do—in an unbalanced and essentially irresponsible manner.
I wish I could say that this two-fold confession makes this particular student unique. Actually, my experience has been that just the opposite is true—it makes him iconic instead.
The purpose of this presentation is to introduce a proposal that attempts to address this situation. In a nutshell, what is needed, I believe, is an approach to teaching Christian ethics that truly succeeds at integrating moral theory with everyday decision-making practice. For this to happen, a new ethical model is needed, one that enables students to come to terms with three things: (1) the notion of a moral faithfulness—the idea that Christians can and should strive to honor the heart of God in each ethical dilemma they encounter; (2) the fact that such a moral faithfulness requires a lifestyle of surrender to the Holy Spirit’s endeavors to help Christ’s followers discern and do the will of the Father; and (3) the realization that such a moral faithfulness lies at the heart of a genuine Christian discipleship.
The full paper is attached to this post as a PDF.
Note from administrator: Your SVS membership dues must be up to date in order to see the attached file.
