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Charts of Chris­tian Ethics

Copyright © 2006 by Craig Vincent Mitchell

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mitchell, Craig Vincent

Charts of Chris­tian ethics / Craig Vincent Mitchell.
p. cm. — (ZondervanCharts)
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25452-2
ISBN-10: 0-310-25452-3
1. Chris­tian ethics — Charts, diagrams, etc. I. Title. II. Series.
BJ1261.M58 2005
241'.022'3 — dc22
 2005017159

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transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any
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Interior design by Angela Moulter

Printed in the United States of America

06  07  08  09  10  11  •  17  16  15  14  13  12  11  10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
 Contents

Part 1: Philosophical Foundations of Ethics

The Elements of Philosophy
1. Philosophy
Logic
2. Logic
Metaphysics
3. Metaphysics
4. Ontology
5. Cosmology
6. Theology/Philosophy of Religion
7. Theories of Truth
Epistemology
8. Epistemology
9. David Hume (1711 – 76)
10. Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
Axiology
11. Value Theory
12. Ethics
13. Aesthetics (1)
14. Aesthetics (2): Art
Philosophies
15. Major Movements in Analytic Philosophy
16. Philosophy of Language
17. Philosophy of Science
18. Philosophy of Mind
19. American Pragmatism
20. Existentialism
21. The Continental Philosophers
22. Structuralism and Poststructuralism
Premodernity, Modernity, and Postmodernity
23. Premodernity (Before 1600)
24. Modernity (1): (1600 – 1950)
25. Modernity (2): British Empiricists and Analytic Philosophers
26. Modernity (3): Continental Rationalists/Continental Philosophers
27. Postmodernity (1950 – Present)

Part 2: Approaches to Ethics

Metaethics
28. Metaethics
29. The Fact/Value Dichotomy
 30. Metaphysics of Morals
31. Moral Epistemology
32. Moral Psychology (1)
33. Moral Psychology (2): Moral Motivation
34. Internalist Moral Development (Cognitivism)
35. Externalist Moral Development (Noncognitivism)
Normative Ethics
36. Normative Ethics
37. Virtue Ethics
38. Aristotelian (Classical) Virtue Ethics
39. Augustinian Virtue Ethics
40. Linguistic Virtue Ethics
41. Deontology
42. Divine Command Theory (Theological Voluntarism)
43. Kantian Deontology
44. Deontological Intuitionism
45. Graded Absolutism (Hierarchicalism)
46. Act Utilitarianism
47. Rule Utilitarianism
48. Contractarianism
49. Contractualism
Applied Ethics
50. Political Philosophy
51. Philosophy of Law
52. Economics
53. Adam Smith
54. Marxism
55. Business Ethics
56. Bioethics

Part 3: Biblical Foundations of Chris­tian Ethics

Hermeneutics
57. Biblical Hermeneutics: Assumptions
58. Premodern Hermeneutics: Old Testament
59. Premodern Biblical Hermeneutics: Assumptions
60. Modern Biblical Hermeneutics: Assumptions and Method
61. Postmodern Biblical Hermeneutics
62. Key Words for Biblical Ethics
63. Presuppositions of Chris­tian Biblical Ethics
Old Testament
64. The Old Testament and Creation Ethics
65. Creation Ethics and Cosmic Order
66. Creation Ethics and the Ten Commandments
67. Ethics in Jewish Apocalyptic Thought
New Testament
68. The New Testament and Creation Ethics
69. The Sermon on the Mount
70. Blessedness (Happiness and Well-Being)
71. Righ­teous­ness in Jesus Christ
72. Jesus Christ and the Jubilee
Part 4: Theological Foundations of Chris­tian Ethics
God
73. Doctrine of God
74. Doctrine of God: The Creeds
Creation
75. Creation
76. Augustine’s Hierarchy of Thought
Man
77. Doctrine of Man
78. Implications of the Image of God: Issues of Life and Death
79. Views of the Conscience
80. Eschatology (Three Views)
81. Soteriology
82. Divinization
83. The Work of the Holy Spirit
84. Spiritual Warfare
85. Marriage and Family
Church
86. The Church
87. Types of Churches
State and Church
88. The State
89. Christ and Culture
90. The Church and the World
91. Chris­tian Decision Making

Part 5: History of Ethics

Historical Overview
92. Overview of Philosophical Worldviews
93. Overview of Philosophers and Ethicists
94. Diagrammatic Overview of Major Philosophies
95. Diagrammatic Overview of Philosophers
The Premodern Era
96. Classical Period
97. Medieval Period
98. Reformation Period
The Modern Era
99. British Empiricists
100. Analytic Philosophers
101. Continental Rationalists
102. Continental Philosophers
103. Theological Liberalism
104. Neo-orthodox Thinkers
Postmodern Era
105. Contemporary Chris­tian Ethicists
106. Socio-Critical Approaches to Ethics
 Philosophical
foundations
of ethics

The Elements of Philosophy

 Philosophy

Philosophy is the investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of

1. reality

2. knowledge and/or

3. values based on

4. logical reasoning rather than empirical methods

Logic underlies the study of the three branches of philosophy. It is the study of the
principles of reasoning (especially of the structure of propositions as distinguished
Logic
from their content) and of method and validity in deductive reasoning (from Gk.
logikos, “reasoning,” derived from logos, “word” or “reason”). (→2)

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality (from
Reality Gk. meta + physika, literally “after physics,” the title of Aristotle’s treatise on first
principles that followed his work on physics). (→3–6)

Epistemology (from Gk. epistēmē, “knowledge”) is the branch of philosophy that

Knowledge
studies the nature of knowledge. (→7–10)

Axiology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of values and value
Values
judgments (from Gk. axios, “worth”). (→11–14)

Chart 1
Logic

DEDUCTIVE LOGIC
Uses one or more premises and
a conclusion (together called a
syllogism). If the premises are
true, then the conclusion will
be true as well. Consequently,
deductive logic can provide a high
level of certainty.
INDUCTIVE LOGIC
Tied to probability. For example,
it is a safe bet that the sun will
rise tomorrow. Inductive logic
cannot provide certainty because it
depends on probability.
Logic
Symbolic Logic
Mathematics
Modal Logic
A branch of logic that deals
not with the truth or falsity
of propositions, but with
their modalities, that is,
properties of propositions,
such as necessity,
contingency, possibility,
and impossibility. Thus it
deals not with metaphysical
necessities, but with the
manner in which things
manifest themselves. “Some
men may be immortal” is a
modal proposition.
Abduction
Logic of Explanation
Probability Theory
Chart 2
Also known as formal logic. It includes
a number of modern and traditional
approaches to logic.
The study of quantities, magnitudes,
and forms, generally with the use of
numbers and symbols.
A kind of modal
logic employed to
Epistemic Logic ascertain what one
should know in all
possible worlds.
A kind of modal
logic employed to
ascertain what one
Deontic Logic ought to do in all
possible worlds.
Necessity is replaced
with ought.
An approach to logic developed by
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) to
explain a set of data. This is also known
as inference to the best explanation.
Attempts to understand how or why
something is the way it is. This involves
an examination of the possible causes
for a given state of affairs.
A judgment based on the mathematical
likelihood of a given event.
Metaphysics
 Metaphysics

The three branches of metaphysics

Ontology is concerned with existence, or being; it can also include such things as free
Ontology will/determinism, substance, and immortality of the soul. The term ontology is often
equated with metaphysics.

Cosmology Cosmology is concerned with time, space, and causation.

Theology is concerned with the nature and existence of God and his relationship to all
Theology
of reality.

In metaphysics, a number of common words are used in a specialized sense:

proposition A proposition is a statement about reality that is true or false.

fact A fact is something in reality that makes a proposition true.

event An event is a proposition about a specific time and place.

state of affairs A state of affairs is a statement about reality that may either obtain or fail to obtain.

A world is a situation in which a proposition and its opposite cannot exist at the same
world
time and place.

book A book is a set of propositions that describes a world.

necessary For something to be necessary means that it must exist in any possible world.

Something that is contingent is dependent on something that is necessary for its exis-
contingent
tence. Something that is contingent can fail to exist in any possible world.

teleology Teleology teaches that the world has a purpose and is in process to fulfill it.

Chart 3

Property and Substance
Concerned with how things exist.
Mind/Body Problem
Attempts to resolve the problems
associated with the interaction
between the mind and the body.
Free Will and Determinism
Examines the degree to which one
is responsible for one’s actions
and the external forces involved in
these actions.
Personal Identity
Concerned with the nature and
existence of the self.
Ontology
Realism suggests that there are universals and particulars. Realism also
suggests that things exist independent of the observer. Thus realism can be
viewed as materialism and idealism in interaction. (Materialism assumes
that matter/energy or the space-time continuum are all that exist.)
Nominalism suggests that only particulars exist. Thus nominalism denies
that there are such things as real essences.
Idealism assumes that the world Subjective idealism suggests that
and the objects in it are dependent what we experience or perceive is
on the mind for their existence. nothing more than ideas (George
Berkeley).
Objective idealism suggests that the
material world is just a shadow of
the real world. The real world is the
world of the forms (Plato).
Interactionism—Mind and body do interact.
Occasionalism—Mind and body do not interact. They are synchronized by
God.
Materialism—There are only brain processes. There are no mental events.
Idealism—There are no physical events. Everything is a mental/spiritual
picture. Reality is an illusion.
Panentheism—Physical and mental events are the same, because God is in
everything (not God is everything, which is pantheism).
Free Will—One is ultimately free to do as one chooses, uninfluenced by
external constraints.
Compatibilism—This position attempts to reconcile free will with
determinism.
Determinism—This is the idea that external forces act upon something in
such a way that there is no free will.
Self—What is the nature of the self?
Identity through Time—How do change and time affect the self?
Life after Death—Does the self continue after death?
Chart 4
 Cosmology

Perceptual Time—Time as it appears to an observer.

Conceptual Time—Time as it actually is.

Time
• A Theory—A tenseless view of time. The only aspect of time that
The temporal aspect of reality. exists is the present. The past exists only as memory. It rejects the
idea of a space-time continuum.

• B Theory—A view that all three tenses of time exist

simultaneously. It accepts the idea of the space-time continuum.

Space Perceptual Space—Space as it is perceived by an observer.

The spatial aspect of reality.

Conceptual Space—Space as it actually is.

First Cause—The cause of all other causes.

Causation Formal Cause—The shape or “blueprint” to which an entity conforms.
What relates one event in reality Material Cause—The physical “stuff” of which something is made.
temporally to another event. Efficient Cause—Forces or activities/agents that produce an entity.
Final Cause—The purpose for which an entity exists.

Space-Time Continuum—An idea explained in Einstein’s special theory of revelation. It asserts that space
and time are interlinked as aspects of a four-dimensional universe. There are three spatial dimensions and
one temporal dimension.

The Aristotelian Chain of Causes

Entelechy (Process)

First Formal Material Efficient Final

Cause Cause Cause Cause Cause

Potential Actual

Chart 5