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DICTIONARY
OF
CHRISTIAN ETHICS
Also published by SC M Press
A DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
edited by Gordon S. Wakefield
A NEW DICTION AR Y^OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
edited by Alan Richardson and John Bow den
A NEW DICTIONARY OF LITURGY AND WORSHIP
edited by J. G. Davie s
A
NEW
ONARY
nR TT
AN
LJT
O
EDITED BY
JAMES F. CHILDRESS
AND
JOHN MACQUARRIE
The first edition of the Dictionary of Christian Ethics, which was prepared
by John Macquarrie and published in 1967, has been a valuable and durable
reference work. Any dictionary bears the imprint of its time and place, as well
as its editor's predilections, in its organization, selection of topics, and alloca-
tion of space to various topics, as well as in the content of its entries. Thus,
even though this new edition has been built on Macquarrie's foundation, it
reflects several major changes in the methods, content, and context of Chris-
tian ethics.
The field of Christian ethics has expanded greatly in the last twenty years.
For example, in 1967 the American Society of Christian Ethics had only 245
members, but in 1984 the renamed Society of Christian Ethics had 682 mem-
bers. Similar developments have occurred in the United Kingdom. The list of
contributors to this dictionary has more than doubled since the first edition.
Still drawn mainly from the United States and the United Kingdom, with a
few from Australia and Canada, these authors are nevertheless a more diverse
group. In the post-Vatican II era, Christian ethics and moral theology have
become more genuinely ecumenical, and this ecumenical spirit is reflected in
both the topics and the contributors. We are fortunate to have had the cooper-
ation of such a wide range of scholars from Protestant, Anglican, Roman
Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish backgrounds. The institutional context of
scholarship in Christian ethics has also been enlarged, as scholars now often
teach in secular colleges and universities as well as in religious institutions,
seminaries, and divinity schools. This new context is reflected in the concerns,
methods, and style of a number of articles.
The area of applied or practical ethics has also undergone remarkable
transformation and expansion since the late 1960s, as theologians have been
joined by philosopherswho for many years were interested primarily in
metaethicsand by physicians, lawyers, and other professionals, in reflecting
on major developments and problems in science, medicine, and health care,
among other areas. This dramatic change can be seen in the large number of
articles in applied or practical ethics, particularly in the addition of several
topics in bioethics or biomedical ethics. Other topics and problems that re-
ceived little or no attention earlier are now central in Christian ethical reflec-
tion. For example, in the first edition there were articles on "Peace and War"
and "Just War," but now there are several articles on this range of topics and
problems, including nuclear warfare and deterrence. And, among other topics
and problems that are featured here, the environment, world hunger, and
liberation are also central.
Preface vi
Following the general lines of John Macquarrie's conception of the dictio-
nary, but expanding it, this volume includes several subject areas: (1) Basic
ethical concepts, such as "duty," "goodness/' "rights," and "conscience,"
often analyzed by philosophers, (2) Biblical ethics, including overview articles
on Old Testament ethics and New Testament ethics, as well as articles on
major strands and concepts of biblical ethics and on the use of the Bible in
Christian ethics. (3) Theological ethics, including major ethical categories,
such as conscience, natural law, and orders; theological concepts, such as
faith, grace, and sin; and major theological ethical systems or perspectives,
such as Augustinian ethics, Thomistic ethics, and Lutheran ethics. (4) Philo-
sophical traditions in ethics, such as Aristotelian ethics, Kantian ethics, and
Utilitarianism. (5) Major non-Christian religious traditions in ethics, such as
Islamic ethics and Buddhist ethics. (6) Psychological, sociological, political,
and other concepts that are important for Christian ethics. (7) Substantial
ethical problems, such as abortion, war, and unemployment, usually including
relevant factual information along with an indication of major options in
Christian ethical debate.
The main criterion for inclusion was the importance of the topic for Chris-
tian ethical reflection, and, in general, the contributors wrote to highlight this
importance. Even when not indicated in the title or subtitle (for example,
"Stoic Ethics" or "Paul, Ethical Teaching of'), each article is intended to
examine ethical issues. For example, an article on "Liberation Theology,"
"Political Theology," or "Pragmatism" in this dictionary should be assumed
to be focused on its ethical presuppositions and implications.
The earlier book included articles on individual thinkers, such as Aristotle,
Augustine, and Calvin. These have been replaced by articles on major tradi-
tions, movements, or themes that may have been decisively formulated by an
individual thinker (for example, "Aristotelian Ethics," "Augustinian Ethics,"
and "Calvinist Ethics"). Individual thinkers are discussed in that context; in
addition, there is an index of names so that the reader can ascertain whether
a thinker's position is also discussed elsewhere.
As befits a dictionary, most entries can only provide bare essentials about
their topics. They are intended to be both concise and authoritative. Cross
referencesby asterisks after key words or by explicit reference to other
entries, either within or at the end of the discussionhave been used exten-
sively to direct the reader to other articles for further treatment of the same
or related issues. In addition, bibliographies with most major entries direct the
reader to other resources. Because of the increased number of topics and
contributors, some themes are discussed in more than one place; some overlap
was tolerated in order to gain comprehensiveness and diversity of perspective.
The dictionary is designed to indicate what is controversial as well as what
is settled in Christian ethical reflection.
When The Westminster Press persuaded me to undertake the preparation
of a new edition of the Dictionary of Christian Ethics on the basis of John
Macquarrie's earlier one, I greatly underestimated how much time and energy
it would consume and also how much I would enjoy the project, especially
because of what I have learned, despite its various tedious activities. The
vii Preface
James Luther Adams, Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Professor of Divinity Emeritus, Har-
vard Divinity School. Voluntary Associations
Joseph L. Allen, Professor of Ethics, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist
University, Dallas. Covenant; Democracy; Personal Ethics; Social Ethics
Terence R. Anderson, Professor of Social Ethics, Fa/icou ver School of Theology, Ka/i-
couver, B.C., Canada. Environmental Ethics
Dick Anthony, Private Practice in Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Berkeley, California.
Deprogramming
Sherwin Baileyt, formerly Chancellor of Wells Cathedral. Lesbianism; Sodomy
Sydney D. Bailey, Friends House, London. Collective Security; Disarmament; Inter-
nationalism; Security; World Government
Hugh Barbour, Professor of Religion, Earlham College and Earlham School of Reli-
gionRichmond, Indiana. Quaker Ethics
William Barclayf, formerly Lecturer in the University of Glasgow. Cynics, Ethics of
the; Cyrenaics, Ethics of the; Epicureanism, Ethics of; Essenes; Skeptics; Stoic
Ethics
Robert Benne, Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion, Roanoke College, Salem, Vir-
ginia. Capitalism
John C. Bennett, President Emeritus and Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics
Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary, New York. Freedom; State
William H. Boley, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia. Wesleyan
Ethics
Richard Bondi, Research Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics, Candler School of
Theology, Emory University, Atlanta. Character; Children; Family; Parenthood
Eugene B. Borowitz, Professor of Education and Jewish Religious Thought, Hebrew
Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion, New York. Jewish Ethics
Vernon J. Bourke, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, St. Louis University. Medieval
Ethics; Thomistic Ethics
Roy Branson, Senior Research Fellow, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown Uni-
versity, Washington, D.C. Refugees
Paul Brett, Director for Social Responsibility, Diocese of Chelmsford. Automation;
Computers; Robots
R. E. C. Brownef, formerly Canon of Manchester. Accidie; Hybris
Don S. Browning, Alexander Campbell Professor of Religion and Psychological Stud-
ies, The Divinity School University of Chicago. Counseling, Ethical Problems in;
Psychoanalysis; Psychology and Ethics
John Burnaby, Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge. Love
x Contributors
Lisa Sowie Cahill, Associate Professor of Theology, Boston College. Abortion; Excom-
munication; Sexual Ethics
Paul F. Camenisch, Professor of Religious Studies, DePaul University, Chicago. Grati-
tude
Alastair V. Campbell, Senior Lecturer, Department of Christian Ethics, University of
Edinburgh. Persons and Personality
James F. Childress, Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies and Professor of
Medical Education, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Adiaphora; Amnesty;
Anthropology and Ethics; Applied Ethics; Aristotelian Ethics; Autonomy; Axi-
ology; Bioethics; Blessedness/Blessed; Care; Charity; Civil Disobedience; Civil
Rights; Coercion; Compassion; Conscientious Objection; Conscription; Consent;
Consequentialism; Contracts; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Covetousness; Cruelty; Di-
lemma; Dirty Hands; Discrimination; Dissent; Divine Right of Kings; Envy; Ethi-
cist, Ethician; Exploitation; Fairness/Fair Play; Fetal Research; Formalism; Glut-
tony; Harm; Hatred; Health Care, Right to; Honor; Hypocrisy; Image of God;
I-Thou Relationship; Jealousy; Justification, Moral; Liberalism; Life, Quality of;
Lust; Magnanimity; Malice; Masturbation; Medical Ethics; Meekness; Mercy; Mili-
tarism; Moralism; Motives and Motivation; Mutual Aid; Necessity; Nonmalefi-
cence; Norms; Obligation; Order; Organ Transplantation; Pacifism; Paternalism;
Platonic Ethics; Privacy; Promise; Proportionality, Principle of; Public Policy;
Rationalization; Realism; Remorse; Repentance; Resistance; Righteousness; Risk;
Sanction; Secrecy; Secularization; Seven Deadly Sins; Shame; Sin; Situation Ethics;
Social Service of the Church; Superior Orders; Teleological Ethics; Temperance;
Theodicy; Tobacco, Use of; Trust; Tyrannicide; Vice; Wedge Argument, Slippery
Slope Argument, etc.; Whistle-blowing; Zeal
Drew Christiansen, S.J., Assistant Professor of Social Ethics, Jesuit School of Theology
at Berkeley, California. Aged, Care of the
Henry B. Clark II, Professor of Social Ethics, University of Southern California, Los
Angeles. Civilization; Community; Culture; Social Class; Society
Harvey G. Cox, Jr., Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School.
Power
Antonio S. Cua, Professor of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America, Washing-
ton, DC. Confucian Ethics; Taoist Ethics
Charles E. Curran, Professor of Moral Theology> The Catholic University of America,
Washington, DC. Counter-Reformation Moral Theology; Modern Roman Catho-
lic Moral Theology; Official Roman Catholic Social Teaching; Subsidiarity, Princi-
ple of
Thomas E. Davitt, S.J.f, formerly Professor, Marquette University, Milwaukee. Law
V. A. Demantf .formerly Professor in the University of Oxford. Good Works; Mixed
Motives
Valerie DeMarinis, Assistant Professor of Theology and Psychology, United Theological
Seminary of the Twin Cities, New Brighton, Minnesota. Procreation
Mark J. Dresden, Emeritus Professor of Iranian Languages, University of Pennsyl-
vania. Zoroastrian Ethics
G. R. Dunstan, Professor Emeritus of Moral and Social Theology, University of Lon-
don. Conventions
Arthur J. Dyck, Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics, Harvard School
xi Contributors
of Public Health, and Member, Faculty of Divinity, Harvard University. Population
Policy; Procreation
Craig Dykstra, Thomas WSynnott Professor of Christian Education, Princeton Theo-
logical Seminary. Education, Christian Moral; Moral Development
Charles Elliott, Director, Christian Aid, British Council of Churches. Economic Devel-
opment
Dorothy Emmet, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Manchester. Evolu-
tionary Ethics; Professional Ethics
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Professor, Departments of Medicine and Community
Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. Alcoholism; Circumcision; Drug
Addiction; Health and Disease, Values in Defining; Libertarianism
A. C. Ewingf, formerly of the University of Cambridge. Categorical Imperative;
Choice; Conflict of Duties; Heteronomy; Kantian Ethics; Kingdom of Ends; Natu-
ralistic Ethics; Practical Reason
Alan D. Falconer, Lecturer in Systematic Theology, Irish School of Ecumenics, Dublin.
Dehumanization; Human Dignity; Humanitarianism
Margaret A. Farley, Professor of Christian Ethics, Yale Divinity School. Feminist
Ethics
John C. Fletcher, Assistant for Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, Washington,
D.C. Genetics; Reproductive Technologies
Joseph Fletcher, Visiting Scholar, School of Medicine, University of Virginia. Hippo-
cratic Oath
Duncan Baillie Forrester, Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology, New
College, University of Edinburgh. Socialism
William K. Frankena, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan.
Morality and Religion, Relations of
E. Clinton Gardner, Professor of Christian Ethics, Emory University, Atlanta. Eschato-
logical Ethics; New Testament Ethics; Temptations of Jesus
Alan Geyer, Executive Director, Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy,
Washington, D.C. National Sovereignty; Nationalism; Patriotism
Robin Gill, Lecturer in Christian Ethics and the Sociology of Religion, University of
Edinburgh. Sociology of Ethics
Glenn C. Graber, Professor of Philosophy, University of Tennessee. Divine Command
Morality
Ronald M. Green, John Phillips Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College, Hanover,
New Hampshire. Future Generations, Obligations to
Kenneth G. Greet, Secretary of the British Methodist Conference. Temperance
Graeme M. Griffin, Professor of Church and Community, Uniting Church Theological
Hall, Melbourne, Australia. Anger; Conviction of Sin; Defense Mechanisms; Ego;
Emotion; Empathy; Enthusiasm; Guilt; Habit; Id; Inhibition; Repression; Su-
perego; Sympathy; Unconscious
Jon P. Gunnemann, Associate Professor of Social Ethics, Candler School of Theology,
Emory University, Atlanta. Business Ethics; Revolution
James M. Gustafson, University Professor of Theological Ethics, University of Chicago.
Christian Ethics
John Stapylton Habgood, Archbishop of York. Brainwashing; Indoctrination; Science
and Ethics
Contributors xii
Robert T. Handy, Henry Sloane Coffin Professor of Church History, Union Theological
Seminary, New York. New England Transcendentalism; Pragmatism; Social Gospel
Stanley S. Harakas, Professor of Orthodox Christian Ethics, Holy Cross Greek Ortho-
dox School of Theology, Brookline, Massachusetts. Eastern Orthodox Christian
Ethics
E. R. Hardyf> formerly Professor, Berkeley Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut.
Abstinence; Asceticism; Celibacy; Chastity; Fasting; Monastic Ethics; Mortifica-
tion; Poverty; Self-Denial; Virginity
Richard M. Hare, White's Professor of Moral Philosophy Emeritus, University of
Oxford. Conventional Morality; Decision; Deliberation; Descriptivism; Emotivism;
Ethics; Intention; Prescriptivism; Relativism; Right and Wrong; Subjectivism, Ethi-
cal; Universalizability of Moral Judgments; Utilitarianism
Walter Harrelson, Distinguished Professor of Old Testament, Vanderbilt University
Divinity School, Nashville. Decalogue; Mosaic Law; Prophetic Ethics; Wisdom
Literature, Ethics in
Beverly Wildung Harrison, Professor of Christian Ethics, Union Theological Seminary,
New York. Sex Discrimination; Women, Status of
Julian N. Hartt, Kenan Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus, University of Virginia.
Faith
Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics, The Divinity School, Duke Univer-
sity, Durham, North Carolina. Virtue
Roger Hazelton, Abbot Professor of Christian Theology Emeritus, Andover Newton
Theological School, Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Courage; Humanistic Ethics
Brian Hebblethwaite, Dean of Chapel, Queens' College, and University Lecturer in
Divinity, Cambridge. Dialectic; Meaning/Meaninglessness; Transcendence
Martin J. Heinecken, Professor Emeritus, Systematic Theology, The Lutheran Theo-
logical Seminary at Philadelphia. Justification by Faith; Law and Gospel; Pietism
Ian Henderson!, formerly Professor in the University of Glasgow. Innocence; Original
Sin; Self-Love; Temptation; Total Depravity
Carl F. H. Henry, Lecturer at Large, World Vision International, Monrovia, Califor-
nia. Evangelical Ethics; Fundamentalist Ethics
Seward Hiltnerf, formerly Professor of Theology and Personality, Princeton Theologi-
cal Seminary. Anxiety
Simon Holdaway, Lecturer in Sociology, The University of Sheffield. Crime; Juvenile
Delinquency
J. L. Houlden, Lecturer in New Testament Studies, King's College, London. Jesus,
Ethical Teaching of; Johannine Ethics; Kingdom of God; Neighbor; Parenesis;
Paul, Ethical Teaching of
Gerard J. Hughes, S.J., Head of Department of Philosophy, Heythrop College, Univer-
sity of London. Ignorance; Natural Law; Self-Deception; Totality, Principle of;
Weakness, Moral
T. E. Jessopf, formerly Professor in the University of Hull. Chivalry; Mean, Doctrine
of the; Nihilism; Perfectionism; Renaissance, The; Romanticism
James Turner Johnson, Professor of Religion, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New
Jersey. Crusade; Deterrence; Just War; Nuclear Warfare; Peace; Puritan Ethics;
War
Penelope Johnstone, Oriental Institute, Oxford. Islamic Ethics
xiii Contributors
Albert R. Jonsen, Professor of Ethics in Medicine, School of Medicine, University of
California, Sa/i Francisco. Casuistry; Epikeia; Experimentation with Human Sub-
jects; Responsibility
Charles W. Kegley, Outstanding Professor of Philosophy, California State University,
Bakersfield. Meliorism; Optimism; Pessimism; Progress, Belief in
Walter Klaassen, Professor of History, Conrad Grebel College, University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Anabaptist Ethics; Mennonite Ethics
S. J. Knox, Minister of Old Church, Port Seton, East Lothian. Nonconformist Con-
science
James Kuhn, Courtney Brown Professor of Corporate Relations and Labor, Columbia
University, New York. Industrial Relations
John P. Langan, S.J., Senior Fellow, Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown Uni-
versity, Washington, D.C. Cardinal Virtues; Common Good; Metaethics; Prudence
James N. Lapsley, Jr., Carl and Helen Egner Professor of Pastoral Theology, Princeton
Theological Seminary. Environment and Heredity; Instincts or Drives; Scrupulosity
William H. Lazareth, Pastor, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, New York. Lutheran
Ethics; Orders; Two Realms
Robert Lee, President, Enfield Resources, Inc., Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Anomie
Paul Lehmann, Charles A. Briggs Professor of Systematic Theology Emeritus, Union
Theological Seminary, New York. Forgiveness
Andrew Linzey, Anglican Chaplain to the University of Essex. Animals
David Little, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia. Comparative Reli-
gious Ethics; Human Rights; Natural Rights
Paul A. Lombardo, Attorney-at-law, Sacramento, California. Eugenics
Edward LeRoy Long, Jr., James W. Pearsall Professor of Christian Ethics and Theol-
ogy of Culture, The Theological School, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.
Modern Protestant Ethics; Technology
Robin W. Lovin, Associate Professor of Ethics and Society, The Divinity School, Univer-
sity of Chicago. Anarchism; Ethos; Genocide
Harvey K. McArthur, Professor Emeritus, Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut.
Golden Rule; Household Codes; Mammon
Dennis P. McCann, Associate Professor Religious Studies, DePaul University, Chicago.
Conscientization; Liberation Theology; Utopian Thought
McCormick, Richard A., S.J., Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics, Kennedy
Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Double Effect, Princi-
ple of; Finality; Magisterium
William McKane, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages, University of St.
Andrews. Babylonian Ethics; Egyptian Ethics, Ancient
Henry McKeating, Senior Lecturer in Theology, University of Nottingham. Old Testa-
ment Ethics
Donald MacKenzie MacKinnon, Norris-Hulse Professor Emeritus of Divinity, Univer-
sity of Cambridge. Happiness; Intuition; Pleasure; Socratic Ethics; Sophists
John Macquarrie, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church,
University of Oxford. Abandonment; Abjuration; Absolution; Accidents; Act, Ac-
tion, Agent; Addiction; Adoption; Affinity; Affirmation; Alienation; Altruism;
Amusements; Anarchy; Antinomianism; Appetites; Aristocracy; Aspiration;
Authenticity; Authority; Beneficence; Benevolence; Boycott; Canon Law;
Contributors xiv
Censure; Compensationism; Confession; Conservatism; Contemplation; Contrition;
Counsels; Deontology; Destiny; Discipline; Dispensation; Egoism; Endogamy; Er-
astianism; Eudaemonism; Excellence; Exogamy; Exposition; Fornication; Free Will
and Determinism; Hedonism; Interim Ethic; Koinonia; Laicity; Legalism; Mani-
chean Ethics; Merit; Monogamy; Moral Argument; Otherworldliness; Penance;
Polygamy; Quietism; Restitution; Ritschlian Ethics; Scandal; Self-Examination;
Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit; Simony; Social Contract; Suffering; Sumptuary
Laws; Supererogation, Works of; Synderesis; Synergism; Theocracy; Theological
Virtues; Will
Daniel C Maguire, Professor of Moral Theology, Marquette University, Milwaukee.
Cooperation with Evil; Omission, Sin of
John Mahoney, S.J., Lecturer in Moral and Pastoral Theology, Heythrop College,
University of London. Ascetical Theology; Blasphemy; Holiness; Reverence; Sacri-
lege
William F. May, Carey M. Maguire University Professor in Ethics, Southern Methodist
University, Dallas. Philanthropy
David L. Mealand, Lecturer in New Testament, University of Edinburgh. Poverty;
Wealth
Stewart Mechie, formerly Lecturer in the University of Glasgow. Industrial Revolution
Kenneth N. Medhurst, Professor of Political Studies, University of Stirling. Dictator-
ship; Political Parties
Gilbert Meilaender, Associate Professor of Religion, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
Friendship
Carl Michalsonf, formerly of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. Existentialist
Ethics; Secularism
Basil Mitchell, Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion Emeritus,
University of Oxford. Morality, Legal Enforcement of
Elizabeth R. Moberly, Psychologist, Theologian, and Criminologist, Clare College,
Cambridge. Concupiscence; Incest; Pederasty; Penology; Rape; Retribution;
Transsexualism
R. C. Mortimerf, formerly Bishop of Exeter. Formalism; Ignorance; Moral Theology;
Oaths; Vows
Walter G. Muelder, Dean Emeritus and Lecturer in Social Ethics, Boston University
School of Theology. Personalism
Philip A. Muntzel, Associate Professor of Theology, King's College, Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania. Hope
James B. Nelson, Professor of Christian Ethics, United Theological Seminary of the
Twin Cities, New Brighton, Minnesota. Homosexuality; Prostitution
Robert C. Neville, Professor of Religious Studies and Philosophy, State University of
New York at Stony Brook. Behavior Control
John T. Noonan, Jr., Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley. Bribery;
Contraception
Richard A. Norris, Jr., Professor of Church History, Union Theological Seminary, New
York. Neoplatonism; Patristic Ethics
Oliver O'Donovan, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of
Oxford. Augustinian Ethics; Reconciliation
xv Contributors
Thomas W. Ogletree, Dean, The Theological School Drew University, Madison, New
Jersey. Interpretation
Helen Oppenheimer, Member of the Inter-Anglican Doctrinal and Theological Com-
mission. Desire; Divorce; Humility; Marriage; Obedience; Pride; Saintliness; Sanc-
tification; Sloth
Gene Outka, Dwight Professor of Philosophy and Christian Ethics, Yale University.
Kierkegaardian Ethics; Love; Respect for Persons; Self-Realization
Huw Parri Owen, Emeritus Professor of Christian Doctrine, King's College, London.
Evil; Goodness
Barrie Paskins, Lecturer in War Studies, King's College, London. Imperialism; Inter-
national Order; Terrorism; Torture
Terry Pinkard, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Hegelian Ethics
Raymond Plant, Professor of Politics, University of Southampton. Ideology; Pluralism;
Politics
Ronald H. Preston, Emeritus Professor of Social and Pastoral Theology, University of
Manchester. Capital Punishment; Collective Bargaining; Compromise; Conscience;
Corporal Punishment; Equality; False Witness; Honesty; Labor Movements; Lying;
Middle Axioms; Slander; Strikes; Trade Unions and Professional Associations;
Truthfulness; Unemployment; Vocation; Wages and Salaries; Welfare State; Work,
Doctrine of
Warren T. Reich, Professor of Bioethics and Director, Division of Health and Humani-
ties, School of Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Handicapped,
Care of the; Life, Prolongation of
Thomas L. Robbins, Associate Editor, Sociological Analysis. Deprogramming
Brian Rodgers, formerly Senior Lecturer in the University of Manchester. Almsgiving;
Orphans; Widows
Edward Rogers, formerly of the Department of Christian Citizenship, The Methodist
Church in Great Britain. Gambling
Cicely Saunders, Medical Director, St. Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham, London.
Hospice.
Roger L. Shinn, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theolog-
ical Seminary, New York. Anti-Semitism; Apartheid; Collectivism; Individualism;
Segregation; Slavery
Donald W. Shriver, Jr., President of Faculty and William E. Dodge Professor of
Applied Christianity, Union Theological Seminary, New York. Hunger, World
Roger C. Sider, Associate Professor and Associate Chairman, Department of Psychia-
try, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Involuntary Hospital-
ization; Mental Health; Mental Illness
Ulrich Simon, Lecturer in the University of London. Heaven; Hell; Rewards and
Punishments
John Frederick Sleeman, Senior Research Fellow in Political Economy, University of
Glasgow. Advertising; Just Price and Just Wage; Laissez-faire; Usury and Interest
William A. Smalley, Professor of Linguistics, Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Custom; Primitive Ethics; Taboo
Ninian Smart, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Lancaster, and University
Contributors xvi
of California, Santa Barbara. Buddhist Ethics; Fate and Fatalism; Hindu Ethics;
Relativism in Ethics
David H. Smith, Professor of Religious Studies and Director, The Poynter Center,
Indiana University. Fidelity; Hospitality; Loyalty; Sick, Care of the
John E. Smith, Clark Professor of Philosophy, Yale University. Absolutes, Ethical;
Autonomy of Ethics; Duty; Rights; Values and Value Judgment
Ronald Gregor Smithf, formerly Professor in the University of Glasgow. Enlighten-
ment; Worldliness
A. Brendan Soane, Lecturer in Moral Theology, Allen Hall London. Insurance;
Property; Theft
William C. Spohn, S.J., Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics, Jesuit School of
Theology at Berkeley, California. Discernment
Max L. Stackhouse, Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Andover Newton Theological
School Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Aggression; Church; Cursing/Swearing;
Ecclesiology and Ethics; Institution/Institutionalization; Sect; Urbanization
The Rt. Hon. David Steel, M.P., Leader of the Liberal Party, London. Liberalism
Jeffrey Stout, Associate Professor of Religion, Princeton University. Behaviorism; Ideal-
ist Ethics; Positivism; Tradition in Ethics
Douglas Sturm, Prof essor of Religion and Political Science, Bucknell University, Lewis-
burg, Pennsylvania. Political Theology
John Tinsley, formerly Bishop of Bristol. Imitation of Christ; Media, Ethical Issues
in; Mysticism and Ethics; Propaganda; Public Opinion
Steven M. Tipton, Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion, Candler School of
Theology, Emory University, Atlanta. Cults
James B. Tubbs, Jr., Adjunct Instructor in Philosophy, Virginia Commonwealth Uni-
versity. Aristotelian Ethics; Energy; Platonic Ethics
Robert M. Veatch, Professor of Medical Ethics, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, George-
town University, Washington, D.C. Codes of Ethics; Death, Determination of
Allen Verhey, Associate Professor of Religion, Hope College, Holland, Michigan. Bible
in Christian Ethics
Dan O. Via, Professor of New Testament, The Divinity School Duke University,
Durham, North Carolina. Sermon on the Mount
Alec R. Vidier, Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. Church and State
Herbert Waddamsf, formerly Canon of Canterbury. Adultery; Bigamy; Concubinage;
Illegitimacy; Nullity
LeRoy Walters, Director, Center for Bioethics, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown
University, Washington, D.C. Confidentiality; Sterilization
Theodore R. Weber, Professor of Social Ethics, Candler School of Theology, Emory
University, Atlanta. Collective Responsibility
William Werpehowski, Assistant Professor of Christian Living, Villanova University,
Villanova, Pennsylvania. Justice
Charles C. West, Stephen Colwell Professor of Christian Ethics, Princeton Theological
Seminary. Communism, Ethics of; Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the; Marxist
Ethics
Alan R. White, Ferens Professor of Philosophy, University of Hull. Negligence
James Aitken Whyte, Professor of Practical Theology and Christian Ethics, University
xvii Contributors
of Saint Andrews. Calvinist Ethics; Censorship; Continence; Ends and Means;
Sabbatarianism; Sunday Observance; Voluntarism
Daniel Day Williamsf, formerly Professor, Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Grace
Preston N. Williams, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change, The
Divinity School, Harvard University. Afro-American Religious Ethics; Colonialism;
Prejudice; Race Relations; Racism
Gerald R. Winslow, Professor of Religion, Walla Walla College, College Place, Wash-
ington. Triage; Vegetarianism
Gibson Winter, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Christianity and Society, Princeton
Theological Seminary. Oppression; Phenomenology
Frederik Wisse, Associate Professor of New Testament, McGill University, Montreal
Gnosticism, Ethics of
J. Philip Wogaman, Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Wesley Theological Seminary
f
ANET J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament,
1955
2
mous may differ from respect for persons "Freedom, Autonomy, and the Concept of a
who are not autonomous. When people and/ Person," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Soci-
or their actions are nonautonomous, our du- ety 76, 1976; R. S. Downie and E. Telfer,
ties of beneficence* and nonmaleficence* "Autonomy," Philosophy 46, 1971; G.
may permit and even require some interven- Dworkin, "Autonomy and Behavior Con-
tions that would otherwise be unjustified trol," HCR 6, Feb. 1976.
without violating the principle of respect for JAMES F. CHILDRESS
persons. Thus, Kant excluded children and
the insane from his discussion of the principle Autonomy of Ethics
of respect for persons, and John Stuart Mill Autonomy* means the power of self-determi-
applied his discussion of liberty only to per- nation and freedom from alien domination
sons in "the maturity of their faculties." and constraint. Autonomy stands opposed to
An adequate conception of personal auton- heteronomy or subjection to the determina-
omy within a Christian framework will nec- tion of another. A distinction may be drawn
essarily emphasize that autonomy is severely between the autonomy of ethics and auton-
limited because human beings are dependent omy in ethics. With regard to the latter the
creatures who are both finite and sinful, who focus is upon the individual self and its ca-
are not merely or even primarily rational, pacity for self-determination; autonomy in
who are determined as well as determining, ethics means freedom and the power to bind
who are essentially temporal and social, who the self by a law which the self promulgates.
have many obligations that are not self- By the autonomy of ethics is meant the doc-
imposed, whose tendencies to egoism* stand trine that the moral dimension of human life
under criticism from the NT norm of love*, has a form and structure of its own that is
etc. The claim of autonomy as independence independent of religion, of custom and con-
is often sinful self-assertion in denial of one's vention, and indeed of any other sphere of life
dependence. Yet creation in God's image and or form of authority. The autonomy of ethics
likeness (see Image of God) may undergird a has frequently meant the separation of ethics
limited conception of autonomy, and the from religion, but there are other factors
principle of autonomy remains important for mores and customs, psychological and cul-
Christians, as well as for others, in constrain- tural determinismfrom which ethics is also
ing what may be done to others in order to to be free if it is to retain its autonomy.
protect or benefit them if they are substan- The problem of the autonomy of ethics was
tially autonomous and not harming others. focused for modern thought by the moral
Furthermore, views about autonomy and philosophy of Immanuel Kant, in which au-
heteronomy will certainly have a major im- tonomy figured as the central principle (see
pact on Christian moral education*. Kantian Ethics). Kant was attempting to
To many it seems difficult, if not impossi- root morality in practical reason independent
ble, to combine autonomy with a divine com- of external influences and constraints. The
mand* morality, since such a morality ap- problem underlying Kant's attempt is much
pears to be heteronomous (see Autonomy of older than his treatment of the issues in-
Ethics). Within a broad ontological frame- volved. Plato raised the question in a dra-
work, Paul Tillich contended that some prin- matic way in the dialogue Euthyphro where
ciples, such as love, are binding on the self, Socrates discussed the question, "Is the holy
not because they are self-created or imposed [good] act holy because the gods love it? or
from the outside, but because the self is do the gods love the holy [good] act because
Axiology 54
it is holy?" The alternatives are clear: in the See Agathology; Values and Value Judg-
first instance, the holy is being defined by the ment.
judgment of the gods and the ethical is made
subject to the religious, whereas in the second J. M. Findlay, Axiological Ethics, 1970.
case the standard of the holy exists beyond JAMES F. CHILDRESS
the gods and must be recognized by them no
less than by mortals. The second alternative Axioms see Middle Axioms; Norms
marks the autonomy of ethics because the
standard of the good is independent of all Babylonian Ethics
other factors in existence and requires only to The law codes (ESnunna, Lipit-IStar, and
be grasped by the knowing mind. Hammurabi) might appear from their con-
In recent decades the autonomy of ethics tents to deal with social contract rather than
has been a central issue both in religious and morality. (If people are to live in society, to
in ethical thought. Those who are skeptical marry, to inherit and bequeath, to practice
about the validity of religion in an age of agriculture and engage in trade, and gener-
science argue for the complete independence ally to live a life that creates all kinds of
of ethics from religion in the belief that the relationships with others, rules have to be
good is not dependent on God, and that val- laid down and punishments prescribed in
ues can be preserved even if a religious inter- order to bring continuity and stability into
pretation of morality is no longer tenable. On this interaction.) But there is a genuine hu-
the other side, the proponents of the religious manitarian element in these laws and this
view claim that ethics can never be entirely humanitarianism, which is already attested
independent of religion because religion sup- in the inscriptions of the Sumerian social re-
plies the insights from which moral ideals are former Urukagina of Lagas, is probably the
framed, and without the grace of God the earliest expression of ethical concern in Bab-
moral self has insufficient power to perform ylonian society. Hammurabi's intention is
its duty. "that the strong may not oppress the weak
See Morality and Religion, Relations of. [and] so to give justice to the orphan [and]
the widow" (Driver and Miles, vol. 2, p. 97).
H. D. Lewis, Morals and the New Theology, Moreover, in the prologue and epilogue
1947; W. G. Maclagan, The Theological Hammurabi relates his laws to a concept of
Frontier of Ethics, 1959; G. Outka and J. P. moral order of which he is the executor, and
Reeder, Jr. (eds.), Religion and Morality, the gods, particularly Marduk and SamaS,
1973; P. L. Quinn, Divine Commands and the guarantors and upholders (Driver and
Moral Requirements, 1978; P. Tillich, Love, Miles, vol. 2, pp. 13, 99, 103).
Power and Justice, 1960. There are good reasons why the idea of
JOHN E. SMITH theodicy* did not come easily to the Bab-
ylonians and why the alliance of religious
Avarice belief and morality (notwithstanding Ham-
see Covetousness; Mammon; Property; murabi's bold statement) was tentative and
Wealth uncertain. The old myths contain no basis for
this marriage of religion and ethics, for the
Axiology gods do not themselves have the moral stabil-
Axiology denotes a value theory that typi- ity to guarantee a moral order. They tend to
cally indicates the nature, kinds, criteria, and reproduce all the human foibles on a larger
status of values and value judgments and at- scale and they differ from human beings prin-
tempts to resolve such disputes as whether cipally with respect to superior power and
values are subjective or objective. Although freedom from death. It required the spur of
moral value is important, axiology also in- adversity in the Cassite period (1500-1200
cludes other values such as religious and aes- B.c.) to urge the necessity of a more intrinsic
thetic ones. "Axiological ethics" determines connection between religion and ethics, and
right and wrong actions by reference to their even then this new ethical sensitivity hinged
values and disvalues, usually of their ends, on the belief that there is a direct relationship
consequences, or motives. Thus, it is very between sin and suffering.
close to and often identical to teleological What has been said above indicates that
ethics*. the element of self-interest was strong in Bab-
55 Behavior Control
ylonian ethics. The belief in a moral order of the gods, but the conclusion which they
was not held rigorously and the function of reach, and which apparently satisfies the
the personal god on whom the individual apologist no less than the rebel, is that hu-
Babylonian set such store was to secure for its mans are bom liars and oppressors and that
patron preferential treatment with the great this is how the gods made them. In other
gods and to protect from evil demonsa re- words, humans are incapable of morality.
minder of the tenacious power of magic over
the Babylonian mind. Nor was there any G. R. Driver and J. C. Miles, The Babylonian
sense of moral obligation, of morality as a Laws, 2 vols., 1952-55; W. G. Lambert, Bab-
thing to be pursued for its own sake. It was ylonian Wisdom Literature, 1960.
understood that gods made certain moral de- WILLIAM MCKANE
mands and human beings had better keep
them if they wished to avoid disease and mis- Baptism see Anabaptist Ethics; Church;
fortune and to enjoy a long and prosperous Ecclesiology and Ethics; Patristic Ethics
life. This outlook is reflected in those wisdom
precepts (Lambert, pp. 96f.) which offer Beatitude see Blessedness; Happiness;
practical guidance on correct behavior. Some Sermon on the Mount
of these are pragmatic, others inculcate the
observance of religious duties, but all of them Behavior Control
subserve a frank eudaemonism* that is un- Behavior control is getting people to do, be-
diluted by any belief in life after death, for the lieve, or feel something they otherwise would
message of the Gilgamesh epic is that immor- not, by means of some direct or indirect inter-
tality belongs to the gods and humans cannot vention. Several questions need to be an-
grasp it. swered to understand a case of behavior con-
Two compositions, "The Babylonian trol. Whose behavior is controlled? What
Theodicy" (Lambert, pp. 63f.) and "I Will behavior is affected? Is the control of behav-
Praise the Lord of Wisdom" (Lambert, pp. ior in someone's interestfor instance, the
2If.), throw doubt in different ways on the controller's or the controllee's? Is the control
existence of a moral order and even the possi- intentional on the part of the controller?
bility of intuiting ethical values. The latter Does the controllee know about it or consent
describes the perplexity of a pietist, a devotee to it? What is the nature of the intervention?
of Marduk, who cannot reconcile his sense of How well does it work, if at all? Can the
blamelessness with his experience of suffering effects of behavior control be measured
and whose belief in a theodicy is subjected to clearly? Under what conditions is the inter-
strain, for the "ama Hymn" (Lambert, pp. vention desirable, and under what conditions
12If.) teaches that the righteous are re- undesirable? Who decides whether the inter-
warded and the wicked punished now. The vention is legitimate in a particular case or
interest of this work lies not in the pious class of cases, and can this decision be ap-
conclusion that the sufferings of the righteous pealed? What are the social costs and benefits
are temporary and that all will come right in of the existence or availability of a particular
the end (in a this-worldly sense), but in the kind of intervention? What does the possible
suggestion which is thrown up that human use of the intervention reveal about human
beings may have no intuitive sense of sin and life?
may have no access to those moral values Interventions. Although some modes of be-
that regulate the actions of the gods. "Good" havior control (e.g., the use of violence and
and "bad," "right" and "wrong" may mean intimidation) have been understood since
the opposite for gods and humans and so the prehistoric times, others are interesting be-
behavior of the gods cannot be accounted cause of their novelty in the scientific age.
for nor their theodicy challenged. The Three classes of intervention deserve men-
"Theodicy," which is in dialogue form, is a tion.
robust social protest directed toward the ac- New technologies of direct intervention in
tual conditions of oppression and moral individuals include neurosurgery to alter be-
chaos in human society and their incompati- havior (psychosurgery), psychoactive drugs,
bility with the postulates of a theodicy. Here behavior modification techniques, and many
too the orthodox friend counters the rebel by forms of psychotherapy. There is currently
drawing on teaching about the inscrutability an explosion of new theories and research
56 Behavior Control
findings in neuroscience, psychology, psychi- people in fact know what they are doing? Are
atry, and cognitive science on the topic of there no adverse side effects to the interven-
how the human behavioral and mental orga- tion? Are the individuals' interests truly
nism works. For the most part, direct inter- served? Is the intervention effective? If the
ventions are developed for medical or psy- answer to all these questions is yes, we gener-
chotherapeutic purposes. ally approve the behavior control.
Indirect intervention through the control A variation on self-control is the case
of the total environment is not a new techno- where, as in medicine, a person employs an-
logical artifact but, rather, the result of a new other person, an expert, to intervene. In-
understanding of the effects of the environ- formed consent* is supposed to guarantee
ment that enables control of individuals to be that the expert behavior control agent acts
achieved by its shaping. Total institutions according to the will of the patient. A further
such as managed prisons, boarding schools, variation is the case where the patient's own
cults, and closed military situations are obvi- understanding or will is incapacitated, as in
ous examples. Increasingly, however, popu- severe mental illness, and a proxy must be
lar knowledge of how total institutions work established to maintain the moral propriety
makes it possible to achieve or seek to achieve of the patient's self-control. Should the proxy
"total" effects from less total institutions will for the patient's good or according to
such as classrooms, families, and work envi- what the patient would have willed if able?
ronments. The social-control model is found when
Intervention in media of learning, ex- some individuals intervene in other individu-
pression, and action controllably affects the als' behavior for the alleged good of some
behavior of those who use the media. Censor- larger context. This is a frankly political
ship* of books, ratings of films, the very model, recognizing that many more people
availability of television, video games, and may be affected by a given behavior than the
other electronic media, with the obverse dis- person alone; education and the law are
placement of media such as conversational deeply involved in controlling behavior on
speaking and the literary, constitutes a new this model. And it might be wise to apply the
situation with regard to the control of behav- model to cases of mental illness* where the
ior. good of others needs to be taken into account
Examples of alterations in media illustrate and where the continuity of self-control
the point that behavior control need not be through informed consent and proxies is mis-
intentional. The controllers need not know leading or fictitious. Moral management on
what they are doing, or that they are doing the social-control model includes the politi-
anything in the area of behavior control. Be- cal process for setting goals and limits of con-
havior control is frequently a side effect of trol, licensing of controllers, and due process
interventions intended for other purposes. appeals from unwanted control.
An essential task of the social critic is to Christian values. Initially, the value of free-
establish just what does take place regarding dom* is the one apparently most affected by
the alteration of behavior, to ask whether it new methods of behavior control. Except in
is worthwhile, and to determine who is re- cases of blatant dominance, however, the
sponsible. issue is always more complicated because
Models of analysis. There are at least two many interventions, e.g., those that wake
models of analysis for framing the more im- people up or cure their mental illness, en-
portant questions about technological behav- hance rather than threaten freedom. The
ior control: the self-control model and the value of stewardship* is more subtly involved
social-control model. (This assumes that with behavior control because it legitimates
there is no moral plausibility in the control of intervention. Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor
one person by another for the exclusive inter- directly pits stewardship against freedom, ad-
est of the controller.) vocating the management of society as a total
The self-control model is found when in- institution. At its best, stewardship reinforces
dividuals intervene in their own behavior, charity*. But behavior control technologies
usually self-consciously and intending to provide powerful instruments for doing good
serve their own alleged interests, e.g., drink- to people whether they want it or not and
ing coffee to wake up or taking relaxants to whether or not the controllers are properly
go to sleep. Relevant questions are: Do the warranted. Also, the goals of stewardship are
57 Bible in Christian Ethics
notoriously difficult to determine in some fluenced especially by the arguments of W. V.
cases. The Christian value of being responsi- Quine (b. 1908), have tried to recast the case
ble is perhaps the one most amenable to ser- against Cartesianism without claiming to es-
vice by many of the new behavior controls. tablish conceptual connections. Cartesianism
The legitimacy and limits of self-control and and behaviorism are now often described as
social control in some cases can be ar- extreme positions that do not exhaust the
ticulated by a determination of whether the alternatives.
intervention leads to greater responsibility in
the person being controlled and in relevant G. Ryle, The Concept of Mind, 1949; J. B.
others. But greater responsibility is not the Watson, Behaviorism, 1924.
only justification for behavior control. Psalm JEFFREY STOUT
104:15 praises God for wine, which merely
gladdens the heart. Beneficence
See also Autonomy; Free Will and Deter- Beneficence is active well-doing. Christian
minism; Morality, Legal Enforcement of; ethics recognizes a duty to do good to the
Paternalism; Persons and Personality; Re- neighbor and even to the enemy, but almost
sponsibility. all ethical theories, religious or secular, teach
a duty of beneficence.
J. Feinberg and R. Neville, "Behavior Con- See Altruism; Love.
trol," EB I, 1978; W. Gaylin et al., Operating JOHN MACQUARRIE
on the Mind, 1975; E. Goffman, Asylums,
1961; G. Klerman et al., "Controlling Behav- Benevolence
ior Through Drugs," Hastings Center Studies Benevolence is an attitude of goodwill, and
2, no. 1, Jan. 1974; P. London, Behavior Con- may be considered as the subjective disposi-
trol, 1969; R. Macklin and W. Gaylin, Men- tion corresponding to the activity of benefi-
tal Retardation and Sterilization: A Problem cence*.
of Competency and Paternalism, 1981. JOHN MACQUARRIE
ROBERT C. NEVILLE
Bible in Christian Ethics
Behaviorism An early Paulinist confidently declared that
Behaviorism is the doctrine that utterances scripture is "profitable for teaching, for re-
about psychological or mental states are ulti- proof, for correction, and for training in righ-
mately reducible to, or should be replaced by, teousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). Since that time the
expressions about an organism's dispositions same declaration has echoed down the centu-
to behave in certain ways. The acknowledged ries and across the divisions of the Christian
father of this doctrine is the American psy- churchand with reference to the NT as
chologist J. B. Watson (1878-1958), its most well as the Hebrew scriptures. Christian
famous recent defender being B. F. Skinner churches have always considered it a part of
(b. 1904). The classic statement of philosoph- their calling to teach, reprove, correct, and
ical behaviorism is Gilbert Ryle's The Con- train in righteousness, and they have always
cept of Mind (1949), which is directed against considered the Bible "profitable" for that
the Cartesian view that "inner states" are task. With virtually one voice the churches
immediately known, essentially private, and have declared that the Bible is an authority
capable of causing dispositions to behave for moral discernment and judgment. And
without being dispositions themselves. Christian ethicistsat least those who con-
Against this view, Ryle aimed to establish a sider their work part of the common life of
conceptual connection between reports of the Christian communityhave shared this
inner states and behavioral dispositions, affirmation.
thereby vindicating the doctrine of behavior- That single voice, however, becomes many
ism. Ryle's opposition to the Cartesian view voices when scripture is used as an author-
of "inner states" has been widely influential. ity*. To affirm the authority of scripture is to
Philosophers have grown increasingly doubt- invoke the use of the Bible in moral discern-
ful, however, that talk about "inner states" ment and judgment, but it is not to prescribe
can be reduced to talk about dispositionsa how the Bible is to be used. The use of scrip-
claim that many now take to be an overreac- ture or the authorizations for moving in argu-
tion to Cartesianism. Some philosophers, in- ment from the Bible to contemporary moral
58 Bible in Christian Ethics
claims depend not just on scripture's author- identify the word of God within scripture
ity, but on judgments (sometimes left im- (e.g., the social idealism of Jesus or the law
plicit) about its nature and message, the ques- of love) and to articulate it in a contemporary
tions appropriate to it, and the relevance of way. The task of identifying the word of God,
other sources of moral wisdom. moreover, is undertaken by attending care-
What are these writings? One important fully to contemporary needs and problems, to
debate relevant to the use of scripture in the Spirit of God in the age, not particularly
Christian ethics concerns its nature. The to the human words of scripture.
Bible did not fall directly from heaven; all A Chalcedonian perspective will be appre-
Christians acknowledge and affirm that the ciative of fundamentalism's concern to bind
Bible is human words. But these human the church to the Bible, and will be apprecia-
words have been heard in the churches and tive of liberalism's concern to address con-
are acclaimed in the churches as the word of temporary issues and problems. But it will
God. The Bible is both human words and the disown fundamentalism's identification of
word of God. the human words of scripture with the divine
The conjunction of the divine and the word, and also liberalism's contrast of the
humanwhether in Jesus of Nazareth or the human words with the Word of God. It will
sacraments or scriptureeludes precision. disown not only these judgments about scrip-
At the Council of Chalcedon (451) the ture but also the authorizations for the use of
church was content to make a series of limit- scripture that rest on them. It will own the
ing statements concerning the way divine and "important two-part consensus," identified
human were joined in Christ: The divine and by Birch and Rasmussen (pp. 45-46) that
the human must not be confused, transmuted "Christian ethics is not synonymous with
the one into the other, divided into separate biblical ethics" and that "for Christian ethics
categories, or contrasted according to area or the Bible is somehow normative." A Chal-
function. cedonian perspective does not entail any par-
This Chalcedonian perspective can also be ticular recommendation for the use of scrip-
applied to scripture and distinguished from ture, but it does rule out some uses, and it
the perspective of fundamentalism*, which invites further reflection concerning the other
identifies and confuses the human words of methodologically significant questions.
scripture with the divine word, transmuting What questions are appropriate to the
the one into the other; and from the perspec- Bible? The use of the Bible in Christian ethics
tive of liberalism, which divides the two and depends in part on judgments about the ques-
contrasts the human words with the divine tions appropriate to it. Two issues may be
word. distinguished here: the type of question
Fundamentalism's identification of the judged appropriate, and the level of moral
human words of scripture with the word of inquiry at which scripture is thought to speak
God has justified an identification of biblical with authority.
ethics with Christian ethics. A rule or com- With respect to the type of question judged
mand or any moral teaching found in scrip- appropriate, some enduring disputes in
ture may be presumed to be normative for the Christian ethics are reflected. Some see moral
church today. The presumption typically agency as responsibility to God, and scrip-
may be overridden if the rule or command ture as addressing questions of God's charac-
was intended as a temporary obligation ter and work. On this model, theological
rather than a perpetual obligation. The tasks questions rather than moral questions are
of Christian ethics are to harmonize, system- judged appropriate; indeed, scripture's rules
atize, and apply the biblical ethic. or moral principles may be judged to be
Liberalism's contrast of the human words quaint. Others, however, insist that explicitly
of scripture with the divine word has some- moral questions are appropriate, that our re-
times justified the "liberation" of Christian sponsibility to God is shaped and judged by
ethics from the human words of scripture. scripture's moral teachings. The type of
When scripture is used, the authorization is moral question judged appropriate to scrip-
that some of its moral teaching expresses the ture still reflects judgments about moral
word of God as that has been independently agency: deontologists are likely to ask ques-
identified. The tasks of Christian ethics are to tions of duty or the right; teleologists are
59 Bible in Christian Ethics
likely to ask questions of proper ends or the double love commandment, which he iden-
good; and virtue theorists are likely to ask tified as the message of scripture.
questions of character (see Deontology; Many Christian ethicists have claimed that
Teleological Ethics; Virtue). Jesus Christ is the center of the biblical mes-
Another enduring dispute in Christian eth- sage in its entirety and the key to scripture.
ics is reflected in whether questions concern- Then, of course, Christological "judgments"
ing political or social ethics*, as well as ques- become relevant to the use of the Bible in
tions of personal ethics*, are judged appro- ethics. If Jesus is understood as one who
priate to scripture. comes announcing the kingdom of God* as
There is a growing consensus that it is an ideal social order, then the use of scripture
inappropriate to expect scripture to address in moral argument will be authorized if and
the sort of moral question that seems some- only if it is consistent with the social ideals of
times to monopolize ethical reflection in plu- the kingdom (e.g., Walter Rauschenbusch).
ralistic societies, the question of an impartial If Jesus is seen as teaching and embodying "a
and "autonomous" morality, a morality that social style characterized by the creation of a
obliges a person whatever (and in spite of, if new community and the rejection of vio-
need be) his or her moral commitments and lence" (J. H. Yoder, The Politics of Jesus, p.
communities. It is precisely the sort of ques- 250), then the understanding and use of
tions from which an autonomous morality scripture must cohere with that vision. If
based on "impartial" reason prescinds that Jesus is seen as the "transhistorical Christ" in
are particularly appropriate to scripture. The whom Christians mysteriously participate,
Bible claims our loyalty for God, gives us a then even the use of Jesus' teachings will be
community and a history, and requires integ- limited and licensed by what can be ap-
rity with that identity in our dispositions and prehended of the mystery.
intentions. Some Christian ethicists prefer a more
With respect to the level of moral dis- Trinitarian rendering of the message of scrip-
course, all agree that the question "Why be ture: What we understand when we under-
moral?" is appropriate to scripture. Many in- stand scripture may be summarized in terms
sist that scripture also speaks with authority of creation, fall, redemption, and the future
at the "ethical principle" level, where the age. Both H. R. Niebuhr and Richard Mouw
question is, "What general principles are nor- provide such a summary and use it to license
mative?" And some even claim that scripture and limit their use of scripture; they differ
speaks with authority at the "moral rule" about the type and level of question appropri-
level, where the question is the concrete one ate to scripture, however, because they hold
of conduct, "What ought I to do?" To ask different views of scripture and of moral
this last question, however, comes perilously agency.
close to confusing the human words of scrip- Currently a number of Christian ethicists,
ture with the Word of God and to treating notably Third World theologians (e.g., Gus-
scripture as what it is not and did not intend tavo Gutirrez, Rubem Alves), black theolo-
to be, an eternal code. The scripture will and gians (e.g., James Cone), and feminist theolo-
must continue to bear on the concrete deci- gians (e.g., Elisabeth Schssler Fiorenza),
sions of Christiansnot directly but, rather, understand "liberation" or deliverance from
in ways mediated by its response to inquiries oppression to be the message of scripture.
concerning our moral identity, our funda- What one understands when one under-
mental loyalty and perspective, and the dis- stands scripture is a history of liberation, ori-
positions and intentions which inhere in that ented toward the future, in which a contem-
identity. porary praxis of liberation can and must
What is the message of the Bible? The ques- participate. The use of scripture in contem-
tion of what one understands when one un- porary morality is authorized if and only if
derstands scripture is not a new one, nor is the claims are consistent with the central
the relevance of such judgments to the use of theme of liberation. Critics of liberation the-
scripture in Christian ethics a recent discov- ology (e.g., J. H. Yoder) have sometimes
ery. Augustine candidly insisted that any asked whether liberation does not need to be
movement from scripture to moral claims is balanced or subordinated to other themes
licensed if and only if it is consistent with the whether, in effect, liberation really is the mes-
60 Bible in Christian Ethics
sage of scripture, and whether the under- candidly that scripture "must not be allowed
standing of "liberation" is controlled by the to stand in the way of what is humane and
Bible or other sources (see Afro-American right" (Ethics in the New Testament, p. 130).
Religious Ethics; Feminist Ethics; Libera- Many liberation theologians charge that the
tion Theology). understanding and use of scripture have been
Examples of judgments about the message controlled by the ideological presuppositions
of scripture and their relevance to its use in of the powerful. They do not recommend as
Christian ethics could easily be multiplied. In a remedy the model of impartial reason and
the midst of this diversity three general ob- value-free critical exegesis, which they take
servations can be made. First, judgments to be a deceptive pretense cloaking ideologi-
about the wholeness of scripture are method- cal control by the powerful. Rather, they rec-
ologically necessary; Christian ethics would ommend candid commitment to partiality
be served by candor about these judgments. for the poor and oppressed, to the interests of
Second, these judgments rest not so much on particular oppressed groups, and to a social
an "impartial" exegetical demonstration as analysis that stands in their service. And they
on the experience of the authority of scrip- would surrender control over the under-
ture in the context of one's own moral strug- standing and use of scripture to these other
gles, on the one hand, and of the believing sources (thus Juan Luis Segundo, James
community and its moral tradition, on the Cone, Elisabeth Schssler Fiorenza; whereas
other. Third, the judgments about the mes- Jos Miranda's recommended remedy is ob-
sage may not be substituted for the writings jective critical exegesis). However, to surren-
themselves. They may only be fashioned and der control over Christian ethics to sources
used in the context of reverently listening to other than those intimately related to the reli-
the whole Bible in the context of the believing gious community's moral identitywhether
community. Then the diverse judgments to the autonomous morality of impartial rea-
need not be rued but may be appreciated, for son or to the ideologies of either the rich or
they keep us attentive to the whole of scrip- the oppressedcomes perilously close to sur-
ture and to the whole believing community in rendering Christian identity.
our concern with and for the world. Instead of the theological veto or the sur-
What is the relevance of other sources? The render of control to other sources, many have
use of scripture in Christian ethics finally also recommended some form of dialogue. The
depends on judgments about the relevance of dialogue is understood and undertaken in
other sources of moral insight. Positions various ways, of course. Sometimes the
range from a theological veto on the contri- Bible's part in the dialogue is to challenge
butions of other sources to the surrender of and disrupt conventional moral certainties
control over moral argument to other and securities. Sometimes its role is to
sources. Between these extremes there are confirm and collaborate moral decisions
many voices calling for some sort of dialogue reached on the basis of other sources. Some-
between scripture and other sources. times scripture is taken to supplement or
The theological veto on the contributions transform natural moral wisdom. Sometimes
of natural morality or philosophical ethics is other sources challenge and disrupt a con-
sometimes represented as entailed by the Ref- ventional understanding and use of scripture
ormation slogan Sola scriptura and is usually and force a new examination of what it re-
based on the radical fallenness of human na- quires of the believing community. The con-
ture and all human projects, including the sensus, however, seems to be thatat least
project of distinguishing good and evil (e.g., with respect to questions of moral identity
Jacques Ellul). Not only is there inconsist- scripture must have the last word in the dia-
ency in this position, but the dismissal of ar- logue and that the biblically based identity
guments based on reason alone is an ar- must limit, corroborate, and transform ap-
gumentum ad hominem on the scale of an peals to reason and to group interests.
argumentum ad humanum. Conclusion. There is no "Christian ethics"
The surrender of control over the forma- that would deny the authority of the Bible,
tion of conscience* is a position that looks to for apart from scripture the Christian church
the deliverances of an autonomous morality has no enduring identity. It must be recog-
or of some ideology* (see also Autonomy of nized, however, that even those claims made
Ethics). Jack Sanders, for example, states on the basis of scripture are quite human
61 Bioethics
claims, arrived at by means of quite human sciences, medicine, health care, and related
authorization. The authority of scripture for areas as well as the public policies directed
Christian ethics does not license the religious toward them. The Encyclopedia of Bioethics
pride of claiming the absolute view, the final (1978) adopts this approach. Since the term
word, God's truth about some hard case sim- "bioethics" may suggest an independent dis-
ply because we can appeal to scripture. In- cipline rather than the application of ethics
deed, the authority of scripture (as well as the to an arena of human activity, parallel to
confession of human capacities for self- other applications such as political ethics
deception and rationalization) commits us to and business ethics, and since the term bios
self-conscious and self-critical reflection (meaning "life") is much too broad for what
about the authorizations we use in moving is treated under the heading of "bioethics,"
from scripture to moral claims. It calls Us the phrase "biomedical ethics" has been pro-
again and again to listen reverently to the posed, but "bioethics" is handier and more
whole canon in the midst of the whole believ- common. Widespread interest in problems of
ing community. In that way perhaps the God bioethics dates from the late 1960s and early
who bears toward usin scripture and the 1970s, when such developments as heart
communitythe relation of sanctifier may transplantation and the allocation of scarce
cleanse and renew even our use of the Bible lifesaving resources (e.g., dialysis machines)
in Christian ethics. raised serious questions about what ought to
See also Christian Ethics. be done. Judaism and Roman Catholicism
have had stronger traditions of reflection on
B. C. Birch and L. Rasmussen, Bible and medical ethics than Protestantism, but Jo-
Ethics in the Christian Life, 1976; C. E. Cur- seph Fletcher's Morals and Medicine (1954)
ran and R. A. McCormick, S.J. (eds.), Read- was a landmark book, followed by Paul
ings in Moral Theology, No. 4: The Use of Ramsey's The Patient as Person (1970),
Scripture in Moral Theology, 1984; T. W. which appeared as interest in bioethics ex-
Ogletree, The Use of the Bible in Christian ploded. Many other religious thinkers have
Ethics, 1983; A. Verhey, The Great Reversal.- contributed significantly to the field of bio-
Ethics and the New Testament, 1984. ethics, being joined for the last decade by
ALLEN VERHEY numerous philosophers who have returned
to applied ethics*. Bioethics is necessarily
Biblical Ethics see Jesus, Ethical Teach- interdisciplinary and interprofessional, in-
ing of; Johannine Ethics; Mosaic Law; volving scientists, physicians, nurses, and
New Testament Ethics; Old Testament others, as well as theologians and philoso-
Ethics; Paul, Ethical Teaching of; Pro- phers. For an indication of the range of
phetic Ethics; Wisdom Literature, Ethics problems covered in bioethics, see, e.g.,
in; see also Bible in Christian Ethics Abortion; Death, Determination of; Eu-
thanasia; Experimentation with Human Sub-
Bigamy jects; Genetics; Medical Ethics; Organ
Marriage* to a second wife or husband while Transplantation; Reproductive Technolo-
a previous marriage is in force. Bigamy is a gies; Science and Ethics.
crime in Western countries, though in other
parts of the world bigamy or polygamy* (the T. L. Beauchamp and J. F. Childress, Princi-
marriage of many wives) is commonly prac- ples of Biomedical Ethics, 1983; Dictionary
2
owners and workers and the special vulnera- holder responsibilities, see C. W. Powers,
bility of the latter; the strengths and weak- Investments and Social Responsibility, 1971;
nesses of the market as a system of social J. G. Simon, C. W. Powers, and J. P. Gun-
71 Calvinist Ethics
nemann, The Ethical Investor, 1972. At pres- teacher "to learn what that will of God is
ent writing the best selection of journal arti- which they aspire to follow," and also a spur,
cles on business ethics, with an excellent bib- a stimulus to encourage them (2.7.12).
liography, is T. Beauchamp and N. Bowie Calvin denies that the law is totally abro-
(eds.), Ethical Theory and Business, 1979. gated. The curse of the law is certainly abro-
JON P. GUNNEMANN gated, for Christians are not under law, but
under grace. The ceremonies of the Jewish
Calling see Vocation; see also Calvinist religion are abrogated, as regards their use.
Ethics; Lutheran Ethics; Work, Doctrine But even the old ceremonial law still has a
of meaning, as pointing to Christ in whom it is
fulfilled, and the moral law remains "a per-
Calvinist Ethics fect rule of righteousness" (2.8.5), to show us
For John Calvin (1509-1564), "the surest that nothing is more acceptable to God than
foundations of a well-regulated life" are in obedience. Calvin interprets the Ten Com-
God's grace and our grateful response. "Ever mandments in the light of the two great com-
since God exhibited himself to us as a Father, mandments, love to God and love to the
we must be convicted of extreme ingratitude neighbor, and regards the sayings of the Ser-
if we do not in our turn exhibit ourselves as mon on the Mount not as an addition to the
his sons" (Institutes 3.6.3). The Calvinist commandments, but as their true interpreta-
ethic is an ethic of grateful obedience* (see tion.
Gratitude). Yet when he comes to speak of the Chris-
Although "men cannot open their eyes tian life, Calvin seems to set the law aside.
without being compelled to see him" (1.5.1), "Although the law of God contains a perfect
and our consciences testify to his righteous- rule of conduct admirably arranged, it has
ness, yet our sinful corruption is such that a seemed proper to our divine Master to train
natural knowledge of God and of his law his people by a more accurate method, to the
serves only to leave us without excuse. For rule which is enjoined in the Law; and the
although God's goodness is there before our leading principle in the method is, that it is
eyes, we are so blinded by sin that we cannot the duty of believers to present their 'bodies
see it. Therefore God gave the written law, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto
which "removes the obscurity of the law of God, which is their reasonable service'
nature" (2.8.1). (Rom. 12:1)" (3.7.1). This grateful self-offer-
In dealing with the law, Calvin, like Lu- ing to God, Calvin calls "self-denial."* "The
ther, draws much on Augustine (see Law and Christian ought indeed to be so trained and
Gospel). The first use of the law is to lead us disposed as to consider that during his whole
to Christ. It is a kind of mirror in which we life he has to do with God. For he who
see our iniquity (2.7.7). It leads us to implore has so learned to look to God in everything
the help of divine grace. "In the precepts of he does is at the same time diverted from all
the Law, God is seen as the rewarder only of vain thoughts. This is . . self-denial" (3.7.2).
perfect righteousness , but in Christ his "We are not our own. We are God's."
countenance beams forth full of grace and These are the reiterated themes of self-denial.
gentleness towards poor unworthy sinners" Just as in his treatment of law Calvin holds
(2.7.8). The second use of the law is to curb together worship and ethics, love of God and
human violence and excess. "This forced and love of the neighbor, as our grateful obedi-
extorted righteousness is necessary for the ence, so self-denial has respect to God and to
good of society, its peace being procured by the neighbor. In regard to the neighbor it is
a provision but for which all things would be that charity which seeks the neighbor's good,
thrown into tumult and confusion" (2.7.10). whoever he or she is, and is ready to share
This restraint is also a merciful provision for with that person our blessings. "Everyone
those who are not yet regenerate. In both should consider that however great he is, he
these uses, the law is our schoolmaster. For owes himself to his neighbors, and that the
Luther, these two, the spiritual and the civil, only limit to his beneficence is the failure of
are the only uses of the law. For Calvin, the his means" (3.7.7). But since human greed,
third use is the principal use, when believers self-seeking, and the dread of poverty spring
"in whose hearts the Spirit of God already from man's insecurity and fear, the principal
flourishes and reigns" find in the law a part of self-denial has respect to God: that
72 Calvinist Ethics
Christians "must not long for, or hope for, or human rules and requirements, and to liber-
think of any kind of prosperity apart from the ate them from such enslavement, for "to go
blessing of God; on it they must cast them- a-wandering after good works which are not
selves and there safely and confidently re- prescribed by the Law of God is an intoler-
cline" (3.7.8). able violation of true and divine righteous-
The belief that "all prosperous and desir- ness" (2.8.5).
able success depends entirely on the blessing The fact that scripture alone is the divinely
of God" (3.7.9) restrains Christians from the given authority means also that the existing
unscrupulous quest for riches and honor, and hierarchical authority of church or of state
enables them to endure hardship and to bear cannot claim ultimate authority. It has au-
the cross with patience and resignation, as thority only by the sanction of scripture. Cal-
persons who have placed their lives entirely vinists tended to apply this principle more
at God's disposal. There is a right use of immediately andfiercelyto church polity and
earthly blessings (3.10.1), a moderation worship than to the political order. Calvin
which avoids both excessive austerity and all took the traditional view of authority as
license, while remembering that they are being "by God's decree." He was concerned
given "not only for our necessity, but also for to avoid both the anarchism* of some Chris-
our enjoyment and delight" (3.10.2). Calvin, tian idealists, rejecting civil government alto-
it may seem, leans more on the side of auster- gether, and the complacency of "the flatter-
ity than on that of license, but he is con- ers of princes," who did not see it as subject
cerned for that moderate enjoyment of God's to the Word of God. Christians, he believed,
good gifts which is never unmindful whence should be content with the form of govern-
these blessings come, nor ever forgetful of the ment they have, and the right of resistance*
needs of the neighbor (see Temperance). to tyrants belongs only to the lower magis-
Christians will meditate on the future life, trates, or to champions raised up by God.
and this assists them to place their lives at Nevertheless, Calvinism did produce resist-
God's disposal. "If heaven is our country, ance to tyrants, not least because Calvin
what can earth be but a place of exile?" (3. maintained that the office of magistrate ex-
9.4). Nevertheless, it is in this world that tended to both tables of the law, and that his
God's will is to be obeyed and his blessings first duty was to establish and support the
enjoyed and shared. And, since we are to true religion. It was where the magistrate
look to God in everything that we do, life is sought to suppress the Reformed religion
not divided into religious and secular that resistance began. But the principle was
spheres. All things are done to the glory of capable of being extended to the reform of
God and the good of the neighbor. Calvin, it government, and Calvin's view that "the law
has been said, "laicized piety." is a dumb magistrate, the magistrate a living
The life of self-denial is clearly not ruled by law" (4.20.14) would be developed in politi-
legalism* but by personal devotion. Why cal thought by Samuel Rutherford and oth-
then does Calvin lay such stress on the law, ers. Calvinists generally seem to have moved
and in particular on the third use of the law, toward a representative type of democracy*,
as the instructor and stimulus of Christian perhaps because the church organization of
living? One reason for this may be that the Presbyterianism is congenial to that. How-
law not only instructs us about what God ever, the Calvinist ethic, like the ethic of nat-
requires, it shows us also what he does not ural law, can be developed either in a con-
require. Calvin considers the human heart to servative or in a radical political direction.
be a veritable manufactory of idols. "The Later Calvinism tended to interpret Cal-
human mind, in its wantonness, is ever and vin's ethics more in terms of law than in
anon inventing different modes of worship as terms of self-denial, but the element of com-
a means of gaining his favor. This irreligious mitment to a personal divine will was never
affectation of religion being innate in the lost, and it can emerge in some modern writ-
human mind, has betrayed itself in every age, ers in terms that are almost situationist
and is still doing so, men always longing to an ethic of the divine command rather than
devise some method of procuring righteous- of the divine law (see Modern Protestant
ness without any sanction from the Word of Ethics).
God" (2.8.5). The law can be a means to The controversy which arose over Max
prevent consciences from being enslaved to Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
73 Capitalism
Capitalism (1905; ET 1930) continues (see not used among Protestants, though of
Sociology of Ethics). Calvin himself, who set course they have their own regulations.
severe limitations on usury* and saw divine Much of canon law is concerned with ec-
blessings as a trust to benefit one's neighbor, clesiastical questions that have no particular
scarcely represents the spirit of capitalism*. ethical significance, e.g., rules about ordina-
The revival of the OT concept of "divine tion and admission to the sacraments. But
blessings" and the sense that we look to God there are areas where canon law and ethics
in everything that we do, did, however, give overlap, e.g., marriage* discipline. In earlier
a dignity to worldly activity as the sphere times, when church and state were intimately
of our grateful obedience (see Vocation). bound up with each other, the canon law
Whether this justifies the Weber thesis is an- relating to marriage and sexual conduct was
other matter. similar to that of the state. But with the sepa-
Today the authority of the Word, and the ration of church and state (see Church and
legalism in which that was often expressed, State), either in law or in fact, canon law has
cannot be used in the simple way Calvinists likewise become separated from civil law. If,
thought possible in the past. Yet there are for instance, the Christian ideal of marriage
resources in Calvin's own thought which as lifelong monogamous union is to be main-
could be developed beyond the "work-ethic" tained, the church has to lay down certain
toward a more human and caring commu- rules for its own members, but even in
nity. strongly Roman Catholic countries it is now
recognized that these rules cannot be im-
A. Biler, The Social Humanism of Calvin, posed on society at large, and the civil laws
ET 1964; J. T. McNeill, The History and are much less stringent (see Morality, Legal
Character of Calvinism, 1954; G. Marshall, Enforcement of). In such matters therefore
In Search of the Spirit of Capitalism, 1982; E. the authority of canon law depends on the
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Chris- free consent of the Christians who belong to
tian Churches (1912), ET 1931, vol. 2; R. S. the community in which this law holds.
Wallace, Calvin's Doctrine of the Christian
Life, 1959. R. C. Mortimer, Western Canon Law, 1953;
JAMES A. WHYTE E. W. Kemp, An Introduction to Canon Law
in the Church of England, 1957.
Canon Law JOHN MACQUARRIE
The body of rules which the Christian com-
munity makes for the government of its own Capitalism
internal affairs and the conduct of its mem- Capitalism as an economic system is difficult
bers. The Greek word kanon, meaning a rule, to define, partly because one's evaluation of
is used by Paul, and perhaps even the most it is often implicit in the definition, but also
enthusiastic champions of "situation ethics" because of the variety of kinds of capitalism
would hardly deny that the church, like any in the countries that profess to have such
other corporate body, needs some basic rules systems. However, a definition such as this
if it is to function or even survive. In Acts 15 can be proposed: capitalism is that economic
it is stated that the apostolic college in system in which the price mechanism, work-
Jerusalem laid down some minimal rules to ing through supply and demand in workably
be observed by Gentile Christians. As time competitive markets, provides the dominant
went on, the number of rules multiplied, and mode of making economic decisions about
in the Middle Ages they were codified in the what is produced, how it is produced, and in
Western church in the Corpus Iuris Canonici. what way it is distributed. Capitalist systems
When the Roman Catholic Church revised are also characterized by nongovernmental
its canon law in 1918, there were no less than ownership of the means of production; eco-
2,414 canons. Following Vatican Council II, nomic freedom to enter and exit the market
there was a further revision, effective in 1983. as producer, consumer, investor, or laborer;
The Church of England adapted the medie- a legal order that protects voluntary and
val canons to its own needs. Its canon law peaceful exchange; and a motivational sys-
dates from 1604, revised in 1969. The canon tem that includes rational and systematic
law of the Eastern church consists of concil- pursuit of profit as a primary spring.
iar decrees. The expression "canon law" is Such a system for making economic
Capitalism 74
choices can be combined with a variety of by "workable" competition, and that com-
political systems. Though capitalist econo- petitive market systems have produced re-
mies and liberal democracies have been markable results in raising the living stan-
closely associated historically, it is possible to dards of the vast majority of persons in
combine capitalism with authoritarian gov- societies where such systems have operated.
ernments of various sorts. In fact, the strong- Mainstream economists have believed that
est critics of capitalism claim that it can fit governments must ensure the competitive na-
with totalitarian fascism*, although it is diffi- ture of the economy by antimonopoly mea-
cult to see how the economic freedom as- sures, and otherwise have affirmed an active
sociated with open markets could be allowed role for the state in forging monetary and
in a totalitarian context (see Totalitarian fiscal policy as well as providing minimum
State). welfare for all.
Parties in the economic debate generally A number of dissenting economists and
grant that all human societies have markets philosophers of a libertarian bentM. Fried-
of some kind due to the human propensity man, L. von Mises, F. von Hayek, R. Nozick
"to truck, barter and exchange one thing for challenge such an expanded role for the
another" (Smith, 1776). They also agree that state. They argue that what distortions of the
this small-scale commercial capitalism devel- market exist are caused by unwise and inef-
oped into industrial capitalism in England fective government interventions. With great
during the 18th century (see Industrial Revo- confidence in the self-regulating capLcities of
lution). Most affirm Max Weber's thesis that the market, they counsel a more limited state
a certain kind of Protestant piety (inner- and more expansive use of market mech-
worldly asceticism) provided important mo- anisms, even in areas that are generally not
tivation and legitimation for that develop- viewed as "economic."
ment. After Marx, however, it has been With such variety in viewpoint among
almost impossible to agree on the description economists, it is scarcely surprising that reli-
of what indeed capitalism is, let alone an gious ethics is as divided as it is in its descrip-
analysis and evaluation of its effects. tion, analysis, and evaluation of capitalism.
Marx, who first used the adjective "capi- While there are few proponents of libertarian
talist," argued that there never were such economic philosophy (see Libertarianism)
things as fair competitive markets. Owners of among theologians and ethicists, there are
private property gained profits by extracting many supporters of laissez-faire* among the
surplus from labor. Capitalism in his view laity of the churches.
was intrinsically exploitative. The Marxist However, the dominant attitude among re-
tradition argues that we are in the period of ligious ethicists has been negative toward
"late" capitalism, in which the contradic- capitalism and positive toward some form of
tions latent in monopoly capitalism will lead democratic socialism*. There are clear rea-
to inevitable crises, and ultimately to revolu- sons for this attitude in the recent history of
tion* (see Marxist Ethics). Christian ethics. Such English religious
Another major negative, though non- thinkers as C. Kingsley and F. D. Maurice
Marxist, interpretation of capitalism em- offered a socialist analysis and critique of de-
erged from the left wing of the Keynesian veloping 19th-century capitalism. They in
school. R. H. Chamberlain, J. V. Robinson, turn influenced American social gospel
A. Hansen, and J. K. Galbraith argued that thinking. Further, the European tradition of
competitive markets in industrial capitalism religious ethics, carried out in the shadow of
were largely a fiction. Since noncompetitive Marx, generated hostility toward capitalism
markets could not be trusted to set prices and affinity for socialism, as evidenced in the
efficiently and fairly, public interventions ethical reflections of both Paul Tillich and
were called for. Such interventions would Karl Barth. In America, the young Reinhold
lead gradually to a more humane and just Niebuhr brought prophetic judgment to bear
democratic socialism. on American capitalism.
However, such views of capitalism have In general, American Christian ethics has
not been predominant in Western countries. carried on this critical orientation, reinforced
Mainstream economicsin its classical and in recent years by neo-Marxist analyses em-
neoclassical formshas argued that capital- ployed by Latin American, black, and femi-
ist systems have been generally characterized nist liberation theologies*.
75 Capital Punishment
While there is little unanimity among this states. The Gospels do not directly bear on
majority about the shape of democratic so- the matter, but when the church came seri-
cialism, they tend to agree on a basic critique ously to consider the role of the state* and its
of capitalism. It enshrines greed as the moti- duties it tended to take capital punishment
vating force of economic life; its mode of for granted. Lactantius was one of the few
decision-making is nondemocratic; its mono- early fathers to oppose it. In using the Bible
polistic character leads to concentrations of as a textbook of detailed ethical injunctions,
economic power that distort American poli- the fathers had recourse chiefly to Genesis,
tics; capitalism leads to intolerable inequali- Romans, and 1 Peter. God said to Noah,
ties of wealth and income; it is ecologically "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man
destructive; it generates cultural vulgarity shall his blood be shed; for God made man in
and commercialism*; and it impoverishes the his own image" (Gen. 9:6). This can be read
developing world. as a statement of factGod's providence will
Such a litany of abuses has been challenged catch up with the slayer; or it can be read as
by a growing number of religious ethicists a command to execute the death penalty for
who not only question the empirical validity the reason statedi.e., either because human
of the charges but lift up a number of practi- beings made in God's image have the divine
cal and moral values that are supported by authority to do so, or because of the serious
capitalism. Writers such as P. Heyne, M. offense in killing someone made in God's
Novak, G. Gilder, and R. Benne argue for a image and thus assaulting God himself. The
more positive moral assessment of demo- commandment translated "You shall not
cratic capitalism, ranging from the celebra- kill" clearly means "You shall not commit
tive to the ambiguously positive. murder" (though without giving any guid-
See Ecumenical Movement; Collectivism; ance as to what kinds of killing are to be
Communism; Equality; Freedom; Individual- accounted as murder) and does not abrogate
ism; Laissez-faire; Liberalism; Official the Genesis text. Moreover, it is held that
Roman Catholic Social Teaching; Property; Jesus by implication did not abrogate it, al-
Socialism; State; Welfare State. though he did abrogate death as a penalty for
adultery and substituted divorce (a precari-
R. Benne, The Ethic of Democratic Capital- ous argument from silence). So we come to
ist?i, 1981; V. A. Demant, Religion and the Rom. 13:1-7, and especially v. 4, which says
Decline of Capitalism, 1952; R. H. Preston, that the ruler "does not bear the sword in
Religion and the Persistence of Capitalism, vain; he is the servant of God to execute his
1979; J. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, wrath on the wrongdoer" (cf. 1 Peter 2:13-
and Democracy, 1950; A. Shonfield, Modern
3 17). Those who depend on these passages
Capitalism, 1969; Adam Smith, An Inquiry maintain that there is a uniqueness about
Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of murder which demands a unique penalty;
Nations, 1776; R. H. Tawney, Religion and and that the reason advanced in Genesis, that
the Rise of Capitalism, 1925; C. West, humanity is made in God's image, is perenni-
Prophesy Deliverance! 1982; J. P. Wogaman, ally relevant. They say that it is the duty of
The Great Economic Debate, 1977. the state to administer capital punishment (to
ROBERT BENNE remove it from private vengeance) as part of
its task, ordained by God, to maintain order
Capital Punishment and the possibility of the properly ordered
The Christian faith came into a world in human life that he wills for those made in his
which capital punishment was an accepted image. Note that these reasons preclude the
feature of the legal system, as we can see from death penalty for many crimes for which it
the words of the penitent thief on his cross has in fact had Christian approval in the past
(Luke 23:41) and of Paul before Festus (Acts though the list of crimes punishable by
25:11). So it has been in almost all known death might be stretched to include treason,
states before Christ and since. Only in recent on the grounds that treason undermines the
times has capital punishment been ques- state's task of maintaining order against ag-
tioned; it has been retained by very few West- gression.
ern European countries or those of Anglo- There are, however, many other considera-
Saxon origin in other parts of the world; in tions. The New Testament itself has other
the USA the practice varies among different things to say about the same Roman state
Cardinal Virtues 76
when it opposed Christians (e.g., Revela- assuming that the individual is responsible
tion). And what are we to say of basically for his or her actions, and that part of growth
brutal and unjust governments? Moreover, into maturity is facing the consequences of
Jesus' gospel was primarily concerned with one's actions, in this case wrongdoing. But
God's initiative in graciousness toward the does the Christian faith require, in the case of
most sinful, not primarily about his wish that murder, the taking of the murderer's life in
an exact quid pro quo should be exacted from retribution? Sometimes all these theories of
a murderer. This suggests at least that the punishment are denied on the grounds that
death penalty should be enforced reluctantly, crime is a sickness to be cured not punished,
if at all. In considering the justification for and that as such it requires therapy not judi-
the imposition of the death penalty (and cial proceedings; this obviously rules out the
other punishments) by the state, three theo- death penalty. This position has some truth,
ries have provided a possible common hence our arguments about "diminished re-
ground between Christians and others, and sponsibility," but it is a dangerous one if
they all would modify the rigor of those taken too far, for it turns human beings into
whose position has so far been outlined. moral invalids (see Responsibility).
1. Deterrence. If it could be shown that the Capital punishment has many disadvan-
death penalty had a significant deterrent tages. It is unpleasant for those who have to
effect on the number of murders, there would carry it out. It has a bad effect on the public,
be a case for it. But exhaustive investigations which alternates between fits of self-righ-
in Europe and North America have shown teousness and morbid gloating over its vic-
that there is no such evidence, but rather that tims. Miscarriages of justice cannot be cor-
the number of murders varies little whether rected, and a number of such cases have
there is a death penalty or not. One is most come to light. If, however, capital punish-
likely to be murdered by a member of one's ment is thought by Christians to be necessary
own family or a near relation as a result of on occasion, they must will the means as well
some emotional crisis in which considera- as the end. It must be a Christian vocation to
tions of rational self-interest and the death be a judge, a prison officer, or an executioner
penalty have negligible influence. In the case and to carry it out for the common good;
of cold-blooded murder it is the likelihood of Christians cannot leave to others the doing of
being caught that is important. Capital pun- unpleasant tasks. In short, in the general
ishment may on occasion be a regrettable ne- Christian view of the state and of punish-
cessity on this ground; but we need to ask ment, capital punishment is not excluded,
ourselves what it is in so many people which but neither is it required; rather, what is re-
leads them so firmly to advocate it as a deter- quired is a strong case in particular circum-
rent and refuse to face the evidence of its stances to justify it. A last attempt to do so
ineffectiveness? is to say that a long prison sentence is worse
2. Reformation. Capital punishment can than death. But (a) prisoners are not given
have little relevance on this ground, except the choice, nor is it proper that they should
on occasion to produce a deathbed repent- be; (b) a civilized community should find a
ance. But few would advocate such a drastic constructive punishment that is not worse
means of producing this possible effect; and than death for a grave crime.
it is disingenuous to argue that the more See also Homicide; Image of God;
Christian one is, the less one is perturbed by Penology.
the death penalty because of one's belief in
life beyond death, for we are concerned with H. A. Bedau (ed.), The Death Penalty in
state policy. America, 1982.
3
interest of patients or clients is best served. art. "Declarations"; G. R. Dunstan, The Ar-
When trust fails, litigation paralyzes prac- tifice of Ethics (1974), 1978; D. L. Emmet,
tice. As other bodies (e.g., social workers, or Rules, Roles and Relations, 1966.
practitioners in advertising or marketing) as- G. R. DUNSTAN
pire to professional status, the criteria by
which the aspiration may be judged include Conviction of Sin
the integrity of their conventions or corpo- In an earlier age conviction of sin* was
rate ethics and the degree of control they commonly seen as the normative state of
exercise over the education, practice, and dis- mind preceding a crisis experience of conver-
cipline of their members. Published codes of sion. The Westminster Shorter Catechism
practice now feature in commercial and in- affirmed it as the work of the Holy Spirit and
dustrial relations: e.g., the guidelines issued a first step toward salvation. Characteristic
by the Association of the British Phar- feelings (which might last for days, months,
maceutical Industry (ABPI) for the conduct or even years) included a sense of general
of drug trials. The British Code of Advertis- wretchedness and unworthiness, self-blame
ing Practice is an instrument of self-regula- and contempt, often compounded by fear of
tion, administered by the Advertising Stan- eternal punishment. After the conversion cri-
129 Corporal Punishment
sis these feelings of despair, which could be volved an action that was secondary and sub-
extremely intense, normally gave place to a servient to the main and evil act. Selling
sense of release, peace, and joy. Revivalist burglars their tools would be an example of
preaching, as in the early Methodist move- this. Proximate material cooperation is inti-
ment and the Great Awakening, tried delib- mately linked to the evil act, as when one
erately to secure conviction of sin in the belief holds the ladder or a light for the burglar.
that the person so affected would better ap- Remote material cooperation is not closely
preciate, and more willingly accept, the prof- connected with the evil act.
fered mercy of God. Formal cooperation was seen as a sin
Early students of the psychology of reli- against charity* and against the virtue of-
gious conversion in adolescence noted that fended by the action. Material cooperation
there was frequently no direct relation be- could be justified only if the action was in
tween the intensity of the conviction of sin itself not sinful (since we need not intend all
and the extent of any actual transgression. of the effects of our actions) and if there was
They concluded that fear and suggestibility a sufficient and proportionate reason for co-
were major factors in producing a conviction operating. The more closely one cooperates,
of sin. More recently it has been recognized the more serious must be the justifying rea-
that striving to produce feelings of worthless- son.
ness may actually render some people less Using this doctrine, the older moral theol-
capable of hearing the gospel message by ogy justified cooperation by an assistant with
confirming their neurotic tendencies (e.g., to a surgeon performing an "evil operation"
self-punishment). even to the extent of sterilizing instruments,
Ethical issues involved in conviction of sin preparing the patient, and administering the
include issues of responsibility for one's own anesthesia. The doctrine was also applied to
past and issues of the propriety of attempting participation in "heretical worship," to the
to secure a particular result by what amounts sale of obscene or forbidden objects, to coop-
to the manipulation of feelings. eration with evil employers, and to the prob-
lems of judges and juries in dealing with un-
E. S. Ames, The Psychology of Religious Ex- just laws.
perience, 1910, pp. 258-264; Jonathan Ed- The teaching had notable weaknesses: it
wards, A Treatise Concerning Religious was individualistically concerned with single
Affections, 1746. deeds; it was preoccupied with an antiseptic
GRAEME M. GRIFFIN or egoistic sense of guilt*; it inspired quib-
bling and simplism. It did, however, face the
Cooperation w i t h Evil fact that in a complex world of sinful persons,
Prior to Vatican Council II, Roman Catholic total detachment from evil is impossible.
moral theology developed a detailed set of The problems we address today are differ-
guidelines to deal with the problem of coop- ent, but the question of cooperation endures,
eration with the immoral acts of others. often addressed in discussions of proportion-
Though the applications of this doctrine in alism and consequentialism* (see Propor-
the past show the weaknesses of a now-dated tionality). Questions of cooperation today
theology, there is a value in the teaching that concern such issues as working for producers
has enduring relevance. of nuclear weapons, paying taxes when the
Cooperation was seen as concurrence with national budget is overly militarized, enter-
another in some immoral action. Distinctions ing military service, buying from corpora-
were made between formal and material, im- tions engaged in immoral enterprises, joining
mediate and mediate, and proximate and re- a clergy that excludes women, and serving
mote cooperation. Formal cooperation in- drinks to prospective drivers.
volved consenting to and active participation
in the evil action of another. Material cooper- H. Davis, Moral and Pastoral Theology, vol.
ation did not imply consent*. It involved I, 1949.
concurrence in an action that, though inno- DANIEL C. MAGUIRE
cent in itself, was a preparation for an evil
action. A non-burglar helping a burglar pack Corporal Punishment
the loot was called immediate material coop- Experience shows that corporal punishment
eration. Mediate material cooperation in- may be effective insofar as it is administered
Cost-Benefit Analysis 130
by someone in a sustained, predictable, and that leads so many to be firmly in favor of
loving relationship with the person punished, corporal punishment?
but the more distant and impersonal the rela- RONALD PRESTON
tionship and the less stable the character
punished, the less effective it will be. That is Corporations see Business Ethics; Capi-
why some (usually men) claim that a thrash- talism
ing from their father when they were young
did them a lot of good. It may have done so. Cost-Benefit Analysis
A question remains, however, as to whether Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a formal "ana-
it was necessary. If the parents who apply it lytic technique designed to help a decision-
are unpredictable and capricious or threaten maker consider systematically all the con-
to cease loving, corporal punishment is un- sequences of a possible course of action,
likely to be effective and can be counterpro- arrayed as costs and benefits" (Fuchs). It in-
ductive. Much the same considerations apply volves identifying and assessing all the costs
to schools and indicate that corporal punish- and benefits of alternative courses of action in
ment is rarely likely to be effective. It is usu- order to determine which has the most favor-
ally applied to disruptive, bored teenage boys able benefit-cost ratio. Developed in business,
where it is used at all, but more and more this approach has also been extended to pub-
schools in the English-speaking world have lic policy*, for example, in decisions about
abandoned it. building airports, protecting the environ-
Judicially, corporal punishment usually ment, and setting safety standards in the
takes the form of flogging as a penalty for workplace. A subset of CBA is risk-benefit
crimes such as robbery with violence or sex- analysis, risk* being one kind of cost. CBA is
ual assault. The same reasons are used to essentially a form of ethical consequential-
justify it as are advanced for capital punish- ism* or, more specifically, utilitarianism*,
ment*, and with the same doubtful cogency. and is subject to the criticisms that have been
Does it deter? There is a widespread tend- directed against such perspectives. Since
ency to exaggerate its deterrent effect, and maximization of welfare (utility) is consid-
much evidence shows that changes in the law ered morally importantthough not neces-
on flogging bear no relation to the volume of sarily sufficientfrom practically all ethical
crimes for which it may be the penalty. Does perspectives, CBA may be accepted by non-
it reform? Only in the cases where corporal consequentialists and nonutilitarians within
punishment is least needed. Is it a suitable limits, particularly within the limits set by
retribution? Only if one deems it proper to distributive justice*. Practitioners of CBA
behave in a physically harsh way to those tend to sum up or to aggregate the costs and
who have themselves behaved to others in benefits of various policies without ade-
that way; and it is hard to maintain this view quately considering how they are distributed,
on Christian grounds (see also Penology). that is, who will bear the costs and who will
The chances of harm in a judicial flogging gain the benefits. For example, according to
are great. Elements of eroticism easily enter. one study, the most cost-effective approach
Those who have suffered from violent behav- to control hypertension in the USA is to con-
ior from others need patient counseling. centrate resources on known hypertensives,
Those whose violent conduct represents a but considerations of justice might dictate a
conscious or unconscious reaction to violent different allocation because many poor peo-
treatment by asserting themselves need self- ple would not be aware of their hypertension
understanding, not flogging. Those who are since they have limited access to the health
so excitable that their conduct is not a ratio- care system. (Cost-effectiveness analysis sim-
nal choice but a relief of tension need a shel- ply considers the costs of different ways to
tered environment. Those who are mentally achieve some goal, such as saving lives, with-
ill need hospital treatment. For those who are out converting the goal and the costs into a
coolly brutal it is the certainty of detection common measure, such as money.)
rather than the fear of corporal punishment Narrow and broad versions of CBA differ
that is more important. The latter is hardly according to the range of values they include
ever a remedy for serious disorders. A root and the extent of their efforts to reduce all
question to ask is: What is it in human nature costs and benefits to a common denominator,
131 Counseling, Ethical Problems in
usually money, for purposes of determining Oct. 16, 1980, pp. 937-938; S. Kelman,
trade-offs. Obviously, it is impossible to iden- "Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Ethical Cri-
tify, weight, and balance costs and benefits or tique," Regulation, Jan.-Feb. 1981; A.
even to determine the alternatives to be com- Maclntyre, "Utilitarianism and Cost/Benefit
pared without some values*. Since propo- Analysis," in Values in the Electric Power
nents of CBA tend to favor hard over soft Industry, ed. K. Sayre, 1977; E. J. Mishan,
variables, the question of which values Cost-Benefit Analysis, 1976; R. Sugden and
becomes very important for assessing conse- A. Williams, The Principles of Practical Cost-
quences, and often it becomes the question of Benefit Analysis, 1978; J. N. Wolfe (ed.), Cost
whose values. Efforts to find a common scale Benefit and Cost Effectiveness, 1973.
or denominator of values, usually monetary JAMES F. CHILDRESS
value, become arbitrary when applied to
goods not traded in the marketplace, such as Counseling, Ethical Problems in
life and friendship, which they then seriously For the last forty years, ethical problems in
distort. One major question is whether CBA, both secular and religious counseling have
when open to a wide range of soft variables been similar to one another. This is because
that may be incommensurable and when at- both spheres of counseling have been in-
tentive to distributive justice, can be useful in formed by similar philosophical views about
decision-making, particularly to make ex- ethics, values, and the nature of human prob-
plicit judgments that might have been only lems.
implicit. The process, perhaps even more The influence of secular psychotherapy on
than the results, of CBA may be useful as religious counseling. These philosophical
part of a democratic government's account- views largely have come from the commit-
ability despite the counterargument that ments of secular psychotherapy. Freud be-
sometimes the bases of decision-making lieved that psychotherapy was an ethically
should not be made public (see Democracy; neutral process that needed guidance only by
Secrecy). a limited professional ethic covering the con-
CBA is widespread, and alternatives may tract for therapy. Heinz Hartmann in his Psy-
not be immediately available. Nevertheless, choanalysis and Moral Values (1960) took a
one of its own potential costs should be similar view and saw psychoanalysis as a
noted: the prevalence of the language and technology for changing personality without
technique of calculation and quantification, commitment to particular sets of moral val-
which may come to dominate its users, subtly ues. This view continued to prevail and re-
but significantly changing their perspectives. ceived a widely popular articulation in the
For example, in the USA the economic lan- client-centered counseling of Carl Rogers.
guage already evident in medicine"the Rogers's emphasis was slightly different,
health care industry," "providers," and however, from Freud and Hartmann. He
"consumers"may threaten the traditional recognized the value-laden nature of therapy
conception of the physician-patient relation- but saw the values involved as coming from
ship, including its moral norms. John Stuart the client's inner motivations toward growth,
Mill noted that Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian maturity, and self-actualization.
philosophy could "teach the means of organ- The Rogerian view influenced pastoral
izing and regulating the merely business part counseling in both Protestant and Catholic
of social arrangements," but not family and circles through the writings of Seward Hilt-
friendship. The instrumental rationality of ner, especially his Pastoral Counseling
CBA is appropriate in some areas of life, but (1949). Hiltner saw pastoral counseling as
even in public policy, expressive values, such communicating acceptance of the person
as care and compassion, are often important, being helped. It also entailed clarification of
for example, in allocating resources to rescue the broken person's problems. Acceptance
individuals despite the demands of instru- and clarification would help the broken per-
mental rationality and efficiency. son to regain his or her own initiatives and
See Ends and Means. address life's problems within the individ-
ual's own value resources. Although Hiltner
V. R. Fuchs, "What Is Cost-Benefit Analy- recognized the usefulness to counseling of the
sis?" New England Journal of Medicine 303, minister's role as representative of the
132 Counseling, Ethical Problems in
church's religious and moral tradition, he be- tic psychology has in drawing a firm line
lieved it was inappropriate to impose this tra- between its concepts of health and some more
dition upon the broken person within the in- properly normative and ethical image of
timacies of the counseling situation. To human fulfillment (see Health and Disease,
accomplish this, Hiltner, following Rogers, Values in Defining; Mental Health).
believed that a counseling relationship Beyond ethical neutrality. In recent years,
should be built around a warm process of William Glasser, Perry London, Hobart
communication through a nondirective and Mowrer, and Thomas Szasz have all made
empathie "reflection" of the feelings and atti- statements recognizing that psychotherapy is
tudes of the person being helped. an ethical process. They all admit that it uses
Value dimensions of counseling. Recent scientific psychological concepts, but primar-
philosophical analysis of counseling relation- ily at the level of diagnosis and analysis of the
ships, whether secular or religious, has un- causal determinants shaping a particular life.
covered new ways to think about their value But the scientific concepts function within a
dimensions. Rather than ethically neutral, it larger ethical praxis that becomes especially
is more accurate to see them as a kind of evident in the determination of the goals of
praxis with special moral and value commit- counseling.
ments appropriate to their major task of But few of these statements recognize the
reorienting personality toward the goal of full consequences of their arguments point-
greater autonomy, initiative, and freedom. ing to the ethical character of counseling.
Counseling may appear to be ethically neu- They seem either to take some kind of arbi-
tral because it may bracket or temporarily set trary ethical stand or to believe that the prob-
aside concern with certain more specific lems of imposition of heteronomous ethics on
moral rules that conventionally govern typi- unsuspecting clients can be solved if the ther-
cal everyday behaviors. But sometimes more apist simply acknowledges his or her own
abstract ethical principles such as respect for ethics.
persons, fairness, or mutuality are still very Ethics in pastoral counseling. In recent
much in evidence in many types of counsel- years, three distinct positions on the relation
ing and especially counseling that addresses of religious counseling to ethics has emerged.
marital or family problems involving more Hobart Mowrer has influenced several pasto-
than one person. ral counselors to believe that underdevel-
In addition, the images of health as- oped, in contrast to overdeveloped, su-
sociated with many forms of secular therapy perego* strength is a major cause of neurosis.
can frequently be seen as covert concepts of Mowrer's counseling reinforces superego
character or human fulfillment with quite functions and also works to reconcile in-
discernible ethical commitments. Joseph dividuals with parental authorities. This po-
Margolis in his Psychotherapy and Morality sition has the difficulty, however, of simply
has argued that contemporary psychother- assuming the basic correctness of conven-
apy is not ethically neutral. Rather, it has a tional ethical positions and sees no need for
specific type of ethics, generally teleological a more critically grounded ethic as a back-
with an emphasis on virtue* in contrast to ground to therapy. John Hoffman in his Ethi-
more deontological and principled ap- cal Confrontation in Counseling has argued
proaches to ethics. Some moral philosophers for the therapeutic efficacy of ethical judg-
have pointed out the ethical egoism* implicit ments in counseling, especially for a variety
in the concept of self-actualization which of problems where the client has sufficient
serves as the image of health and maturity in freedom and ego strength to hear and appro-
humanistic psychologies such as those of priate ethical advice. Don Browning in The
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers (see Self- Moral Context of Pastoral Care and Religious
Realization). Philip Rieff and Gilbert Har- Ethics and Pastoral Care has argued for the
mon have found a kind of ethical egoism of importance in all forms of counseling, reli-
a more hedonistic kind in Freud's image of gious or secular, of a stable, critically
health. Ernest Wallwork, on the other hand, grounded, and publicly recognizable ethic as
has found in Freud a more Kantian and a contextual background to the healing pro-
implicitly Jewish principle of respect for per- cess. In more distinctively psychological
sons. These controversies at least have estab- forms of counseling, this ethic is often tempo-
lished the difficulty that any psychotherapeu- rarily set aside within the confines of therapy
133 Counter-Reformation Moral Theology
itself while more specifically psychodynamic tion on moral life was connected in a system-
problems that inhibit the client's freedom are atic and integral way with one theology.
addressed. But he argues that this ethic After Aquinas, the influence of nominalism
should be present in the background of all with its emphasis on the individual and the
counseling so that individuals and the public uniqueness of every moral choice negatively
know what kind of ethical world the subtle affected all systematic theology (see Medie-
socializing forces of all therapies are opening val Ethics; Thomistic Ethics).
up for clients. At th time of the Reformation there were
two significant strands in what would be
D. Browning, The Moral Context of Pastoral called today moral theology*. A Thomistic
Care, 1976; and Religious Ethics and Pasto- revival in the 15th-century university world
ral Care, 1983; H. Hartmann, Psychoanalysis made the Summa the primary text. Com-
and Moral Values, 1960; J. Hoffman, Ethical mentaries on Part II of the Summa, which
Confrontation in Counseling, 1979; J. Margo- deals with the moral life of the Christian and
lis, Psychotherapy and Morality, 1966. its virtues, were the primary form of publica-
DON S. BROWNING tion. Thomas de Vio (later Cardinal Cajetan;
d. 1534), Franciscus de Victoria (d. 1546),
Counsels who contributed so much to international
In moral theology, counsels are exhortations law, and the somewhat later Dominican
that are helpful toward the attaining of the school of Salamanca illustrate such an ap-
good life, but are not binding, as precepts are. proach in the 16th century. The Jesuits Ga-
The "counsels of perfection," also called the briel Vasquez (d. 1604) and Francis Suarez
"evangelical counsels," are the exhortations (d. 1617) were also well-known commenta-
to poverty*, chastity*, and obedience*. This tors of the Summa. At the same time there
way of talking seems to suggest that the "reli- also existed Summae Confessoriorum, which
gious" life is "higher" or "more perfect" than had begun to appear in the 13th century.
the life of involvement in the world, and this These were very practical books often ar-
would be challenged by Protestant moralists. ranged in alphabetical order with little or no
But it is a mistake to talk of "higher" and abstract reasoning that dealt in a very positiv-
"lower," and it is a misunderstanding of the istic way with the considerations of the moral
expression "counsels of perfection." The life.
Christian social ethic demands that many One of the first theological responses to the
persons should involve themselves in the life Reformation took the form of an apologetic
of the world, but especially in an age of afflu- in defense of the Catholic faith. Robert Bel-
ence and of the overprizing of comfort and larmine's (d. 1621) Disputationes de Contro-
wealth, this same ethic equally demands that versiis well illustrates such a genre. Bellar-
some should hear the evangelical counsels mine considered all theological issues,
and witness to the realities of prayer, aspira- including those which might be thought of as
tion, and true holiness. This is far from being pertaining to moral theologyfree will, sin,
"escape" or "withdrawal," but it demands vows, sacraments, merit, etc. His whole ap-
nonattachment and self-renunciation. proach was apologetic rather than system-
JOHN MACQUARRIE atic, and obviously polemical.
In the beginning of the Counter-Reforma-
Counter-Reformation Moral tion period there came into existence an im-
Theology portant new genrethe Institutiones Theolo-
The Roman Catholic moral theology of the giae Moralis, which became the manuals or
Counter-Reformation period can best be textbooks for moral theology until Vatican
understood in the light of the previous his- Council II. As part of the attempt to reform
tory of moral theology and of the historical Catholic life and institutions, the Council of
circumstances of the time. Catholic moral Trent stressed the importance of the sacra-
theology as a separate discipline distinct from ment of penance* and decreed that all Cath-
all other theology came into existence at the olics in the state of grave sin were obliged to
end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th confess no less than once a year to the priest
centuries. In the Summa Theologiae of according to the number and species of their
Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) there was no sepa- sins. To accomplish this reform it was neces-
rate discipline of moral theology, but reflec- sary to train priests as confessors for the sac-
134 Counter-Reformation Moral Theology
rament of penance, with special attention laxists." Extreme reaction against the laxists
given to the role of the confessor as a judge came primarily from the Jansenists in France
of the existence and the gravity of sinful acts. and took the form of rigorism in the writings
In this connection, the Ratio Studiorum of of Anthony Arnauld, Peter Nicole, and
the Society of Jesus proposed a special two- Blaise Pascal. Often the Jesuits as a whole
year course to train future priests which were accused of laxism, but such a charge is
would begin with a brief treatment of the not true. These controversies were quite
principles of fundamental moral theology heated and evoked strong reactions on the
(the end of human existence, human acts, the part of many. In 1679 the Holy Office under
moral law, sin), then discuss the moral life of Pope Innocent XI condemned sixty-five
the Christian on the basis of the Ten Com- propositions associated with laxism. Among
mandments, and finally treat the sacraments laxist positions condemned as at least scan-
especially in the light of how they were to be dalous and dangerous in practice were the
administered and celebrated. John Azor (d. following: it is sufficient to make an act of
1603), a Jesuit theologian teaching in Rome, faith only once in a lifetime; we are able to
followed this approach and published his satisfy the precepts of loving our neighbor by
class notes under the title of Institutiones only external acts. In 1690 Pope Alexander
Theologiae Moralis. The world of Catholic VIII condemned some extreme rigorist posi-
theology after Trent shifted from a primary tions; e.g., those who do not have the most
university base to a seminary situation in pure love of God, uncontaminated in any
which the professional training of future way, are to be excluded from the eucharist.
priests became the primary purpose. In this Much of the debate centered on the ques-
context the genre of the Institutiones Theolo- tion, How does one move from theoretical
giae Moralis quickly spread. The method and doubt about the existence of a law or obliga-
tone of these manuals became generally ac- tion to the practical certitude necessary to
cepted as the approach to moral theology act? The one extreme of absolute tutiorism*
existing within the Roman Catholic tradition maintained that when in doubt one had to
until very recently. follow the safer course; i.e., assume the exis-
Moral theology in this context became cut tence of a duty, law, or obligation. The op-
off from sacred scripture, dogmatic theology, posite extreme of laxism held that one could
and spiritual theology and became closely al- follow an opinion in favor of freedom from
lied with canon law*. This discipline was not the law even if the arguments in its favor
primarily interested in speculative or system- were only tenuously probable (the Latin
atic concerns but only in the practical con- word really means provable) or even much
cern of judging if a particular action were less probable than the arguments in favor of
sinful or not and the degree of sinfulness. the obligation. Both of these extremes were
Vital concerns in moral theology such as condemned by the above-mentioned papal
character and the virtues of the acting person interventions, but the debate continued.
were skipped over. The tone of these manuals After 1656 the Dominicans generally pro-
was legalistic, extrinsic, and minimalistic as posed probabiliorism*, according to which
they dealt with their primary concern of one could follow the opinion for freedom
whether or not particular actions were right from the law only if it were more probable
or wrong on the basis of their conformity to than the opinion in favor of the law or obli-
the law of God primarily seen in terms of the gation. The Jesuits were generally support-
Ten Commandments and the laws of the ers of probabilism*, according to which one
church. could follow the opinion for freedom from
In the 17th and 18th centuries a sharp con- the law provided it was probable, or as often
troversy arose in moral theology between lax- phrased, truly or solidly probable. Unfortu-
ists and rigorists which centered on what was nately, the discussions often degenerated
later called the moral systems. There can be into polemics.
no doubt that some of the manualists in the After the suppression of the Jesuits, Al-
17th century fell into laxism; e.g., Antonine phonsus Liguori (d. 1787) became the lead-
of Diana, Anthony Escobar, Thomas Tam- ing defender of a moderate probabilism that
burini, and John Caramuel, a Cistercian was attacked by the Dominicans Concina
monk who was later called "the prince of and Patuzzi. Alphonsus, who was the foun-
135 Courage
der of the Redemptorist order, called his ap- trated in the lives of the saints told and retold
proach equiprobabilism*one could follow all through the Middle Ages.
the opinion in favor of freedom from the law As is well known, Thomas Aquinas
if it were equally as probable as the opinion brought together the cardinal virtues with
for the law. Perhaps the greatest reason for the three "theological virtues"* of faith*,
the ultimate success of Alphonsus was the hope*, and love*, thus constructing an ethi-
prudential way in which he approached all cal scheme that has intrigued and baffled
moral problems and offered his solutions. Christian thinkers ever since. Is courage, for
Later popes declared him a saint, a doctor of example, "only human" as compared with
the church, and the patron of moral theolo- faith, divinely infused in the soul? Later
gians and confessors. Although Alphonsus Catholic thought went on to schematize for-
wrote much on spiritual and ascetical theol- titude as both a cardinal virtue and one of the
ogy, his manual of moral theology followed seven gifts of the Holy Spirit*. This obviously
the general method and outline of the Institu- tended to leave courage in a kind of ethical
tiones which remained the primary Catholic limbo, in which it might be regarded as "the
approach to moral theology until Vatican emotion involved in the exercise of forti-
Council II. tude," to quote one recent Catholic state-
See also Casuistry. ment, or as the very meaning of that virtue
itself, in the view of another. It would seem
T. Deman, "Probabilisme," Dictionnaire de that oversharp definitions which distinguish
thologie catholique, vol. 13, 1936; B. Hring, "Christian" from merely "human" courage
The Law of Christ, vol. 1, ET 1961, pp. 3-33; raise more questions than they answer. Did
L. Vereecke, "Prface l'histoire de la Aquinas, by combining pagan insights with
thologie morale moderne," Studia Moralis Christian truth, thereby diminish or instead
1, 1963, pp. 87-120. transfigure them? Is an ethic of virtue really
CHARLES E. CURRAN compatible with one of grace-through-faith?
These are of course as much Protestant as
Courage Catholic questions; it is not surprising there-
The place of courage in the moral life has fore that the field of Christian ethics should
always been acknowledged even if variously increasingly engage both traditions in com-
understood and debated. Christian ethical re- mon inquiry and dialogue. Is "human" al-
flection on the subject owes much to ancient ways a synonym for weakness contrasted
Greek and Roman thought, especially Aris- with God's almightiness? Can an ethic of hu-
totle and the Stoics. As one of the cardinal mility and obedience ever supplant one based
virtues* along with wisdom (see Prudence), upon healthy self-respect and the kind of self-
justice*, and temperance*, courage was seen assertion that belongs to courage as such? Is
as necessary to all truly moral conduct, a the one more "Christian" than the other?
mean* struck between rashness and coward- And if so, what actual moral difference
ice, a capability of human character* to resist should it make?
pain, danger, or adversity by enduring what Part of the difficulty in locating courage,
cannot be changed and by changing what much less defining it, lies in the fact that it is
cannot be endured. psychosomatic in character, shared with the
Christian conceptions of courage were animals as well as the angels, and as versatile
greatly influenced by the experience of mar- as the variety of perils and fears requires.
tyrdom in the early centuries. This left an Furthermore, courage cannot be thought of
indelible impression upon theology and eth- without an aesthetic as well as a simply moral
ics as well as in church art and liturgy. It had reference; it occasions admiration whenever
much to do with stressing the passive ele- "danger is despised from a noble motive," as
ments in courage, thus balancing the sol- Aristotle says. The one word "courage" must
dierly fearlessness so prized by Plato and Ar- cover such a great range of situations and
istotle in their treatments of the theme. responsesrunning all the way from coping
Nevertheless, the Latin fortitudo became the to daring, resignation to resistancethat,
defining term for courage in the Christian like the character trait it represents, the word
mode, spelled out in manuals and treatises must have both flexible and firm possibilities
with a distinctly monastic flavor, and illus- of meaning. Perhaps therefore the best dfini-
Covenant 136
tion of courage would be one couched in the nant in Jesus Christ with the old one written
language of explicit metaphor and parable, on tablets of stone and speak of the church as
evoking what it describes, but always in a community brought into being through the
terms of that resilient steadfastness out of new covenant in Jesus Christ (see also New
which human courage is made. Testament Ethics).
Covenant and social relationships. The
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, bk. 3; R. Ha- term "covenant" may refer either to a certain
zelton, Graceful Courage, 1985; J. Pieper, kind of social relationship or to the transac-
The Four Cardinal Virtues, ET 1965; P. Til- tion that brings it about. In the former and
lich, The Courage to Be, 1952. more basic sense, a covenant among persons
ROGER HAZELTON is a binding, enduring relationship of mutual
loyalty*. Although a covenant is characteris-
Covenant tically thought of as coming about through
Biblical covenants. The word "covenant" explicit mutual promises, as in a marriage,
translates the Hebrew berith, which may be the term is also appropriate for relationships
related to Akkadian terms meaning "to in which the members' entrusting themselves
bind" and "bond." It also translates the to one another and accepting one another's
Greek diathk, a term that can mean "last entrustment is implicit, though nonetheless
will and testament" but that in the NT is binding and obligating, as in the case of life
used primarily in the sense of an agreement in civil society.
between unequals. The concept has central A covenant relationship, while it often in-
importance in both Old and New Testa- cludes contractual features, is to be con-
ments, as reflected in the names that, in the trasted with a contract* in most usual senses
2nd century A.D., came to be given to these of the term. Covenants imply strong affirma-
two parts of the Bible, which would more tion of each member in the relationship, a
accurately be rendered Old Covenant and focus on the relationship between the mem-
New Covenant. bers rather than mainly on the stipulated ob-
Covenants in the OT between God and the ligations, and emphasis upon mutual belong-
people are initiated by God, not negotiated, ingness and enduring responsibility, even
and are expressions of God's power and when the members are unfaithful. Although
grace. In some covenants, God's action is the obligations of a covenant vary somewhat
self-binding: e.g., those with Noah, Abra- with the type of relationship, they character-
ham, and David, in each of which God makes istically stress mutual faithfulness of a kind
a promise to the people but does not lay cor- appropriate to the type of relationship (see
responding obligations upon them. In other also Fidelity).
cases, God's covenant includes explicit obli- Christian theologians have sometimes used
gations laid upon the people, as in the giving the concept of covenant as the central vehicle
of the law at Sinai and in the covenant at for their theological and moral reflection (see
Shechem (Josh. 24). The contrast between Puritan Ethics). The "federal theology" of
these two types of covenant should not be the 17th century developed an elaborate
overdrawn; the latter type, and not only the covenantal scheme, contrasting a "covenant
former, strongly expresses God's grace, in of works" between God and Adam with a
that the God who covenants is the God who "covenant of grace" through Jesus Christ,
has brought the people out of bondage in and interpreting the church and the wider
Egypt, and in that the law which is given in society in covenantal terms. Although a per-
the Sinai covenant is received by the Israelite vasive covenantal interpretation of life is in
people with immense gratitude, as a gift that principle promising, serious exegetical and
gives shape and meaning to the people theological questions have been raised about
through the revelation of God's will (see also how these theologians carried it out. Partly
Old Testament Ethics). under their influence, a major element in the
One way NT writers interpret the signifi- tradition of the Afrikaners of the Republic of
cance of God's action in Jesus Christ is by South Africa is the belief that at a time of
reference to God's covenant with the people great crisis God entered into a covenant with
Israel. The writers frequently portray Jesus the Boer people and gave them victory over
Christ as the fulfillment of God's promises to their enemies. In this imagery God elected
Israel. Elsewhere they contrast the new cove- the Afrikaner people to special favor and
137 Crime
wills the separation of that people from other nate desire to acquire and hoard goods, usu-
racesa doctrine used to support theories of ally money. Following Aristotle, Thomas
apartheid* and "separate development." The Aquinas (ST II-II.l 18) treated generosity or
contrast could hardly be sharper between this liberality as the virtuous mean between the
view of covenant and the New Testament vices of covetousness or avarice and prodigal-
proclamation of God's love in Jesus Christ ity or extravagance. There is considerable lat-
for all people. Christian covenantal interpre- itude in defining this mean. One important
tations, however, are not inherently exclusiv- debate about the relationship between socio-
istic, but more readily express the universal- economic systems and motives is whether
ity of God's love and the inclusive as well as capitalism* depends on such motives as
the special moral obligations that follow greed, avarice, and covetousness.
from it. JAMES F. CHILDRESS
J. L. Allen, Love and Conflict: A Covenantal Creation see Christian Ethics; Image of
Model of Christian Ethics, 1984; K. Barth, God; Law and Gospel; Natural Law; Or-
Church Dogmatics IV/1, ET 1956, pp. 22-78; ders
D. J. McCarthy, Old Testament Covenant: A Creation, Orders of see Orders
Survey of Current Opinions, 1972; G. E.
Mendenhall, "Covenant," IDB I, 1962. Crime
JOSEPH L. ALLEN Crime is a pervasive butas far as its defini-
Covetousness
tion is concernedsomewhat elusive charac-
The last of the Ten Commandments* prohib- teristic of societies. The economic costs of
its covetousness: "You shall not covet your crime in industrial societies are considerable:
neighbor's house; you shall not covet your in Great Britain it is estimated that crime
neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his costs more than 4 million each day; the psy-
maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything chological costs to victims are often equally
that is your neighbor's" (Ex. 20:17). This is serious. Recorded rates of crime that are pub-
the only commandment that applies directly lished publicly are gross underestimates of
to thoughts rather than external actions. the extent of criminal activity in society.
Jesus also warned of covetousness: "Take Large-scale surveys asking people if they
heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a have been the victim of a crime during a
man's life does not consist in the abundance preceding period of time currently indicate
of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). Covetous- that about 50 percent of all burglaries, 75
ness appears prominently in lists of vices and percent of woundings, and about 90 percent
sins in the NT (e.g., Rom. l:29f.; Col. 3:5) of acts of vandalism are not reported to or
and has traditionally been counted among recorded by the police. White-collar crime
the seven capital, or deadly, sins* because it rarely comes to light. Many people therefore
leads to other sinful actions, such as theft. cope with crime as a routine aspect of their
John Calvin observed that the point of the lives without involving the civil authorities.
Tenth Commandment is to "banish from our Many persons commit offenses that are never
hearts all desire contrary to love," since cov- detected.
etousness could lead to actions that harm the Fear of being a victim of crime, especially
neighbor, and that its positive interpretation among the elderly, has often been found to be
in accord with Christ, the interpreter of the based on poor evidence. Although crime is a
law, is that "whatever we conceive, deliber- pervasive and serious problem, it is widely
ate, will, or attempt is to be linked to our dispersed in both time and space and is usu-
neighbor's good and advantage" (Institutes ally of a petty character. And in many
2.7.49). offenses involving physical harm, the victim
Covetousness is perhaps best defined as ar- shares similar social characteristics with the
dent, excessive, or immoderate desire not assailant. Changes in the recorded rates of
only for possessions but for the possessions of crime may be as much related to changes in
others (see also Envy). Covetousness is close reporting habits among the public, or record-
to but often distinguished from greed, which ing practices by the police, as to actual in-
is an excessive desire for goods, especially creases or decreases in criminal activity. The
wealth, and from avarice, which is an inordi- published aggregate statistics of crime ob-
scure such nuances of interpretation, possibly
Crime 138
increasing anxiety and fear, compounding tions about the nature of societal objectives,
the problem of crime itself. Marxist criminologists have tinged criminal
Although contestable at every point, an acts with political significance. Crime is
initial conception of crime indicates that it is caused by the residual inequalities of capital-
behavior intended by a person who could ist society. With more or less certainty, it is
have acted differently; activity harmful to the argued that in a socialist society the amounts
public welfare; prohibited by the criminal of crime will be small.
law, and usually prosecuted by representa- Sin is not a notion generally employed by
tives of the state. Some anthropologists have criminologists. Evil intent or the hurt caused
pointed to examples of societies where crime to victims is not a matter for frequent com-
is identified without the existence of a cen- ment. It has been left to moralists to debate
tralized state, which may therefore be the the relationship between crime and sin. In
least important feature. However, criminolo- Britain, this has provided a complex litera-
gists and sociologists do not dispute greatly ture that has echoes of the difficulty of hold-
over a definition of crime. Indeed, they have ing to a notion of natural law and the tension
tended to expand their subject matter well of a more contextual ethic. The debate be-
beyond the concern of criminal law to in- tween Patrick Devlin, who, though not
clude the making and breaking of social rules equating crime with sin, does identify an area
of conduct. Thus, the professional interest of of public morality to which the law should
the sociologist of deviance may range from refer, and H. L. A. Hart, who urges a more
robbery to nudity, from fraud to religious critical appraisal of popular morality, has
fundamentalism. continued, but largely free from the interven-
Dispute does focus on the causes of crime tion of criminologists (see Morality, Legal
or, less ambitiously, on the social conditions Enforcement of).
that foster it. Legal positivists regard crime Finally, crime has been defined as a pro-
as human behavior that intentionally breaks cess of decision-making by the various per-
the criminal law. Judicial decision-making sonnel of the criminal justice system. A per-
concerns the relationship between a person's son perceives himself or herself as a victim,
actions and the meaning of a statute, as well the police are called and decide on the valid-
as an offender's mental state. Crime resides in ity of the claim. Through a complex series of
the action of a willing person. relationships an event is molded into a final
Early attempts to explain the causes of category of criminal activity. This perspec-
crime were directed to individual human tive has led to the gathering of a fruitful body
characteristics, whether genetic, physical, or of knowledge about the assumptions that po-
psychological. For example, on the basis of lice officers, lawyers, and other people work-
detailed anthropometric measurement, Lom- ing within the criminal justice system make
broso (1836-1909) attempted to identify the about their work and their differing defini-
born criminal. Human will plays a dimin- tions of crime. The tension between legal pos-
ished role in this perspective, with little hope itivism and "law in action" has been high-
of reform offered to an offender. Scant atten- lighted. Such a perspective can present a
tion is given to the fact that crime is defined highly relativistic concept of crime, neglect-
socially and therefore brings different sec- ing a description and analysis of those actions
tions of the population within its scope as which, across a range of contexts within and
change occurs. between different societies, may frustrate
Another range of theories links crime to what Paul Lehmann (Ethics in a Christian
the malfunctioning of a social system. Robert Context, 1963) has described as "making and
Merton (b. 1910) argues that when particular keeping human life really human."
groups cannot achieve generally shared soci- See Penology; Juvenile Delinquency.
etal goals by the accepted institutional
means, they may resort to deviance and law- H. S. Becker, Outsiders: Studies in the Sociol-
breaking. A variety of "strain theories" have ogy of Deviance, 1964; P. Devlin, The En-
followed, including the proposition that forcement of Morals, 1959; D. Downes and
crime can become a feature of a subculture P. Rock, Understanding Deviance, 1982; P.
that functions to sustain the material welfare H. Ennis, Criminal Victimization in the
of disadvantaged people. United States: A Report of a National Survey.
Working from rather different assump- U.S. President's Commission on Law En-
139 Crusade
forcement and Administration of Justice, they are necessary for their morally signifi-
Field Surveys 11, 1967; H. L. A. Hart, Law, cant ends.
Liberty and Morality, 1963; Home Office, See Humanitarianism; Necessity; Terror-
The British Crime Survey, 1983; R. K. Mer- ism.
ton, Social Theory and Social Structure,
1957. P. P. Hallie, The Paradox of Cruelty, 1969;
SIMON HOLDAWAY J. Shklar, Ordinary Vices, 1984.
JAMES F. CHILDRESS
Criteria see Norms; Situation Ethics
Crusade
Cruelty The idea of the crusade, or "holy war," is
The willful infliction of unnecessary pain and described by Roland Bainton as one of three
suffering, i.e., pain and suffering that are not Christian attitudes toward war, alongside
necessary to achieve morally important ends pacifism and the just war idea. Bainton iden-
and thus cannot be justified by those ends tifies the crusade by four characteristics: holy
(see Ends and Means). Cruelty is the inflic- cause, belief in divine guidance and aid, godly
tion of pain and suffering for their own sake crusaders and ungodly enemies, and unspar-
on any sentient creature that can experience ing prosecution. Other writers (e.g., Thomas
pain and undergo suffering. Cruelty to ani- Fuller) have stressed the close connection be-
mals as well as to humans is a moral offense tween the just war and crusade ideas. For the
and usually a legal offense too. Although cru- Decretists of the 12th and early 13th centu-
elty is often physical, it may also be mental ries, a crusade was simply a just war author-
as in the case of humiliation. There are no ized by the pope. For the Puritan apologists
moral defenses of cruelty; cruelty appears to of the 16th and 17th centuries, God's autho-
be absolutely wrong, seriously harming both rization and participation are similarly a sign
the perpetrator and the victim. But even if of the most just kind of war. The idea of war
the moral rule against cruelty is absolute, ordained by God originates in the OT story
there will still be disputes about its meaning, of the conquest of Canaan; this paradigm was
particularly about which acts that inflict pain incorporated by Augustine in his nascent the-
and suffering are cruel and which can be jus- ory of the just war. In the OT such wars are
tified by their ends (e.g., deterrence of crime to be fought unsparingly; yet Augustine un-
or retaliation to force the enemy to respect dercut this theme by insisting on restraint in
the laws of war). For example, the Eighth the use of force against evildoers. A similar
Amendment to the US Constitution rules out mixed picture emerges later. The efforts of
"cruel and unusual punishment," but there is the medieval church to limit warfare among
dispute about whether capital punishment* is Christians (the Truce of God, the Peace of
cruel. Similarly, the laws of war rule out cru- God, and the banning of certain weapons)
elty, but there is dispute about whether tor- were not extended to warfare with infidels,
ture* is always cruel or whether it can be and the medieval crusades were not fought
justified by some ends. Certain weapons are according to such restraints. Some apologists
prohibited because they are designed to cause in the Puritan revolution argued that their
unnecessary suffering; for example, dumdum soldiers' godliness implied scrupulously mer-
bullets and explosive or inflammable projec- ciful treatment of the enemy; yet extreme
tiles weighing less than four hundred grams cruelty and devastation sometimes appeared
are prohibited because they can incapacitate in this war and were generally characteristic
only one person and cause more suffering of the Continental religious wars. The evi-
than is necessary to incapacitate that person. dence is not that all crusades are necessarily
Other major disputes about cruelty include unsparing, but that a transcendent cause
the use of animals* in research. Psychologi- tends to justify extreme measures in its ser-
cally, there are some pathological conditions: vice. Modern ideological wars share the char-
the sadist enjoys inflicting pain and the mas- acteristics of the crusade and present the
ochist enjoys experiencing pain. Sociologi- same dangers.
cally, some regimes and opponents of See Just War.
regimes create terror in part by the infliction
of pain and suffering, but they usually deny R. H. Bainton, Christian Attitudes Toward
that their acts are cruel by contending that War and Peace, 1960; T. Fuller, The Historie
Cults 140
of the Holy Warre, 1639; J. T. Johnson, Ide- ety's religious traditions. Thus Milton Yinger
ology, Reason, and the Limitation of War, (1957) defines the cult as loosely structured,
1975; L. B. Walters, Jr., "The Just War and "small, short-lived, often local, frequently
the Crusade: Antitheses or Analogies," The built around a dominant leader," and unlikely
Monist 57, 1973. to develop into an established sect or denomi-
JAMES TURNER JOHNSON nation. Drawing on the work of Bryan Wilson
(1959, 1973) and David Martin (1965), Roy
Cults Wallis (1977) distinguishes between cult and
Derived from the Latin cultus (worship), the sect by observing that while both deviate from
term "cult" generally either denotes the act the respectable church and denomination, the
or form of religious practice, or classifies a sect, like the church, is seen by its members to
religious group as unorthodox or spurious. In be "uniquely legitimate as a means of access to
the first sense, cult may refer to specific rites truth or salvation." The cult, like the denomi-
and beliefs, or their adherents, devoted to a nation, is seen to be "pluralistically legiti-
particular deity, spirit, or saint, such as the mate, one of a variety of paths" to the truth.
cult of Apollo or the Virgin Mary. In the This absence of authoritative grounds for dis-
second sense, "cult" is often used inter- cerning heresy from orthodoxy stems from
changeably with "sect"* as a term in contrast the cult's epistemological individualism. This
to church* or denomination. central trait is what precludes stable doctrine,
In popular American usage since the 1960s organization, and membership in the case of
cults are "totalistic" religious groups which the cult. If cult leaders can claim some new
demand their members' complete commit- revelation to consolidate doctrinal and moral
ment to absolutist beliefs and authoritarian authority, then a coherent sectarian group
leaders, regimented organizations, and devi- can develop from the diffuse, individualistic
ant ways of life. To this end groups like the origins of a cult.
Peoples Temple of Jim Jones subject their See Sect.
recruits to "brainwashing,"* disrupt their
families, and exploit their labor and assets. D. A. Martin, Pacifism, 1965; E. Troeltsch,
Defenders of many alternative religious The Social Teaching of the Christian
movements labeled cults, as, for example, the Churches (1912), ET 1931, vol. 2, p. 796; R.
Unification Church, point to their lack of Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom, 1977,
overtly coercive measures as well as their pp. 13-18; B. R. Wilson, "An Analysis of
ideological and communal integrity in re- Sect Development," American Sociological
sponding to the problems their converts face Review 24, 1959, pp. 3-15; also Magic and
in the larger society and culture (see Depro- the Millennium, 1973, ch. 1; J. M. Yinger,
gramming). Religion, Society, and the Individual, 1957,
Sociologists of religion have fixed no pp. 154155.
unified definition of the term or list of cases STEVEN M. TIPTON
to which it applies. In the context of modern
Christianity the seminal formulation is that Culture
of Ernst Troeltsch (1912), who views the cult In common parlance, culture is a word that
as a form of radical mystical individualism. applies to the art and literature of a society
This entirely inward spiritual religion is in- or a period, and historians contrast the au-
different to moral discipline, public worship, thenticity and spiritual value of folk, high,
and social concerns. As opposed to the and even popular culture (e.g., vaudeville,
creedal and sacramental authority of the which had a good deal of personal creativity
church and the ethical rigor of the sect, the and audience participation) with the superfi-
antinomian and subjective cult "creates no ciality and spectator character of mass cul-
community, since it possesses neither the ture (e.g., commercial entertainment). De-
sense of solidarity nor the faith in authority spite its partiality, this emphasis on
which this requires, nor the no less necessary intellectual and artistic expression has the
fanaticism and desire for uniformity." virtue of pointing to what scholars identify as
More recent church-sect classification the most important (or most distinctive) ele-
schemes have stressed the organizational and ment of culture, namely, its codification of
institutional traits of cults, and their alien the "symboling" activities of people in a par-
instead of schismatic stance toward the soci- ticular society. The focus on art, religion,
141 Culture
philosophy, ethics, and communication version of socially constructed reality. The
through words and images in general also internal police of the cultural superego* can
captures a crucial aspect of terms like "horti- enforce respectable conformity much more
culture" and of the use of "culture" in con- adequately than the externally imposed
nection with bacilli grown in a laboratory, for threat of punishment by law enforcement
it suggests the earliest meaning of the word officiais. In addition, there is doubtless a lot
as applied to humankind's efforts to build to be said in favor of the psychospiritual co-
civilization by cultivating or nurturing the hesion promoted by the received wisdom.
highest capacities of the species. Applying Yet it may well be that ethicists have over-
the word to both flowers and germs also re- emphasized the importance of religious and
minds us that social scientists now use the philosophical objectivations and of the meth-
term in a value-neutral sense: just as Enlight- odological apparatus that usually accompa-
enment philosophes such as Voltaire began to nies conceptual sophistication and attempts
use culture to mean "the spirit of a people," to teach it. Programs in applied ethics may
anthropologists use it to refer to the "social often be misguided insofar as they operate on
heritage" or "way" characteristic of a partic- the premise that an intellectual understand-
ular group without blessing or damning its ing of the moral dimensions of business or the
substance. professions will lead reliably to better institu-
A purely descriptive understanding of cul- tional policy and/or better individual deci-
ture would embrace at least the following sion-making. Just as moralists had to learn to
four attributes: challenge racial discrimination* directly
1. Culture is not the result of biological or through laws and administrative regulations
other natural factors; it is the work of human which forced behavioral change instead of
hands and minds. It may be heavily in- trying to attack indirectly through education
fluenced by environmental or biological and exhortation designed to show the irra-
determinants, but it is a human response to tionality or iniquity of prejudice*, applied
these conditions, not an inevitable conse- ethicists may need to give less attention to the
quence of them. communication of concepts and more to
2. It is not just a collocation of unrelated working directly for changes in law, organi-
customs or attitudes; it is a patterned whole in zational practice, and other forms of "recipe
which various cultural traits are interlocked knowledge" or behavioral cues that deter-
with and functionally related to one another. mine in such large measure what people actu-
Early functionalists (especially those whose ally do in ordinary life situations (see Applied
conclusions were based on study of primitive Ethics).
societies) may have erred in assuming that all Or, to put the matter in terms that will
cultural traits were necessarily interrelated, doubtless be somewhat more palatable to
but they were right in principle. religionists, perhaps what is needed is a stress
3. The concept implies both continuity in on "spiritual exercises" which to some extent
time and comprehensiveness in scope, and bypass the mind in its role as repository of
every society takes elaborate pains to trans- cognitive mastery and simply shape behavior
mit its culture to succeeding generations through repetition or collective efferves-
through appropriate rituals and socialization cence. A virtue*, after all, is a habit*, and
processes. particular virtues are habitual inclinations to
4. What Berger and Luckmann call "objec- act in specific ways deemed appropriate by
tivations" and "cosmizations"i.e., the one who has cultivated them. Thus ethics in
metaphysical doctrines, the aesthetic images, the form of specific behaviors of benefit to
and the utilitarian explanations which legiti- other persons might be generated more effec-
mate the way a society views and does things tively by traditional or modern types of be-
are of special importance. Thus analysts havior modification than they are likely to be
lay particular stress on the symbol systems by the attempt to promote the internalization
(the "superordinate meaning structure") of a of objectivations (see Behavior Control).
culture. See also Civilization.
Certainly one of the most remarkable
achievements of any culture is its ability to P. Berger and T. Luckmann, The Social Con-
induce the individuals who live and move and struction of Reality, 1966; E. Cassirer, The
have their being within it to internalize its Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, 1953; A. L.
Cursing/Swearing 142
Kroeber and C. Kluckhohn, Culture: A Criti- ditions of life, interpersonal relationships,
cal Review of Concepts and Definitions, 1953; and environment. It is the daily, immediate
R. A. Nisbet, The Sociological Tradition, working out of the effects of tradition, ethics,
1966; T. Parsons, The Social System, 1951. religion, values, and world view. The Ameri-
HENRY CLARK can who turns a piece of pie so that the point
is toward him or her when eating it, or who
C u rsi ng/S wea r i ng looks automatically to the left for oncoming
The taking of the Lord's name "in vain" is traffic when crossing the street (whereas the
forbidden in the Ten Commandments, and Britisher looks to the right), or who becomes
Jesus says, "Do not swear at all" in the Ser- excited over World Series games, or who feels
mon on the Mount. These commands protect repulsed by the thought of eating fried cater-
the sacredness of human testimony about pillars, or who feels that a distance of 12-20
God against the unholy or profane uses to inches between people engaged in conversa-
which sacred language is often put. tion is "intimate" (whereas for a Latin
In many cultures it is believed that by in- American anything greater is cold and with-
voking "godly" symbols humans can manip- drawn), is following the customs of his or her
ulate the divine powers, willfully punish an group.
enemy, or arbitrarily render ultimate judg- The customs of any group are not a collec-
ment (as in "God damn them to hell"). Such tion of oddities, or of odds and ends of un-
practices are idolatrous and magical when it related behavior, however. A people's cus-
is presumed that such formulas have power toms, no matter how diverse and unrelated
over God's providence. Biblical cursing, they may seem to the observer, are to varying
however, invokes God's righteousness in a degrees interwoven into a network of behav-
prophetic protest against desperate condi- ior, personality, emotion, and value system,
tions legitimated by unrighteous cultural which is unique for every society and consti-
conventions. tutes its culture. Customs are the individual
Some wider implications of these restric- habitual traits of behavior by which people
tions are that the capacity for human com- act out their culture, but a culture is far more
munication needs to be seen as a gift of God than a listing of customs. It is a dynamic
and protected from corruption. Otherwise, force rooted in a people's psychology, values,
humans cannot speak clearly about the most and history. Customs are part of its manifes-
important things or engage in the profound tation.
sharing of information or perspective. Lan- Most customs, or folkways, exist only on
guage shapes consciousness, belief, culture, the level of the unconscious, unsophisticated
and society. The meaning and power of the ways of daily life. People act as they do be-
Word is obscured by the routine distortion of cause of their cultural preconditioning with-
words. out ever giving it a thought or dreaming of
Common meanings of "cursing" and being critical of what seems so "natural."
"swearing" include restrictions on sexual and Some customs, particularly those which are
scatological language. These restraints pre- threatened by change or by the example of
vent the depersonalization of intimate rela- some other intruding culture may shift to the
tionships and private bodily functions, but, level of mores, of prescriptive behavior, but
legalistically enforced, can induce repressive prescriptive behavior simply accepted as
guilt or shame. right, not formulated into law* Laws and
The casual, aggressive, or facetious use of taboos* may then eventually derive from
theological, sexual, and scatological language such customary behavior when even greater
discredits the serious uses of human dis- sanction* is required to keep it from being
course and impoverishes a culture's linguistic changed.
system. Once a custom is called to the attention of
See also Blasphemy; Oaths. the people who practice it by being threat-
MAX L. STACKHOUSE ened in some way, it may be quickly rational-
ized, given a pseudohistorical explanation, or
Custom a mythological reason for existence. An-
Custom refers to the habitual behavior of a thropologists, on the other hand, have set
society. It represents the normal, typical re- themselves to find the historical, functional,
sponse of any social group to the normal con- and psychological factors within the culture
143 Cyrenaics, Ethics of the
which provide the basis for significant in- complete self-sufficiency, complete indepen-
dividual custom (see Anthropology and dence of all material things and all external
Ethics). happenings.
People's tendency to accept the greatest Wealth must be abandoned, for wealth and
bulk of their own customs as right, natural, virtue cannot exist together. "The love of
and comfortable leads to ethnocentricity money is the metropolis of all evils," Dioge-
when they look at the customs of other peo- nes said (Diogenes Laertius 6.50). Pleasure
ple. These seem odd, difficult, cumbersome, must be abandoned. Antisthenes, the founder
embarrassing, primitive, stupid, dangerous, of the school, said that he would rather be
or (on the other hand) glamorous, powerful, mad than pleased (ibid., 6.3). "May the sons
or exotic. In either case foreign customs may of your enemies live in luxury," he said (6.8).
be copied and assimilated into the receiving Pleasure is the supreme enemy of life and
cultural system, thus modifying the culture, ponos toil, is the supreme good. Love must
t
but on the other hand, massive influence be abandoned, for it makes one the slave of
from another culture may be seen as a threat one's passions. "If I could lay my hands on
to be opposed bitterly. Aphrodite," said Antisthenes, "I would
Custom, therefore, can be understood in shoot her" (E. Gomperz, The Greek Think-
any nonsuperficial way only relative to other ers, ET 1901-1905, vol. 2, p. 143). But the
custom, and to the culture as a whole. It can Cynics were no ascetics, and took their pleas-
also best be understood cross-culturally, that ure where they found it.
is, relative to other people's ways of meeting Zeller sees cynicism as a series of renuncia-
the same kinds of problems with other cus- tions (Socrates and the Socratic Schools, ET
toms which are the manifestations of other 1885, pp. 316ff.). It was a renunciation of
cultural configuration. civilization and a return to simplicity. Dioge-
nes even tried eating his food raw (Diogenes
B. M. Leiser, Custom, Law, and Morality, Laertius 6.34, 76). It was a renunciation of
1969. social and political life. Diogenes called him-
WILLIAM A. SMALLEY self a citizen of the world. He may have
coined the word kosmopolites (ibid., 6.63).
Cynics, Ethics of the The Cynics were the first thinkers to declare
The Cynic preacher was a familiar wanderer slavery unnatural, and to insist that the only
in the ancient world, shaggy and unkempt, difference between human beings is the differ-
always uncompromising and sometimes he- ence in virtue and vice. It was for the Cynic
roic to the point of martyrdom. the renunciation of modesty and shame. The
Epictetus (Discourses 3.22.1-10) paints the Cynics notoriously did the most private
picture of the Cynic saint. He cannot start things in the most public places, believing
without God. He has no desire but the desire that, if it was right to do a thing, it was right
for goodness. His self-respect is his only pro- to do it anywhere (Diogenes Laertius 6.69).
tection and his only guardian. He is the am- It was a renunciation of the gods. Dill holds
bassador of God and the preacher of righ- that the Cynics were "probably the purest
teousness. He may be naked and penniless monotheists that classical antiquity pro-
but he knows true freedom and true happi- duced" (Roman Society from Nero to Marcus
ness. He will be flogged and he will love the Aurelius, 1905, p. 363). They believed that
man who flogs him. His governing principle, the only true sacrifice was a life of goodness
waking and sleeping, will be purer than the and virtue (Julian, Orations 6.199, 200;
sun. Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.6.9-15). Virtue
For the Cynic, virtue is all that matters. was for them the only worship.
Ethics is the one and only science. And ethics The Cynics believed that goodness was ev-
is not theory; it is action (Diogenes Laertius erything, worth any renunciation, and open
6.11). Virtue is something that can be taught to any person who would pay the price in toil.
and it can be achieved only in one way, by WILLIAM BARCLAY
putting your mind to it.
Happiness to be real must be inalienable. Cyrenaics, Ethics of the
The one thing one can never lose is one's Of all the Hellenistic schools of philosophy
mind. Therefore virtue consists in a certain that of the Cyrenaics was the simplest and
attitude to life. What is that attitude? It is the most uncomplicated. Its founder Aristip-
Death, Determination of 144
pus held that pleasure is the supreme good consequence was that Aristippus and many
and the highest aim in life (Diogenes Laertius of his followers were far better than their
2.85, 87; Cicero, Academics 2.13.131). And creed. It was Plato who paid Aristippus the
the pleasure in question is the pleasure of the greatest compliment: "You alone are en-
body, for bodily pleasures are the most vivid dowed with the gift to flaunt in robes or walk
and intense (Diogenes Laertius 2.87,90). Still in rags" (Diogenes Laertius 2.67).
further, the pleasure in question is the pleas- WILLIAM BARCLAY
ure of the moment, for the past is gone and
the future is quite uncertain (Diogenes Laer- Death, Determination of
tius 2.66; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 544). Traditionally, at least in the modern West,
The aim of the Cyrenaics was not eudai- there was little controversy over the determi-
mortia, happiness, but hdon, pleasure, so nation of death. Medical science could not
that they were sometimes called the hedo- maintain people in ambiguous states, for ex-
nists. ample, where one's heart beats but brain
The Cyrenaic theory of perception adds function is destroyed. Beginning in the 1960s,
still something else to the picture. The however, as medical science began to be able
Cyrenaics held that the only thing we can to maintain such patients, the precise mean-
know is sensation. We may have the sensa- ing of death and the techniques that should
tion that something is sweet; the sensation we be used for measuring it have become impor-
do know, but of the thing itself we know tant matters at both the practical and the
nothing. It follows that there is no possible theoretical level.
knowledge of anyone else's sensations; all Contemporary developments. The evolu-
that we can know is our own. There are tion of the controversy is closely related to,
therefore no absolute criteria; the only possi- though logically separate from, the develop-
ble guides are convention and tradition (Di- ment of organ transplantation*, since one
ogenes Laertius 2.93). reason to define death precisely is to retain
If there are no absolute criteria and if indi- the possibility of obtaining organs from the
vidual sensation is the criterion, then it is newly dead at a time when they would still be
difficult to see how ethics enters into the viable for transplant. In 1968, soon after the
Cyrenaic scheme at all. But the Cyrenaics did first heart transplant, a committee at Har-
study moral philosophy under five parts vard Medical School proposed four medical
what to avoid and what to seek, passions, criteria for measuring what they took to be
actions, causes, proofs (Sextus Empiricus, irreversible coma, claiming that a person in
Against the Logicians 1.11). such a state was dead.
The Cyrenaics admitted that in common Since then, there has been widespread
sense the consequences of any pleasure must agreement that two separate issues are really
be taken into account. Simply to get the at stake in the debate over the determination
greatest pleasure out of pleasure the Cyrena- of death. The first question is essentially phil-
ics respected prudence and wisdom, and sim- osophical, conceptual, and ethical: Under
ply to avoid unpleasantness they abstained what circumstances do we consider a person
from what law and convention regard as evil dead? The question is asked in several ways.
(Diogenes Laertius 2.87, 90, 93). No one de- What are the necessary and sufficient condi-
nied that a man could leave the school of tions for a person to be alive? What is the
Aristippus a profligate (Cicero, On the Na- essential characteristic of persons such that
ture of the Gods 3.31.77), but if he did so it its loss can be said to constitute death? (See
simply meant that he was not having pleasure Persons and Personality.) The moral corol-
at its most pleasant. lary of these questions is the question: Under
One thing remains to be added. The what circumstances should we treat a person
Cyrenaics insisted that people must be mas- as dead? Certain social behaviors are nor-
ters of pleasure and not pleasure master of mally associated with calling a person dead:
them. In regard to his relationships with certain treatments may be stopped that
Lais, the famous courtesan, Aristippus spoke would not otherwise be stopped; a will may
his most famous epigram, Echo, ouk be read, plans for a funeral may begin; if the
echomai, "I possess, but I am not possessed." dead person was a public office holder, the
For the Cyrenaics ethics existed simply to process of succession will begin.
make pleasure more pleasant, and the odd The traditional understanding of the
145 Death, Determination of 145
meaning of death was either the departure of question: How, empirically, does one mea-
the soul from the body or, in more recent sure the irreversible loss of whatever func-
secular thought, the irreversible stoppage of tions have been determined to be essential for
the flowing of the bodily fluids associated life? Holders of the traditional heart-lung po-
with heart and lung function. Now, however, sition would turn to cardiologists to tell them
individuals may have totally destroyed brains when the capacity to pump blood has been
with the irreversible loss of the ability to inte- lost irreversibly. Holders of the whole-brain
grate bodily functions, while their respiration position would ask neurologists how to mea-
is supported mechanically and their hearts sure irreversible loss of all brain functions.
continue to beat. This development has led Some holders of the higher-brain-function
many to argue that the irreversible loss of position now claim that a flat electroenceph-
capacity for bodily integration is the neces- alogram alone is the measure that predicts
sary and sufficient condition for being dead. loss of cerebral (i.e., higher) brain function.
Many countries and many (but not all) states Religious positions. Theologians and ethi-
within the USA have opted through statutes cists within various religious traditions have
and case law for a concept of death that re- provided substantial leadership in this de-
lates death to loss of brain function. In Great bate. Within the Roman Catholic Church,
Britain some professional groups have ac- Pope Pius XII early in the discussion said,
cepted determination of death based on "The task of determining the exact instant of
brain-related criteria and some courts have death is that of the physician." His statement
made use of such a determination, but no has been interpreted as signaling the accept-
definitive parliamentary or court policy has ability of new formulations articulated by
been established. This concept has been sup- medical experts. The statement, however,
ported by public commissions as well as pro- can now be seen as ambiguous. If it meant
fessional organizations. that the church will leave to the medical ex-
Emphasis on loss of all functions of the perts the scientific question of which medical
entire brain, including the brain stem, dif- criteria and tests should be used to measure
ferentiates this from a newer formulation of the destruction of heart or brain function, it
the concept of death, often referred to as the is not controversial. If, however, it meant
"higher-brain" position. that the choice of a concept of death should
We now realize that irreversible coma is be left to medical experts, that position would
not identical with the death of the entire be widely challenged both within the Roman
brain. It is possible for a person to be in a Catholic Church and outside it.
coma (or, more accurately, what is now Some Catholic thinkers, such as Bernard
called a permanent vegetative state) and still Hring, and some Protestant thinkers, such
retain much brain activity, especially lower- as Paul Ramsey and Joseph Fletcher, have
brain activity that controls breathing and generally endorsed the use of brain criteria
certain reflexes. Recent scholarly debate has for death pronouncement, although several
centered on the question of whether persons have warned of the ethical danger of rushing
should be considered dead if they are perma- too quickly to pronounce death (based on
nently unconscious but still retain the capac- either heart or brain criteria) when the post-
ity to integrate bodily functions such as mortem use of body parts is also on the
breathing and reflexes. If one adopts the phil- agenda. There appears to be a division among
osophical or theological position that con- both Catholics and Protestants over the theo-
sciousness, capacity to communicate, or ca- logical question of whether an irreversibly
pacity to relate socially to others is necessary unconscious person with lower-brain func-
for being alive, then being irreversibly in a tion including intact respiration should be
noncommunicative, vegetative state would considered dead. Some who answer yes argue
be considered being dead (even though the that in Christianity the human being repre-
body continues to breathe on its own). A sents an essential unity of body and soul
number of philosophers and theologians have (mental function being a modern analogue
adopted this view, but as yet no national or for the soul). They hold that when conscious-
state government or religious body has en- ness is irreversibly lost, what remains is only
dorsed it. the mortal remains of the person. More con-
Once a concept of death has been chosen, servative critics argue that an individual
one can turn to a second, more scientific should be considered alive as long as capaci-
Decalogue 146
ties remain for bodily integration even if con- ship and confession of faith, and in these
sciousness is no longer possible. ways would have provided the fundamental
religious and ethical orientation for the com-
Harvard Medical School, "A Definition of munity of Israel.
Irreversible Coma: Report of the Ad Hoc While the content of the particular de-
Committee of the Harvard Medical School to mands of the Decalogue can to a large extent
Examine the Definition of Brain Death, ' 1 be found also in the religious and ethical liter-
Journal of the American Mdical Association ature of Israel's neighbors, no collection of
205, 1968, pp. 337-340; U.S. President's this sort is known outside the Bible, and none
Commission for the Study of Ethical Prob- focuses so directly the exclusive claims of
lems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behav- God upon a particular people. The prologue
ioral Research, Defining Death: Medical, ("I am the LORD your God, who brought you
Legal and Ethical Issues in the Definition of out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
Death, 1981. bondage," Ex. 20:2) ties the demands of the
ROBERT M. VEATCH Decalogue to God's act of redemption of the
Israelite slaves. The commandments to wor-
Decalogue ship God alone, to make no sculptured im-
Origin. The Decalogue, or Ten Command- ages of the deity, and not to use the divine
ments, is a collection of ten short, primarily name to do violence or mischief against one's
negative guidelines for human conduct, pre- neighbors also underscore this exclusive
sented in the Hebrew Bible as God's revela- claim of God. The commandment against
tion to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The collection idolatry is particularly striking and is of very
appears twice in the Bible, in Exodus (20: great importance for biblical ethics. It under-
1-17) and in Deuteronomy (5:6-21), with scores the difference between God and every
only minor differences in the wording. It is part of God's creation. Nothing in the whole
not possible to say with confidence just how of creation can represent God, for nothing
much of the contents and the present form of that God has made participates in the divine
the Decalogue goes back to Moses. Some of being and character. The human self comes
the prohibitions almost surely come from nearest; in the language of the priestly com-
Moses, and the collection itself may also owe munity responsible for the creation story
much to him. It was probably repeated regu- with which the book of Genesis opens,
larly in connection with acts of worship in humankind, male and female, are created in
early Israel, and would also have been taught the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-
in the home and in the individual communi- 27). The prohibition of images of God seems
ties of early Israel. Such short, unqualified to have arisen from this understanding of the
demands may have some relationship to an- fundamental difference between Creator and
cient curse rituals such as the one found in creature, with the human being charged in a
Deut. 27:15-26, but the Decalogue contains special way to affirm and preserve that dis-
no threat against those who disobey; it only tinction, while seeking the companionship
states God's demands. and doing the will of the One in whose image
Form and Content. The demands of the human beings are made.
Decalogue are similar in form to other cate- The prohibition against the misuse of the
gorical statements in the Bible and in other divine name is also of special importance for
ancient Near Eastern literaturesespecially biblical ethics. It seems particularly designed
to curses, laws carrying the death penalty to prevent the misuse of the power of reli-
(see, e.g., Ex. 21:12, 15-17), and provisions of gion, the numinous power of the holy, to
ancient Near Eastern treaties. It is probable, further one's own ends at the expense of the
but by no means certain, that originally the life or welfare of others. Like the command-
Decalogue consisted of ten negative sen- ment against idolatry, it provides a check
tences, each opening with the Hebrew parti- against authoritarian priestcraft, and espe-
cle lo\ "not," continuing with a verb, and cially against the use of fear to compel alle-
concluding with the object of the verb. The giance to religious demands.
ten prohibitions would have been remem- The ethical import of the other command-
bered by reference to the ten fingers. They ments is even clearer. The observance of one
would have been taught to children as well as day of rest in seven is identified in Deuter-
repeated in communal gatherings for wor- onomy as a provision that human beings and
147 Decision
draft animals have rest and refreshment (Matt. 5-7) and in other NT teachings. The
(Deut. 5:14-15). Human beings are made for summary of the Mosaic law*, the love of God
work and also are made to rest from work. and neighbor (Mark 12:28-31 and parallels),
Life's meaning is not summed up in work or also rests upon the Decalogue and sums up
in usefulness to others. Human beings are not its fundamental contents. The continuing
instruments but selves. God rested on the Christian use of the Decalogue in catecheti-
seventh day and rejoiced in the creation; cal instruction and otherwise has kept this
human beings are to do the same (Gen. 2:2-3; treasure before the Christian community, de-
Ex. 20:11). spite some disagreements about its proper di-
The honoring of father and mother is akin vision and interpretation. For example, there
to the Sabbath command in one way: it too are disputes about whether the prohibition of
insists that labor and the products of one's other gods and of images should be construed
labor are not everything. When persons grow as one commandment (Roman Catholics and
old and are no longer able to carry their load, Lutherans) or as two commandments (Angli-
their place within the community has not cans and Calvinists), and whether the prohi-
come to an end. Aged parents are to be bition of coveting the neighbor's goods
shown honor and respect by their (adult) should be construed as one commandment
children. This commandment is not primar- (Anglicans and Calvinists) or as two com-
ily intended to encourage small children to be mandments (Roman Catholics and Luther-
obedient to their parents; it seeks to regulate ans), with an obvious impact on the number-
the very difficult problem of how the genera- ing of the commandments. Nevertheless, the
tions are to relate to one another. Decalogue, precisely in its largely negative
The remaining requirements of the Deca- form, is a positive guideline for religious and
logue lay down flat prohibitions, not threat- ethical existence. It uncompromisingly indi-
eningly or with any indication at all of the cates what is not to happen, what simply
consequences of a violation of the demands. cannot be done. When a commandment is
This is not law in the modern sense of the violated, as commandments will be, the com-
term; it is the foundation for law. Human life munity must act. The community must
is sacred and is not to be taken. There are know, however (as its individual members
wars, and there are human acts that, accord- must know), what is demanded of it, what is
ing to Israelite law, demand the death pen- contrary to its very character, its very life.
alty. But the commandment against killing The Decalogue is like the Bill of Rights
flatly asserts that one is not to take human attached to the US Constitution. It defines
life. Life, it clearly implies, is God's gift; life and refines the character and ethos of Israel's
belongs to God. The community, in the light life with God, and it does so in ways that
of such a demand, must then work out what liberate and also confine the life of the com-
it is to do about warfare, about capital pun- munity. The confinement demands liberty,
ishment, and about the maiming and destroy- and the liberty confinement.
ing of human life in other ways, always with See also Old Testament Ethics.
an eye to the affirmation that life belongs to
God and is not to be taken by human beings. A. Alt, Essays on Old Testament History and
Adultery, the theft of persons and prop- Religion, ET 1967; B. F. Childs, Exodus, A
erty, false testimony, and hankering for the Commentary, 1974; W Harrelson, The Ten
life and goods of others are ruled out in the Commandments and Human Rights, 1980;
same way. Such acts are acts of violence E. Nielsen, The Ten Commandments in New
against other persons and against the prop- Perspective, 1967.
erty that is closely identified with them. The WALTER HARRELSON
command against coveting seems to have in
view the lusting after others and their goods Deception see Honesty; Truthfulness
that damages and can destroy one's very life.
Influence. The Decalogue is at the founda- Decision
tion of the religion and ethics of Israel's In the most general sense, to decide is to give
prophets, even though it is only occasionally an answer (not necessarily in words) to any
quoted or alluded to (e.g., Hos. 4:1-3; Micah question; for example, logicians speak of "de-
2:1-3; see Prophetic Ethics). Its demands are cision procedures" for deciding whether
only intensified in the Sermon on the Mount* propositions are true or false. Most com-
Defense Mechanisms 148
monly, however, the word is used of answer- fense mechanisms are in part accompani-
ing, for oneself or another, the question "Shallments of neurosis and in part substitutes for
I do this (or that)?" in the sense in which it. Individuals tend to be relatively consistent
asking that question is deliberation*. It is in the sort of defenses they employ.
commonly supposed that every voluntary ac- The most significant of the defense mech-
tion is preceded by a decision; but this is not anisms is repression*. Other common mech-
so. To decide, or answer the question "Shall I anisms include regression, in which the per-
do this?" I have first to ask this question son reverts to an earlier level of thinking,
(deliberate); if I act without having asked the feeling, or behaving to escape the threat inher-
question, I have made no decision. We some- ent in increasing responsibility and complex-
times act without having decided, because we ity; reaction formation, in which an impulse
have not had time to ask the question. For or conflict is rejected and a new personality
although it cannot be said that the actual characteristic (frequently embodying the
deciding always takes time (it may be the mere exact opposite) is developed in its place as, for
boundary between being undecided and being example, when an intolerable hatred is dis-
decided), nevertheless there has to be time for guised in an excess of love. In such instances
asking the question before we can answer it. the new characteristic frequently subtly
Additional time may be, but need not be, achieves the aims of the original impulse as,
spent on considering this question; when we for example, where the excessive love smoth-
say that a man took a long time to decide, our ers, cripples, and destroys the hated person;
meaning could otherwise be expressed by say- projection, in which one's own feelings, atti-
ing that he took a long time before deciding. tudes, or desires are attributed to other per-
But lack of time is not the only possible reasonsons; introjection, or identification, in which
for acting without deciding; a man may (vol- the attributes or attitudes of others are taken
untarily) enter holy orders, to whom it has over as one's own; sublimation, in which the
never occurred to do anything else (the youn- instinctual aims that cannot be directly gra-
gest son, say, of an aristocratic family in tified are redirected into other and more ac-
which it is taken for granted that the youngest ceptable channels. This last has been much
son becomes a clergyman). We might say: He disputed, particularly in relation to interpre-
never decided to enter the ministry; he had tations of creativity as sublimated sexuality.
always intended to. The popular tendency is to treat all defense
Therefore decision is not a necessary con- mechanisms as uniformly bad. They do have
stituent of voluntary action, nor of the form- in common a distortion of reality, but there
ing of an intention*. Nevertheless, a being are occasions when the ego needs defenses in
who in principle could not make decisions order to survive. Regression, for example, is
(that is, ask, and answer, the question "Shall common in adolescence but is only neurotic
I do this?") could hardly be said to act volun- if it becomes a characteristic way of respond-
ing to threat. It can be so severe and debilitat-
tarily or to be a free agent in the fullest sense.
R. M. HARE ing as to be psychotic. It is positive both in
Defense see Aggression; Deterrence; In-
intent and in fact when it gives the person
concerned
ternational Order; Just War; War; see also her resources an opportunity to regroup his or
Defense Mechanisms to deal more adequately with a
presenting threat.
Defense Mechanisms It is possible for strong defensive measures
The term "defense mechanism" is used gen- to become independent of the original con-
erally of any adjustment adopted automati- flict and to result either in bodily changes
cally to avoid having to come to grips directly (e.g., rigidity or stiffness) or personality char-
with painful facts or situations, but having acteristics (e.g., an arrogant attitude masking
positive and adaptive intent. It is employed insecurity or a "fixed" smile covering up deep
technically in psychoanalysis to describe hostility). Psychotherapy can help reverse
measures by which the ego* resists unwanted the changes.
impulses from the id* and unwanted feelings,
both positive and negative. These measures A. Freud, The Ego and the Mechanisms of
are carried out below the level of conscious Defence, 1937; H. P. Laughlin, The Ego and
awareness, and hence the person concerned is Its Defences, 1970.
normally unaware of their operation. De- GRAEME M. GRIFFIN
149 Deliberation
Dehumanization Deliberation
Dehumanization may be defined as the proc- Deliberation is the name given to the process
ess whereby human beings, either individu- of asking and considering the question "Shall
ally or socially, are oppressed and unable to I do this?"; to answer this question is to make
exercise or develop their potential as human a decision*. The minimal form of delibera-
beings or societies of human beings. This tion is the mere asking of the question; but
process may be the result of a conscious deci- since normally we decide for reasons, deliber-
sion by one individual, group, or nation to ation is usually concerned with the consider-
exercise power over other people, or it may ation of reasons for or against some action.
be the result of other factors, for example, The two types of reason most commonly dis-
scientific or technological advances, that cussed by philosophers are: (1) that the ac-
have the effect of denying human dignity. In tion is of a certain kind; (2) that the action is
coming to a sense of self-significance, human a means to a certain end. Since (2) is a sub-
beings need to be able to affirm themselves. case of (1), an account of deliberation in
This self-affirmation is achieved through the terms of (1) is likely to be more complete
exercise of power by the subject in the con- than one which is confined to (2). Another
text of the self-affirmation of others. Dehu- reason for rejecting accounts of deliberation
manization occurs when power is exercised solely in terms of means and ends is the fol-
by a person or group in such a way that it has lowing: it is usually said that means precede
the effect that others are unable to affirm their ends in time, and are causes or condi-
their humanity. Erich Fromm termed this tions of attaining them. But often we decide
"destructive power" as against the "creative to do a, although it has the consequence c,,
power" necessary for self-affirmation. Hu- because it has the consequence c . If c, pre-2
man affirmation with its potential for growth cedes c in time, and is the cause or condition
2
and development is also stunted by types of of it, c ! can in most cases be called the means
employment made necessary by modern and c the end. But suppose that c, succeeds
2
technology that require an automaton role c in time, as when we order oysters because
2
for men and women. they will give us pleasure (c ), although they
2
While the description of dehumanization will give us indigestion (cO; nobody in that
owes much to the insights of the behavioral case would call getting indigestion tomorrow
sciences, the awareness of it belongs to all a means to getting pleasure today; yet there
ages and cultures. The refusal to allow people is a close analogy between this sort of case
or groups to act as subjects has been a con- and the preceding, which the means-end ter-
stant concern of philosophers and theolo- minology obscures. In morals it is most im-
gians, even though the word "dehumaniza- portant to realize that the relative position in
tion" itself belongs to the modern era. From time of the various things that we bring about
the matrix of this experience and process of by an action is normally irrelevant to the
dehumanization has arisen the concept of morality of the action. It is as bad to bring
"human rights,"* which attempts to protect about a small good today at the cost of a
those who are unable to affirm their human- greater evil tomorrow (both being equally
ity, and to secure the conditions whereby in- certain) as to bring about a small good to-
dividuals and groups may be empowered to morrow at the cost of a greater evil today.
affirm themselves. The language of "protec- The following schema of deliberation is ad-
tion" and "promotion" underlies the provi- equate to cover most cases. Faced with the
sions of International Conventions and Bills necessity of doing one of several alternative
of Rights in the attempt to alleviate dehu- actions, we consider in detail what we should
manization and encourage the affirmation of be doing if we did each of them (including the
human dignity. consequences we should be bringing about).
See Human Dignity; Persons and Person- It will be found that certain of these details
ality; Respect for Persons. bring the actions under various moral or
other principles (the word "principle" is here
R. May, Power and Innocence, 1976; E. to be understood in its Aristotelian sense, to
Kamenka and A. Erh-Soon Tay (eds.), include, e.g., desires): if I did a I should be
u
Human Rights, 1978; P. Tillich, The Cour- transgressing principle p,; to do a is required
2
ALAN D. FALCONER shall (or shall not) fulfill my desire for x, etc.
Democracy 150
In the simplest case it will turn out that only Greek city-state or the New England town
one of the alternative actions is consistent meeting). Otherwise the only practicable im-
with our principles; if so, then unless we have plication is representative democracy, where
in the process been led to reconsider the prin- decisions about policies are made by a few
ciples themselves, we shall do that action. In persons designated to speak on behalf of the
other cases there is a conflict of principle and people.
we cannot, as things are, observe or obey all How representatives are understood to
our principles; this forces us to reconsider speak for the people is decisive for distin-
them and to qualify one of them so as to guishing democracy from its counterfeits. A
admit an exception in this type of case, if the dictator might claim to speak for the people
principles are moral ones. If, however, a by acting (supposedly) in their behalf. Yet
moral principle is in conflict with a nonmoral even if masses approve (and dictators can
one, the latter may be merely overridden, not manipulate them to elicit approval), that
qualified. A moral principle, in one sense of would not constitute democracy. Neither the
the word, is one which cannot be overridden content of government decisions nor the peo-
in this way. Therefore, if two moral princi- ple's approval is an adequate test for the ex-
ples are in conflict, one of them has to be tent to which democracy is present.
qualified, unless we are content to say that Appropriate tests for the presence of de-
whatever we do in certain situations is bound mocracy are primarily procedural. The most
to be wronga conclusion which offends important is whether representatives attain
against the principle that it is always possible office through competition among candidates
to avoid doing wrong, or that "ought" im- for the people's votes. Where competition for
plies "can." the vote is discouraged, election is no sign of
It is the finding of principles which will democracy; thus the claims of countries to be
resolve such moral conflicts that constitutes democracies where only one party is legal are
the substance and the difficulty of moral fatuous. For competition among candidates
thought, and is the source of most moral to be significant, however, other procedures
progress. must also be present, such as nonintimidation
R. M. HARE of voters, freedom of candidates and the
media publicly to discuss issues, ascribing the
Democracy same weight to all persons' votes, tallying the
The term comes from the Greek demos, votes honestly, and permitting the winners to
"people," and kratein, "to rule." In its most take office. Equally important with competi-
general sense it might be understood as "rule tion for office is the voters' ability to turn
by the people." Yet this definition leaves diffi- representatives out of office; hence, frequent
cult questions unanswered: Who are the peo- elections.
ple? What can or should it mean for them to Democracies ordinarily follow the princi-
rule? Descriptive and normative issues are ple of majority rule, both in elections and in
closely interwoven throughout the subject. votes within the body of representatives.
The term is used both descriptively and to Often, however, decisions about changing the
portray an ideal. constitution or about other crucial issues re-
All democracies understand "the people" quire more than a majority. On the other
so as to exclude some from the vote, whether hand, sometimes a plurality rather than a
slaves, felons, women, persons failing to meet majority suffices to elect. For still another
some property or poll tax qualification, or in reason it is not accurate to characterize de-
any event those below a certain age. Some of mocracy simply as "majority rule": the
these exclusions are generally held to be un- procedures listed above imply that respect for
just today; yet some exclusion, and in partic- the political rights of minorities is essential if
ular an age requirement, is unavoidable. we are to distinguish democracies from non-
A more difficult question is what it can or democracies.
should mean for the people to rule. Some Within this procedural framework opin-
have interpreted it to imply direct democ- ions differ about the most desirable form of
racy, where all the people enter directly into democracy. Should it be parliamentary, pres-
decisions about public policy. Only in rela- idential, or some mixture? Should restraints
tively small communities, however, is this on the majority to protect minority interests
method feasible (cf. the assembly of a small be primarily constitutional, social, or internal
151 Deprogramming
to individuals? To what extent should an- Denomination see Church; Ecclesiology
swers to such questions depend upon the cir- and Ethics; Sect
cumstances of each society?
Today nearly everyone asserts that democ- Deontological Ethics see Deontology
racy is desirable, whether in one sense of the
word or another. Why it is desirable, though, Deontology
is a major theological-ethical issue. Because Deontology means literally the "science of
the people's will is God's will? Because rulers duty." The word is used in several distinct
tend to be oppressive and must have their senses: (1) the expression "deontology"
power limited? Because attaining greater jus- seems to have been first used by Jeremy Ben-
tice requires balancing power among social tham to designate his own utilitarian ethics,
groups? Because the indeterminacy of human but it would not commonly be understood in
nature calls for democracy rather than some this way nowadays; (2) among Roman Cath-
more closed form of government? Or a com- olic moral theologians, "deontology" is
bination of these and other reasons? Some sometimes used for the special ethics as-
theologians, most especially Reinhold Nie- sociated with a particular profession or voca-
buhr, have given special attention to the bear- tion (see Professional Ethics); and (3) per-
ing of a Christian view of human nature upon haps most commonly, "deontology" denotes
this issue. a view of morality which takes as its funda-
Another theological-ethical issue has to do mental categories the notions of "obligation"
with the appropriate goals of government. or "duty"* and the "lightness" of acts. This
Should we desire democracy so as to enable deontological view of morality may be con-
everyone to pursue individual self-interest, to trasted with the views which stress the end of
assist persons to fulfill their potentialities, to action (the "good"), sometimes called "aga-
preserve individual rights, to increase justice, thology"* or more often "teleology" (see
to seek the common good, or some combina- Teleological Ethics), or the consequences of
tion of these? action, often called "consequentialism."* At
The widespread praise of democracy tends a minimum, a deontologist in the third sense
to cloak some of its recurring problems: that must hold that some acts are obligatory,
it can lead to sustained rule in behalf of some right, or wrong, independent of their ends
to the neglect of others; that many take ad- and their consequences. Immanuel Kant, W
vantage of it through graft, nepotism, and D. Ross, and John Rawls are all deontolo-
special favors; and that it easily falls prey to gists, as are many theologians.
coups d'tat by groups that dislike the out- JOHN MACQUARRIE
come of its procedures.
Such problems raise the question whether Depravity, Total see Total Depravity;
democracy is a good in itself or primarily a see also Original Sin; Sin(s)
means to a more just and desirable commu-
nity. The two can conflict, as when a majority Deprogramming
favors an injustice. If so, should democratic The term refers to systematic attempts to de-
procedures continue to take priority? There convert adherents of controversial new reli-
is danger in either answer: in subordinating gious movements (cults*). These attempts
justice to democratic forms, or in absolutiz- generally take place in a context of forcible
ing a narrow conception of justice at the ex- confinement of the devotee, often subsequent
pense of procedures that ordinarily restrain to an abduction. The term "deprogramming"
injustice. was developed by supporters of the proce-
See also Aristocracy; Politics; State. dure, who intended to imply that the convert
has been "programmed" by intensive sectar-
R. A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic The- ian indoctrination to such a degree that free
ory, 1956; C. B. Macpherson, The Life and will* has been extinguished and forcible ther-
Times of Liberal Democracy, 1977; R. Nie- apeutic intervention is necessary to restore
buhr, The Children of Light and the Chil- personal autonomy* to the dprogramme.
dren of Darkness, 1944; J. A. Schumpeter, Opponents of deprogramming tend to prefer
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, the term "faith-breaking."
31950, pp. 233-302. The most sophisticated defense of depro-
JOSEPH L. ALLEN gramming has been formulated by Richard
Descriptivism 152
Delgado, a legal scholar, who maintains that worked with dprogramme, increasingly
a religious indoctrinee's refusal of treatment even those psychiatrists and psychologists
may be legitimately overridden "if it appears who discern both pathological phenomena in
that the indoctrinee is incapable of fully un- cults and a therapeutic imperative, tend to
derstanding the conditions to which he has discourage participation in extralegal coer-
been subjected that account for his recent cive intervention. Some professionals have
change of outlook." Critics of this line of declared that involvement in involuntary
thought perceive a "rationalistic fallacy" therapeutic relationships with religious dev-
whereby a faith is not viewed as authentic or otees is unethical, as psychotherapy requires
worthy of legal protection from forcible in- a voluntary client commitment.
tervention unless the believer can articulate See Behavior Control; Brainwashing; Con-
the rational grounds of his or her faith. Some sent; Cults; Freedom; Indoctrination; Pater-
religionists discern an "antireligious" orien- nalism; Persecution and Toleration
tation underlying the apparent convictions of
some supporters of deprogramming that ac- D. G. Bromley and J. T. Richardson (eds.),
ceptable modern faiths must be rational, not The Brainwashing-Deprogramming Contro-
emotionally intense, and respectful of the es- versy: Sociological Psychological Legal and
sentially secular context of modern life. Historical Perspectives, 1984; R. Delgado,
Most legal and philosophical discourse "Religious Totalism: Gentle and Ungentle
relating to deprogramming has focused on Persuasion Under the First Amendment,"
the role of the state in religious deprogram- Southern California Law Review 51, 1977; R.
ming by means of temporary conservatorship Shapiro, "Of Robots, Persons and the Pro-
and guardianship orders awarded to parents tection of Religious Beliefs," Southern Cali-
of adult converts by courts. Delgado has ar- fornia Law Review 56, 1983.
gued that the manipulative and "coercive" THOMAS ROBBINS/DICK ANTHONY
context in which commitments to cults are
developed renders these involvements essen- Descriptivism
tially involuntary from the standpoint of cri- Descriptivism is a name sometimes given to
teria of informed consent. Coercive interven- the view that the meaning of moral terms is
tion may be justified if "non-consensuality" is exhausted by their descriptive functions: for
accompanied by some degree of psychologi- example, that "He is a good man" serves
cal harm to the devotee. solely to describe a man as having a certain
In a counterformulation, Robert Shapiro property or propertiesso that to know the
maintains that, notwithstanding the imagery meaning of "good" is simply to know what
of "programming," most allegations that property or properties objects have to have in
someone has been "brainwashed" in a reli- order to be called "good." Often contrasted
gious cult generally amount to a simple asser- with prescript vism*, naturalism is currently
tion that someone has become a different per- the most popular variety of descriptivism (see
son under the impact of coercive and Naturalistic Ethics); others are intuitionism*
deceptive processes of influence. In such a and (in some senses) subjectivism*.
situation, an imposition of therapy over the See also Ethics; Conventional Morality.
protest of the devotee is unwarranted, as the R. M. HARE
"new person" is still a person, whose beliefs
are absolutely protected from state interfer- Desire
ence under the First Amendment to the Con- The English word "desire" indicates a set of
stitution in the USA. The argument for inter- ideas that can be weak or strong, from a mild
ference is stronger, according to Shapiro, if it wish to a yearning or a frantic lust. "I have
can be established that the manipulated devo- no desire to go there," "You shall have your
tee is no longer a person, i.e., has regressed to heart's desire," or "He was consumed by de-
a subhuman level (see Dehumanization; Re- sire" are within its range. What is more to the
spect for Persons). present purpose, desire can be evil or excel-
Presently most deprogramming is extra- lent. In the NT strong desire (Greek noun
legal, i.e., does not involve court custody or- epithymia, or verb epithymeo) can be base or
ders. Although some mental health* profes- innocent; e.g., Gal. 5:16, "Do not gratify the
sionals have engaged in deprogramming or desires of the flesh"; Phil. 1:23, "My desire is
153 Deterrence
to depart and be with Christ"; or Luke 22:15, God's providence and his sovereign disposal
"I have earnestly desired to eat this passover of history. From an early time, the people of
with you." Israel were conscious of having a destiny, and
Religious people frequently treat desire it- it was this consciousness which held them
self as inherently sinful, and especially sexual together and gave them their identity. In the
desire, so uncontrollable and often irrational. NT the church appears as the eschatological
Theologians of a more positive bent have community, and such a community may be
blamed Augustine's horror of "concupis- said to be conscious of a destiny. In modern
cence," mankind's fallen, distorted will, for times, the word has often had more sinister
much that is negative in Christian ethics associations. German philosophy in the 19th
(e.g., City of God 14.15ff). Yet Augustine and 20th centuries has made a good deal of
himself also supplied the corrective as, char- the destiny (Geschick ) of the German people,
acteristically, he emphasized our longing for and there can be no doubt that this notion
our true home and the delight God has in contributed to German nationalism. The no-
store for his people. "If you do not want to tion of having a destiny is found also in the
cease praying," he said, "do not cease long- USA. There it takes the relatively harmless
ing" (Discourse on Ps. 38). He has the NT form of supposing that God has specially fa-
understanding that we have a treasure to find vored America and conferred on it the mis-
and enjoy. sion of leading the rest of the world to free-
The refreshed understanding that desire dom and affluence. The pervasiveness of such
and delight matter, that the mainspring of ideas is evident from the habit of American
the human personality for good or ill is the politicians of decorating their speeches with
will and not the intellect alone, and that pious references. A much more baneful con-
Christianity is a religion of promise and not ception of destiny is found among the white
only demand, is not new but has deep roots population of South Africa. From these few
in Christian tradition (see, e.g., C. F. Evans, illustrations, it becomes apparent that the
The Lord's Prayer, 1963, pp. 55-56). conception of destiny has very ambiguous
See Concupiscence; Lust; Repression. implications for ethics. A sense of destiny can
bring cohesion to a community, can invest its
Augustine, Confessions; City of God 22.30; A. life with meaning and dignity, can inspire
Nygren, Agape and Eros, ET 1953, pp. 437ff., noble aspirations and ideals, and give cour-
part II, ch. II, sec. III; H. Oppenheimer, The age to endure hardships in the pursuit of
Hope of Happiness, 1983, chs. 12 and 13; T. them. But it can also induce feelings of supe-
Traherne, Centuries of Meditations (e.g., 41- riority and it has in fact contributed to ag-
43). gressiveness, racism*, nationalism* and
HELEN OPPENHEIMER fanaticism.
See also Fate and Fatalism.
Despotism see Fascism; Resistance; To- JOHN MACQUARRIE
talitarian State; Tyrannicide
Determinism see Free Will and Determi-
Destiny nism; Libertarianism
We confine ourselves to the ethical signifi-
cance of this idea. Many nations or com- Deterrence
munities have believed themselves to have a Deterrence is the act or process of discourag-
"destiny," in the sense that a certain goal had ing or preventing other persons, groups, or
been set before them. The use of the word nations from undertaking some actions,
"destiny" usually implies that this goal has mainly by provoking their fear of the conse-
been set by some transhuman agency, per- quences of those actions. Questions about the
haps God; but the notion need not be fatalis- morality and effectiveness of deterrence are
tic, since the community may have to strive prominent in debates about criminal punish-
to fulfill its destiny. The word "destiny" is ment and nuclear weapons. This article
not biblical, though one does find related focuses on nuclear deterrence; for deterrence
terms, such as "determinate" and "predesti- in the context of criminal punishment, see
nate." However, something like the idea of Capital Punishment; Corporal Punishment;
destiny is contained in the biblical doctrine of Penology.
Deterrence 154
Deterrence in the nuclear age implies the vided over the question of nuclear deterrence.
strategic deployment of nuclear weapons For some persons nuclear weapons them-
against targets of value belonging to a poten- selves, because of their enormous destructive
tial enemy to deter an attack; more specifi- power, represent a threat to human life on
cally, it refers to the mutual policy of such earth and perhaps to the divine plan for crea-
targeting by the USA and the USSR. The tion. On this view it is immoral even to pos-
roots of strategic deterrence are in the poli- sess nuclear weapons for deterrence; the only
cies for nuclear use determined in the late moral course is nuclear disarmament* This
1940s and early 1950s. These policies were is nuclear pacifism* in the starkest form.
shaped by Cold War rivalry and mutual hos- Other persons apply traditional just war rea-
tility between the USA and the USSR; they soning to nuclear deterrence, arguing that
took form around the idea that Soviet aggres- the deterrent threat is immoral if it relies on
sion could best be deterred by a massive intended harm to an enemy's noncombatant
threat directed against Soviet cities and im- population, but that deterrence may be just if
possible to defend against. In the context of only combatant targets are directly and in-
marked US superiority in nuclear forces, this tentionally targeted. A third view, falling
doctrine found expression in such ideas as somewhere between the other two, accepts
"massive retaliation," according to which deterrence, perhaps even if it involves strate-
even aggression by conventional forces would gic nuclear targeting of population areas, so
be deterred by the threat of nuclear response. long as the deterrent forces are never in fact
With the development of substantial parity used in war. Its proponents draw a moral
between the opposing nuclear forces this con- distinction between threatening to do an
cept gave way to the deterrence strategies of immoral act without intending to do it and
"assured destruction" and "mutual assured the threat coupled with the intent (see Inten-
destruction." This last idea, dating from the tion). On this view the intent behind nuclear
late 1960s, continues to provide the frame- deterrence is to prevent nuclear war, a moral
work of American deterrence strategy. aim, though the threat on which it depends,
The specific content of American deter- unleashing a strategic nuclear strike, would
rence has varied not only in response to the be immoral if carried out. This position is
nature of Soviet power but also according to sometimes termed deterrence by "bluff." A
technological developments and changing strong recent statement of this position ap-
fashions in strategic thought. Early deter- pears in the 1983 pastoral of the American
rence concepts focused on targeting nuclear Catholic bishops, The Challenge of Peace,
weapons against "soft" targets such as cities; which sharply distinguishes "deterrence to
this required relatively few weapons, and in prevent the use of nuclear weapons" from
fact few were available. The development of "war-fighting" plans, and says " 'no' to the
a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile idea of nuclear war."
force, however, necessitated a shift to target- Each of these positions presents peculiar
ing of such "hard" targets, and not only were problems for the proponents of the other two.
these more numerous but each required more Critics of the first position charge that if the
than one nuclear weapon to "kill" it. By this disarmament it seeks is unilateral, it would
time the introduction of fusion devices had amount to a selling-out of Western values
made possible a large expansion in the num- and it might, through destroying nuclear par-
ber of warheads that could be manufactured ity, actually make nuclear war more likely. If
from a given amount of fissionable material multilateral disarmament is the goal, then
and also vastly increased the yield of each the critics charge that this is unrealistic
weapon. The introduction of "counterforce" utopianism. Critics of the just war position
targeting concepts alongside the concept of generally deny its premise that nuclear war
"assured destruction" produced a deterrence can be held in check and often point out that
strategy that no longer relied only on coun- even a counterforce strategic strike would in
terpopulation threats but now also was con- practice be massively destructive of life and
ceived as deterring aggression by threatening values. Criticism of the "bluff position has
1
destruction of Soviet military power by nu- been of two main sorts. One line rejects the
clear strikes. Current US nuclear strategy re- moral distinction between threat and inten-
lies on such a mixture of deterrent threats. tion, arguing that for the threat to be realis-
Christian thought has been sharply di- tic, the intention must be present, and point-
155 Dictatorship
ing out further that the intention is present, The contradictions or antinomies of dialecti-
since the strategic deterrent forces are not cal reason showed that it was overreaching
merely "possessed," as if in warehouses, but itself and that supersensible reality is inacces-
actually deployed with targets already cho- sible to the knowing mind. Ethics, for Kant,
sen. Another line of criticism stresses that is not dialectical. Its categorical imperative*
should such deterrence fail to prevent nu- is quite clear and precise and free from con-
clear war, the war would inevitably be total, tradiction or change.
since it would be fought with massively de- Hegel and Marx saw the structure of real-
structive strategic weapons in the absence of ity itself as dialectical. According to Hegel,
preparation for limited, lower-level nuclear "wherever there is movement, wherever
warfare. there is life there dialectic is at work."
See Disarmament; International Order; History itself, understood by Hegel as the
Just War; Nuclear Warfare; War. history of the self-movement of Spirit, has
the dialectical form of affirmation, negation,
A. Carnesdale et al. (Harvard Nuclear Study and "sublation" (Aufhebung). According to
Group), Living with Nuclear Weapons, 1963; Marx, however, the dialectic of history has a
D. Davidson, Nuclear Weapons and the material rather than a spiritual base; but ma-
American Churches, 1983; L. Freedman, The terialism must, nevertheless, be dialectical
Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, 1983; A. precisely to account for the development,
Geyer, The Idea of Disarmament, 1982, pp. through contradiction and struggle, of higher
17-88; J. T. Johnson, Can Modern War Be forms of life, culminating in the classless soci-
Just? 1984; P. Ramsey, War and the Chris- ety. For both Hegel and Marx ethics is so-
tian Conscience, 1961; and The Just War, cially conceived. It concerns the perfected
1968; (US) National Conference of Catholic state to be realized at the culmination of the
Bishops, The Challenge of Peace, 1983. dialectical process (see Hegelian Ethics;
JAMES TURNER JOHNSON Marxist Ethics).
Kierkegaard's Christian dialectic carries
Development, Economic the individual beyond the aesthetic and the
see Economic Development ethical into the sphere of the religious (see
Kierkegaardian Ethics). The absolute para-
Development, Moral dox of God made man is apprehended only
see Moral Development by a leap of faith beyond all human forms of
thought and existence. Similarly, 20th-cen-
Dialectic tury "dialectical theology," associated espe-
Stemming from the Greek word for "discus- cially with the early Barth, insists on the use
sion," the term "dialectic" came to mean first of statement and counterstatement to express
the method of getting at the truth by the the truth of God (see Modern Protestant
thrust and counterthrust of argument, and Ethics). Christian dialectic, however, re-
only later the unfolding process of world his- mains "Platonic" in that it constitutes no
tory itself, whose contradictions and resolu- more than a method of access to and expres-
tions are discerned through dialectic (in the sion of the transcendent. In most theology
first sense). and ethics the nature and will of God them-
Plato (see Platonic Ethics) defined dialec- selves are not conceived as dialectical.
tic as a journey in which "the summit of the
intelligible world is reached in philosophical R. Heiss, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx (1963),
discussion by one who aspires, through the ET 1975; H. Zhmt, The Question of God
discourse of reason unaided by any of the (1966), ET 1969.
senses, to make his way in every case to the BRIAN HEBBLETH WAITE
essential reality and perseveres until he has
grasped by pure intelligence the very nature Dictatorship
of Goodness itself." This is dialectic in the Dictators were initially officials of the
first sense. It is the highest method of philo- Roman Republic vested with emergency
sophical and ethical inquiry. Goodness itself, powers for specified periods. Dictatorship
the object of that inquiry, is eternal and un- now signifies the legally unrestrained rule of
changing. individuals or groups governing for indefinite
Kant took a very negative view of dialectic. periods and in the absence of agreed proce-
Dilemma 156
dures for transferring power to opponents. It principle resolvable if limitations of knowl-
typically arises in sharply divided societies edge could be overcome. In particular, there
confronting major economic crises or inter- is debate about the interpretation of the
national pressures. In practice it involves moral experience of perplexity in relation to
substantial reliance on coercion. theological doctrines. For example, Edmund
Modern dictatorships are classifiable as Santurri has argued that some Christian be-
follows: (1) Rule by "strongmen" typical of liefs in the coherence of the moral universe,
such backward and politically unorganized whether in divine command* morality (see
societies as Haiti. (2) Traditional counter- Voluntarism) or in natural law*, appear to
revolutionary regimes as in Franco's Spain. exclude moral dilemmas in a strict sense (see
(3) Single-party "modernizing" regimes typi- also Morality and Religion, Relations of).
cal of such postcolonial societies as Tanzania. However, such theologians as Helmut Thie-
(4) Single-party revolutionary regimes such licke identify "borderline situations" as "the
as Castro's Cuba. (5) Military regimes, as in crucial test of ethics" (Theological Ethics,
Brazil or Nigeria. (6) Totalitarian regimes of vol. 1: Foundations, ET 1966, p. 609) in a
the Nazi or Soviet varieties that in principle fallen world. According to Thielicke, the the-
seek, through a single party, to control all ological doctrines of sin* and justification by
aspects of social life. faith* establish that guilt* is inevitable and
See State; Totalitarian State; Tyrannicide. forgiveness* necessary in some extreme con-
flict situations such as abortion where any
C. J. Friedrich and Z. K. Brzezinski, Totali- action or inaction will incur moral guilt.
tarian Dictatorship and Autocracy, 1965; L. Nevertheless, in these conflicts there may be
Schapiro, Totalitarianism, 1972. a better course of action, which might be
KENNETH N. MEDHURST described as the lesser of two evils. From this
perspective, forgiveness liberates the Chris-
Dignity, Human see Human Dignity tian to face moral dilemmas (see Law and
Gospel).
Dilemma In philosophical ethics, utilitarianism*
In moral discourse the term "dilemma" may eliminates moral dilemmas in the final analy-
refer to several distinct situations of moral sis by its appeal to the single principle of
conflict and perplexity when an agent is utility; there can (only) be uncertainties
deliberating (see Deliberation) about what to about which action in the situation would
do: (1) There is some evidence that an act is maximize welfare. In deontological ethics
morally right or obligatory and some evi- (see Deontology) there is debate about
dence that it is morally wrong. (2) There is whether there are moral dilemmas in the
conclusive evidence that an act is both mor- third sense. For example, W D. Ross distin-
ally right or obligatory and morally wrong. guished prima facie duties from actual duties
(3) The moral reasons for (or against) an act in order to resolve conflicts of duties (see
are in conflict with nonmoral reasonssuch Conflict of Duties). One difficult question is
as prudential or political reasonsagainst whether an overridden prima facie duty
(or for) an act. leaves what Robert Nozick calls "moral
Some philosophers and theologians deny traces" and engenders moral guilt*, duties of
that the third situation is a moral dilemma reparation, etc. (see Dirty Hands). Some in-
because the moral reasons are all on one side, terpretations of dilemmas focus on conflicts
but there are disputes about the distinction of values and ideals, as well as of duties and
between moral and nonmoral reasons. Some obligations.
also deny that the first situation is genuinely Much of the recent work in applied eth-
dilemmatic because the perplexity may dis- ics*, including business ethics* and bioeth-
solve upon closer examination; it is epistemo- ics*, has concentrated on moral dilemmas,
logical rather than ontological. There is gen- quandaries, and conflicts; critics have
eral agreement that the second type of charged that this concentration distorts the
situation is a genuine dilemma, but there is moral life, particularly the centrality of vir-
disagreement about whether there are any tue* and character*.
moral dilemmas in this strict sense, i.e., situa- See Absolutes, Ethical; Casuistry; Com-
tions in which the moral conflict is not in promise; Conflict of Duties; Dirty Hands;
157 Disarmament
Double Effect; Ends and Means; Necessity; a military victor; undertaken as a unilateral
Norms; Right and Wrong; Situation Ethics. initiative for moral reasons or to set an exam-
ple; or agreed to as a result of intergovern-
John Lemmon, "Moral Dilemmas," Philo- mental negotiations on a bilateral or multilat-
sophical Review 71, 1962; E. N. Santurri, eral basis. There are several motives for
"Perplexity in the Moral Life: Philosophical seeking disarmament: to reduce the risk of
and Theological Considerations," Ph.D. war by limiting military potentials, to save
diss., Yale University, 1984. money, to comply with international human-
JAMES F. CHILDRESS itarian norms, to limit casualties and damage
Dirty Hands
if war should occur, to facilitate war termina-
In moral discourse, dilemmas* are some- tion. Negotiations about disarmament pro-
times interpreted as problems of "dirty vide opportunities for strategic dialogue be-
hands." For example, in Jean-Paul Sartre's tween potential adversaries.
play Dirty Hands (1948, ET 1949), the Com- Negotiations. Conferences or meetings to
munist leader Hoederer says, "I have dirty negotiate agreements not to manufacture,
hands right up to the elbows. I've plunged stockpile, transfer, or use particular weapons
them in filth and blood. Do you think you were held at The Hague (1899, 1907), Wash-
can govern innocently?" Sometimes this ington (1921-22), Geneva (1925), London
moral phenomenon appears in the context of (1930, 1936), under the auspices of the
ritual purity as, e.g., in the comment by Basil League of Nations (1932-37), and at the
the Great in the 4th century: "Killing in war United Nations almost continuously since
was differentiated by our fathers from mur- 1946. Progress has been slow because of gen-
der. Nevertheless, perhaps it would be eral political tensions among the negotiating
well that those whose hands are unclean ab- parties, the difficulty of establishing balanced
stain from communion for three years." equivalences between different kinds and
Often, but not only, viewed as a conflict be- numbers of weapons and fighting personnel,
tween responsibility* for the consequences of and disagreements about national or interna-
actions and inactions and responsibility for tional means of verification at each stage and
adhering to norms (see Consequentialism; means of enforcement should a violation be
Deontology), the problem of "dirty hands" alleged.
often emerges in politics, where it is some- Nuclear weapons. The advent of nuclear
times held to be necessary to lie or to use weapons in 1945 added a new dimension to
coercion* in order to realize good ends, or in the disarmament problem, for nuclear weap-
war, where it is sometimes held to be neces- ons have some indiscriminate effects and
sary to kill innocent persons in order to avert would almost certainly cause damage beyond
defeat. The problem concerns both what is that required by strict military necessity. In
right and wrong in conflict situations and addition to treaties and negotiations for the
what weight should be assigned to the agent's limitation or reduction of stockpiles of long-
integrity and purity. Part of the debate hinges and medium-range nuclear weapons and an-
on the interpretation of moral experience in timissile systems, conducted under various
the light of philosophical and theological acronymic labels (SALT, START, LRTNF,
convictions; for more on this debate, see Di- INF), there have been treaties to limit or
lemma. For related issues, see Absolutes, prohibit the testing of nuclear weapons, mea-
Ethical; Compromise; Conflict of Duties; sures to inhibit their dissemination (the safe-
Ends and Means; Guilt; Necessity; Responsi- guards system of the International Atomic
bility; Right and Wrong. Energy Agency, the Non-Proliferation
Treaty, and the guidelines of the Nuclear
M. Walzer, "Political Action: The Problem Suppliers' Group), and consideration of
of Dirty Hands," Philosophy and Public zones to be kept free of nuclear weapons. The
Affairs 2, no. 2, Winter 1973, pp. 160-180. Western nuclear-weapon states have resisted
JAMES F. CHILDRESS
proposals to ban unconditionally all uses of
nuclear weapons, believing that the posses-
Disarmament sion of nuclear weapons and a conditional
The elimination, reduction, or control of the intention to use them is necessary to deter
means of making war*, whether imposed by aggression. France and China have kept aloof
Discernment 158
from some negotiations and treaties about Church of England, The Church and the
nuclear weapons (see Deterrence; Nuclear Bomb, 1982; M. Wright, Disarm and Verify,
Warfare). 1964.
Chemical and biological (bacteriological) SYDNEY D. BAILEY
weapons. The manufacture, deployment, or
use of biological (bacteriological) weapons Discernment
are banned by international treaties. There The capacity to perceive and interpret the
has been little progress in stopping the manu- religious and moral significance of experi-
facture or stockpiling of chemical weapons, ence in order to make an appropriate re-
but the actual use of chemical weapons in sponse to God; an evaluative judgment of a
war is prohibited by the Geneva Protocol particular situation, more specific than the
(1925) though some parties have reserved the application of general moral principles. In
right to retaliate against a violator or an ally the Christian tradition it has three inter-
of a violator. States are free to maintain related meanings:
stocks of chemical agents for riot control in 1. Discernment of spirits. Weighing interior
nonwar situations. experiences to determine if their ultimate ori-
Demilitarization. There are agreements not gins are divine. NT use denotes either a Paul-
to militarize Antarctica and not to deploy ine charism (1 Cor. 12:10), insight into God's
nuclear weapons in outer space or on the will that stems from conversion (Rom. 12:
seabed. The Treaty of Tlatelolco (1967) is 1-2), or a capacity to determine doctrinal
designed to keep Latin America free of nu- authenticity (1 John 4:1-6). Monasticism and
clear weapons, and a similar zone was estab- Roman Catholic spirituality test ideas and
lished in the South Pacific in 1985. Small dispositions by examining their origins and
demilitarized zones have been established in destinations through self-knowledge and
the Middle East, Kashmir, and Korea for the affections of peace, joy, love, etc., that lead to
negotiation or supervision of agreements to God. (Origen, Cassian.) This leads to:
terminate armed conflict. 2. Discernment of divine calling. Interpre-
The arms trade. There has been little suc- tation of God's call to specific persons, mov-
cess in controlling the trade in conventional ing to an important life decision, and also the
weapons, partly because of opposition from process for subsequent decisions that corre-
actual or potential recipients. spond with the fundamental personal voca-
International humanitarian law. Efforts to tion*. Both presume ordinary moral bounda-
control or reduce arms have been paralleled ries. (Ignatius of Loyola, Jonathan Edwards,
by agreements to ensure the immunity of Karl Barth, Karl Rahner.)
noncombatants from direct attack, the out- 3. Synthetic practical wisdom. Disclosure
lawing of weapons that cause unnecessary of meaning by locating particular events in
suffering, measures for the protection of in- larger frameworks of biblical narratives,
jured or shipwrecked combatants, care of symbols, and personal history. It interprets
prisoners of war, the protection of civilians in divine intentions in a more mediated way
occupied territories, and the protection of than (2), above; and it seeks the "fitting" re-
cultural property (see also Conventions). sponse to God's action in all events. Like the
Collateral measures. It is generally agreed virtue of prudence*, (3) synthesizes moral
that progress in disarmament should be ac- principles, situational factors, consequences,
companied by strengthened institutions for and insight from the religious tradition into
preventing or resolving international dis- a concrete moral judgment, employing such
putes, for deterring or suppressing aggres- resources illuminatively rather than prescrip-
sion, and for maintaining peace*. tively. (John Henry Newman, H. Richard
Niebuhr, James M. Gustafson.)
S. Bailey, Christian Perspectives on Nuclear See also Norms; Situation Ethics.
Weapons, rev. ed. 1984; A. Geyer, The Idea
of Disarmament! Rethinking the Unthink- J. M. Gustafson, "Moral Discernment in the
able, 1982; P. J. Noel-Baker, The Arms Race, Christian Life," Theology and Christian Eth-
1958; N. Sims, Approaches to Disarmament, ics, 1974; E. Malatesta (ed.), Discernment of
rev. ed. 1979; Working Party appointed by Spirits, 1970.
the Board for Social Responsibility of the WILLIAM C. SPOHN, S.J.
159 Divine Command Morality
Discipleship see Imitation of Christ; changeably with "discernment."* Second, in
Jesus, Ethical Teaching of; New Testa- the context of the use of force, particularly
ment Ethics; Sermon on the Mount military force, discrimination refers to the
distinction between combatants and noncom-
Discipline batants, and the principle of discrimination
The term has two related meanings. It may prohibits direct attacks on noncombatants
mean the maintenance of certain standards of (see Just War; Resistance). Third, discrimi-
conduct through the enforcement of them by nation against individuals and groups in-
appropriate penalties; or it may mean the volves actions and policies that treat them
training of persons so that they will conduct differently and unjustly because of such char-
themselves according to given standards. acteristics as race, sex, or age. (See Race
When one talks of "ecclesiastical discipline," Relations; Racism; Sex Discrimination;
unfortunately one thinks too readily of only Women, Status of.)
the first of these two meanings. It is true that JAMES F. CHILDRESS
from the beginning the church had to enforce
some minimal standards for its members, Dispensation
otherwise it would have lost its distinctive- Permission by an ecclesiastical authority to
ness and been rendered ineffectual for its mis- perform an act that would normally be
sion. At some times in its history, the church against some rule of the church, or the waiv-
has been very rigorous in its discipline and ing of the penalty due for having done such
has even invoked the civil authorities for the an act. A dispensation would be granted be-
enforcement of its standards. Nowadays the cause of some special circumstances obtain-
strict discipline that was once enforced is nei- ing in a particular situation. While this con-
ther practicable nor desirable. It may well be, ception of dispensation undoubtedly lends
however, that the decay of discipline is due as itself to abuses, it has a legitimate function as
much as anything to indifference. In any mitigating the rigor of rules and introducing
case, the discipline of the church should a situational element.
never be harsh. The church must find room JOHN MACQUARRIE
within itself for "weaker" members, as Paul
called them, and its aim must be to sustain Dissent
these and eventually strengthen them. This is Disagreement with and refusal to consent to
not to say that its standards are to be weak- a belief, institution, practice, policy, or action
ened, but that whatever is done must aim (see Consent). It may be based on moral,
eventually at reconciliation and at the re- religious, or other reasons, and it may involve
habilitation of those who have injured the withdrawal from, noncompliance with, or
community. This is where discipline, as the protest against what is objectionable. For dis-
maintenance of standards, passes into the sent in social and political settings, see Civil
more important kind of discipline which has Disobedience; Conscience; Conscientious
to do with the forming of disciples and their Objection; Cooperation with Evil; Freedom;
training in the Christian life. Law; Resistance; Revolution; State; Totali-
See Ascetical Theology. tarian State; Whistle-blowing. For dissent in
JOHN MACQUARRIE religious settings, see, inter alia, Church and
State; Conscience; Cults; Discipline; Ecclesi-
Discretion see Discernment; Discrimina- ology and Ethics; Magisterium; Modern
tion Roman Catholic Moral Theology; Noncon-
formist Conscience; Persecution and Tolera-
Discrimination tion.
The term "discrimination" refers to the JAMES F. CHILDRESS
drawing of distinctions and marking of differ-
ences, and it covers several different positive Dissociation from Evil see Conscien-
and negative actions from the standpoint of tious Objection; Cooperation with Evil
Christian ethics. First, it often indicates the
power or act of making a judgment, particu- Divine Command Morality
larly in distinguishing right and wrong ac- The name applied to any moral system or
tions. In this sense, it is often used inter- theory in which central moral elements are
Divine Right of Kings 160
related directly to the commands of the See Morality and Religion, Relations of;
deity. Voluntarism.
The morality of the OT, with its focus on
the Ten Commandments and other injunc- R. Adams, "Divine Command Metaethics
tions of God, can be developed as a prime Modified Again," JRE 7, no. 1, pp. 66-79; G.
example of a system of divine command Graber, "In Defense of a Divine Command
morality. For example, the commandment Theory of Ethics," Journal of the American
"Thou shalt not kill" creates a moral obli- Academy of Religion 43, no. 1, pp. 62-69; J.
gation to refrain from killing. Variations in Idziak, Divine Command Morality: Historical
theories concern (1) what moral elements and Contemporary Readings, 1979.
are tied to divine command, and (2) how GLENN C. GRABER
they are connected. Most plausible is the
view that moral duties, rights, wrongs, and Divine Right of Kings
other aspects of moral obligation are in A theory that the king rules by divine right,
some way logically derived from God's a right granted to him (and not only to his
commands (cf. Adams, Graber). Value office) directly by God (and not only in-
judgments (i.e., judgments as to what is directly through the people or through God's
good, desirable, worthwhile, etc.) are more providential ordering of the world). Its most
appropriately tied to divine approval rather prominent spokesmen were James I and Sir
than command. Robert Filmer in the 17th century. While
A divine command approach has been Rom. 13 holds that God ordains government
widely presupposed as the natural moral ex- as such and particular governments, the the-
pression of piety. Explicit divine command ory of the divine right of kings focuses solely
theories of ethics have been proposed by nu- on kingship, holding that royal absolutism
merous classical Christian thinkers, includ- receives its authority directly from God's
ing notably Duns Scotus, William of Ock- special decree and that it is hereditary. This
ham, Ren Descartes, John Locke (in some theory denied citizens the right to disobey or
writings), and William Paley (in some con- to resist the king.
texts)as well as by contemporary theolo-
gians and philosophers (Patterson Brown, J. N. Figgis, The Divine Right of Kings, 1896.
Robert M. Adams, Philip L. Quinn). (See JAMES F. CHILDRESS
Idziak for selections and references.)
Criticism of this ethical approach also has Divorce
a long history. Plato posed a classic dilemma If lifelong marriage is a norm, it is certainly
in his dialogue Euthyphro. One version of it a norm with exceptions. The problem of di-
can be stated thus: Either (a) God commands vorce, i.e., of marriage that breaks (as distinct
a certain act because it is right, or (b) it is from nullity, attempted marriage that never
right because God commands it. If (a) is true, was real), has always beset human society.
then it appears that the fundamental stan- There have been many procedures for di-
dard of morality is logically independent of vorce, from unilateral repudiation to mutual
God's will or his commands (although God's consent, from return of bride-price to bills of
authority might still form the basis of our divorcement or judgments by family courts.
knowing our duty, or of our accepting it, or There have been attempts to forbid divorce
of our being motivated to do it). If (b) is true, with remarriage altogether, though separa-
then there appears to be no independent rea- tion "from bed and board" has to be allowed.
son to accept or do what God commands. In some societies, in some situations, divorce
(This is alleged to make morality "arbitrary" has even been obligatory (cf. Matt. 1:19).
or "capricious.") Further, in (b) there ap- There are many possible grounds for divorce,
pears to be no basis for praising God's moral from falling out of love to cruelty. The most
qualities, since there is no moral standard universal ground has been adultery*, espe-
independent of his will. Modern critics (e.g., cially a wife's adultery, which is felt by nearly
Kai Nielsen, Antony Flew, Patrick Nowell- all societies to cut at the root of marriage and
Smith, and R. M. Hare) raise extensions of family life.
these objections, as well as criticisms based God's people have been taught that the
on issues in metaethics. Lord hates "putting away" (Mai. 2:16), but
161 Divorce
they have still needed provision for it. The law, church people of different theological
law laid down that a man might divorce his persuasions were able to encourage and even
wife in proper form "if she finds no favor in assist the state to substitute the principle of
his eyes because he has found some indecency "irretrievable breakdown." (It needs to be
in her" (Deut. 24:1). Much dispute ensued noted that neither legally nor theologically is
about interpreting this "indecency," this "breakdown" supposed to be itself divorce. A
"unseemly thing." In Matthew, Jesus gives marriage remains in being unless expressly
his teaching on divorce in answer to a ques- put asunder.)
tion about this point: "Is it lawful to divorce Granted that the church can tolerate a sec-
one's wife for any cause?" (Matt. 19:3). The ular divorce law, its real problem is what to
answer is no, "except for unchastity" (19:9). say to its own members whose marriages fal-
Christians have disputed ever since about the ter. Can Christians ever encourage other
status and meaning of this exception. It is Christians to divorce and remarry? Can the
commonly held now that the "hard saying" church offer such encouragement? Can it
in its more absolute Marcan form (Mark 10: bless those remarrying? Can it bless the new
2-12) is both more basic and more character- vows? If a remarriage has any validity, does
istic. it not need all the grace it can have? Here, as
It seems clear that Jesus taught that di- elsewhere, both strictness and gentleness are
vorce and remarriage are against God's will. trying to witness to real values but come into
The question has been whether this is a new collision. Rigorism binds "heavy burdens,
Christian law, and if not, how it can be more grievous to be borne" and lays them upon
than an unattainable ideal. The theological other people's shoulders (Matt. 23:4; Luke
complexities are well illustrated by the inter- 11:46). Liberalism forgets hard sayings and
play of church and state in England on the never expects to take up a cross.
matter. In looking for an answer the following
The belief that the Lord gave a new law points may be noted:
and that the "Matthaean exception" was part 1. The Lord's teaching is more positive
of it formed the basis of the English divorce than negative. It is recounted that he was
law of "matrimonial offence." Before 1857 questioned about divorce and answered
divorces could be granted only by expensive about marriage. If the church makes a ban on
private Act of Parliament. There were more divorce the main concern of its teaching on
than three hundred such cases, and those marriage, no wonder it does not look very
concerned were remarried in church as a "Christian." But if the "one flesh" union is
matter of course. From 1857 divorce was the main point, then divorce can be under-
made increasingly available to all. The stood as an agonizing exception, an unnatu-
grounds were gradually widened, for the sake ral amputation rather than an attractive
of justice, to include other offenses than adul- temptation. Instead of arguing about the in-
tery, especially cruelty and desertion. dissolubility or dissolubility of faltering mar-
Meantime critical opinion was coming to riages, it is better to look for indissolubility
believe that the "Matthaean exception" was where it really belongs, in the characteristic
just as much a product of the early church unity of a good marriage. Fidelity* is to a
seeking to interpret the mind of the Lord as husband or a wife, not to an impersonal duty.
the so-called "Pauline privilege" (1 Cor. 7: 2. If anything is clear about the teaching of
15). If Jesus legislated, his law was rigorist. Christ, it is that whether rigorist or liberal it
The most natural conclusion seemed to be was not legalistic (see Legalism). If questions
either that he was legislating only for Chris- about whether people are "living in sin" de-
tians or that he was not giving a law but pend upon dates of baptisms, upon tech-
establishing an ideal. Each of these positions nicalities and regulations, upon metaphysical
had its intractable difficulties, both for schol- bonds that seem to tie up God's mercy, surely
arly accuracy and for Christian love. But nei- something is wrong. The remarriage disci-
ther of them required the church to try to pline of the Orthodox churches may look
enforce Christ's teaching upon the world (see strange and inconsistent to Westerners; but
Morality, Legal Enforcement of). So when their strength is their grasp of "the freedom
the "matrimonial offence" increasingly and transcendence of God" and their convic-
showed itself an unsatisfactory basis for the tion, strong not weak, that the purpose of
Double Effect, Principle of 162
marriage is love (A. M. Allchin, Root Re- It is disputed whether what is now known
port, Appendix 3, pp. 114, 123). as the principle of double effect is to be found
3. The seemingly impossible commands of in Thomas Aquinas's treatment of self-
Jesus are meant to be obeyed: but they cannot defense. Whatever the case, it can be said that
be kept piecemeal. They belong in the whole the inspiration for the notion may be located
context of a new covenant: "The Gospel in Thomas's notion of praeter intentionem. In
preceded the demand" (J. Jeremias, The Ser- the 19th century, actions involving certain
mon on the Mount, ET 1961, p. 29). They are evils were said to be justifiable under a four-
illustrations of a way of living. To argue fold condition: (1) The action from which
about whether they are "optional" or "com- evil results is good or indifferent in itself; it is
pulsory," "ideals" or "laws," misses the not morally evil. (2) The intention of the
point, just as it misses the point to say that agent is uprighti.e., the evil effect is sin-
they are binding only upon those who belong. cerely not intended. (3) The evil effect must
They are kept as a response to something be equally immediate causally with the good
seen, human or divine, that overcomes hard- effect, for otherwise it would be a means to
heartedness. When hard-heartedness re- the good effect and would be intended. (4)
mains, it is too much to expect them to be There must be a proportionately grave reason
kept. We may have to admit even in the for allowing the evil to occur. These condi-
church that the harvest of the Spirit (Gal. tions have been variously stated over the
5:22-23) is not ready for reaping. years, but when they (or qualified versions of
See Marriage. them) are fulfilled, the resultant evil was re-
ferred to as an "unintended by-product" of
D. Atkinson, To Have and to Hold, and bibli- the action, only indirectly voluntary and jus-
ography, 1979; Christian Marriage in Africa tified by the presence of a proportionately
(A. Hastings for Anglican Church), 1973; K. grave reason.
Kelly, Divorce and Second Marriage, 1982; A classic example is the situation of a
Marriage, Divorce and the Church, including woman with a nonviable pregnancy who is
appendixes (Report of Root Commission), diagnosed as having cancer of the uterus. If
1971; Marriage and the Church's Task (Re- nothing is done, the cancer (at least in many
port of the Lichfield Commission), 1978; H. cases and in the case here envisaged) will
Oppenheimer, The Marriage Bond, 1976; spread and bring death to both mother and
Putting Asunder: A Divorce Law for Contem- child. If, however, the cancerous uterus is
porary Society (Report of the Archbishops' removed, the woman would be saved but the
Group), 1966; P. Turner, Divorce: A Chris- fetus would obviously perish. Uterine exci-
tian Perspective, 1983; A. R. Winnett, Di- sion was judged permissible under the condi-
vorce and Remarriage in Anglicanism, 1958; tions detailed above. Specifically, the action
The Church and Divorce, 1968. was seen as good or indifferent (removal of
HELEN OPPENHEIMER the uterus); the intention is upright (remov-
ing the uterus to save the mother's life); the
Domination see Equality; Exploitation; good effect is equally immediate causally
Liberation Theology; Oppression; Power with the evil effect (thus, e.g., the uterus
would be removed whether it was pregnant
Donation, Organ see Organ Transplan- or not, an indication that the death of the
tation fetus is not exactly a means in the strict sense
to the attainment of the good); there is a
Double Effect, Principle of proportionate reason.
The principle of the double effect is a rule of This distinction has been used by theolo-
practice that both allows for certain excep- gians over the years, especially in three areas
tions and attempts to limit them. It would be of concern: actions involving the sin of an-
more accurate to refer to the actions involved other (scandal), actions involving killing, and
as actions with a double dimension or aspect. actions involving the use of the sexual facul-
Some effects of human activity were consid- ties. Because of the importance of these areas
ered so radically wrong (intrinsically evil) and the almost limitless variety of human
that they could be tolerated only when they situations in which they can occur, a huge
were praeter intentionem, or not directly casuistry* concerning the double effect built
sought (see Intention). up over the centuries.
163 Drug Addiction
Furthermore, the so-called double effect nation of a commonsense need to save life
principle has been taken over and used exten- when possible with a strongly felt need to
sively in official documents of the Roman maintain a strict rule against killing. In sum-
Catholic magisterium*, especially in recent mary, the present "hard" (deontologically
decades. For example, in discussing abor- understood) rule against killing ("no direct
tion*, Pius XI asked, "What could ever be a killing of an innocent human being") is just
sufficient reason for excusing in any way the as plausible as it has been teleologically
direct murder of the innocent (directam inno- modifiable to its present wording (see Deon-
centis necem)T Pius XII repeatedly con-
1 tology; Teleological Ethics).
demned the "deliberate and direct disposing Since around 1965 (largely through the
of an innocent human life" and argued that writings of Peter Knauer, S.J., Bruno
"neither the life of the mother nor that of the Schller, S.J., and Louis Janssens) the deter-
child can be subjected to an act of direct minative character of the double effect princi-
suppression." He also applied the direct- ple has been challenged. Though such ana-
indirect distinction to sterilizing drugs. The lysts reveal important individual differences,
most recent and authoritative use of this dis- they concur in their move toward a teleologi-
tinction is found in Humanae Vitae. Paul VI cal understanding of the actions formerly jus-
stated, "We must once again declare that the tified by the double effect principle. Tradi-
direct interruption of the generative process tional analysts felt it necessary to use
already begun, and above all, directly willed "direct" and "indirect" with regard to cer-
and procured abortion, even if for therapeu- tain actions because they regarded them as
tic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as "evil in se." They regarded them as such be-
licit means of regulating birth." He immedi- cause of certain features independent of
ately added, "Equally to be excluded, as the consequences. Once one judges that steriliza-
teaching authority of the Church has fre- tion, for example, is not "contrary to na-
quently declared, is direct sterilization, ture," there is no reason for the direct-
whether perpetual or temporary, whether of indirect appeal. The assessment is made
the man or the woman" (see Sterilization). teleologically and the truly decisive consider-
The use of this distinction has had two ation is the presence or absence of a propor-
general effects. First, it has reduced the intol- tionate reason (see Proportionality).
erable consequences of adhering to a simple See also Modern Roman Catholic Moral
rule against taking any human life (or, re- Theology; Thomistic Ethics.
spectively, the fertility of the sexual act). An
unqualified rule against taking any human R. A. McCormick, S.J., "The Principle of
life offers little difficulty most of the time. But Double Effect," How Brave a New World?
unrestricted adherence to it means that we 1981; P. Ramsey and R. A. McCormick, S.J.
are, for example, helpless in the face of ag- (eds.), Doing Evil to Achieve Good: Morality
gressors who do not respect it. Thus over the in Conflict Situations, 1978.
centuries Catholic tradition restricted the RICHARD A. MCCORMICK, S.J.
rule to apply to innocent life. However, there
are still other instances (especially obstetri- Draft see Conscription; see also Conscien-
cal) where adherence even to the modified tious Objection; Pacifism
rule would cause greater loss of life. So an-
other refinement was called for. That refine- Drives see Instincts or Drives
ment is the distinction between direct and
indirect killing. Thus in certain life-threaten- Drug Addiction
ing situations it is possible to save the mother Cast against an ethic of independence and
even though the fetus is "indirectly killed." self-control, the term "drug addiction" com-
The second result of this distinction is that by municates a negative value-judgment. Drug
such a process of restrictive interpretation of addiction has been seen as symptomatic of a
the rule against killing, it has been possible personality disorder and has been classified
not only to save life in some conflict situa- as a variety of sociopathic personality distur-
tions, but also to preserve a strong deontolog- bance. However, one must note that addic-
ically interpreted rule against killing. The up- tion is used loosely to include not only physi-
shot, then, of such restrictive interpretation cal dependence but the habituated use of a
of the rule against killing has been the combi- drug without evidence of such dependence.
Duty 164
The second phenomenon, psychological de- drug addiction presupposes that the profit
pendence, is often referred to as habituation made by organized crime and the death and
in order to contrast it with physical depen- injury of innocent individuals due to drug-
dence. Generally, physical addiction can de- related crime are outweighed by the benefits
velop more easily with the use of substances due to legal proscription. It may presuppose
such as opium and alcohol, but not usually as well a set of paternalistic and nonliber-
with substances such as cannabis and co- tarian commitments on the part of the law to
caine. However, habituation can create a sig- protect individuals from the consequences of
nificant dependence. Drug addiction in the their own actions. So, too, to see drug addic-
broader sense of habituation is rampant in tion as a disease carries with it its own as-
most Western societies, as evidenced by the sumptions regarding the proper role of medi-
psychological dependence of many on nico- cine and the avoidance of pain and the
tine in cigarettes or caffeine in coffee. provision of pleasure*, as well as the extent
The social significance of addiction or ha- to which the outcomes of drug use should be
bituation will depend in part on whether the understood within the confines of the sick
drug involved is widely accepted and on the role. The more that pain and anxiety* are
circumstance of its acquisition. Thus, a psy- seen as medical problems in their own right,
chological dependence on the use of cannabis the more plausible it becomes to risk addic-
is likely to have more adverse social conse- tion in ameliorating them. The more that eu-
quences than even more severe dependence phoria and pleasure are seen as major human
on benzodiazepines and other minor tran- goals, the more plausible it becomes that re-
quilizers, insofar as the latter are provided by creational drugs may play a wholesome role
prescription. Even a physical addiction to al- in human societies. On the other hand, inso-
cohol may appear more socially acceptable. far as one sees medicine as able to blunt the
This is in great measure due to a distinction adverse outcomes of drug usage, the more
informally drawn between proper use and tempting it will become to construe such
abuse, in terms of whether the drug has been problems as medical problems. One thus
procured through legal channels. In addition, finds a major section in the Diagnostic and
a line may implicitly be drawn between Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
proper and improper use of drugs in terms of ( 1980) of the American Psychiatric Associ-
J
the extent to which the benefits of the drug's ation devoted to substance use disorders. The
use are likely to outweigh the harms as- characterization of drug addiction is depen-
sociated with it, according to generally ac- dent on how the phenomenon is understood
cepted third-person standards. Thus, the use within the framework of legal, medical, and
of a minor tranquilizer in the case of an indi- religious institutions, which may character-
vidual suffering from a situational anxiety ize such a state of affairs nonexclusively as
due to the hospitalization of a close family circumstances of criminal behavior, disease,
member is likely to be seen as a proper use of or sinfulness.
the drug, even if some slight potential of psy- See also Abstinence; Alcoholism; Auton-
chological dependence exists. Also, the use of omy; Counseling; Harm; Health and Disease,
highly addictive narcotics for the terminal Values in Defining; Involuntary Hospitaliza-
pain of a cancer patient is usually justified. tion; Mental Health; Mental Illness; Moral-
Concerns about the risks of addiction and the ity, Legal Enforcement of; Paternalism; Re-
significance of addiction must be put in a sponsibility; Sick, Care of the; Temperance;
context. Given the fact that the use of drugs Tobacco, Use of.
ranges from the recreational to the purely H. TRISTRAM ENGELHARDT, JR.
therapeutic through many zones of gray, it is
often difficult, where there is significant con- Drugs see Drug Addiction; see also Absti-
troversy about the prudence or propriety of nence; Alcoholism; Temperance
using a drug with addictive potential, to
judge concerning what should count as Drunkenness see Alcoholism; Temper-
proper usage (see Risk; Suffering). ance
In fact, any characterization of the prob-
lems associated with drug addiction depends Duty
on particular social structures and particular Duty, especially in modern moral philoso-
systems of values. The criminalization of phy, means primarily a motive or principle of
165 Duty
conduct that serves as an indication of the While the religious person may regard the
individual person's moral quality. The mean- performance of duty as conduct based on a
ing of duty is inseparable from that of obliga- duty to God and thus be motivated by the
tion, the acknowledgment of what ought to love of God, the main aim of duty or obliga-
be done, of what we are bound to do, of what tion theories in ethics has been to ground
we are "under orders" to perform. Immanuel duty in reason alone and thus to establish it
Kant made the apprehension of duty the fun- as a self-sufficient spring of action. Human
damental principle of his ethics and he took freedom and the autonomy of morality (see
our human capacity for respecting and sub- Autonomy of Ethics) are said to reside in the
jecting ourselves to a moral law to be the fact that nothing beyond the acknowledg-
mark of our dignity as moral persons. In ment of obligation or duty is required for
Kant's analysis, duty as a motive implies the moral motivation. This point can be seen
existence in the moral self of counterfactors most clearly if we consider the questions that
or temptations that stand opposed to, or in have frequently been raised in connection
some way obstruct, the performance of duty. with the idea of obligation: Why should I
Kant spoke of inclinations or self-regarding perform my duty? or, Why should I be obli-
springs of action that must be opposed, redi- gated? From the standpoint of the morality
rected, or outwitted if the moral law is to be of duty, these questions themselves are fun-
obeyed and our duty performed. The moral damentally immoral because they presup-
law of conduct confronts us in the form of pose some further end beyond obligation or
duty just because we are imperfect beings and some good that entices me to obey. The ac-
not fully able to determine ourselves through knowledgment of obligation is the essence of
the dictates of practical reason. God, by con- morality; duty can have no ground or further
trast, embodies the moral law in his holy will reason beyond itself if its moral import is to
so that the idea of action out of duty in rela- be preserved. In Kant's thought, for example,
tion to a holy will becomes irrelevant. respect for the law that obligates us is the
Duty as a motive for action is generally fundamental moral spring of action; there is
regarded as "unconditional" and not subject no thought of being motivated by the an-
to external qualifications. Here the term "un- ticipated consequences of an action or the
conditional" does not mean that we are al- attainment of some good as an end.
lowed to ignore the actual situation and the It is important to notice the close connec-
conditions of action in determining what we tion that exists between the concept of duty
are to do, but rather that once our duty and a community of moral persons as ex-
becomes clear we must perform regardless of pressed, for instance, in Kant's idea of a king-
our personal inclinations and without calcu- dom of ends*. Acknowledgment of duty is at
lating the advantages or disadvantages to the same time acknowledgment of a universal
ourselves based on the anticipated conse- law that is binding on all other beings capable
quences of the act. If we fail to acknowledge of understanding their nature as moral per-
our obligation and to act in accordance with sons. In one formulation of duty prescribed
it, we are morally without excuse. by the moral law, Kant held that I must so
Appeal to duty as a basic moral principle act as to treat all other rational beings as ends
defines a morality of motives and locates the in themselves and never merely as means.
moral quality of the person in the character The universal import of the duty principle
of his or her willing. Opposed to such a view can best be seen by attending to the fact that
is the utilitarian position in ethics (see the principle is intended to exclude any con-
Utilitarianism), according to which all duct based on a maxim that is peculiar to
human conduct is to be judged and evaluated myself; the morality of duty is set against my
not by its motive but by the extent to which making an exception in my own case and it
the consequences of one's actions contribute marks off as immoral any deed based exclu-
to or prevent the realization of happiness or sively on my own self-interest or on an "ulte-
well-being. According to the morality of rior" motive that means a form of personal
duty, on the other hand, the good person is gain. Thus Kant would say that the good
the one whose will is good solely in virtue of person is one who, for example, is honest not
the motive it expresses, and who is judged by because it is the best "policy," for that means
the ability to do not only as duty requires but calculation of consequences and advantages,
because duty requires. but the one who acknowledges an obligation
Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethics 166
to speak the truth without regard to "pol- respect and who needs no determining
icy." Only if entirely self-regarding moral ground beyond it as a spring of action. By
principles are excluded is it possible to have denying the moral standing of all self-regard-
a community of moral persons. ing motives and reasons, Kant was excluding
In addition to duty understood as a motive the possibility that, as he expressed it, the
or ground of action, we also speak of particu- "dear self' could become a valid determining
lar duties, by which we mean specific actions ground for the good act.
we ought to perform. It has sometimes been See Categorical Imperative; Deontology;
debated whether a duty and a right action are Kantian Ethics; Universalizability.
always the same (see Right and Wrong); the
reason why such a question would arise is not F. H. Bradley, Ethical Studies, 1927; J. M.
2
difficult to find. Insofar as saying that some Gustafson and J. T. Laney (eds.), On Being
particular action is our duty also means that Responsible, 1968; H. R. Niebuhr, The Re-
we have inclinations or predispositions sponsible Self, 1963; G. Outka, Agape: An
against performing it, identifying right action Ethical Analysis, 1972; D. Z. Phillips (ed.),
with duty is questionable, for it would leave Religion and Understanding, 1967; S. Toul-
out of account right actions that we perform min, The Place of Reason in Ethics, 1950.
either habitually or without any clear sense of JOHN E. SMITH
their being against our inclination. While it
seems that duty can never be other than an Eastern Orthodox Christian
obligation to perform the act that is right, Ethics
there are right actionsfor example, eating Ethics in Eastern Orthodoxy. As a separate
the proper food and resting adequately in discipline and area of theological study, eth-
order to maintain our healththat would ics is a late development in Christian history,
not generally be regarded as duties in the and in Eastern Orthodoxy in particular. It
sense that they confront us as obligatory over arose with the attempt to study the Christian
against natural inclination. And yet even in faith and its teaching in an ordered and sys-
these cases we can see that should neglect of tematic fashion. The birth of the theological
proper food and rest lead to illness jeopardiz- discipline of Christian ethics can be dated
ing both our own lives and the lives of others, with some specificity to the 18th century.
it would be legitimate to say that it is our duty However, the subject matter of Christian eth-
to obtain proper food and rest. ics is found in the original sources of Chris-
The ethics of duty has often been the sub- tian life and faith.
ject of criticism on the ground that it is ab- Theological context. For Eastern Ortho-
stract and formal, leaving no place for action dox Christianity, the roots of its ethical
motivated by love. Thus the poet Schiller teaching are identical with those of its faith
chided Kant by saying that whereas he and life. Eastern Orthodoxy understands it-
wanted and liked to help his friends in dis- self as one in life, ethos, doctrine, ecclesial
tress, such action would be without moral organization, history, spirituality, sacramen-
worth in Kant's view because only what is tal life and worship, canon law, and ethical
done from a sense of duty is in accord with teaching with the one united church of Jesus
the moral law. There are, to be sure, pro- Christ of the first eight centuries. The
found and difficult problems connected with church's chief authoritative source for its life
the relation between law and love, disposition and practice is divine revelation, as histori-
and command, but these cannot be treated in cally understood in the living tradition of
brief compass. It is, nevertheless, important faith, and reposing in the consciousness of
to notice that while Kant's morality of duty the church. Concretely, this means that the
has often been cast in the legalistic form of authentic teaching and life of the church is
"duty for duty's sake" it was actually in- both embodied and formed by the OT and
tended to be a transcendence of law and not the NT, the writings of the universally ac-
a form of legalism at all. Kant found the knowledged fathers of the church whose in-
essence of morality in the person for whom terpretation of scripture helped form the doc-
morality means respect for a law that ex- trinal formulations of the seven ecumenical
presses the dignity of the moral person, the councils, the monastic tradition of Eastern
willingness to be bound by a universal princi- Christian spirituality, canon law, sacramen-
ple. The good person is the one who has this tal and worship life, and in general, the theol-
167 Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethics
ogy, moral teaching, and ethos of Eastern fashion in God's image. Human beings share
Orthodoxy. Together, these form an ecclesio- in many of the divine attributes: intelligence,
logical whole, a spiritual ethos*. The ethical self-determination, moral perceptivity, crea-
and moral teaching is only one of several tivity, the capacity for interpersonal relations
major dimensions of this totality. It is both and for personal identity in the koindnia of
informed and guided by the whole teaching personhood. They also have been granted
and, in turn, informs and guides the whole as these things with a potential for fulfillment
well. and full realization. Creation is a gift as well
However, certain fundamental theological as a potential dependent on human coopera-
teachings provide several of the central deter- tion with God in the realization of full hu-
minative concepts for Orthodox ethics. manity, as persons and as a body. This pro-
Among the most significant are the doctrines vides a view of human nature that is dynamic
of the Holy Trinity, creation and the doctrine and developmental, with a strong respect for
of human nature, the incarnation and re- self-determining choosing and acting.
demption, and the church. Sin in life is primarily perceived as the
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity signifi- breaking of the appropriate and fitting rela-
cantly begins, in the Eastern Christian tradi- tion of the creature with the Creator. Its
tion, with the experience and knowledge of consequences are disastrous for human exis-
the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy tence. Rebellion by the creature against God,
Spirit, which then leads to the affirmation of with its primary motivation being pride, not
the unity of God. Thus, foremost in Eastern only deprives human beings of the possibility
Christian thought is the perception of God as of growth toward God-likeness, but con-
a community of persons in organic relation- cretely and essentially distorts the divine
ship, rather than as an abstract impersonal image in all of creation, most especially in
essence. God is one, because the Son is born human beings. From this perspective, all
of the Father and because the Holy Spirit human beings are defective and less than
proceeds from the Father. The identity of the truly human.
divine essence in conjunction with the plural- The saving work of Jesus Christ does not
ity of the persons in the Trinity provides an take place in the abstract. Through the incar-
important and fundamental model of com- nation, the second person of the Holy Trinity
munity in unity for the ethics of Eastern Or- enters history and the created reality, and
thodoxy. assumes human nature without its sin.
It is only as God communicates this divine Through his teaching, his dominion over na-
reality that he is known. In his very essence ture, his submission to the demonic forces of
and being God is unknowable and incompre- death on the cross, and his victory over them
hensible to us. Creation brings into being all through his resurrection, Christ saves hu-
that exists other than himself. Creation is manity as a whole, providing forgiveness and
other than God in its being. It has come into the restoration of the potential for full hu-
being by the will of God ex nihilo. Even manity, both in personal and in corporate
though God is transcendent over the totality life. His work of salvation is an embodiment
of creation, he communes with it, relates with of the divine life of love in the Trinity.
it, and sustains it through his divine energies. In the church this life finds its fullest ex-
This is gracenot a substance or thing im- pression, for the task of the church and its life
parted to creation, but rather the very pres- is to particularize, in persons and peoples, the
ence of God. While we cannot know or expe- image and likeness of God, that is, to realize
rience or perceive the essence of God, we the God-likeness that is the fulfillment of
know God and experience his power and re- human existence. Part of this new life is
ality through his very presence in his ener- moral and spiritual in character. Determin-
gies. ing the motives, intents, behavior, and ac-
Thus, nothing is divorced from his active tions that are fitting and appropriate to this
and real power and presence, and nothing new life is the task of the discipline of Chris-
that is created achieves its fulfillment sepa- tian ethics. It is seen, however, as dealing
rated from the divine energies of the triune with a life that is constantly growing and
God. developing toward God-likeness and there-
In particular, this is true of human beings. fore cannot ever assume a stance of rigidness
As creatures of God, they are in a unique and legalism. Nor can it find its completion
168 Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethics
in this worldly existence. Though the king- Christian faith and life (see Teleological Eth-
dom of God begins in this life, it transcends ics).
it as well. So the ethical dimension will al- The good. Eastern Orthodox Christian
ways have a provisional character to it, even theology identifies the good with God. The
while it seeks to provide direction and guid- triune God, as a community of divine persons
ance for living the new life in Christ by per- Father, Son, and Holy Spiritis under-
sons and communities growing toward the stood to be as well the very essence of the
fulfillment of the image and likeness of God. good for the created world. Eastern Christian
Approaches. Various traditions of doing teaching rejects a view of the good which is
ethics in the Eastern Orthodox Church have abstract, that is, which is an objective, imper-
come into being during this century. Most sonal principle, concept, or idea. Ultimate
writings prior to 1930 were popular hand- reality is God, who is a Trinity of persons.
books and did not have scholarly character. The Holy Trinity as the good is the ground
In the last fifty years three major approaches from which the good in the created world
to Orthodox Christian ethics have emerged. (with major focus on humanity) is com-
One of these has sought close grounding in a municated. Inasmuch as created reality com-
broad, creation-based perception of the ethi- municates with the source of all goodness
cal experience. This view has emphasized the the triune Godit shares in and manifests
continuities, for instance, between philosoph- goodness. Inasmuch as created reality, espe-
ical understandings of the ethical experience cially human life, severs communion with
and foundational Christian views. Its virtue God, it equally fails to share in goodness,
has been the maintenance of a strong catholic with the consequence that it is distorted, in-
concern with the world as a whole, and with complete, and fails to fulfill its true and full
the church. Another view has focused on the potential for which it exists. However, be-
redemptive work of Jesus Christ as an analyt- cause the Christian faith is catholic in scope,
ical tool for doing ethics. It organizes itself its ethical teaching cannot be limited and sec-
around the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, tarian. Thus, nearly all of the major em-
with major foci on unredeemed human exis- phases of the various schools of philosophical
tence on the one hand and redeemed human ethics, as well as those of other religious tra-
existence on the other. Scripture and the ditions, find a place in the structure of the
Greek fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries are theria of Orthodox Christian ethics.
its main source. The third perspective from Though the triune God is understood as the
which ethics is approached seeks to incorpo- source of human good, the good as inborn, as
rate the unique insights of the later Eastern law, as pleasure, as evolution, as perfection,
Christian mystical and ascetic traditions in as value, as existential, and as love are in-
its formulations. The Philokalia tradition cluded in a complete perception of the good.
and Palamism are its most significant Each nonrevelatory approach to ethics
sources. More recently, attempts have been shares in a portion of the truth of that which
made to synthesize these three approaches Maximos the Confessor has called "the good
into a single coherent approach to the under- by nature," i.e., the triune God.
standing of Orthodox Christian ethics. The essence of God is unknown to the
The theria of Orthodox Christian ethics. created world. Just as there is no possibility
The doctrinal teachings of Eastern Orthodox of defining the nature (ousia ) of God, so there
Christianity, as sketched out in part above, is no possibility of defining the good in ab-
provide a framework for Orthodox Christian stract terms in the created world. However,
ethics. In the most broad context, the rela- inasmuch as God relates to the created
tionships of God with human life as created world, the Trinitarian existence forms the
and redeemed and as growing in the image goodness of this world. This contact, rela-
and likeness of God toward Theosis provided tionship, and communication is variously re-
for an "ought" not based on the "facts" of a ferred to as the divine energies, divine grace,
fallen creation and a distorted humanity, but or divine presence. The terms are synony-
rather on the telos, or goal, toward which mous. It is the divine energies that make the
human beings are directed by their calling to good which is God as a community of per-
be fully human. Within this context, a theory sons present in human life.
of ethics is formed that deals with the Evil and sin. The ethics of Eastern Or-
"ought" dimensions of the Eastern Orthodox thodox Christianity understands evil in an
169 Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethics
ultimate sense as "meonic" (me n = nonbe- outgrowth of the inborn moral capacities, not
ing). Evil has no metaphysical reality of its a faculty. The sense of moral obligation is the
own, since it is "the absence of the good." Of distinguishing characteristic of the con-
course, evil is experienced in many different science. This imperative character is subject
forms. It is an empirical reality as sin, it is the to development, and also capable of being
willed rejection by self-determining intelli- deformed, by becoming over- or under-
gent beings of the fitting and appropriate re- formed. It must be cultivated, educated,
lationships between themselves and God. trained, and formed. The conscience is the
Evil is also structural, in that the forms of the place where the "objective" moral good is
created world have been distorted and dark- made personal and "subjective." It is the
ened by the condition of original sin. In East- locus of the moral life in the individual. As
ern Orthodox ethics, evil is considered to be such it is a process or ability to discern, to
a consequence of the choice of self-determi- distinguish, and to evaluate moral realities.
nation, which at heart is a rejection of the This is distinguished from moral values and
proper and appropriate relationship between criteria. The conscience is the human capac-
human beings and the triune God. This ity to function ethically.
means that in human beings, the very viola- The natural moral law (see Natural
tion of that appropriate relationship creates a Law). For the Greek fathers, the first, ele-
condition of incompleteness and distorted mentary, and low-level moral content of the
humanity. Both personal and social, it im- conscience, i.e., its basic norm, has as its pur-
pacts upon all aspects of life, including the pose the maintenance of the basic patterns of
physical nonhuman created world. However, human society. These essential norms are
this does not mean that the image of God in universally identified in all cultures, societies,
humankind is totally lost. Rather, much of and groups. They are frequently referred to
the image remains, even though it be in dark- as the natural moral law. Eastern Orthodoxy
ened and incomplete form. This is the East- holds that such a normative reality is to be
ern Orthodox understanding of "original found "naturally" even in the fallen condi-
sin."* Human beings are still able to share in tion of the world. It remains functional even
some measure in the good, and consequently in the distorted reality of the fallen condition.
still do a measure of good. As a result, East- One of the most adequate expressions of the
ern Christian ethics is neither overly optimis- natural moral law is the Decalogue*, though
tic nor overly pessimistic regarding the moral its major principles are to be found embodied
capacities of unredeemed humanity. in the scriptures of all major religious tradi-
Human moral capacities. Part of the tions and the laws of all societies. Thus, for
image of God in human beings that remains, example, "You shall do no murder" indicates
in spite of sin, is the universal existence of an elementary respect for life, prohibiting the
human moral capacities. Human existence is unjust taking of life. Its basic and first-level
inextricably bound to the sense of the impera- character is supported by the understanding
tive of the moral. This imperative consists of that its widespread violation would destroy
the universal human tendency to see events any society, tribe, or social group. The natu-
and situations in ethical categories, and to ral moral law is applicable to any social
make moral judgments upon them. Some- whole, assuring survival. As such, it cannot
times called the "moral drive" and the "ethi- be considered as the only moral criterion in
cal sense" by Orthodox ethicists, this impera- more complex situations.
tive is understood as being part of the The evangelical ethic. The evangelical
essential meaning of human existence, an ir- ethic is to be understood within the Christian
reducible aspect of the image of God. Flow- Heilsgeschichte, or salvation history, which
ing from this is the human capacity for self- in Eastern Christianity is dominated by the
determination (autexousion). The Greek purpose of humanity to achieve Theosis, or
fathers usually restrict the idea of freedom God-likeness, and divine communion. This
(eleutheria) for the condition reached at the means that human beings become truly so
highest levels of development in which there when their lives reflect, both within and with-
is no conflict or struggle in behaving in- out, the life of the Holy Trinity. Thus, the
wardly and outwardly in a divine-like, and specifically Christian ethic is more than an
therefore, fully human manner. ethic just for Christians. It is a human norm.
The conscience*. The conscience is the The context of the evangelical ethic, on the
170 Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethics
one hand, focuses on Christ's teaching which from the formation of character and virtues
requires a coherence of inner dispositions, in- in the being of the decision maker. Neverthe-
tents, and motives with overt behavior. On less, decision-making will require attention
the other hand, the content of the evangelical to rules, consequences, intents, motives,
ethic focuses primarily (though not exclu- means, values, the situation, and the con-
sively) on agape love*. On its first level, sciousness of the church as well.
Christian agap means selfless concern for The good is accomplished and evil avoided
the welfare and good of the other. This per- through a cooperation of the energies of God
mits acts of love for the stranger, and even for and human self-determination. The Greek fa-
the enemy. But the Trinitarian pattern for thers refer to this as synergeia, or "synergy."
the Christian life growing toward Theosis On the human side, evil is overcome and the
also indicates a more full and complete as- good done through a set of practices collec-
pect or level of love. Here, mutuality is tran- tively known as asksis, which are seen as
scended by communion and union, as the the means by which the struggle for growth
persons of the Holy Trinity are united with (agna) in the God-like life is practiced.
one another. The Greek fathers did not hesi- These include all the traditional religious
tate to call this love theios eros, or divine love. practices, such as prayer and fasting, as well
Such love is to characterize all the relation- as other forms of spiritual and moral disci-
ships of those who grow toward Theosis pline. The doing of the good and the avoiding
including relationships with God, neighbor, of evil are always understood as taking place
and self. It will involve numerous specific within the corporate, ecclesial whole.
modes of behavior which can be specified and The praxis of Orthodox Christian ethics. In
enjoined in normative language. numerous and varied ways, the ethical tradi-
Moral being, deciding, and doing. Be- tion of Eastern Orthodoxy has provided
cause the growth toward Theosis demands guidance for the practical living of the faith
the transformation of life so that more and for believers throughout the centuries. The
more it becomes reflective of the Trinitarian scriptures all include concrete directives for
life in whose image and likeness human be- the living of the Christian life. The writings
ings are created to become, it requires the of the fathers of the church are replete with
formation of stable yet developing modes of practical enjoinders that were both sought
existence and the avoidance of those modes and offered with the full sense of the appro-
of existence which do not conform to the life priateness of such an exercise. Both canon
in conformance with Theosis. When these law and the spiritual disciplines surrounding
modes of behavior are considered as specifics, the sacrament of Holy Confession include
they are referred to as "virtues" and "vices." such reference to the praxis of the Christian
When they are seen as a whole, they are re- life. Yet, this guidance is not understood as
ferred to as "character."* Ethically speaking, legalism*. Moral rules and laws are rather
growth toward Theosis is a process of form- understood as shorthand ways of saying that
ing the God-like or Christ-like being, both in such and such behavior or such and such
the individual person in community and in attitudes either fit and are appropriate to the
the total life of the community. This empha- ethos of growth in the image and likeness of
sis on being does not exclude the possibility God toward Theosis (prescriptions) or they
or the requirement that the gospel may de- do not (proscriptions). Yet the command-
mand radical behavior. Yet these radical de- ments are always treated seriously and with
mands (e.g., "Greater love has no man than great respect, as the means by which the tra-
this, to give his life for his neighbor") cannot dition of faith has chiefly embodied its ethical
take place other than in a framework of a teaching. But they are not treated as abso-
stable and developing ethos of a holistic God- lutes and as rigid legalisms. A case in point
like style of life. is the Eastern Christian doctrine of economia
The growth toward Theosis also is embod- (ioikonomia). "Economy" is practiced when a
ied in decision-making, a function of the con- rule is consciously not applied in a given cir-
science which takes place before, during, and cumstance when it is judged that the results
after an act. The decision-making is properly of such application would, in fact, not em-
determined by the act's participation or non- body or realize the growth in the image and
participation in the divine-like life. For this, likeness of God toward Theosis. However,
discernment is needed, which can only come the exercise of Economy in a given situation
171 Ecclesiology and Ethics
is not perceived as creating a precedent for of church buildings. However, that question
future application. In the next similar cir- was quickly recognized as dependent on both
cumstance, the rule will again be applied theological and practical questions as to what
with its full force and without reference to the nature, purpose, patterns of authority
the previous exercise of Economy. Needless and participation, boundaries and central
to say, only proper authority may exercise values of the Christian community, the ec-
Economy (in most cases a bishop, a synod, or clesia, the company of believers, ought to be.
a spiritual father). Thus, the term "ecclesiology" was applied to
There is no accepted and universal pattern the study of doctrines of the church, particu-
for the formulation of the norms of Eastern larly as those doctrines take practical shape
Orthodox ethical praxis. Often, they are ar- in institutional life. Wherever these studies
ticulated after the fashion of the NT in refer- turn to normative implications for establish-
ence to occasional situations, or as broad ing patterns of "right and good" behavior or
generalities. Sometimes they are the fruits of structure for human community, ecclesi-
deep meditation (e.g., the Philokalia). Fre- ology is directly linked to ethics.
quently, these moral directives are given as Nearly all theological studies of the orga-
the result of questions asked by the faithful, nized Christian community acknowledge
such as the so-called longer and shorter Rules that the foundation of the church's existence
of Basil. An ancient tradition that embodies is a mystery, a gift of grace. While familial,
the rules of behavior for the guidance of economic, political, cultural, and a number
pneumatichoi, i.e., spiritual father confes- of other social institutions can be understood
sors, in the exomologetaria (confessors' to be grounded, at least in part, on the needs
handbooks) also serves this purpose. or desires of humanity and society (see Insti-
In the modern tradition of Eastern Ortho- tution), the community of faith cannot be so
dox ethics, it is frequent that the praxis of the explained. Theological expositions of the
church's ethical teaching is included in a sec- foundations of the ecclesia thus focus on the
ond or "practical" part. The most common, interpretation of key images and symbols
though by no means exclusive, approach is to which attempt to identify the character of
delineate the praxis of Eastern Orthodox eth- that grace-full mystery: body of Christ, cove-
ics in reference to the "other" with whom we nant, communion of saints, people of God,
are in communion, i.e., God, neighbor, and temple of the Holy Spirit, etc. To be sure, an
self. ecclesia is also an earthly institution, and
Concern for the neighbor is not limited to even the most abstruse spiritual reflection on
interpersonal relations. It also includes con- these symbols must sooner or later identify
cern for nature and for the basic institutions the "marks" of where these are truly present
of life, such as family, state, and church. As in the world. For early church leaders, and
these reach farther and farther into the soci- for many today, these marks are apostolicity,
ety and world which is "not church," the catholicity, unity, sacramentality, and obedi-
church looks for a model for society which is ence to the proper clergy in decisive matters
coherent with its basic Trinitarian orienta- of faith and morals. For the Reformation
tion. It finds this model in the concept of the churches, the marks most often accented are
kingdom of God. The spheres of Orthodox "the gospel rightly preached and the sacra-
Christian ethics, therefore, encompass the ments rightly administered." Sectarian
personal, the ecclesial, and the broadly so- groups often focus on the marks of personal
cial. regeneration and righteous living. And
throughout the long history of disputes on
S. S. Harakas, Contemporary Moral Issues these matters, the water is widely muddied by
Facing the Orthodox Christian, 1982; and To- ecclesiasticismthe attempt to prove that
ward Transfigured Life: The "Theoria" of Or- "our" church polity derives directly from the
thodox Christian Ethics, 1983. intentions of Jesus while everyone else's is
STANLEY SAMUEL HARAKAS tainted by nefarious pretenses of humanity's
greed for power and authority.
Ecclesiology and Ethics The rich meanings implicit in these sym-
The term "ecclesiology" first appeared in the bols and their marks have been spelled out by
19th century in studies of the architectural a range of modern scholars. Paul Minear, for
forms and decor appropriate in the structure example, systematically explicates the domi-
Ecclesiology and Ethics 172
nant ecclesial images that can be found in of the Christian ecclesia in the past (the Cath-
scripture; F. W. Dillistone lays out the meta- olic and the Calvinist) provided a core "reli-
physical, anthropological, and organiza- gious social philosophy" by which Western
tional assumptions of the "organic" as com- civilizations found integrity and direction,
pared and contrasted with the "societal" and they did so by integrating the "highest"
symbols of the Anglo-Catholic and Re- religious principles with the "base" demands
formed traditions; and A. Dulles has recently of social existence into a guiding normative
analyzed the eight competing models of the polity. Ecclesiology as polity is the center
church that overlap in Catholic and some point at which theology and sociology join,
Protestant ecumenical understandings. and it is only at this juncture that profound
These and other theologians have been clear and durable social teachings can give guid-
that each of the understandings of the church ance to independent groups or to whole civili-
has direct implications for the ways in which zations. (The "sects" are most concerned
normative authority is to be understood and about the former, the "churches" about the
structured in the community of faith and latter.) Both Troeltsch and Weber express
how that community is to relate to the soci- skepticism as to whether a fresh and compel-
ety in which it finds itself. ling new synthesis can be developed, since
However important these treatments are old Catholicism and Calvinism have faded in
for Christian ethics, the mainstream of ethi- influence. The reasons have to do with a
cal reflection on ecclesiology has been shaped simultaneous crisis of faith since the Enlight-
by two other developments: One derives from enment and the complexity of modern soci-
pioneering work in the sociology of religion ety since industrialization and massive ur-
and ethics in the traditions of Max Weber banization, of which the fragmentation of the
and, especially, Ernst Troeltsch as carried on church is partly cause, partly effect, and
in America (especially) by students of partly symptom. Nevertheless, their work
Troeltsch: H. R. Niebuhr, J. L. Adams, J. demonstrates that no ecclesial theory and
Bennett, and W. G. Muelder, and their stu- hence no "Christian social philosophy" can
dents. The other is the development of ecu- be constructed simply on the basis of theolog-
menical structures in federations and coun- ical and religious elements alone; it is always
cils of churches around the world. an amalgam of religious, theological, and
Troeltsch and Weber argued that in the ethical first principles in conjunction with the
history of Christianity, two essential types of intellectual, social, political, economic, and
ecclesial organization had developed: the cultural resources present in the historical
church* type and the sect* type. These are environment. Indeed, just as the building of
analytically derived constructs which serve cathedrals and chapels depends on the gov-
as genus categories for the two predominant erning designs and ideals of the architects
ways in which primary religious concerns and engineers, it also depends on the kinds
can be organized and institutionalized in so- and qualities of building materials available
cial and ethical life. In Christian history, and on the skills of ordinary craftsmen. Ec-
each has many species, and there are numer- clesiology as normative social theory, i.e., as
ous mixtures as well as inevitable influence the attempt to incarnate in the real, historical
from both the natural requirements of world the kinds and qualities of worship
worldly life and the specific historical condi- (piety), human relations (polity), and pro-
tions in which the ecclesia finds itself. Each grammatic actions (policies) which God
is marked by a coherent body of social atti- wants of believers and for humanity, inevita-
tudes and teachings about the organization of bly demands ever-new synthesis. Ecclesi-
authority in the community of faith, and ology thus becomes the study of the dynamic
about the Christian's obligations in society. and constantly transforming points of selec-
Indeed, each develops a distinctive way of tive affinity, normatively ordered, between
legitimating or ignoring, reforming or pas- changing perceptions of the first principles of
sively accepting the ethical authority of civili- theology and religious ethics, on the one
zation's structures and institutions. For this hand, and changing material conditions in
distinction, Troeltsch and Weber are justly civilization on the other. In the Troeltschian
famous. tradition, particularly, we find a historical-
But another level of their work is of equal sociological-theological-ethical argument
import and less often noted: The main forms that the ecclesia is the incarnate moral soul
173 Ecclesiology and Ethics
of civilization and that its proper science, ec- ent gave wider impetus to other Catholic
clesiology, is the fundamental clue to the so- efforts (see Official Roman Catholic Social
cial ethics of civilization. Teaching). Indeed, the main core of Chris-
As an example of those who have built tian social ethics as a discipline taught in
their work on this tradition, one could cite Christian seminaries is rooted more in these
the early works of H. R. Niebuhr. He quests than in any other single factor, and the
showed, in one important study, the social most important professional society of work-
influences on the formation of "denomina- ing ethicists in North America, the Society of
tions" derived from either "churches" or Christian Ethics, has had this concern at the
"sects" under specific social-economic pres- center of its formation.
sures (1929). In another, he discusses the At the present time, at least one major
ways in which the symbol "Kingdom of debate rages in regard to ecclesiology and
God" has been variously interpreted in ethics in this tradition. If the center point of
America to produce distinctive attitudes to- ecclesiology is "right order" or "polity,"
ward social and cultural materials to produce formed on the basis of theology and sociol-
changing ecclesial and social-ethical struc- ogy, and if polity is inevitably influenced by
tures (1937). And in a third, he traced the both the demands of "pure" piety and the
predominant logics by which the theological- realistic cognizance of social dynamics, as it
ethical principles (summarized by the word appears in "policy," which of the two influ-
"Christ") could be related to sociopolitical ences should predominate in the formation of
and intellectual ones ("culture") (1951). ecclesial politypiety or policy? Is it the
James Luther Adams, to mention another "being" of the church as a worshiping com-
example, took the concerns of Troeltsch, as munity that should shape polity? Is the
modified by Paul Tillich's theology of culture priestly or "spiritual" impulse of the religious
and "liberal" theories of democracy, in direc- and ethical life of prime importance so that
tions entailing the formation of modern plu- all patterns of organizational polity (and the
ralistic societies wherein "secular ecclesia," policies entailed) established on earth by the
called "voluntary associations"* and "pro- people of God should follow from that which
fessional organizations," have been decisive can sustain that core? Or is it the case that
for modern pluralistic societies (see Plural- God has called the faithful together to ac-
ism). And John Bennett took Reinhold Nie- complish godly purposes in the world? That
buhr's "Christian realism*" into ecumenical is, should the ecclesia be conceived essen-
ecclesial forums with special focus on politi- tially as a people with a mission, a task, a
cal and economic ideology, while W G. direction of prophetic action, in short, a pol-
Muelder and his students have attempted to icy, so that the patterns of polity (and the
connect philosophical studies of natural law forms of piety required to sustain motivation
to theological ethics, and the results with his- and solidarity for the task) should be so ar-
torical and contemporary social analysis, to ranged to contribute to the fulfillment of
find a new synthesis of "Christian personal- these possibilities? The question can be put in
ism*" and "democratic socialism* " other terms: is the normative order for
The work of these Troeltschians is paral- church (and hence as a model for society) to
leled by that of a number of other significant be ontologically or functionally defined?
ethicists who struggle with the formation of Ought the church to be governed by deonto-
communities of commitment on the basis of logical principles of righteousness derived
theological rootage and sociopolitical in- from true piety or by teleological principles
volvement, in order to find means of con- of purposes, ends, and objectives derived by
structing what Troeltsch and Weber feared the discernment of God's "policies"? Paul
could not be easily constructeda new ec- Ramsey has argued for the former (1967);
clesially based Christian social philosophy Paul Lehmann for the latter (1963). Contem-
faithful to biblical Christianity and directly porary neo-evangelicals and liberationists
pertinent to the guidance and reform of civili- have extended and further polarized the
zation*. Their efforts are paralleled by Cath- problems (see Evangelical Ethics; Liberation
olic figures from John Courtney Murray and Theology).
Jacques Maritain to find an ecclesially sound And, of course, this question has wide-
"public philosophy." The history of the "so- ranging implications for the understanding of
cial encyclicals" from the 1890s to the pres- the relationships of the Christian churches to
Ecclesiology and Ethics 174
other religions and movements. Can Chris- logical doctrines is being retrieved and rees-
tians in Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, or tribal tablished on a new ground of participatory,
contexts utilize the authentic patterns of pluralistic, representative, democratically or-
piety and ethics of those traditions to form dered catholicity. These councils attempt to
entirely new polities for the ecclesia? And can clarify matters of piety as they bear on polity
Christians engaged in a social mission which (e.g., the ecumenical "Lima agreements" on
they hold to be godly form solidarity struc- baptism, eucharist, and ministry), and on
tures with secular and even antireligious prophetic policies as they demand modifica-
movements which are working for the same tion of polity (e.g., the Commission on Rac-
historical ends? In either case, is the result a ism or the Commission on Women and Men
true ecclesia? In posing the questions in these in the Church). None of these developments
terms, we recognize some of the complexities is without difficulty, severe criticism, and re-
of dealing with ecclesiology and ethics in our sistance, but the suggestions of a new Chris-
time. Every dimension of theological-ethical tian social philosophy can be discerned in the
discourse and of sociocultural analysis must agendas and documents of these new ec-
be identified, analyzed, and evaluated in a clesial efforts.
world where each level is vastly pluralized Not clear in many of these developments,
and complicated. however, are the two things that are ulti-
All of the above questions have been taken mately required for a profound and durable
up in the 20th century by the second most new synthesis: compelling clarifications of
important development in ecclesiology the guiding theological-ethical principles,
and ethicsthe ecumenical movement* properly informed, as they must be to remain
After several centuries of fragmentation authentically Christian, by clear warrants
of the church by the rise of increased num- from scripture, tradition, reason, and experi-
bers of sects, denominations, nation-based ence; and clarity in regard to the analysis of
"churches," and indigenous churches in the modern world with all its intricate rela-
decolonialized lands, the 20th century has tionships, structures, institutions, tensions,
seen a dramatic rise in the formation of ecu- confrontations, and competing philosophical
menical bodies. In nearly every land, federa- modes of thought between and within the
tions or councils of churches exist. And plethora of civilizations now having to live in
everywhere onefindsefforts to overcome pre- a shrinking world. The task of addressing
vious divisions between religious groups these issues, partly begun in ecumenical de-
"united" and "uniting" churches, mergers, bates about human rights, faith and science,
consultations on church union, and "family" and peace priorities, remains a primary part
reunions (World Alliance of Reformed of the agenda of religious social ethics for the
Churches [Presbyterian and Congrega- future. In this effort, ethicists will have to be
tional], Lutheran World Federation, etc.). in constant dialogue with, on the one hand,
Not only those communions rooted in the those theologians who continue to focus on
Reformation are joined in the councils of the core symbols and marks of the ecclesia,
churches, but Roman Catholicism has both and, on the other, with social analyists and
established new connections with previously theorists of complex civilizations, constantly
separated bodies and, since Vatican Council attempting to find those points of "compro-
II, engaged in an enormous range of inter- mise," in the sense of "co-promise," for nor-
faith and interreligious consultations. Fur- mative ordering of life in, for, and with the
ther, denominations deriving from evangeli- whole people of God.
cal sects have formed national and See Church and State.
international associations which raise com-
parable issues. J. L. Adams, On Being Human Religiously,
What is at stake for ecclesiology and ethics 1976; J. A. Bassett, The New England Way
in these dramatic developments is that a tra- and Vatican II, 1981; P. Bock, In Search of
jectory of "conciliary denominationalism" a Responsible World Society, 1974; F. W. Dil-
the federated linkage of religious bodies listone, The Structure of the Divine Society,
meeting as equalsis understood to be the 1951; A. Dulles, Models of the Church, 1981;
normative pattern for ecclesial polity and is P. M. Harrison, Authority and Power in the
set for the future. The ancient tradition of the Free Church Tradition, 1959; D. Hollenbach,
church councils which established key theo- Claims in Conflict, 1979; P Mi near, Images
175 Economic Development
of the Church in the New Testament, 1960; R. and at a pace that were consistent with the
J. Mouw, Called to Holy Worldliness, 1980; interests of the colonial powers.
National Council of Churches, The Ecclesio- In the postcolonial period the churches,
logical Significance of Councils of Churches, largely led by the Continental Roman Cathol-
1963; H. R. Niebuhr, The Social Sources of ics, came to see economic development as an
Denominationalism, 1929; The Kingdom of important part of the incarnation of the gos-
God in America, 1937; and Christ and Cul- pel. This enthusiasm came from a number of
ture, 1951; M. L. Stackhouse, Creeds, Cul- sources: postcolonial guilt, rising awareness
ture and Human Rights, 1984; and Ethics of international income disparities, the sup-
and the Urban Ethos, 1973; E. Troeltsch, The posed need to demonstrate the "relevance" of
Social Teaching of the Christian Churches the gospel to an increasingly secular society,
(1912), 2 vols., ET 1931; E. L. Underkoefler and the need to redefine a role for the metro-
and A. Harsanyi, The Unity We Seek, 1977; politan church in the former colonies.
M. Weber, Economy and Society (1922, The theological understanding of enthusi-
21925), ET 1968, vol. 2. asm for economic development lagged far be-
MAX L. STACKHOUSE hind the elaboration of instruments designed
to secure development. Common theological
Ecology see Energy; Environmental Eth- themes were Pauline body imagery, love, and
ics; Future Generations, Obligations to; thanksgiving. These were never successfully
Technology integrated into a coherent framework that
transcended a biblicist sympathy with the lot
Economic Development of global neighbors.
The theory and practice of the major Protes- By contrast, institutional development was
tant churches with respect to economic de- rapid and widespread. The 1960s saw most
velopment can be divided into three periods: churches developing overseas service agen-
the missionary period up to the early 1960s; cies, on either a denominational or an ecu-
the period between the World Council of menical basis. Some, particularly in the USA,
Churches Assemblies at Uppsala and Nairobi Germany, and Sweden, became significant
(i.e., 1968-1975); and the period since the channels for the disbursement of government
Nairobi Assembly. These three periods could development assistance, and/or food aid.
conveniently be given the labels of naive While this permitted the rapid growth of
pragmatism, developmentalism, and struc- these institutions, and their acquisition of a
turalism. high level of professional expertise, it stored
In the period of naive pragmatism, the up largely unresolved problems for a later
churches sought to raise the standard of liv- period.
ing of actual or potential members by provid- By 1970 developmentalism was under se-
ing education, health care, agricultural im- vere attack in both secular and ecclesiastical
provement schemes, and access to credit. At circles. The failure of the UN Development
its worst, the church acted as no more than Decade, declining political commitment in
the agent of the state, but more frequently the the industrialized countries, a strong suspi-
relations between church and state were am- cion (not amenable to empirical testing be-
biguous and conflictual. Although church cause of lack of data) that the numbers of
schools, for example, played a major role in persons in absolute poverty were increasing
providing the colonial power (see Colonial- rather than diminishing, and a rediscovery of
ism) with appropriately trained workers, the centrality of justice, mercy, and righ-
they also provided nascent nationalism* with teousness in biblical ethics all combined to
its leadership. The churches played a signifi- change the character of the development de-
cant role in introducing new cash crops bate.
e.g., cotton to Uganda, cocoa to Ghanabut It is significant that the major intellectual
they were also early critics of labor condi- impetus for this change came from the devel-
tions in the mines of central Africa, and of oping world itselffrom the Philippines,
land apportionment in the settler colonies. from the small Christian communities of
These critical voices tended to be in a minor- South Asia, and supremely from Latin
ity, however, and the dominant theme was a America. The nodal expression of this new
paternalistic concern to raise the living stan- thinking came from the conference of the
dards of the indigenous population in ways Roman Catholic bishops of Latin America at
Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the 176
Medellm in 1968. It was reflected in different among Christians which have produced the
vocabularies but the same substance in the World Council of Churches, regional coun-
WCC Assembly in Nairobi in 1975. The key cils in Asia, Europe, and Africa, structures of
to this style of thinking was the notion of cooperation between Protestant, Orthodox,
liberation from oppressive and exploitative and Roman Catholic churches, and countless
forces, of which the story of Exodus was seen less formal forms of fellowship, is difficult to
as the biblical paradigm. Power* thus be- separate into its biblical, theological, and eth-
came a central issue, and its obverse, the ical components. Its activities have been on
powerlessness of the poor, was subjected to the action-research model, constantly seek-
intensive theological reflection. "Participa- ing the form of the church's unity, mission,
tion" was seen as the programmatic embodi- and social responsibility by reflection on, and
ment of this concern, though it is arguable renewal of, its life and practice. There are,
that this has not yet progressed beyond the however, two distinguishable strands of ecu-
status of a populist slogan. menical work with special significance for the
The centrality of liberation made inevita- student of ethics. They arise separately out of
ble a reassessment of Marxist critiques of the life and mission of the churches, and are
capitalism*. Although exploitation contin- today being woven together into what might
ued to be a theme of critics of developmental- be called a common ecumenical missionary
ism, theologians were not equipped to subject ethical sense of church and world in the con-
Marxian theories of value, on which notions text of God's grace, judgment, and calling.
of exploitation logically depend, to serious A. Mission. The first ecumenical strand of
critique. While it would be an exaggeration ethical significance is the effort of the
to say that Christians were discovering classi- churches to understand their missionary task
cal Marxism at a time when Marxists were through the great World Mission Confer-
decreasingly confident of its logical founda- ences in Edinburgh (1910), Jerusalem (1928),
tion, it is nonetheless true that much Chris- Madras (1938), Whitby (1947), Willingen
tian thinking in the late 1970s and early (1952), Ghana (1958), Mexico (1962), Bang-
1980s used the language of Marxian analysis, kok (1972), and Melbourne (1980), the Inter-
somewhat incautiously (see Marxist Ethics). national Missionary Council and its succes-
In this way structuralism gave a new ur- sor the Commission on World Mission and
gency to development education, conceived Evangelism of the WCC, and the whole
as the process of raising the critical con- spiritual-intellectual ferment to which the
sciousness of the community, and particu- foreign missionary enterprise of the past two
larly the Christian community, to issues of centuries has given rise. The central ethical
justice and impoverishment. issue in all of these has been the faithfulness
Insofar as this process has been taken seri- of a missionary church in the form of its life
ously by the churches and conscientiously to the gospel it seeks to make known in a
implementedand it would be misleading to non-Christian society, be that society per-
exaggerate the extent to which this has hap- meated by another religion or a form of
penedit has tended to be accompanied both secularized Christendom. Self-critical re-
by a more overtly theological appreciation of pentance and the urgency of proclamation
the structural position of the poor in present- stand in inevitable tension here. The experi-
day society and in the development of biblical ence of the churches in ecumenical mission
ethics, and by a deepening awareness of the during the 20th century has been an ever-
need to reintegrate practice, reflection, and deeper discovery of each of these poles and
spirituality. the dynamics of their interaction.
See Colonialism; Ecumenical Movement; Awareness of this interaction was present
Hunger, World; Imperialism; International in some form from the beginning. John
Order; Liberation Theology; Oppression; R. Mott, setting forth for the Student Volun-
Poverty; Race Relations. teer Movement his call for The Evangeliza-
CHARLES ELLIOTT tion of the World in This Generation (1900),
found the greatest hindrances to this goal in
Ecumenical Movement, the "secularized, self-centered" conformity
Ethics in the of the home church itself to its own society.
The ecumenical movement, expressed in the The point was underlined in the Edinburgh
20th century by a growing web of contacts Conference of 1910, where the success of the
177 Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the 177
urgent missionary task was linked continu- after World War II was still more radical.
ally with the renewal of the sending churches Political and social revolution*, driven by
and the reform of unchristian aspects of rising nationalism*, strongly influenced by
European and American society, not least its Marxist ideology (see Marxist Ethics)
political imperialism and rapacious trade re- though often nourished by the biblical vision
lations with non-Christian lands. The Jerusa- of the new humanity in Christ, the righteous-
lem Conference in 1928 acknowledged ex- ness of God, and the hope of his kingdom
plicitly that Christianity was not wholly which Christian missions had brought, faced
accepted in the Western world, and pro- the church in every part of the world with the
claimed the missionary task as a worldwide question of its own integrity as a witness to
one, in which every nation's "pride of na- the power of God alone, not to the influence
tional heritage or religious tradition" would of Western culture or the technological-eco-
be humbled before Christ. The burden of its nomic power of European-American society.
deliberations concerned the proper apprecia- In one country after another indigenous lead-
tion of non-Christian systems of life and ership took over from missionaries in the
thought, both religious and secularist, in church, often at the cost of an internal strug-
order to bring the gospel to them as fulfill- gle or a political upheaval. But this was only
ment, not destruction, of their proper values. the first step, for an aggressive non-Christian
In the years since, two ethical issues have nation then challenged the church to repent
dominated ecumenical missions, sometimes of its past association with imperialism* and
distinct, sometimes in close and confused to justify its continuing reason for existence,
mixture. in the midst of the struggle for independence
7. Relation to non-Christian religions and nation-building. The early meetings of
and cultures. What is the relation of the the East Asia Christian Conference and later
Christian message in the wholeness of its of the All Africa Conference of Churches, the
claim and promise over human life to the first regional ecumenical church associations,
religion and culture of non-Christian peo- were primarily concerned to discover the
ples? William Ernest Hocking, under whose form of the mission of Christ to this world of
direction Rethinking Missions: A Laymen's revolutionary change, wrestling with its
Inquiry After 100 Years was produced in problems and sharing while transforming its
1932, suggested that the exclusive claim of hopes and dreams. The most substantial liter-
Christ over the life of the world is itself an ature in this field was produced in India by
expression of Christian pride and domi- the Christian Institute for the Study of Reli-
nation. His alternative was nonevangelistic gion and Society, by its directors M. M.
forms of service and the pursuit of ultimate Thomas and P. D. Devanandan, and by J.
truth with and through all religions. It was a Lesslie Newbigin.
broadly popular point of view among Hindu The issue, however, has its counterpart in
and some Christian scholars at the time. In the world that once was Christendom, where
contrast, Hendrik Kraemer argued, in The churches have become identified with some
Christian Message in a Non-Christian World social classes or structures and have alienated
(1937), that human religion itself is a double others. Pre-World War II pioneers in this
phenomenon, partly human recognition of discovery were a Scottish Presbyterian,
and reaching for God and partly the effort to George MacLeod, from whose work in the
make human interests, dreams, and cultural slums of Glasgow the Iona Community
ideals divine in defiance of God. The Chris- arose, and a French Roman Catholic, Henri
tian message is about historical events in Godin, thefirstof the worker-priests of Paris.
which God reveals his judgment on all reli- After the war such urban and industrial mis-
gions, including the religious habits and sions multiplied as thousands of evangelists
hopes of Christians, and subjects living peo- made identification with some estranged and
ple to the saving claim of Christ in the whole needy social group and/or the formation of
of their lives and cultures. Kraemer's point of experimental Christian communities the
view was the central issue, which remained starting point for rediscovering the Christian
unresolved, of the World Mission Conference message and for challenging and renewing
at Tambaram near Madras in 1938. the church. This ferment was focused and
2. Relation to political and social revolu- cultivated by the WCC's Department on
tion. The question that dominated missions Studies in Evangelism under the successive
Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the 178
leadership of J. C. Hoekendijk, D. T. Niles, ity, van Leeuwen maintained, is in a constant
H. J. Margull, and W. Hollenweger and by struggle with its own temptation to become
the Department on the Laity under H.-R. another sacred system of thought, worship,
Weber. Their writings, and the publications and organization, but continually it is revolu-
of these departments, are the best guide to the tionized by the living word of God within it.
study of it. The church and Christian society are always
Meanwhile in Eastern Europe the same being reformed and secularized by this word,
question was posed in a third milieu. Whole and set on the path of history with a gospel
nations of traditionally Christian culture fell, of transforming hope. This is the real dy-
after the war, under Communist domination. namic behind the missionary movement in
Churches, used to centuries of power and our time. It is also, in a distorted form, the
prestige, were forced to rediscover their mis- dynamic behind Western technological, eco-
sion when faced with the moral attack of nomic, and political expansion bringing both
Marxist ideology on their association with a promise and a new form of oppression to
the injustices of past regimes, and when sub- the rest of the world. Therefore the mission-
jected to the repression of Communist power, ary encounter, he says, must redeem the
which made it costly and sometimes danger- worldwide technological society from its de-
ous to be an active Christian in society. monic distortions of right and left with the
Temptations were of two kinds: to idealize biblical gospel of sober hope. All human reli-
and live from the past while withdrawing in gions and cultures are being caught up in,
hate from responsibility for the present; or to and relativized by, this history.
conform completely to Communist policy, Whatever the truth of van Leeuwen's basic
reserving only the privilege of an "ideological thesis, he was mistaken in one prediction.
difference" on religion. Between these alter- Non-Christian religions, often energized and
natives, both widely adopted among Eastern goaded by the historical dynamic he de-
European Christians, church leaders both scribed, have again become major actors in
Protestant and Catholic have tried to work the historical drama. Absorbing from Chris-
out a theology and practice of evangelical tianity while fighting it, they have often de-
community over against the mass organiza- veloped enough sense of history and ethics to
tions of the Party and the state, of critical become vehicles of personal faith for many
solidarity with the aims of a socialist society, modern people, and of national hope and self-
and of free witness in a distinctively Christian assertion for many countries in a technologi-
ethic to the justice of God over against the cally developing world. As a result, Christian
ideologies of East and West. Most of this encounter with these religions has taken new
work has been done in the languages of the forms: the discernment of Christ, acknowl-
countries involved, often privately repro- edged or hidden, in the dynamics of other
duced and circulated, though some of it has religions; the discovery of biblical themes
appeared in English in the writings of J. L. also in the history of non-Christian peoples;
Hromadka of Czechoslovakia and Johannes and dialogue with non-Christian faiths not so
Hamel of East Germany, in the Hungarian much about God and cosmology as about
Church Press, and in publications of the man and woman, about social and personal
WCC and the Lutheran World Federation. ethics, and about hope in history. A few ex-
In the period since 1961 the two issues amples among many of this new encounter
described above have increasingly inter- are M. M. Thomas, The Acknowledged Christ
twined in the mission of the church. A Dutch of the Indian Renaissance (1970); Man in the
missiologist, Arend van Leeuwen, set the Universe of Faiths (1975); C.-S. Song, Third-
stage with a sweeping study (Christianity in Eye Theology (1979); and the reports edited
World History, 1964), showing how the his- by S. J. Samartha of interreligious dialogues
tory and the message of the Bible have sponsored by the WCC.
worked to historicize, secularize, and revolu- Nevertheless van Leeuwen's theme has
tionize human society and to challenge all also persisted. The Communist transforma-
"ontocratic" systems including the cosmic tion of China, the technological moderniza-
mythology of ancient Babylon, the rational tion of Japan, and the waning of traditional
philosophy of the Greeks, and the modern religious culture in Korea and many parts of
forms of religious culture whether Hindu, Africa are secularizing facts too great to be
Buddhist, Muslim, or Christian. Christian- ignored. For M. M. Thomas and many other
179 Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the 179
Christians in India, secularism* is a saving an alien institution. In any case the ecclesi-
grace and secular ideologies an important ology of mission, the social form of the body
factor in an overheated religious environ- of Christ bringing judgment and redemption
ment (The Secular Ideologies of India and the to every people, remains to be worked out.
Secular Meaning of Christ, 1976). Liberation (d) Liberation, or attaining full humanity,
theology*, developed in largely Christian is its dominant expression of the content and
Latin America, has influenced also the ethics goal of Christian life. Divine salvation is con-
of mission in Asia and Africa, with its em- tinuous with the human struggle for freedom
phasis primarily on imperialism, class con- and justice. This is one part of the gospel, but
flict, and solidarity with the poor as the arena it underplays the other part: divine judgment
of Christian engagement. The "base com- on human pride and power, the forgiveness
munities" of Latin American Christians have of sins, and the sanctification of the sinner by
their ecumenical extension in the projects of grace alone. Once again the experience of this
Urban Rural Mission, an agency of the WCC grace is in the church on the mission frontier,
concerned with the support of groups every- in the humility and the openness of its life
where in the world that are struggling against and community. An ethic of the full Chris-
oppressive powers in their own localities for tian life needs to be built upon it.
control of their own lives (Leon Howell, Peo- B. Social thought and action. The second
ple Are the Subject, 1980). ecumenical strand of ethical significance is
The diversity of this search for the form of that represented by the Universal Christian
witness and service in the church's mission Conference on Life and Work through its
increases every year as new participants from conferences at Stockholm in 1925 and Ox-
new cultures and social conditions join it. ford in 1937, and since the formation of the
Nevertheless a few common features of it can WCC, in its Department on Church and So-
be named. ciety, and the studies and statements that
(a) It is Christocentric. The original mis- World Council Assemblies and other confer-
sionary motive to make Christ known takes ences have produced. In this ecumenical
the modern form of seeking the form of study and action nearly all the significant
Christ in every culture and society as the true lines of Christian social thought and action in
reality of that society. The old debate about recent generations have come together. The
the relation of Jesus to founders of other reli- Stockholm Conference was conceived, fol-
gions has been largely forgotten. Proclama- lowingfiveyears of preparatory study, in the
tion of Christ the Savior of the world is the spirit of the social gospel, but already in its
goal of the search in almost all its expres- opening session this antitheological optimism
sions. was challenged. The Oxford Conference,
(b) It takes its sense of history from the with its seven preparatory volumes and forty-
biblical story and seeks to understand the seven contributors, brought into conversa-
suffering and hope of today's world from that tion leading representatives of social thought
source. No longer is it seriously argued that in every branch of Christendom. Its report
the religious history of some other culture be remains to this day the most comprehensive
substituted for the OT; rather the effort now ecumenical statement on problems of church
is to understand that history in the light of and society ever produced, covering the re-
the story of the covenant people of God. sponsibility of the church in relation to (1)
(c) Its central communal concept is "peo- other human communities of nation and
ple." The term is understood in various ways: race; (2) the function, authority, and limits of
sometimes as a particular culture, sharing a the state; (3) the economic order and its re-
language, a history, and a politico-social or- form; (4) public and private education; (5)
ganization; sometimes as a class thrown to- war, peace, and the international order; and
gether and formed by poverty and exploita- (6) the general problem of social order.
tion; sometimes in a broad sense as all who Between Oxford and the First Assembly of
are seeking liberation and true humanity to- the WCC at Amsterdam in 1948 intervened
gether. The relation of this concept to the the shattering experience of the Second
people of God in the church is often unclear, World War. Ecumenical social thought
perhaps because the experience of church is turned naturally therefore to diagnosis of the
so fundamental that it is taken for granted, dynamics of a world that had proved uncon-
perhaps because church has meant for some trollable by the best of Christian principles
Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the 180
and to the task of the church's witness and Thessalonika, Greece, in 1959. Among the
obedience in that world. The problem, as emphases of these reports were: (1) a more
Amsterdam understood it, was to find ways positive, hopeful attitude toward centrally
of creative living for "little men in big soci- planned technology and industrialization
eties" (J. H. Oldham), to plan for personal than in the West, despite the human costs
responsibility and community life in a world involved; (2) an affirmation of nationalism as
increasingly dominated by large aggregations a creative force, despite the moral dangers of
of power having a momentum of their own. political idolatry, and of nation-building as a
This was the context of the concept of the basic Christian responsibility; and (3) an ur-
"responsible society," i.e., "one where free- gently future-oriented ethic, prepared in
dom is the freedom of men who acknowledge principle to take chances with the unknown
responsibility to justice and public order, and consequences of radical change rather than
where those who hold political authority or rest with known but unpromising securities.
economic power are responsible for its exer- Since the WCC's Third Assembly at New
cise to God and to the people whose welfare Delhi in 1961, worldwide problems have
is affected by it" (Amsterdam Report, Sec- again come into focus. The third World Con-
tion III, p. 200). ference on Church and Society at Geneva,
On the basis of this understanding, Amster- 1966, was in every way broader than the sec-
dam condemned both communism* and ond at Oxford nearly thirty years before. Its
laissez-faire* capitalism* and initiated a pe- four preparatory volumes, with eighty-four
riod of search for those forms of balance be- contributors from every part of the world and,
tween freedom and planning in the economic for the first time, full Roman Catholic and
order, efficient production and equitable dis- Orthodox as well as Protestant and secular
tribution of goods, effective centralization of participation, give a good picture of its scope.
political power, and constitutional limits in Christian Social Ethics in a Changing World
the interest of free personal relations and local (ed. J. C. Bennett, 1966) raises the basic issues
responsibility, which lasted through and after of theology in revolution, biblical bases of
the WCC's Second Assembly at Evanston in ethics, responsible society, and natural law vs.
1954. Section III of the Evanston Report is an contextual ethics which underlay the whole
effort to explore this balance pragmatically in conference. Economic Growth in World Per-
the midst of the powers and pressures of (1) spective (ed. Denys Munby, 1966) provided
Western technologically developed society, the material for a special section on the ethics
(2) Communist-dominated areas, and (3) the of technological change in developed soci-
social revolution in Asia, Africa, and Latin eties, special problems of developing coun-
America. tries, and world economic relations. Responsi-
It has proved impossible since, however (as ble Government in a Revolutionary Age (ed. Z.
it was at Evanston), to hold these three areas K. Matthews, 1966) underlay two section re-
together with one analysis and social pro- ports on the nature and function of the state
gram. In 1956, therefore, the WCC initiated and the structures of international coopera-
a study of Christian responsibility in coun- tion. Man in Community (ed. E. de Vries,
tries undergoing rapid social change. The 1966) dealt with the basic problems of ideol-
term was understood to apply not to the ogy*, secularization*, cultural and ethnic ten-
rapid changes in relatively stable societies sion, and the basis of human community. Its
such as Europe or North America, but to insights permeated the report as a whole.
those nations where the whole structure of Geneva 1966 was a watershed in ecumeni-
political, social, and economic order is in cal ethics in three respects. First, it led to a
upheaval. This study was diverse and de- period of direct cooperation between the
tailed. Its primary purpose was to stimulate WCC and the Vatican in a program on Soci-
the churches on the spot to examine their ety, Development, and Peace (SODEPAX).
own ministry to their changing world. Most Parallel strong statements were made by
of its results were published locally or in oc- Pope Paul VI in 1967 (Populorum Progres-
casional papers by the Department on s) and by the Fourth Assembly of the WCC
Church and Society in Geneva. Some com- in 1968 (Uppsala Report, Section III) about
mon findings were drawn together, however, the urgency of world economic development,
in P. Abrecht's The Churches in Rapid Social the evil of poverty, the danger of violence, and
Change and in an international conference in the moral demand on wealthier nations to put
181 Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the 181
their resources at the service of human life for the lives and actions of Christians and
the poor. For nearly a decade these were im- churches themselves. The process is continu-
plemented by SODEPAX in a series of ex- ous. It is a story of changing and being
ploratory conferences, in the coordination of changed as one's strongest convictions en-
policy by Catholic and WCC world service counter the faith and witness of others in
and development agencies, and in regional Christ. In recent years it has broadened to
cooperative groups throughout the world. include the contributions of morally con-
Second, Geneva 1966 brought together, for cerned scientists, politicians, economists, rev-
the first time in history on a world scale, a olutionaries, professionals, and others whose
predominance of ethically concerned Chris- faith is not actively Christian but who respect
tian laity, trained in their own professions or and want to help the church. It seeks not so
academic disciplines, to place the expertise of much consensus as the best insight available
these spheres of life and thought at the service in each time and place about the form of
of the responsible social witness of the church. Christian obedience. In extreme cases a
Theology was no longer the unifying universe church body has suffered ecumenical con-
of discourse; its place was taken by intense demnationas in the case of the pro-Nazi
dialogue between the insights and problems of "German Christians," or, more recently, the
various human sciences, and of various fields pro-apartheid position of the white Dutch
of work in the common life. This dialogue has Reformed churches in South Africaand di-
grown throughout recent years to include nat- alogue has been broken off. But this is rare.
ural scientists, industrial technicians, and an More usually, critical reflection, even to a
ever-wider circle of concerned citizens in the demand for repentance, takes place within
WCC program on faith, science, and the the forum and under the judgment of a com-
human future. Third, Geneva 1966 con- mon allegiance.
fronted this whole dialogue among ethically A new approach to ecumenical action. In
concerned professionals with the revolution- the late 1960s this method of ecumenical
ary demands and politics of those who saw work came under sharp criticism. Paul Ram-
themselves as excluded from the process and sey ( Who Speaks for the Church? 1967) found
victimized by it. To some extent this was a it to be pretentious and haphazard, informed
confrontation between the First World and by too little research and expertise, and there-
the Third World, between developed indus- fore of little guidance to acting professionals
trial societies and underdeveloped nations, in the world's affairs. More vigorous, how-
though not entirely, because some of the most ever, was the attack from the left, which criti-
articulate revolutionary spokesmen were cized it as an abstract exercise without actual
Americans or Europeans, and leaders from engagement in the social struggle. The ecu-
the Third World took part fully in the moral- menical movement, these critics urged, must
professional discussion. To some extent it was move beyond discussion to forms of action.
an ideological debate between Christians Their plea was heard. In 1970 the WCC orga-
tempted by opposing forms of humanism: nized two new agencies, the Commission on
technological rationalist on one side and revo- the Churches' Participation in Development
lutionary idealist on the other. (CCPD) and the Program to Combat Racism
In any case this confrontation led, in ensu- (PCR) to implement a quite different
ing years, to a profound bifurcation of ethical method. A good overall description of these
method in the ecumenical movement, which agencies and of ecumenical ethics from their
continues to the present day. The traditional perspective is Richard D. N. Dickinson,
method, dating from the earliest years of Poor, Yet Making Many Rich (1983). They
modern ecumenicity, has been dialogical, have broken new ground in ecumenical ac-
sometimes confrontational, in the context of tion in several respects. They are designed
a common commitment to Christ and the and equipped to act on behalf of the
church. Persons are brought into this dia- churches, with church and some secular
logue from radically different, sometimes op- financial support, in social and political con-
posing, positions and convictions, churches flicts, sometimes working through local
and social backgrounds; issues are defined, church bodies but often dealing directly with
and new truth is sought in the encounter. outside forces. In this way they differ from
This truth is then offered as guidance for the the previous work of the Division of Inter-
churches, but questioned and tested anew in church Aid, and from other ecumenical
Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the 182
agencies primarily concerned with forming Criticisms. Popular as it is, however,
the conscience of the churches through theo- this method has raised serious problems in
logical and ethical reflection in dialogue with the ecumenical movement as a whole. To
the actions of Christians. They are mandated name a few of them:
to work for social justice as distinct from (a) How far may a Christian support vio-
service to human need in itself. In this they lence as a means of social change? The first
are distinguished from the relief and aid work grants of the Program to Combat Racism to
traditionally done by churches, and commit- southern African liberation movements
ted to a concept of justice through participa- threw this question into the Central Commit-
tion in political and social conflict. They, es- tee of the WCC. The result was a study on
pecially the CCPD, undergird this action Violence, Nonviolence and the Struggle for
with certain social convictions which are Justice (1973) conducted by the Office on
their working principles: Church and Society, which involved the
(a) Justice is achieved, not by appeals to range of conviction and practice in Christen-
reason and conscience within a given eco- dom from Mennonite pacifists to African
nomic and political system, but by the con- freedom fighters. Though brief, it was a de-
flict with the system to bring about structural finitive guide, recognizing the pervasiveness
change. Christian witness requires taking of violencegovernmental, oppositional,
sides therefore with the forces that are work- and civil; exploring the legitimacy and the
ing, even violently at times, to bring about abuse of government power for the common
this change. good, and the justice and limits of resistance
(b) World development requires, not eco- to unjust power; wrestling with disagree-
nomic growth in itself, but political power ments about the exemplary authority of Jesus
changes. Under the direction of wealthy na- for the Christian's responsibility toward
tions and transnational corporations it cre- human power; probing the positive possibili-
ates dependency and impoverishment in the ties of nonviolent action for justice and the
Third World, with the connivance of a small limits of violence on which all could agree;
Third World elite. Christian witness, there- and finally, asking probing questions to pa-
fore, requires the support of movements in cifists and nonpacifists, to supporters of the
the poorer nations for economic self-reliance status quo and of revolution (see Resistance;
with goals set by people's participation. Revolution).
(c) God is at work and Christ is present (b) Is the model of system change by con-
among the poor of the world, in their struggle frontation and conflict, including the engage-
against oppressive powers to achieve full hu- ment of church agencies on one side of a
manity. Solidarity with the poor in this strug- power struggle, always just, effective, and
gle is a basic form of Christian existence. faithful to the gospel? In practice the CCPD
Some would say that there is where the and the PCR have not been as extreme as
church is found. Christian action should their theory. CCPD project grants have usu-
therefore take its form from movements of the ally been to national church-sponsored devel-
poor themselves and serve those movements. opment commissions that in turn have sup-
(d) The goal of Christian life is liberation ported self-help projects to improve living
of the oppressed, in order that they may be- conditions in poor local communities. PCR
come "subjects of their own history," co- grants, even to African movements engaged
creators with God of their own future, and in liberation warfare, have been for medical,
participants in the shaping of their human educational, and relief purposes. Meanwhile,
life. This, rather than forgiving and justifying PCR has supported Zimbabwean and
grace, is the way of divine action in the world Namibian delegates' attendance at interna-
(Julio de Santa Ana, Towards a Church of the tional negotiations on the future of these
Poor, 1979). countries, has made studies of racial minori-
In the method at work here, biblical inter- ties and grants to church groups working for
pretation, theological understanding, and so- minority rights in places as diverse as Can-
cial analysis all arise out of a particular social ada, India, the Philippines, the USA, Sri
experience or position in the social struggle. Lanka, New Zealand, and Japan. Only to-
Those who are outside this experience are ward the Republic of South Africa has con-
invited to identify with it and look at them- frontation sharpened, and in this there is
selves, God, and the world from there. strong support from world public opinion.
183 Ecumenical Movement, Ethics in the 183
(c) Is the community of promise the strug- Human Liberation, 1973). (See also Environ-
gling poor, or is it the people of God who mental Ethics.)
know themselves judged, redeemed, and (c) Probing the dynamics of modern tech-
made new in Christ? Some of the language of nology and its responsibility for directing
this perspective assumes the former, but the limited world resources toward justice for all
poor are seen, not in their own right, but as the world's people. The goals, determining
conscientized by a definition of their condi- powers, and dilemmas of technological plan-
tion and their struggle which those who iden- ning, the vast imbalance of technological de-
tify with them bring to and elicit from them velopment in the world, appropriate tech-
(see Conscientization). Is the self-assertion of nologies for differing societies and social
the poor, thus made aware, the earthly agent goals, the waste and pollution of technologi-
not only of immediate justice but also of true cal processes, resource-conserving technolo-
humanity and the salvation of God? Once gies, and transfer of technology from the rich
again the practice of these agencies is more to the poor, are among the problems in this
church-centered than the theory. Still the sphere.
question of the prophetic witness of the (d) A new look at the economics of a "just,
church toward all sinful humanity, poor and participatory and sustainable society." This
rich, revolutionary and conservative alike re- has meant rethinking the goals of life in afflu-
mains. ent societies toward less consumption of ma-
Studies on the future of humanity. terial goods, curbing the power of the highly
Questions like those listed above cannot be developed world to coerce the economies of
faced in the context of the method that raised poorer nations through governmental poli-
them. They bring the activists, when seri- cies, transnational corporations, interna-
ously challenged by the church, back into tional finance, and other means, projecting
dialogue about their assumptions. This has self-reliant economies in developing coun-
led to an uneasy but real interaction between tries in accordance with their cultures and
them and the other main line of ecumenical social goals, and shepherding the resources of
ethics in the 1970s and 1980s: the study of the earth for a sustainable future.
"The Future of Humanity in an Age of (e) A special concern for the technology of
Science-based Technology" sponsored by the energy production, consumption, and con-
Office on Church and Society. This problem servation. The largest item on this agenda is,
was first posed by ethically concerned scien- of course, nuclear energy (J. Francis and P.
tists themselves in a radical shift from the Abrecht, eds., Facing Up to Nuclear Power,
technological optimism of the previous years. 1976). Second to it is the effect of various
Its range over the following years has in- forms of energy use on the environment: air
cluded: pollution, thermal changes in air and water,
(a) A reconsideration of the relation be- the generation of renewable fuel resources,
tween faith and science in the light of the the hope for solar energy, and the like. A
form and the technological uses of scientific third question is conservation of energy in
knowledge and Christian ethical concern light of the dangers that all mass energy
about the role of science in society (see Sci- sources pose (see also Energy).
ence and Ethics; Technology). (f) Facing the question of the biological
(b) A new study of the role of nonhuman manipulation of life, especially human life.
creation or nature in biblical and theological The ethics of genetic research and of genet-
understanding as a control and guide to tech- ic engineering heads the list in this area
nological domination over and manipulation (Charles Birch, ed., Genetics and the Quality
of nature for human purposes. Questions of of Life, 1974), but the influence of recombi-
the ecological integrity of nature in the cove- nant DNA technology on plant and animal
nant purpose of God, of the rights of nonhu- life, the control of the human mind and be-
man creation compared with human rights, havior by pharmaceutical means, and distrib-
of justice to future generations* compared utive justice in the use of scarce medical re-
with justice in the present, of preserving the sources are also its themes (see also Genet-
environment versus meeting present human ics).
need, and of the harmony of nature and hu- (g) A continuing confrontation with the
manity in the promise of God, have been massive commitment of science and technol-
involved here (Thomas Derr, Ecology and ogy to military purposes (see Deterrence;
Education, Christian Moral 184
Nuclear Warfare). The unchecked develop- 1975; G. MacLeod, We Shall Rebuild: The
ment of nuclear weaponry is the most critical Work of the Iona Community on Mainland
concern here. Its most recent expression was and on Island, 1945; D. T. Niles, Upon the
in an international hearing sponsored by the Earth, 1962; R. H. Preston (ed.), Technology
WCC (P. Abrecht and N. Koshy, eds., Before and Social Justice, 1971; World Conference
It's Too Late, 1983). The issue of chemical on Church and Society: Official Report, 1967.
and biological weaponry has also come up, CHARLES C. WEST
however, as well as the effect on the Third
World of overmilitarization. Education, Christian Moral
The ongoing discussion of this wide range Christian faith and morality are not synony-
of interlocking problems has been reflected mous terms; neither are Christian education
primarily in the publication of the Office on and moral education. Nevertheless, for
Church and Society, Anticipation, from 1970 Christians, moral education is not something
to 1983. Here the reports of several interna- separate from or added to Christian educa-
tional conferences and an ecumenical variety tion. Christian education is education for the
of essays are brought. More accessible to Christian life. Since this life is inherently a
most readers, however, are the published moral life, Christian moral education means
volumes of preparatory papers and the two- the way this particular form of moral life is
volume report of the World Conference on taught.
Faith, Science and the Future in Cambridge, Education may be understood both broad-
Massachusetts, in 1979 (Faith, Science and ly and more narrowly. Education, broadly
the Future, 1978); Faith and Science in an understood, involves all the influences of a
Unjust World, vol. 1: Plenary Presentations; person's social context which shape his or her
vol. 2: Reports and Recommendations). values, beliefs, skills, and patterns of behav-
The future of ethics in the ecumenical ior, etc. In this sense, education is socializa-
movement beyond its high point in the Cam- tion, and is in part unplanned, unintentional,
bridge conference is unclear. The tension be- and unsystematic. More strictly defined, edu-
tween the two methods continues. It was ex- cation is limited to the intentional, conscious,
pressed at Cambridge by statements from and willed actions of persons and institutions
youth delegates and some from the Third in relation to others in order to influence
World. It came to expression again at the them in particular ways. There is wide agree-
Sixth Assembly of the WCC at Vancouver in ment that morality is powerfully shaped by
1983. The danger of separation into action broad, socializing forces. Most moral and re-
dominated by a limited theology and social ligious educators believe that moral educa-
analysis versus sophisticated reflection with- tion in the narrower sense is also possible
out a clear influence on social behavior is that planned educational strategies can be de-
real. Hope lies, however, in the fact that veloped that will have significant impact on
Christians continue to be thrown together important dimensions of a person's morality.
across all lines of conflict by the urgency of Many argue that effective moral education
the gospel and the urgency of the world situa- involves responsibility both for the shaping of
tion. These urgencies in the past have helped broad social contexts and for direct teaching.
greatly to dispel ideologies and compel en- The various contemporary approaches to
gagement with human problems in their moral education are often directly related to
complex reality. theories of moral development (see Moral
See Ecclesiology and Ethics. Development). Different approaches empha-
size different strategies and goals. Many are
In addition to items mentioned in the text: P. often useful to Christian moral education.
Bock, In Search of a Responsible World Soci- Christian moral education has historically in-
ety, 1974; H. Godin, France Pagan? 1949; W volved several constant elements, however.
A. Visser't Hooft and J. H. Oldham, The The church has always found it important for
Church and Its Function in Society, 1937; the formation of moral life that people be
The Church and the Disorder of Society, Am- intimately involved in the life of Christian
sterdam Assembly Series, III, 1948; Dilem- community. Here children and adults learn
mas and Opportunities: Report of Interna- and assimilate the values, convictions, and
tional Study Conference, 1959; M. Lindqvist, patterns of perception, interpretation, and
Economic Growth and the Quality of Life, action of the faith community through par-
185 Egoism
ticipation in myriad events of worship, fel- own sources of energy and its own aims and
lowship, service, and creative expression. purposes. This position is particularly as-
The Christian family has often been seen as sociated with Heinz Hartmann and David
the church in miniature and, because of its Rapaport and has found widespread accept-
intimacy, a particularly significant institution ance among psychoanalysts. There are also
of moral education. In addition to such so- modified forms of ego psychology such as
cialization within Christian community, the that advocated by Gordon Allport.
church has also usually provided forums for There is no general agreement in psychol-
moral discourse. Here explicit opportunities ogy on the relation of the term "ego" to the
are set up both to learn and to inquire into the term "self." Some theorists use the words
moral convictions, principles, and values of interchangeably; others insist that there is a
the Christian faith as these are carried by its difference between them, but some of these
stories, symbols, rituals, and theology, and to use both terms in a manner directly opposite
engage in debate and discussion about moral to their use by others. It is abundantly clear,
conflicts and decision-making that arise in however, that there is no warrant in the best
the lives of people. Finally, the church has, in contemporary psychology for the common
various forms, developed structures for misapprehension (from which theologians in
moral action and vocation that provide com- particular are not exempt) that any consider-
munal support and guidance for its people's ations of ego or of self constitute a pandering
moral endeavors. to human pride*, egoism, or self-centered-
See Ecclesiology and Ethics. ness. The simple fact is that we could not
survive as human beings without an adequate
H. Bushnell, Christian Nurture, 1861, repr. ego, that is, without some central integrating
1979; E. B. Castle, Moral Education in Chris- structure and function in the personality.
tian Times, 1958; C. Dykstra, Vision and The traditional issues in ethics about egoism*
Character, 1981; C. E. Nelson, Where Faith versus altruism* focus around a different
Begins, 1967; T. Sizer and N. F. Sizer (eds.), concern.
Moral Education: Five Lectures, 1970. See Persons and Personality; Psychology
CRAIG DYKSTRA and Ethics.
Egalitarianism see Equality; Justice G. Allport, Pattern and Growth in Personal-
ity, 1961; A. Freud, The Ego and the Mech-
Ego anisms of Defence, ET 1937; S. Freud, The
In Sigmund Freud's later understanding of Ego and the Id (1923), ET 1927; C. S. Hall
the human mind the ego is the institution or and G. Lindzey, Theories of Personality,
structure responsible for perception, think- 21970, esp. pp. 515-523; H. Hartmann, Es-
ing, memory, and judgment. It develops out says in Ego-Psychology, 1964.
of the id* and endeavors to modify the id GRAEME M. GRIFFIN
impulses to conform to the demands of real-
ity. It is partly conscious and partly uncon- Egoism
scious and in general performs the control- The word means self-centeredness. Of
ling and integrating function in the human course, a person could not be human or a
personality. The conscious ego tends to act moral agent unless he or she was a centered
rationally and logically and is prepared to self or ego*. However, the word "egoism" is
postpone immediate pleasure for the sake of used in a pejorative sense to mean excessive
anticipated future pleasures. Psychoanalytic self-regard. It may be the case that true self-
theory (see Psychoanalysis) regards the con- regard does not conflict with regard for oth-
flicts between id, ego, and superego* as basic ers, for genuine selfhood is attainable only in
in the development of personality. Ego struc- a community of selves. In many particular
ture may also be influenced by external fac- situations, whatever may be true in general
tors, and an ego is said to be strong when it about the ultimate coincidence of self-regard-
is capable of dealing realistically with a wide ing and other-regarding conduct, the moral
variety of pressures from within and without. decision presents itself as one between one's
More recently an "ego psychology" has own interests and the interests of other per-
developed which claims that the ego is some- sons. The Christian ethic stresses the claim of
what autonomous of the id and has both its the other and teaches that true selfhood can
Egyptian Ethics, Ancient 186
be gained only through willingness to lose truth to life, while in other spheres (litera-
oneself. More subtle than the egoism of the ture, social manners) it indicated a revolt
individual is what may be called "group ego- against traditionalism and a zest for experi-
ism," the unrelenting pursuit of its own inter- ment. The god of the monotheistic cult that
ests by, let us say, a family, a social class, a he established at his new capital, Tell-el-
nation, without regard to the damage or in- Amarna, was the sun disk, Aton, and this
justice inflicted on others. Reinhold Nie- reform certainly involved the suppression of
buhr's contrast between "moral man" and the Amon cult and the other Egyptian gods,
"immoral society" points to the curbing of although it should not be forgotten that
egoism in the individual and its relatively un- Akhenaton himself was a god and that it is on
restrained exercise by the group; and it also the unique relationship of Aton to his person
makes clear that the Christian ethic cannot that the reform hinges. Its most important
be thought of merely in terms of individual religious document is the Hymn to the Sun
integrity but must seek to permeate the larger (LAE, p. 288), which has aesthetic and intel-
social structures as well. lectual merit and which adores Aton for his
See Altruism; Persons and Personality. creative, ordering, and sustaining work in na-
JOHN MACQUARRIE ture, but in which there is little evidence of
ethical emphasis. The so-called universalism
Egyptian Ethics, Ancient of the Aton cult was not an entirely new
Maat ("order," "justice") is both a cosmo- departure (cf. The Hymn to Amon, LAE, p.
logical and an ethical concept and presup- 282) and its significance should not be exag-
poses the integration of the order of nature gerated, for although parochialism was tran-
with the order of Egyptian society. This har- scended the favored relationship of Egypt
mony is achieved in the person of the phar- with the god was still asserted (see LAE, p.
aoh, who is a god, and kingship dates from 292 n. 3).
the time of creation and belongs to the basic "Order" or "justice" was not so much a
order of existence. Nature does not confront concern of the private Egyptian as of the
Egyptian society as threatening or unpredict- pharaoh and his officials, as is evident from
able, but is a complex harmony alive with the the "Instructions" genre. These "Instruc-
gods who all have their allotted place, and tions" (LAE, pp. 54f 234f.; ANET, pp. 412-
such changes as are seen are predetermined 425) are manuals on the art of statesmanship
rhythms that declare the utter stability of the compiled for the benefit of those who were to
created order. The Egyptian therefore lives in serve the pharaoh in the upholding of Maat.
a world that was perfect from the day of They contain a vocational ethic and were
creation, and this static view extends to used in the schools where apprentice states-
Egyptian society so that history is no more men were trained. Their authors are some-
than the inevitable working-out of the origi- times seasoned statesmen who at the end of
nal constitution of that society. The Egyptian a successful life conserve their stores of wis-
state is the pharaoh, who is the source of dom for those who are to succeed them in
Maat and who preserves through the deriva- office. The "Instruction" for the most part
tive powers of his officials that immutable inculcates a hardheaded wisdom and warns
order of society which derives from his per- against intellectual rather than ethical flaws.
son. One who is to succeed in affairs of state
Akhenaton, the heretic king of the 18th should bridle his tongue, cultivate silence,
dynasty, claimed that he lived on Maat (as stifle impetuosity, and speak only when he
his food), but his successor, Tutankhamen, has something weighty to say. He ought to
declared that "His Majesty drove out dis- avoid quarrels and make as few enemies as
order (or falsehood) from the Two Lands so possible, and it is essential that he should
that order (or truth) was again established in know his limitations and not imagine himself
its place; he made disorder (falsehood) an to be more important than he is. Pride in a
abomination of the land as at 'the first time' statesman leads to disaster. There is, how-
(creation)" (AER, p. 54). From this point of ever, a great variety of maxims in these in-
view Akhenaton threatened to destroy the structions; they deal with matters of etiquette
harmony of the created order and to reinstate and they rise to genuine ethical injunctions.
chaos. Akhenaton's use of Maat is somewhat Probity and incorruptibility are demanded of
specialized; in art it meant something like the official, and he must take great pains to
187 Embodiment
see that justice is done (this is perhaps the ogy by its Hebraic sources (see Body), has
point of The Complaints of the Peasant, LAE, only in more recent times been clearly ap-
p. 116; AER, pp. 46, 146f.) and be ready to preciated as forming the core of that
help the less fortunate members of the com- "whole." One way to make this phenomenon
munity. Frankfort and others have objected stand out is to contrast it with the entrenched
to the description of these maxims as "prag- idea that human being is a composite of
matic" and have held that they are over- "mind" and "body." Essentially a metaphysi-
arched by religious belief and that Maat cal postulate, this mind/body dualism is sim-
is everywhere presupposed. Nevertheless ply unresponsive to a plain fact: that persons
Frankfort agrees that they are empirical wis- experience their own bodies in specific ways
dom and that they do not have the moral that can be studied as such whether such
fervor that accompanies the concepts of law dualism is true or false.
and sin in biblical thinking (AER, pp. 73f.). Another way of eliciting embodiment
The Egyptian gods do not "reveal" a social would be to note a remarkable feature of the
ethic to humans nor do they give extraordi- work of Ren Descartes (1569-1650). In his
nary ''guidance" on matters of state. Religion metaphysics Descartes argued that mind (res
thus makes room for statecraft based on a cogitans) and matter (res extensa) are "sub-
bank of experience accumulated over many stances": mutually exclusive, self-subsistent,
generations, and the native intelligence cou- and ontologically distinct entities, neither of
pled with a rigorous educational process is which requires the other to be or to be known.
part of the Maat which guarantees harmony This bifurcation stood dramatically opposed
to the created order. Empiricism is attuned to to Descartes's clearly stated conviction that,
the divine order. even though metaphysically dichotomous,
human life is in its everyday modalities a
A. Erman, The Literature of the Ancient unity. Mind and body somehow interact,
Egyptians (LAE), tr. A. M. Blackman, 1927; even though that interaction could not be
H. Frankfort, Ancient Egyptian Religion specified or understood within the metaphys-
(AER), 1948, chs. 2 and 3; J. B. Pritchard, ics. The mind is not contingently or acciden-
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the tally "in" the body as a boatman is in a boat.
Old Testament (ANET), 1955; J. A. Wilson,
2 But the sense of that "intimate union" is the
Before Philosophy, 1949, ch. 4; The Burden of fundamental issue: If everything must be ei-
Egypt, 1951, ch. 6, on Akhenaton. ther mind or body and nothing can be both,
WILLIAM MCKANE how can the one be said to be united or to
interact with the other? To this Descartes
Eleemosynary Activities see Alms- could not respond that in daily life there sim-
giving; Charity; Philanthropy; Social Ser- ply is no issue.
vice of the Church The insight is genuine, however much Des-
cartes and others confused it: that one does
Emancipation see Afro-American Reli- in cruth experience one's own body as pro-
gious Ethics; Liberation Theology; Op- foundly "intimate." Blaise Pascal (1623-
pression; Race Relations; Slavery 1662) noted with marked irony that if one,
like Descartes's metaphysician, composed all
Embodiment things of mind and body, surely that mixture
To be a human being is to be a whole of a would itself be intelligible. Yet, not only do
special kind: at once self-conscious, purpos- we not understand the body, and even less
ive, corporeal, social, historical, and spirit- the mind, least of all do we know how a body
ual. But saying this already makes prominent could possibly be united to a mind. This,
a certain unease: human being is not "just" a however, Pascal pointedly stated, is our very
string of such adjectives but is somehow being: to be both and thus to be opaque to
"more." Not even the addition of other adjec- ourselves.
tivesrational, deceitful, imaginational, sin- Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677), too, saw
fulquells the unease. For what every such that such a metaphysical bifurcation created
list leaves obscure is the sense of "whole" real difficulties. While he focused his main
itself, which is the human being. argument in metaphysical terms (neither
The phenomenon of embodiment, al- mind nor body could possibly be genuine
though suggestively educed in Pauline theol- substances, but rather only "attributes" of
Embodiment 188
the one unitary substance that is reality it- its being experienced as such that anything
self), Spinoza nevertheless saw the impor- else in the world is able to be experienced.
tance of accounting for what Descartes had Gabriel Marcel (1888-1973) advanced the
merely named a "union." Both mind and issue substantially, pointing especially to the
body are essential to one another; the body is fundamental opacity at the heart of personal
mirrored in the mind as its "idea." Although life which embodiment entails. Maurice Mer-
his theory is far more complex, the point of leau-Ponty (1907-1961), too, located an es-
major emphasis here is that by rejecting the sential ambiguity intrinsic to embodiment.
dualism, Spinoza was able to achieve a So "intimate" is the "union" between the
clearer understanding of the sense of that person and the embodying organism, indeed,
"intimate union." that one is tempted to say, "I am my body,"
It was not until more recently, however, in even while there is that opacity or ambiguity
the early writings of Henri Bergson (1859- at the heart of this: I both "am" and "have"
1941), that the sense of embodiment became this body, as Marcel emphasized. My body is
a specifically focal issue (even though Berg- not only mind but is that by virtue of which
son did not fully explore it). The body is that anything else can be said to "belong" to me.
whereby a person has a locus or placement in So profound is that "mineness," indeed, that
the world; this is a unique phenomenon. Un- when it becomes compromisedas in certain
like any other worldly object, this body is cases of mental or physical disturbancethis
"intimate," that is, is experienced by the per- can entail a compromise to the sense in which
son as "mine": it is the "mineness" of the other things are experienced as "belonging"
human body which makes it sui generis. As to the person.
such, it is the center for the person's experi- By virtue of what is this singular embody-
ence: the field of objects and events is spa- ing organism "mine"? This is an intricately
tially organized around "my body" as its cen- complex issue. It seems generally agreed that
ter of reference. More than that, it is that by this organism embodies the person solely to
means of which the person engages in activi- the extent that (1) it is the locus for the per-
ties of any sort. Thus, spatial location and the son's various fields of sensation; (2) it is the
familiar sensory perceptions of things are al- only "object" in which the person "rules and
ways experienced within specific contexts of governs" immediately (through and by
action. "My body" is an actional center. means of its various organs and the whole
Worldly things are not merely data, only organism); (3) it enacts most immediately the
later to be taken up into various bodily ac- person's "I can" (see, touch, talk, move,
tions. Perception is not a matter of "data grasp, etc.); (4) it is the means by which the
perception" (input) followed by "internal person perceives and otherwise experiences
neural translation" and then by "externaliza- the surrounding world, and is thus the imme-
tion" (output). For the experiencing per- diate access to the world and the focus of the
ceiver, things are at the outset menacing, world's and other persons' actions on oneself;
helpful, handy, or obstacles,in short, are and (5) it is itself experienced while other
experientially organized as "poles of action" things are by its means also experienced (the
appearing only in and through specific activi- organism is reflexively related to itself).
ties directed toward them. "My body" is a Embodiment is fundamentally actualized
center, that by means of which the person is within various levels and modalities of bodily
in the world, in the midst of things, people, attitudes, stances, movements, personal striv-
language, culture, and it is that by means of ing or willing, and perceptual awareness of
which the surrounding milieu is presented for things. Wishes, desires, movements, etc., are
thought and action. actualized through various corporeal feelings
After Bergson, Max Scheler (1874-1928), and fields (kinesthetic, proprioceptive, coe-
and even more Edmund Husserl (1859- nesthetic, sensory), which embody these
1938), carried out detailed studies of this "in- strivings (reaching, squinting, locomoting,
timacy." The primary phenomenon, Husserl etc.).
insisted, is the experiential relation of con- It needs to be emphasized that the opacity
sciousness to its own embodying organism. It of embodiment has other facets. I am my
is this organism (Leibkrper), not merely the body; but in another sense I am not my body
"body" (Krper), which is the locus of "inti- or not just that. The relationship of person
macy" or "mineness," and it is solely due to to embodying organism is more complex: not
189 Embodiment
only "mineness" but also radical otherness is thus most intimately "mine" ("me-yet-not-
inherent to it. This otherness is equally pro- me"), what can happen to it happens also to
found: I am my body, but this body is also me. Although I as a person "govern" my
"mine," and this belonging shows that "I" body, I am also subject to it and its specific
am in a way distanced from it. Yet, the union conditions: if an arm is broken, "I" am in-
is so close that the experience of otherness jured. Hence, it is fundamental to the experi-
can be shattering (whether it be my body's ence of embodiment that it matters what can
happy obedience, which I notice for the first and does happen to my body.
time, or its hateful refusal to do what I want Its value character can also be made clear
done). At times, I as a person feel genuinely if one considers, quite apart from specific
"at home" with my organism. Yet, so other moral positions, what one thinks of someone
is it that I feel distanced from it (e.g., when who is "loose" with his or her body. Indeed,
I obsessively stuff it with food, or otherwise embodiment, as "intimate union" between
mistreat it; or when it seems to "have a life "mineness" and "otherness," is clearly at the
of its own," with aches, activities, and pro- heart of the prominent sense of inviolability
cesses of its own; or in times of grievous ill- of a person, and thereby of privacy* and in-
ness). tegrity. Thus it is more understandable that
Human being is embodied by an animate there are constraints felt as regards interven-
organism whose connections to that person tions and intrusions into the lived-body
are themselves the very issue of that life, and (whether in medical encounters, on the
form an experiential impassean aporia in street, or in one's private affairs).
Plato's sense. Nothing so much as me-myself These considerations also help clarify why
is at once so utterly familiar and usual (who certain current moral problems are so highly
else could I be?), yet so completely foreign charged: abortion*, psychosurgery (see Be-
and alien (who, indeed, am I?). This body, havior Control), euthanasia*, organ trans-
which is so utterly familiar, is yet so strange: plantation*, etc. On the one hand, these (and
I am "one" with it, yet "other" than it. This others) involve interventions into that most
unique complex is not merely an inability to intimate and integral of spheresthe embod-
make up my mind; it is rather the disclosure ied person. On the other hand, every person
of the core phenomenon of embodiment: this is embodied, enacts the self through that spe-
dialectic of "mineness" and "otherness" cific animate organism which is his or her
which is itself the heart of my experience, as "own" and is thus expressive of that very
a person, of my own body. person. Thus, bodily schemata, attitudes,
To speak of embodiment is thus to speak movements, actions, as well as perceptual
of something the person is; I am my embodi- abilities, are all value modalities by which the
ment, and it is not just that "I am my body." person articulates and expresses his or her
And this embodiment is itself a primal issue character, personality, habits, goals, beliefs
for any huran life, as Pascal had already in short, life as a whole.
seen with remarkable insight: this "not- From the perspective of embodiment,
knowing" myself is precisely what it is for a then, human interactions (of whatever sort)
human being to be, and is focalized within are essentially "skin trades": interchanges,
the opacity that is embodiment. Thus, em- interventions, discourses, which invoke and
bodiment is an enactment ongoing at every have their place within contexts of specific
moment of every human life. bodily life. In all such exchanges, concretely
From this it is possible to appreciate that embodied persons engage with one another in
embodiment is also an essentially expressive specific forms of valorized actions. Just be-
phenomenon. It is by means of a person's cause every social exchange is a complex of
embodiment that wishes, feelings, desires, embodied gesturesi.e., is expressive and
strivings, and the like are in the first instance valorizedeach of them is necessarily within
expressed, made known to others and to one- the moral order. Embodiment is a moral phe-
self (in grimaces, grins, bodily stances and nomenon (and not only for Christian ethics),
postures, and the rich array of physiognomic for at every moment of human life the person
and bodily gestures). This expressiveness is is "at stake" or "at issue" (Marcel). The
fundamentally a value phenomenon. Just be- "mattering" bodily organism which embod-
cause this specific organism uniquely embod- ies the whole person is itself what "matters"
ies this personmeand none other, and is for ethics. And for Christian ethics, what
Exposition 190
"matters" is the "special whole" which is responsible use imperative in worship and in
human being, i.e., how the "flesh" (sarx) of Christian living. There is no general agree-
embodiment, human being-in-the-world, is ment as to whether there are any specifically
actually livedwhether a person lives "for" religious emotions or sentiments.
the world (centered on oneself: titanic pride, Contemporary research on the nature of
or sin), or whether a person lives "in" the emotions in many ways continues to follow
world "for" God (as a creature). the leads of outstanding pioneers of the late
See Body; Human Dignity; Image of God; 19th and early 20th centuries: William James
Life, Sacredness of; Persons and Personal- on the relationship between feeling and
ity; Respect for Persons. physiological response; Walter Cannon on
the role of the brain in emotional expression;
G. Marcel, The Mystery of Being, 2 vols., ET Sigmund Freud on the unconscious distor-
1950; M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of tions of the emotional life (see Repression;
Perception, ET 1962; R. M. Zaner, The Con- Guilt); and Charles Darwin on the relation of
text of Self 1962. emotional responses to survival needs.
RICHARD M. ZANER Emotional responses are commonly char-
acterized as positive or negative according to
Embryo Transfer the dominant feeling tone (pleasant or un-
see Reproductive Technologies pleasant). Even the so-called negative emo-
tions like fear or anger, however, may give
Emotion pleasure in limited and controlled quantities,
The general term for the whole range of feel- and the positive emotions become unpleasant
ing states (affects) and the physiological in excess. Recent experimental work suggests
changes accompanying them. Aquinas in the that positive and negative emotional re-
13th century, following Aristotle, designated sponses may involve different hemispheres of
eleven basic emotions: love, desire, joy, hate, the brain. An important normative function
aversion, sorrow, hope, despair, courage, of emotion is to motivate appropriate reac-
fear, and anger. There have been many such tions to a wide variety of circumstances. Too
lists but little agreement as to how many high an emotional level may paralyze one for
emotions there are (hundreds have been action; too low a level may leave one indiffer-
recognized) and how many of these are basic ent and fail to stimulate the needed response.
in the sense of not being derived from others. See Anxiety.
Much traditional philosophy has deni-
grated the role of the emotions (passions, C. E. Izard, Human Emotions, 1977; C. E.
feelings) in human life, but David Hume and Izard, J. Kagan, R. Zajonc (eds.), Emotion,
many others since acknowledged them as im- Cognition and Behaviour, 1983; C. G. Jung,
portant for morality. Psychologists of many Psychological Types, ET 1923; J.-P. Sartre,
different schools have emphasized their sig- The Emotions: Outline of a Theory, ET 1948.
nificance in shaping behavior. The dynamic GRAEME M. GRIFFIN
or depth psychologists have demonstrated
the damage that can result to the personality Emotivism
from either neglect of the emotional dimen- Emotivism is the view that the primary ele-
sions of life or overemphasis upon them. ment in the meaning of moral judgments con-
Emotion is involved in almost all practices sists in their function of expressing the emo-
and attitudes of healthy religion. One of the tions or attitudes of the speaker, or arousing
functions of religious ritual seems to be a similar emotions or attitudes in his audience.
patterning of emotional experience so that It is to be distinguished from prescriptivism*,
one is neither overwhelmed by it nor de- subjectivism*, relativism*.
prived of it. Its use in religion is not always R. M. HARE
healthy, however. Some sects and other
groups have been accused of manipulating Empathy
emotional responses to achieve their own The human capacity to apprehend directly
ends by appealing inappropriately to fear, the state of mind and feeling of another per-
frustration, alienation, etc. (see also Convic- son. Empathy involves, in effect, putting one-
tion of Sin; Enthusiasm). The power of emo- self in the place of the other, understanding
tion to influence attitudes and action make its and sharing the other's emotional experience,
191 Ends and Means
and seeing the world as he or she sees it. The logical ethic, an ethic of principle, may wish
line between empathy and sympathy* cannot to reject the proposition out of hand. "Shall
be drawn rigidly, but in general terms empa- we do evil that good may come?" Yet it is
thy involves a sharing in quality rather than arguable that Fiat iustitia, ruat coelum (Let
in quantity, in kind rather than in degree. It justice be done, though the heavens fall) is a
is this which makes it possible to enter into more immoral proposition in its refusal to
the emotional situation even of persons in- take seriously the disastrous consequences of
capacitated by the strength of their feelings a moral act. Shall we do good that evil may
without oneself being overwhelmed by those come?
feelings. Unhappy as most Christian writers are
Empathy is a desirable characteristic in all with the proposition that the end justifies the
human relationships, and all of the various means, there are few who would say with
systems of psychotherapy acknowledge its Kant that a lie is never justified (e.g., to save
importance for therapists. It is a valuable tool innocent life or to mislead an enemy), just as
for gaining insight into the other person and there are few who would maintain that the
thus for assessing his or her capacity to deal violence used to push someone out of the way
with a given situation. Empathyparticu- of an oncoming bus is as objectionable as the
larly when coupled with a nonjudgmental ap- same violence used with the end merely of
proach to the other personcomes to be per- doing injury. On the other hand, those who
ceived by the other as genuine under- defend the proposition (like Joseph Fletcher,
standing. The sense of being heard and being with his claim that "love justifies its means")
understood can itself be very liberating and do not claim that the purpose of love justifies
provides a stimulus for growth in a relation- any means. The means must be "fitting."
ship. The capacity to empathize can be devel- Christians must act in an imperfect and
oped to a high degree, and its absence usually sinful world in which, not infrequently, the
indicates that the person concerned is caught possibilities of action or inaction all seem, in
up in personal conflicts and difficulties. different ways, morally questionable. Harm-
See Counseling. less inactivity may not be harmless. In Ar-
thur Koestler's The Yogi and the Commissar,
R. L. Katz, Empathy: Its Nature and Uses, it was said of the yogi that "he never hurt a
1963; C. Rogers, Client-Centered Therapy, fly" and "the flies he did not hurt destroyed
1951. a province." It is in such moral dilemmas
GRAEME M. GRIFFIN that the principle that "the end justifies the
means" may seem helpful. Brunner has this
Encyclicals see Modern Roman Catholic in mind when he says that "the necessary end
Moral Theology; Official Roman Catholic hallows the necessary means." Traditionally,
Social Teaching the doctrine of the just war* was an attempt
to do this and to say in what extreme and
Endogamy limited circumstances war might be justified
The custom of marrying within the tribe. as a means to a just end. A doctrine of a just
See Exogamy. revolution* may be needed to do the same for
JOHN MACQUARRIE rebellion.
The common understanding of the propo-
Ends and Means sition that "the higher and more noble an end
"As a rule," writes Emil Brunner, "the noto- is, the more it justifies any means used in
rious proposition the end justifies the means'
4 achieving it" seems to be the reverse of the
conceals great confusion of thought, whether truth. This is the deadly error behind the
it is defended or rejected on principle." crusade*, or holy war (which is always the
It seems impossible to defend or reject the most bloody and barbaric of conflicts), and
principle without qualification. Those who behind the modern idea of "the Revolution,"
favor a teleological ethic, an ethic of conse- which is thought by some to justify any
quence, may wish to defend it and to ask, bloodshed, crime, or treachery.
"What but the end can justify the means?" A contrary view might put forward the
but this can only mean that certain ends can following considerations:
justify certain means, not that any end can 1. In moral matters, the means affects the
justify any means. Those who favor a deonto- end; i.e., the means are not morally indiffer-
Energy 192
ent, and a sharp distinction between means Deontology; Necessity; Responsibility; Situ-
and ends is never possible. "The different ation Ethics; Teleological Ethics.
routes most often lead to different places"
(Flew). Those who believe that they can leave E. Brunner, The Divine Imperative, ET 1937,
blood and treachery behind, once they have pp. 243ff.; J. Butler, "Of the Nature of Vir-
entered into their kingdom, find that they are tue," dissertation annexed to The Analogy of
mistaken. The evil means has permeated the Religion, 1736; J. Fletcher, Situation Ethics,
end, and they and the kingdom are cor- 1966; A. Flew, "Ends and Means," EP II,
rupted. All who take the sword will perish by 1967.
the sword. JAMES A. WHYTE
2. The more noble an end, the more re-
stricted are the means appropriate to it. Pub- Enemy see Conventions; Hatred; Jesus,
lic order requires a limited amount of coer- Ethical Teaching of; Just War; Love; Mal-
cion; the gospel of the kingdom can be served ice; Neighbor; Pacifism; Resistance; Ser-
by love and by truth and by no other means. mon on the Mount
3. The proposition may be more useful
when the end is a negative one, combating a Energy
specific and limited evil, rather than advanc- Since the advent of the Industrial Revolu-
ing a positive and unlimited good. The just tion, both human-manufactured needs for
war is a defensive war, and severely limited natural energy sources and the subsequent
at that, and the principle may be the same in development and exploitation of those
matters of social and political action. sources have increased exponentially. These
4. The less immediate and specific the end, increases have raised serious moral concerns
the weaker is the causal connection between in recent decades about the rate of our natu-
ends and means. It is one thing to have to ral resource consumption and about its envi-
shoot people as the only way to stop them ronmental effects. Many of these concerns
from blowing the town sky-high. It is quite are addressed in other entries in this volume
another thing to blow up the town in the (see Environmental Ethics; Future Genera-
belief that this will somehow bring closer the tions, Obligations to; Risk; Technology). The
Communist revolution. present entry will focus selectively upon ap-
5. It is always possible, as Brunner insists, plications to energy policy of two basic moral
that "the means which may be used for a principles, justice* and nonmaleficence, and
definite good may be of such bad quality that upon anthropological assumptions implicit
in this instance we feel it to be our duty to in energy consumerism.
renounce the undertaking altogether." Justice. The primary policy mode of assess-
6. Bishop Butler observed that our disap- ing energy technologies, at least since the
proval of falsehood, unprovoked violence, or 1960s, has been cost-benefit* (or risk-benefit)
injustice is irrespective of the happiness or analysis, a basically utilitarian method of
unhappiness that may be supposed in any weighing net expected benefits (e.g., cheaper
particular case to result from them. If moral- electricity or transportation) of a given power
ity were simply a matter of consequences, or source relative to its predictable costs (in-
of Fletcher's "agapeic calculus," the means cluding harms or risks of harm) for the aggre-
would not be such a problem. The problem gate of persons involved (see Risk). In order
arises when we must balance the desirability to do this, the cost-benefit analyst must some-
of the end against our moral disapproval of how convert all prospective factors under
the means: and these are not always commen- consideration into some common denomina-
surable. Thus to abandon a large prize for a tion, usually monetary. Critics of such analy-
small scruple may be a reasonable price of sis point out that many human valuesespe-
integrity. cially life, health, and chosen life-styles
7. To describe behavior in terms of means cannot and should not be fiscally weighed.
and ends is of only limited usefulness. Some More important, however, cost-benefit analy-
Christian action is of value not as achieving sis is morally hollow without further atten-
specific objectives but as demonstrating the tion to the claims of distributive justice,
generosity of love, setting up in this world the which demands at least equal concern for the
signs of the kingdom. interests of all involved parties and thus con-
See also Compromise; Consequentialism; siders who will be positively or negatively
193 Energy
affected and to what relative extent. Critics of who follow us (though the nature and extent
nuclear fission as an energy source, for exam- of that obligation is not easily specified; see
ple, point out that electricity consumers near Future Generations, Obligations to). Many
a nuclear power station gain no economic philosophers and theologians are particularly
benefit relative to their more distant counter- concerned by two effects of current energy
parts, yet must bear an estimated fifty-fold technology which may be considered objec-
relative increase in carcinogenic and muta- tive harms to future persons. The first is envi-
genic risks. Further uncompensated health ronmental pollutionof which several ex-
risks are associated with the mining, refining, amples have already been citedand its
enriching, and transporting of uranium and associated health hazards. Nuclear waste
with the storage of nuclear wastes. Other pollution is perhaps the most feared. We have
modern environmental hazards such as acid as yet no known proven safe way of packag-
rain, atmospheric "greenhouse effect" and ing nuclear plant wastes: many thousands of
smog raise similar distributive justice ques- gallons of radioactive liquid waste have al-
tions about coal-power and petroleum tech- ready leaked from steel tanks in government
nologies. Even nonpolluting energy technolo- storage areas. Moreover, plutonium, a radio-
gies involve issues of just cost-benefit active by-product of reactor operation, re-
distribution, as when primitive peoples are quires 24,000 years to decay by half and
flooded out of their ancestral homelands by 500,000 years to become innocuous. (It is
hydroelectric dam construction in develop- also weapons-grade nuclear material.)
ing countries. The second potentially harmful effect of
Related to distributive justice considera- present energy consumption is simply that
tions are those of compensatory justice. Jus- we may be leaving our progeny a plundered
tice-as-compensation seeks redress for the planet. The natural resources necessary for
relative harms suffered by some in the pro- our "hard" energy technologies (e.g., coal,
cess of benefiting others. One frequent energy petroleum, uranium) are, after all, nonrenew-
application of this is in the argument that able. There is, so far at least, no clear and
energy-consuming societies should bear the compelling moral formula for determining
costs of providing extensive safety measures what coal and oil reserves we "owe" to our
to prevent (and medical care to ameliorate) great-grandchildren. But advocates of more
the peculiar health problems associated with renewable "soft" energy paths (e.g., solar,
coal mining and uranium processing. As a wind, hydro) argue that unless we either in-
further example, in the USA (particularly crease our proportional dependence on these
since the nuclear near-disaster at Three Mile decentralized and less convenient paths, or
Island in 1979), compensatory justice argu- reduce our overall energy demands, or both,
ments have been leveled against the Price- we may be guaranteeing that our successors
Anderson Act (1957), which was designed to will have few energy options except those we
protect utilities from bankruptcy by arbitrar- now consider too costly or inconvenient for
ily limiting compensation claims of home- ourselves.
owners to a small percentage of their actual Nature and Anthropology. One other ques-
property losses in the event of nuclear plant tion that arises for many observers of the
accident. technological age is, What is the proper rela-
While both distributive and compensatory tion between humanity and the rest of nature,
justice involve notions of "balancing" ben- and is our growing energy-consumerism con-
efits and harms (or risks of harm) of energy sistent with that relation? This is but a varia-
technology among those affected, modern en- tion on a traditional concern of theological
ergy production also creates delayed "costs" anthropology: our role in the created order.
for future persons who cannot share in the Particular anthropological themes or sym-
present benefits of cheap, available energy. bols do not function in our moral delibera-
Morally, these costs must be examined on tions in the same way as principles or values
independent, though related, grounds. do; instead, they function to form our per-
Nonmaleficence. The prima facie moral spectives or attitudes about who and what we
duty of nonmaleficence, or "Do no harm," are responsible for. For example, human-
also entails avoidance of causing risks of kind's biblical "dominion" over the earth
harm. And most of us recognize at least some (Gen. 1:26) might suggest that humanity and
obligation not to heap misfortune on those nonhuman nature are radically discontinu-
Enlightenment 194
ous and that the latter exists for our use, to minority state is brought about by a man's
whatever extent makes human life more com- own fault if it is caused by a deficiency not
fortable. Something like this view seems im- of understanding, but of the resolution
plicit in energy policies which emphasize and the courage to make use of it without
greater current acquisition and use of fossil the guidance of another. Sapere aude!
fuels to facilitate broad economic expansion Have the courage to make use of your
(see Commercialism). Of course, a more own understandingis thus the motto of
moderating concern for the energy needs of Enlightenment.
future persons would also be consistent with
this perspective. This definition implies the autonomy* of
On the other hand, the traditional Chris- the rational self-consciousness. Human rea-
tian notion of our "stewardship" of creation son possesses the power to find the truth
might imply not just rational control over about the human race, the world, and God,
what God has created but also human conti- and to live in accordance with this truth. The
nuity with, and protection of, what God sus- authoritarian claim of positive religion to
tains. If we accept this perspective as norma- possess special supernatural powers and evi-
tive, then our responsibility extends beyond dences for the understanding and realization
the needs and wants of persons (present and of the truth is denied. Sometimes it is tacitly
future) to encompass preservation of the non- excluded, sometimes (as with Lessing) it is
human world for its own sake. modified to mean that while "revelation does
In summary, energy policymaking is in- not give man anything which human reason
variably a moral enterprisefundamental left to itself would not also discover," never-
moral values and principles are at stake in theless revelation "gave and is giving man the
decisions about energy production and con- most important of these things sooner" (Edu-
sumption. And one of theology's key contri- cation of the Human Race, sec. 4). But in
butions to that enterprise is in offering per- general it may be said that the Enlightenment
spectives for understanding the meaning of works with an intramundane conception of
human existence in its relatedness to the morality in which the concept of grace has no
world. place. Morality is therefore secularized. Reli-
gion is esteemed (if at all) simply as a buttress
N. Evans and C. Hope, Nuclear Power: Fu- of morality.
tures, Costs and Benefits, 1984; M. Kaku and The term "Enlightenment" is generally ap-
J. Trainer (eds.), Nuclear Power: Both Sides, plied to the period from the mid-17th
1982; A. B. Lovins, Soft Energy Paths, 1977; through the 18th century. Leibniz (1646-
N. Myers, The Sinking Ark, 1979; R. and V 1716) is the great figure of the Enlighten-
Routley, "Nuclear PowerSome Ethical ment. In him may be seen the distinct con-
and Social Dimensions," in T. Regan and D. nections with earlier movements (especially
VanDeVeer (eds.), And Justice for All, 1982; with Descartes and the 16th-century Renais-
K. S. Shrader-Frechette, Nuclear Power and sance), and the manifold powers and prob-
Public Policy, 1983; and "Ethics and En-
2 lems of the Enlightenment itself, which to
ergy," in T. Regan (ed.), Earthbound: New this day have not been exhausted or resolved.
Introductory Essays in Environmental Ethics, Thus the principle of individuation leads to
1984. the conception of the human being as a mi-
JAMES B. TUBBS, JR. crocosm, and to the cardinal importance of
the individual conscience. Again, the doc-
Enlightenment trine of preestablished harmony between hu-
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), in the opening mans and the outer world establishes a cos-
sentences of his essay What Is Enlighten- mos that is basically the product of human
ment? (1784), gives this definition: thought. But it is insufficient to describe his
ethical position as "Stoicism" (Karl Barth,
Enlightenment (Aufklrung) is the move- From Rousseau to Ritschl, 1959, p. 57). For
ment of man out of his minority state, in Leibniz's view true piety consisted in the
which was brought about by his own recognition of the divine providence behind
fault. The minority state means the in- the preestablished harmony.
capacity to make use of one's understand- But the Enlightenment took many differ-
ing without the guidance of another. This ent forms; in Britain empiricism (Hume), in
195 Enthusiasm
France positivism (Voltaire), in Germany tics, seers, and philosophers. Later the term
both literary and critical metaphysical forms was applied to any claim to direct divine in-
(Lessing, Kant), leading to idealism. In gen- spiration or to personal direction by the
eral, so far as ethics are concerned, the view Spirit of God. Early Christian prophecy (e.g.,
of the Enlightenment may be summarized as the Revelation of John and the Shepherd of
intramundane, with the stress on the auton- Hermas) was regarded as the product of en-
omy of the human reason, humanitarian, tol- thusiasm. More commonly, however, the
erant, and optimistic. Humans could dis- term is used pejoratively and implies a doubt
cover for themselves what the good was, and on the part of the user as to the authenticity
they could achieve it. Thus the stress lay of the source of the claimed inspiration or
upon the continuity of cultural goods, and direction. In this negative sense the accusa-
the means for maintaining and developing tion of enthusiasm has been leveled against
this continuity lay in education. many individuals over the centuries and
The effects of these views upon the tradi- against aspects of such disparate movements
tional Christian teachings were immense and as Montanism, Donatism, Fraticelli, the
have not yet been completely worked out. Anabaptists, Jansenism, Quietism, the Soci-
The Enlightenment may be regarded as the ety of Friends, the Moravians, early Meth-
first deliberate effort of the human spirit to odism, the Great Awakening, the Shakers,
think through the consequences of the Revivalism, the Irvingites, Seventh-Day Ad-
breakup of the medieval synthesis. The doc- ventism, Christian Science, Pentecostalism,
trines of sin and atonement were reinter- the charismatic movement, and many others
preted in moral terms. The religion of Christ of lesser consequence. Enthusiasm is found in
is preferred to the Christian religion. The all periods of history but seems to have been
teaching of Jesus replaces the dogmas con- particularly luxuriant in the 17th and 18th
cerning Christ. God is even regarded as a centuries.
principle immanent in the human race. Early writers on the psychology of religion
From the standpoint of Christian ethics spoke of enthusiasm as the extravagant mani-
the emphasis was laid upon Jesus as a teacher festation of religious devotion or practice,
of eternal truths, upon the fatherly love of and a great deal of attention has been focused
God, upon human brotherhood, and upon on the emotional and psychological accom-
immortality and freedom. "The goal and paniments, which have included such
measure of history is to be seen in the self- phenomena as glossolalia (speaking in
produced progress of the truth" (W. Anz, strange tongues), trance states, visual and au-
RGG I, 716). While it is easy to dismiss
3 ditory hallucinations, involuntary jerking
much Enlightenment teaching as shallow movements of the head, body, or limbs, in-
and pretentious, especially in the notion of voluntary cries and ejaculations, barking.
the progress and perfectibility of society, the These have been interpreted by adherents as
autonomy of the human reason (as pro- gifts of the Holy Spirit and evidences of di-
pounded by Leibniz) and the sense of the vine favor. They are typically interpreted by
significance of history (as expressed by Less- critics as evidences of unhealthy emotional-
ing) are contributions of central importance ism. Some dynamic psychologists have sug-
for a creative assessment of ethics. The views gested that the ecstatic phenomena are
of the Enlightenment, in general, represent a group-approved ways of working out sub-
release from the heteronomies of authoritar- stantial inner conflicts within the individual
ian dogma. members. They can thus serve as a positive
R. GREGOR SMITH alternative to personal psychic disintegra-
tion. Enthusiasts have usually attacked the
Entertainment see Amusements ecclesiastical and sociopolitical status quo of
their times. Their theology is often highly
individualistic and frequently includes expec-
Enthusiasm tation of the imminent end of the age with the
Enthusiasm is employed religiously in a return of Christ and the separation of the
number of different but imprecisely defined "elect" from others.
ways. It was used originally by late Greek
writers, such as Plutarch and Plato, to denote R. A. Knox, Enthusiasm, 1950; U. Lee, The
the effect of divine indwelling in poets, mys- Historical Background of Early Methodist
Environment and Heredity 196
Enthusiasm, 1931; H. N. Wright, Christian social factors have so far made it impossible
Use of Emotional Power, 1974. to determine whether and to what extent race
GRAEME M. GRIFFIN may directly or indirectly influence these fac-
tors in some individuals, but the bulk of
Environment and Heredity scientific opinion is against such influence.
Environment and heredity, taken together, There is little evidence that a program of
exhaust the factors which determine and/or eugenics* can be justified on the basis of the
influence development and behavior. Strictly inheritability of "higher" functions alone,
speaking, heredity is limited to factors trans- even aside from ethical considerations of in-
mitted through the genes. All other prenatal dividual rights. Examples of phenotypes of
events are regarded as environmental factors, wide degrees of genetic determination are
though all factors present at birth, whether known for men. Yet the potential for behav-
actual or potential, are commonly regarded ior provided by heredity sets limits on hu-
as a part of the individual's constitution, mans' malleability and control by their fellow
whether due to genetic determinants or humans.
prenatal conditions. See Behavior Control; Free Will and De-
The controversy concerning whether he- terminism; Genetics.
reditary or environmental factors are most JAMES N. LAPSLEY
important in shaping the individual is a very
old one. In aristocratic societies in the past Environmental Ethics
heredity has been emphasized, and in more Environmental ethics focuses the enterprise
recent democratic and socialist societies (ex- of ethics on what we should do and be dis-
clusive of Communist societies influenced by posed to do regarding nature or the material
Soviet genetics) environmental factors have universe. The relation of humans to nature
been stressed. and their behavior regarding it are ancient
The following factors are now known to be concerns. However, new knowledge about
determined or influenced by heredity, with ecosystems along with increased power of
the degree of susceptibility to environmental humans through technology* to impact the
influences increasing in rough parallel to the environment irreversibly, at a rate and scale
progression of the list: (1) blood groups, in- that threaten severe damage to all life and
cluding type and other factors; (2) physiolog- destruction of the entire biosphere, have re-
ical defects, such as color blindness; (3) quan- cently brought a qualitatively new dimension
titative differences, such as stature and and an urgent note.
degree of skin pigmentation; (4) resistance Pollution of air, water, and land; world
and susceptibility to some disease; and (5) human population levels and the rate of re-
mental and emotional characteristics. production; increased demands for food and
The fifth-mentioned factors are generally shrinking supplies of arable land, energy, and
regarded as much less determined by hered- nonrenewable resources; the disappearance
ity than the four preceding factorsand of whole species of animal and plant life; eco-
emotional factors less than mental factors. nomic development and appropriate life-
Studies of identical twins, the primary source styles on a finite globe; and the threat of nu-
of data concerning the relative importance of clear holocaust are some of the issues
heredity and environment, show wide varia- engaged by environmental ethics over the last
tions in mental and emotional traits in twins two decades. The biological sciences and
reared in separate environments. There are ecology, with its study of the complex inter-
apparent hereditary limits to mental variabil- play of natural organisms and systems, have
ity, however, as studies show no more than been added to the customary list of dialogue
25 percent difference between identical twins. partners for ethics.
See H. H. Newman, F. N. Freeman, and K. In addition to the familiar subjects of eth-
Holzinger, Twins: A Study of Heredity and ics, the following items are characteristic
Environment (1954). matters under discussion in environmental
Anthropological and educational studies ethics:
have shown that race, as a genetic factor, is I. Views regarding nature. There is wide-
not determinative of mental ability and tem- spread criticism of the still-prevalent view
perament in all cases. Difficulties presented that objectifies nature, likens it to a machine,
by separating hereditary from cultural and and places humans apart from it as observers
197 Environmental Ethics
and manipulators. Associated with classical an interest; or possessing an intrinsic good;
science and technology, this approach con- or holding certain basic rights (the ground-
centrates on how things function rather than ing, nature, and content of which in turn
on what things are, and fragments knowledge are matters of dispute); or being members
of nature into specialized parts. It has of God's covenant community, and the like.
brought enormous benefits and revolution- There is extensive agreement that future
ized the conditions of human existence. But generations* of human beings have moral
many regard such a view as now scientifically standing. But should the moral community
outdated and an important if not the major be limited to human life or perhaps even to
factor in creating our ecological crises. human persons (however defined)? Those
Some are convinced that this "despotic who so argue develop a conservation ethic of
view" is endemic to the traditional metaphys- care for the material universe in terms of its
ics of Judaism and Christianity (L. White, J. instrumental value for human rights and
Passmore, A. Toynbee). They look to Eastern well-being (W. T. Blackstone, J. Passmore,
philosophies and religions or to pantheism N. Rescher).
and animism to provide new foundations. Those who would extend moral standing
Others believe that the Christian tradition beyond human life tend to develop an ethic
of trusteeship and stewardship (see Image of with emphasis on preservation of nature. But
God) of nature provides grounds for a sound they differ as to whether the moral commu-
view of nature (R. Attfield, T. Derr, I. Bar- nity properly includes all sentient beings (J.
bour, L. Wilkinson). Indeed, for a century Feinberg, P. Singer, T. Regan), or all living
this subject has been neglected in Christian things (J. Cobb, A. Schweitzer, C. Birch, P.
thought apart from the ongoing Eastern Or- Taylor). There are also proponents, some-
thodox tradition (P. Gregorius), process the- times called holists, who argue that entire
ology (J. Cobb), and a few others (J. Sittler, species or ecological systems or even the en-
G. Hendry). But in recent reexamination in- tire earth viewed as a single organism should
terpreters agree that neither scripture in gen- be given independent moral standing along-
eral nor the dominion passage in Genesis in side individual units of such wholes (A. Leo-
particular indicates any kind of predatory pold, J. Rodman, C. Stone).
role for humans in relation to the rest of crea- 3. Ascertaining the likely impacts of human
tion (J. Barr, G. Liedke, O. H. Steck). All actions upon nature. This becomes more diffi-
living things as well as human beings are part cult as technology becomes increasingly so-
of God's creation, capable of reflecting God's phisticated. How are risks* of danger to be
glory and grace, and are the object of God's measured and assessed? While quantitative
redemptive purpose (Rom. 8:19-23). The effects can be measured most accurately, es-
recognition that nonhuman creatures have pecially when there is enough previous expe-
intrinsic value is present in the Christian tra- rience to provide good data for statistical
dition (Basil the Great, Chrysostom, Augus- analysis, there are important kinds of im-
tine, Francis). Anthropocentric views are pacts that cannot be quantified, and there are
also to be found (Origen, Lombard, Aquinas, ever-new technological innovations for
and Calvin) and border on the despotic in which there are few if any precedents. The
Bacon and Descartes. But even in this stream extent and kind of influence that values, in-
there is present a sense that humans are to be terests, and commitments have on estimates
trustees of natureprotecting and develop- and measurement of likely impacts is another
ing the natural world in accord with God's matter under discussion (R. Veatch).
purpose and after the model of Christ's do- 4. Developing moral principles for establish-
minion (Phil. 2:5-11). ing duties and virtues with regard to nonhu-
2. The extent of the moral community. man nature and future generations. In addi-
Who or what are to be acknowledged as hav- tion, attempts are made to attach relative
ing moral standing, deserving moral consid- weight to various members of the moral com-
eration in their own right? Differences re- munity and priority to different moral obliga-
garding the definition of moral standing, tions when they conflictfor example, when
criteria for determining who or what qual- the interests or rights of animals or of a spe-
ifies, and hence where the parameters of the cies clash with the need of human beings for
moral community are drawn, tend to vary expanded economic production. The impor-
according to diverse ethical theories: having tance of this task became apparent in the
Envy 198
1960s when the environmental movement Envy
was criticized (R. Neuhaus) for impeding by Sadness, sorrow, or grief about another's
its zealousness for the environment the strug- goods insofar as they surpass, or are thought
gles of human groups to escape poverty and to surpass, one's own. According to Thomas
oppression. New theories of justice* are re- Aquinas (ST II-II.36), this "sorrow for an-
quired not only to take account of more com- other's good" is distinguished from fear that
plex distributive questions but also common another's good may be the cause of harm
interests and nondistributable goods like (e.g., an enemy's power), from zeal*, which
those of the environment. is sorrow over another's good not because he
5. Political processes for public policy deci- or she has it but because we lack it (e.g., zeal
sions that affect the environment A cluster of for virtue), and from grief over another's
related concerns include: What processes good because we believe he or she is un-
would ensure that relevant parties participate worthy of it (e.g., worldly success). Though
in such decisions and that matters of the certain initial movements of envy may be
common good receive appropriate attention? venial, envy itself is a mortal sin, Aquinas
Who should these parties be, especially when contends, because it is contrary to charity*:
it is frequently difficult to determine the "Now the object both of charity and of envy
boundary of the relevant public whose inter- is our neighbor's good, but by contrary move-
ests are affected? What groups in the polis ment, since charity rejoices in our neighbor's
can be relied upon to carry the interests and good, while envy grieves over it." It is also
guard the rights of future generations and directly contrary to pity, which grieves over
nonhuman creatures? Which of these rights, another's evils, while envy grieves over the
if any, should be given legal status? These, of neighbor's goods. It is a capital sin, not be-
course, lead into the wider issue of determin- cause it is the worst of all sins or because it
ing what political and economic institutions does not flow from other sins, but because it
and systems are most appropriate not only to issues in other sins, such as hatred (see Seven
human justice but to good stewardship of the Deadly Sins). The Anglican litany lists envy,
earth. hatred, and malice in that order, suggesting
6. Social analysis to define environmental that envy issues in hatred* and that both
problems and ascertain their causes. The fol- issue in malice*. The Gospels (Matt. 27:18
lowing are some of the theories advanced to and Mark 15:10) report that Pilate "per-
account for our various ecological problems: ceived that it was out of envy that the chief
capitalism; excessive regulation of the free priests had delivered him [Jesus] up," their
market; the increase of human population envy probably being directed at his authority
(A. and P. Ehrlich, G. Hardin); the growth and power over the people. Envy may some-
of affluence and increased rate of consump- times lead torightactions or good outcomes;
tion (P. Rivers); new technologies and meth- for example, Paul (Phil. 1:15) notes that
ods of production (B. Commoner); exponen- "some indeed preach Christ from envy and
tial growth (M. Mesarovic, E. Pestel, T. rivalry, but others from good will." Never-
Derr); certain religious and metaphysical tra- theless, Paul condemns envy, linking it with
ditions (L. White, J. Passmore, A. Leopold, various other vices (see Rom. 1:29; Gal.
A. Toynbee). Such social analysis is both 5:19ff.).
shaped by and itself influences the principles In many Christian contexts, for example in
adopted, the theory ofjustice, and the view of the Anglican litany, envy is deemed to be an
nature held. outgrowth of pride*. But according to John
See Animals; Energy; Future Generations, Rawls in A Theory of Justice (1971), "the
Obligations to; Hunger, World; Image of main psychological root of the liability to
God; Population Policy; Risk; Technology. envy is a lack of self-confidence in our own
worth combined with a sense of impotence."
P. Abrecht (ed.). Faith and Science in an Un- Friedrich Nietzsche attempted to unmask
just World, vol. 2,1980; R. Attfield, The Eth- Christian morality, finding back of it envy
ics of Environmental Concern, 1983; C. Birch and resentment. Some contemporary writers,
and J. B. Cobb, Jr., The Liberation of Life, especially conservatives, attempt to discredit
1981; R. L. Shinn (ed.), Faith and Science in the struggle for equality by claiming that it
an Unjust World. vol. 1, 1980. expresses envy. But the norms of love* and
TERENCE R. ANDERSON equality* may be defended on theological
199 Equality
grounds and applied for reasons other than sary. "If you want to make Pythocles happy,
envy. add not to his possessions but take away from
JAMES F. CHILDRESS his desires" (Epicurus, Fragment 28). The
real necessities are all the simplest things
Epicureanism, Ethics of (Fragments 67, 71). Physical love is to be
It might at first sight look as if Epicureanism avoided. The wise will not fall in love because
had no ethics at all Or, if Epicureanism had it disturbs their peace (Diogenes Laertius
an ethic, it might seem bound to be the "ethic 10.118, 119). Envy must be banished as inju-
of the pigsty." This is so for a variety of rious (Fragment 53). Ambition must have no
reasons. place in life. Epicureans strenuously avoided
Epicureanism reduced humansand ev- politics and public affairs. Their motto was:
erything elseto a fortuitous conglomera- "Live unseen" (Fragment 68).
tion of atoms," which came together by The Epicurean believed in the necessity of
chance to form a human being, and which at virtue, but only from the purely selfish point
death simply disintegrated. Epicureanism of view that without virtue happiness is not
banished religion, which it held to be the possible. Epicurus advocated justice, for in-
chief curse of the human race (Lucretius stance, not because justice is absolutely good,
1.62-79), and removed the gods to a lonely but because, if we do wrong, we may be found
isolation in which they had not the slightest out, and, even if we are not found out, we
interest in humankind. The word "epicurean- cannot be at peace, because we will always be
ism" has become a synonym for the worship afraid that we may be (Fragments 2, 7;
of pleasure, and for Epicurus pleasure was Seneca, Letters 97.13).
the supreme good (Lucian, Hermotimus 36). Epicureanism had a high ethic but its mo-
Pleasure is "the alpha and omega of the tive was prudent selfishness and enlightened
blessed life, . the first and native good" self-interest.
(Diogenes Laertius 10.128, 129). Epicurean- WILLIAM BARCLAY
ism is therefore admittedly the pursuit of
pleasure. Epikeia
Sometimes the Epicureans did speak as if Aristotle gave the common Greek word
they meant bodily and sensual pleasure, but epikeia ("fitting, suitable, reasonable") a
the fact was that in the ancient world the technical meaning: "correction of legal jus-
Epicureans were notorious, not for their in- tice when it is defective due to the universal-
dulgence in physical pleasure, but for the aus- ity of law" (Nicomachean Ethics 5.10). This
terity of their lives. Clement of Alexandria correction consists of interpreting the intent
quotes a saying from a play of Philemon: of the legislator as it would be realized in a
"This fellow (Epicurus) is bringing in a new situation not expressly covered by the law.
philosophy; he preaches hunger and his disci- Aquinas, following Aristotle as well as the
ples follow him. They get but a single roll, a canonists, defines epikeia as a "virtue that
dried fig to relish it, and water to wash it inclines to benign interpretation of the law in
down" (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis accord with what is good and just" (ST II-
2.493; cf. Seneca, On the Happy Life 13.1; 11.120). Epikeia, still used in this sense in
Aelian, Historical Miscellanies 4.13; Athe- Roman Catholic moral theology, is usually
naeus, Deipnosophistae 4.163; Dr genes La- translated "equity."
ertius 10.11). How does this come about? It
comes about because for the Epicurean the B. Hring, The Law of Christ, vol. 1, ET
supreme pleasure is ataraxia, the calm seren- 1964, ch. 5; E. Hamel, "La vertu d'epikie,"
ity when the soul is at peace. The Epicurean Loi naturelle et loi du Christ, 1964.
definition is: "By pleasure we mean the ab- ALBERT R. JONSEN
sence of pain in the body and trouble in the
mind" (Diogenes Laertius 10.131). This Equality
meant that it was always the long view of Human beings are empirically unequal in in-
pleasure that had to be taken, and therefore telligence, skills, moral qualities, physique,
the sensual pleasures which brought pain to and beauty. Yet there is a strong sense in
follow were the very things the Epicurean many religious and humanist philosophies
avoided. that in some ultimate "ontological" sense
So for the happy life contentment is neces- they are equal, and that this equality is more
Equiprobabilism 200
important than their empirical differences. In society can avoid giving some weight to all
the Christian faith this is expressed by the three principles, but there is a case for saying
belief that in creation all are "made in God's that need should have priority. After that,
image"; that all have sinned and fallen short excellence has to be recognized, and inevita-
of what they ought to be (the "Fall"); that bly hierarchies will establish some rights.
Christ died for all to reconcile them to God The classic treatment of this is R. H. Taw-
(the atonement) and bring them into a new ney's Equality. Equality is closely related to
creation (the church) in which basic human justice* and to freedom* and, again, these
differences are transcended; and that God's have to be balanced against one another.
intention is that all should find their fullness Equality, therefore, cannot be the sole,
in enjoying him and one another in him (the comprehensive social ideal. It starts from the
"last things"), though it is possible some will affirmation that all persons are equal in in-
refuse this. A vigorous humanist expression herent worth, and it ends by saying that all
of this attitude was given by Walter Lipp- social and economic inequalities which are
mann in Men of Destiny (1927): "There you not necessary or justifiable in terms of the
are, sir, and there is your neighbor. You are common good* should be eliminated. Equali-
better born than he, you are richer, or you are ties do not need special justification, whereas
stronger, you are handsomer, nay you are inequalities do. This position is not the same
better, kinder, wiser, more likeable; you have as egalitarianism, which is usually taken to
given more to your fellow men and taken less mean that all social inequalities are unneces-
than he and yetabsurd as it sounds sary and ought to be eliminated, and that all
these differences do not matter, for the best persons ought to be treated alikea position
part of him is untouchable and incomparable held by few. But there is wide scope for dis-
and unique and universal. Either you feel this cussion on which inequalities are necessary
or you do not: when you do not feel it, the or justifiable.
superiorities that the world acknowledges
seem like mountainous waves at sea; when R. H. Tawney, Equality, 1931; J. Rees,
you do feel it, they are slight and imperma- Equality, 1971.
nent ripples upon a vast ocean." RONALD PRESTON
The question is, to what extent is this in-
sight to be expressed in public life? Equality Equiprobabilism
before the law has been achieved in theory in This method of resolving practical doubts,
"Western" societies, though there is not al- taught by Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787),
ways in practice equal access to the law, for seeks a middle course between probabilism*
in this as in many other respects, wealth and probabiliorism*. It appeals to the legal
brings advantages. In the Western type of maxim that in a case of doubt the one in
political democracies the position of "one possession has the better claim (Melior est
adult, one vote" has mostly been achieved, conditio possidentis). Thus, if the doubt con-
though only after a great struggle by women cerns the existence of a particular obligation,
to obtain the vote, and by a struggle against and if the argument in favor of liberty is at
property carrying extra votes. Equality of op- least equally probable, it is held that this
portunity is the next aim for many. This suffices to confirm our liberty, which is al-
raises the question of the principle or princi- ready "in possession." But if the doubt con-
ples of distribution of economic goods in so- cerns the cessation of a recognized obligation,
ciety. There are three basic ones: right, merit, and if the argument in favor of liberty is no
and need. Legal right tends to perpetuate in- more than equally probable, we must con-
herited hierarchies from the past in wealth clude that the law, which is already "in pos-
and prestige. Merit would in theory sweep session," continues to oblige.
these awaybut for the empirically more See also Casuistry; Counter-Reformation
unequal human persons, equal opportunity Moral Theology; Moral Theology; Tutior-
would allow no protection from the sense of ism.
failure; and a meritocracy could be an un- THOMAS WOOD
pleasant society. Need does justice to certain Equity see Epikeia; Fairness
necessities that every person has, and without
which individuals cannot play their full part Equivocation
in the community. It seems unlikely that any see Honesty; Lying; Truthfulness
201 Eschatological Ethics
Erastanism present as well as a future dimension. More-
The type of relationship between church and over, it is also generally acknowledged, as we
state whereby the former is subjected to the shall see, that Jesus' ethic cannot be ade-
latter. quately understood simply as an "interim
See Church and State. ethic," even though it is also agreed that his
ethic cannot be properly understood apart
JOHN MACQUARRIE from its eschatological setting. But the basic
question raised by Weiss and Schweitzer was
Eros see Love not whether there was such an eschatological
element in Jesus' teaching; rather, it had to
Error see Ignorance; Sin(s) do with the fundamental meaning of the lat-
ter. Insofar as Christian ethics is concerned,
Eschatological Ethics the basic question in this regard is: To what
As the result of the work of a large number extent did eschatology condition Jesus' ethic?
of NT scholars beginning with Johannes To what extent did the former determine
Weiss and Albert Schweitzer, it is generally both the sanction and the content of the lat-
recognized that Jesus' conception of the king- ter? Does Jesus' ethic lose its entire validity
dom of God* presupposes an eschatological once the expectation of the immediacy of the
and apocalyptic world view. In the teaching eschaton is no longer held?
of Jesus the kingdom of God was essentially As previously noted, Schweitzer argued
an eschatological event and its coming was that Jesus' entire ethic was an interim ethic,
conceived to be imminent. Its advent would the purpose of which was to summon human-
be marked by a radical transformation of the ity to repentance in preparation for the ad-
present world order and the inauguration of vent of the kingdom of God. In this respect,
a new aeon in which evil would be completely Schweitzer went even farther than Weiss,
overthrown and the righteous rule of God who had acknowledged that some of Jesus'
would be fully manifest. (Apocalypse is a teachingsespecially the commandments to
type of eschatologya doctrine of the 'last love God and one's neighbordo not seem to
things"that anticipates God's destruction have been directly affected by his expectation
of the forces of evil in a cosmic cataclysm and of the imminent advent of the new age. Since
conflict.) Schweitzer some NT scholars have sought to
Recognition of the eschatological and distinguish in various ways between one set
apocalyptic presuppositions which underlay of Jesus' ethical teachings which appear to be
Jesus' understanding of the kingdom of God eschatologically conditioned, on the one
called for a reexamination of the nature and hand, and the remainder of his ethical teach-
purpose of his ethic. In The Quest of the His- ings which seem to presuppose a relatively
torical Jesus (1906, ET 1910), Schweitzer ar- long continuation of the present historical
gued that the purpose of Jesus' ethical teach- order. Thus Hans Windisch, in The Meaning
ings was to show people what they must do of the Sermon on the Mount, distinguishes
in preparation for entrance into the kingdom, between the following two main streams in
the coming of which he believed to be immi- the ethical thought of the Sermon on the
nent. Since it was intended only for a rela- Mount*: (1) radicalized wisdom teachings
tively brief interval between the proclama- which had their origin in the nondualistic
tion of the kingdom and the actual advent of wisdom tradition of Judaism and hence were
the kingdom, Jesus' ethic was in reality an not originally affected by eschatological be-
"interim ethic."* Its content was so condi- liefs, and (2) prophetic-eschatological an-
tioned by the expectation of an imminent end nouncements of salvation and judgment, the
to the present historical order, Schweitzer be- content of which was directly related to the
lieved, that it is inapplicable to life in a radi- eschatological expectations. The content of
cally different cultural situation in which a the wisdom teachingsfor example, the
much longer chronological future is an- counsel to love one's enemy, the warning
ticipated. against anxiety, and the admonition that one
Subsequent biblical scholarship has about to go to court should make friends with
modified Schweitzer's thoroughgoing es- one's accuserwas not determined by the
chatology at a number of important points. It nearness of the judgment; nevertheless, these
is now generally recognized, for example, sayings are given a radical eschatological in-
that Jesus' conception of the kingdom had a
202 Eschatological Ethics
terpretation as they appear in Matthew in confronted with the necessity of making an
contrast to Luke. existential decision for or against total obedi-
While it is possible to discern at least two ence to the divine claim. Hence, it is a matter
types of ethical counsel in the teachings of of indifference whether the specific content of
Jesusone reflecting the wisdom, or law, tra- Jesus' ethical teaching was derived from his
dition; the other reflecting a more prophetic, eschatological expectations; for that which is
eschatologically conditioned demandand permanently valid about his ethic is the de-
while the former may be more directly appli- mand that it makes for radical obedience to
cable to a nonapocalyptic setting than the the demand of God, the precise content of
latter, it is difficult to make a sharp, clear-cut which must be existentially heard in each
distinction between the two. Moreover, the new moment of decision. Jesus' ethic cannot,
most distinctive ethical counsel of Jesus is therefore, be dismissed as an interim ethic;
couched in the form of certain stringent de- moreover, his proclamation of the coming of
mands that he places upon his followers in the kingdom and his ethical teaching about
view of the impending apocalyptic crisis. At the will of God have an indissoluble unity in
the deepest level, therefore, the fundamental the "word" of Godi.e., in that event in
question concerning the relationship of es- which humanity is confronted with the mes-
chatology to Christian ethics must be raised sage of God's forgiveness and with the neces-
in connection with the prophetic, radically sity of making a decision either for or against
eschatological demands of the gospel. And, obedience to God.
finally, the question arises as to whether there While Bultmann maintains that for Jesus
is any unifying element underlying the whole the coming of the kingdom of God lay wholly
of Jesus' ethical teaching that may provide a in the future, C. H. Dodd argues that Jesus
basis for placing the questions of eschatology viewed the kingdom as having arrived both
and an interim ethic in a larger perspective. as judgment and as grace in his ministry. In
In an attempt to indicate some of the most The Parables of the Kingdom, Dodd ac-
important interpretations of the significance knowledged that certain sayings of Jesus ap-
of eschatology for Jesus' ethic that have been parently imply a future coming of the king-
set forth in opposition to Schweitzer's con- dom, but he holds that such sayings refer, not
cept of an interim ethic, we shall briefly con- to a future coming of the kingdom in this
sider the following: Rudolf Bultmann's ex- world, but to a "transcendent order beyond
istentialized eschatology, C. H. Dodd's time and space"an order in which "many
"realized eschatology," Martin Dibelius's who are not yet in the kingdom of God,' in
4
concept of an "eschatological stimulus," and its earthly manifestation, will enjoy its ulti-
Amos Wilder's distinction between the sec- mate fulfilment in a world beyond this." The
ondary and primary sanctions of Jesus' ethic. eschatological hope for the coming of the
Finally, attention will be given to a number kingdom was thus being "realized" in Jesus'
of recent attempts to build a distinctively own lifetime, and he did not look for it to
Christian social ethic upon eschatology. come again or in any fuller sense in this
In Jesus and the Word, Bultmann argues earthly order. Hence, Jesus' ethic cannot
that despite the apocalyptic character of have been intended as an interim ethic.
Jesus' teaching concerning the kingdom of Rather, Dodd believes, it was intended as "a
God, the validity of his ethic is not affected moral ideal" for persons who are even now
in the least by the failure of this expectation. living in the new age. Or, as Dodd puts the
Bultmann characterizes Jesus' ethic as one of matter in Gospel and Law, it is intended "as
"radical obedience," involving the claim of the new law which supersedes the law of the
God upon the whole person to do the divine Old Testament"; it is intended, in short, as
will in each present moment of decision. The "the law of the kingdom of God." As such
basic significance of the eschatological ele- the ethical precepts of the Gospels have two
ment in Jesus' teaching is to be found in the purposes: on the one hand, they serve as an
fact that the proclamation of the coming of aid to repentance, and, on the other hand,
the kingdom points humanity to "the present they serve as a guide for positive moral action
moment as the final hour in the sense of the for those who have received the kingdom and
hour of decision" and that this "now" is al- seek to live their lives in the presence of
ways the last hour in that in it each person is God's judgment and grace.
203 Eschatological Ethics
According to Martin Dibelius in The Ser- made to a discernment of the nature of God,
mon on the Mount, Jesus looked for the end humanity, and the world; to intuition; to
of the present age to come soon, but his ethic gratitude; to obedience; and to the desire to
was not for this reason intended as an interim be children of the heavenly Father. The es-
ethic. On the contrary, the commandments chatological appeal to rewards and punish-
of Jesus represent the eternal will of God, and ments is thus basically a symbolic albeit
as such they "were given for eternity." In- pedagogically necessary formulation of the
deed, all of the commandments in the Gos- consequences of human conduct in a world in
pels, and not just those with an explicit refer- which the primary human relationship is the
ence to the coming of the new age, are personal one which each bears to the righ-
eschatological in that their starting point is teous and sovereign Lord of history.
the absolute will of God, not human ability Eschatology has three main functions in
and the conditions of earthly life in the pres- relation to Jesus' ethical teachings, according
ent age. Jesus' ethical teachings as well as his to Wilder. In the first place, insofar as the
deeds are therefore "signs of God's king- coming of the kingdom is conceived of in
dom." They were not intended as law but futuristic terms, the appeal to eschatology
rather as "radical examples of what God de- provides "the motive for repentance and for
mands" of those who want to be children of urgency in doing righteousness, and the par-
the kingdom even now in this present age. It ticular demands are looked on as conditions
is impossible for modem persons who do not of entrance to the future kingdom." In the
share Jesus' apocalyptic expectations to be second place, insofar as Jesus teaches that the
fully obedient to the will of God, since they kingdom is already present, he recognizes
cannot escape responsibility for the social that a new ethical situation has been created
problems of today; nevertheless, the ethic of by its presence; his ethical teaching points,
the Gospels is just as relevant to life in the therefore, to the new possibilities of life based
modern world as it was to Jesus' hearers. The upon the presence of the kingdom, and his
primary purpose of this ethic then and its ethic may be described as "an ethic of the
essential function today is to make men and present kingdom of God or a new-covenant
women "well acquainted with the pure will of ethic." Finally, eschatology is related to
God" to the end that, although they are "not Jesus' ethical teachings in a third way, for the
able to perform it in its full scope," they may crisis associated with the coming of the king-
be "transformed by it." Jesus taught neither dom, which Jesus identified with his own
an ethical ideal that people might seek to work, placed special claims upon his follow-
attain as the goal of their social life, nor a law ers during this period. Particularly stringent
for moral conduct either before or after the acts of loyalty, witness, and sacrifice were
arrival of the new age; rather, his ethic serves required of his disciples during this time of
as an "eschatological stimulus," which, be- conflict. This "discipleship ethic" was thus
cause it is completely focused upon the real- conditioned in a special way by the eschato-
ity of the kingdom of God and because it is logical expectations of Jesus, but even here as
intended as a sign of the kingdom's presence, elsewhere the fundamental sanction is Jesus'
confronts humanity with the pure and eter- apprehension of the divine will.
nal will of God in a way in which it is impos- Like Bultmann and Dodd, Wilder tends
sible for either a set of laws or any other not only to de-emphasize the apocalyptic ele-
system of ethics to do. ments in Jesus' message but also to interpret
In Eschatology and Ethics in the Teaching the eschatological features of the latter sym-
of Jesus, Amos N. Wilder recognizes that bolically. As a consequence the cosmic-uni-
eschatology provided the "dominant sanc- versal and the sociopolitical aspects of Jesus'
tion" for Jesus' ethic, but he argues that this teaching are eliminated from his message and
appeal to rewards and punishments was only indirectly from that of the NT as a whole.
a formal and secondary sanction based upon When these elements are lost to view, Chris-
a religious-prophetic apprehension of the di- tian morality easily becomes spiritualistic
vine will (see Rewards and Punishments; and individualistic. Recent scholarship has
Sanctions). Hence, the essential and funda- shown, however, that the apocalyptic lan-
mental motivation for righteousness in Jesus' guage of the NT cannot be separated from its
teaching is found in the appeals which he eschatological content without betraying the
204 Eschatological Ethics
NT vision of the fulfillment of history and the vides the basis not only for a critique of all
entire cosmos as well as individuals. The lan- human achievements within history but also
guage of NT eschatology is apocalyptic; "as for "the struggle for social justice."
such it is cosmological, universal, political, According to Moltmann, biblical theology
and mythological" (E. Schssler Fiorenza). is fundamentally eschatological, and es-
As noted above, there is also general agree- chatology is interpreted primarily in terms of
ment among scholars that the eschatological promise grounded in the resurrection of Jesus
events described in the NT are in some sense Christ. In relation to ethics, eschatology pro-
both present and future. vides the basis for critiquing the negativities
For the most part (the major exceptions of the existing social order; it also provides
being the Fourth Gospel, Colossians, and the basis for openness to change and for hope
Ephesians), the "already" and the "not yet" and courage in the face of injustice. Due to
of the promised salvation exist in dialectical his conception of eschatology in terms of the
tension. The continuing problem for Chris- resurrection of Jesus, together with his con-
tian ethics is how this dialectical relationship ception of the contingency of creation, how-
can be recovered and sustained in the present ever, Moltmann is unable to provide moral
day. guidance for concrete human action, espe-
The following authors and movements are cially in the area of social ethics. Writing
representative of the attempt to recover the from the perspective of Latin American liber-
significance of eschatology for Christian eth- ation theology*, Gutirrez also makes es-
ics by relating the promise of the coming chatology the key to an understanding of
kingdom dialectically to historical forms of Christian faith. For him the central meaning
human life in the secular world in the period of eschatology lies in the tension which it
since World War I: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hel- creates between the present social order and
mut Thielicke, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jrgen the coming kingdom. In liberation theology
Moltmann, Gustavo Gutirrez, and Thomas generally the eschatological promise is un-
Ogletree. In his Ethics Bonhoeffer moved derstood in historical, temporal, and social
from the more radical eschatological concen- terms; the ethical norms of the Gospels
tration upon the "ultimate" in The Cost of liberation, justice, peace, and loveare simi-
Discipleship to an ethic that included both larly understood as societal norms. Es-
the "ultimate" and the "penultimate." Rec- chatology provides the theological basis for
ognition of the penultimate provided the the transformation of society. Finally, atten-
basis for the Christological affirmation of the tion should be called to Ogletree's study The
secular on the basis of its relationship to the Use of the Bible in Christian Ethics. Accord-
ultimate, i.e., "the last things." Understood ing to Ogletree, the substantive meaning of
in this perspective, Christian ethics is an ethic eschatology for ethics is found in the fact that
of formation, obedience, and responsibility it "directs attention to new possibilities for
within the mandates or orders*. For Thie- human existence taking form in the midst of
licke, theological ethics is best typified by the the old age." The "eschatological horizon" of
"borderline situation" wherein the conflict Christian faith issues in an ethic of disciple-
between good and evil is irresoluble without shipan ethic that is basically perfectionist
guilt (see Dilemmas). The very possibility of rather than deontologicaland in the forma-
Christian ethics rests, therefore, upon "jus- tion of new eschatological forms of commu-
tification by grace" whereby the believer is nity characterized by mercy, mutual forbear-
freed to participate responsibly in culture as ance, and forgiveness. A social ethic based
a "worldly Christian." In Thielicke's view, upon the NT must be built first of all upon
the relationship between Christian faith and the eschatological promise of the coming
the world is wholly dialectical. For Reinhold kingdom rather than on creation or preserva-
Niebuhr, Jesus' teaching about the kingdom tion. The relationship of the coming kingdom
as both present and future means that history to creation is dialectical and to a certain ex-
after Christ is an "interim between the disclo- tent transformationist. Thus understood, es-
sure of its true meaning and the fulfillment of chatology does not refer fundamentally to
that meaning" at the end of history. During the expectation of an imminent end of the
this interim between the first and second world; it refers, rather, to the presence of a
coming of Christ, faith regarding the mean- new age in the midst of the old.
ing and final consummation of history pro- See Hope; Jesus, Ethical Teaching of;
205 Ethicist, Ethician
Kingdom of God; New Testament Ethics; 2. They worked for the community, but
Sermon on the Mount. they had certain views regarding work. They
would only work in villages and in the coun-
D. Bonhoeffer, Ethics, ET 1955; R. Bult- try, for they would not share in the immorali-
mann, Jesus and the Word (1926), ET 1934; ties of towns and cities. They were forbidden
and The Presence of Eternity: History and to make a weapon of any sort, or to manufac-
Eschatology, 1957; M. Dibelius, The Sermon ture anything that would hurt or harm any
on the Mount, ET 1940; C. H. Dodd, The other human being.
Parables of the Kingdom, 1936; E. Schssler 3. They were abstemious and even ascetic.
Fiorenza, "Eschatology of the N.T.," IDB They ate only enough to keep them alive, and
Suppl., 1976; G. Gutirrez, A Theology of were content with one dish and with no vari-
Liberation, 1973; W. G. Kmmel, Promise ety in their food. They wore the simplest
and Fulfilment, ET 1957; J. Moltmann, The- clothes, and wore them until they were com-
ology of Hope, ET 1967; R. Niebuhr, The pletely worn out. Unlike normal Jewish prac-
Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 vols., 1941-43; tice, they forbade marriage and practiced cel-
T. W. Ogletree, The Use of the Bible in Chris- ibacy, although some seem to have married,
tian Ethics, 1983; N. Perrin, The Kingdom of perhaps for the sake of the continuance of the
God in the Teaching of Jesus, 1963; H. Thie- community.
licke, Theological Ethics, vol. 1: Foundations, 4. In certain things they were in advance of
ET 1966; A. N. Wilder, Eschatology and Eth- their time, and different from normal Juda-
ics in the Teaching of Jesus, rev. ed. 1950; H. ism. They refused all oathsexcept the oath
Windisch, The Meaning of the Sermon on the upon entering the communityon the
Mount, ET 1951. grounds that a statement which required an
E. CLINTON GARDNER oath was already condemned. They rejected
animal sacrifice, although they sent incense
Essenes to the temple. They had no slaves and be-
Our information about the Essenes, a Jewish lieved slavery as an institution to be wrong.
sect between the 2nd century B.c. and the end It may fairly be said that they practiced the
of the 1st century A.D., comes from four main ethics of Judaism, but intensified them in a
historical sources: Josephus, Antiquities 15. monastic community which was based on a
10.4-5; 18.1.5; Jewish War 2.8.2-13; Philo, covenant theology and an apocalyptic es-
Every Good Man Is Free 13-14; Pliny, Natu- chatology.
ral History 5.17.4; and Eusebius, Preparation
for the Gospel 8.11. There is also evidence A. Dupont-Sommer, The Essene Writings
that he Qumran community of the Dead Sea
f from Qumran, ET 1961; G. Verms, The
Scrolls belonged to or was closely connected Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in Perspective,
with this sect. 1978.
The Essenes were deeply devoted to the WILLIAM BARCLAY
Jewish law. To them Moses came second
only to God, and to blaspheme the name of Ethicist, Ethician
Moses was a crime punishable by death. An ethicist is a person who "does" ethics, in
Their ethic was therefore basically the ethic the sense of reflecting on morality, its nature,
of devout Jews. But in more than one direc- its presuppositions, and its applications. The
tion they carried their ethic beyond the ethics term has sometimes been used, especially ear-
of Judaism. E. Schrer (History of the Jewish lier, to refer to someone who supports ethics
People, vol. 2, ET, rev. ed. 1979) calls them rather than religion (see OED). Now proba-
"connoisseurs in morality." bly more common in religious than in philo-
1. Their ethic was a community ethic. sophical or secular contexts, the term "ethi-
They held everything in common. Food, cist" is interchangeable with "moral
clothes, money, even their tools were the theologian" or "moral philosopher," as in
property of the community. There was there- the expressions "Christian ethicist," "reli-
fore among them no such thing as poverty, gious ethicist," and "philosophical ethicist."
and they were famous for their treatment of It is apparently more at home in Protestant
the sick and the aged, who in the Essene contexts, where the phrase "Christian eth-
community received such care that they had ics"* is more common than "moral theol-
nothing to fear. ogy."* Another equivalent term is "ethi-
Ethics 206
cian," which is probably more popular in In a religious context, this controversy is
Roman Catholic moral theology. most aptly illustrated by considering the sug-
JAMES F. CHILDRESS gestion that "wrong" means "contrary to
God's will." If this were so, then we should
Ethics at once be assured of the general moral prin-
The word "ethics" is used in a variety of ciple that what is contrary to God's will is
ways, and confusions between these uses are wrong (it would, indeed, be a veiled
common. At least three main types of ques- tautology); and from this, in conjunction
tion are called "ethical" in different senses: with factual premises about what, in particu-
(1) questions as to what is right, good, etc., lar, God wills, we could deduce particular
or of how we ought to behave (normative moral judgments about what is wrong. If ob-
ethics, morals); (2) questions as to the an- jections about the difficulty of ascertaining
swers given by particular societies and people God's will are ignored, there remain the ob-
to questions of type (1) (descriptive ethics or jections: (1) that it must be matter of sub-
comparative ethics, a branch of moral sociol- stance, not a mere tautology, that what is
ogy or anthropology); and (3) questions as to contrary to God's will is wrong; and (2) that
the meanings or uses of the words used in no mere definition of terms could enable us to
answering questions of type (1), or the nature deduce the prescriptive judgment that some-
or logical character of the moral concepts, or, thing is wrong from the factual statement
in older language, of what goodness, etc., are that it is contrary to God's will. It is further
(theoretical ethics, philosophical ethics, objected that it must be possible for a suffi-
moral philosophy). It is perhaps best, in phil- ciently perverse man to maintain without
osophical writing, to reserve the word "eth- self-contradiction that an act is contrary to
ics" (unqualified) for inquiries of type (3). God's will but not wrong, or vice versa.
The motive for undertaking them has, how- Moreover, the word "wrong" is used, and
ever, often been the hope that their results apparently understood, by atheists, and it is
might bear on questions of type (1); whether not obvious that they are using it in a differ-
and in what ways this is possible is the ques- ent sense from theists. For these reasons most
tion that above all others vexes students of philosophers would now reject the view that
philosophical ethics, and divides the support- "wrong" means "contrary to God's will";
ers of naturalism*, intuitionism*, emoti- but this does not imply a refutation of the
vism*, descriptivism*, prescriptivism*, etc. view that what (and only what) is contrary to
The simplest answer is given by naturalism God's will is wrong. The latter view (an an-
and related theories, which hold that to un- swer to a question of type (1) rather than of
derstand the meanings of moral terms is al- type (3) above) is held by most Christians. It
ready to be assured of the truth of certain does not follow that Christians will agree
general moral principles, from which, in con- with one another about all moral questions;
junction with statements of fact, particular for issues which among non-Christians
moral judgments can be derived. Against this would be treated as disputes about what is
it has been objected by the followers of G. E. wrong, simply, will often be treated among
Moore that moral principles are matters of Christians as "factual" disputes about what
substance, or synthetic, and therefore cannot God's will is, it being assumed that, whatever
be established by appeal to the meanings of it is, what is contrary to it is wrong. Often,
words. More recent writers (prescriptivists) there being no independent way of ascertain-
have added to this objection another, that, ing God's will, it gets accommodated to the
since moral judgments are prescriptive or ac- moral views of particular disputants. It is
tion-guiding, they cannot be derived by logi- perhaps only when a speaker is prepared in
cal deduction (with or without the use of this way freely to "tailor" what he calls
definitions of terms) from merely factual "God's will" to his own moral opinions, that
premises. The substance of this objection the expressions "contrary to God's will" and
goes back to Hume and Kant. Both these "wrong" can be said to be equivalents.
objections rely on the general logical princi- If we ask more positively what are the
ple (itself not undisputed) that the conclusion meanings, functions, natures, uses, etc., of
of an inference can contain nothing that is moral words or concepts, we are, naturally,
not there, at any rate implicitly, in the prem- on controversial ground; but there are some
ises. points on which, perhaps, a majority of moral
207 Ethics
philosophers would agree, their differences Thesis (2) is incompatible with thesis (1)
lying in matters of emphasis and interpreta- only if we take (2) as implying that when we
tion. (1) It is a widely accepted view that call an act, for example, the best, and do so in
moral judgments containing such words are virtue of something about it, we are doing the
in some strong and special sense action-guid- same sort of thing as when we call, for exam-
ing (for example, that there is a more than ple, a surface red in virtue of something about
merely contingent connection between think- it (its visual appearance under normal condi-
ing an act the best in the circumstances and tions). In the latter case to know the meaning
being disposed to choose it). This is the fea- of "red" is to know that we are entitled to call
ture of moral words which is most empha- a surface red if, and only if, it appears thus
sized by prescriptivists. (2) Most thinkers under normal conditions. If "best" func-
would agree that when words like "right/' tioned like "red," then, once its meaning was
"wrong," "good," and "bad" are used, they known, there would be no choice left as to
are applied to acts, etc., in virtue of some what sorts of acts we could call best. And this
feature or features of them (apart from their would lead to a dilemma. Either we should
mere Tightness, etc.) which is the reason for have to reject thesis ( 1 ); or else we should have
using these words of them. It is held by many to maintain that to think some act the best is,
to follow from this that to call one act, for indeed, to be disposed to do it, but that, once
example, wrong, is to commit oneself to call we know the meaning of "best," what sorts of
any other act wrong which resembles it in all, thing we are disposed to do become unaltera-
or in the relevant, particulars. This thesis has bly fixed; and this runs counter both to our
been called "the universalizability of moral common understanding of the meaning of
judgments."* "best," and to our feeling that to know the
These two theses are not inconsistent, meaning of a word can never restrict our free-
though they can be made to appear so by dom of choice in this way.
mistaken interpretation, thus giving rise to Faced with this dilemma, some have felt
needless disputes. This in turn has led to the that, sooner than reject thesis (1), it is best to
rejection of one of the theses as incompatible reject thesis (2), and deny that acts are neces-
with the other. For example, some naturalists sarily called "the best" in virtue of anything
have rejected (1), holding that moral judg- about them. But we can avoid this implausi-
ments are action-guiding only in the sense in ble conclusion by interpreting thesis (2) more
which any factual judgment whatever may carefully; it can be taken as implying, not
be; the information that an act is the best in that the meaning of words like "best" ties
the circumstances will lead me to do that act, them to particular features of, for example,
if I want to do what is best, just as the infor- acts (the same for all users of the word) but
mation that a stone is the flattest available rather that whenever anybody uses the word,
will lead me to choose it, if I want the flattest he must have in mind, as his reason for using
stone; the effect of this is to turn moral judg- it, some features of the act in question
ments into something like Kant's "hypotheti- (which, if repeated in any other acts in rele-
cal imperatives." They have done this be- vantly similar situations, would oblige him to
cause they thought that, if thesis (2) is call them, too, the best in their respective
correct, the only thing that we can be doing situations, or else to withdraw his judgment
in calling an act the best act is to inform our about this present situation); but these fea-
hearers that it possesses those features which tures might differ from speaker to speaker,
entitle it to this name. If this were so, then the depending on their various moral opinions,
information would guide action only given a without thereby the meaning (in one sense)
prior disposition (which might be absent) to of the word "best," as used by them, altering.
do acts which have those features. In other words, the user of the word 'best'
Against this, adherents of Thomism on the thereby commits himself to some rule for its
one hand, and many modern prescriptivists application, but there is no single rule to
on the other, have insisted, in different ways, which all users of the word are committed by
on thesis (1). This doctrine is summed up in its meaning. The rule followed by any
the maxim, which goes back in substance to speaker will depend on his own moral princi-
Socrates, Quicquid appetitur, appetitur sub ples as to what is best in this type of situation.
specie boni (Whatever is desired, is desired For certain necessary qualifications to this
under the appearance of its being good). statement, see Conventional Morality.
Ethos 208
This issue has sometimes been stated in would be furthered by abandoning the terms
terms of the distinction between the descrip- altogether and characterizing the disputants
tive and the prescriptive (or evaluative) in the current controversy by new terms
meaning of moral words. The descriptive such as "descriptivists" and "non-descripti-
meaning is the features in virtue of which an vists." But, if this is done, it is important to
act, for example, is called the best; the pre- realize that a non-descriptivist does not nec-
scriptive meaning is the conceptual link essarily deny that moral terms have descrip-
whereby a judgment that such and such an tive meaning; he merely affirms that this is
act is the best is logically tied to a disposition not the only element in their meaning.
to choose it. Most current controversies in See also Metaethics.
ethics are essentially about the relations be-
tween these two sorts of "meaning," and the For amplification of the argument of this arti-
extent to which one or the other of them is cle, see the author's articles "Ethics," in En-
properly called "meaning." It may safely be cyclopedia of Western Philosophy and
said that any ethical theory which ignores Philosophers, ed. J. O. Urmson, 1960; and
either of them is bound to be incomplete; if "Descriptivism," in Proceedings of the British
the prescriptive meaning is ignored, the ac- Academy, 1963; and see his books The Lan-
tion-guiding character of moral judgments, guage of Morals, 1952; Freedom and Reason,
which alone gives them their importance and 1963; and Moral Thinking, 1981. For a gen-
even their use, is lost; if, on the other hand, eral survey of the field of ethics from a differ-
thesis (2) is denied, then the basis of the ratio- ent standpoint, with further references, see
nality of moral judgments, viz., that they are R. B. Brandt, Ethical Theory, 1959.
made for reasons, that is, because of some- R. M. HARE
thing about their objects, is destroyed.
The issue just discussed has a bearing on Ethos
the question of the so-called "objectivity" of A transliteration of the Greek word for "cus-
moral principles, which has been the "phi- tom" or "character," this term refers to the
losopher's stone" of ethics. It is possible to characteristic values, beliefs, and practices of
interpret "objectivity" in such a strong a social group or a culture. It corresponds to
sense that it can be established only by some the Latin mores, "customs," which refers to
form of naturalismthat is, by saying that generally held moral beliefs and practices.
the meaning of the moral words is such While ethics* involves reflection on choices
that, once it is known, there is no option left and decisions about action, an ethos is con-
as to what we call, for example, right. Those stituted by pervasive beliefs and values that
who reject naturalism cannot in consistency are seldom questioned within the ethos.
seek to establish this sort of objectivity. Thus, free speech is an element of the demo-
However, it is likely that what most "objec- cratic ethos, while personal humility is part
tivists" are really after is not so direct a link of the ethos of most Christian communities.
between the meanings of the moral words Ethics aims at a consistent and unified moral
and the features of things in virtue of which system, but an ethos may contain elements
the words are applied to them, but rather that conflict with one another. Also, different
some way or other of establishing the ratio- ethoses may impinge on the same person, giv-
nality of moral thinking. Much recent con- ing rise to contradictory expectations. In
troversy in ethics has been between those modern pluralistic societies, conflicts within
who think that it cannot be established and between ethoses become important occa-
without adopting some sort of descriptivism sions for ethical reflection. Political loyalties
(that is, by denying thesis (1) above, in prac- may conflict with a person's religious iden-
tice usually by espousing some kind of natu- tity, for example, or ethnic family patterns
ralism), and those who think, on the con- may differ from the ideals promoted by the
trary, that thesis (1) is not incompatible media and mass culture.
with the rationality of moral thought, and The study of an ethos is initially a descrip-
may even be essential to it. The word "ob- tive rather than a normative task. Sociology*
jectivism" and its opposites subjectivism* and anthropology* provide methods for an
and relativism* have been used in so many accurate account of cultural beliefs and ex-
different senses (often without the realiza- pectations, which can then be subjected to
tion that they are different) that clarity normative scrutiny and systematization. At
209 Eugenics
the same time, this critical study of society ties had reached their state in life simply as
indicates that systematic moral philosophy a result of their genetic inheritance.
and theology always depend in important In the 20th century, application of eugeni-
ways on the ethos in which these reflections cal theory as a solution to social problems in
take place. Contemporary Christian ethics America led to such ethically problematic
seeks to identify the economic ideologies, na- practices as the wide-scale sexual steriliza-
tional cultures, and social class biases that tion of epileptics, the mentally ill, and the
may intrude upon its normative conclusions, retarded, restrictions on the immigration of
and it attempts to articulate more fully the some ethnic groups, and prohibition of mar-
ethos of the Christian community that deter- riages between people of differing racial back-
mines which problems will seem important grounds. To support each of those practices,
and which solutions are likely to appeal to purportedly "scientific" criteria derived from
ethicists who are themselves shaped by that eugenical studies were used to argue that
community. hereditarily ill or handicapped parents al-
See also Custom. ways produced defective children; that the
ROBIN W. LOVIN people of some nations and ethnic groups
were genetically inferior to people of other
Eudaemonism
nations; and that mixing the genes of superior
and inferior races would dilute the total gene
The theory that holds happiness* to be the pool, to the detriment of all humanity.
highest good. Little attention was paid by the most doc-
JOHN MACQUARRIE trinaire eugenicists to the differential effects of
environment on human achievement. The
Eugenics difficulty of analyzing a single character trait,
At least since the time of Plato, philosophers e.g., intelligence, that might be the result of
have exhorted healthy, productive, intelli- multiple factors such as education, family
gent people to reproduce. Just as regularly, practices, and heredity was also often ig-
individuals whose natural endowments nored. By the mid-1940s increased sophistica-
seemed to equip them less well for success in tion in the study of genetics put to rest many
society, e.g., the chronically ill or the men- of the fallacies of eugenical theory that had
tally disabled, have been discouraged both by arisen in the first third of the century. The
custom and by law from bearing children. demise of Nazi Germany, the nation that
While the impetus for both a positive eugen- most aggressively enacted the tenets of
ics (rewarding childbearing among the most eugenical theory into law, led to further dis-
fit) and a negative eugenics (impeding parent- crediting of the conclusions of the eugenicists.
hood among the "inferior") has ancient Today, while the most distasteful argu-
precedents, it was not until the late 19th cen- ments of classical eugenics are held in general
tury that a program of selective breeding disrepute (e.g., that the handicapped should
based on systematic, ostensibly scientific be strictly prohibited from marrying or that
principles was proposed (see Genetics). some races or ethnic groups are genetically
In 1883 British physician Sir Francis Gal- inferior to others) and the term "eugenics"
ton coined the term "eugenics" (from the itself is rarely heard, the idea that society
Greek, meaning "wellborn") to describe a should have some say in regulating reproduc-
new branch of study that would focus upon tion remains current. As in the early years of
improving the human race by judicious the century, there are those who would in-
matching of parents possessing "superior" voke the good of society to restrict the num-
traits. Galton's study emphasized the heredi- ber of children born to poor parents. Such
tary transmission of intelligence. His disci- potential restrictions highlight the conflict
ples expanded upon the notion that certain between the burdens communities should be
behavioral patterns or characteristics of per- asked to bear (in taxes to support the indi-
sonality could be identified in individuals and gent) and the rights to reproduction, personal
passed on through a program of selective autonomy*, and choice of family size that are
mating. They proposed that many negative arguably vested in all persons without regard
traits could be traced to a hereditary legacy, to social rank or economic condition.
i.e., that criminals, paupers, alcoholics, pros- The development of medical technology to
titutes, and others with undesirable propensi- assess mental and physical abnormalities in
Euthanasia 210
utero or, even before conception, to diagnose Euthanasia
individuals or groups more at risk to produce The literal meaning of euthanasia (from the
less than "normal" children throws the social Greek eu and thanatos) is easy or gentle
good versus individual rights debate into even death. But its etymology is of little help in
higher relief. Does a parent who conceives resolving the moral problem which it poses,
and delivers a severely malformed or handi- for none of us would wish anyone to die in
capped child, even though the risks are pain or distress.
known and the conception and birth are pre- In pre-Christian times what might be
ventable, have a right to expect that scarce termed euthanasia was practiced in some
medical resources will be allocated to the countries, usually in the form of exposure of
child's care? What place do religiously con- the very young and abandonment of the aged
troversial practices such as surgical steriliza- (see Abandonment; Exposition). Modern in-
tion* (or other means of birth control such as terest in the question dates from the 19th
contraception*) and selective abortion* have century. Few would now defend it in terms of
as tools of public policy in encouraging "well- a crudely utilitarian ethics as a means of for-
born" children? Should the state fund such cibly disposing of those members of the com-
practices, or, from the opposite point of view, munity who, because of disease, mental defi-
should they be forbidden by law? A perspec- ciency, or physical uselessness, are felt to be
tive beyond that of state or parents could be burdensome. Such a policy was given a logi-
attributed to the unborn child. For such po- cal extension in Nazi Germany during the
tential persons we might ask: What rights are Second World War when it embraced those
possessed by the medically abnormal fetus? who were regarded as politically and racially
Does its developing identity as a human being an embarrassment to the state. Today eu-
give it a full claim not only to life itself but also thanasia is usually referred to in a narrower
to whatever public resources may be neces- context and, by its advocates and opponents
sary to sustain and nurture it? And finally, is alike, is generally understood to mean that
there such a thing as wrongful life? That is, when a person is acknowledged to have an
can we impute a eugenical value system even incurable and/or distressing illness, his or
to the unborn, who, if they could know the her life should be terminated by some pain-
suffering that a life of deformity or handicap less method approved by science to shorten
might hold in store for them, might opt not to the suffering. This might take a compulsory
be born at all? or voluntary form.
Such questions remain as part of the popu- Compulsory euthanasia means the painless
lar debate over population policy*, reproduc- putting to death of the sick person, without
tive choice, and the appropriate exercise of his or her consent, by someone acting in a
both governmental and personal power over private or public capacity. This has been de-
the kind of individuals who will people the fended as "mercy killing" with special refer-
future human community. These questions ence to grossly deformed or mentally defec-
are not directly attributable to the intellec- tive children (see Infanticide) or adults who
tual heritage of the eugenicists, but force us are in terminal, painful, or "humiliating" ill-
to renew an analysis of the issues they posed ness. It is said that to give them a speedy and
originally: Who should be encouraged, who gentle release would be an act of merciful
forbidden to bear children; and, What princi- kindness to them and to members of their
ples should be applied to evaluate the role of family. This clinical homicide conflicts with
governmental coercion or parental choice in Christian teaching. The right to life is God-
family planning? given, and it is not within our moral compe-
See Genetics; Handicapped, Care of the; tence deliberately and directly to take the life
Procreation; Race Relations; Racism; Re- of any innocent human being either with or
productive Technologies. without his or her consent. To do this in the
circumstances envisaged would be an act of
C. P. Blacker, Eugenics: Gallon and After, injustice toward the sick person and an act of
1952; F. Galton, Natural Inheritance, 1889; impiety toward God who gave the person
M. Hal 1er, Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes life. True compassion* there should be, but it
in American Thought, 1963. is incompatible with injustice and impiety.
PAUL A. LOMBARDO We have a general duty to relieve suffering,
211 Euthanasia
but not at any price. It is sometimes said that to fulfill their duty of trying to provide the
doctors commonly practice a benign eu- care one needs), is to commit the grave sin of
thanasia under a well-understood conspiracy suicide* (There is, however, increasing de-
of silence, but the evidence does not support bate about the adequacy of some of the tradi-
such a claim. There is an important distinc- tional arguments against suicide.)
tion between the analgesic and the lethal Often condemned by ecclesiastical au-
dose: it is one thing to deaden or reduce pain thorities, voluntary euthanasia was also de-
by an injection which may also have the unin- clared unethical by the World Medical Asso-
tended effect of shortening life, and quite an- ciation in 1950 and subsequently by many
other to give an injection with the direct ob- regional associations in part for consequen-
ject of terminating a patient's life (see Double tialist reasons (see Consequentialism; Wedge
Effect). To take with deliberate intent the life Argument): Would not the practice gradually
of any innocent person, whether incurably undermine the attitude of complete trust*
sick or in good health, with or without the aid hitherto assumed in the doctor-patient rela-
of medical science, is to commit the grave sin tionship, and introduce suspicion and in-
of murder (see Homicide). security into many domestic situations?
Voluntary euthanasia is that gentle clinical Some who would otherwise be its supporters
termination for which a person of sound have acknowledged that the practical prob-
mind asks, in the event of his or her becoming lems involved in drawing up a legally accept-
the victim of grievous illness or ravaging dis- able declaration might be insuperable, not
ease. It is the contention of the voluntary least because of the need to be certain of the
euthanasia legalization societies that, with patient's valid consent* not simply at some
various safeguards, the law should permit a earlier date but at the very moment of eu-
person in these circumstances to be supplied thanasia.
with the means to terminate his or her own Confusion is sometimes caused by using
life or to authorize a doctor, by a signed and expressions like "passive euthanasia" to de-
witnessed declaration, to do it. Some Chris- note the withholding of any treatment that is
tians support this view, arguing that a good capable of keeping alive the gravely ill, how-
person may conclude that he or she has al- ever briefly. It has been claimed that, until
ready reached a stage when one can no longer death occurs, it is always one's duty to con-
do anything more to serve God or one's fel- tinue using to the full every available life-
low humans by remaining alive. But this con- sustaining procedure. But, when one consid-
flicts with the overwhelming weight of Chris- ers all the highly sophisticated systems and
tian opinion in the present as in the past. A techniques of modern medicine, it is frighten-
human being is not the absolute owner of his ing to envisage the possible consequences of
or her life, whose creator and redeemer is a strict adherence to such a rule. It would be
God. One has the right to protect it but not one thing (and exceedingly culpable) to allow
the right willfully to destroy it. Is it not a a person to die by deliberately withholding or
denial of God's loving providence to assert at withdrawing treatments which, if applied or
any given time that one's life can no longer persisted in, would be remedial or curative. It
serve any good purpose? It is true that suffer- is quite another thing, during the final stages
ing* can sometimes seem meaningless to us; of terminal illness, to refrain from extraordi-
it is never to be sought or endured simply for nary procedures which might intensify the
its own sake, and as far as possible it should suffering and, at best, only prolong the pro-
be eased. It can be very terrible, but it is not cess of dying, providing simply the sedation
the worst evil. Sometimes it is the occasion of and skilled nursing that will allow the patient
spiritual growth. The manner in which it is to die a "natural" death, peacefully and with
endured can have moral effects of great value dignity (see Life, Prolongation of). This is no
upon those who are privileged to be in attend- more an instance of euthanasia, rightly un-
ance. Deliberately to take (or request another derstood, than is the switching off of a life-
to take) one's life for any self-regarding mo- support machine when brain death has al-
tive, even that of escaping from the burden of ready been diagnosed (see Death, Deter-
what is at present an incurable disease (and, mination of).
in this case, also denying one's family or soci- Opposition to euthanasia might be held to
ety's public representatives the opportunity imply the duty of striving to make ever more
Evangelical Ethics 212
widely operative those standards of terminal tion to curb and regulate child labor and to
care more especially associated with the protect workers from economic exploitation.
modern hospice* movement in Britain and The evangelical social agenda included or-
America, in the light of whichit has been phanages for foundlings, hospitals for the
saideuthanasia is seen to be not only mis- sick, restriction and rehabilitation of prosti-
taken but irrelevant. tutes. The Salvation Army, the YMCA, the
See also Life, Sacredness of. Red Cross, and many other humanitarian en-
terprises had evangelical rootage.
Church Information Office, On Dying Well: Social ideals promoted by evangelicals at
An Anglican Contribution to the Debate on home were carried abroad by missionary pio-
Euthanasia, 1975; P. Ramsey, The Patient as neers. For example, William Carey secured
Person, 1970; S. Stoddard, The Hospice the prohibition of widow-burning and child
Movement: A Better Way of Caring for the sacrifice in India. Missionaries also fought
Dying, 1979; H. Trowell, The Unfinished De- the slave trade, discouraged polygamy, pro-
bate on Euthanasia, 1973. moted literacy and education, built schools,
THOMAS WOOD medical clinics, and hospitals.
The modern "social gospel"* sought mil-
Evangelical Counsels see Counsels; lennial transformation of the world through
Norms; Vocation education, legislation, and social evolution; it
abandoned miraculous revelation and super-
Evangelical Ethics natural redemption, supposedly in deference
Evangelical ethics heralds the Creator- to the empirical methodology of science. Its
Redeemer's revealed demand for both per- early advocates were committed to the indis-
sonal righteousness and social justice, and it pensability of personal evangelism and
echoes the imperative of love for God with spiritual rebirth, but the alteration of social
our whole being and of love for our neighbor structures soon became the main mission of
as ourselves. It looks to the substitutionary ecumenism. Some church leaders were con-
Savior Jesus Christ for unblemished fulfill- vinced that the unity of the world church,
ment. The biblical vision of earthly justice frustrated by debate over theological plural-
and peace, it stresses, is messianically ism, could be achieved instead through a
grounded. shared agenda of social reform. Some social
The regenerate church views itself as the gospel spokespersons alienated evangelical
distinctive new society over which the risen church leaders by implying that capitalism*
Christ rules, and it anticipates the Lord's re- is intrinsically immoral and socialism*, bibli-
turn to fully establish the kingdom of God. cal; evangelicals defended the biblical propri-
The Great Commission mandates not only ety of private property* and fair profit.
world evangelism but universal instruction in Before the mid-20th century, American
the teaching and commands of Christ. Intel- evangelicals were beginning to reverse funda-
lectual historians have noted that almost all mentalism's reactionary withdrawal from the
Western humanitarian impulses sprang from social arena (see Fundamentalist Ethics).
the theology of the cross. The evangelical journal Christianity Today,
John Wesley denounced slavery and urged begun in 1956, made social ethics* one of its
prison reforms and education for the masses. emphases. Evangelical leaders became in-
William Wilberforce, English politician and creasingly aware that Christianity's social as-
philanthropist, after his conversion in pects had been unjustifiably sidelined (see
1785-86 helped found societies to challenge David Moberg, The Great Reversal, 1972).
obscene publications and to abolish the slave On specific issues in social ethics evangeli-
trade. Once the House of Commons, in 1807, cals diverge considerably, even as they do
ended the slave trade in the British West In- over church polity and eschatology. In evan-
dies, he promoted immediate emancipation. gelism they have forged a consensus for
One of the 19th century's most effective so- transdenominational cooperation despite
cial and industrial reformers was Anthony theological differences on secondary matters.
Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Whether they can articulate a moral consen-
(Lord Ashley), leader of the evangelical sus in the secular social milieu remains to be
movement in the Church of England, who seen. Those who aggressively link biblical
promoted asylums for the insane and legisla- values with the political right include Francis
213 Evil
Schaeffer (d. 1984) and Jerry Falwell. The chiefly of the human suffering produced by
emerging left is represented by Sojourners physical disordersby earthquakes, famine,
magazine, edited by James Wallis, and by or disease. (Whether the wastage in the evo-
The Other Side and Radix; other spokesper- lutionary process or the pain endured by sub-
sons include Ronald Sider and Richard human animals is to be judged evil is a dis-
Lovelace. One of the major concerns of most putable question. But nature is unques-
evangelicals is abortion*, considered by tionably often evil in relation to its highest
many to be the most horrendous evil of our producthumankind.)
age. Yet what is the nature of evil in itself?
Evangelicals consider God intrinsically What is its ontological character or status?
good and the sovereign stipulator of the Aquinas held that it is wholly negativea
moral law. Evangelical ethics is basically a "privation of good." His aim was to exclude
"divine command"* ethics (see Voluntarism); a Manichean dualism that would be incom-
it attributes the current lack of objective patible with the Christian doctrine of crea-
moral authority to the modern grounding of tion. Since everything is made by God, and
morality in utility or observation rather than since God is holy, evil cannot possess inde-
in transcendent revelation. Christ rules the pendent being. It is therefore a defect in a
church, it holds, through the Holy Spirit by person or a thing. Just as blindness is lack of
the authoritative scriptures (see Bible in sight, so vice is lack of virtue. In both cases
Christian Ethics). The good life, it contends, the human organism fails to actualize its na-
is not attained by realignment of one's natu- ture and achieve its good.
ral abilities, but by crucifixion of the old na- Although the concept of privatio boni has
ture and spiritual rebirth. often been criticized, four things can be said
in its favor (in addition to its exclusion of
C. F. H. Henry, Christian Personal Ethics, cosmic dualism). First, even if it is not a com-
1957; and A Plea for Evangelical Demonstra- plete definition of evil it can be regarded as a
tion, 1971; J. M. Idziak, Divine Command partial one. Secondly, it does not entail the
Morality, 1979. view that evil is merely apparent or unreal.
CARL F. H. HENRY Thirdly, it does justice to the spiritual truth
(stated by both Plato and Paul) that sin di-
Evil minishes and corrupts the soul at the center
Evil can be considered in terms of its nature, of its being. Fourthly, it explains why we
explanation, and remedy (or cure). Inevitably include both moral and nonmoral ills within
the Christian view of evil coincides at many the single category "evil," and why we view
points with the views adopted by non-Chris- both with equal horror. We do so because
tian thinkers. But the gospel provides a they both distort reality. Both represent a
wholly new answer to the problem of its cure. declension from the creature's good and
The nature of evil. Most theologians distin- thereby from the perfect, loving will of the
guish between moral and nonmoral evil. Creator.
Moral evil consists in transgression of the The explanation of evil. Even if we accept
moral law or, when faith is present, disobedi- the view that evil is negative, we still have to
ence to the will of God. Nonmoral evils com- explain how it can occur in a world created
prise those ills which do not proceed directly by a holy God. Two general explanations
from human sin. must be rejected.
Moral evil, or sin, will be analyzed else- The first rests on the denial that God is
where (see Sin(s)). Here it is enough to state omnipotent. He is limited, if not in wisdom,
that a human act can have evil effects without then in power. He is faced either by recalci-
itself being evil in the moral sense. An act is trant material or by other malign agencies
morally evil only if it is a voluntary infringe- that co-exist with him. Such a view (which
ment of a moral law that is known to the was held by many Gnostics) is incompatible
agent. When the agent is invincibly ignorant with Christian theism which asserts that God
of a law, or when he or she acts involuntarily, made the world ex nihilo. God is not omnipo-
the act is not morally wrong, or sinful; so that tent in the sense that he can do anything, for
any evil effects it may produce fall within the some things are contrary to reason or moral-
nonmoral category. ity. But he is omnipotent in the sense that he
Nonmoral evils are various. One thinks controls all things by his creative word.
Evil 214
Some, again, have taken refuge in the con- shown. Thus it can produce courage in the
trast between God's "absolute" will and his sufferer and sympathy in those who care for
"permissive" will. God does not will evil ab- the sufferer. Thirdly, examples of suffering
solutely (by a direct expression of his nature), endured with courage and faith can afford
as he wills good. He merely permits it for a moral and spiritual inspiration to others.
higher end. But this is an evasion, not a solu- However, some suffering does not ennoble,
tion; for since God is simple he wills every- but degrades. Some too does not evoke sym-
thing by a single, undivided act of power. If pathy or inspire others. Some again is so pro-
we say that he merely "permits" eviland longed and acute that it can scarcely be jus-
perhaps we are driven to say this in order to tified solely in temporal terms. Here theists
make his action intelligiblewe must add have often made the following additional
that his will in permitting it is absolute. In claims. (1) Insofar as suffering is caused by
any case we are left with the question why, if sinful acts, it is justified by the freedom that
he is omnipotent, he permits it. God has given us (see above). (2) Insofar as
Having rejected these "solutions," we can suffering is caused by nature, we must accept
to some extent explain evil in its two main it on the ground that if God constantly in-
forms along the following lines: tervened miraculously to prevent it, nature
1. Sin * According to the doctrine of the would become wholly unreliable. To the ob-
Fall, sin entered the human race through jection that God could have created the
Adam's disobedience (see Original Sin). But world in the first place without harmful ele-
even if the Genesis myth is taken literally, it ments, theists have replied that we do not
only pushes the problem a stage farther back. have the knowledge enabling us to affirm this;
How could Adam (or anyone in Adam's that we cannot isolate ourselves and imagine
place) make a sinful choice if he was made in that we would be the same persons in a differ-
the image of a good Creator? It has been ent kind of world; and that in any case much
suggested that if we take the Adam story suffering is caused by accidental collisions
symbolically we can understand the origin of with natural forces. (3) We must see this life
sin in evolutionary terms thus. If human be- in the light of the next, when unmerited suf-
ings were created as spiritually immature be- fering will be both rectified and transformed
ings engrossed in the struggle for survival by eternal joy.
and endowed with dim, often distorted views However, it must be stressed that many,
of the divine, it was virtually inevitable that perhaps most, theists admit that evil is not
they should acquire sinful impulses. Many now fully explicable when it is set against
theists have attempted to justify the existence belief in an omnipotent God of love. Many
of sinful acts on the ground that their possi- too would add that the element of inexplica-
bility is an inevitable consequence of free bility is consonant with the facts that God
will*, and that the latter is a condition of a and his providential ways surpass our under-
personal relationship with God. To this it has standing; that faith is always subject to trial
been replied that the harm done by such acts or "probation"- and that faith's present
outweighs any value inherent in free will*, knowledge always falls far short of the vision
and that a personal relationship with God we shall possess hereafter (see Theodicy).
would be possible even if the agent always The cure of evil Although Christians can-
spontaneously performed good acts. not fully explain the fact of evil, they possess
2. Human suffering*. This has always the secret of its cure. God in Christ has saved
been regarded as a powerful obstacle to belief them from the ravages of sin and suffering
in the Christian God. Nothing can be said through his perfect sacrifice whereby he
that is both new and true. Some suffering is made of both a pathway to the heavenly
caused by the prior sin of the sufferer. But (as world.
Job's experience and Christ's explicit teach- Hence, for the Christian, evil is character-
ing show) some suffering is unmerited. Un- ized by a double paradox. On the one hand,
merited suffering is often justified on three its presence in a world created by a holy God
grounds. First, it "purifies" the sufferer by cannot be fully explained. On the other hand,
affording an opportunity to strengthen his or God himself, in his incarnate Son, has con-
her character. Secondly, suffering can pro- quered evil and enabled us to share (by grace,
duce virtues that would not otherwise be not merit) in his victory. Again, evil is fully
215 Evolutionary Ethics
reala terrible cancer at the heart of things. shows the continuity with earlier stages by
Yet we believe that, through the Spirit of the presenting the later stages as development of
risen Christ, the greatest evil can become the potentialities inherent in the earlier.
occasion of the greatest goodif not of a A difficulty about this way of looking at
good that is manifest here and now, then of ethics is knowing just how the notion of evo-
a good that will be manifest hereafter. lution should be understood. Biological evo-
Christians can and must face evil in its full lution is a theory of the differentiation of a
reality and inexplicability. But their reaction number of species from a common ancestor,
to it is distinctive. They do not seek escape and the survival of some of these. The elimi-
from it (as the Buddhist seeks escape in a nation of large numbers of species and the
passionless nirvana). They do not preach a survival of others makes for a gradual change
Stoic "indifference" to it. Still less do they through the accumulative effect of small ge-
make it an excuse for a pessimistic Weltan- netic variations. Whether or not the term
schauung. They have two duties: (a) to com- "evolution" should be restricted to biological
bat it by every means and (b) to believe that evolution in this sense, it can be broadly said
God will vanquish it according to the perfect to stand for processes of large-scale change
(but hidden) wisdom of his providence. over long periods through the accretions of
small changes not attributable to the purpose
Thomas Aquinas, Philosophical Texts, sel. or intention of individuals or to special crea-
and tr. T Gilby, 1956, pp. 163-180; J. Hick, tion. To use the term "evolution" as equally
Evil and the God of Love, 1966; H. P Owen, applicable to ethical and social development
Christian Theism, 1984, pp. 83-111. may obscure differences between purposive
H. P. OWEN human actions and biological change. Nine-
teenth-century "social Darwinism" took suc-
Evolutionary Ethics cess in competition for scarce resources as
The notion that ethical conduct should be the condition for survival in nature and as a
seen as an extension of biological evolution law of society. Yet such behavior is found
was popularized by Herbert Spencer (see es- disadvantageous to the individual and advan-
pecially his Data of Ethics, 1879, ch. 2, "The tageous to its kin. "Sociobiology" is a neo-
Evolution of Conduct"). Evolutionary views Darwinian view of "altruistic" behavior as
of the development of cultures were preva- making for the selection of those carrying the
lent among anthropologists of the late 19th genetic inheritance. It is criticized as reading
century, assuming a pattern of stages of de- too much control into the genes.
velopment from simple primitive forms to the The term "evolution" may also suggest a
complex rational forms of Western civiliza- single line of human social development, and
tion. That social and ethical conduct should even an inevitable line of progress. The no-
be looked on as a direct continuation of bio- tion of potentialities can also be used to rein-
logical evolution, to be described in similar force the metaphor contained in the word
categories, was challenged by Thomas Hux- "evolution": the unwinding of something im-
ley in his Romanes Lectures of 1893, "Evolu- plicitly already contained in what is already
tion and Ethics," in which he maintained there. In moral conduct, on the other hand,
that ethical life, particularly insofar as it in- while a number of different courses of action
volved consideration for the weak, prescribed may all be potential in the sense of possibili-
conduct directly opposed to the cosmic strug- ties, to decide which human potentialities
gle for existence described by biological evo- for instance, those making for aggression or
lution. A version of the older view of ethical those making for cooperationshould be en-
development as a further stage of evolution couraged and which inhibited is a matter for
was given in 1943 in another Romanes Lec- decision in the light of value judgments.
ture, under the title "Evolutionary Ethics," The strength of evolutionary theories of
by his grandson, Julian Huxley, the best- ethics lies in their attempt to show human
known recent exponent of this view. He sees beings as living in a natural environment, and
ethical and cultural development as a new also in bringing out the fact that, like all
stage of evolution, where the human mind living things, they are dependent on adapting
can deliberately shape the future course of themselves to their environment. There can
evolution through purposive action. He also be an incentive to moral effort in the idea
216 Evolutionary Ethics
that human life, as it emerges from nature, tive legislation in matters of terminology and
and as it has developed over long stretches of definition. But if the term "evolution" is used
time, is still incomplete: that "the gates of the of social and ethical development, it is essen-
future are open," to use a phrase from Henri tial to be aware of the differences between
Bergson's Creative Evolution (1907; ET this kind of change and biological evolution.
1911). The weakness in this type of view con- There is, however, a sense in which the
sists in the slurring of the distinction between term "evolutionary ethics" may be used, not
what is and what ought to be, between judg- as a view in which the standards and criteria
ments of fact and judgments of value. If there of moral conduct are thought of as derivable
are indeed natural tendencies in biological from a process of change continuous with
nature, for example, making for love and co- biological evolution, but as a theory that
operation, and if human ethical behavior di- would be better described as "the evolution
rected to furthering these qualities can draw of ethics." This would be the view that ethi-
on the energies such instinctive drives may cal beliefs and principles have "evolved," in
supply, this is a matter for which those who the sense that they have taken different forms
value these qualities may be grateful. But if at different times as ways in which human
not, ought we to drop the conviction that beings in societies have met their biological
these are qualities to be encouraged? If there and social needs. So long as this view is not
are tendencies in nature strengthening ethical taken to imply some single pattern of succes-
propensities, moral development will thereby sive stages through which all cultures must
be easier, but if not, we are not bound to take pass (a view that nowadays has little support
our moral cues from nature. Moreover, to among anthropologists), there is considera-
hold that moral behavior must be deducible ble empirical support for this. Its main limi-
from natural facts is likely to lead to an un- tation is that it fails to express the extent to
duly moral interpretation of phenomena of which the institutions through which human
"mutual aid" in animal behavior. A sympa- beings seek to satisfy social needs may be
thetic account of this is given by Mary Midg- matters of contrivance as well as of piecemeal
ley in Beast and Man: The Roots of Human and even unconscious adaptation. It also
Nature (1978). She claims that our emotional makes little allowance for aspirations after
nature is largely given by our animal inheri- nonutilitarian ideals of moral excellence and
tance, and much of it is shaped by social for the purposive work of reformers.
needs with which ethics is concerned. A sustained attempt to present a view of
The belief that ethical conduct is conduct evolutionary ethics in both these senses was
in accordance with the direction of evolution- L. T. Hobhouse's Morals in Evolution (1906).
ary change, and that "good" means "more Hobhouse was concerned with "the advance
evolved," rests on a valuationally loaded of the ethical consciousness to the full under-
view of evolution by which it is seen as standing of its own origin and function, viz.,
change in a line of direction, so that what that it has arisen out of the conditions under
follows is held to be more "advanced" and which mind evolves and that its purpose is to
not only subsequent to what went before. further and perfect that evolution." Hob-
There is some empirical support for this house's view was a sophisticated one in that
without making an assumption of universal he did not assume automatic progress* and
progress, insofar as more complex stages he saw that there was a need for criteria for
make possible the achievement of a greater evaluating social changes not simply in natu-
range of possible types of activity and of rela- ralistic terms. His own criteria were qualities
tionships, and these more complex stages making for the achievement of "rational
have generally been preceded by simpler and good," such as the increasing control over
less differentiated stages. But the ethical the conditions of life and the harmonious de-
question can still be raised as to whether, in velopment of human potentialities. (Some of
human activities, the achievement of all the question-begging character of the term
"possibilities" is desirable. "potentiality" is corrected by introducing the
On the whole it is likely to make for greater qualification "harmonious.") Morris Gins-
clarity to speak of processes of social and berg, in his Evolution and Progress (1961),
cultural change in terms of development has a sympathetic discussion of Hobhouse's
rather than evolution. This is of course a mat- work, along with a judicious estimate of the
ter of recommendation; there is no authorita- standing of this kind of thinking.
217 Existentialist Ethics
See Science and Ethics; Naturalistic Eth- Exception see Norms; Situation Ethics;
ics. see also Anglican Moral Theology; Mod-
ern Protestant Ethics; Modern Roman
A. L. Caplan (ed.), The Sociobiology Debate, Catholic Moral Theology
1978; M. Ginsberg, Evolution and Progress,
1961; L. T. Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, Excommunication
2 vols., 1906; J. Huxley, Evolution and Eth- An ecclesiastical sanction for breaches of
ics, 1893-1943, 1947 (this is a publication of doctrine or morals that excludes the offender
the Romanes Lectures of both the Huxleys, from full communion with the church. Ex-
with an introduction by Julian Huxley); T. communication regards ecclesiastical status,
Huxley, Evolution and Ethics, 1893; M. not necessarily a person's relation to God.
Midgley, Beast and Man: The Roots of The usual NT warrant for excommunication
Human Nature, 1978; C. Sherrington, Man is Matt. 18:15-18; see also Matt. 16:19; John
on His Nature, 1940; H. Spencer, The Data 20:23; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Thess. 3:11; 1 Tim. 1:19b-
of Ethics, 1879; C. H. Waddington, Science 20; and 3 John 9-10. Excommunication first
and Ethics, 1942 (a discussion of some of the is mentioned in church documents in the 4th
problems raised by "evolutionary ethics" century; by the 15th it clearly had evolved
from a number of points of view); E. O. Wil- into "greater" and "lesser" forms, which
son, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 1975. were complete social shunning of the excom-
DOROTHY EMMET municates (called vitandi) and deprivation of
Excellence
the sacraments (for the tolerati). Some Refor-
mation groups retained excommunication,
The person who excels is the person who is e.g., the Anabaptist "ban" (see also on "dis-
superior to others in ability and achievement. ownment" in Quaker ethics*). Today,
It is a simple fact of life that there must al- Roman Catholicism retains the two forms,
ways be some persons who are above the av- but generally exercises only the lesser. It can
erage, and a very small group who are much occur automatically through one's action,
above it. In the Republic of Plato, provision even without public sentence. In Protestant-
was made for this group to have special privi- ism excommunication is infrequent.
leges and training, counterbalanced by spe- See Discipline.
cial responsibilities laid upon them. Perhaps
Nietzsche, with his doctrine of the superman Codex Iuris Canonici, 1983, pp. 227-301;
( bermensch ), carried the ethic of excellence W Doskocil, Der Bann in der Urkirche,
to its furthest extreme and also showed the 1958.
dangers inherent in itdangers that manifes- LISA SOWLE CAHILL
ted themselves in the rise of fascist and racist
movements, rooted in this whole tradition.
But there is also the danger that in modern Existentialist Ethics
egalitarian societies, excellence may be stifled In his famous lecture on existentialism, Jean-
and all reduced to a monotonous mediocrity. Paul Sartre, the last existentialist to avow the
The immense complexities of a technological title, tells of his refusal to advise a young man
society demand an increasing number of very facing an ethical dilemma. In the subsequent
highly qualified and able people. That such discussion with the philosophers who heard
persons should have full opportunity to de- the lecture, two criticized him. "You should
velop and exercise their superior talents is have told him what to do," they said. One of
not only their due but is also necessary for the these was a Christian, the other a Commu-
health of society. This may mean that there nist.
must be provided for them such advantages Existentialists make a virtue of not know-
in education and such rewards and incentives ing what to do. They are not thereby as re-
as will ensure their optimal development and mote from Christian thought as some have
functioning. This sets up a tension between judged. Basic concepts in Christian ethics are
the claims of excellence and the claims of taken up into the viewpoint, especially in the
equality* which is not always easy to decide attitude toward law and toward human free-
and which may become more acute as the dom. Even the alleged acosmism, individual-
technological revolution goes on. ism, and atheism of existentialism have
JOHN MACQUARRIE meanings which are closer to the Christian
218 Existentialist Ethics
position than the casual observer generally tialism is acosmic, one would have important
concedes. clues to why existential atheism is quite be-
Living by laws, which is a way of knowing nign. The world of the cosmologist is an out-
what to do, is regarded by existentialists as there world into which a human is invited to
"bad faith" (Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir). fit as a coin fits in a box. Existentialists, how-
Any abridgment of human freedom is "bad ever, believe the world is not something one
faith." A legalistic ethic abridges freedom by is in. Worlds are modes of being-in. There is
taking decisions out of the hands of responsi- the world of politics, of sports, of religion, of
ble selves. S0ren Kierkegaard's treatise Fear art. There is no "world" of ethics because
and Trembling anticipated this view. ethics is the study of modes of being-in which
Abraham was a knight of faith because he results in revealing the possibilities for the
remained open to God's word. His willing- worlds one creates through one's modes of
ness to murder his son out of obedience to being-in.
God is higher than ethics because it does not The model from art comes the closest to
force the future to conform to revelations of exemplifying how an existential ethic works.
God given for the past. The artist does not record a world that exists,
In existentialism what Kierkegaard called but rather creates through his or her aes-
"the teleological suspension of the ethical" is thetic behavior, the possibility for a world
itself ethics. Openness to the future has pri- one may not previously have known (Martin
macy over conformity to the past. Not that Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty).
one annihilates the past. To use Sartre's term, The Acropolis mobilized the earth, sea, and
one simply "nihilates," which is to say, "sus- sky of Periclean Athens into a significant
pends" it, in order to let the demands of the human world. Whether it still does so is ques-
future emerge. The past tells us what we tionable, so that artists continue to develop
ought to do. The future is a more reliable possibilities for today's world at the risk of
guide simply because it does not tell us what reducing previous artworks to the status of
to do, but appeals to us to "invent" or "cre- museum pieces. Ethics, like art, nihilates the
ate" in the light of the emerging situation. world as cosmos (earth, sea, and sky) in order
Christian ethics has accomplished the to create the world as a mode of being-in (the
same movement away from legalism*. When Acropolis). Now it can be seen why it is a
the apostle Paul interpreted the preaching of mistake to call existentialism an individual-
Jesus as a reducing of the whole law to the ism*, implying that it has no social ethic. The
one word, "love," he rooted Christian behav- primary term for existentialist ethics is nei-
ior in "the trans-moral conscience" (Paul Til- ther "individual" nor "social" but "world,"
lich), "an ethic without laws" (Paul Ram- a reality in which the distinction between in-
sey), an ethic of "creativity" (Nicolas dividual and social disappears, for "world"
Berdyaev) or "responsivity" (H. Richard embraces all modes of being-in.
Niebuhr). The transcendence of laws does By analogy to acosmism, atheism does not
not mean, however, the abrogation of mean the annihilation of God, but only his
norms*. For existential ethics, freedom*, by nihilation. God as a static reality is put in
which one transcends laws in the direction of parentheses in order to let the world of hu-
creative action, is itself the norm for freedom. manity emerge as it is possible. Atheism has
Humanity is freedom. Freedom is the source sometimes meant that humans have killed
of the human's possibility to act ethically, God. In existentialism it means that humans
because freedom is nothinga lack to be have used a static concept of God in order to
filled, a power of resoluteness which lets endorse effete causes whose prolongation is
situations reveal their needs. And what is the murderous to humanity. Such a god is not
norm by which to discern in any situation simply dead; he is an executioner. Kierke-
what is needful? One must so act as to let gaard was a theist for the very same reason
others be free while oneself remaining free that existentialists today are atheists. Why is
(Sartre). it that for Kierkegaard Abraham's willing-
In fulfilling this ethical program, existen- ness to slay Isaac was not a deficiency in his
tialists are known to be atheistic. What is less moral sense, so that he could be called a pio-
evident is that they are also acosmic. That is, neer of faith? Because if there is a God, noth-
they do not accept the world sponsored by ing else can be absolutized. All one's relations
cosmologists. If one could know why existen- will be relative. Old worlds, like Isaac, must
219 Experimentation with Human Subjects
be allowed to die in order for new worlds to Commission: I understand that in the case
be born. In this case relativism* does not of yellow fever the recent experiments
mean the absence of standards, but the free- have been on man.
dom, that is, the responsibility, for creating Osier: Yes, definitely with the specific
in one's time the relevant mode of being-in. consent of these individuals who went
See Kierkegaardian Ethics; Phenome- into this camp voluntarily.
nology; Situation Ethics. Commission: We were told by a witness
yesterday that, in his opinion, to exper-
S. de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, ET iment upon man with possible ill result
1948; S. Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling was immoral. Would that be your
(1843), ET 1941; H. R. Niebuhr, The Respon- view?
sible Self, 1963; F. Olafson, Principles and Osier: It is always immoral, without a
Persons: An Ethical Interpretation of Existen- definite, specific statement from the in-
tialism, 1967; J.-P. Sartre, Critique of Dialec- dividual himself, with a full knowledge
tical Reason, vol. 1 (1960), ET 1976. of the circumstances. Under these cir-
CARL MICHALSON cumstances, any man, I think, is at lib-
erty to submit himself to experiments.
Exogamy Commission: Given voluntary consent,
The custom that prevents a man from taking you think that entirely changes the
a wife from within his own tribe. The oppo- question of morality or otherwise?
site is endogamy* Osier: Entirely.
JOHN MACQUARRIE
When Osier spoke, "human experimenta-
Experimentation w i t h Animals tion" was a relatively rare event in medical
see Animals science. He himself emphasized careful clini-
cal observation rather than deliberate thera-
Experimentation w i t h Fetuses peutic manipulation. The pathology labora-
see Fetal Research tory rather than the bedside was the locus of
research. During the 1920s the model of "in-
Experimentation w i t h Human vestigator-clinician" was shaped. In the early
Subjects 1930s, Sir Bradford Hill and Sir Ronald
Historical perspectives. The ethics of in- Fisher provided essential statistical tools for
volving humans as subjects of biomedical ex- the design and analysis of clinical experi-
perimentation has ancient roots. The physi- ments. By the late 1930s, the professional
cian Celsus (1st cent. A.D.) approved the clinical investigator was established on the
vivisection of condemned criminals by his medical scene and research had become an
Egyptian predecessors, Herophilus and Era- integral part of hospital practice. Thus, with
sistratus. His words became a classic defense the experimental spirit abroad, the professors
of all experimentation: "It is not cruel to in- in position, the methods at hand, and the
flict on a few criminals sufferings which may patients on the wards, human beings, and
benefit multitudes of innocent people most often sick human beings, became the
throughout all centuries." In contrast, at the "animals of necessity" in theory and in fact.
dawn of modern medicine, Claude Bernard These research developments aroused little
(1813-1878) espoused a different view: "The indignation. Medicine was at the apogee of its
principle of medical and surgical morality scientific achievement. The conquest of many
consists in never performing on man an ex- lethal infectious diseases by antiseptic prac-
periment which might be harmful to him to tice, by immunization, and by antibiotics, as
any extent, even though the result might be well as the conquest of pain by anesthesia,
highly advantageous to science, i.e., to the had come about through research and experi-
health of others." Between these two ethical ment. These triumphs not only impressed the
positions stands Sir William Osier. Testifying public but brought undeniable benefit to the
before the Royal Commission on Vivisection suffering and to society.
(1908), he discussed Walter Reed's experi- The revelation, in 1945, of the experiments
ments in which human volunteers ran the carried out by German physicians on concen-
risk of death in order to determine the cause tration camp prisoners shocked the world
of yellow fever. and forged an unhappy link between the
220 Experimentation with Human Subjects
words "experiment" and "crime." The influ- various scientific disciplines specify criteria
ential article by Henry Beecher in the New for evaluating research performances within
England Journal of Medicine in 1966 began the scope of their respective domains, some
with the words, "Human experimentation components are common to all, including ex-
since World War II has created some difficult plicit objectives and formal procedures de-
problems." In the 1960s, several events in the signed to attain these objectives. These com-
USA then became public issues: the experi- ponents are commonly set forth in a research
ments at Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital, in protocol.
which cancer cells were injected subcutane- The intended results of research are new or
ously into senile patients without their improved understanding of biological pheno-
knowledge; studies on viral hepatitis at Wil- mena and the eventual development of diag-
lowbrook State Hospital, in which retarded nostic and therapeutic measures. These re-
children were deliberately infected; the Tus- sults benefit various parties: researchers in
kegee Syphilis Study, in which 300 rural terms of knowledge, skills, and reputation;
black males were left untreated for diagnosed future patients whose illnesses are cured; so-
syphilis even after effective antibiotics be- ciety at large in the form of more effective
came available. These events generated a neg- health care. The benefits of research rarely
ative view of medical experimentation. come directly to the subjects of the research.
These ethical problems soon became issues It can be said that the basic ethical principle
of law and public policy. In the USA, the that justifies biomedical research is a utilitar-
federal government, sponsor of so much basic ian one: the prospect of improving the health
and clinical research in medicine and the be- of society. Yet, as the classical quotations
havioral sciences, produced guidelines and from Celsus and Bernard show, there is a
regulations of increasing explicitness and moral tension. The human subjects of re-
strictness. Then Congress established the Na- search are themselves persons to whom
tional Commission for the Protection of moral obligations are owed. There is a need,
Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behav- then, not only of an ethic of research but an
ioral Research (1974-78), which framed the ethic of the protection of human subjects of
federal regulations now in force (Code of research.
Federal Regulations 45CFR46, 1983). The Nuremberg Code (1949) states two
In Great Britain and in Canada, the de- elements of this ethic: voluntary consent* of
bates over this issue have not been as vocifer- the subject and the reduction of risk* Al-
ous as in the USA. However, the medical though other codes and policies repeated
research councils in both nations have issued these elements in various ways, the National
statements of principle similar to those incor- Commission's "Belmont Report" in 1978 of-
porated in American regulations, although fered the first systematic statement of basic
much less explicit about the particular prob- ethical principles emphasizing respect for
lems surrounding use of children and in- persons*, beneficence*, and justice*
capacitated persons. On the international The principle of respect for persons incor-
scene, the Council for International Organi- porates two fundamental ethical convictions:
zations on Medical Sciences has issued inter- autonomous individuals should be allowed to
national guidelines (1982) that go beyond the make their own choices, and individuals with
Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical diminished autonomy should be protected.
Association (1964) in explicitness. Respect for autonomy* consists in giving
Principles of ethics of research. Research weight to persons' considered opinions and
designates a class of activities directed to- choices while refraining from obstructing
ward the development of generalizable their actions unless these are clearly detri-
knowledge. Generalizable knowledge sig- mental to others. In accord with this princi-
nifies theories, principles, or relationships ple, persons are invited to become research
based on data that can be corroborated by participants on the basis of an explanation of
methods of observation, experiment, and in- the nature of the research, its risks and prob-
ference. Research activities may seek new able benefits to themselves and to society.
knowledge, reorganize existing bodies of in- Participation should be entirely voluntary,
formation, verify extant theory, or apply ex- and any coercive restrictions on free accept-
isting knowledge to new situations. While the ance or refusal of participation should be
221 Exploitation
eliminated. The practical requirement of in- jects be eliminated. Thus, research projects
formed consent arises from this basic princi- should be carefully examined to determine
ple (see Consent). whether certain classes, such as welfare pa-
Since some persons who lack capacity for tients, racial or minority groups, or institu-
deliberation and consent might be suitable tionalized persons, are selected simply be-
subjects for research, the principle of respect cause of their ready availability, their
requires special protection in light of their compromised positions, or their manipulabil-
limitations. The extent of protection depends ity.
on the risk of harm and the likelihood of Obviously debates arise about the applica-
benefit in relation to the importance of re- tion of these basic principles of research. The
search. Protection may be of various sorts: National Commission endorsed the practice,
some categories of persons might be totally started in the late 1960s by the U.S. Public
excluded as research subjects, while others Health Service, of Institutional Review
might be allowed to participate only in view Boards. Institutions conducting research
of prospective benefits to themselves or to under funds from the federal government
others suffering from the same or similar dis- must establish committees, composed of lay-
orders. A strict standard might be imposed people as well as researchers, to determine
on guardians and special review might be re- whether proposals to conduct research on
quired. (In one major debate in Christian eth- human subjects satisfy these principles, par-
ics, Paul Ramsey argued that children who ticularly the risk-benefit ratio of the research,
cannot consent should never be used in non- the appropriateness of the selection of sub-
therapeutic research, i.e., research not in- jects, and the adequacy of consent, but also
tended to benefit them directly, while Rich- other relevant principles and rules, such as
ard McCormick, S.J., contended that with the protection of privacy* and confidential-
proxy consent, children could be used in non- ity* The efficacy of this review process for
therapeutic research of minimal or negligible protection of human subjects has been
risk.) demonstrated (President's Commission for
The National Commission used the term the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine
"beneficence" to designate the obligation to Protecting Human Subjects: The Ade-
benefit individuals and, in the context of re- quacy and Uniformity of Federal Rules and
search, to reduce harms and to maximize Their Implications, 1981). In Great Britain
benefits over possible harms. Beneficence and Canada, review committees are not re-
thus required what might be called utility or quired by law, but have become common in
proportionality: a practical "risk-benefit" as- institutions performing research. They work
sessment of each research project. Careful with much less explicit guidance from regula-
attention must be given to the identity of pos- tory agencies than the American committees.
sible beneficiaries; the nature, probability,
proximity, and importance of benefits; and C. Fried, Medical Experimentation: Personal
the likelihood and seriousness of harms from Integrity and Social Policy, 1974; J. Katz
the research (see Risk; Proportionality; (comp.), Experimentation with Human Be-
Utilitarianism). Because of the divided loyal- ings, 1972; R. J. Levine, Ethics and Regula-
ties of clinical investigatorsto current pa- tion of Clinical Research, 1981; and relevant
tient-subjects and to future patientsit is im- articles in DME and EB.
portant to make sure that current ALBERT R. JONSEN
patient-subjects are not sacrificed to obtain
future benefits (see Hippocratic Oath). Exploitation
The principle of justice as applied to re- In moral discourse, "exploitation" denotes
search requires that attention be given to the the process, condition, or result of X's taking
distribution of burdens and benefits of re- unfair advantage of Y, usually through coer-
search. In the past, the sick, the poor, and the cion*, deception, or undue influence, for X's
imprisoned were often recruited as research own ends. Thus, it presupposes standards of
subjects, while the benefits of the research justice*, fairness*, human dignity*, and re-
accrued to the more affluent members of the spect for persons* The term is widely used in
society. Justice requires that systematic dis- Marxist thought (see Marxist Ethics) and in
crimination in the selection of research sub- ethical positions influenced by Marxism,
Exposition 222
such as liberation theology* In Marxist and Philosophy, 1983) and John Rawls (A
thought it has been defined as "withholding Theory of Justice, 1971), in order to account
from another person, through the market or for obligations that are distinct from fidelity*
the production process, what is really his to promises* and contracts* and from debts
due" (P. J. D. Wiles, "Exploitation," Marx- of gratitude* Both Hart and Rawls justify
ism, Communism and Western Society: A the obligation to obey the law in some set-
Comparative Encyclopedia, ed. C. D. Kernig, tings by the principle of fairness, and this
vol. 3, 1972). From this perspective any paid principle also appears in debates about pun-
labor in capitalist economies is exploitative. ishment (see Penology). Rawls even labels
This interpretation of exploitation has been his theory "justice as fairness' to reflect his
rejected by all libertarian* and several more use of a model of a hypothetical fair bargain-
egalitarian theories of justice (see Equality). ing situation to generate principles of justice.
The concept of exploitation has also been ap- See also Epikeia; Exploitation; Golden
plied to relations between nations (see Impe- Rule; Just Price and Just Wage; Justice.
rialism; International Order), to relations be- JAMES F. CHILDRESS
tween the sexes (see Feminist Ethics; Sex
Discrimination; Women, Status of) to rela- Faith
tions between the races (see Race Relations; Classical theology assigned two main func-
Racism), and to relations with nature (see tions to faith, (a) Faith is a necessary condi-
Environmental Ethics). tion of authentic knowledge of God and of
See Capitalism; Communism; Dehumani- the human good. This is faith as belief and
zation; Economic Development; Human believing. The cognitional primacy of faith is
Rights; Justice; Oppression; Poverty; Social- expressed in the Augustinian theological
ism; Wealth. principle Credo ut intelligam (I believe in
JAMES F. CHILDRESS order to understand). In the Augustinian tra-
dition this means that one believes not only
Exposition to attain an intellectual grasp of being and
Exposition of infants, that is to say, their value but also to exist Christianly. (b) Faith
exposure and abandonment, was a cruel form is also construed as trust or loyalty. In this
of population control, condemned by the mode faith is held to be a religious virtue of
early church. the highest order, sharing that rank only with
See Abandonment; Infanticide; Popula- hope and love. Thus it could be said that faith
tion Policy. as belief is the Martha of Christian existence,
JOHN MACQUARRIE and that faith as trust is the Mary (Luke
10:3842).
Extraordinary Means of Treat- The dominant modern tendency is to
ment see Life, Prolongation of widen the distinction between faith as belief
and faith as trust. Thus the cognitive mode is
Fairness/Fair Play sharply differentiated from the dispositional,
The principle of fairness is widely invoked in and the status of faith as belief as a necessary
ordinary moral discourse about the justice* condition of Christian existence becomes
of both the state's distribution of benefits and problematical. Accordingly, faith as trust, its
burdens and transactions among individuals ties with certifiable knowledge of God and of
(e.g., "that is not a fair contract" or "that is the human good loosened, is put under heavy
not a just wage"). It also undergirds a duty pressure to posit in and for itself value abso-
of "fair play," which appears in arguments to lutesideals and/or beings deemed worthy
"play by the rules of the game," to "bear of unconditional loyalty. Thus, what was a
one's share of the burdens," not to be a "free polarity within faith itself deemed to be a
rider," and, in short, not to take advantage of unitary principle of life and spirit becomes a
others' observance of the rules or contribu- dichotomy in which the ascendency of either
tions to a cooperative endeavor. The princi- elementbelief or loyaltythreatens the in-
ple of fairness or fair play has received little tegrity if not the meaning of the other.
explicit attention in Christian ethics, but it Barth's thought is a powerful critique of
has been analyzed more carefully and such tendencies. It manifests an Augustinian
imaginatively by philosophers, for example, stress on the cognitive mode and function of
by H. L. A. Hart (Essays in Jurisprudence faith. In Jesus Christ God makes himself
223 Faith
known; in this transaction, and here alone, In terms of the practicalities, this amounts to
the divine moral imperatives for the faithful believing that one cannot meaningfully aspire
are ascertained. to a truly human existence without making
Another distinction in the concept of faith enduring commitments, but none of these
has had a history something like that of be- should be held as unrevisable.
lief/trust. This is the distinction between 2. How is faith to be related to other vir-
faith as gift and faith as achievement. In the tues and values? The answer to this question
classical traditions the content of belief varies as attention shifts from the cognitional
(truths) as well as the ability to believe were aspect of faith to the dispositional. The mod-
held to be God's gifts; so also for faith as trust ern spirit is profoundly skeptical about be-
or loyalty. There were disagreements on the liefs that run counter to the (empirical) evi-
question of a created (natural) receptibility dence; holding on to a faith that has lost real
for the actual bestowal of supernatural truth credibility is widely held to be a kind of im-
and the endowment of heroic loyalty. Yet the morality arguably more destructive of the
objectivism of classical traditions could not fabric of self and society than violations of
have accommodated the notion of faith as an conventional morals. On the other hand,
essentially human achievement. On this faith as loyalty to and unyielding confidence
point Luther and his Tridentine opponents in the human enterprise is as widely and
would make common cause against moder- deeply held to be a transcendent moral value.
nity. In these modes, therefore, faith and love* are
The persistent subjectivism of modernity integral parts of a value continuum. This is
with respect to the realm of spirit construes also true for the relation of faith to courage*:
the gift/achievement distinction as essen- Resolute devotion to ennobling ideals and be-
tially intrahuman. Thus questions concern- loved communities despite fearsome perils is
ing the provenance and the authority of faith held to be altogether, if not absolutely, good.
are adjudicated by appeal to anterior philo- What then of the relation of faith to wisdom?
sophical-anthropological principles. Liberal- The modern inclination is to construe wis-
ism transfers receptibility from human being dom as practically efficacious knowledge
to God's being: God responds affirmatively (judgment) of the relation of available or con-
and creatively to human faith-ventures in be- ceivable means to duly accredited ends, with
half of ideal values. Thus faith as disposition some confessed uncertainty about that ac-
enjoys primacy over faith as cognitive cer- creditation. In classical philosophy and tradi-
tainty. tional theology, wisdom is granted a stronger
Hence, modern conceptions of faith entail cognitive status. For classical philosophers
a direct and imperative engagement with an the ultimate ends of human thought and ac-
ethical realm deemed to be autonomous rela- tion are intuitively and rationally certain; in
tive to religion. This can be seen in modern traditional theology they are accredited in or
preoccupations with two questions. by revelation. Contemporary theologians
1. What, if anything, is worthy of absolute continue to wrestle with the problem of his-
loyalty? This question conjoins skepticism torical and ethical relativity and dream of
and certitude. It manifests skepticism about resolving the impasse between classical objec-
any and all absolutes. It betrays certitude tivism and modern subjectivism.
concerning the provenance and authority of What is to be understood as "keeping the
any legitimate ethical absolutes. In other faith" offers yet another contrast between
words, absoluteness must be self-generated; it biblical and classical thought on the one hand
cannot be externally imposed or arbitrarily and modernity on the other. New Testament
mandated. But absolutizing the power of the Christianity strongly commends holding fast
value of the private ego (the modern individ- to the faith in the face of the most harrowing
ual) is assuredly a sickness unto death. Not trials, for thus the authenticity and efficacy of
less formidable is the positing of a social the religious life are determined, and therein
structure or a cultural system as an object of fitness for life with Christ in the eternal king-
unconditional loyalty. Moreover, the relent- dom of God (the epistles of Peter; Revela-
less pursuit of an abstract ideal has often tion). In the modern context "keeping the
proved to be a demonically destructive force. faith" is much more likely to mean persist-
So perhaps nothing but the capacity for un- ence in adhering to ideal values and their
conditional loyalty is to be trusted absolutely. social embodiments. It is tempting to write
False Witness 224
this contrast off as a function of the difference Family
between Christianity as a persecuted minor- The family is a feature of human society that
ity and Christianity as a triumphant cultural precedes Christian ethical reflection upon it.
consensus. This explanation lacks plausibil- It is both a social institution and a special
ity in an age that daily registers new triumphs relationship. As a social institution* the fam-
of secularization. ily regulates sexual intercourse, assigns re-
There is a significant linkage of modernity sponsibility for children, conserves lines of
with tradition in the conviction that believing descent, and orders wealth and inheritance.
that Christianityin some form or element It assigns roles for the division of labor for
is true entails a commitment to act per- everyday living, supports the roles of its
sistently for the good of other persons. So if members in the external economy, partici-
one really believes that God is love, it will be pates with other institutions in the socializa-
evidenced in character and conduct. Unlov- tion of the coming generation, and plays a
ing conduct and character devoid of benevo- role in the physical and psychological welfare
lence do not falsify the belief that God is and of family members. Christian theology and
commands love; they tend, rather, to dis- ethics reflect on how to exercise these func-
credit the presumptive believer. By the same tions in ways appropriate to Christian con-
token, even the most resolute adherence to viction and experience.
the principle and policies of agap does not As a special relationship the family consti-
prove that God exists and is absolute benevo- tutes a moral arena unlike most others
lence. It is not merely a modern presumption formed in the public sphere. The family both
that these must be taken on faith. Even so, forms and expresses the identity and charac-
the problem expressed by the father of the ter of its members. Members of one family
epileptic boy seems strikingly modern: "I be- are not interchangeable with those of an-
lieve; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). other, as each is a part of the formation of
See also Fidelity; Justification by Faith; others within the family unit. Families also
Loyalty; Trust; Cardinal Virtues; Theologi- contain voluntary members (parents) and in-
cal Virtues. voluntary members (children), and can grow
or decrease both naturally (birth and death)
Paul, Epistle to the Romans; J. Calvin, Insti- and socially (adoption, divorce, remarriage).
tutes of the Christian Religion, book 1; K. The family is subject to inescapable tensions
Barth, Church Dogmatics II, III. between its personal and institutional as-
JULIAN N. HARTT pects, whether these are visible within the
family or between the family and other insti-
Faithfulness see Faith; Fidelity; Loy- tutions such as the state, church, or econ-
alty; Trust omy. Indeed, one important task in ethical
reflection is distinguishing the special rela-
tions of "marriage," "family," and "parent-
Fall see Original Sin hood" and their corresponding social settings
today (see Marriage; Parenthood).
False Witness Sources of Christian thought. Of the many
False witness is forbidden in the Decalogue* historical sources of Christian thought on the
and throughout the OT; this prohibition is family only the most prominent may be
echoed in the NT. The term particularly re- briefly mentioned here.
fers to false evidence in court cases. Its prohi- The understanding of marriage and family
bition was of vital importance in days when in Greco-Roman culture left assumptions still
there was no counsel to protect the accused. visible in secular as well as religious perspec-
An individual's fate could be determined, tives: that marriage is a contract entered into
and life perhaps jeopardized, by false witness. by the consent of individuals and thus dis-
It remains a most serious offense against God solvable by law; that the state can and should
and humanity, though there may be extreme regulate marriage and divorce but should be
borderline cases* where the general prohibi- reluctant to intervene in family life; that any
tion has to give way before an even more vital religious dimension to marriage and family
obligation. life is a private matter.
See Lying; Slander; Truthfulness. Christianity's roots in Jewish tradition
RONALD PRESTON contributed heavily to its understanding of
225 Family
the family. Three themes are of special note: dations for the family. Six types of ethical
that sex is a good of creation ordained by reflection can be noted following the differing
God for procreation and pleasure; that mar- metaphors employed to image marriage and
riage and family are human institutions un- the family and the ordering of their respec-
derstandable on a convenantal model; and tive foundations in relation to Christian con-
that women, men, and children have definite victions.
roles in daily family life. The happy-ever-after and contract* meta-
Two kinds of sources appear in the NT: phors take their context in part from stories
those which refer specifically to marriage and of romantic love and from the free market.
family (such as Eph. 5:22-33) and those They provide social foundations for the fam-
broader NT themes and narratives which ily with a minimum of explicit normative re-
have been or might be employed to under- flection and a correspondingly high reliance
stand marriage and the family (such as Gal. on cultural expectations. They persist be-
3:23-29). Important also is the setting of cause romantic love is not so much a wrong
family life as a vocation alongside the legiti- foundation as an inadequate one; and as long
mate choice of the single life in the service of as marriage and family are regulated by the
the Lord. Since it is often difficult to separate state they will to some degree be contractual
explicit references from their sociocultural relations.
background, and the interpretation of The metaphor of natural union provides a
broader texts depends on other theological biological and social foundation for the fam-
convictions, the actual use of the NT in ily, which may be supported by a spiritual
Christian ethical reflection on marriage and one as well. Reflection within such a meta-
family varies widely. phor is controlled by the prevailing scientific
The writings of Augustine of Hippo shaped wisdom on human sexuality, as it seeks an
the direction of Christian thought on these order in nature which ought then to be visible
matters for centuries in a way that is still in human society. Christian ethics tending in
widely influential. Augustine taught that the this direction characteristically has trouble
natural procreative intent of sexual inter- with nonprocreative sexuality within mar-
course was the foundation for marriage and riage, with nonprocreative foundations for
the justification for family, and that the fruits the family, and with distinguishing cultural
of marriage were children, companionship, from theological norms.
and participation in the sign of the union of The command-of-God metaphor sees the
Christ and the church. Later Catholic primary normative issue in marriage and the
thought stressed an increasingly biological family to be obedience to the will of God,
and juridical interpretation of the natural whether found directly in scripture or me-
state of marriage and family, and gradually diated through the elders of a given commu-
incorporated the sign of which Augustine nity. Such reflection tends toward the first
spoke into the sacramental system of the sort of NT source mentioned above, and
church. Both developments stressed the in- often fills out descriptions of roles and rela-
dissolubility of marriage and the integrity of tions by recourse to OT or traditional cul-
the family as natural and spiritual goods. tural models.
The chief impact of the Reformation was Metaphors of covenant* and vocation*
to eliminate the sacramental (but not the seek primarily spiritual and social founda-
symbolic) element of marriage and family. tions for marriage and family life. Reflection
This effectively removed them from church within the covenant metaphor appeals to the
jurisdiction and assigned them to a sphere long-standing analogy made between Yah-
that became increasingly private. Ethical re- weh and Israel or Christ and the church on
flection within this sphere came to depend the one hand, and husband and wife on the
either on secular models of authority and other. While it is a rich tradition, it is often
propriety or on basically OT themes of at a loss whether to interpret the covenant
convenantal relations. analogy as one of obedience or of faithful
Types of ethical reflection. Sources of love; it is subject to the temptation to assign
Christian thought thus reveal biological gender-specific roles rather than understand
(natural law), social (free consent, compan- both wife and husband as sharing at times
ionship, and child-raising), and spiritual (sac- qualities of both Christ and church; and it
ramental, convenantal, and vocational) foun- frequently falls back on the historic origins of
Fascism 226
a covenant as a treaty among unequals in a Finally, Christian ethics faces a creative
patriarchal society, thus underwriting a low challenge to integrate its perspectives and
status for women and children in the family. contributions with those of pastoral care and
Reflection within the vocation metaphor em- counseling*. Ethics has too long been seen as
phasizes the voluntary entrance into mar- a source of rules for proper living, and pasto-
riage as a way of life, and the related assump- ral care cast in the role of picking up the
tion of parenthood as an intentional activity pieces of those who could not conform. At
(or of assent to a state not entered by design), best, theological ethics can offer a normative
and sets roles and relations within family life vision of Christian family life along with the
in the context of the Christian call to faithful reflective skills necessary for attempting to
love. Such reflection often turns to broadly live it out, while pastoral care can offer in-
covenantal or sacramental themes to prevent sight on the psychosocial dimensions and
its understanding of the family from becom- interpersonal dynamics of making the at-
ing overly private. tempt. Some understanding of the shared
Issues in contemporary discussion. Ethical task of ethicists and counselors alike is neces-
reflection on concrete issues is affected by the sary to further each Christian's ability better
metaphors and sources used in the reflection to embody his or her faith in family life.
and thus varies widely. Nonetheless, several
issues that challenge any Christian ethics of Church of England, The Family in Contem-
the family may be noted here (see also Chil- porary Society, 1958; J. B. Elshtain, The
dren; Parenthood). Family in Political Thought, 1982; E. Fuchs,
The Christian understanding of human Sexual Desire and Love, ET 1983; C. Gal-
sexuality includes issues of gender formation lagher, G. Maloney, M. Rousseau, and P.
and identity; sex roles and their social trans- Wilczak, Embodied in Love, 1983.
mission; the transformation of sexual desire RICHARD BONDI
into conjugal love; the place of sex before,
within, and outside marriage; sexual dimen- Family Planning see Children; Con-
sions of child abuse; and the implications of traception; Family; Parenthood; Popula-
shifting from a chiefly biological foundation tion Policy; Procreation; Sexual Ethics
for the family, including questions of nonpro-
creative sexual relations, homosexual unions, Famine see Hunger, World
and the distinction between procreation and
child-raising (see Sexual Ethics). Fanaticism see Enthusiasm; Zeal
To the degree that Christian ethics takes
up a position critical of prevailing cultural Fascism
assumptions, and emphasizes the covenantal The name given to a type of political move-
or vocational nature of marriage and the fam- ment of which the classic defining examples
ily, it takes on a responsibility for assisting in were the Italian Fascist Party (from the Ital-
preparation for marriage and parenthood, ian fascio, a group) under Benito Mussolini
and for the ongoing nurture and support of (1883-1945), which ruled Italy from 1922 to
family life, as moral tasks of the Christian 1943, and the German National Socialist
churches. Such efforts find their focus in ex- Party under Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), which
ploring the formation of character in daily ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. Their
family life (see Character), as well as in offer- principal characteristic was extreme nation-
ing reflection on moments of crisis such as alism*. In National Socialism this took the
divorce*, death, disability, generational and form of a virulent racism* whose climax was
interpersonal conflicts. As the increasingly the attempt at genocide* of the European
competitive demands of marriage, parent- Jews and persecution of so-called "inferior
hood, economic necessity, and professional Slav races" (Poles, Russians, and others) as
expectations take their toll, church support the German "master race" expanded east-
for families experiencing a conflict of voca- ward toward its goal of world domination. In )
tions is also a crucial issue, visible in church Italy anti-Semitism* had no local roots, but
sponsorship of day-care centers or other as- Italian fascism was also expansionist and
sistance for families where both parents sought to conquer a new Roman Empire.
work. Mussolini like Hitler prized the values of
227 Fasting
force and war as (in the language of social (1940-1944); collaborators (known as Quis-
Darwinism) the inevitable conflict for the lings after the Norwegian Fascist leader)
survival of the fittest. shared power in German-occupied Europe.
In domestic politics. Fascist theory re- Only in Romania and Hungary, however, did
quired an authoritarian state under a single local Fascist movements enjoy significant
leader. Fascist movements were correspond- support. The term fascism has also been ap-
ingly antidemocratic and anti-Left (whether plied loosely to nationalist regimes in Latin
Communist, socialist, or trade-union). Fas- America and Japan and to any authoritarian
cism was also, however, distinct from the tra- or racist movement.
ditional Right. It was anticapitalist and
inclined to antimonarchism and anticlerical- G. Allardyce (ed.) The Place of Fascism in
f
ism. This mixture of ideologies reflected the European History, 1971; W. Laqueur (ed.),
outlook of its major electoral sources of sup- Fascism, A Reader's Guide, 1976; S. J. Woolf
port, the lower middle class and peasant pro- (ed.), Fascism in Europe, 1981.
prietors. The radicalization of these classes is J. R. C. W R I G H T
explained by experience of the First World
War (defeat in Germany, humiliation in Fasting
Italy); economic disruption in which infla- Abstention from food as a religious exercise
tion and depression had a severe effect on is found in many parts of the world, either as
countryside and towns; and fear of dead- an expression of humiliation before deity or
locked democracies leading to civil war and as producing a state suitable for religious im-
Bolshevik revolution. The threat to small en- pressions; as such it is often part of primitive
trepreneurs both from powerful trade unions initiation rites (cf. the Isiac initiation de-
and from big business made them responsive scribed in Apuleius, The Golden Ass 11.23).
to an ideology* that condemned both and Both ideas appear in the OT, for example, in
that offered an escape from the conflicts of Ps. 35:13 and Deut. 9:9, 18. Penitential fast-
industrial society in the irrational values of ing became more common after the exile (cf.
blood and soil, expounded by Alfred Rosen- Zech. 7-8), but the one universal fast of Israel
berg in The Myth of the Twentieth Century was (and is) the Day of Atonement, from
(1st ed., 1930). sunset to sunset (referred to in Acts 27:9 as
In power. Fascism relied on coercion, "the fast"). Pious souls might fast more
crushing resistance with secret police and often, even twice a week (Luke 18:12); the
concentration camps. An attempt was made practice is assumed rather than directed in
to integrate social and occupational groups Matt. 6:16-18. By the 2nd century, Chris-
into the state by specialist party organiza- tians prepared for Easter by a fast of one or
tions, in Italy by the concept of each industry two days, which also prepared candidates for
forming a "corporation" of the state. In prac- the Easter baptisms; not until the 4th century
tice Fascist dictatorship* was not as total as was the idea of a historical memory of the
in theory (see Totalitarian State). Compro- passion on Good Friday emphasized. A fast
mises were made with the churches, which to the ninth hour (the common Roman din-
received institutional guarantees in return for ner hour in midaftemoon) or later was
their political inactivity (Lateran Agree- widely observed on the "Station Days,"
ments in Italy, 1929, and Concordat with Wednesday and Friday, and at Rome also on
Germany, 1933), but this did not prevent Saturday. (Buddhist monks traditionally fol-
subsequent conflict, and Hitler looked for- low a converse practice, eating only before
ward to the replacement of Christianity by a noon.) Roman and Anglican rites preserve a
new racist religion. The monolithic theory of relic of stations in the Ember Days at the four
Fascist administration was also undermined seasons. From the 4th century the pre-Easter
in practice by constant disputes between state fast came to be extended over the Lenten
and party agencies and between rival party season, necessarily less intensely; it often,
leaders. however, was kept until broken by Commu-
Elsewhere fascism found many imitators. nion at the time of vespers in the late after-
Fascists were junior partners in General noonin the Middle Ages this was gradually
Franco's dictatorship in Spain (1936-1975) relaxed by anticipating vespers in the morn-
and in the Vichy government of France ing, a custom still common in the Eastern
Fate and Fatalism 228
Orthodox Church, and assumed in the Roman Catholics Pius XII reduced the obli-
Roman rite until 1960. The medieval Latin gation in 1957 to three hours, and Paul VI in
church also fasted on Christmas Eve and the 1964 reduced it to one.
vigils of a number of other festivals. By the But the call for temperance and discipline
13th century the observance of a fast day was which fasting expresses still remains. Early
defined as one main meal at noon or night, Christian preachers often stressed that the
with one or two other slight refections per- true fast must include abstinence from sin (cf.
mitted. Isa. 58), and that what was saved by fasting
The Reformers generally objected to the should relieve the needs of the poor. A mod-
legalism they saw in the traditional fasts ern form of fast has been developed in Great
though in the Church of England they were Britain and America since the Second World
kept up by custom, and since 1662 have been War, by which a simple meal is served at a
listed in the Book of Common Prayer, which church gathering (or at home) and the price
also recommends fasting before adult bap- of a full meal given to refugee relief or other
tism. But fasting out of private devotion or by special causes. "Let us conduct ourselves be-
special order of the church was common in comingly as in the day, not in reveling and
Reformed circles and not unknown in Luth- drunkenness but put on the Lord Jesus
erancf. the austerity still expected in Fin- Christ" (Rom. 13:13-14), as Paul bids us in
land on the quarterly national days of prayer. his name.
In New England the Puritan colonies devel- See Abstinence; Discipline; Hunger,
oped the custom of an annual fast day in the World; Mortification; Self-Denial; Temper-
springthis still survives formally in New ance.
Hampshire and in Connecticut (where since E. R. HARDY
1797 traditions have been combined by pro-
claiming the civic fast day on Good Friday). Fate and Fatalism
In our time prescribed fasting seems to be The idea of fate, with variations in various
obsolescent, except for such symbolic ges- cultures, is that of a force (sometimes half-
tures as the Friday abstinence. In 1949 Pope personified) or law governing some or all of
Pius XII simplified the Roman Catholic human affairs. The concept has sometimes
rules, which had been complicated by many been connected with an attitude to life known
special exemptions; but even his rules are as fatalisma kind of passivity in the face of
often further reduced by local dispensations. the future. Fatalism has also appeared as a
In 1966 Pope Paul VI reduced the canonical philosophical doctrine, as apparently en-
requirement to abstinence on Fridays, and tailed by determinism.
fasting on Good Friday and the first day of Paradoxically, fate can cover both what is
Lent (the American hierarchy has decreed thought of as necessitated by some inner law
that abstinence from meat is no longer legally working in the universe and what is thought
required on Fridays, though it is encouraged of as due to chance. Thus the relevant cluster
on a voluntary basis, or "good works" may of concepts in ancient Greek thought include
be done instead). Modern Anglicanism has both anagk (necessity) and tych (chance).
followed a similar coursefor example, the The reason for this ambivalence is that fate is
1977 American Book of Common Prayer invoked to account for occurrences to human
designates Ash Wednesday and Good Friday beings, in particular where these events (such
as fasts, and calls for special acts of discipline as death) are regarded as striking and inscru-
and self-denial (but not precisely defined) in table. Thus a personal disaster may appear an
Lent and on Fridays (except in the Christmas accident (mere chance), and yet may be as-
and Easter seasons). The fast before Commu- signed a deep-seated cause. The most com-
nion was often observed in the Reformed prehensive pattern of such thinking is the
churchesin Scotland for some time in the Indian doctrine of karma, which in principle
form of preparatory fast daysand was explains all events that happen to living be-
revived among Anglicans under the influence ings in terms of a law (though theistic
of the Oxford Movement. But it also seems to thought in medieval India saw this as an ex-
be obsolescent in view of the complex time pression of God's will) and of an invisible
schedule of modern life and the widespread force (adrsta). However, the necessity is nor-
desire for more frequent Communion. For mally thought of as conditional: there are
229 Feminist Ethics
ways in which one's future fate may be Feminist Ethics
changedthrough meditation, austerity, In its most general sense "feminist ethics"
moral effort, faith in God, etc. Analogous to refers to any ethical theory that locates its
this is the way in which the Greek gods, and roots in feminism, and especially in the con-
even humans, might interfere with otherwise temporary feminist movement. Feminism, in
foreordained destinies. Thus Zeus (Iliad, its most fundamental meaning, is a convic-
book 16) contemplates saving Sarpedon from tion and a movement opposed to discrimina-
his doom, long since fixed by fate. Similarly tion* on the basis of gender. It opposes,
the determinism implicit in Qur'nic teach- therefore, any ideology, belief, attitude, or
ings is held in conjunction with the doctrine behavior that establishes or reinforces such
of the capacity of the individual to perform discrimination. In terms of social structure,
the duties laid upon him or her by faith. feminism is opposed primarily to patriarchy.
On the other hand, in Islam and elsewhere, The ultimate aim of feminism is equality*
there have been attempts to interpret destiny among persons regardless of gender. Since
as unconditional and universal. Thus the discrimination on the basis of gender (sex-
jvikas (a movement contemporary with ism) is perceived by feminists as pervasively
the Buddha) held a doctrine of fate (niyati) discrimination against women, feminism
as wholly determining the future. Hence the aims to correct this bias by a bias for women.
good works (such as austerity) associated This includes a focal concern for the well-
with a liberated life are symptoms, not being of women and a taking account of
causes, of salvation. A similar conclusion, women's experience as a way to understand
not based, however, on the concept of fate, what well-being means for women and men.
but rather on that of the will of God, is found Feminist theory appears in a variety of dis-
in Muslim and Christian predestinationism. ciplines, including philosophy, the social and
Fatalism as an attitude involves resigna- behavioral sciences, and theology. It is also
tion to one's future lot, together with a sense expressed in principles of interpretation for
of its unalterability. The first of these ele- literary and historical texts and for religious
ments can appear, in theistic religions, as scriptures. Major tasks undertaken by femi-
faith in providence. The second is a deduc- nist scholars include the critique of sources of
tion sometimes made from determinism, sexism (for example, religious, social, politi-
whether the latter is conceived in terms of cal, economic); retrieval of women's history
God's governance of events or in terms of and pro-woman myths; reconstruction of
empirical causation. theories of the human person and the human
The standard reply to fatalism is that it community. Feminist ethics, insofar as it is
depends on an invalid inference. Thus "Ei- done systematically, draws on all of this work.
ther I shall be alive in 2000 or I shall not; and There is pluralism within feminism, and
suppose that I shall be alive: then I shall be hence within feminist ethics. Differences are
no matter what I do. Consequently, I can sometimes identified according to analyses of
smoke fifty cigarettes a day." This is invalid the causes of sexism and strategies to correct
reasoning, because my actions enter into the it. Thus, for example, a liberal feminist ethic
causation of future events. Even if my actions advocates the extension of the liberal tradi-
are determined, this gives no ground for tion of political rights to women and a corre-
doing A rather than B, unless I know which sponding reform of discriminatory policies of
way I am determined to act. But even here gender role differentiation. A socialist femi-
the very knowledge of the future gives me an nist ethic is primarily concerned with chang-
opportunity to avoid disasters, etc. ing the forms of production in society in
See Free Will and Determinism. order to secure economic parity and auton-
omy for women. A radical feminist ethic be-
A. J. Ayer, The Concept of a Person, 1964; S. lieves that the only way to alleviate women's
G. F. Brandon, Man and His Destiny in the oppression is to achieve total autonomy for
Great Religions, 1962; History, Time and women (political, economic, sexual, and re-
Deity, 1965; D. Davidson, "Mental Events," productive), and to do this through separa-
in Philosophy as It Is, ed. T. Honderich and tism or by seizing power from men. Much of
M. Burnyeat, 1979. feminist ethics incorporates varying combi-
NINIAN SMART nations of these views.
Feminist Ethics 230
Despite the pluralism in feminism and omy*, and it is qualified by a principle of
feminist ethics, there are generally shared is- mutuality. Even radical feminism accepts
sues and basic principles. Major questions in these principles in some form, though both
feminist theology and philosophy that have separatism and matriarchy present serious
produced common ethical issues include: the difficulties for a principle of equality, unless
meaning of human embodiment* (especially they are understood as necessary means to
issues of human sexuality); the nature of the egalitarian contexts.
human self (including possibilities for the de- The insistence on the combination of prin-
velopment of character); the value of the ciples of autonomy, equality, and mutuality
world of nature; patterns for human relation- differentiates feminist ethics from some other
ships (both personal and political). Signifi- ethical theories. Feminist ethics wants to
cant methodological and substantive princi- specify the formal principle of "equal treat-
ples can be formulated that express strong ment for equals," noting the necessity of dis-
currents of feminist ethical reflection on these cerning who are equals in terms of basic hu-
issues. manity. Moreover, feminist ethics rejects
There is a firm methodological commit- strong theories of complementarity that, in
ment to maintaining a focus on the experi- the name of "different but equal" identifica-
ence of women as the primary source for fem- tions, disguise patterns of inequality (rela-
inist ethics. Like feminism in general, tionships in which the role of one partner is
feminist ethics traces its origins to women's always inferior to, dependent on, or instru-
growing awareness of the disparity between mental to the role of another). Feminist eth-
received traditional interpretations of their ics insists, therefore, that the essential feature
identity and function and their own experi- of personhood, which modern liberal philos-
ence of themselves and their lives. It also ophy identified for human persons as such
claims an important hermeneutical vantage (that is, the feature of individual autonomy,
point in a focus on women's experience pre- grounded in the capacity for free self-deter-
cisely as disadvantaged. Methodologically, mination), be appropriated for women as
feminist ethics has been open to both deonto- well as for men. On this basis, the feminist
logical and teleological patterns of reasoning. principle of equality, of the equal right of all
On the one hand, it has taken seriously the persons to respect as persons, is maintained
possibility that human actions can be judged (see also Respect for Persons).
unethical insofar as they contradict values Feminist ethics, however, extends the prin-
intrinsic to the concrete reality of persons. ciple of equality to a principle of equitable
On the other hand, feminist ethics sustains a sharing. That is, out of women's experience
concern for consequences, for an ethical eval- of disadvantage and their perception of the
uation of means in relation to ends and of disadvantaged histories of other groups,
parts in relation to the whole; overall it is feminists argue for a universalized right of all
favorable to an ecological view of reality, and to an equitable share in the goods and ser-
it allows the relativization of values in situa- vices necessary to human life and basic hap-
tions of conflict (as, for example, when deal- piness. Feminist ethics generally includes,
ing with issues of abortion*). therefore, a positive form of the principle of
Feminist ethics as a systematic discipline is equality, one based not only on the self-pro-
new enough that it is difficult to generalize its tective right of each to freedom, but on the
substantive principles. One way of identify- participation of all in human solidarity.
ing them could go something like this. The Closely aligned with this, feminist ethics
most fundamental substantive principle is the could be described as rejecting a view of
principle that women are fully human and human persons that is self-isolating. Hence, it
are to be valued as such. The content of this tends to combine some form of the principle
principle differs significantly from similar but of mutuality with the principle of equality.
nonfeminist affirmations. It is not, for exam- Its basis for doing this is a view of person-
ple, to be mistaken for the view that women hood that identifies relationality along with
are human, though derivatively and partially autonomy as an essential feature of human
so. Rather, feminist belief about the human- persons. Feminist ethics insists, then, on the
ness of women is specified by the inclusion of need for a corrective to a liberal philosophy
further principles of equality and auton- that fails to understand persons as embodied
231 Fetal Research
subjects, with an essential capacity and need to balance principles of equality and mutual-
for union with other persons. But feminist ity with the notion of self-sacrifice. Finally,
ethics generally sees itself also as a corrective Christian feminists are concerned with the
to romantic theories of sociality, organic formulation of a theory of justice*, one that
models of society, or theories of complemen- will illuminate more adequately every form
tarity in which relation is all, without regard of human and Christian relationship.
for free agency or for personal identity, See Love; Sex Discrimination; Women,
power, and worth, which transcend roles. Status of.
Generating principles of equality and
mutuality, feminist ethics includes a critique M. Daly, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of
not only of sexism but also of racism and Radical Feminism, 1978; E. Fiorenza, In
classism. Moreover, in opposing a general Memory of Her: A Feminist Reconstruction of
pattern of dominance and subjugation, it Christian Origins, 1983; B. Harrison, Our
gives ethical priority to models of human re- Right to Choose: Toward A New Ethic of
lationships characterized by collaboration Abortion, 1983; R. Ruether, Sexism and God-
rather than competition or hierarchical gra- Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology, 1983; L.
dation. In some of its forms it is also an advo- Russell, The Future of Partnership, 1979.
cate of nonviolence. MARGARET A. FARLEY
Methodological and substantive principles
for feminist ethics have been identified. It Fetal Research
must be added that some feminist ethicists Ethical issues in fetal research are associated
prefer to avoid the language of "principles" with but are not reducible to those involved
altogether. This follows a recognition of past in abortion*. The ethical standards involved
abuses where principles were used to oppose, are similar to those involved in experimenta-
rather than serve, the well-being of persons tion with human subjects*, but their applica-
and relations, and where principles were tion to fetal research is controversial because
maintained without any acknowledgment of of debates about the moral status of the
the historical and social nature of human human fetus, defined as the human embryo
knowledge. from conception to delivery. Some distinc-
Some feminist ethical reflection can be tions are important: fetal research may be
more specifically described as Christian femi- conducted on live or dead fetuses, on fetuses
nist ethics. This can include much of what in utero or ex utero, on fetuses to be aborted
has already been noted, but also a more direct or to be brought to term, and on pre-viable
concern with issues shaped by Christian be- or viable fetuses. It is also important to dis-
lief and theology. Thus, for example, Chris- tinguish research that may benefit the subject
tian feminist ethics takes a critical stance in as well as others (sometimes called therapeu-
relation to past theological justifications of tic research) and research that is designed
the inferiority of women to men. It opposes only to benefit others (sometimes called non-
the distinction of male and female as polar therapeutic research) and to distinguish de-
opposites (representing mind/body, reason/ grees of risk (e.g., minimal, moderate, and
emotion, activity/passivity, dependency/ serious). Questions about the proper balance
autonomy). It challenges the association of of risks or burdens and benefits arise in this
women with religious symbols of evil, but it area as in other research, but pointing to the
is also opposed to religious "pedestalism," or benefits of research for fetuses as a group
the expectation that women will be more vir- and there have been major benefitsmay not
tuous than men. A Christian feminist ethics justify the risks or burdens imposed on par-
takes seriously the radical feminist critique of ticular fetuses in particular experiments.
Christianity as a religion that can lead to the As Andr Hellegers (1978) noted, the
exaltation of dependence and suffering. As guidelines proposed by the Peel Commission
Christian and feminist, then, it takes as one in Great Britain in 1972 and by the National
of its tasks the formulation of a theory of Commission for the Protection of Human
moral and religious development and a femi- Subjects in the USA in 1975 share several
nist theory of virtue or character. Christian features: "They have in common that dead
feminists have also identified problems with fetuses and their tissues are to be afforded the
traditional concepts of agape, and they seek respect of other dead human bodies and tis-
Fidelity 232
sues. Fetuses with a chance of survival are to connotes truthfulness*, as in the sentence
be treated like children. Willful damage to "The apostles' fidelity to the message of Jesus
the fetus in utero may not be caused, presum- is debatable." Some of this complexity of
ably lest a mother change her mind about connotation is best captured in the synonym
abortion. Significant differences are that in "faithfulness." Fidelity also connotes marital
the United States regulations, fathers can faithfulness, in contrast to loyalty, which
veto the research, while in the Peel Report may seem more at home in a political con-
there is no such specific provision. In Britain text. In any case 20th-century writers like H.
it is proposed that no nonbeneficial research R. Niebuhr and Paul Ramsey tend to use the
be done on the fetus in utero or the viable terms "loyalty" and "fidelity" interchange-
fetus. In the United States it may be done if ably, although Josiah Royce, to whom both
there is minimal or no risk." Paul Ramsey are indebted, distinguished them. Royce
(1975) has argued against any non- stressed loyalty, holding that fidelitywhich
therapeutic research on fetuses as well as on he understood to mean habitual obedience to
children who cannot consent, and many have anotherwas possible for a dog. On a strictly
questioned whether a pregnant woman who etymological level fidelity has connotations
has decided to have an abortion can give of faith and truth, while loyalty relates to
valid consent for the use of the fetus in re- law. In fact, however, a clear distinction be-
search. tween them would have to be stipulated by a
In recent years a controversial context of contemporary writer in English. Both terms
fetal research has been in vitro fertilization. imply a commitment or involvement of the
In the UK in 1984 the Warnock Commission self with another, which for Christians may
(discussed under Reproductive Technologies) be related to God's covenantal or incarna-
recommended that some research be permit- tional involvement with humankind. Augus-
ted on human embryos up to the end of the tine's conceptions of love and the self are in
fourteenth day after in vitro fertilization, but the background of much of this literature on
that no embryo used in research be trans- fidelity.
ferred to a woman. Some members of the The major 20th-century writer whose
commission opposed any research on "spare" thought develops the concept of fidelity is
embryos. The debate about fetal research can Gabriel Marcel. He studied Royce's work ex-
be expected to continue as society grapples tensively and evidently found the French
with questions of moral responsibility to the fidlit a more apt translation than "loyalty."
fetus. For Marcel true fidelity must involve the
See Abortion; Experimentation with emotions and the heart. Rote obedience to
Human Subjects; Reproductive Technolo- duty and formally correct behavior make a
gies. relationship stale. This pathology arises
when selves focus on their own virtue rather
Great Britain, Department of Health and So- than on the one to whom they should be
cial Security, The Use of Fetuses and Fetal faithful. True fidelity can only be measured
Material for Research (Report of the Peel by the one to whom it is pledged. Does this
Commission), 1972; A. E. Hellegers, "Fetal make fidelity impossible, given that affections
Research," EB, 1978; National Commission obviously change? No, for in true fidelity I
for the Protection of Human Subjects of Bi- commit myself to forming my attitudes and
omedical and Behavioral Research, Research directing myself in certain ways. True fidelity
on the Fetus: Report and Recommendations, calls on the will to make the self and is in this
1975; J. Peel, "Fetuses and Fetal Material, sense creative.
Use of for Research," DME, 1981; P Ram- Ultimately fidelity to another runs the risk
sey, The Ethics of Fetal Research, 1975. of disappointment through confusion be-
JAMES F. CHILDRESS tween the other and my idea of him or her.
Fetus, Responsibility to see Abor- Consciousness centered on God and fidelity
tion; Fetal Research; Genetics; Reproduc- to God are rooted in humility* and make
tive Technologies hope* possible. Hope in turn alters more lim-
ited fidelities.
Fidelity It is clear that fidelity, like loyalty, is both
The core meaning of fidelity is faithfulness, in a moral and a religious concept. It captures
the sense of loyalty* However, the term also an important dimension of the moral life,
233 Forgiveness
suggests a searching for a relationship with Forgiveness
something absolute, and may symbolize the Strictly considered, forgiveness is a concep-
saving acts of God. tion and an experience in which religious and
ethical sensibilities, perspectives, and respon-
G. Marcel, Creative Fidelity, ET 1964; and sibilities are intimately related. They are so
Royce's Metaphysics, ET 1956. intimately related that it is scarcely possible
DAVID H. SMITH to distinguish one from the other without
neglecting one in favor of the other.
Filial Piety see Aged, Care of the; Chil- The religious reality of forgiveness iden-
dren; Family; Parenthood; see also Confu- tifies a certain relation between God and hu-
cian Ethics manity. This relation is marked by the awe-
some holiness of God, by human offenses
against this holiness, by human guilt, and by
Finality the ineradicable human need for assurance
A general term that was used in Aristotelian that sin against God has been pardoned and
philosophy to designate one of the causes of right relations between God and humanity
creaturely substances (the final cause or have been restored.
telos). It could refer to either an extrinsic From the earliest apprehensions of the nu-
telos (a substance for which it exists) or an minous to the classical Christian doctrine of
intrinsic one (the full maturation of the being justification by faith*, the experience of for-
in question). giveness has been that of the setting aside, on
Scholastic philosophers adopted the no- God's initiative, of enmity between God and
tion and made a principle of action of it: humanity and the restoration of right rela-
"Every agent acts for an end" (Aquinas, tions between them. In primitive religions,
Summa Contra Gentiles 3.2). Intelligent be- this transformation is an experience of ritual
ings can comprehend this end, whereas cleansing. In more highly developed reli-
nonintelligent beings depend on an extrinsic gions, ritual undergoes the more conscious
intelligence. Thomas Aquinas used the no- and symbolic refinement of liturgy, together
tion of finality by appealing to basic inclina- with a theological clarification of the initia-
tions. The objects of these inclinations are the tive of God in restoring humanity, despite
basic goods suitable for the agent because sin, to free and uninhibited fellowship with
they complete and perfect it. It was on this God and one another. Understood in this
substructure that Aquinas built his under- way, forgiveness tends often to be loosely in-
standing of the natural law*. This law was terchanged with justification and/or recon-
completely transformed by its penetration by ciliation.
charity, which oriented the responsible, intel- More carefully considered, however, for-
ligent creature toward its ultimate supernatu- giveness may be distinguished from justifica-
ral end. In recent Christian (especially Cath- tion, as well as from reconciliation*. Such a
olic) writing, the telos that animates and distinction differentiates between an offense
underlies human ethical activity is seen to be against God, set right by God's action (jus-
Christ, God's self-manifestation and there- tification) and the consequent restored rela-
fore the manifestation of the meaning and tion between humanity and God (reconcilia-
destiny of the world. tion). As justification expresses the fact of a
See also Teleological Ethics; Thomistic restored relation between God and human-
Ethics. ity, so forgiveness expresses the divine assur-
ance and human acceptance of this fact. As
"Finality," New Catholic Encyclopedia, reconciliation expresses the result of this re-
1967. stored relation in behavior, namely, the over-
RICHARD A. MCCORMICK, S.J. coming of enmity between God and human
beings and between human beings and each
Flesh see Asceticism; Body; Embodiment; other, so forgiveness expresses the divine and
Mortification human acknowledgment and practice of this
result. Thus, forgiveness is not so much a
middle term between justification and recon-
Force see Coercion; Power; Resistance; ciliation as one that includes them both.
State This inclusiveness is grounded upon the
Forgiveness 234
perception and conviction of Christian faith According to the OT, the way of God's
that in the death and resurrection of Jesus being God to, with, and for the people whom
Christ an atonement has happened. This "at- he has chosen is marked by God's patience
one-ment" between God and humanity has and providence, righteousness and justice,
come about through the death of Christ, love and law, mercy and forgiveness. The
whose offering up of himselfone for all, and focal watchword is that the people whom
once for allis a height, range, and depth God has chosenand because of them, all
expiation of human sin and guilt whichin humanityhave been shown what is good.
the power of his resurrectionhas at once What is required is "to do justice, and to love
nullified and fulfilled all need from the mercy, and to walk humbly with God"
human side to "get right with God," and has (Micah 6:8). The test cases are the poor and
surrounded and sustained human failure, the stranger within the gate. The least and
frailty, and hope with the promise and the the unlikeliest are the immediate and the ulti-
power to live humanly, as God has purposed mate human occasions for the practice to-
his human creatures to live and to be. The ward one's neighbors of the love, forgiveness,
atonement identifies the reality, possibility, and justice that God has unfailingly shown in
and power of trust in God's assurance that the bounty of the earth, the deliverance from
things are so right with him that we are set slavery and exile, the gift of a land of promise
free to trust and to risk trusting our neigh- anddespite all sin and rebellion, faltering
bors and our enemies, as companions of the and failure, mistrust and violencethe
gift of being human which God has given. promise of a new covenant through "an
The ethical reality of forgiveness, on the anointed One" who
other hand, underlies the unique relation be-
tween forgiveness, justice*, and love* (see shall not judge by what his eyes see,
also Mercy). This relation is the distinguish- or decide by what his ears hear;
ing mark of a Christian account of ethics and but with righteousness he shall judge
the unique contribution of Christian thinking the poor,
about ethics to ethical theory and practice. and decide with equity for the meek
Indeed, the relation between forgiveness, jus- of the earth.
tice, and love is the summum bonum of (Isa. 11:3-4)
Christian ethics, in notable contrast to and According to the NT, this way of God's
correction of philosophical and other reli- being God to, with, and for the people whom
gious accounts of ethics. Whereas these ways he has chosen for covenant faithfulness and
of thinking about ethics are preoccupied with caring in the world includesin foretaste
rational or mystical determinations of the and fulfillmentall the people in the world,
highest good, and with descriptions of virtues both now and in the world to come. In Jesus
and vices, rights and duties, obligations, re- of Nazareth, the "anointed One" has come,
wards and punishments, Christian ethics the new covenant has begun, the sacrifice to
centers upon the relations between forgive- end all sacrifices, the atonement to end all
ness and love and between love and justice, as atonements has been made. There is a
providing the context for human freedom straight thematic linehowsoever the ac-
and responsibility in renewal and fulfillment. cents and circumstances varybetween
The source and resource of these religious Micah (and all the company of the prophets
and ethical sensibilities, perceptions, and re- with him) and the Magnificat, which cele-
sponsibilities is the Bible. Consequently, the brates who Jesus is, and what he is about, and
Bible is the authoritative guide to their mean- what those called to a life of discipleship with
ing and practice. From Genesis to Revela- him are to be about.
tion, and with a remarkable thematic unity in
variety, and variety in unity, the Bible is For he who is mighty has done great
preoccupied with the human living of human things
life in the world that belongs to God. In this and holy is his name.
world the gift, promise, and foretaste of And his mercy is on those who fear
God's covenantal faithfulness and grace, will him
and purpose, claim and responsiveness, deliv- from generation to generation.
erance and renewal, point to and point up He has scattered the proud in the
what it takes to be and to stay human. imagination of their hearts,
235 Forgiveness
he has put down the mighty from their the healing experience and practice of love
thrones, through forgiveness and justice. (See, e.g.,
and exalted those of low degree; Rom. 1; 7; 8; 13; 1 Cor. 1:18-31; ch. 13; Gal.
he has filled the hungry with good 3:23-29; ch. 5; Phil. 3; Col. 1.)
things, If the correlation between love and forgive-
and the rich he has sent empty away. ness tends to overshadow the correlation of
(Luke 1:49-53) love with justice in the Pauline letters, the
catholic epistles may be said to redress the
In the NT, as in the OT, the words "love," balance. These letters are preoccupied, to be
"forgiveness," and "justice" identify the key- sure, with the reality of the new covenant in
tonalities of the thematic line. But this iden- Jesus Christ, especially in the face of false
tification is made by way of descriptions of prophets and teachers, with the persistent
varied contexts of relations between God and temptation to take up attractive, because
humanity rather than by carefully analyzed easier, alternatives, and with the debilitating
definitions of terms. The Gospels report the anticipation of the imminence of Christ's
central message of Jesus as that of the king- coming again. Nevertheless, the link between
dom of God, implicitly identify him with the love and forgiveness is eloquently and insist-
OT prophets and their teachings, underline ently joined to the link between love and jus-
the parabolic character of Jesus' teachings, tice, i.e., with the claims and needs of the
and give major attention to Jesus' crucifixion least of Christ's brethren: the weak and the
and resurrection. The passion confirms not poor, the stranger and the destitute. (See,
only Jesus' messianic identity but also the e.g., 1 Thess. 5:12-22; 1 Tim. 6:11-20; Heb.
inauguration of the kingdom of God in the 4; 8; 11; 13:7-16; James; 1 Peter 2:1-10; ch.
midst of the world of time and space and 3; 5:1-11; 1 John.)
things and people. (See, e.g., Mark 8:27-30; Thus, the Bible ends as it began. Its the-
9:2-13; Matt., chs. 5-7; 17:1-22; 25:31^6; matic correlation of love with forgiveness
Luke 4:1637; 6:32-36; 11:42-44; 21:1-28; and justice leads from Micah and the Mag-
John 1:1-18; 3:1-21; ch. 17.) The power, nificat to the parable of the Last Judgment
prospect, and promise of this new world (Matt. 25:31-46) and thence to the penulti-
under way is attested in the Acts of the Apos- mate perception and assurance of what is al-
tles (cf. Acts 1-4, passim) as a report on the ready more than on its way: "A new heaven
life of a new human community in the world. and a new earth; for the first heaven and the
This is the community which has discovered first earth had passed away, and the sea was
in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus a no more" (Rev. 21:1).
surprising and renewing power of deliverance A Christian ethical account of forgiveness,
from sin, death, and the devil and of a free- therefore, underlines the practice of love
dom from self-seeking security and self-jus- through forgiveness and justice. As actions of
tification and for the responsibilities of recip- God, these relations exhibit God's free initia-
rocal caring for the needs and weaknesses, tive toward humanity, and God's sustaining,
sufferings and sorrows, hope and fears that renewing, and fulfilling concern for and com-
make the concrete difference between human panionship with his human creatures. In
and inhuman, meaningful and meaningless love, God faithfully favors humanity with his
life. This new righteousness of freedom and presence and grace. In forgiveness, God
freedom for righteousness is the central "sends away" or "pardons" or "covers"
preoccupation of the Pauline epistles. These human disavowals and violations of this di-
epistles declare and explore the fact that vine initiative. In justice, God's presence in,
God's love, forgiveness, and justice have hap- with, and under the human aspiration and
pened and do happen in the world through struggle to be human is discerned and ex-
the formidable and fulfilling power of grace perienced in the setting right of what is not
over sin, truth over falsehood, wisdom over right in personal and social interaction. The
foolishness, the fruits of the Spirit over the religious factor in these relations is the prior-
works of the flesh, steadfastness amid tribula- ity and freedom of the divine initiative to-
tion, and trust over premature certainties. In- ward the human condition. The ethical factor
deed, the principalities and powers are being in these relations is God's unfailing and lib-
brought to book by a radically new way of erating involvement in and with the human
displacing alienation, futility, and enmity by struggle to be human in the world.
Formalism 236
As human actions, the practice of love and to be forgiven, to love God and one an-
through forgiveness and justice expresses the other. In the struggle for justice, the religious
response in behavior toward God and toward and ethical meaning of forgiveness converges
one's fellow human beings of what God char- and emerges as the practice of reconciliation.
acteristically and revealingly does toward
and for the human meaning and fulfillment of It is noteworthy that the discussion of for-
life. The religious factor in these actions is the giveness in the literature of Christian theol-
recognition and acceptance of the claim that ogy and ethics is conspicuously slight. The
in so doing, the will of God is being done on grounds for this are traceable to the domi-
earth as it is in heaven; and that power is nance of a liturgical, sacrificial, juridical view
available to do what otherwise could not and of the atonement; and to the persuasion that
would not be done. Laborare est orare! The the OT and the NT, canonically accepted and
ethical factor in these human actions of love, interpreted, warranted this reading of what
forgiveness, and justice is the recognition and God in Christ was primarily doing in the
acceptance of the coexistence and destiny, world. Nor must one underestimate the di-
the aspirations, capacities, and needs of the vorce between justification and justice in the
neighbor as the bearer and giver of selfhood, practice of reconciliation perpetuated in (and
and thus of the primacy and priority of the despite the rereading of the Bible in) the
claims of the neighbor over the claims of the churches of the Reformation. There are, of
self. Love is the unexceptionable readiness in course, exegetical discussions, and those
word and deed to "bear one another's bur- which find their way into theologies of the
dens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal. OT and the NT. As for systematic theology
6:2). Forgiveness is the "sending away" or and ethics, Albrecht Ritschl's three-volume
"pardoning" or "covering" what has come work on justification and reconciliation
between persons who as neighbors have be- (1870-74), of which vols. 1 and 3 have been
come enemies. Justice is the steadfast com- translated (the latter in 1900 by H. R. Mack-
mitment to setting right what is not right in intosh as The Christian Doctrine of Justifica-
personal and social relations at those acute tion and Reconciliation), is still the most ex-
points in social interaction which expose tensive and instructive. Ritschl's attention to
structural denials in interpersonal relations forgiveness lies behind the moving, personal
of openness and trust through the intensifica- treatment by Wilhelm Herrmann in The
tion of enmity. Communion of the Christian with God (ET
The critical instance of the religious and from the 4th German ed. of 1903 by R. S.
ethical meanings of forgiveness and love in Stewart, 1906; also tr. by J. S. Stanyon,
human behavior is exhibited in the relation 1971); and also behind the influential treat-
between justification by faith and justice. The ment of the subject by H. R. Mackintosh,
juridical interpretation of these relations, The Christian Experience of Forgiveness
owing to a juridical view of the sacrificial and (1927). A perceptive, substantive, and sys-
atoning death of Christ, in the tradition of tematic discussion, which goes beyond
Christian theology and ethics, has greatly Ritschl's and Mackintosh's, is at hand in the
contributed to the failure of justification and constructive, critical, and contemporary in-
justice creatively to intersect. The conse- terpretation of Karl Barth in Church Dog-
quence has been an unhappy divorce between matics IV/1 (ET 1956; repr. 1974); and in an
soteriology and ethics, between the religious admirable chapter on forgiveness and love in
and the ethical practice of love through for- Reinhold Niebuhr's An Interpretation of
giveness. When justice is understood as the Christian Ethics (1935). Mention may also be
setting right of what is not right in human made of P. Lehmann, Forgiveness (1940); A.
interrelations, both private and public, the Miller, The Renewal of Man (1956); N. Wol-
struggle for justice becomes the concrete ex- terstorff, Until Justice and Peace Embrace
pression, in behavior, of the human response (1983).
to what God has done, and is doing, to set PAUL LEHMANN
things right between humanity and himself.
The faith by which we are justified becomes Formalism
what Luther called "a busy, living, active Formalism is an excessive insistence on the
thing" by which we learn, in the struggle for outward observances of religion at the ex-
justice, what it means concretely to forgive pense of a due regard to their inward spirit*
237 Free Will and Determinism
and meaning. It involves a preoccupation free will hold that at least some human ac-
with the formal correctness of rites and cere- tions (and all on which moral judgment may
monies together with a neglect of their in- be passed) are the result of free rational
ward content. Similarly in the sphere of mo- choice* on the part of agents. They are not
rality it is an undue insistence on the form or compelled to act by forces outside of their
letter of a moral code and neglect of the spirit moral consciousness. It is important to say
or purpose of the code (see Legalism). "Ethi- this, because freedom of the will does not
cal formalism" also refers to a type of ethical imply that moral actions are uncaused or
theory that determines moral lightness and originate out of nothing. In other words, they
goodness by formal rather than material con- are not chance or random events, but flow
siderations. It focuses on the agent's disposi- from the values and character of the agent.
tion and intention and a formal test for deter- This also means that freedom has nothing to
mining concrete duties (e.g., the Golden do with unpredictability. The actions of ma-
Rule* or universalizability*), rather than on ture moral agents may be highly predictable,
material ends and consequences of acts. It is because they will flow consistently from a
one type of deontology, especially but not stable moral character*. If such persons were
exclusively Kantian (see Deontology; Kan- to behave in unpredictable ways, this would
tian Ethics). not be evidence for freedom, but rather the
R. C. MORTIMER/JAMES F. CHILDRESS reverse: the persons concerned are so unfree
that they are easily blown off course by pass-
Fornication ing whims.
Fornication is sexual intercourse between un- By its very nature, as something unobjec-
married persons. In the case of casual and tifiable and unobservable, free will would
promiscuous relations, the relation lacks any seem to be something that could be neither
dimension of commitment and is an act of proved nor disproved. The observable overt
mutual exploitation. In such a case, the sex- happenings belonging to any human act may
ual act is demeaned and depersonalized. be seen as constituting a chain of causally
Sometimes intercourse takes place between linked physical events, while even the inter-
unmarried persons who are engaged to be nal states of mind of the agent, if they are
married or who intend a stable relationship. taken into account at all, might be explicated
The presence of a measure of commitment in terms of a determinist psychology. Yet the
makes it undesirable to apply the word "for- agent may have been aware of deliberating
nication" indiscriminately in such cases, between different possible policies of action,
though there may be irresponsibility, lack of and of having chosen one rather than an-
self-control, and a failure to appreciate the other. Thus, although a great many argu-
Christian understanding of marriage*. ments have been put forward in the history of
In some English versions of the Bible, the philosophy, aimed either at establishing the
word "fornication" is used in a very general reality of free choice or at showing it to be an
sense for sexual immorality, and this is also illusion, none of these arguments has been
seen as a type of Israel's unfaithfulness to decisive.
Yahweh and its promiscuity with the idols. It is claimed by the supporters of determi-
See Sexual Ethics. nism that all human behavior is due to the
JOHN MACQUARRIE operation of causes of the same order as those
which determine the course of events in the
Fortitude see Cardinal Virtues; Courage natural world. Some of these causes are phys-
ical and chemical and arise from the natural
Free Church see Anabaptist Ethics; functioning of the body, including the ner-
Church; Ecclesiology and Ethics; Noncon- vous system, and its environment. Other
formist Conscience; Sect causes are psychological, and it is claimed
that individuals act as they do because of
Free Will and Determinism their past personal history, including hered-
Together with the problems of God and im- ity as well as environment. There is also soci-
mortality, the problem of the freedom of the ological determinism, for most people simply
will* is one of the three great metaphysical conform to the standards and patterns of be-
problems named by Kant as lying beyond the havior prevailing in the societies to which
powers of the human intellect. Believers in they belong. There have also been a few
Freedom 238
upholders of theological determinism; for in- tors and cannot claim to be based on rational
stance, Calvin's strong emphases on divine judgments. Indeed, rational discussion has,
providence and predestination leave little like morality, been reduced to an illusion.
scope for choice on the part of the individual. The question of freedom* in relation to a
In Marxism we encounter economic determi- specifically Christian ethic becomes acute at
nism, the view that human behavior is shaped two points in particularwhere it impinges
by economic factors. It need not be denied on the doctrines of original sin* and grace*.
that much human action is determined in one The awareness of this tension found its clas-
or another of these various ways, yet most sic expression in the controversy between
people believe that we are not wholly deter- Augustinianism (see Augustinian Ethics)
mined and that some areas in life remain and Pelagianism. The first of these views held
open for freedom of choice. that the human will is so disabled by sin that
The case for free will (like the case for the it cannot choose good except through the su-
reality of the external world or the reality of pervention of divine grace; the second, that a
other selves) does not finally rest on some genuine autonomous freedom remains. In
subtle philosophical argument, but on the practice, the church seems to have settled for
fact that it is an inevitable presupposition of a compromise between these extremes. Even
our everyday thinking and acting. Thus, hav- if we allow that our fallen nature pulls us
ing shown the impossibility of a metaphysical toward bad choices, we are not absolutely
proof of free will, Kant went on to claim that determined by this pull, and the very fact that
it is a postulate or presupposition of the there is a natural awareness of sin is itself a
moral life (see Kantian Ethics). We warn and breach in the domination of sin. On the other
we advise, we praise and we blame, we re- hand, if we allow that the human will needs
ward and we punish, we have a good con- enabling grace, it cannot be supposed that
science or a bad one, we set goals and strive such grace is irresistible or imposed in such
after them, and all this makes sense only on a way that we become mere puppets. The
the supposition that there is some freedom of dialectic of sin and grace is the theological
choice and action. Such freedom is never un- counterpart of the ethical dialectic between
limited (never a libertas indijferentiae), for it freedom and determinism. In both cases, the
is always circumscribed by a great many dialectic must be maintained and explicated
"givens," such as environmental circum- in fully personal terms.
stances, the past acts of the agent or of others, See Libertarianism.
personality traits, and the like. These limit
freedom of the will at any given moment, and H. Bergson, Time and Free Will (1889), ET
perhaps it is sometimes reduced to near the 1910; A. M. Farrer, The Freedom of the Will,
vanishing point. Yet it would be senseless to 1958; I. Kant, Critique of Practical Reason
speak of ethics and moral responsibility at all (1788), ET 1883.
unless some human action enjoyed at least JOHN MACQUARRIE
some range of freedom (see Responsibility).
Parallel to the argument that free will is a Freedom
postulate of the moral life is the argument of Freedom in the NT and most often in the
A. M. Farrer that it is a postulate of science context of Christian theology is a category
and of intellectual activity in general. All not of social or political ethics but of the
such activity includes judgment, whereby we ultimate relationship between the Christian
decide that one position is true, another false, and Christ. Freedom is seen as freedom from
or one argument valid and another fallacious. sin and freedom for obedience to God. Paul
Our judgment must be a free act, based solely emphasized freedom in these terms in Ro-
on rational grounds. If the determinist were mans and Galatians especially, and always
correct, then our judgments too would be freedom as spontaneous loyalty* and obedi-
determined by personal history, the chemis- ence* to God in Christ is ultimate for Chris-
try of the body, social pressures, and the like. tian understanding. Deliverance from all hin-
Carried to its conclusions, this argument drances to this loyalty and obedience is the
clearly leads into a self-destroying skepti- negative dimension of freedom in this reli-
cism, for even the determinisms own argu- gious context. There has always been a prob-
ment is something determined by these fac- lem in relating freedom understood in these
239 Freedom
terms to the specific social and political forms laration on Religious Freedom of the Second
of freedom. For one thing it is possible to Vatican Council puts the Roman Catholic
think of the freedom of the Christian as being Church on record in favor of religious free-
independent of all external circumstances dom for all on principle. Thus the Roman
such as political tyranny or imprisonment. In Catholic Church, which until Vatican II had
this spirit Paul could say, "In any and all no doctrinal basis for supporting religious
circumstances I have learned the secret of freedom, especially for those in grave reli-
facing plenty and hunger, abundance and gious error, has become one of the strongest
want" (Phil. 4:12). This may be true of per- defenders of the freedom of all persons,
sons who have attained considerable mature Christians and non-Christians. This has had
strength, but external deprivations in child- great effect especially in Latin America (see
hood, such as serious malnutrition and lack also Persecution and Toleration).
of early emotional supports, may keep per- Freedom is not an absolute. Any society,
sons from developing the stamina that makes even when committed to the kinds of free-
possible inner freedom which is independent dom of expression and action guaranteed by
of external circumstance. the American Bill of Rights and other such
There is a relationship even between this affirmations, may be justified at times in set-
exalted form of Christian freedom and free- ting limits to freedom for the sake of public
dom for the citizen when the Christian feels order or national security or of some aspects
obliged by his or her obedience to God to of publicly supported morality. It is easy to
take freedom to speak and act in the world. recognize extreme cases of the abuse of reli-
It sometimes becomes necessary to disobey gion as a front for racial discrimination or
the powers that seek to limit this freedom. such an abhorrent practice as the coerced
"We must obey God rather than men" (Acts mass suicide or murder of the members of an
5:29). Here we can see how Christian free- ostensibly religious communityJonestown
dom in the most distinctive sense may be- in Guyana in 1978. The state may be justified
come a source of political ferment. Those in requiring various inoculations for the sake
who take freedom to obey God in the world, of public health even when they go against
as they understand this obedience, often the religious scruples of some citizens. Na-
break through the structures that limit their tions threatened by serious disunity or sub-
freedom to speak and act, and they have in version may at times be justified in abridging
Western history opened the door to political some usually sanctioned freedom of action.
forms of freedom (see also Civil Disobedi- The healthier the society the heavier the bur-
ence; Resistance). den of proof it should place on such abridg-
Until the 17th century in Christendom it ments of freedom. The provisions for con-
was generally taken for granted that, either to scientious objection* to the military draft
protect souls from the spiritually deadly (see Conscription) are widely supported by
effects of heresy or to preserve social unity by churches and are a fine example of the recog-
permitting only one religious allegiance nition by the state of the freedom of con-
within a political community, it was right for science of its citizens. Censorship* of what is
Catholic or Protestant Christians to limit the regarded as pornography can be justified es-
freedom of those whom they believed to be in pecially when it is on public display or made
error. Gradually over a period of three centu- readily available to minors, but there are
ries this assumption has been eroded, and often disagreements as to what constitutes
today it is explicitly abandoned by nearly all pornography, and the process of such censor-
Christians. At present there is a very broad ship should be kept under criticism as it pro-
ethical consensus in the church not only that vides precedents for wider censorship of art
it is bad public policy in pluralistic societies or ideas (see also Morality, Legal Enforce-
to use the power of the state to enforce reli- ment of).
gious uniformity but also that it is a sin The relation between the various forms of
against Christian love to "force consciences," "civil liberty" and freedom of private initia-
to tempt persons to hypocrisy by intimidat- tive in economic life varies from country to
ing them when they fail to conform in their country and there is no one Christian view of
religious life and witness (R. H. Bainton, The the matter. The issue is settled in favor of the
Travail of Religious Liberty, 1951). The Dec- dominance of public initiative and planning
Friendship 240
in Communist nations, and this is not in itself freedom of speech and of the press. The issue
generally rejected in principle by churches in of human rights, we may say, has been put on
those countries. Elsewhere there is prefer- the global map.
ence for a mixed economy which, while em- Freedom in this article has been consid-
phasizing the state's responsibility for wel- ered chiefly in terms of freedom from many
fare, allows considerable scope for private forms of external hindrance to persons as
enterprise. Both the encyclicals of recent they seek to make their own choices, to ex-
popes and the reports of the Assemblies of press their own convictions, to be true in the
the World Council of Churches agree in pre- public sphere to their own consciences. (The
senting a flexible position in this context leav- same considerations apply to groups and in-
ing much room for both private and public stitutions especially when they respect the
initiative. In the USA the extent of interven- freedom of conscience among their mem-
tion by government in limiting free enterprise bers.) But Christian thinking about freedom
is more resisted than in other industrialized does return full circle to freedom in the posi-
democracies because of a deeper strain of in- tive sense, freedom to be bound by loyalty to
dividualism* in American culture, but even God's will revealed in Christ. Those who do
in the USA there is acceptance of limited not share the commitment of Christian faith
intervention by the state when public health may have the same form of positive freedom
is threatened by dangerous drugs or noxious which consists in a commitment that both
waste and also to provide "welfare" and med- limits the freedom of the person and ex-
ical care for those recognized officially to be presses it. Freedom from external hindrance
in need, but there are continuous political may be understood as opportunity for the
debates about the range of such need (see person to speak and act as one bound by his
Welfare State). or her deepest commitments.
Under Hitler and Stalin the uses of terror See also Authenticity; Autonomy; Con-
by the state to prevent expressions of public science; Conscientious Objection; Libertari-
dissent and to intimidate whole populations anism; Paternalism; Voluntary Associations.
have shown how far the state can go and JOHN C. BENNETT
sometimes does go in restricting the political
and also the cultural and personal freedom of Friendship
its citizens. Religious freedom is often limited In Western culture the love of friendship is
to the sanctuary, and religious affiliation has more discussed in the literature of Greece
been a cause of public discrimination. In re- and Rome than in writings from the Chris-
cent decades there has been an increase of tian era. The most important classical trea-
such abridgment of freedom on both the po- tises on friendship are books 8-9 of Aris-
litical left and the political right. Indeed, totle's Nicomachean Ethics and Cicero's
there are probably more rightist regimes than Laelius de Amicitia. Plato's Lysis and Phae-
leftist regimes that severely restrict political drus are also noteworthy. Friendship was
and cultural freedom. Internationally the is- highly prized among the Epicureans, but
sues of freedom are most often discussed very little of Epicurus's writing is extant.
under the heading of "human rights."* There Christian thinkers have written few detailed
are several levels of such rights, beginning treatises on friendship. A notable exception is
with the most basic rights to be free from Jeremy Taylor's "Discourse on the Nature
arbitrary imprisonment or torture, moving and Offices of Friendship." Friendship has
up to such rights as freedom of speech and of also received attention in the literature of the
the press, and moving beyond them to the Christian monastic tradition. In the modern
right to engage in political organization and period, friendship has been the subject of fa-
the right to vote. There are debates as to the mous essays by writers as diverse as Mon-
extent to which all three levels of human taigne and Emerson. It has also been a con-
rights are interdependent, but there may be cern of thinkers seeking to recapture an
priorities in emphasis in various countries. In emphasis on public virtue, civic solidarity,
recent decades there have been both diminu- and "civic friendship."
tion of human rights in many countries and Friendship may be defined in terms of its
also a much wider public awareness and con- focus on the friend (as a reciprocal goodwill
cern about human rights and much more founded in sentiment or choice) or in terms
publicity about their denial wherever there is of the friends' shared focus on some com-
241 F u n d a m e n t a l i s t Ethics
mon interest, value, or cause. Both em- Fundamentals (a series of books beginning in
phases are needed to characterize friendship 1909), and J. Gresham Machen, while prefer-
adequately. The shared focus helps differen- ring to be identified as Reformed, made com-
tiate friendship from erotic love, but an em- mon theological cause with the fundamental-
phasis on shared focus alone makes friend- ists against theological liberalism and the
ship more impersonal than our experience social gospel.
suggests it is. But fundamentalism soon underwent note-
Among issues often discussed in the litera- worthy changes. Before mid-century it be-
ture on friendship are (1) how many friends came increasingly polemical, largely through
it is possible or desirable to have; (2) loyalty the rise of independent ecclesial agencies. It
to friends vs. loyalty to the political commu- expounded ethical pietism mainly in terms of
nity; (3) the necessity of friendship for human individual abstention from worldly vices
flourishing; (4) the degree to which friend- (drinking, gambling, smoking, movie attend-
ship requires reciprocity but can be con- ance). In The Uneasy Conscience of Modern
taminated when seen as a mere "exchange"; Fundamentalism (1947) this writer warned
(5) change within friendships and the possi- that, in reaction to ecumenical sociopolitical
bility that friendship may end; (6) the possi- preoccupation, fundamentalists had recoiled
bility of friendship between men and women. from a significant stance on sociocultural
Friendship stands in some tension with matters. The modernist social gospel sought
Christian love* (agap) because agape is to a transformation of society without the
be more universal in scope and open even to spiritual rebirth of fallen humanity despite
the enemy, whereas friendship is preferential Walter Rauschenbusch's early insistence on
and reciprocal. Three basic strategies have personal regeneration. This prompted funda-
been followed in attempting to reconcile the mentalists to link all social concern with
loves: (1) build down from agape to friend- evangelistic aims and to neglect issues of pub-
ship by seeing friendship as a narrower spec- lic justice. Reinforcing this stance was a dis-
ification of agape, a narrowing made neces- pensational premillennial conviction of the
sary by the constraints of finitude; (2) build imminent end of this age, now apostate; be-
up from friendship to agape by seeing the fore Christ's return salvific possibility re-
narrower preference of friendship as a mained for only a remnant.
"school of virtue" in which to learn what Emergence in the late 1970s of the Moral
love for any human being may require; (3) Majority led by Jerry Falwell marked a par-
build around friendship by using agape to set tial and belated return by the fundamentalist
boundaries to the preference friendship may movement to sociopolitical engagement. Fal-
legitimately show. well acknowledged that by social withdrawal
fundamentalism had lapsed from its evangeli-
L. Blum, Friendship, Altruism, and Morality, cal heritage. His vigorous entry into political
1980; S. Kierkegaard, Works of Love (1847), matters aroused the ire of some fellow funda-
ET 1962; C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves, 1960; mentalists. Moral Majority presuppositions
G. Meilaender, Friendship. 1981; G. Outka, were at first somewhat obscure except for
Agape, 1972. energetic support of the political right. Its
GILBERT MEILAENDER call for biblical morality seemed to approve
legislation of Christian positions upon secu-
Fundamentalist Ethics lar society, but Falwell subsequently stressed
In the USA, fundamentalism distinguished that Moral Majority was not theologically
itself theologically from Protestant modern- based. The movement took positions on some
ism by the so-called "five points of funda- issues (e.g., the Panama Canal treaty) that
mentalism," which were prepared at the were matters merely of secular prudence*. It
Niagara Conference in 1895: the total inspi- increasingly focused on anti-abortion and
ration and inerrancy of scripture, the deity of pro-Israel emphases, promoted prayer in
Jesus, the virgin birth, the substitutionary public schools, and vigorously opposed por-
atonement, and the physical resurrection and nography and homosexuality. Fundamental-
premillennial second coming of Christ. In its ists have established a network of Christian
early stages, fundamentalism was neither day schools, Bible institutes and colleges, and
anti-intellectual nor hostile to social ethics. now venture increasingly into liberal arts
Scholars like James Orr joined in writing The learning from which they had long recoiled.
Future G e n e r a t i o n s , O b l i g a t i o n s t o 242
But the movement tends still to be more genetic and reproductive medicine and in
aphoristic than academic in its responses. population policy hinge on the answers to
See Bible in Christian Ethics; Evangelical these questions. To complicate matters fur-
Ethics. ther, some philosophers have argued that the
very contingency of future persons makes it
J. Falwell (ed.), The Fundamentalist Phe- difficult to harm them in an ordinary sense.
nomenon, 1981; C. F. H. Henry, The Uneasy This is because some efforts to avoid injuring
Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, future personssay, through the adoption of
1947; G. Marsden, Fundamentalism and more costly but less polluting energy policies
American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth may actually alter which identifiable spe-
Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925, 1980; J. cific persons are born in the future. Do we
I. Packer, Fundamentalism and the Word of really benefit people by improving the quality
God, 1958. of a world into which, as a result, they are
CARL F. H. HENRY never born? Do we harm people by handing
on to them a degraded world which, had it
Future Generations, not been degraded, they might otherwise
Obligations to never have lived to see?
Do we have moral obligations to members of The peculiarities of these questions and of
future generations? If so, what is the nature the effort to comprehend our responsibility to
of these obligations and how far into the fu- the future in terms of obligations to specific
ture do they extend? These are novel ques- and identifiable persons has attracted some
tions. Until recently, human beings had little ethicists to an alternative, utilitarian way of
ability to inflict serious harm* on their dis- understanding our responsibility to the fu-
tant descendants, but recent technological ture. Since utilitarianism* traces all moral
developments have changed this (see Risk). obligation to a nonpersonalized duty to maxi-
Some of the most urgent moral problems of mize the sum total of human well-being (the
our dayissues of environmental responsi- duty to promote "the greatest good for the
bility, energy alternatives, genetic engineer- greatest number"), it does not appear to mat-
ing, and nuclear arms policyall raise the ter when or for whom this well-being is pro-
question of how much we are obligated to duced. Hence we have as much of an obliga-
protect those who follow us (see also Deter- tion to promote and to protect the well-being
rence; Energy; Environmental Ethics; Genet- of our distant descendants as we do that of
ics; Nuclear Warfare; Population Policy; our contemporaries.
Technology). Unfortunately it has been noted that
Many persons are convinced that we do utilitarianism, too, leads to a series of puz-
have important obligations to the future. zling conclusions where future generations
They believe that it would be wrong, for in- are concerned. If we are obligated to maxi-
stance, to leave our descendants a world mize the sum total of human well-being, for
badly polluted by radioactive wastes, even if example, should we not also increase the
this made possible cheaper energy in the pre- number of future persons enjoying well-
sent. But recent efforts by philosophers and being? Indeed, so long as the per capita de-
ethicists to account for these intuitive convic- cline in welfare created by crowding and re-
tions have revealed how difficult the task is. source depletion does not jeopardize the total
For example, efforts to ground this sense of increase in well-being brought about by the
obligation in the claim that future persons existence of more persons, it would seem that
have "rights" face many problems. Rights* utilitarianism requires policies of rapid and
language ordinarily makes reference to iden- burgeoning population growth. Efforts have
tifiable living individuals who are the bearers been made to avoid this conclusion, includ-
or claimants of the strong entitlements rights ing those which interpret utilitarianism as re-
involve. But can there be rights when, as in quiring us to promote the highest average as
this case, the "rights holders" do not yet opposed to highest total level of well-being.
exist? And if so, to which nonexistent persons But not only is it uncertain whether these
do rights extend? To all those who could pos- efforts can avoid all the populationist im-
sibly ever live? Or only to all those who, plications of the utilitarian position, they also
pending our reproductive decisions, actually appear to forfeit utilitarianism's great
do live? Major moral decisions in the areas of strength in this area: its grounding of obliga-
243 Gambling
tion to the future in a nonpersonalized duty the hands of theological ethicists. None of the
to maximize human welfare generally. What major Christian ethicists of the past genera-
utilitarians must show is why we should fur- tion addresses this issue. While the signifi-
ther limit this obligation to protect only those cance of human involvement in history occu-
individuals we allow (through our reproduc- pies attention in the work of Barth, Brunner,
tive decisions) to come into being at some Tillich, Niebuhr, or Thielicke, and while
future time. thinkers like Hring, Ramsey, or Gustafson
None of these perplexities should surprise sometimes address issues (such as eugenics or
us. As one writer has noted, we are in the environmental responsibility) that bear on
"early days" of systematic thinking about the welfare of future persons, none of these
our intergenerational moral responsibilities. writers explicitly discusses the extent or lim-
That we have such responsibilities and that, its of our obligations to future persons.
discounting for the factor of uncertainty Clearly resources for such a discussion exist
about the impact of present deeds on future within the biblical tradition, where God's re-
persons, these responsibilities are roughly the lationship to humankind is typically viewed
same as those we have to our contemporaries as one spanning generations. But these re-
is intuitively evident to many persons. What sources have yet to be systematically assessed
is currently lacking is a convincing philo- or explored.
sophical account of these intuitions. Such an
account might well return for clarity to an R. M. Green, Population Growth and Justice,
understanding of the basic conditions of 1975; G. S. Kavka, "The Paradox of Future
moral justification. For example, if one Individuals," and D. Parfit, "Future Genera-
adopted a Rawlsian "contractualist" under- tions: Further Problems," Philosophy and
standing of moral justification some of our Public Affairs 11, 1982, pp. 93-112 and 113-
puzzles might dissolve (see Social Contract). 172; E. Partridge (ed.), Responsibilities to Fu-
This approach views morality as a peaceful ture Generations, 1981; J. Rawls, A Theory of
means of adjudicating possible disputes Justice, 1971; J. Schell, The Fate of the Earth,
among rational persons. Thus, it views moral 1982; R. I. Sikora and B. Barry, Obligations
rules as a form of abiding public legislation to Future Generations, 1981; J. P. Sterba,
adopted by rational persons under conditions Morality in Practice, 1984, pp. 65-113.
of impartiality and objectivity. The fact that RONALD M. GREEN
in this framework moral legislators are neces-
sarily thought of as living persons who can Gambling
become parties to moral disputes means that The determination of the possession of
moral principles are relevant only to those money, or money value, by an appeal to an
who will actually come into existence. This artifically created chance, where the gains of
may underlie our intuitive perception that we the winners are made at the expense of the
need only be concerned about really existing losers and the gain is secured without render-
persons in the future and that we are not ing in service or in value an equivalent of the
responsible for proliferating possible future gains obtained. Thus the playing of a game of
lives. Similarly, the requirement of impartial- chance wholly for amusement is not gam-
ity in moral justification means that, where bling. Insurance, which is a statistical reduc-
disputes between generations are involved, tion of the risks of chance, is not gambling.
moral legislators must be asked to reason to The acceptance of a gift, though it is literally
principles without knowledge of the specific "money for nothing," is not gambling be-
generation to which they belong: hence our cause there is no appeal to chance. Gambling
intuitive sense that in our judgments and con- may be gaming, that is, playing for money in
duct we must be fair to those who live in the a game of chance; betting, that is, staking
future. This account needs further develop- money on an event of which the outcome is
ment, but it is a promising way of under- doubtful; lotteries, that is, the distribution of
standing and advancing commonsense think- prizes by lot or chance; and pools, which
ing in this area. combine the latter two.
In view of the urgency of these basic ques- The habit of gambling is deeply rooted in
tions and the attention given them in the phil- human history. The knucklebone, the origi-
osophical literature, it is remarkable that to nal of the dice, was used for this purpose in
date they have received so little treatment at the 16th century B.c. Many ivory, porcelain,
Gambling 244
or stone dicesome of them loadedwere mismanagement, waste, and social injustice
found in the ruins of Pompeii. Twice the is added an arbitrary, unpredictable, and
apostle Paul uses words that in their literal unnecessary tension. It is further argued that
meaning refer to gambling (Eph. 4:14; Phil. the moralistic condoning of small-scale gam-
2:30). It is generally agreed that immoderate bling weakens the case against commercial
addiction to gambling is to be condemned. exploitation on a large scale, and so puts a
An individual or a community in whose life stumbling block in others' way. Finally, it is
gambling plays too prominent a part betrays contended that resort to gambling is a virtual
a false sense of values which cannot but im- denial of faith in God and an ordered uni-
pair the full development of the personality verse, putting in its place an appeal to blind
or the society. It should therefore be the con- chance, prompted by neither love nor recti-
cern of the state to control the indulgence tude.
within reasonable bounds. The two positions cannot be reconciled.
Most Christian moralists who accept this They illustrate clearly two distinct ethical ap-
general judgment assert that the danger lies proaches. The "Catholic" approach depre-
in the excess. It is extremely difficult, they cates what is regarded as an exaggerated
contend, to establish by abstract arguments scrupulosity concerning acts and notions that
that all gambling is inherently immoral with- can be reasonably argued to be harmless in
out adopting views on the nature of good and their effects on the individual and on the
evil that do not commend themselves to gen- community. The "dominical" approach dep-
eral acceptance. A small stake in a raffle for recates what is regarded as the condoning of
a worthy cause, for example, inflicts no con- acts that can reasonably be held to conflict
ceivable hardship on the purchaser of the with the law of love to one's neighbor. One
ticket and is motivated more by generous de- is basically sociological, the other basically
sire to help than by anticipatory greed. In theological.
much actual gambling, the element of amuse- The undoubted fact, however, that the
ment or harmless excitement is not domi- great majority of Christian moralists con-
nated by cupidity. If a number of people join demn excessive addiction, commercial ex-
together in a competition in which, by com- ploitation, and government participation in
pletely voluntary agreement, some will win the provision of facilities for gambling sug-
and others lose, those who win need not be gests that there may be a considerable mea-
ashamed. In short, when gamblers firmly sure of rationalization in the less rigorous
control their indulgence and are not domi- approach.
nated by it, they may obtain from it legiti-
mate enjoyment that adds color and modest W. D. Mackenzie, The Ethics of Gambling,
excitement to their life. The essence of this 1895; R. C. Mortimer, Gambling, 1933; S.
argument is that gambling is not wrong in Longstreet, Win or Lose: A Social History of
itself. It may reveal, but does not cause, de- Gambling in America, 1977.
fects of character in the participants. EDWARD ROGERS
The answer of the minority of moralists
who take a stricter view is that "gambling in Gaudium et Spes see Official Roman
itself* is a meaningless phrase. Every gamble Catholic Social Teaching
is a particular and concrete action. They con-
tend that in no circumstances is any gamble
morally justified. The essence of their argu- Gene Therapy, Human see Genetics
ment is that the command to love one's
neighbor rules out gain at the other's inevita- Generosity see Almsgiving; Charity;
ble loss, even if he or she is a willing partner. Love; Philanthropy
The decisive consideration should not be the
ability of the bettor to risk a loss, but the Genetic Counseling see Genetics
willingness to accept an undeserved gain. In
the totality of transactions, large sums of Genetic Engineering see Eugenics;
money are transferred by the random opera- Genetics
tions of chance from one set of pockets to
another set. To all the other tensions of eco-
nomic lifethe consequences of exploitation, Genetic Screening see Genetics
245 Genetics
Genetics correct, although Plato's Utopia was based on
Human genetics involves the study of human eugenic principles for selection of spouses for
variability in terms of its causes and effects. reproduction.
Hardly any feature of human existence draws European physicians in the 17th and 18th
more conflict and disagreement than the ori- centuries debated the "preformationist" the-
gin and meaning of differences between ory in terms of whether the whole organism
human beings themselves, and between was preformed in the ovum or sperm. The
human beings and other animals. Therefore, debate foundered on the lack of empirical
human genetics and evolutionary thought evidence until Gregor Mendel's experiments,
have been more influential in the develop- reported in 1865. Mendel, an Austrian monk
ment of modern theology, ethics, and politics and botanist, experimented with crossing
than many other branches of science. varieties of the pea in terms of color and
Human genetics in historical perspective. shape of seed. He then counted all types and
The earliest societies to keep records (Baby- combinations in the offspring for several gen-
lonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian) attributed erations. From these experiments he deduced
malformations to supernatural causes and the statistical laws that shape the foundations
viewed birth defects as signs of good or evil of modern genetics and provided the correct
for the society itself. Such views spread to biological theory for the similarities and dif-
Greece, Rome, and Europe. Even though the ferences between offspring, namely, that the
supernaturalistic explanation was dominant, germ cells (sperm and ova) are the constant
naturalistic explanations also emerged for forms in the dynamics of inheritance.
malformations and for physical differences The fact that Darwin knew nothing of
and similarities between members of the Mendel's work, despite their publications
same family. Concepts of inherited differ- during the same period, is a comment on the
ences appear in the Hippocratic texts and in cultural isolation of creative scientists of that
the writings of Anaxagoras (500-428 B.c.). time. Mendel's concept of the gene would
Aristotle based a theory of inheritance on have provided answers to many of Darwin's
his philosophy of form. He held that the gen- major intellectual insights and contradic-
eration of males and females was due to dif- tions, especially as to the mode of inheritance
ferences between "principles" of movement of specific characteristics. Furthermore,
and matter that were embodied in semen and Mendel's work remained unused by scientists
female secretions. When the male principle and was eventually rediscovered only in
was dominant, sons were conceived who 1900.
were more like their fathers than their moth- During this same period, Sir Francis Gal-
ers, and vice versa. These ideas, incorrect in ton (1865) published papers asserting that
the biological sense, were the major source of qualities like talent and social achievement
prescientific guidance on such questions until were strongly influenced by heredity. Later,
the Enlightenment period. he proceeded to develop the basis for biomt-
In the religious context, an impression ex- rie genetics, or the study of variations in
ists, probably false, that part of the Mosaic whole populations by statistical methods.
Code (Lev. 18:6-13) prohibiting incest* was The eugenic theme was strong in early 20th-
also related to eugenic concern, due to in- century genetic studies and led to unethical
sight into the frequency of birth defects from sterilization*, restrictive immigration, and
sexual union between close relatives. No bib- discriminatory political measures in Europe
lical text specifically deals with prevention of and the USA (see Eugenics). Nazi racist-
birth defects through marital laws, but incest eugenic programs were the most ethically
is clearly regarded as a grave moral offense. and legally objectionable expressions of eu-
The Talmud, a collection of rabbinic writings genic motives in human genetics. Galton's
dating from A.D. 400, rules that a man may lasting work continues in studies of popula-
not marry into a family afflicted with epi- tion and behavioral genetics.
lepsy, leprosy, or a similar disease. The rabbis Mendel's discoveries gradually led to clear
noted that such diseases were transmitted and less controversial applications in medical
more frequently in such families. D. M. Feld- genetics, and to evidence that genes were
man commented that these texts are the first composed of the content of DNA molecules,
eugenic edict in any social or religious sys- the building blocks of protein synthesis com-
tem. In a strict medical sense, he may be mon to life in all of its forms. Techniques in
Genetics 246
molecular biology gradually laid a founda- ential recommendations of the President's
tion for understanding the basic principles of Commission for the Study of Ethical Prob-
gene action. Today, molecular biologists rou- lems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behav-
tinely recombine particles of DNA to pro- ioral Research (1982) as to practices in coun-
duce new life forms in bacteria, plants, and seling and screening.
chemicals. Some thinkers have likened the Genetic counseling, as practiced today, is
potential for good or evil to the world's peo- an informational process between a qualified
ple of this biological revolution to that of counselor and the individuals(s) or family at
atomic energy. higher risk to have or transmit a genetic dis-
Applied human genetics. Concurrent with order. Goals of counseling are (1) to establish
the development of a powerful theory of a diagnosis, (2) to evaluate the risk of recur-
Mendelian genetics, physicians and other rence, (3) to communicate theserisksto those
scientists applied genetic knowledge to prob- with a primary interest, and (4) to inform as
lems of inherited disorders. Today applied to the severity and potential burdens of the
human genetics involves practices of genetic disorder. Beyond these goals is one of inform-
screening of newborns and carriers, genetic ing the family as to the options that exist for
counseling, prenatal diagnosis of genetic dis- reproduction. Each goal can be an occasion
orders, and the treatment of harmful results for moral problems, such as truth-telling and
produced by some genes. Applied human breaching confidentiality*. As a practice,
genetics was a major source of moral and however, genetic counseling has not aroused
ethical problems addressed by Christian ethi- significant controversy in Christian litera-
cists, among others, in the 1970s and 1980s. ture.
Genetic screening is done for three rea- Prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders is
sons: (1) to uncover a disorder that is latent carried out by a number of technically suc-
or actual, so that treatment or support can cessful modes: (1) amniocentesis, extracting
follow; (2) to detect persons of reproductive amniotic fluid by needle puncture between
age who are at higher risk to transmit a ge- the sixteenth and eighteenth week of preg-
netic disorder, so that information about re- nancy, by which fetal cells can be obtained
production can be given to people involved; and cultured in the laboratory for diagnosis;
and (3) to answer questions about the natural (2) fetoscopy, the insertion of a small-gauge
history of a disorder, how frequently it ap- endoscope into the abdomen of the pregnant
pears in the population, and how the gene(s) woman, to remove fetal blood or tissue; (3)
for the disorder is (are) distributed. Large- ultrasound, the transmission of the fetal
scale screening programs were organized to image onto a screen by high frequency, low
screen for carriers (those who carry the trait intensity sound waves; and (4) an emergent
but do not manifest the disease) of Tay-Sachs technique of chorionic villus sampling in late
disease, beta-thalassemia, and sickle cell dis- first trimester by means of ultrasound-guided
ease. Because these disorders are found fre- catheterization. The main purpose of prena-
quently (but not only) in those of European tal diagnosis is to screen high-risk pregnan-
Jewish, Mediterranean, and African ances- cies for malformations, to provide parents
try, respectively, screening creates occasions with a diagnosis and information about the
for racial and ethnic discrimination and mis- disorder. If presented with evidence of a seri-
understanding. Questions also can be raised ous disorder, parents face choices of waiting
as to whether screening should be mandatory until birth to attempt treatment if one is
to prevent the recurrence of disease. Reli- available, or relinquishing parenthood before
gious ethicists joined other professionals (Re- or after treatment followed by adoption, or
search Group, 1972) in providing social and elective abortion. Many parents who take the
ethical guidelines for screening programs. third course do so in the hope of trying again
This early statement emphasized a goal of for a healthy child, but not without consider^
information for parents and voluntaristic able moral suffering.
methods, rather than screening of entire Ethical questions have been raised about
populations and mandatory sanctions. Dis- the risks of prenatal diagnosis, controversial
sent by some religious ethicists was apparent, indications (e.g., maternal anxiety, sex choice
however, due to the implications of genetic unrelated to sex-linked disorders), and fair-
screening for abortion. The core principles of ness of access to services. Abortion* was the
these guidelines were embodied in the influ- most controversial problem debated by
247 Genetics
Christian ethicists during the 1970s in rela- Assuming that successful animal experi-
tion to prenatal diagnosis. Critics of the prac- ments to correct inherited disorders lay a
tice such as Bernard Hring and Paul Ram- scientific foundation, prospects for human
sey were not opposed to the technology as gene therapy involve three levels of potential
such but to its link with abortion and im- intervention: somatic cell therapy, preven-
plications for selective treatment of persons tion of genetic disorders by gametic correc-
based on inheritable qualities. Two dominant tion, and deliberate attempts to alter human
themes appear in their arguments: (1) a basic traits like height, longevity, and intelligence
purpose of medicineto save lifeis vi- by correction of either somatic or gametic
olated by the practice of abortion; and (2) cells.
while some abortions may be justified, the use Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish ethicists
of prenatal diagnosis tends to set apart cer- tend to agree that gene therapy at the sim-
tain fetuses as deserving of abortion and thus plest level would be ethically acceptable, as
treats fetuses unequally and unjustly. The long as its experimental beginnings were con-
theological views from which such ethical ducted with proper review and consent. The
views proceed tend to secure the sanctity of first treatments may possibly be tried in pa-
all human life in the protection of God, who tients with diseases caused by deletions or
confers an "alien dignity" on each new life other problems at a single gene, thus permit-
that is not to be overridden by any other ting insertion of fragments of DNA directed
reason or source of human evaluation. toward the cells that operate incorrectly.
The main argument by religious ethicists Somatic gene therapy will affect only the
for elective abortion following genetic diag- treated patient, and thus the disorder will
nosis is based on the principle of reducing or recur in later generations. Only those who
preventing suffering for the family in the ab- fear that the other two levels of intervention
sence of any approach to treatment for the are inevitable, given the introduction of gene
disorder. Some physicians and geneticists therapy, oppose human gene therapy as a
offer further reasons, namely, to prevent ge- pretext for potential abuse of genetic engi-
netic disorders in future generations or to neering.
prevent a lifetime of suffering for the affected A strong presumption exists among sup-
individual. The number of abortions of carri- porters of gene therapy that sufficient ethical
ers needed to prevent genetic disorders raises and social controls exist, due to recent efforts
a clear moral barrier to the possibility that to shape stronger bodies of research ethics, to
prenatal diagnosis might be used to screen guide the early uses of somatic cell therapy.
pregnancies for selection of fetuses at lowest However, there is little evidence that suffi-
risk to transmit or suffer genetic disorders. cient ethical guidance exists for the uses of
For these reasons, prenatal diagnosis in its knowledge of how to alter gametic (sperm
present forms is unlikely to affect the future and ova) cells. Scientists have already con-
incidence of the most prevalent genetic dis- ducted experiments in fruit flies and mice
orders. In fact, many more persons who are that demonstrate the capacity to alter inher-
carriers for genetic disorders live longer and ited traits permanently by introducing DNA
reproduce more, creating the paradox that into the pronuclei of embryos. Some off-
advances in applied human genetics cause spring inherit the humanly altered trait from
more and not less reproduction among cou- the parent. Scientists will probably learn how
ples at risk. to do similar experiments with human
Treatments for genetic disorders after gametes before the ethics of human gametic
birth span a gamut from transplantation of correction have been thoroughly debated and
organs to alteration of diet. The common fea- policy guidelines formulated to prevent abu-
ture of contemporary treatment focuses on sive consequences and encourage the most
reducing harmful expressions of underlying beneficial results.
genetic causes. However, many scientists and Theological issues. On the question of the
physicians believe that a genetic approach to future of applied human genetics and its in-
the treatment of genetic disorders will soon teraction with religious traditions, sharp di-
be technically feasible. The possibility of vergences appear in the views of religious
human gene therapy creates moral and ethi- ethicists. Theological convictions and their
cal concerns that Christian ethicists, among bearing on the meaning of the future are a
others, have discussed. major source of these differences. One view is
Genocide 248
that even somatic gene therapy is a thin with genetic and evolutionary theory as a
wedge of a much wider danger of future proper background for Christian ethical
wholesale genetic engineering of human thought about the many and potent ethical
traits in the name of a perfectionism that problems raised by applied human genetics.
threatens religious faith. This view stresses Human genetics will be a subject of ethical
human tendencies toward self-interest, hu- reflection throughout the century and be-
bris, domination of other species, and the yond.
willful abuse of power. Underlying this view See Abortion; Eugenics; Sterilization.
is a belief in an infinite qualitative difference
between the Creator and the creation's crea- D. M. Feldman, "Eugenics and Religious
tures, of which humans are but one, albeit a Law: Jewish Religious Law"; J. C. Fletcher,
gifted, dangerous, and complex creature. In "Prenatal Diagnosis: Ethical Issues"; and R.
this view, creation is essentially finished. The L. Shinn, "Gene Therapy: Ethical Issues in,"
Genesis texts on creation are drawn upon all in EB, 1978; J. C. Fletcher, Coping with
strongly for support and guidance for the Genetic Disorders: A Guide for Clergy and
churches' positions on genetic issues (Gran- Parents, 1982; W Granberg-Michaelson, A
berg-Michaelson, 1984). A future is por- Worldly Spirituality, 1984; President's Com-
trayed that is full of danger. mission for the Study of Ethical Problems in
Others, such as James Gustafson and Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral
Roger Shinn, view the biological and social Research, Genetic Screening and Counseling,
sciences as necessary to theological and ethi- 1982; Research Group on Ethical, Social,
cal reflection about the proper meaning and and Legal Issues in Genetic Counseling and
direction of any genetic interventions. The Genetic Engineering, "Ethical and Social Is-
real limits of genetic knowledge are a source sues in Screening for Genetic Disease," New
of insight and help to lessen cause for concern England Journal of Medicine 286, 1972, pp.
about immediate dangers. Scripture tends to 1 129-1132; R. L. Shinn, Forced Options,
be used as an orientational source of ethical 1982; F. Vogel and A. Motulsky, Human
guidance on medical and biological research, Genetics: Problems and Approaches, 1979;
rather than a source of direct guidance. The and the relevant articles in DME.
creative and ordering works of God are seen JOHN C. FLETCHER
as unfinished and continuing. Human beings,
as well as other species, participate in crea- Genocide
tion, but humans have the greatest present Genocide is a form of discrimination* that
role and responsibility in such co-creativity. aims at the extermination of a religious, ra-
The future is viewed with less sense of danger cial, or cultural group. Although genocide
and more expectancy of novelty and has occurred throughout human history, the
creativity breaking in upon history. These al- term was coined specifically to identify the
ternative views show less interest in judging policies of the German National Socialist re-
specific experiments as right or wrong and gime (1933-1945) which led to the Holo-
more in attempting to guide the ultimate caust, in which some six million Jews were
goals of biological and medical research. killed in Germany and the territories it occu-
Finally, the theory of genetics and evolu- pied (see Anti-Semitism).
tion by natural selection raise even broader International law. In 1946, the United Na-
theological questions about how God acts in tions General Assembly affirmed that geno-
the world and whether human existence is cide is a crime under international law. The
rendered meaningless by the random genetic UN Convention on the Prevention and Pun-
mutations that are supposed to have been the ishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) spe-
major objects of the process of natural selec- cifies five policies which, when implemented
tion. And insofar as most mutations are with intent to destroy a group, are acts of
harmful to humans and other species, in genocide: "(a) killing members of the group;
what ways is God's goodness and power (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to
compromised or defeated by such events? members of the group; (c) deliberately inflict-
The work of God as Creator, Redeemer, and ing on the group conditions of life calculated
Emancipator as explicated in contemporary to bring about its physical destruction in
theology must continue to come to terms whole or in part; (d) imposing measures in-
249 Gluttony
tended to prevent births within the group; nation and to preserve a legal basis for direct
(e) forcibly transferring children of the group action against policies that directly result in
to another group." The Convention makes it the deaths of innocent persons, it is also true
clear that genocide is not simply a crime dur- that any policy which adversely affects the
ing the conduct of war, but violates interna- welfare of a group or makes it difficult for its
tional law whenever it occurs. Policies of gen- members to retain their identity tends, over
ocide are forbidden in all circumstances, and time, toward the elimination of that group.
any contracting state can call upon the UN To that extent the broadened meaning of gen-
to take action against genocide wherever it ocide in contemporary moral and political
occurs. discussions is probably justified, even though
Genocide and racism. Although armed it tends to weaken the term's condemnatory
conflicts since 1945 have repeatedly led to force.
massacres of civilian populations that seem ROBIN W. LOVIN
genocidal in intent, no sustained policy of
extermination comparable to the Nazi "final Gluttony
solution" has come to light. Charges of gen- Food and nonintoxicating drink are essential
ocide made in international forums have to life and health, and the desire* for a suffi-
centered on policies that put identifiable ra- cient quantity and qualityand even for
cial groups or aboriginal populations under pleasure in their consumptionis not sinful,
severe disadvantages that tend to reduce the according to the Christian tradition. What is
size of the group and limit the well-being of sinful is excessive or inordinate desire for
its members. The US declined to ratify the them and the pleasure they bring. Neverthe-
UN Convention on Genocide because ratifi- less, gluttony does not figure prominently in
cation might have invited international ac- the lists of sins and vices condemned in the
tion against the racial segregation then NT. Jesus himself was accused of being "a
widely protected by US law. Other nations glutton and a drunkard" because he came
have responded to accusations of genocide "eating and drinking" in contrast to the as-
by asserting sovereign rights to regulate cetic John the Baptist (Luke 7:33-34; Matt.
their own internal affairs. Except in cases of 11:18-19). Jesus' parable of the rich man who
overt extermination of a group, then, the in- "feasted sumptuously every day" and the
ternational community has not widely ac- poor man Lazarus who lay at his gate desir-
cepted the Convention's principle that ac- ing "to be fed with what fell from the rich
tions taken against racial or religious groups man's table" suggests that gluttony can dull
are not simply matters of internal policy. compassion* and love* for the neighbor
The prohibitions of genocide in interna- (Luke 16:19-31). In making gluttony one of
tional law have not been effective against the seven capital sinsthe so-called
policies of racial discrimination (see Race "deadly" sins*the Christian tradition has
Relations; Racism). stressed that inordinate pursuit of the desir-
Moral considerations. The meaning of gen- able end of food and drink can lead to other
ocide in moral and political discussions has sins such as theft and injustice. Gluttony may
come to include not only policies of overt even reflect or contribute to a lack of faith in
extermination, but any intentional discrimi- and love of God, as in the case of those of
nation that exposes a group to material hard- whom Paul said "their god is their belly"
ships or erodes the self-respect of its mem- (Phil. 3:19). According to Thomas Aquinas
bers. Warfare, too, may be denounced as (ST II-II.148), gluttony is contrary to the
genocidal when it is pursued with unusual general virtue of temperance* and the special
vigor or extraordinary means against people virtue of abstinence* Fasting* may be an
who happen to belong to a different racial or appropriate form of mortification* and self-
ethnic group. The moral meaning of genocide denial* in the exercise of self-control. In a
thus expands considerably beyond the legal world where people are suffering from mal-
definition in the UN Convention to encom- nutrition and dying from starvation, gluttony
pass virtually any harmful policy directed both symbolizes and contributes to policies
against persons solely because of their mem- that are unjust and uncaring (see Hunger,
bership in an identifiable group. While it is World).
important to reserve a strong moral condem- JAMES F. CHILDRESS
G n o s t i c i s m , Ethics of 250
Gnosticism, Ethics of the creator a villain and the world an evil,
Until recently the little that was known about alien place, the ethical consequence could
Gnostic ethics was gleaned from orthodox only be libertinism. There was no need to
Christian opponents and the Neoplatonic observe immoral practices to be sure of this.
philosopher Plotinus. On the basis of these However, it is clear from the Nag Hammadi
reports the conclusion was drawn by scholars texts that the Gnostics did not follow this line
that Gnostics rejected all conventional moral of reasoning. They connected the creator
norms because of their deep aversion to the with the evil passions and saw asceticism as
material world and its Creator. This would the ethical consequence.
express itself either in asceticism* or more Another questionable claim made by some
typically in libertinism*. Reports about lib- of the church fathers was that Gnostics did
ertinism from late antiquity were generally not think it necessary to live a virtuous life
assumed to refer to Gnostics. However, the because they were saved on the basis of the
large collection of ancient Gnostic writing spiritual nature they possessed. The Gnostic
discovered near Nag Hammadi in Egypt does writings known to us do not support this
not support this reconstruction of Gnostic claim. They pose some form of asceticism as
ethics. Not only do these texts show no hint an essential prerequisite for salvation. The
of libertinism but the obvious ascetic stance Gnostic is involved in a moral struggle in this
of the collection is not motivated by defiance world and will be judged accordingly.
over against an evil creator and lawgiver but There is no need to claim that all reports
rather by the ideal of an otherworldly perfec- of Gnostic libertinism are false inferences or
tion that can only be reached if the bodily slander. The movement may indeed have
passions are denied. In this Gnostic ethics produced some individuals or groups that re-
does not stand over against contemporary jected conventional moral standards or were
Hellenistic culture but is a radical form of a involved in orgiastic rites. However, these
common ascetic trend found within most re- would have been exceptional. Gnostics ap-
ligious movements of that time as well as in pear not to have produced ethical writings.
Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism* This may be because they were well served by
The discrepancy between the ethical such non-Gnostic ascetic treatises as were
stance of the Gnostic treatises and the reports found among the Nag Hammadi texts. An-
of the anti-Gnostic polemicists needs an ex- other reason may be that the Gnostic litera-
planation. Upon closer examination it ture available to us does not appear to reflect
becomes clear that with few exceptions the the existence of organized Gnostic communi-
claims of Gnostic libertinism are not based ties with distinct rituals and life-style.
on firsthand observation but rather on hear-
say and inference. In the heat of controversy K. Rudolph, Gnosis: The Nature and History
opponents are usually put in the worst possi- of Gnosticism, ET 1982; F. Wisse, "Die Sex-
ble light. For the orthodox church fathers it tus-Spriiche und das Problem der gnosti-
was inconceivable that heretics could lead a schen Ethik," in Zum Hellenismus in den
godly life. They felt sure that false teaching Schriften von Nag Hammadi, 1975.
would lead inevitably to immorality even if F. WISSE
this did not become public. They dismissed
the ascetic life of Gnostics as a false front to Golden Rule
deceive the orthodox and win them over. The "Whatever you wish that men would do to
encratic marriage (one without sexual inter- you, do so to them" (Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31)
course) which was practiced among the has been designated as the Golden Rule or
Valentinians was ridiculed and called a fraud Golden Law at least since the 17th century.
even though this ideal was shared by ortho- Since it occurs both in Matthew's Sermon on
dox circles in Syria. the Mount and in Luke's Sermon on the
The main mistake Plotinus and the church Plain it may be presumed to have belonged to
fathers made was the assumption that the the early tradition of Jesus' sayings that the
Gnostics would draw the same consequences two Gospels had in common (Q). Probably
from theology for ethics that they drew them- Matthew added the phrase "for this is the law
selves. They considered the affirmation of and the prophets." It has long been recog-
creation as an essential factor underlying the nized that this principle, at least in its nega-
virtuous life. Since the Gnostics considered tive form, had been enunciated prior to and
251 Good Works
apart from the teaching of Jesus. In Judaism See also Universalizability of Moral Judg-
it appears in Tobit 4:15; Testament of Naph- ments.
tali (Hebrew) 1.6; B. Shabbath 31a; Letter of
Aristeas 207; Philo, Hypothetica 7.6; and Ahi- I. Abrahams, Studies in Pharisaism and the
kar 2.88 (Armenian text). At least a similar Gospels lst-2nd series, rev. ed. 1968; D. M.
formulation is found in other religious and Beck, "The Golden Rule," IDB II, 1962; G.
ethical traditions, e.g., Confucius, Analects B. King, "The 'Negative' Golden Rule,"
15.23; Li-Ki 39.23; the Zoroastrian Ddistn- Journal of Religion 8, 1928, pp. 268-279; M.
I Dinik 94.5; Herodotus, History 3.142.3; Singer, "Golden Rule," EP III, 1967.
Thaes (reported in Diogenes Laertius, Lives HARVEY K. MCARTHUR
of Eminent Philosophers 1.36); Isocrates,
Nicocles 61; Seneca, Epistles 47.11; and, ac- Good, The see Agathology; Axiology; Fi-
cording to Lampridius in the Life of Severus nality; Good Works; Goodness; Teleologi-
51.7f., the latter wrote this axiom on his pal- cal Ethics
ace wall.
Apart from the Gospel references, other Good Works
traditions present a negative version of the The phrase is used in controversy about jus-
Rule (but see Letter of Aristeas 207 and, in a tification and the place in it of faith and
sense, M. Aboth 2.10, 12). The merits of the works. The debate runs into the question of
two versions have been debated, some con- the fruits of justification, as to whether it
tending that the positive is superior because conveys righteousness or merely imputes it;
it makes greater demands on the altruism of whether it removes only guilt or also some
the hearer; but others have praised the nega- unrighteousness. Further, whether good
tive version on the grounds that it is more works before justification have any merit and
realistic and "goes deeper into the heart of even whether good works of the redeemed
the problem" (Abrahams). Chrysostom, aid their salvation (see Justification by Faith;
Concerning the Statues 13.7, quotes both ver- Merit).
sions, commenting that the negative requires Paul's writings contain some antinomies
"a departure from evil," while the positive on the question. His emphasis on the primacy
version demands "the exercise of virtue." De- of faith as against works (Rom. 3:27; 4; 11:6;
spite the positive form in the Gospels, the Gal. 2:16, 21) seems to have been a protest
negative version circulated also in the Chris- against the excessive legalism* of Judaism.
tian tradition. See the Western text of Acts He also recognized the value of good works
15:20, 29; Didache 1.2; Clement, Stromateis (2 Cor. 8; Phil. 2:12; 2 Thess. 2:17). There is
2.23; Pope Fabian, Epistles 2.2; Cyprian, To no ultimate opposition between his teaching
Quirinius 3.119. The positive form, however, and that of James who, in his letter, main-
was the most frequently quoted by the tained that the evidence of faith is the doing
church fathers. of good works (2:14, 17, 18, 22).
As a principle of conduct the Golden Rule The differences of Catholics and Protes-
is another way of stating, "You shall love tants in the Reformation period were around
your neighbor as yourself," and the Jerusa- the question whether reconciliation* was a
lem Targum on Lev. 19:18 adds the negative matter of faith alone or whether the faithful
Golden Rule to the earlier precept. But nei- signify their faith by their good works. None
ther statement represents a universally appli- doubted that the grace* of God, accepted by
cable norm, since our desires for ourselves faith*, was the efficient cause of justification.
are not necessarily commendable. It is no Aquinas, who is credited with maximum
accident that some quotations of the Rule concession to the necessity of good works,
qualify it to read "Whatever good thing you nevertheless is more Pauline than Jamesian
wish ," as Augustine testifies (City of God in ascribing the first movement of salvation
14.8). However, the function of the Golden to the believer's faith in God's justifying ini-
Rule or of "You shall love your neighbor as tiative (ST I-II. 13.8-9). But he also said that
yourself' is not to provide a rule of thumb for faith without works isfidesinformis and faith
all interpersonal relations. Rather, it is in- that leads to loving works is fides formata
tended to shatter the radical self-centered- (ST II-II.4.3-5). Augustine had taught that
ness that obscures our awareness of the rights good works established merit, but that grace
and needs of others. alone enabled humans to perform them (En-
Goodness 252
chiridion 107; Epistle 194.19). Calvin com- "the good" cannot be equivalent to "divinely
bated the Catholics for holding that "a man willed" unless God's will is good and unless
once reconciled to God through faith in we know that it is good (see Divine Com-
Christ is accounted righteous on account of mand Morality; Voluntarism). It is obvious
his good works" but added that "there is no too that we could not know this unless we
controversy between us and the schoolmen as had a prior knowledge of the good as a purely
to the beginning of justification" (Institutes moral, nonreligious category.
3.14.11). In some respects the Puritans (b) Moral goodness is objective. It actually
brought in a more moralistic belief in good inheres in the object of which it is predicated.
works than the earlier Reformers had, while Whether it so inheres in things and circum-
liberal Christianity with its Pelagian bias al- stances may well be doubted. But most of us
most made good works the beginning as well have no doubt that it inheres in those persons
as the end of salvation, one sect even setting to whom we attribute it. It is (we think) a
up a formula of belief: "salvation by charac- spiritual property of them. Yet modern em-
ter." piricists (such as Ayer and Nowell-Smith)
hold that goodness is entirely subjective. In
For fuller treatment of the differences be- calling a person "good" we are merely ex-
tween Catholics and Protestants, see A. pressing our "approval" of that person.
Ritschl, The Christian Doctrine of Justifica- The purely philosophical objections to
tion and Reconciliation (1870-74), ET 1900, subjectivism* are well stated by Brand Blan-
from an ethical Lutheran point of view; and shard in his Reason and Goodness (1961).
for a Catholic interpretation of the contro- These are confirmed by Christian theism. It
versy, see J. A. Moehler, Symbolism ( 1838),
5 is absurd to say that when we call God good
ET 1843, pt. I, ch. 5, section "Of Good we are simply expressing our approval of
Works." See also articles "Merit, Introduc- him. He is goodness, for in him essence and
tory," and "Merit, Christian," in HERE. existence are identical, so that creatures are
V. A. DEMANT good to the extent that they mirror him.
2. Teleological goodness. In this sense "the
Goodness good" signifies an end or goal in which a
In ethics goodness has two main senses. person or thing fulfills his, her, or its nature
1. Moral goodness. The aim of this article or specific form. While this sense can include
is to state the Christian view of goodness. But the first, it need not do so. It is logically
one must begin by affirming two principles possible to maintain that the good life for a
that fall within the scope of secular philoso- human being is one devoted to the pursuit of
phy. (let us say) wealth or fame.
(a) Moral goodness is irreducible, or The Christian and the non-Christian can
unique. Many attempts have been made to reach a large measure of agreement in their
equate it with a nonmoral factor. Thus hedo- views on goodness. They can agree on many
nists have equated it with "pleasure."* A of the qualities that make a person good (for
good action is one that produces pleasure (or instance, the cardinal virtues). Also they can
happiness) either for the agent or for some- agree on many of the values that constitute
one else. Others (e.g., Julian Huxley and C. the good life. This area of agreement is part
H. Waddington) have equated it with the di- of the lex naturae (see Natural Law).
rection of the evolutionary process. A good The specifically Christian contribution
action is one that satisfies the criteria which consists in the following elements:
a morally neutral study of evolution can pro- I. Moral goodness.
vide (see Evolutionary Ethics). All these at- (a) The ideal of goodness is the character
tempts to reduce moral to nonmoral terms of God. Jesus sums up his moral teaching in
were brought under the heading of the Natu- the words: "You, therefore, must be perfect,
ralistic Fallacy by G. E. Moore, whose refu- as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt.
tation of them in his Principia Ethica (1903) 5:48). The context makes it clear that the
is widely accepted by philosophers of every element in divine perfection that disciples are
school (see Naturalistic Ethics). to copy is self-giving love*. (The NT calls
This fallacy can take a religious form. God "love," not "goodness." But since his
Thus Ockham held that an act is good simply goodness is by nature self-diffusing, it is iden-
because God wills it. But it is obvious that tical with his love.)
253 Goodness
The view that moral goodness consists in erately pursue, it will evade us. Similarly if
the imitation of God's attributes was not we make goodness a goal that we try to reach
original. The Jewish law was summed up in by our unaided strength we shall both fail to
the precept, "You must be holy, for I am achieve it fully (on account of our inherent
holy." Plato and the Stoics also regarded sinfulness) and stand in danger of falling into
God as the model for human excellence*. the further sin of pride* by taking credit for
The originality of the gospel on this score the limited moral victories we may win.
consists in two facts: the incarnation and the Hence growth in humility* is always a con-
gift of the Spirit. stituent in, and sign of, moral progress.
The incarnation is primary. The apostolic (d) Christian goodness is essentially corpo-
writers urge converts to imitate the love, gen- rate in two ways. First, each Christian is in-
tleness, patience, and humility of Christ who debted to the guidance and encouragement
is the Word and Image of the Father. Fur- afforded by both past and present fellow
thermore, we participate in Christ through Christians. Secondly, it is God's purpose to
the Holy Spirit who is his "other self." Chris- establish, not merely good individuals, but a
tian goodness is thus doubly supernatural holy churcha community united by his tri-
(that is, beyond the scope of the natural intel- une love.
lect and will). 2. Teleological goodness. Augustine and
(b) Through Christ the content of moral Aquinas followed Plato and Aristotle in bas-
goodness is transformed. It is dominated by ing their ethics on the concept of the human
three virtues: faith*, hope*, and charity* being's "good" or "end." What can fulfill
Each of these exhibits the dependence of human nature and be the cause of permanent
Christian ethics on Christian revelation. beatitude? Not riches, fame, or pleasure; not
Human goodness consists in the imitation of even human friendship or the natural activity
God's love through faith and hope in Christ. of the human mind in seeking beauty, truth,
The church did not reject the natural virtues and moral goodness. Our final end is the vi-
described by pagan moralists. But two of its sion of God (see Finality; Teleological Eth-
greatest thinkersAugustine and Aquinas ics). Nothing less can satisfy our deepest
insisted that in the Christian life these virtues longings.
must be governed and transformed by charity This vision is related to moral goodness in
(see Cardinal Virtues; Virtue). two complementary ways. On the one hand,
Love* (agap) distinguished, and contin- it is through this vision (received partially
ues to distinguish, Christian from non-Chris- and indirectly now, but fully and "face to
tian forms of goodness. Although Greco- face" hereafter) that we grow in goodness.
Roman moralists sometimes commended On the other hand, the holier we become the
selfless generosity, they did not give it the more clearly we see God. From the merely
prominence it had in Christianity. Thus Aris- human standpoint goodness in the second
totle's ethics rested on the ideal of prudence* sense is wider than goodness in the first, for
(as the prerequisite of contemplation*), while God exceeds any moral goodness we are able
the Stoics preached self-sufficiency. More- to conceive. Yet in reality the senses coincide;
over, even the closest parallels to agap for the God who is our "good" is goodness
such as Buddhist "compassion"lack the (or holiness*), so that in our perfect vision of
example and motive power of God Incarnate. him per connaturalitatem morality is, not
(c) Christian goodness is unmerited. We abolished, but transformed.
cannot achieve it by our works; it is a gift of Teleology is overlapped by eschatology.
grace. Even if we were wholly virtuous on the According to the NT, our end (telos) will not
plane of nature, we could not claim supernat- be reached immediately after death. It will be
ural perfection as our due. As it is, we fail part of the "last stage" (eschaton) in God's
even to enact the lex naturae. We all know purpose for his whole creation. We shall not
the inner conflict that Paul described: "I do be perfectedwe shall not fully possess our
not do what I want, but I do the very thing moral good and reach our final end (the bea-
I hate" (Rom. 7:15). tific vision)until all things are summed up
As D. M. Baillie noted, there is a paradox in the Word by whom they were created (see
in acquiring goodness, just as there is in ac- Eschatological Ethics).
quiring happiness. If we make happiness (in The Christian attitude to the world is
the sense of "pleasure") an end that we delib- therefore "dialectical." On the one hand, we
Grace 254
accept it as the sphere in which we can grow Christian theologians have made distinc-
in goodness through submission to the will of tions with respect to the different functions or
God. On the other hand, we know that God's relationships in which grace is manifest. The
will cannot now be embodied fully either in central meaning remains always the mercy*
himself or in society. But we hope for a fulfill- and forgiveness* of God given freely to sin-
ment in the kingdom that is yet to come. ners along with the empowerment to meet
the demands of the new life, and to resist
I. Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good, 1970; temptation. The power of grace always re-
A. E. Taylor, The Faith of a Moralist vol. 1,
t mains God's power but it becomes operative
1930; G. F. Thomas, Christian Ethics and in humans and thus fulfills, sustains, and
Moral Philosophy, 1955, pt. 4. renews human nature.
H. P. OWEN In the biblical view all God's action is ulti-
mately gracious, for it expresses his love to-
Government see Politics; State; World ward the world. Hence there is an inevitable
Government; see also Anarchism; Anarchy extension of the use of the term "grace" to
cover all the divine action from creation to
Grace last things. Catholic theology has been based
Grace, charis, in its Greek religious usage upon the foundation of the distinction be-
means "divine gift" or "favor." Thus a tween prevenient grace and saving grace. The
"grace" was a quality or power usually be- former is God's sovereign will establishing
stowed by the gods, a quality that could be the world and electing his people to redemp-
exhibited by a mortal. The English word tion. The latter is God's forgiveness mediated
"graceful" reflects this meaning. to those who are brought within the company
Here as in so many cases the Christians of the saved, and mediated through the
used the Greek word in such a way as to church and the sacraments.
make it express a special meaning in the con- The Protestant Reformers tend to confine
text of the biblical understanding of the rela- the use of the term "grace" more strictly to
tionship of God and humanity. The founda- the forgiveness given in Christ. For them
tion of the NT meaning of grace is given in grace does not so much complete a human
the Hebrew hesed, God's mercy and love nature which has lost its endowment of faith
through which he overcomes and redeems and hope and love, as it re-creates an almost
the sin of his covenanted people. The Sep- totally fallen nature. At the same time Prot-
tuagint usually renders hesed by eleos, pity. estants developed a doctrine of common
There is evidence, however, that there was an grace which pointed to the uncovenanted
increasing tendency in the Hellenistic period mercies of God manifest in his provision for
to use charis. Thus the way is prepared for humankind in the orders of creation and in
the NT use of charis to express the specific the unexpected and creative events in life
redemptive action of God in Jesus Christ. which sustain and renew the human spirit.
Grace thus means the divine forgiveness* of The doctrine of grace has always raised
sin constituting the new creation, and it also questions about the relation of the divine
means the power of God communicated to power and mercy to the human moral situa-
those who enter upon the new life of faith*, tion. The distinction between grace as for-
hope*, and love*. Thus Paul says, we "are giveness and grace as empowerment sets the
justified by his grace as a gift, through the terms of the problem, for grace is asserted to
redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. deal with the problem of sin*, which has a
3:24), where grace is the quality and power of moral dimension, and it enables the person to
the divine action which redeems human be- love God and neighbor. Hence there has been
ings from sin. Paul also speaks of grace as the a continual discussion in theology of the rela-
continuing action of God which enables the tion of grace to human freedom* and action,
Christian to live the new life. "God is able to and there are perennial tensions in various
provide you with every blessing (grace) in theological standpoints.
abundance" (2 Cor. 9:8). Thus also the writer Certain major areas of concern can be dis-
of the letter to the Hebrews appeals to his tinguished:
hearers to have grace whereby we may serve 1. Grace is understood in the Christian
God acceptably with reverence* and godly tradition as the mercy of God which solves
fear (Heb. 12:28). the ultimate moral problem of human beings,
255 Grace
that is, their inability to fulfill the require- initial restoration to right relationship is
ments of perfect love* and obedience* to the achieved by God's action.
divine will. Grace as forgiveness transcends The issue here has divided Augustinians
all ethical categories, for it resolves the moral and Pelagians through the centuries. It ap-
problem at another level than that of moral pears not only in the theological debate but
justification or fulfillment. The doctrine of also between all those who find the moral
justification by faith* must be understood as situation of human beings that of being
meaning justification, that is, being made bound to powers they cannot control and
righteous, by grace which is received and those who assert humans' freedom to direct
grasped by faith, not by moral effort. It is true their action. The issue has appeared, for ex-
that grace so understood deals with more ample, between schools of psychology in the
than ethical failure, for sin is also a trans- modem period (see Free Will and Determi-
moral category. The sins of pride* and idola- nism; Freedom).
try* cannot be classified simply as immorali- The Augustinian position and all its fol-
ties. Yet sin as violation of the divine law, and lowers have tried to interpret the actual situa-
as specific acts of injury to self or neighbor, tion of the person who is not free to become
is moral wrongdoing, and the affirmation of what he or she ought to become, or wants to
the grace of God has always included its become. Empowerment must come from out-
power to restore the morally right relation- side. The problem of the position is to make
ship between a human being and God, and clear in what sense there is moral account-
between one human and another. ability for humans in this situation. The Pela-
2. The assertion of grace as empowerment gian theological tradition, as in Pelagius him-
to live the moral life raises the question of self, never rejected the concept of grace. But
human freedom and moral responsibility. it asserted that the human being as account-
Ethical systems which assert that only the able must retain some freedom and power of
free act can be understood as within the action toward moral growth and that the
realm of moral behavior have rejected the function of grace, therefore, is educative and
conception of humankind as dependent on cooperative.
grace for the power to act rightly. Kant as- 3. In the 20th century many Christian
serts that the structure of moral obligation theologians have attempted to show by an
implies the power of humans to fulfill the analysis of the ethical problem how the
moral requirement else it is meaningless. A search for meaning in the human moral expe-
strong argument for this point of view is rience leads to the need for grace, not only as
made by W. G. Maclagan in The Theological forgiveness for individual guilt, but as the
Frontier of Ethics (1961). He holds that redemptive power of the divine working in
moral action must be self-wrought to be history. This argument has been prompted by
moral action "even though there are environ- the increasing secularization* of human life
mental pressures and solicitations which ren- and the resulting questioning of the need for
der the will's action to an indefinite extent or relevance of grace as conceived in the reli-
easier or more difficult" (p. 131). His position gious tradition. The autonomous person has
is that "It is a condition of the very being of no need of grace. Christian apologists, many
a moral personality that a man's willing, in under the direct influence of Kierkegaard,
its goodness as in its badness, should be abso- such as Gogarten, Tillich, Barth, Bonhoeffer,
lutely his own, into which in neither case H. Richard Niebuhr, and Reinhold Niebuhr,
does God's action enter constitutively" (p. have sought to show through an analysis of
118). This would appear to mean that grace human moral existence and its ambiguities
operates wholly in a transmoral dimension of and failures that a meaningful human exis-
life. But from another theological standpoint tence cannot be secured through ethical prin-
the situation is more complex, for it is as- ciple and action alone. Realization of the
serted that human beings can recognize an wholeness of life amid the tragedies of history
obligation without being able of their own is possible only through reliance upon the
will to fulfill it, and that the actual moral divine redemptive working which can best be
experience is that of discovering a power be- designated by the word "grace." The media-
yond the self which enables one to make a tion of the divine mercy is present in com-
right response. Grace is sometimes described munities of acceptance and forgiveness,
as having a cooperating function once the within the recognized church and beyond it,
Gratitude 256
in which grace is present as the spirit of for- Obligations. Gift-based obligations root
giving love transcending the demand for largely in the gift's continuing identification
moral rectitude as the sole justification for with the donor and the donor's intentions in
human action. Thus the concept of grace set giving the gift (Mauss), a linkage that qual-
alongside the ultimate ethical dilemmas leads ifies and limits the recipient's ownership of
to a reconsideration of the theology of history the gift. Duties of gratitude take two major
and of the doctrine of the church. forms: grateful conduct toward the donor, by
which gratitude for the donor's beneficence is
W G. Maclagan, The Theological Frontier of shown; and grateful use of the gift, by which
Ethics, 1961; J. Moffatt, Grace in the New respect is shown for the significance of the
Testament, 1931; R. Niebuhr, The Nature gift itself, the context and the relationship in
and Destiny of Man, 2 vols., 1941 43, esp. which it was given, and the donor's inten-
vol. 2; J. Oman, Grace and Personality, 1917; tions for it. Duties of gratitude are freer and
W T. Whitley (ed.), The Doctrine of Grace, more flexible than contractual or promissory
1932. ones. For example, the donor cannot demand
DANIEL D. WILLIAMS recipient performance, and the recipient may
choose among several ways to fulfill gift-
Gratitude based obligations.
Gratitude and gift. Gratitude is the virtu- As moral stance. Finally, gratitude can
ally universally expected response to a gift as characterize the entire moral life of an agent
an unearned benefit from a well-intentioned or of a community when people see life as
giver. Gratitude becomes central to Christian extensively enriched by the generosity of per-
life and ethics when Christians take seriously sons or powers outside themselves. (Cf.
their confession that all they are and have Paul's challenge to the Corinthian Chris-
comes undeserved from God, that they live tians: "What have you that you did not re-
by grace* alone. The Hebrew barak (bless, ceive?" 1 Cor. 4:7.) The logic of such a grate-
blessing) and the Greek charis (grace, grati- ful stance should lead to generosity toward
tude) reveal the relatedness of "grace" and others.
"gratitude," of gift and appropriate response Problems. Unresolved problems concern-
to it. ing gift and gratitude as moral realities in-
Moral functions. Gratitude has several clude: tension between the free, nonobliga-
functions in the moral life. As motivation tory dynamics and the apparently obligatory
generating action reflecting one's thankful- ones; the similarities and dissimilarities be-
ness for past benefits, it is to be contrasted tween human and divine gift-giving and grat-
with the morally problematic motivation itude; the tension between the gift as an ex-
springing from future reward and punish- pression of generosity and benevolence
ment. Gratitude is also the appropriate atti- eliciting gratitude, and the gift as an instru-
tude or sentiment for a beneficiary to exhibit ment of domination eliciting resentment.
toward a donor. This interpretation compli-
cates gratitude's moral status, however, since P M. Blau, Exchange and Power in Social
attitudes are usually not thought to be under Life, 1964; P F. Camenisch, "Gift and Grati-
the agent's direct control as moral actions tude in Ethics," JRE 9, Spring 1981, pp. 1-
must be. Gratitude is sometimes treated as a 34; M. Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions
virtue, often linked to justice, reflecting the of Exchange in Archaic Societies (1925), ET
agent's readiness to respond appropriately to 1967; P. Tournier, The Meaning of Gifts, ET
the donor. Most likely to be overlooked 1963.
because in some tension with the widely pre- PAUL F. CAMENISCH
sumed spontaneous, voluntary, even optional
character of gratitudeis gratitude as Greed see Covetousness; Mammon; Prop-
grounding, or as itself being a form of obliga- erty; Wealth
tion of recipient to donor. Here gift-giving
and grateful response derive significance not Greek Ethics, Ancient
only from the personal relation between see Aristotelian Ethics; Cynics, Ethics of
donor and recipient but also from the larger the; Cyrenaics, Ethics of the; Epicurean-
cultural setting, which defines them as an ism, Ethics of; Platonic Ethics; Skeptics;
obligation-grounding sociomoral practice. Socratic Ethics; Sophists; Stoic Ethics
257 Guilt
Guidance see Casuistry; Conscience; person says he or she is guilty of. This phe-
Moral Theology; Norms nomenon has been demonstrated both in
Roman Catholic studies of scrupulosity* and
Guilt in dynamic psychology. Many guilt feelings
It is important to distinguish at the outset amount to an obsessive preoccupation with
between guilt as a moral or legal concept and one type of responsibility* as a defensive
guilt as a feeling. The former has a primary measure to avoid having to come to terms
objective reference to the breaking of some with other, deeper, and even more threaten-
law or commandment or some accepted code ing problems. Since the guilt feelings are
or standard of values. One does not have to painful, the "inner avenging forces" of the
acknowledge culpability to be adjudged personality are satisfied, but at the price of
guilty in this sense. Roman Catholic moral concealing the true conflict and hence of
theology makes a further distinction between rendering ineffective the measures of atone-
"formal" guilt (the willful commission of a ment adopted. All of these variations on the
transgression) and "material" guilt (which normative relationship of guilt feelings to ob-
involves no act of will). jective guilt can be characterized as neurotic
People who are guilty of some actual trans- guilt.
gression may also experience guilt feelings, There are many conflicting theories about
that is, feelings of distress such as self- the origin of guilt both in the human race and
reproach, self-blame, remorse*, anxiety* in the individual person. There does appear
Ideally these are unpleasant enough to stimu- to be an interrelationship between guilt, hos-
late remedial or expiatory action. A common tility, and anxiety. Guilt is often contrasted
sequence of such action is repentance*, con- with shame*, which arises with the threat of
fession*, seeking of forgiveness, reparation. being exposed in our inadequacies. The
Here the guilt feelings (the sense of guilt) are Christian understanding of the sinner's guilt
performing their normative function. If there before God begins at the point where that
were no capacity for guilt in human beings, guilt is effectively dealt with, at the cross of
there could be no sense of responsibility in Jesus Christ. In consequence, the Christian
personal relationships. One way of under- who continues to feel guilty about his or her
standing guilt feelings is to see them as signal- sin is exhibiting something of the neurotic
ing that some act or omission on our part has guilt noted above.
broken or put at risk a relationship important The new insights into guilt raise some
to us. The feelings exist to impel appropriate acute questions for ethics and for theology
effort to heal the breach. generally. There are ways of proclaiming for-
As social and ethical norms change, so the giveness*, for example, that play into the
behaviors about which it is seen as appropri- helplessness which underlies some of the hos-
ate to feel guilty also change. In Western tility element in guilt feelings and which
culture, guilt over masturbation, for exam- therefore compounds the problem. There are
ple, is now widely seen as inappropriate, and many areas of ethical debate in which the
in many subcultures the appropriateness of complex role of guilt has been inadequately
guilt with respect to other forms of sexual explored, especially from a Christian per-
expression is ambiguous. Guilt feelings re- spective. These include bioethics, sexual eth-
quire an internalization of norms, and when ics, euthanasia, politics and international re-
the norms themselves are in question the lations, and the whole area of ethics and
guilt feelings (if any) can be quite unpredict- criminology. The issue of diminished respon-
able in effect and intensity. sibility raises questions for ethics, as does the
Guilt feelings may also be experienced by difference between the criminal who is
people who are, in the objective sense, not caught accidentally and the one who uncon-
guilty of any transgression. And guilt feelings sciously arranges things so that he or she will
may persist after all appropriate remedial be caught.
measures have been taken. Guilt may remain In recent years the notion of social or col-
a potent motivating factor in human behav- lective guilt has become important (see Col-
ior but not be felt as guilt at all. It is also lective Responsibility). Groups, and even na-
common for guilt feelings to be displaced, tions, have been spoken of as being influenced
that is, for the feelings to be aroused by some- in their present policies by an often undefined
thing quite different from whatever it is the sense of responsibility for past actions (in-
Habit 258
eluding actions of a past generation). Issues closely to particular understandings of the
of ethical significance, such as land rights for learning process. William James pioneered
aboriginal peoples in many countries, are the modern understandings of habit at the
often complicated by such a sense of guilt. close of the 19th century. He and John B.
Similarly, many issues of international rela- Watson (1925) proposed that habits are
tions are made more complex by the expecta- formed as consequences of the establish-
tion that West Germany (for example) ment of definite pathways in the nervous
should continue to feel guilty about Nazi system which are reinforced by repetition
atrocities. (conditioning) and which tend to fade if not
repeated. Many experimental psychologists
A. H. Becker, Guilt: Curse or Blessing? 1977; have adopted this basic position, and thera-
L. J. Sherrill, Guilt and Redemption, rev. ed. pies (aversion therapies and behavior thera-
1957. pies) have been devised to break the old
GRAEME M. GRIFFIN habits and form new ones by planned coun-
terconditioning. Dynamic psychologists
Habit have put their stress on the development
The word "habit" is used generally of well- and maintenance of habits as stereotyped
defined patterns of behavior or modes of forms of reaction to internal stresses and
thought in which a person engages without conflicts. They have been concerned primar-
having consciously to initiate the process on ily with such "habit disorders" as nail-bit-
each occasion or to give assent to each step ing, bed-wetting (enuresis), and temper tan-
in the process. Explicit decisions, trial-and- trums. Psychoanalysis has stressed the
error judgments, and conscious acts of will importance of the psychosexual develop-
may well have been necessary to establish the mental stages in personality in the forma-
pattern, but once it has become established, tion of habits. Others have stressed the role
it assumes a certain autonomy. One need not of social forces and of imitation. The dy-
even be aware that the habitual action takes namic position, in its various forms, warns
place; in the common phrase, it is done that even the best-intentioned will is ulti-
"without thinking." mately powerless to break or modify a habit
The formation of habits is important in if the internal conditions that led to the for-
everyday life. It makes learning possible and mation of the habit are not dealt with effec-
reduces the time and effort involved in re- tively. Roman Catholic theology speaks of
peated activities. Our habits reflect our in- supernatural habits, i.e., the gifts of the
dividuality, since they include characteristic Holy Spirit and "the infused theological and
patterns of thinking and ways of speaking moral virtues" which have the effect of
and responding to the world around us. The uplifting and shaping the "natural" habits.
unreflective nature of habits can sometimes See Character; Virtue; Cardinal Virtues;
mean that we behave in stereotyped ways Theological Virtues.
that are not appropriate for some particular
occasions. Some habits (the addictions) are J. B. Watson, Behaviorism, 1925.
sustained by physiological needs created by GRAEME M. GRIFFIN
the substances first used to satisfy psycholog-
ical desires. Handicapped, Care of the
Ethical distinctions between "good" and An impairmentwhich results from a dis-
"bad" habits are commonly based on cultural ease, disorder, accident, or defective gene
judgments about those acts or modes of can be anatomical, physiological, or mental.
thought acceptable or unacceptable to partic- If the impairment persists and interferes with
ular groups. The perceived goodness or bad- an individual's ability to do something (e.g.,
ness reflects the values of the group. Another breathe, walk, talk, see, hear, speak, take care
basis for differentiation is whether a particu- of personal needs, perform manual tasks,
lar habit frees or inhibits the person for the learn, or work), we say that person has a
responsible discharge of his or her obliga- disability. When a disability, in interaction
tions. with environmental conditions, causes an in-
Specific theories as to how habits are dividual to have a permanently or temporar-
formed, broken, or modified are related ily limited adaptability in performing one or
259 H a n d i c a p p e d , Care of t h e
more major life activities, we say he or she is others hold categorically that individuals
handicapped. lacking self-consciousness and/or a potential
One ethical issue in the care of the handi- for some meaningful level of human relation-
capped is labeling. Labeling persons as hand- ship lack the moral status required to ground
icapped is useful for procuring special ser- a serious duty to preserve life. Different from
vices, but may so stigmatize the disabled that these principle-based approaches are those
they receive a new handicap, for the social which appeal to ethical models of behavior
identity created by the label may invite others that present values for emulation: e.g., the
to prejudge the subjects' capacities, under- values inherent in the parents' response of
estimate the importance of their views, and bonding with their retarded child.
thus reduce their chances for habilitation. A fourth issue pertains to welfare services
Second, issues of the overall style and qual- for the handicapped (e.g., special education,
ity of the care of the handicapped are best medical care, and housing). Norms govern-
addressed through virtues. Compassion* is ing these services focus on charity, rights,
the virtue* by which, on the basis of a deep and justice. In one model that joins love with
feeling of sharing the suffering of others, we political power, namely, in a liberation theol-
are inclined to stand by them (the handi- ogy*, the aim of charity* would be to provide
capped), alleviate their suffering, and offer all the handicapped the means to as much
them assistance in the suffering that cannot freedom as possible from their plight, includ-
be eliminated. Care*, which is related to ing the social power and specific remedies
friendship* and love*, is a virtue where- required for them to be personally and
by one person is inclined to pay close and spiritually liberated. In another model,
respectful attention and offer thoughtful which disengages love from political power,
service to the other (the handicapped) in a the duty in charity is to see to it that the
relationship that is characterized by a com- church teaches its members how to patiently
mitment to help the other grow, in part by love the tragically weak and disadvantaged
helping the person care for himself or herself (e.g., the handicapped) as neighbors, without
and something or someone else. Stanley measuring that love in terms of its effective-
Hauerwas mentions other virtues that sup- ness in changing worldly structures.
port this virtue of care: patience (to wait even Human and legal rights of the handi-
when the other fails); honesty* (to tell the capped to welfare services are strong claims
truth even when it is unpleasant); trust* (to recognized, for example, by the United Na-
let the other take the risk of the unknown); tions and by legislative and judicial authori-
and humor (that the other may know that no ties, and supported by moral arguments that
mistake is a decisive defeat). are sometimes rooted in notions of the dig-
A third issue is the survival of the handi- nity of all humans (see Human Dignity;
capped, especially in a medical context (see Human Rights). While remarkable benefits
Euthanasia; Life, Prolongation of). In this have been gained for handicapped persons
complex debate the general tendency in through rights language, one objection
Christian ethics is to defend a principle pro- among several is that of practicability: many
hibiting direct and deliberate killing of the specific rights claims are for maximum ser-
handicapped, and a prima facie principle that vices or a very high level that cannot be met
human life should be sustained, particular- by many governments because of poor or
ly by those holding special responsibilities. shifting economies.
There is considerable debate, however, on Justice*, regarded as a norm for treating
whether certain kinds of mental or physical people fairly, raises the issue of equal treat-
disabilities should either place a qualification ment of the handicapped, for equality* is an
on the fundamental normative value of life essential characteristic of fair distribution
and hence on the prima facie duty to preserve (see also Fairness). Robert Veatch points out
lifeor be included among those so-called that an egalitarian foundation for justice
"extraordinary" factors (hardship and suffer- affecting the handicapped is emphasized by
ing) that can limit such a duty. While some biblical and early Christian themes: the radi-
defend a more egalitarian principle of life sus- cal equality of all humans before God, the
tenance (though placing limits when circum- bond of mutual responsibility among all hu-
stances of suffering or hardship warrant it), mans arising from their having the same di-
Happiness 260
vine Parent, and the concept of stewardship* in Defining; Health Care, Right to; Sick,
that places restraints on ownership of prop- Care of the; Social Service of the Church;
erty* One reasonable concept of equality Welfare State.
equality of opportunity to function at a level
commensurate with one's abilitiescan ac- M. Cohen, T. Nagel, and T. Scanlon (eds.),
count for highly controversial preferential Equality and Preferential Treatment, 1977;
policies, which require socioeconomic redis- S. Hauerwas, with R. Bondi and D. Burrell,
tribution and the neglect of some claims of Truthfulness and Tragedy, 1977; R. F. Weir,
the nonhandicapped. For example, the main- Selective Nontreatment of Handicapped New-
streaming of mentally and physically handi- borns: Moral Dilemmas in Neonatal Medi-
capped children in public schools requires cine, 1984.
costly adjustments: architectural changes, WARREN THOMAS REICH
special education and rehabilitation pro- Happiness
grams, therapies, equipment, and extra per- The distinction between happiness and pleas-
sonnel. A theory of justice can justify prefer- ure* is frequently blurred. In ordinary lan-
ential policies by linking distributive justice guage happiness is frequently used to indicate
with social justicethe justice that is con- a more stable, less intense state than pleasure;
cerned with a vision of the general welfare for instance, one speaks of the happiness of a
and the goods that a society should promote marriage, but of the pleasure of an orgasm.
and share in meeting needs that are crucial to Yet one could hardly predicate happiness of
human flourishing. a life that was altogether without pleasure.
A fifth issue pertains to the setting and While those teleological moralists who have
goals of care. Institutionalization is some- favored utilitarian conceptions of moral obli-
times justified, for example, when the men- gation have (apart from the late Professor G.
tally ill will cause physical harm to them- E. Moore and his followers) usually adopted
selves or others, or when care of the a hedonist conception of the end of moral
profoundly and severely or hyperactive re- action, those moralists who have combined
tarded would cause a major hardship to the teleological ideas with the rejection of
family who cannot be adequately aided by utilitarianism* have inclined to speak of a
community-based assistance. Deinstitution- happy life as the end of human beings, happi-
alization and normalization of the care of the ness being found in, and sometimes identified
mildly to severely mentally impaired has with, a life of fulfillment and harmony both
been promoted on the basis of several princi- within the individual and in that individual's
ples: the humanization of care, better pro- relations with others (see Teleological Eth-
moted in a family and community setting; the ics; Eudaemonism).
promotion of the freedom of the handicapped In much contemporary thinking about
by the least restrictive reasonable care; the ethics the notion of happiness is frequently
utility to be gained from the productivity of invoked in criticism of moral conceptions
the handicapped; the enhancement of their which exalt such ideas as duty, obedience to
sense of self-worth by moving from the de- superiors and established traditions, heroic
pendency of an institution to an environment engagement, and even commitment, and at
that promotes personal responsibility; and least by implication depreciate the signifi-
the reduction of public costs for institutional- cance of the individual's concern for his or
ization. Conflicts often occur among these her own and others' welfare. Against such
principles: reduction of costs is sometimes views (not without their representatives
achieved by housing the handicapped in com- among avant-garde theologians) the impor-
munity residences but in violation of the tance of happiness as an unsophisticated, but
principles of humanization of care and comprehensive, human end receives justified
enhancement of self-worth, due to the low and intelligible emphasis.
standards of the housing, poor training op-
portunities, and de facto segregation. Fre- E. Telfer, Happiness, 1980.
quently, all these principles are defeated by D. M. MACKINNON
the unwillingness of others to share their
neighborhoods with those who deviate from Harm
familiar standards of normalcy. Harm is damage to a person's interests, for
See Genetics; Health and Disease, Values example, in physical integrity, psychological
261 Health a n d Disease, V a l u e s in D e f i n i n g
ing of hell as a present reality recovers the In the principal Upanisads (8th to 5th cen-
essential strands of ancient thought without turies B.c.) there is to be found the beginnings
committing us to its eternal torments. of a theory, later to become commonly ac-
See Rewards and Punishments; Sanctions; cepted in Indian philosophy, about the ends
Heaven. of human life. These ends are: wealth (artha ),
desire (karma), and duty (dharma)all of
Dante, The Divine Comedy; K. Barth, which should in principle subserve the su-
Church Dogmatics III/3, ET 1961; A. Hux- preme end of liberation or salvation (moksa).
ley, Heaven and Hell, 1956; C. S. Lewis, The Since much, though not all, of Hindu
Screwtape Letters, 1942; The Great Divorce, thought has conceived of the means of libera-
1945; A. Winklhofer, The Coming of His tion as involving the practice of meditation
Kingdom, ET 1963. (yoga) and of withdrawal from worldly con-
ULRICH SIMON cerns, this theory of ends has been made
practically consistent by a theory about
Environment and Heredity
Heredity see stages of life (sramas), which assigns differ-
ent pursuits to different phases of the individ-
Hermeneutics see Interpretation ual's career (by extension, the doctrine of
reincarnation performs a rather similar func-
Heteronomy tion). Thus wealth, desire, and duty are ends
Kant condemns as "heteronomous" (as op- for the family man or householder; one grad-
posed to "autonomous") any system that uates to this position after a period as a celi-
tries to derive ethics from anything but the bate student. Gradually the householder, as
nature of the rational will as such. He in- his children reach maturity, withdraws from
cludes under heteronomous systems egoistic these concerns; and the highest ideal is to
hedonism, the moral sense theory, the meta- reach the fourth asrama, that of the wander-
physical theory which derives morality from ing recluse or sannysin, bent solely upon
the concept of perfection, and any theological spiritual knowledge and attainment. Since
theory of ethics. They are considered het- the realm of caste is defined by dharma, and
eronomous because they all derive ethics since the recluse has left dharma behind, he
from something else, thus destroying its is beyond caste and beyond social custom.
unique character. This human arrangement is reflected in the
See Autonomy; Autonomy of Ethics; doctrine sometimes stated in the Hindu tradi-
Kantian Ethics. tion that likewise the Divine Being is "be-
A. C. EWING yond good and evil."
The particular duties falling upon a person
Hindu Ethics are defined by his social station. Certain rules
Ethical attitudes within Hinduism possess a (vegetarianism and abstention from liquor)
complex diversity. Hinduism or the "Ever- apply to Brahmins, but not necessarily to
lasting Law" (santana dharma) is the result other classes. The tensions created by such an
of the synthesis of a whole variety of religious ethical pluralism are expressed in the prob-
and cultural elements in the Indian subconti- lem facing Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Glt, be-
nent. Since it contains within it a spectrum of fore the battle to which he was committed
theologies and customs, its unity is in certain and in which he would have to fight against,
respects rather formal. Thus on the theologi- and perhaps kill, relatives and friends.
cal side, Hindus look to the Veda or sacred Krishna, in the guise of Arjuna's charioteer,
revelation, but the interpretations placed tells him that inactive detachment from the
thereon differ very widely; while the unity of world is impossible. It remains Arjuna's duty
customs is provided by the framework of the to fight, for this duty belongs to his station in
caste system, in which diversities are related life. On the other hand he should practice a
through a complex of exclusive social catego- kind of active detachmentby renouncing
ries. Certain motifs, however, in Hindu ethi- the fruits of the deeds that he performs, and
cal thinking can be picked out; and it hap- by performing them for the sake of the Lord.
pens that in the modern period (from about In this way liberation (moksa) will be
the beginning of the 19th century) there is an granted by God. This teaching in the Git is
increasing consensus on doctrinal and moral in opposition to a widely held belief in an-
beliefs among educated Hindus. cient Indiathat any action (even a good
Hippocratic Oath 268
one) is liable to bind one to the world and to gram, which has helped to reinforce the puri-
the process of rebirth. It also expresses the tanism of contemporary Indian society. Yet
relationship between faith in God and action in terms of the total fabric of Hindu life it
which was to be worked out more fully in would be misleading to regard its ethic as
medieval Indian theism, with its stress on "world-negating."
self-surrender to the Lord.
The Git encourages the warrior to fight S. C. Crawford, The Evolution of Hindu Ethi-
on the ground that "there is more happiness cal Ideals, 1974; I. C. Sharma, Ethical
in doing one's own duty badly than in do- Philosophies of India, 1965; S. Thakur, Chris-
ing another's weir'; but paradoxically it tian and Hindu Ethics, 1970; B. Walker,
was the favorite spiritual reading of Gandhi Hindu World, 2 vols., 1968; R. C. Zaehner,
(1869-1948), who was deeply committed to Hinduism, 1962.
ahims or nonviolence. He was giving a po- NINIAN SMART
litical dimension to another ancient motif in
Indian ethicsthe careful reverence for all Hippocratic Oath
forms of life, and by consequence the refrain- Hippocrates of Cos (c. 460-c. 377 B.C.) has
ing from slaughter and cruelty to animals. long been thought to have formulated the
On the other hand, the provisions of the an- oath that bears his name, but modern schol-
cient legal code could make applications of arship has discredited the tradition. As the
this sense of the sacredness of both human "Father of Medicine" he remains an almost
and nonhuman life which effectively cheap- ghostly figure about whom much legend has
ened the former. Thus the killing of a sdra gathered. Literary and historical criticism
(a person belonging to the lowest of the four have also shown that the earliest extant ver-
recognized classes) by a Brahmin attracted sion of the Oath is of the 9th century A.D.
the same penalty as the killing of a dog or cat. The Greek pioneer in experimental physiol-
The last two centuries have seen a renais- ogy, Galen, who about A.D. 200 edited the
sance of Hinduism, partly under the stimulus Hippocratic Collection of treatises on medi-
of the challenge presented by Western cul- cal subjects (for which no "canon" is any
ture and Christianity. Reformers, beginning longer possible), appears to have done some-
with Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), ad- thing with the Oath. There is a considerable
vocated social changes, social service was literature dealing with the critical problems
seen as flowing from the principles of reli- involved, comparable to studies of parts of
gion, as in the teaching and practical endeav- the biblical materials. Investigation by mod-
ors of the Ramakrishna Mission, expressed ern methods shows that the Oath and
most articulately by Swami Vivekananda other parts of the "Hippocratic" corpus have
(1862-1902). Gandhi, on the basis of the gone through untraceable and myriad
Hindu tradition itself, attacked casteism, and changes at the hands of scribes, booksellers
in particular the exclusion of untouchables or manuscript merchants, and expositors.
(whom he renamed Harijans, "children of Its earliest versions appear to have been
God") from social and religious life. In addi- indenture agreements between master physi-
tion, modern Hindus have seen as central to cians and their apprentice-pupils, probably at
religious attitudes the virtue of tolerance, the point of their becoming independent
which reflects the all-embracing nature of practitioners. Thus the opening promisei
Hinduism, together with the long, at least were to be loyal to the master and to hand 0$
partial, emphasis on nonviolence in the tradi- medical knowledge to his descendants free of
tion. It is thus a common criticism of West- charge, if they want it. This part has beei
ern Christianity that it often seems (to Indian generally dropped from current versions, a$
eyes) to be exclusive and intolerant. These schools of medicine have replaced apprentie^
modern developments have given a new dy- training and as their graduation rituals havf
namic to the Upanisadic text that stresses taken to administering the Oath as a corpo*
the centrality of self-control (dama), giving rate promise, en bloc, in the second persona
(dna) and mercy (daya). plural. Physicians are nowadays asked il
The first of these is a reminder that the each case to swear their professional oath^
religious path in Hinduism has often been "by whatever he holds most sacred," thuj
conceived as involving austerity and with- allowing for the religious and nonreligiou)
drawal, elements present in Gandhi's pro- pluralism* of modern culture. The very earll
269 Holiness
est versions may have had no vow* at all, not been against the unsafe and medically un-
even to Aesculapius (son of Apollo and fa- sound use of abortifacients in ancient Greece.
ther of Panacea, medicine's god-sponsor, and The fourth promise, like the first, is an
Hygeia, health's). There are grounds for undisputed principle of medical respect for
viewing the Oath as ethically archaic^ professional confidences, and has considera-
A logical reduction of the Oath yields four ble (but not universal or constant) support in
promises of ethical importance for medicine: civil law; moral and legal exceptions are
(1) to make the patient's interests supreme taken when the preservation of such secrets
(my work will be "for the benefit of my pa- would victimize innocent third parties, as in
tients" and "not for their hurt or for any the case of a seaside lifeguard suffering from
wrong"); (2) to refuse to give a "deadly drug serious cardiac failure and unwilling to let it
to any, though it be asked of me"; (3) to be known (see Confidentiality).
refuse to terminate any pregnancies, that is, See Bioethics; Codes of Ethics; Medical
"aid a woman to procure abortion"; and (4) Ethics; Professional Ethics.
to preserve professional secrets and the pa-
tients' privilege of communication ("whatso- L. Edelstein, Ancient Medicine, ed. O. Tem-
ever things I see or hear" in medical attend- kin and C. L. Temkin, 1967.
ance "which ought not to be noised abroad" JOSEPH FLETCHER
will be kept as "sacred secrets"). (See text at
Professional Ethics.) Holiness
The first promise is undisputed as an ideal, For the Judeo-Christian ethical tradition ho-
but nevertheless is constantly infringed by liness is first and foremost a divine attribute,
the increase of direct human medical ex- indicating the radical otherness of God's
perimentation with new drugs and proce- inner world. The supreme majesty and purity
dures (see Experimentation with Human of what Rudolf Otto termed the "numinous"
Subjects). Sometimes these experiments and inspires in humans awed reverence before
tests are carried out without the patients' "the divine ground of being" (Tillich). Yet it
knowledge and could not practically be re- is this overwhelmingly thrice-holy God (cf.
vealed or interpreted, their moral defense Isa. 6:3) who has chosen to be "the Holy One
being rested on claims of the general welfare. of Israel" (Isa. 41:14), and Israel is conse-
Issues arise around a fair interpretation of quently to be differentiated from other na-
"benefit" and "hurt" and "wrong." tions as "a people holy to the LORD" (Deut.
The second promise has commonly been 14:2), called to "be holy, for I am holy" (Lev.
broadened to mean a repudiation of eu- 11:44). The "Holiness Code" at the heart of
thanasia*. But this vow is thought to have the book of Leviticus (chs. 17-26) spells out
been originally aimed against physicians in terms of institutions and of ritual as well
becoming accessories to poison murders and as moral cleanness the purity of worship and
assassination, especially political and famil- life incumbent upon God's holy people, and
ial. Some scholars have reasoned that the Py- in the process designates certain places,
thagoreans, with their mystical doctrine of times, objects, and priestly persons as set
escape from this life to another, were the tar- apart and sacrosanct, in some sense charged
gets aimed at, but disciples of Hippocrates with God's own holy presence.
actually engaged in direct medical eu- Within the new covenant this divine other-
thanasia. (Indirect euthanasia, "letting the ness is focused upon Jesus, who was con-
patient go" in extremis, is not in question.) ceived of the Holy Spirit to be called holy
(See Life, Prolongation of.) One scholar, (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35), and who "sanc-
Ludwig Edelstein, recently offered a new the- tified" himself to his "holy Father" so that
ory: that the Oath was in fact of Pythagorean his followers might be made holy in the truth
design, not aimed against them. of his word and protected in the world (John
The third promise, if taken to be against 17:11, 15-19). The church of God thereafter
abrtion* as such, runs into trouble with the is composed of those made holy in Christ
modern acceptance of voluntary medical or Jesus (1 Cor. 1:2), who have been chosen out
"therapeutic" abortion, and with voluntary to be washed clean and made holy and spot-
terminations for "nonmedical" causes (men- less through Christ's own self-dedication
tal health and social welfare). But there is (Eph. 1:4; 5:25-27). They are a chosen race,
good ground for taking the promise to have the "holy nation" foreshadowed in Israel and
Homicide 270
called by the Holy One to be themselves holy all Christian ethics the "numinous" qualities
in all their conduct, as befits saints (1 Peter of being both captivating and daunting in its
1:15-16; 2:9; Eph. 5:3). Thus singled out moral purity. But as it was God who chose
rather than set apart, they will devote all us from the beginning to "be saved through
their actions "to righteousness for sanctifica- sanctification by the Spirit" (2 Thess. 2:13),
tion" (Rom. 6:19), so manifesting that "holi- so it is the Lord who will accept our offerings
ness and righteousness" which was promised "sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:16)
by God of old (Luke 1:75), personified in and establish our hearts "unblamable in holi-
God's "Holy and Righteous One" (Acts 3: ness" at the coming of our Lord Jesus "with
14), and now a consequence of God's renewal all his saints" (1 Thess. 3:13).
of creation in his own likeness "in true righ- See Ascetical Theology; Perfectionism;
teousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:23-24). Righteousness; Sanctification.
Holiness, then, for the individual Christian
unites the characteristics of divine initiative R. Otto, The Idea of the Holy, ET 1923.
(election), distinctiveness from all that is not
of God, and dedication to God's holy pur- J. MAHONEY
pose. It is an eschatological participation in
God's own righteousness, in which, as Aqui- Holocaust see Anti-Semitism; Genocide
nas observed, "grace is nothing else than a
beginning of glory in us" (ST II-II.24.3, ad Homicide
2). It is not a quality that by contrast brands It is necessary to distinguish between types of
the creaturely as profane and unclean, or that homicide (the taking of human life) that can
differentiates between sacred and secular, be said to be accidental, culpable, or justifia-
whether in times, places, or states of life. For ble.
the hour has come when the whole of crea- Accidental. It is not difficult to think of
tion is now God's holy place and sphere of situations in which a person has been killed
action (cf. Ps. 24:3; John 4:21). Rather, it is as a result of actions that have been in no
a gift that betokens inner transformation to sense willed either by the dead person or by
recognize "what is good and acceptable and others. A mountaineer might slip and knock
perfect" (Rom. 12:1-2). It entails a horror of a colleague, who falls to his death as the rope
moral defilement (cf. 2 Cor. 7:1) and requires snaps which links him with his companions.
a complete break with one's former state of Let it be assumed that he and his friends were
death, darkness, and sin (cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-11). fit and qualified to make the climb, and that
In God, and therefore in his saints, holiness there had been no negligence* when they
is a consecration of power in the service of checked the serviceableness of the climbing
love. It combines the mystery of holy election gear. It is evident that in this and all compa-
with that of God's will to save all people (1 rable instances neither the victim nor his as-
Tim. 2:4); and God's moral requirements for sociates are morally blameworthy.
his holy ones are no set of voluntarist injunc- Culpable. A person's right to life is con-
tions, but a revelation of his own concern for ferred upon him or her not by other persons
universal justice. but by God, the Lord and giver of all life. My
It is God's intrinsic holiness that prevents life is my own to use and fulfill, but God
him from imitating humans in being venge- remains its absolute owner, and I am answer-
ful: "For I am God and not man, the Holy able to God for my use and treatment of it.
One in your midst, and I will not come to Since life does not belong to human beings
destroy" (Hos. 11:9). Similarly, it is only the absolutely, it is not within the moral compe-
righteousness of God's kingdom that will en- tence of any individual deliberately to de-
able his sons and daughters to rise above stroy it. Thus, it is never permissible to make
themselves and love even their persecutors, any deliberate attack upon the life of oneself
so imitating their heavenly Father who is or of another person (even at the other's invi-
"perfect" in his undiscriminating love (Matt. tation), whether such an attack be the imme-
5:44^48). In fact, the Sermon on the Mount, diate effect or the inevitable, foreseen, and
which is a disquisition on the righteousness directly intended consequence of one's action
of the Christian disciple (Matt. 5:20), is also (or inaction). When such an attack is made
the deployment in human history of divine and death ensues, it is an instance of culpable
integrity and holiness. As such, it shares with homicide. This is the act of murder to which
the Sixth Commandment refers. Examples of
271 Homosexuality
culpable homicide include compulsory and tially of a "defensive" kind), a soldier cannot
voluntary euthanasia*, infanticide*, and sui- rightly be accused of unjustifiable homicide
cide* ("self-murder"), though there are now when the taking of an enemy's life becomes
disputes about which acts fall under these an unavoidable consequence of the perform-
descriptions and whether they are always ance of his or her military duty to disarm the
culpable. In any particular case the degree of enemy. Whether in any particular instance a
culpability will depend upon all the circum- country may truly be said to be engaged in a
stances in which the act was committed, in- just war is another question; and it is a matter
cluding the mental condition of the offender of present debate whether the "defending"
or offenders. country could continue to claim that it was
Justifiable. It is sometimes claimed that in engaged in an otherwise just war the moment
no circumstances can an action be justified it resorted to the use of nuclear bombs and
which involves the taking of human life. missiles, which are by their nature, and in
This, however, has not been the traditional varying degrees, weapons of indiscriminate
Christian view. The right to life implies the destruction (see Deterrence; Nuclear War-
right to protect and defend one's own life or fare).
the life of another person against an unjust See also Crime; Life, Prolongation of;
attack. Since the defense can only be effective Life, Sacredness of; Pacifism; Resistance.
if it is in proportion to the violence of the
unjust attack, it is possible that in the act of K. Barth, Church Dogmatics III/4, ET 1961;
defending himself or another the victim may P. E. Devine, The Ethics of Homicide, 1978.
kill the assailant. In such a case, assuming THOMAS WOOD
that any appeal to public justice was at the
time out of the question, it may be said that Homosexuality
the defendant acted justifiably and was in no Homosexuality is the presence of a predomi-
sense guilty of homicide. His purpose was not nant and persistent psychosexual attraction
to kill his adversary but only to preserve his toward members of the same sex. The homo-
own or another person's life against an unjust sexual orientation must be distinguished
attack (see Double Effect). It would be an act from same-gender sexual acts, which may be
of culpable homicide only if the victim could engaged in by persons who are predomi-
have been adequately defended without caus- nantly heterosexual or which may be re-
ing the assailant's death. It is by this same frained from by celibate homosexual persons.
principle of self-defense against unjust ag- Today many same-sex oriented persons in the
gression* that capital punishment* and kill- USA and Britain prefer the terms "gay men"
ing in war* can be justified. Under God the and "lesbians" to "homosexuals," believing
state* is responsible for the maintenance of that the latter term carries negative clinical
law* and order* and the protection of its associations and conveys a narrow genital
citizens as a whole. This implies the right to focus in the definition of the person.
adopt the extreme measure of the capital Presently, there exists no scientific consen-
punishment of particular offenders when the sus on the causes of homosexuality or, for
state cannot otherwise fulfill its general duty that matter, of heterosexuality. However, be-
of defense. When, however, the state finds it cause traditionally homosexuality has been
no longer necessary to exercise this right, it viewed in most Western societies as a diver-
cannot justly continue to do so and it should gence from normal sexual development and
revise its criminal code accordingly. At any orientation, a wide variety of theories regard-
given period opinions may differ about the ing its causation have arisen. Such explana-
correct interpretation of the available rele- tions currently can be grouped as biological,
vant information; but many countries have psychoanalytic, and social learning theories,
already concluded that with them capital or some combination thereof. The best that
punishment* can safely be abolished. The can be said is that little is understood conclu-
state is also responsible under God for the sively about the genesis of either homosexual
protection of the lives and property of its or heterosexual orientation. There appears to
citizens against unjust attack from without. be general agreement, however, on several
The fulfillment of this duty may involve the ethically relevant factors: (1) that basic sex-
extreme measure of resorting to war. Thus in ual orientation becomes relatively fixed in
a just war* (which is, by definition, essen- early childhood, usually by ages five to seven,
Homosexuality 272
quite apart from the individual's conscious hospitality to strangers (see Ezek. 16:49-50).
choice; (2) that efforts to reorient adult sex- The references in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timo-
ual preference may change certain sexual thy quite clearly take the sordid and dehu-
behaviors but do not usually have significant manizing dimensions of Greco-Roman ped-
or lasting effect upon feelings, desires, and erasty as their image of homosexual
sexual fantasy; (3) that most persons are nei- relations. The uncompromising condemna-
ther exclusively heterosexual nor exclusively tion in Leviticus is clear, though it must be
homosexual but have predominant tenden- understood in the context of the concern for
cies toward one of those orientations; and (4) cultic purity in the face of defiling pagan in-
that predominant homosexual orientation as cursions as well as beliefs about male dignity
such carries with it no clinical pathology, and the nonprocreative loss of the revered
though some gay men and lesbians will expe- life-bearing semen in a patriarchal culture.
rience psychological and/or behavioral prob- Finally, Paul's unequivocal denunciation
lems stemming from social oppression, prob- (Rom. 1:26-27) is directed at homosexual
lems similar to those found in other socially lust * understood as the consequence of idola-
oppressed groups. try (his main concern), and it appears predi-
While there is ample evidence of homosex- cated on the assumption that such homosex-
uality in all known cultures from ancient ual acts were performed by heterosexual
times to the present, there has been no con- persons who freely chose to act contrary to
sistent pattern of societal or religious re- their own "natural" inclinations.
sponse. Homosexuality has been affirmed as Thus, the serious hermeneutical question
representative of the deity, institutionalized, remains: Do the scriptures give clear guid-
tolerated without approval, ignored, or pe- ance for evaluation of homosexuality as a
nalized and persecuted, depending upon the predominant psychosexual orientation or for
given culture and period of history. But in the evaluation of homosexual acts between
Judo-Christian West homosexuality has adults in loving relationships?
been viewed with particular abhorrence, an While the Christian church has often been
attitude undoubtedly strongly linked with accused of sustaining an unrelenting persecu-
certain biblical teachings. tion of gay men and lesbians, the historical
The relatively few biblical passages dealing record is much more mixed. During its earli-
with the subject do not treat homosexuality est centuries the church exhibited considera-
as a psychosexual orientation (a distinctly ble toleration, though with the dissolution of
modern concept) but rather refer to certain the Roman state hostility arose. Yet,
types of homosexual acts. The major refer- throughout most of the Middle Ages, Chris-
ences appear to make completely negative tian moral theology was either silent on the
judgments upon same-sex genital expression. issue or at worst compared homosexuality to
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah heterosexual sins. Indeed, a major gay sub-
frequently has been attributed to homosexual culture was tolerated by the church during
acts (Gen. 19). The Levitical Holiness Code the 11th and 12th centuries. After the 12th
prescribes the death penalty for male homo- century, however, considerable intolerance
sexual acts (Lev. 18:22; 20:13). The NT de- arose, perhaps closely related to a general
nounces both male and female homosexual increase in the intolerance of minority groups
relationships as expressions of idolatry in a changing European economic and social
(Rom. 1:26-27) and indicates that certain structure. That hostility was both reflected in
types of same-sex acts preclude entry into the and perpetuated by the church's theological
kingdom and contravene the law of God (1 and ethical writings of the later Middle Ages
Cor. 6:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:9-10). and continued to influence European society
However, most biblical scholars now ques- for centuries, frequently contributing to the
tion the accuracy of understanding these ref- persecution of homosexual persons by the
erences as blanket condemnations of all state. During and following the Protestant
homosexual relationships. To the extent that Reformation the generalized hostility con-
the Sodom story focuses on homosexual acts, tinued.
its judgment is upon the homosexual rape of Four theological-ethical positions regard-
divine messengers, and its larger judgment ing homosexual orientation and its expres-
appears to be against social injustice and in- sion appear to represent the continuum of
273 Homosexuality
current Christian understanding. The first is ments. Thus, homosexual orientation is still
a rejecting-punitive position. Homosexuality viewed as incomplete, not normative, or even
is unconditionally rejected as not Christianly as contrary to nature and God's design.
legitimate, either as orientation or in its geni- Hence, even those homosexual acts within
tal expressions. Further, there is a punitive monogamous commitment are distortions of
attitude toward lesbians and gay men. Such God's ideal, yet they are not to be absolutely
arguments usually rest upon literal, noncon- condemned. Such acts, though "essentially
textual interpretations of certain biblical pas- imperfect," for some persons are the lesser of
sages and are usually buttressed by various the evils and hence qualifiedly accepted.
cultural stereotypes of gay and lesbian peo- The fourth position on the continuum is
pie. that of full acceptance of homosexual orien-
The second position is rejecting-nonpuni- tation, with homosexual acts themselves to
tive. Homosexual acts are condemned as un- be evaluated by the same standards used for
natural, idolatrous, and in violation of God's heterosexual acts. While this position was
creative intent. Nevertheless, a distinction is scarcely articulated in Christian ethics until
made between acts and orientation or person. recent decades, it rests historically upon a
The argument typically takes two forms, development in certain Protestant under-
sometimes in combination. One is that the standings of human sexuality and heterosex-
procreative possibility is essential to legiti- ual marriage that took place in the 17th cen-
mate sexual intercourse. Thus, Thomas tury. That shift elevated "the unitive
Aquinas argues that, since the sexual organs purpose" of marriage and sexuality to the
must not be used for acts that preclude gener- primary position and dethroned the central-
ation, homosexual intercourse is a sin against ity or even coequality of "the procreative
nature and is next in gravity to bestiality. The purpose." While contemporary adherents of
other argument is the essential gender com- full acceptance of homosexuality generally
plementarity of male and female in the imago assume that sexual orientation is a given
Dei. According to Karl Barth, since one rather than a matter of meaningful choice,
comes to "fellow humanity" only in relation that is not their major argument. More fun-
to a person of the opposite sex, to seek one's damentally, they contend that same-sex re-
humanity in a same-sex relationship is self- lationships can fully express God's central
worship, perversion, and idolatry. While this purpose for sexuality, the unitive. Thus,
general position uncompromisingly rejects affirming homosexual as well as heterosexual
all homosexual acts as "intrinsically evil," orientation, this position holds that all sexual
two qualifications must be made. First, acts ought to be evaluated by their relational
homosexual orientation itself is not always qualities: What behaviors and relationships
morally condemned even if it is understood will serve and enhance rather than inhibit or
as essentially flawed. Second, this position damage human fulfillment, faithfulness,
seeks to be nonpunitive toward the homosex- mutuality, and genuine intimacy and com-
ual person who, in light of God's mercy, is to munion? While holding this single standard
be treated compassionately as one in need of of ethical judgment as the appropriate ideal,
the church's ministry. some adherents of this position insist that
The third position is that of qualified ac- sensitivity and fairness dictate that the reali-
ceptance. This stance agrees with the previ- ties of social oppression be taken into account
ous one in affirming God's heterosexual in- when evaluating specific acts of homosexual
tent in creation. However, constitutional expression.
homosexuality is now understood as largely The central questions that appear to distin-
given, fixed early in childhood, and in adults guish the above positions are these: the mean-
frequently unsusceptible to reorientation. If ing of human sexuality, the interpretation of
homosexual persons can change their orien- scripture, the use of empirical data, and the
tation, they are morally obligated to do so. criteria for evaluation of moral action. While
But those who cannot should attempt to sub- the positions as described cannot do justice to
limate their genital desires and practice absti- the nuanced understandings of any particular
nence. If this is not possible, genital relations individual or group, they do indicate the wide
must be ordered in an ethically responsible spectrum of current understanding. Of those
manner, i.e., in adult, monogamous commit- churches which have taken public positions,
Honesty 274
the majority embrace the rejecting-nonpuni- semnots, meaning gravity or dignity. At
tive stance, with a few expressing qualified Rom. 13:13 and 1 Thess. 4:12 "honestly"
acceptance, and a small minority committed renders an adverb meaning decently or with
to full acceptance. propriety. These words all refer to conduct
In addition to the general theological- that is appropriate to one who responds to
ethical question concerning homosexual ori- the call of the kingdom of God. In part, this
entation and expression, a number of more vocabulary reflects the social virtues of those
specific moral issues now face the churches. who are to live at peace with their neighbors,
A major issue is the support of civil rights most of whom are not of their faith, and it is
and social justice for lesbians and gay men, without the eschatological emphasis of some
an issue on which most major church bodies of the NT language. Honesty involves
now publicly agree. More divisive are those thoughts, words, and deeds, exhibiting a har-
which directly affect internal church life. mony between one's fundamental beliefs and
These include the acceptance of gays and les- their manifestations. Honesty in thought
bians into full church participation, the pro- means willingness to follow evidence wher-
vision of enlightened and effective pastoral ever it leads, not concealing or falsifying it for
care, the ordination of publicly affirmed les- intellectual security or material gain, and not
bians and gay men, the liturgical blessing of rushing to conclusions on inadequate infor-
gay or lesbian unions, the support of legal mation. (For honesty in word, see False
rights for gay or lesbian unions analogous to Witness; Lying; Slander; Truthfulness.)
the legal rights of heterosexual marriages, Salespersons, copywriters, publicity agents,
and interdenominational recognition of journalists, and other writers and speakers
largely lesbian and gay Christian commun- have special temptations to dishonesty in the
ions such as the Universal Fellowship of Met- use of words. Continual concern for accuracy
ropolitan Community Churches. Perhaps the and appropriateness of speech (the search for
most difficult and far-reaching challenge of le mot juste) is a safeguard against giving way
all, however, is that of dealing with the moral to them. Honesty in deed involves accuracy
and spiritual dynamics of homophobia, the in money transactions, openness in relation-
irrational and compulsive fear of homosexu- ships, and a careful use of things.
ality, as it is expressed both personally and RONALD PRESTON
socially.
See Sexual Ethics; Lesbianism; Marriage; Honor
Morality, Legal Enforcement of. Honor is the appreciation of the worth of,
and the expression of esteem for, a person, an
D. S. Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western officeholder, etc. While the term "honor" re-
Christian Tradition, 1955; E. Batchelor, Jr. fers primarily to a social response, it may also
(ed.), Homosexuality and Ethics, 1980; J. refer to the state of being worthy of such a
Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and response or to a person's own self-esteem.
Homosexuality, 1980; A. Kosnick et al., The Fifth Commandment in Ex. 20:12 re-
Human Sexuality: New Directions in Ameri- quires: "Honor your father and your
can Catholic Thought, 1977; E. Moberly, mother," adding the motivating reason, "that
Homosexuality: A New Christian Ethic, 1983; your days may be long in the land which the
R. Scroggs, The New Testament and Homo- LORD your God gives you." This require-
sexuality, 1983. ment to honor parents was extended to other
JAMES B. NELSON superiors, especially rulers, and Paul (Rom.
13:7) insisted on "honor to whom honor is
Honesty due" along with payment of taxes, revenue,
This and related words occur at several and respect.
places in the NT (though not in the OT). In Both direct honor and indirect honor of
AV at Luke 8:15; Rom. 12:17; 2 Cor. 8:21; God are significant motives and standards in
and 1 Peter 2:12, "honest" translates the Christian ethics. John Calvin emphasized the
Greek word kalos, meaning good or excel- direct honoring of God (Institutes 3.26.3),
lent. Similarly, at Phil. 4:8 it translates sem- observing that "God has in his own right the
nos, meaning honorable or proper. At 1 Tim. reverence of a father and of a Lord"rever-
2:2 "honesty" translates the abstract noun ence* consisting of both fear and honorand
275 Hope
that the knowledge of God "carries with it honor and even the concept of honor itself
the honoring of him" through adherence to appear to have declined, honor and dishonor
the law. and their surrogates remain important "as a
The passage in 1 Peter (2:17) that be- mediator between individual aspirations and
seeches Christians to "honor the emperor" the judgment of society" (Pitt-Rivers).
also beseeches them to "honor all men." In Honor in the sense of external acknowledg-
Christian ethics both requirements are ulti- ment still influences moral conduct, even
mately connected to honoring God because though few people may accept Thomas Aqui-
God has ordained rulers who are his "minis- nas's view that honor for virtue is the greatest
ters" (Rom. 13:6), and because his image and external good at human disposal (ST II-
likeness is in all people (Gen. l:26ff.). (See II. 129.1). On the one hand, it is one of soci-
Image of God.) Regarding the latter, Thomas ety's ways to control conduct. Although, as
Aquinas (ST II-II.41.4) noted that reverence Jesus noted, prophets are frequently without
"paid to a person as the image of God re- honor in their own country, seeking honor is
dounds somewhat to God." Regarding the one motivation for virtuous conduct. It may,
former, Calvin (Institutes 2.7.35) held that however, lead to hypocrisy* On the other
the sum of the Fifth Commandment is "that hand, a person's own sense of honor may be
we should look up to those whom God has a strong motive for conduct apart from a
placed over us, and should treat them with social response. Finally, there are also moral
honor, obedience, and gratefulness," their duties not to violate the honor of others
preeminence being reflected in such titles as through such acts as calumny and slander*
"lord" and "father," used alike of God and and significant moral questions about the
selected human beings, and the fact that God Christian's defense of his or her own honor.
'lights [them] up with a spark of his splendor One of the criteria Karl Barth (Church Dog-
so that each may be distinguished according matics III/4, ET 1961) offers for determining
to his degree." This hierarchical view of soci- when Christians may and should defend their
ety has been rejected by some Christians who own honor is whether they can undertake
seek to level the social order, emphasizing the such a defense "with a final and profound
equal honor and dignity of all who are unconcern" because of a recognition that
created in the image and likeness of God. For "only the existence of God as man's Creator
example, the Quakers in 17th-century En- and Lord, and man's existence as His crea-
gland refused to render "hat honor," to rec- ture and under His rule, constitutes the
ognize titles, and to use various gestures of honor of man."
honor (e.g., they addressed superiors by
"thee" and "thou" rather than "you"- see P Berger, "On the Obsolescence of the Con-
Quaker Ethics). cept of Honor," in Revisions, ed. S. Hauer-
Peter Berger has observed that through the was and A. Maclntyre, 1983; B. Haring, The
process of modernization, the concept of Law of Christ, vol. 3, ET 1966; J. Pitt-Rivers,
honor has become obsolescent and has been "Honor," International Encyclopedia of the
replaced by the concept of dignity: honor Social Sciences, ed. D. Sells, 1968.
"implies that identity is essentially, or at least JAMES F. CHILDRESS
importantly, linked to institutional roles,"
while "the modern concept of dignity, by Hope
contrast, implies that identity is essentially Hopes exhibit a common formal identity
independent of institutional roles" and can be while being quite diverse in their psychologi-
achieved only by reversing the process of cal textures and human significance. To hope
alienation*, bad faith, etc. (see Human Dig- is to desire that which is believed possible of
nity; Institutions; Persons and Personality; realization (see Desire). Yet desires can be
Respect for Persons). Honor is often viewed strong or weak, so hopes can vary in their
as an aristocratic theme associated with hier- intensity. Possibilities can be awaited or pur-
archical societies, but this association is not sued with assurance or anxiety, thus hopes
necessary although the concept of honor can be confidently or tenuously held. Hopes
tends to survive and even to flourish in such are directed to objects, but those objects can
settings (e.g., the military). (See Chivalry.) be definite and discrete or global and encom-
However much particular conceptions of passing. Thus the term "hope" alone opens
Hospice 276
us to a complex array of often dissimilar then, foster both an openness to and a readi-
phenomena. ness for social and political change.
Classical philosophy paid little attention to Resurgent interest in the dispositions that
this array. Classified as a passion, hope was undergird and define Christian moral self-
regarded as an obstacle to rational living. Ar- hood is also bringing attention to the moral
istotle compares hopeful selves to callow significance of Christian hope. Displaying
youth, regarding them as somewhat unrealis- such an interest, the work of James M. Gus-
tic in their expectations of life. Biblical reli- tafson has included hope among the disposi-
gion, however, identifies a certain kind of tions that shape Christian moral agency.
hope as an essential response of the believer Drawing on the phenomenological reflec-
who grasps his or her situation before God. tions of Gabriel Marcel, Gustafson has
Given God's love, mercy, and sovereign mas- sketched how Christian affirmations can
tery of human possibilities, believers are to ground a disposition of hopefulness which
display an enduring and pervasive hope that counteracts that despair which would cripple
is both grounded in and directed toward di- moral activity while fostering that courage*
vinely instituted realities. The NT elaborates which effective moral agency presupposes.
the hope of Israel in Christological and es- The theological trends cited here locate the
chatological terms. Christ's work and the moral relevance of Christian hope within the
coming full disclosure of his triumph become sphere of moral psychology. Intensified dia-
the basis and object for a hope not circum- logue with philosophers and reflective psy-
scribed by the dimming possibilities of death chologists on the role of hope in moral psy-
and sinful darkness. chology will enhance and sharpen the
The Christian tradition has continued to insights already advanced. A precondition
feature hoping in and for God in its account for such dialogue is discrimination in regard
of the Christian life, but the moral implica- to the different kinds of hopes and their
tions of such a hope have often been left un- effects. For their part, theologians will have
developed. This can even be said of such an to become as discriminating in their analysis
important elucidation of Christian hope as of the array of hopes as they generally are in
that provided by Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas their analysis of the array of loves (see Love).
carefully integrates his analysis of the theo- When Christians can clearly distinguish be-
logical virtue of hope with the doctrine of tween hopes that are and hopes that are not
grace, yet he does not explore the moral analogous to the hope fostered by the Chris-
import of hopeful living founded on God's tian faith, between hopes that are basic to
gracious help. Moreover, his philosophy of human fulfillment and moral existence and
hoping, advanced in his accompanying philo- hopes that are morally empty and demonic,
sophical anthropology, does not progress they can expect such a dialogue with non-
much beyond the perspective found in Aris- theological disciplines to further highlight
totle (see Thomistic Ethics). the moral significance of their own hope in
Recent theological developments have and for God.
brought overdue attention to the question of See also Eschatological Ethics; Evolution-
the moral significance of Christian hope. The ary Ethics; Kingdom of God; Optimism;
"theology of hope" movement, spearheaded Progress, Belief in; Promise; Realism; Tran-
by Jrgen Moltmann, has challenged the fre- scendence; Utopian Thought.
quently voiced criticism that the other-
worldly dimension of Christian hope pur- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-
chases personal consolation at the cost of 11.17-22; D. Evans, Struggle and Fulfillment,
this-worldly social and political involvement. 1980; J. M. Gustafson, Can Ethics Be Chris-
In Moltmann's view it is precisely the es- tian? 1975; G. Marcel, Homo Viator, ET
chatological thrust of Christian hope that 1962; J. Moltmann, Theology of Hope, ET
makes it such a dynamic for social and politi- 1967.
cal change. Drawing on both biblical mate- PHILIP A. MUNTZEL
rial and themes developed by the revisionist
Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch, Moltmann Hospice
argues that God's new and coming future Hospice care, whether it be in a separate unit
makes the claims of history and nature provi- or ward or by a home-care or consulting hos-
sional. A hope targeted on that future would, pital team, is concerned with the quality of
277 Household Codes
life* remaining for patients whose illness has John 13) and exhorting his disciples both to
become terminal. The whole family is the count on hospitality and to be hospitable
unit of care both before and after bereave- (e.g., Matt. 10:1 If.; Luke 10:5; 14:12-14).
ment and, where possible, part of the caring The responsibility for hospitality fell par-
team. ticularly on bishops in the early church. As
Since the first hospices were founded at the an institutionalized practice of hospitality the
turn of this century on both sides of the At- first hospitals or hospices are associated with
lantic, a main concentration has been upon Basil the Great (c. 375). Specialized hospitals
patients dying with advanced malignant dis- for the sick, orphans, or the crippled were
ease. Some hospices today include patients started by Chrysostom in Constantinople (c.
with other incurable diseases and the frail 400). The Western practice goes back to Ben-
elderly. edict; it is enjoined in chapter 53 of the Bene-
Hospice care is concerned with enabling dictine rule. Western hospices provided shel-
patients to live to the limit of their physical, ter for travelers and were often associated
mental, and spiritual capacity, with control with monasteries; hospitals served the sick
and independence, as far as is possible in the and quickly evolved so that they had special-
place of their choice. Skilled medical relief of ized functions.
symptoms is essential and sometimes makes Neither the virtue nor the institutional
further active treatment possible. Team nurs- practice of hospitality have been much
ing is supported by members of other disci- stressed in recent Christian ethics, which has
plines and trained volunteers. Some patients tended to stress more assertive traits of char-
may require admission to a specialized hos- acter and the welfare obligations of the civil
pice bed, but it has been shown that home state.
care is the choice for many people and their
families and reduces the time of a final admis- T. Gilby in Encyclopedic Dictionary of Reli-
sion. gion II, pp. 1716f.; "Hospitality," in HERE
The academic model of care, research, and VI, pp. 797-820; T Ogletree, Hospitality to
teaching was introduced into this field with the Stranger: Dimensions of Moral Under-
the opening of St. Christopher's Hospice in standing, 1985.
London in 1967, and since that date there has DAVID H. SMITH
been a worldwide proliferation of hospice
units and teams, each responding to local Hospitals see Bioethics; Health Care,
needs and possibilities to give a complemen- Right to; Hospice; Hospitality; Medical
tary, integrated service. The basic principles Ethics; Sick, Care of the; Social Service of
are also being introduced and interpreted the Church
throughout the general field of medical and
nursing practice. Household Codes
See Life, Prolongation of; Sick, Care of At least since Luther's time the term "House-
the. hold Codes" (Haustafeln) has been applied
CICELY SAUNDERS to Col. 3:184:1 and Eph. 5:21-6:9, in which
exhortations are given ad seriatim to the var-
Hospitality ious members of a household. Characteristic
The term means taking in strangers or travel- of these passages is the direct, second-person
ers; the practice was common in ancient Is- address and the arrangement in pairs with
rael and is referred to in several places in the the "subordinate" member mentioned first:
Hebrew Bible, notably in Abraham's hospi- e.g., "wives , husbands " Elsewhere
tality to the "three men" in Gen. 18:1-5. A in the NT, 1 Peter 2:13-3:8 is similar to the
responsibility to care for travelers was con- Colossian and Ephesian passages but not so
gruous for a people who remembered their tightly structured, while passages such as 1
history of wandering in the wilderness. Tim. 2:8-3:13; 5:1-22; and Titus 2:1-10 are
Hospitality was also to be shown to ene- primarily Congregation Codes (in the third
mies or those of whom one was afraid. The person). It has long been noted that Hellenis-
Christian church placed great stress on an tic writers, especially Stoics, arranged ethical
obligation of hospitality. Jesus' ministry de- instruction in terms of the relation of an indi-
pended on the practice, and he is portrayed vidual to the other members of the family and
as exemplifying it (as in the footwashing of the larger society. See, e.g., Diogenes Laer-
Human Dignity 278
tius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.108f. to the will of Christ. Certainly not everything
118-125; Seneca, Epistles 94.If.; 95.45; Epic- was clear to Christian leaders from the begin-
tetus, Discourses 2.10.1-23; 14.8; 17.31; Plu- ning, and modern readers will note a signifi-
tarch, On the Training of Children 10; Mar- cant tension between the "subordination"
cus Aurelius, Meditations 5.31. Similar principle of the Codes and the "egalitarian"
patterns appear also in Hellenistic Jewish principle proclaimed elsewhere in the gospel
writers and their usage is a more likely source for all who are in Christ.
for the early Christian writers. See, e.g., Ec-
clesiasticus 7:18-36; Tobit 4:3-19; Philo, On In addition to commentaries on the relevant
the Decalogue 165-167; Hypothetica 7.3; 4 passages, see D. J. Balch, Let Wives Be Sub-
Maccabees 2:10-13; Pseudo-Phocylides 175- missive: The Domestic Code in I Peter, 1981;
228; Josephus, Against Apion 2.198-210. In J. E. Crouch, The Origin and Intention of the
Rabbinic literature, see, e.g., M. Kiddushin Colossian Haustafel, 1972; W Lillie, "The
1.7; T. Kiddushin 1.11 ; M. Kethuboth 5.6-7 Pauline House-Tables," Expository Times
Early Christian literature continued this 86, 1974-75, pp. 179-183; O. J. F Seitz,
form of parenesis without following strictly "Lists, Ethical," IDB III, 1962.
the NT format. See Didache 4.9-11; Bar-
nabas 19.5-8; 1 Clement 1.3; 21.6-9; Ig- HARVEY K. MCARTHUR
natius, To Polycarp 4.1-6.2; Polycarp, To the
Philippians 4.1-6.3. It has been argued, but Hubris see Hybris
never completely demonstrated, that a com-
mon catechetical tradition stood behind the Human Dignity
various Household Codes in this Christian Human dignity is the inherent worth or value
literature. of a human person from which no one or
Scholars have debated whether these NT nothing may detract. Through different phil-
Codes reflect specifically Christian insights osophical or religious premises, the concept
or were taken over from earlier sources and belongs to every age and culture, as Hersch
lightly "Christianized." Clearly, the writers demonstrates, and is the basis for the contem-
were anxious to bring the relationships of the porary claims for human rights*
home into obedience to Christ, but the partic- The predominant explanation given for
ular injunctions do not appear to be novel or this dignity has been one which links human-
distinctively Christian. It is scarcely novel to kind with God. Socrates posited a certain
suggest that wives, children, and slaves community of nature between God and hu-
should be obedient to their husbands, fathers, manity, thus stressing that to detract from a
and masters respectively. However, Ephe- human person was to detract from being in
sians has a distinctive digression on the hus- harmony with the universe. This idea was
band-wife relation as a parallel to Christ and later developed by the Stoics, who posited an
his church; Colossians has a disproportion- ascending scale of dignity from inanimate ob-
ately long exhortation to slaves, which may jects to a final culmination in humanity. As
reflect special problems in the Christian com- in earlier and subsequent systems of philoso-
munity. Also the repeated references to the phy, Stoicism considered human reason to be
"Lord" indicate that for the believer Christ essentially a spark of the divine, thus making
was to be master of every relationship and the it the distinctive element associated with the
motivating force for ethical behavior. dignity of being human. In systems of
The eschatological expectations of the thought which are essentially nontheistic,
Christian community might have led to a re- human reason alone provides the basis for the
jection of all the social patterns by which understanding of human dignity. Such a ra-
ancient life was held together, but the House- tionale provided the philosophical founda-
hold Codes are one of the evidences that this tion for the Dclaration des droits de l'homme
possibility was resisted. While awaiting the et du citoyen ( 1798), upon which a number of
coming of the kingdom, Christian leaders subsequent bills of rights are modeled. The
wanted all earthly relations to continue not rationality of human beings is deemed to pro-
only decently and in order but "in the Lord." vide the individual with a dignity, anterior to
This was the beginning of the long struggle the demands and requirements of the state.
through which the church strove to bring In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the con-
personal and community life into obedience cept of human dignity belongs to the under-
standing that human beings are made in the
279 H u m a n Rights
image of God* Human beings are declared Human Nature see Free Will and Deter-
to be created by God and in relationship with minism; Freedom; Image of God; Natural
God, the "thou" in relation to God. Human Law; Original Sin
beings then are not to be considered simply
as selves, but as selves in relation to God. Human Rights
God is portrayed throughout this tradition as As the notion "human rights" has come to
treating men and women with respect, never be understood in contemporary interna-
as "things." Because of this love of and rela- tional usage, it means a set of justifiable or
tionship with God, every human being is a legitimate claims with at least six features:
subject of reverence to other people. Human (1) they impose duties of performance or
dignity arises from the self-giving of God, forbearance upon all appropriately situated
described in the creation and covenant narra- human beings, including governments; (2)
tives. Even although men and women have they are possessed equally by all human be-
broken this relationship with God and each ings regardless of laws, customs, or agree-
other through sin, the image of God* has not ments; (3) they are of basic importance to
been eliminated from them (see also Natural human life; (4) they are properly sanctiona-
Law). John Calvin, for example, maintained ble and enforceable upon default by legal
that while God's image had been vitiated by means; (5) they have special presumptive
the Fall it had not been eliminated. Thus, weight in constraining human action; and
because of the remnant of God's image in (6) they include a certain number that are
them, men and women possess no small dig- considered inalienable, indefeasible, and un-
nity. Since Jesus Christ died for all, Calvin forfeitable.
stressed that God has demonstrated a pur- The language of various international
pose for human beings. This remnant and human rights instruments that have been
this purpose, conferred by God, carry the generated since World War II, including
implication that people are to be honored and sections of the Charter of the United Na-
treated as sacred. Other theologians also tions, the Universal Declaration of Human
stress this gift of the image of God in hu- Rights, and others, all clearly presuppose an
mans, and the purpose of God for human- asymmetrical relation between morality and
kind demonstrated in Jesus Christ, as the law. The set of human rights enunciated in
foundation for human dignity. Such dignity these documents, and others like them, is
permits no derogation. affirmed as justifiable and legitimate on
An appeal to human dignity provides the grounds independent of and prior to the
basic premise for the contemporary under- determinations of sovereign legal entities or
standing of human rights, be these conceived states. The words of the Preamble to the
in civil and political or social and economic Covenant on Political and Civil Rights are
terms, as evidenced in the use of such words typical: "Considering that, in accordance
as "inalienable" in constitutions and interna- with the principles proclaimed in the Char-
tional covenants. This concept has also jus- ter of the United Nations, recognition of the
tified opposition to injustice and dehumani- inherent dignity and of the equal and inali-
zation, irrespective of its source. enable rights of all members of the human
See Dehumanization; Honor; Human family is the foundation of freedom, justice
Rights; Humanistic Ethics; Image of God; and peace in the world Recognizing that
Natural Law; Persons and Personality; Re- these rights derive from the inherent dignity
spect for Persons. of the human person " There is here
what may be called the assumption of a
K. Barth, Protestant Theology in the Nine- prior and independent moral belief in some
teenth Century: Its Background and History, common and permanent human characteris-
FT 1972, pp. 33-79; D. Cairns, The Image of tics that enjoin certain universally specifia-
God in Man, 1973; J. Hersch, Birthright of ble ways of treating human beings and that
Man, 1969. prohibit others. The conviction is that
ALAN D. FALCONER whether particular states agree and adhere
to the covenants or not, whether they decide
Human Experimentation to denounce them or not, states do not con-
see Experimentation with Human Sub- trol, finally, the authority of the covenants,
jects because that authority is regarded as being
H u m a n Rights 280
distinctively prelegal and prepolitical. This widespread. A few examples of the types of
conviction underlies each of the above six defense of the basis of human rights must
features. suffice.
At the same time, as the Universal Decla- Noncognitivists (see Metaethics). M. Mac-
ration states, "if man is not to be compelled Donald gave definitive expression to this
to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion view in her famous 1947 essay. For her, as for
against tyranny and oppression, human all noncognitivists, choices among values can
rights should be protected by the rule of never rest, as can scientific judgments, upon
law." The assumption is both that human veridical knowledge. Statements about val-
rights constitute a fundamental standard for ues, like registering approval of the Universal
determining the legitimacy of a given govern- Declaration, are nothing more than an-
ment or legal order, and that they provide the nouncements of preference, and as such have
primary impulse for instituting governments no rational foundation. In one way or an-
in the first place. In short, law follows from other, the noncognitivist position has been
and depends upon a prior moral belief in uni- adopted subsequently by philosophers like H.
versal human rights. L. A. Hart (1955), J. Feinberg (1973), and A.
This observation calls attention particu- I. Melden (1977).
larly to features (3) and (4). While in com- Cognitivists (see Metaethics). While Locke
mon usage not all rights are either human or (see Natural Rights) is anything but consist-
legal, the general notion of a right does carry ent on the subject, there is a strong strain in
with it the implication that one who possesses his writings to the effect that certain kinds of
it is entitled to sanction any default by an behavior, such as the deliberate infliction of
appropriate form of blame, criticism, or pun- pain or disablement, or the destruction of
ishment, depending on the kind of right in- another human being "at one's pleasure," are
volved, and thereby, if possible, to compel knowably wrong and contrary to reason.
compliance. Rights-language, even outside This knowledge is "fixed and permanent"
the context of human rights and legal rights, and applies universally, and thereby provides
ascribes a special sort of control over those the basis for a moral commitment to natural
who are bound to observe the rights* Human or human rights.
rights are believed to be of such critical im- In a very different way, A. Gewirth (1978)
portance to human life (feature 3) that they offers a more recent version of a cognitivist
are thought to require especially strong and ground for human rights. Gewirth believes
reliable guarantees and forms of enforcement that human beings are indisputably and
(feature 4). unavoidably "agents." By a kind of concep-
In fact, as a deposit of the natural rights tual analysis of the generic features of agency
tradition, which had such a formative influ- purposiveness and freedomGewirth be-
ence upon modern human rights thinking lieves he can show that each agent "must"
(see Natural Rights), human rights are un- claim a right to these features and, by exten-
derstood to comprise the basic standard for sion, ascribe the same rights to all human
regulating the use of coercion. Coercion that agents. From this basis, Gewirth infers an
violates human rights is, in general, illicit, elaborate scheme of human rights (1982).
and coercion that protects them is licit. Legal There are of course many more kinds of
rights in various domestic legal systems are religious and philosophical defenses of
frequently combinations of internationally human rights (see Swidler, 1982).
recognized human rights and other more cul- In respect to feature (1), there is much
turally specific provisions. Although legal en- debate in the literature over whether human
forcement is clearly assumed in the notion of rights are essentially "negative"matters of
human rights, the arrangements for interna- forbearance or noninterference, or whether
tional enforcement are still matters of intense they are also "positive"requiring the per-
dispute. formance of acts of welfare assistance. The
While the international human rights in- human rights instruments clearly include
struments assume by their language a prele- both. The Covenant on Political and Civil
gal moral reference, they do not identify any Rights enjoins restraints on governments,
particular moral theory as the ground for while the Covenant on Economic, Social and
that reference. Debate over this subject is Cultural Rights enjoins quite positive forms
281 H u m a n i s t i c Ethics
of economic and other assistance. The con- Thompson, Moral Imperatives of Human
viction that an easy line of distinction can be Rights, 1980.
drawn between rights of noninterference and DAVID LITTLE
rights of assistance has been tellingly chal-
lenged (see Okin, 1981). Humanae Vitae see Contraception;
Finally, features (5) and (6) raise the Modern Roman Catholic Moral Theology
much-discussed questions of the absolute-
ness and the inalienability and indefeasibil- Humanism see Humanistic Ethics
ity of human rights. Many of the human
rights instruments themselves contain "pub- Humanistic Ethics
lic emergency" provisions according to The title of this article, while necessarily elas-
which states may permissibly derogate from tic, designates some recognizable principles
certain specified human rights "to the ex- and stresses within a broad spectrum of ethi-
tent strictly required by the exigencies of cal reflection. Humanism, as we meet it in the
the situation." Consequently, not all rights contemporary world, is a recurring accent
are assumed to be absolute and inalienable which may be best expressed by the ancient
for these and other reasons. Still, certain axiom that humans are "the measure of
"nonderogable" rights, such as the prohibi- things." Current forms of humanism, like
tions against slavery* and against subjection their Renaissance* and classical counter-
to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment parts, commonly reject belief in God as either
or punishment," and requirements for a fair sanctioning or explaining moral conduct, and
trial, appear to come closer to that under- insist that human beings themselves have the
standing. It is widely accepted that no one sole responsibility for bettering and fulfilling
ought under any circumstances to be al- their existence in this world.
lowed to transfer to another, have annulled, During our century, to be sure, humanism
or forfeit the right not to be sold for profit, has taken on added depth and density be-
not to be brutally treated in or out of cause of the untimely, tragic character of the
prison, or the right to an impartial trial. many situations which are, to say the least,
Whether any of these rights is also "abso- ethically questionable. As its former opti-
lute" in the sense of being unconditionally mism* regarding human perfectibility has
binding and completely exceptionless is a receded sharply, its function as anguished
matter of much controversy. protest against dehumanizing forces and
See also Civil Rights; Human Dignity; structures has been gathering strength. Hu-
Natural Law; Natural Rights; Persons and manism now assumes a darker, more defen-
Personality; Respect for Persons. sive posture: a drastic sense of human
precariousness and ambiguity, a heightened
P G. Brown and D. MacLean, Human anxiety over the threats to cherished humane
Rights and United States Foreign Policy, values coming from technology, social con-
1980; A. Falconer (ed.), Understanding flict, or nuclear warfare, and a greater will-
Human Rights, 1980; J. Feinberg, Social Phi- ingness to deal with questions of human
losophy, 1973; A. Gewirth, Reason and Mo- beingall these have profoundly marked hu-
rality, 1978; Human Rights, 1982; H. L. A. manistic ethics of the present.
Hart, "Are There Any Natural Rights?" Nevertheless some older strains persist as
Philosophical Review, 1955; Human Rights well: the dignitative use of the word "man"
Documents, U.S. Congress, House Commit- (or its inclusive-language substitutes) as
tee on Foreign Affairs, 1983; E. Kamenka against reductive or destructive tendencies
and A. Erh-Soon Tay (eds.), Human Rights, judged to be at work in philosophy, the
1978; M. MacDonald, "Natural Rights," sciences, political and economic conditions;
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1947 the conviction that "ethics without God"
48; A. I. Melden, Rights and Persons, 1977; (Kai Nielsen) has by now become a culturally
S. M. Okin, "Liberty and Welfare: Some Is- necessary option; and a standing protest, usu-
sues in Human Rights Theory," Human ally issue-oriented, against what Erich
Rights, 1981; A. S. Rosenbaum, Philosophy Fromm called our "humanoid" mode of
of Human Rights, 1980; A. Swidler, Human present-day existence.
Rights in Religious Traditions, 1982; K. It has been customary to describe human-
H u m a n i s t i c Ethics 282
istic ethics as "nontheistic" or even "atheis- act together in an ethically unacceptable state
tic," which though true enough is much too of affairs in the world common to both.
narrow and negative to be very illuminating. Is it nevertheless the case that the primary
Quite apart from any simple opposition over opposition between Christian and humanistic
the question of God, Christian ethics is pro- ways of ethical reflection remains in force?
foundly indebted to humanist thought for Where questions of human freedom* and re-
clarifying ideas of what being human can be sponsibility* are involved, especially, can
said to mean. The judgment of Paul Tillich these ways be reconciled in theory? Human-
(in Morality and Beyond) that the conflict istic ethics sees in freedom to choose and act
between reason-determined ethics and faith- the signal instance of "man's" unique stand-
determined ethics is now obsolete must be ing in the known universe. It seeks to pre-
taken seriously. Moreover it seems to be serve and protect such freedom by distin-
borne out by much recent work in the field. guishing it from natural conditioning, on the
Instead of reasserting a revelational or one hand, and from supernatural invasion of
"deontological" position, Christian ethicists privacy, on the other. In Auguste Comte's
appear far more ready to assume a problem- words, "man" has his own highest being, his
centered, contextual orientation which so-called "God," in himself; according to
affords much common ground and cause Sartre, human life just happens and remains
with humanists. "absurd." Here freedom as self-motivation
Whether the issue under discussion con- can only mean nonaccountability to any
cerns political morality, genetic manipula- higher or lower determining power. That
tion, the right to live or die, racist or sexist human beings can and do know, seek, and
oppression, theological commitments are realize their own real good without relying
more often muted than made explicit. If the upon any standard or support beyond them-
recent debate between "context" and "princi- selvesis this not still the hallmark of any
ples" is as "misplaced" as James Gustafson humanistic ethics?
believes, it has at least made clear that what Christian ethics, far from denying or belit-
humanists reject is not what Christians gen- tling the truth of human freedom or its power
erally affirm, i.e., "authoritarian" or "divine of effective choice*, has always intended to
command"* legitimizing of the moral life. affirm it, since any moral obligation would of
The ethical work of those who affirm the lat- course be meaningless without it. Yet it re-
ter is more and more being done in an indica- gards such freedom as a gift rather than a
tive-descriptive mode, because dealing with right, a created good which humans have
such problems as brain death or abortion abused and which therefore needs to be
makes precise reference necessary. Such renewed and redeemed. "We are not our own
problems are not settled by appeals to scrip- light," in the words of Flannery O'Connor.
ture or Christian moral tradition, but are Our freedom is the ambiguous source in us of
only made more compelling and complex both our alienation from and our reconcilia-
thereby (see Situation Ethics). tion to God, who wills to realign and rein-
So when Paul Lehmann refers to the vigorate our freedom. Whatever obligation
"human indicative" as "the primary ethical persons may have to seek and serve the good
factor," we notice unexpected affinities with of othersan obligation recognized by hu-
humanistic ethics at a significant point; and manistsis owed to a more-than-human en-
similar statements by other Christian ethi- dowment, creative and redemptive with re-
cists like Robert Johann and David Little spect to all human good.
stress that what makes an act moral is not Is the growth of modern and contempo-
obedience to some external imperative but rary humanism only the fruit of a "tragic
rather one's freely chosen decision to make misunderstanding," as Henri de Lubac held?
and keep human life human (Lehmann), to That is, can it be shown that humanism, in-
"order life cooperatively" (Little) or to stead of being inimical to Christian faith, is
"build the human" (Johann). At any rate the actually its corollary and explication? After
older pejorative dismissals of humanistic eth- all, there has always been, however ham-
ics as "rationalistic" or "hedonistic" have pered theologically, a Christian humanism.
undoubtedly lost much of their former viru- Present-day "liberation theologies" insist
lence, as Christians and humanists think and upon giving humankind its due, quite apart
283 Humanitarianism
from considerations of a supernaturalist or Humanitarianism
extraneous law, will, or sanctioning; so too Humanitarianism is the principle of commit-
do the so-called theologies of process, hope, ment to improve the human condition, par-
and political involvement (see Liberation ticularly with regard to the exploited or mar-
Theology; Political Theology). The best de- ginalized members of society or of world
fense of what Walter Muelder terms "the eth- society.
ical edge" of Christianity would then be- Drawing from humanist insights (see Hu-
come, not a contradicting antihumanism but manistic Ethics) and from the concern with
rather a reassessment of the human situation humanity in religious traditions, humanitari-
and enterprise in terms afforded by Christian anism emerges as the commitment to im-
understanding of human "misery and gran- prove living conditions for human beings, so
deur," in Pascal's words. that the basic necessities for living are availa-
The Christian estimate of humanistic eth- ble to all, and so that the possibility for a
ics cannot be either a simple rejection or a life-enhancing existence is available to all.
straightforward acclamation. One may re- This commitment is often based on compas-
joice in the fact that humane values and vir- sion* or a sense of fellow feeling in the face
tues are indeed great and claim a high de- of deliberate cruelty* The response to such
gree of devotion without presuming that situations has been to try to alleviate the suf-
they are self-explaining or self-justifying. A fering*, especially where no solution to the
Christian doctrine of the human is no mere situation is immediately foreseeable. On an
transcription of despair; Christianity can no international scale, the first "humanitarian
longer be supposed to have a monopoly on laws" were the Declaration of St. Petersburg
the tragic sense of life. Human wretchedness (1868), the Hague Convention (1899, 1907),
and greatness are but two sides of the same and the Geneva Protocol and Convention
truth. This truth comes to Christian expres- (1925, 1949) which sought to apply humane-
sion with singular clarity in Berdyaev's ness even in time of war (see Conventions).
"God is the meaning of human existence." By drawing on the humanitarian impulses of
But this declaration from the side of faith diverse philosophical and religious tradi-
can only be made good if Christians are tions, a universal principle focusing on the
willing to confess and rectify those perver- welfare of human beings was established.
sions of their faith which have made hu- This impulse has also motivated action to
manist protest possible and its critique at alleviate distress within societies (see Wel-
many points cogent. In order to show that fare State). Increasingly the term is also
belief in humanhood and belief in God be- being used to cover the humane treatment of
long together, Christian ethical thinkers will other animate beings (see Animals).
need to advance sounder interpretations and Humanitarianism, through its ability to
elicit stronger motivations with respect to phrase a common impulse in diverse religions
what being human means than humanism and philosophies, has been a force for the
alone has thus far been able to provide. positive improvement of human living, espe-
See Dehumanization; Human Dignity; cially where the diversity of such traditions
Human Rights; Image of God; Morality and and ideologies would have tended to make
Religion, Relations of; Persons and Person- cooperation on the human project unlikely or
ality; Respect for Persons; Secularism; impossible.
Worldliness. See Charity; Dehumanization; Human
Dignity; Human Rights; Hunger, World;
H. J. Blackman, Humanism, 1968; E. Image of God; Persons and Personality; Phi-
Fromm, Man for Himself 1947; J. Gustaf- lanthropy; Social Service of the Church;
son, Theology and Ethics, 1981; and Chris- Welfare State.
tian Ethics and the Community, 1971; R. Jo- ALAN D. FALCONER
hann, Building the Human, 1968; P.
Lehmann, Ethics in a Christian Context, Humanity see Human Dignity; Human
1963; K. Nielsen, Ethics Without God, 1973; Rights; Humanistic Ethics; Humanitari-
R. Shinn, Man: The New Humanism, 1968; anism; Image of God; Natural Law; Natu-
P Tillich, Morality and Beyond, 1963. ral Rights; Persons and Personality; Re-
ROGER HAZELTON spect for Persons
Humility 284
Humility ment that comes from either of these miscon-
Though pride is a sin, humilityits opposite ceptions is a misleading caricature.
is not so much a virtue as a grace. Accord- Three good senses remain. (3) There is ob-
ing to K. E. Kirk, "Worship alone can make jective lowliness: the unimportance which,
us humble" (The Vision of God, abr. ed., p. paradoxically, is important to God. (4) There
186). is creaturely reverence acknowledging glory
Yet there are paradoxes about humility to not one's own (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). (5) There is the
be teased out. Augustine found it surprising humility that is not foreign to God himself,
that "there is something in humility to exalt the humility that is an aspect of agap (1 Cor.
the mind, and something in exaltation to 13:4-7), which empties itself for other peo-
abase it" (City of God 14.13). Aquinas noted ple's sake (Phil. 2:5-11), which is the oppo-
the possibility of being proud of one's humil- site of pride in the sense of self-centeredness.
ity (ST II-II.38.2). What is odd on the face The humble in this sense can be exalted with-
of it is the Christian teaching that the reward out losing their characteristic grace. They
for being humble is to be exalted (Matt. 23: can exalt one another and find themselves
12). Is humility really a good thing in itself, heirs of the kingdom (Rom. 8:15-17). It is
or a means to an end that will not be humility not paradoxical to say that this kind of hu-
at all? mility has self-confidence, the self-confidence
In biblical usage, there is the state of lowli- that can afford to take delight in attending to
ness, undesirable to the natural human being, other people.
and the promise that the mighty shall be put See Pride.
down from their seats in favor of the hum-
ble (Luke 1:52). One might suppose that W Beach and H. R. Niebuhr (eds.), Chris-
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit tian Ethics: Sources of the Living Tradition,
the earth" (Matt. 5:5) is parallel with 1955, esp. pp. 54-55, 61-62, 155-157, 164-
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall 165; K. E. Kirk, The Vision of God, 1931,
be comforted" (Matt. 5:4), and that to hum- VIII, II (b); abr. ed. 1934; W. Law, A Serious
ble oneself, even to find oneself humiliated, is Call to a Devout and Holy Life, 1728, chs. 16,
just part of the way of the cross, a doorway 17; C. S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory,"
into the kingdom, not the kingdom itself (I They Asked for a Paper, 1962, pp. 204-206;
Peter 5:6). Yet humility and meekness* in H. Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics, 1874,
some sense are praised for their own sakes as ch. 10, sec. 2.
truly Christian characteristics (Matt. 11:29; HELEN OPPF.NHFIMER
Eph. 4:1-2; Col. 3:12). Theologies of lib-
eration encounter similar paradoxes over Hunger, World
"Blessed are you poor" (Luke 6:20). Prior to 1970, Christian ethicists and church
Must humility, like some other kinds of leaders focused little attention on the ques-
human well-being, tend to be ruined by its tion of world hunger. Ancient settled biblical
attainment? Is it meant to be a lasting good principle called for the provision of food as
at all? Is creaturely humility required just an act of charity* to sustain the poor, but in
because we are sinful; or more fundamen- traditional subsistent agricultural economies,
tally, because we are finite? large-scale remedies for famine were few; and
More fundamentally still, is human humil- global remedies were unimaginable. "Feed
ity always in stark contrast with the unique the hungry" seemed an adequate summary of
worshipfulness of God? Or is there also a Jewish and Christian tradition in the matter.
divine humility, of which human humbleness The late 1960s and early 1970s saw an up-
is not the correlative but the imitation? (Cf. surge of ethical and church interest in world
John 13:1-17.) hunger. The subject quickly lost its apparent
Five senses of humility may be distin- simplicity under the impact of global eco-
guished. Let it be said that two of them are nomics and communications. Surplus and
erroneous. (1) Humility ought to have noth- famine became world economic facts. Na-
ing to do with a false low opinion of oneself. tional economies flourished or staggered in
If it is a matter of grace, it must somehow response to international markets. Ecologists
also be a matter of truth. (2) Even when the entered the world debate on "development,"
low opinion is justified, humility does not re- calling attention to the limit of the global
quire self-loathing. The servile self-abase- ecosystem to sustain unlimited economic
285 Hunger, W o r l d
growth among humans. Demographers cians from rich countries to tell us in poor
warned national and world policymakers countries what we must do to pull ourselves
that population curves drastically influence up in the world? What holds us down so
economic curves. Caught in the cross fire of much as the power of rich countries to shape
this relatively new set of considerations, both our economies to their wants rather than our
capitalist and socialist politicians found their needs? Are we not supplying luxurious
systems subjected to a critical testwhat was wealth to them when we sell our bananas or
their promise for feeding half a billion people our uranium ore at prices which they deter-
on earth who are currently starving or under- mine? And as for sacrifices, the rich coun-
nourished? tries, by sacrificing little, could benefit us
That way of initiating the discussion was much. They owe us the cost of at least our
congenial to many Third World leaders and survival, since we are helping to pay the cost
representatives of churches. But the eco- of their affluence.
nomic, political, ecological, demographic, The precipitate of this stage of the debate
and ideological complexity of the subject was twofold among Christian ethicists: ac-
all on a global scalefaced ethics and theol- knowledgment, with the scientists, that
ogy with new issues, new also to the human human survival has its costs and conditions;
community as a whole. A chief catalyst of the and acknowledgment, with Third World
ethical and political debate among intellectu- leaders, that rich nations do have the capac-
als was the biologist Garrett Hardin, author ity and the obligation to pay some of the costs
of a pair of widely read articles, "The Trag- of at least the survival of the threatened
edy of the Commons" (1968) and "Lifeboat "Fourth World." But how many of the costs?
Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor" At what level of sacrifice to their own peoples
(1974). Central to the discussion that swirled and cultures? The neighbor-ethic of the gos-
around the claims of such articles were issues pel, if not the natural law of nations, requires
such as the following: Christians to side with the world's poor in
1. What price should world society pay for this matter. But what that may mean for na-
the survival of all its current member soci- tional and international policymaking of
eties? Jesus said that "man shall not live by both rich and poor governments remains a
bread alone," in reply to demonic temptation bundle of open questions. Rejected here by
that he assuage his own hunger by turning Christian ethicists were all forms of egois-
stones into bread. The text has often sug- tic and evolutionary-competitive normative
gested to Christian ethicists that physical theories of social ethics, such as are detecta-
survival can be an idol. Humans must live by ble in Hardin. At the root of the debate
"every word of God" (Matt. 4:4). This yawned drastically different views of social
start toward a normative theory of value plu- justice.
ralism echoes in the refusal of some Third 2. Is starvation, in the modern world, ever
World leaders to "modernize" their local just? Hardin's unambiguous "yes" to this
economies at the price of abolishing their tra- question came clothed in his lifeboat meta-
ditional culture, which may call, for example, phor for the world resource crisis: exceed the
for large families and the leisure of village "load" which the world ecosystem can carry,
society. Hunger is a great evil, they agree; but and you capsize the whole thing. In the name
industrialization and the dependencies of the of survival for some, you may have to deny
world agricultural market may bring greater survival to others. The policy guide has to be
evil yet. Who are "developed" people to tell the familiar triage ethic of military medicine:
us otherwise? let the slightly wounded get well on their
Hardin and company replied to these own, treat those who can only get well with
claims bluntly: Choose your own compro- help, and ignore those who will die anyway
mise with world economics, but don't count (see Triage).
on world charity. Either solve your food The metaphor and its exposition were full
problem through world commerce and popu- of ethically enticing assumptions: the world
lation control or consent to mass starvation context of the hunger problem, scientific
of your people. Third World reaction to this claims about the future fate of whole nations,
message turned against the social injustice and notions about the just deserts of people
that Hardin seemed so blithely to accept on inside and outside the world lifeboat system.
a world scale: Who are scientists and politi- A few American ethicists such as Joseph
Hunger, W o r l d 286
Fletcher reluctantly but firmly sided with the systems only perpetuate the historic injus-
Hardin analysis and the Hardin version of tices of world imperialism? Or are they
justice here. But a majority moved to chal- hedges against yet further deterioration in a
lenge the theory on all its levelsits science, poor country's ability to feed itself?
economics, and theory of justice. The ethical The answers of any contemporary person
use of scientific prediction, said they, is not to to these questions will identify him or her
foresee the future but to state what it may be with contrasting ideologies, political policies,
if we do not act to make it otherwise. Hardin and ethical theories. Jacques Loup of France
thus tends to turn present fact into future spoke from the middle of the world develop-
fact, but his greatest fallacy is his assumption ment debate when he said in 1980, "In the
that people whose opportunities or ancestry coming years, the reconciliation of the imper-
puts them in a social lifeboat are exemplars ative of justice with the necessity of growth
of justice. The losers of history lose again. may indeed constitute the greatest challenge
What justice is there in that? of world poverty." Growth for whom? At
Quite a bit, answer all those philosophers whose expense? And by what yet-uninvented
from Thomas Huxley to Robert Nozick who mechanisms of world power and exchange?
believe that inherited advantage can be just Many of these questions lead away from ethi-
(see Libertarianism). Hardly any, answer all cal discourse toward the discourse of policy-
those from Augustine to John Rawls who makers; butas we have seena salient dy-
believe that a just society requires norms of namic of the discourse among ethicists in the
equality* and perpetual focus on the goal of 1970s was its rapid escalation from simple
making the weakest members stronger (see concern for hungry people to a wrestle with
Justice). the imponderables of economics, politics,
On the whole, theological ethicists in the and ideology on a world scale. Accordingly
1970s sought to avoid the scientism of Har- they found themselves entering into analysis
din and the evolutionary conservatism of No- and prescription concerning such questions
zick. They maintained that biblical ethics re- as economic life-styles and foreign aid policy
quires Christians to "feed the hungry" (and in their own nations. If Christians of affluent
"feed your enemy") even in a complex global countries discipline their consumption of
economy. The right to life cannot be ra- food, will they make more available to the
tioned. Human systems of power and ex- world's poor; or will they merely lessen the
change must be influenceable to just ends, or effective demand for food production in a
they are demonic. Especially in the age of sector of the world market that will not, in
world economic systems, with their food sur- any event, give or sell its surplus to poor
pluses and planned economies, it is never just countries? Must American and British Chris-
that "the least of these" should starve. World tians continue to consume their coffee and tea
hunger, in this view, remains "the world's while working to reform the world trade sys-
largest solvable health problem." tem so that the price of these products rises
3. Who then should produce more, who con- enough to benefit their Third World produc-
sume less? With great persistence Third ers? A new version of the old split between
World critics have sought to turn the as- personal and social ethics heaves into view
sumptions of the "lifeboat ethic" against its here: Do personal consumption habits influ-
originators. On Hardin's overgrazed world ence international economics, or does a seri-
"commons," said one theologian from South ous ethic of world hunger focus on the poli-
India, "American 'sheep' are consuming an- cies of governments and multinational
nually some thirty times as much per capita corporations? What is the proper Christian
as are African or Asian 'sheep.' The only leaven in the lump of rich-nation politics:
way to save the commons is to starve the 'fat exemplary modest life-styles, or the hard po-
sheep' and stop them from multiplying at litical work of getting an entire affluent soci-
all!" Right now they are "multiplying" ety to show preferential treatment to the
through their ability to import far more food world's poor?
than the poor countries, often at the cost of Debate on this range of questions in the
distorting the economies of the poor who 1970s concentrated among Christian ethi-
should be raising corn and cattle on land now cists and church leaders in the USA. At its
producing coffee and bananas. But stubborn beginning, European and Third World lead-
questions remain. Do such export-import ers cast a suspicious eye at the focus on hun-
287 Id
ger in the American churches: "There go the the Mount Jesus admonished his followers
rich Americans again, thinking that they can not to be like the hypocrites, who give alms
feed the world with their charity and ignor- ostentatiously "that they may be praised by
ing the systematic injustices of world com- men," or who "love to stand and pray in the
merce from which they benefit." But in the synagogues and at the street corners, that
USA and elsewhere, the discussion headed they may be seen by men," or who "disfigure
straight toward those systematic concerns, their faces that their fasting may be seen by
opening a wide door upon an arena where men," noting that their public reputation is
clashing assumptions of ethics and giant or- "their reward" (Matt. 6:1-5). Jesus also con-
ganized interests contend for power to shape demned as hypocrites those who criticize
the global future. For many, to go through others, observing the speck in their neigh-
that door was to change their world view, to bor's eye, while neglecting the log in their
discover multiple obligations to world neigh- own eye (Matt. 7:3-5). Hypocrisy masks a
bors, and to repent of their intellectual pro- person's true feelings and thoughts and is
vincialism. thus deceptive, insincere, and inauthentic. It
See Charity; Economic Development; Ec- is common for groups as well as for individu-
umenical Movement; Environmental Ethics; als; for example, as Reinhold Niebuhr noted,
Equality; Future Generations, Obligations nations often mask their motives of self-inter-
to; International Order; Justice; Liberation est by appeals to moral principles. Yet hypoc-
Theology; Life, Sacredness of; Love; Mutual risy is not unambiguous, because, as La
Aid; Oppression; Philanthropy; Population Rochefoucauld observed, it is "a tribute that
Policy; Poverty; Property; Social Service of vice pays to virtue," Right actions may be
the Church; Triage; Wealth. performed and good outcomes may be pro-
duced hypocritically. "The exposure of hy-
L. R. Brown, By Bread Alone, 1974; P. G. pocrisy," Michael Walzer writes, "is cer-
Brown and H. Shue (eds.), Food Policy: The tainly the most ordinary and it may also be
Responsibility of the United States in the Life the most important form of moral criticism."
and Death Choices, 1977; W Byron (ed.), But unmasking hypocrisy has its own perils
The Causes of World Hunger, 1982; G. R. and may lead to cruel and vicious actions.
Lucas, Jr., and T. W. Ogletree (eds.), Life- See Authenticity; Honesty; Self-Decep-
boat Ethics: The Moral Dilemmas of World tion; Truthfulness.
Hunger, 1976; J. A. Nelson, Hunger for Jus-
tice: The Politics of Food and Faith, 1980. R. Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Soci-
DONALD W SHRIVER, JR. ety, 1932; J. Shklar, Ordinary Vices, 1984.
JAMES F. CHILDRESS
Hunting see Animals
Id
Hybris The Latin form used in psychological litera-
Hybris (or hubris) is a Greek term taken over ture in English to render Sigmund Freud's
by Christians with its Greek meaning. It is term das Es (literally "the it"). The id desig-
used to denote the madness of human pride* nates one of the three structures, levels, or-
arrogantly setting out to defy the gods. Chris- ders, or institutions into which psycho-
tians would describe hybris as the sinful folly analytic theory divides the human mind.
of human beings setting out to control what Freud first introduced the id in 1923, but
humans cannot control, even if they wish to while the term came into popular usage along
do this for the glory of God, the furtherance with ego* and superego* (the names he gave
of the gospel, and the welfare of all people. to the other two structures) the idea of an id
R. E. C. BROWNE has not found much support in nonpsy-
choanalytic approaches to psychology (see
Hypocrisy Psychoanalysis).
"Hypocrisy," which in Greek denoted play- The id is said to be the most primitive
ing a part in a drama, is defined by the OED level of psychic organization. It contains the
as "the assuming of a false appearance of basic instinctual drives concerned with such
virtue or goodness, with dissimulation of real matters as hunger, sex, and self-preserva-
character or inclination, especially in respect tion, and these are said to be invested with
of religious life or belief." In the Sermon on large quantities of psychic energy seeking
Feminist Ethics 288
discharge. The forces of the id are blind Philosophers began using the term "ideal-
forces, fundamentally amoral, and not con- ism** in the 18th century. Gottfried Leibniz
cerned with considerations of prudence, dis- (1646-1716), one of thefirstto use the term,
cretion, or the needs or rights of others. contrasted idealism with materialism, and
They simply seek to find expression. Within defended the antimaterialist view that the ul-
the id the so-called primary process prevails: timate constituents of reality are monads,
the contents are chaotically organized so which he took to be perceiving and appetitive
that opposites, for example, are not mutu- (though not necessarily conscious) entities.
ally exclusive, ideas lack synthesis, affects or Matter, he argued, is composed of monads
feelings may be related to inappropriate ob- and hence cannot be ontologically basic.
jects, and the whole process is governed by George Berkeley (1685-1753), who referred
the overriding principle of obtaining gratifi- to his own position as immaterialism, was
cation or pleasure. The id does not learn concerned to resolve a problem in Lockean
more acceptable forms of behavior and has psychologythat offiguringout how, if the
to be controlled by the ego, which develops mind perceives only its own ideas, one could
from it to bring some reality factors into the ever tell which ideas resembled their objects.
picture. Id-ego conflict is, in Freud's view, a He argued that "nothing can be like an idea
major source of neurosis. but an idea** and that we can therefore avoid
Contrary to some popular misconceptions, skepticism about objects of perception only
Freudian theory does not advocate the unin- by dispensing with belief in a mind-independ-
hibited or unrestrained expression of id im- ent world and with the theory of knowledge
pulses. It clearly recognizes that this would as accurate representation of such a world.
be intolerable both for the individual and for Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) did not dis-
society. It was Freud's own dictum that pense with belief in the world of things as
"where id was, there shall ego be," and one they are in themselves, or noumena, but he
of the functions he saw for psychoanalysis did argue that only the "world of appear-
was to help people develop positive and ap- ances,** or phenomena can be known. Space,
t
propriate regulation of basic impulses. time, and the categories of the understanding
are, according to Kant, conditions of the pos-
S. Arieti (ed.), American Handbook of Psy- sibility of experience, not features of noume-
chiatry, 1959; S. Freud, The Ego and the Id nal reality. The phenomenal world is, there-
(1923), ET 1927. fore, a constructed world, dependent upon
GRAEME M. GRIFFIN the activity of a "transcendental ego*' and the
structures of the knowing mind. Empirical
Idealism see Idealist Ethics; Realism science, by means of which theoretical reason
attains knowledge of phenomena, is, how-
Idealist Ethics ever, only one important sphere of intellec-
An idealist, in common parlance, is anyone tual activity. Another is morality, the realm
committed first and foremost to pursuing in which practical reason legislates for itself
ideals. The expressions *'ethical idealism* 1 the basic law of right action, the categorical
and "idealistic ethics** are thus sometimes imperative, and procures its own coherence
used to mark a contrast with the "realism*** by postulating God, freedom, and immortal-
of moralists who stress sober assessment of itythe indispensable tenets of rational
things as they really are. But the phrase "ide- faith. By limiting the scope of theoretical rea-
alist ethics** typically conveys a different son to knowledge of the world of appear-
sense altogether, especially in philosophy, ances, Kant meant to make room for such
where idealism names a metaphysical or epis- faith. If science neither supports nor under-
temological doctrine. An idealist, in this mines beliefs about noumenal reality, practi-
sense, holds that realityor the only reality cal reason is free to entertain faith in God and
we can knowis ultimately mental or immortality. If science's deterministic expla-
spiritual in nature. Idealist ethics, then, refers nations cannot reach beyond the world of
to the moral philosophy or social outlook appearances, it cannot rule out the possibility
associated with some form of this doctrine, of freedom. Kant's program, then, involved
and is often restricted further to the views of marking out the basic domains of human
post-Kantian idealists in Germany, England, thought and culture, offering a separate ac-
and America. count of each, and establishing limits beyond
289 Feminist Ethics
which each fundamental employment of rea- conscious ethical spirit in the rational state.
son should not transgress. Now that Kant's age has been overcome, we
Kant's "transcendental idealism" is the are freed from the empty abstractions of the
great transitional moment in the history of categorical imperative and free to identify
idealism, and his successors took inspiration ourselves with the concrete ethos of our com-
from his attempt to map the entirety of munity, assured that this ethos expresses the
human thought and culture. They were also immanent rationality of spirit (see Kantian
quick, however, to abandon his division of Ethics; Hegelian Ethics).
culture into essentially separate domains The leading English idealists, Thomas Hill
grounded in distinct compartments of mind, Green (1836-1882), Bernard Bosanquet
to dismiss his notion of unknowable (1848-1923), and Francis H. Bradley (1846-
noumena, and to extend his conception of 1924), turned to German idealism for help in
freedom. Subsequent idealism was in many combating British empiricism. Their ethical
ways deeply indebted to Kant, but many of writings were directed mainly against in-
its major themes, not least of all in ethics, can dividualism* and utilitarianism*, but they
only be defined as reactions against his borrowed from Kant and Hegel very selec-
thought. tively. Of the three, Bosanquet was the most
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) trans- dependent upon Hegel. Green, in particular,
formed the free rational will of Kant's moral was highly suspicious of dialectical method.
philosophy into an absolute will that gener- None made much of Hegel's historicism. All
ates both itself and the field in which it acts. three, however, used Hegelian ideas to give
This absolute is expressed in the individual's moral duty a concrete locus in social life.
consciousness of duty and also in the institu- Green did not preach the identity of finite
tions and laws of society. The individual's minds in the infinite, though he did maintain
task is to find and fulfill his or her vocation that the manifestation of the infinite in the
as part of society, thereby achieving self-real- finite constitutes a sort of social bond such
ization in free identification with universal that the self can achieve its realization only
will. Fichte intended this conception of self- in community. Green used idealism as a
realization to overcome Kant's sharp separa- metaphysical backdrop for attacks on laissez-
tion of duty from self-interest. faire individualism and for a highly influen-
G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831) thought tial defense of the state's responsibility in
Fichte's conception of the absolute as univer- matters of social welfare and education.
sal will was one-sided, and portrayed the ab- Bradley, whose political vision was more
solute instead as spirit dialectically realizing conservative than Green's, relied heavily
itself in history. Hegel followed Kant in hold- upon a Hegelian conception of "the concrete
ing that all knowledge is mediated by con- universal" as a way to overcome the in-
cepts, but concepts, for Hegel, are subject to dividualism and abstractness he found in
change as the history of spirit progressively both Kant and the utilitarians. For Bradley,
unfolds. From Hegel's vantage point, Kant's the goal of moral striving must be highly con-
philosophy was not a timeless critique of rea- crete without falling short of the universal
son as such but rather the expression of spirit the duties of a particular station in an organic
in one stage of its development, a stage in community that transcends merely individ-
which spirit had become alienated from it- ual interests.
self. This self-alienation is evident, according The American philosopher Josiah Royce
to Hegel, in Kant's skepticism about things- (1855-1916), who contributed significantly
in-themselves, in the formal abstraction of to idealist ethics in his own right, criticized
his categorical imperative, and in his separa- Bradley for allowing individuality to dissolve
tion of duty from inclination. The form of too completely in the absolute. Still working
consciousness expressed in Kant's philoso- within Hegel's influence, Royce sought to re-
phy is one of division and discord of a sort store what he took to be a proper balance
that canfinallybe overcome, on Hegel's view, between the personal and the communal in
only in his own conception of absolute spirit. the fully realized self. Moral obligation, for
Kant's moral philosophy lost sight of the ori- Royce, consists in loyalty* to the community
gins of ethical consciousness in the im- of all individuals.
mediacy of an unreflective ethos, and it could Idealism no longer survives as a philosoph-
not yet foresee the realization of fully self- ical movement, but many of its major ethical
Ideology 290
arguments and themes have proved remark- history is the production and reproduction of
ably resilient when separated from idealist material life or economic activity. This activ-
metaphysics. Both Marxism and American ity has two aspects: (1) the means of produc-
pragmatism*, for example, have adopted and tionlabor, tools, raw materials; (2) rela-
retained criticisms of individualism, utilitari- tions of production, notably the class rela-
anism, and Kantianism first articulated in the tion, which enable a particular set of the
idealist tradition, while also echoing the his- means of production to be exploited. Corre-
toricism and holism of Hegel's approach to sponding to this material base are forms of
ethics. social consciousness or ideology concerning
human nature, the state, the economy, art
A. C. Ewing (ed.), The Idealist Tradition: and human spirituality which change as the
From Berkeley to Blanshard, 1957; A. J. M. economic base changes. These modes of con-
Milne, The Social Philosophy of English Ide- sciousness, or ideologies, are not to be seen as
alism, 1962. their protagonists see them, as all-embracing,
JEFFREY STOUT true theories about such things, but rather
they serve the interests of the dominant eco-
Ideals see Aspiration; Excellence; Norms nomic class. As such, ideologies embody false
consciousness: they purport to teach general
Ideology and universal truths about aspects of the
The term "ideology" was introduced into po- human condition, whereas they serve the
litical discourse by the French philosopher widest possible social and political function
Destutt de Tracy in 1795 to denote the gen- of making the existing class and power rela-
eral science of ideas, and the term passed into tions appear natural and legitimate to those
general usage almost immediately and was who are most disadvantaged by them. Ideol-
used by Napoleon and subsequently by ogy therefore performs a mystifying and con-
Marx. In the 20th century the term has come soling function, misrepresenting social real-
to acquire two rather different usages. ity in various respects and inducing
The first and more general usage refers to acceptance of the status quo. This view of
the range of theories, ideas, concepts, and ideology was clearly applied to Christianity
values that characterize a particular soci- by Marx. In his view this Christian ideology
opolitical doctrine or belief system. So today encouraged political quietism and trans-
we frequently refer to Marxist ideology, Fas- ferred the hope for a better life to the world
cist ideology, liberal ideology, etc. Such to come.
ideologies have at their center a theory of See Marxist Ethics; Rationalization.
human natureour needs, interests, rights,
etc.and from this theory more specifically D. McLellan (ed.), Karl Marx: Selected
political doctrines are derived relating to the Writings, 1977; K. Mannheim, Ideology and
nature of the state and the fundamental types Utopia, ET 1936; B. Parekh, Marx's Theory
of obligations that human beings may be of Ideology, 1982; M. Seliger, Ideology and
thought to have to one another. Politics, 1976.
A central feature of the tradition of West- RAYMOND PLANT
ern political thought has been a concern
about whether such general theories, which Idolatry see Decalogue; Patristic Ethics
purport to be about universal characteristics
of human nature and human life, can be ra- Ignorance
tionally grounded. The pervasive conviction
in the 20th century that they cannot be so I. General Theological, Philosophical,
grounded and that they rather reflect the and Ethical Issues
value preferences of those who hold them In Christian ethics, discussions of ignorance
perhaps explains why they have come to be are usually related to problems about the cul-
called "ideologies." pability of agents for their actions. When,
The second usage is more technical and is and how, does ignorance exculpate someone
internal to Marxist historical materialism. It who has performed a morally wrong action?
is central to Marx's view that the basic ex- Much of the discussion in Western tradi-
planatory tool in the explanation of human tion, and especially in Roman Catholic moral
291 Ignorance
theology, takes its origins from Aristotle's Moreover, the sharp distinction between ig-
treatment of it in his Nicomachean Ethics norance of moral principle and ignorance of
3.1. Aristotle distinguishes between igno- facts is more difficult to sustain than appears
rance of the universal, which, in his view, at first sight.
does not excuse, and ignorance of the partic- It has been alleged that Rom. 1:18-21 pro-
ular, which does (or may). An example of vides biblical support for the view that there
this might be found in the story of Oedipus. are at least some moral principles which no
He was ignorant of the fact that it was his normal adult human being can honestly fail
mother he married, and this is an excuse. to know, though the precise exegesis of this
Had he, however, been ignorant of the passage is controversial.
wrongness of marrying one's mother, he What is not in dispute is that when igno-
would have had no excuse. rance does properly function as an excuse, it
It may be that Aristotle's discussion does so because it is regarded as appropriate
should be read in a legal context. But the to take the agent's description of the action
distinction he drew between the two kinds of as the proper basis on which to make assess-
ignorance was frequently taken over into ments of blameworthiness.
moral contexts, and was thereby linked with See Intention; Responsibility.
a discussion whether it was possible for a GERARD J. HUGHES
responsible adult to be ignorant of moral
principles. The general answer (to be found, II. Distinctions in Moral Theology
for instance, in Aquinas, ST I-II.94.3) was In the moral sphere, the word "ignorance" is
that it was not possible for any (responsible) used to denote a lack of knowledge which one
human being to be ignorant of the basic ought to have. The word "error" is used by
moral principles, though a person might well some moral theologians in the same sense,
be ignorant of more detailed and specific and no distinction from ignorance is in-
principles (see Synderesis). Aquinas held tended.
that such ignorance could excuse, since he From the point of view of that which is not
held that a person was morally obliged to do known, there can be ignorance of a fact and
what he or she believed to be right, even if ignorance of the law (see above).
mistaken in this belief (ST 1.19.5-6). And it From the point of view of the person who
was generally acknowledged that ignorance is ignorant, ignorance may be "invincible" or
of facts could excuse. But neither in the case "vincible. " Invincible ignorance is that which
of ignorance of moral principle, nor in the persists after all reasonable efforts have been
case of ignorance of fact, was it held that made to dispel it. Vincible ignorance is that
ignorance excused if the ignorance was itself which a reasonable effort could and should
the result of blameworthy behavior on the overcome. What is reasonable depends on the
part of the agent, such as an unwillingness to circumstances, for example, the importance
take reasonable pains to discover the true of the subject matter, and the opportunities
state of affairs, or deliberately putting oneself afforded for inquiry or reflection. Vincible
into a condition (e.g., drunkenness) in which ignorance, since it is in some degree a per-
one would not realize the true state of affairs. son's own fault, does not excuse from blame
Noncognitivist theories of ethics (see Meta- any action to which it may lead. Invincible
ethics), denying as they do that there is any ignorance, on the other hand, does excuse.
such thing as moral knowledge, must also The textbooks subdivide vincible igno-
deny that there is such a state as ignorance of rance into "simple," "crass," and "affected"
moral principles. In such theories, it does not or "deliberate." "Simple" is where some
seem that disputes could even arise about effort has been made to overcome the igno-
whether such ignorance would or would not rance, greater effort might have been made,
constitute an excuse. And many cognitivists but failure to do so is not very blameworthy.
(see Metaethics) also would dispute the view "Crass" is where virtually no attempt has
that ignorance of a moral principle was ever been made to dispel it, and there is little or
culpable, despite what Aristotle might have no excuse for the omission to do so.
held. Such ignorance might perhaps be at- "Affected" ignorance is a deliberate act of
tributable to inadequate education, or to will by which people determine to make no
mental illness, rather than to moral defect. effort to find out the truth in order that they
Illegitimacy 292
may feel free to do whatever it is they want the Christian as renewed in God's image by
to do. God's regenerative power through the Holy
From the point of view of the action which Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). In theological anthropol-
follows from the ignorance, the textbooks ogy, so important to Christian moral theol-
distinguish between "antecedent," "concom- ogy and ethics, the image of God has been
itant," and "consequent." Antecedent igno- central in debates about what was present
rance is an involuntary ignorance which is before, what was lost in, and what remains
the cause of an action which, but for it, the after the Fall. E. Brunner (Man in Revolt: A
agent would not have performed. For exam- Christian Anthropology, ET 1947, p. 92) con-
ple, a motorist driving with all reasonable tends that "the whole Christian doctrine of
caution runs over a man whom she does not man hangs upon the interpretation of this
know to be in the road. Concomitant igno- expression [in his image and after his like-
rance is also an involuntary ignorance, but is ness]. The history of this idea is the
not the cause of the action which follows, in history of the Western understanding of
the sense that the agent would still have per- man."
formed the action even if he or she had not Distinguishing imago Dei and similitudo
been ignorant. For example, a murderer in- Dei, rather than viewing them as Hebrew
tent on killing his enemy "accidentally" runs parallelism, Roman Catholic theology has
the person over in his car. Such a man is held that similitudo Dei, which consisted of
morally guilty of murder, though technically certain supernatural endowments (donum
and in law probably only of homicide or at superadditum ), was lost in the Fall, but that
worst manslaughter. Consequent ignorance the imago Dei (including reason and free
is willful ignorance and therefore the same as will) was not fundamentally affected. Ac-
affected ignorance, if directly willed, or crass cording to Reformation theology, original
ignorance if indirectly willed, that is, the re- sin* affects the core of human nature, but
sult of gross negligence. there were also disputes among Reformation
The relevance of ignorance to a judgment theologians. As Van Harvey writes, "In gen-
on the culpability of an action, and the im- eral, the Lutheran tradition emphasized the
portance of an accurate understanding of the loss of the image of God while the Calvinist
different kinds of ignorance, are obvious. It is tradition regarded it as corrupted but not
not surprising that moral theologians devote lost. Roman Catholic theologians considered
considerable space to the subject. the Protestant view antihumanistic and de-
R. C. MORTIMER structive of natural morality. Protestants, on
the other hand, regarded the Roman Catho-
Illegitimacy lic view as implying that sin did not go to the
An illegitimate child is one born out of mar- root of human existence." Questions of natu-
riage, not being the child of validly married ral law* and natural theology are obviously
parents. Legitimacy is an important element connected with doctrines of the image of
in most laws of inheritance. The Roman God.
Catholic Church has clear dfinitions of legit- Although the image of God is often con-
imacy, and illegitimate children can be legiti- strued as reason and free will, it has also been
mated by the Holy See. English law has interpreted as spiritual capacities, such as
removed some of the disabilities of illegiti- self-transcendence or the capacity for and the
mate children. call to relationship with God, and as excel-
HERBERT WADDAMS lences, such as righteousness* Some theolo-
gians have objected to the concentration on
Image of God (Imago Dei) intellectual and spiritual aspects of humanity
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our to the neglect of the external body. A few
image, after our likeness; and let them have have argued that the image of God is the
dominion. 1 So God created man in his body, while others have argued that it is a
own image, in the image of God he created combination of the spiritual and physical in
him; male and female he created them" (Gen. psychophysical unity (see Body; Embodi-
1:26f.; cf. 5:1 and 9:6; see also 1 Cor. 11:7 and ment).
James 3:9). The NT also views Christ as the There are numerous ethical implications of
image of the invisible God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. different interpretations of the image of God,
1:15), reflecting God's glory (Heb. 1:3), and but a few examples will suffice. (1) The Gene-
293 Imitation of Christ
sis passage connects creation in the image of According to the NT the imitation of
God with human "dominion" over the rest of Christ consists of a being conformed to his
creation. Humans are in but are distin- humility, patience, hope, and love. This is the
guished from the rest of nature. Even if, as in essence of the Christian ethic as modeled on
the royal ideology of the ancient Near East, the attitude of Christ.
humans are God's representatives in parts of It is a pity that the word "imitation" sug-
his kingdom, their rule should be like God's gests uncreative copying. A reminder of the
and should not be exploitative. (For a discus- way that word is used in the history of art
sion of stewardship, see Environmental Eth- would prevent this misunderstanding. In the
ics.) (2) Human dignity* is an alien dignity, arts and in music imitation as commonly un-
not intrinsic dignity; it is bestowed on human derstood would be a hopelessly feeble word
beings through their creation in God's image for the creative and original quality of varia-
and their redemption. (3) Genesis (9:6) con- tions based on previous themes. In the NT
nects the prohibition of taking human life the imitation of Christ as an ethical ideal is
with creation in God's image (see Life, Sa- not some endeavor to copy literally the his-
credness of; Homicide). (4) As the NT pas- torical Jesus, but is conceived to be the work
sages suggest, the doctrine of the imago Dei of the Holy Spirit molding the life of the
can support a call to conform to the "image" Christian into some likeness of Christ. Both
of Christ, who is "the image of the invisible John and Paul in their writing on the work
God" (see Imitation of Christ). of the Spirit think of it as a kind of doing a
Christ over again in terms of the life and
J. M. Childs, Jr., Christian Ethics and An- action of the Christian communities.
thropology, 1978; V A. Harvey, A Handbook The history of the imitation of Christ in
of Theological Terms, 1964; N. W. Porteous, Christian ethical tradition does show a tend-
"Image of God," IDB II, 1962; G. von Rad ency toward literal mimesis. One thinks, for
et al., "eikn, " TDNT II, 1964; G. von Rad, example, of the literal attempts of Francis of
Genesis, ET 1961, rev. ed. 1972. Assisi to copy Christ, and in the light of this
JAMES F. CHILDRESS Luther was right to prefer the term confor-
mitas to imitatio. In a fully developed exposi-
Imitation of Christ tion of the place of this ideal in the Christian
Human ethical ideals seem to require some tradition, the terms conformitas and imitatio
particular focusing in a personal life to inte- would need to be related. The imitative life of
grate values and provide motive power. The the Christian involves both God's activity by
life of Christ for Christians is such a unifying the Spirit in grace in conforming human be-
and integrating factor, and the imitation of ings to his image in Christ (conformitas), and
Christ as an ideal is of both psychological and that of human beings focusing their moral
theological importance. and spiritual attention on the exemplar
Imitation in human development is not Christ (imitatio).
something that belongs only to childhood; Any modern presentation of the Christian
mimesis continues to play an important role ethical ideal of the imitation of Christ needs
in the growth of human personality. There to come to terms with contemporary histor-
seems to be a universal tendency to regard ical criticism. Certainly the NT Gospels are
one life history as a paradigm and to treat not historical biographies in the sense that
some historical personage as an archetype. they were written to satisfy curiosity about
Theologically one of the presuppositions of personal facts concerning Jesus. The NT
belief in the incarnation in Christ is human- Gospels are "lives of Christ" for potential
ity's need of an exemplar. Moreover, the fact disciples. The Gospels are about disciple-
that the Christian sees Christ as a redemptive ship at the same time as they are about
model shows that more is at stake in the imi- Christ, and in this sense one can speak of
tation of Christ than the satisfaction of a psy- them as allegories of Christian discipleship,
chological need. The imitation of God in with the corollary that the life of the disci-
Christian belief is not a means to salvation ple can be to the discerning eyes of faith to
but the fruit of it, and it inevitably assumes a greater or lesser degree an allegory of
the form of the imitation of Christ, which is Christ. The use made of the tradition about
a possibility through grace by the work of the Jesus was determined by something very
Holy Spirit. like the imitatio Christi ideal. This provided
Imperialism 294
a main impetus to tell stories about Jesus, Imperative see Categorical Imperative;
but it would be foolhardy to suppose that Divine Command Morality; Norms
this was the only motive or that it was en-
tirely free from historical controls. It is Imperialism
more likely that one of the assumptions be- Imperialism is not condemned in the NT. On
hind the early transmission of the material the contrary, Jesus shows no sign of seeing
about Jesus was the imitation of Christ, and the struggle against the Roman Empire as
this may have exercised a conserving influ- being any part of his mission, or of setting his
ence before the idea was sufficiently forma- face against the numerous imperialistic pas-
tive to have strong inventive potency. This sages of the OT One has therefore to bring
may have led to the retention rather than modern imperialism under moral judgment
the loss of reliable fact. There are features of with at best indirect guidance from scripture.
the character of Jesus, for example, which, In liberation theology* this is done in ways
clearly, were imperfectly assimilated during that attach central importance to selected
the time of his life but which yet find a scriptural material, but the following re-
place in the records. One could instance his marks are prudential rather than theological.
attitude to children and animals. There is At the present time, we are living close to
no evidence that these attitudes were ap- the end of a period of intense political change
preciated in the early church. It is possible constituted by the collapse of the European
to argue that it was the faithfulness of the empires in which the states of Western
Evangelists to historical memory which led Europe explicitly and proudly subjected a
them to represent Jesus as dealing with chil- large part of the world to colonial status (see
dren and speaking of animals in a way that Colonialism). Much of what is said about im-
they did not understand or really sympa- perialism by religious commentators and in
thize with but felt to be clearly characteris- international forums needs to be understood
tic of him. in this historical context. For example, the
Finally the imitation of Christ as an ethical UN General Assembly has, increasingly
ideal needs to be conceived in terms not of a since the late 1950s, become an organization
constant looking back to a past model but of whose majority is committed to supporting
a living process that attains its goal in the and furthering the process of decolonization.
future. Christians are in the process of being One of its main reproaches to the so-called
made like Christ, but full likeness is always pariah states, Israel and South Africa, is that
for historical persons that which is yet to be. they are objectionable vestiges of the era of
"It does not yet appear what we shall be, but European imperialism. This charge contin-
we know that when he appears we shall be ues to be reiterated even though they are in
like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 fact sovereign states with aims and interests
John 3:2). For the Christian the model lies in which conflict at many points with those of
the future as much as in the past. Christ is, the colonial power (the UK) which can in
to use Gabriel Marcel's phrase, "a memory of some sense be said to have created them.
the future." Another major preoccupation of the
See Norms; Goodness; Jesus, Ethical successor states which have emerged with the
Teaching of; New Testament Ethics; Es- "end of empire" is their abject dependence on
chatological Ethics. the richer and stabler countries of "the
north." Their resentment of this dependence
D. Bonhoeffer, Ethics, ET 1955; I. Gobry, Le is often articulated in terms of the "covert
modle en morale, 1962; J. M. Gustafson, imperialism" to which they see themselves as
Christ and the Moral Life, 1968; E. Mala- being subjected.
testa, S.J. (ed.), Imitating Christ, 1974; K. The notion of imperialism is stretched still
Ward, Ethics and Christianity, 1970. further in the widely believed argument that
E. J. TINSLEY the two superpowers (USA, USSR) have
subordinated almost all of the world to a
Immigration see Race Relations; Rac- "bloc system" in which nominally sovereign
ism; Refugees states are reduced to being mere pawns and
proxies. "Soviet imperialism" is thus often
Immorality see Norms; Right and Wrong; used to refer to both the internal domination
Righteousness; Sin(s) by Russia and Russians over the other repub-
295 Individualism
lies and peoples of that vast country and the father and daughter, or stepfather and step-
Soviet claim to have a right to intervene in its daughter. Sibling incest is also found, and for
sphere of influence (recognized by the great some generations the Egyptian pharaohs and
powers at the Yalta Conference, asserted pre-Columbian Incas considered brother-sis-
more vigorously in the Brezhnev Doctrine, ter marriage normative. Grandfather-grand-
and now perhaps interpreted to cover Af- daughter, uncle-niece, and (rarely) mother-
ghanistan as well as Eastern Europe). The son incest may occur; and the relationship
term "American imperialism" is used in a may be homosexual as well as heterosexual.
somewhat similar way (not always by the Typically, incest arises within a family unit
same people!) to refer to the long-established that is already disturbed. Chronic dishar-
US practice of intervention in Latin America mony in the marital relationship is often to be
(first declared in the Monroe Doctrine) and found. Where incest occurs, the conse-
the growing tendency since 1945 for US mili- quences for a girl may include neurotic symp-
tary intervention to occur in many parts of toms, depression, disturbed self-evaluation,
the world. and mistrust of men, the latter often having
Has the word "imperialism" become so an adverse effect on subsequent marriage.
stretched by these and other analogies to the Stability and good nonsexual relationships
legally constituted empires of former times within the family are important for the devel-
that it is no longer useful, an empty pejora- opment of the child's personality. In addi-
tive? Probably not: international order*, as tion, incest is genetically risky. Children born
we now know it, is grounded in the mutuality of incest have an increased risk of recessive
of sovereign states, and imperialism is a sys- disorders and congenital malformations.
tematic, barefaced affront to the sovereignty
of peoples, involving, as it does, the claim of H. Maisch, Incest, 1973; J. Renvoize, Incest,
one state to subject alien peoples to political 1982.
rule. Even if there are no formal empires at ELIZABETH R. MOBERLY
present, many degrees of subjection to for-
eign domination continue to exist, and argu- Indeterminism see Free Will and Deter-
ment is bound to continue about where the minism; Libertarianism
line is to be drawn between legitimate control
of the weaker by the stronger, and interven- Indifferent Acts see Adiaphora; Norms
tion so extreme as to amount to the funda-
mentally objectionable practice of imperial- Individualism
ism. It seems clear that the idea of national The essential Christian belief in the person-
self-determination, according meaningful in-community is easily polarized into two op-
statehood to any people desiring it, which posing abstractions, individualism and col-
was mooted by Woodrow Wilson after World lectivism* Each expresses a partial truth and
War I, is doomed to remain a dream. So long a partial distortion of the Christian under-
as it does so and disparities of state power standing.
continue, moral and political dispute about Individualism magnifies the valid experi-
which political inequalities amount to impe- ence of the self and minimizes the social for-
rialism seems bound to continue. mation and involvement of the self. It starts
See International Order; National Sov- with individual persons. Society*, then, is the
ereignty; State. aggregate of individuals, and social institu-
tions* exist to serve individuals. The in-
G. W. Gong, The Standard of Civilization '
4 dividualist esteems freedom* and auton-
in International Society, 1984. omy*, and is skeptical of social solidarity and
BARRIE PASKINS authority*
Individuality is not, in historic fact, the
In Vitro Fertilization see Reproductive primary datum in human experience. Primi-
Technologies tive tribes and ancient empires have usually
been more impressed with the social unit
Incest than with the individual. But individualism,
Incest involves sexual contact between per- like so many of the themes of Western soci-
sons within prohibited degrees of kinship. ety, has roots in the history of both the
Most frequently incest takes place between Greeks and the Hebrews.
Individualism 296
In Hellenic society there were individualist himself went to his lonely death on the cross.
impulses, variously related to social identifi- Yet the NT interprets this solitary man as
cation, in the Promethean myth, in the Peri- representative person, suffering and conquer-
clean oration in Thucydides, in the tragic ing sin for all. He teaches and exemplifies
heroes of drama, in the satires on personality love. He calls persons, not into solitary devo-
in comedy. The Sophists* of the 5th century tion, but into a community of faith. His fol-
B.c. included radical individualists, highly lowers understand themselves as the house-
critical of society and tradition. Socrates (see hold of God, as the body of Christ, as a holy
Socratic Ethics) is remembered as the relent- nation.
less questioner, whose martyrdom in 399 B.c. In subsequent history Christians brought
demonstrated the power of a conscience that to society both an intense concern for persons
refused to surrender to the popular will, even and a commitment to community. Although
while affirming his loyalty to Athens. Al- Augustine in his Confessions (about A.D.
though his disciple Plato (see Platonic Eth- 400) produced a genre of writing hitherto
ics) advocated an organic, hierarchical soci- unknown in the probing of selfhood, he had
ety, the Cynics* claimed to follow the So- an overwhelming sense of the solidarity both
cratic logic to its consequences in a stubborn, of humanity in sin and of the redeemed in the
eccentric individualism. Epicurus (see Epicu- city of God. Medieval society accented the
reanism, Ethics of), with an atomistic doc- human social awareness in an organic, hier-
trine of nature and of the self, minimized the archical society. Mystics and rebels kept alive
importance of society. the Christian awareness of personal experi-
The Bible took a different path in the dis- ence; and ordinary persons knew that their
covery of the person. The early sources em- sin, judgment, and redemption were highly
phasize the "corporate personality" of the personal. But inasmuch as salvation was sac-
tribe or of Israel. But the call for fidelity* and ramental, it was communal.
personal decision* came to distinguish the The modern world has seen the emergence
individual from the society. The hope for the of an individualism that has both Christian
nation became the hope for a remnant. The and heretical roots. What is commonly called
punishment of the family or tribe for the sins "Protestant individualism" has little to do
of some of its members gave way to law that with Christian faith or the Reformation. Yet
fixed guilt and responsibility upon individu- it remains true that, just as the Renaissance
als (e.g., Deut. 24:16). The prophets (see Pro- awakened an exultant appreciation of human
phetic Ethics), while feeling solidarity with powers, the Reformation put a heightened
their people, became lonely in their aliena- emphasis on personal responsibility. Luther
tion from their kin. "I sat alone," wrote Jere- (see Lutheran Ethics) taught that all persons
miah (Jer. 15:17); and his writings showed a must do their own believing just as they must
quality of self-awareness never before ex- do their own dying. Repentance and faith are
pressed. Ezekiel emphasized personal re- personal, not institutional. Luther sought to
sponsibility to the extent of an unreal denial recover the NT sense of the person-in-com-
of social solidarity (Ezek. 18:1-4). The exilic munity when he said that all Christians are
and postexilic psalmists frequently showed a called to be priests, even Christs, to their
penetrating quality of introspection and rec- neighbors. The Anabaptists (see Anabaptist
ognition of the inner life of the person. Late Ethics) emphasized the personal nature of
Jewish eschatology transferred the locus of faith in their insistence upon believers' bap-
hope from the historical society, in which tism. They tended to see the church as the
persons found gratification by anticipation, community of those persons who have made
to a consummation in which each person decisions for Christ rather than as the or-
would participate and be judged individually. ganic community that nurtures persons in
The NT developed this Hebrew conscious- faith. The later English Independents and
ness of the person to the highest possible Quakers (see Quaker Ethics) emphasized in
pitch. Jesus taught that God numbers the various ways the importance of personal de-
hairs on the heads of persons, that there is cision and responsibility, the value of free-
more joy in heaven over one sinner who re- dom, the significance of conscience, and the
pents than over 99 people who need no re- inadequacy of external authorities.
pentance, that an act done to "one of the least These Christian movements, however,
of these my brethren" is done to God. Jesus kept an awareness of the work of faith and
297 Indoctrination
love in creating community* Other streams By this time individualism has come to
of thought had to arise in order to bring mean many different things in the Western
about modern individualism, with its affirma- cultural tradition. (To make comparisons
tion of the autonomy* of the self. Hobbes and with Eastern traditions would require a
Descartes in the 17th century separated the longer essay than this.) Among the many var-
individual from the meaningful social nexus ieties are these: (1) the insistence upon the
Hobbes by reviving an ancient atomism autonomy of the self which rejects any exter-
and Descartes by defining the self as "a thing nal authority, yet may (in its Kantian form)
that thinks." (Hobbes shows how easy it is to have a high sense of social duty in its appeal
start with individualism, yet end with an au- to the self-legislating will and its insistence
thoritarian society.) Defoe's Robinson Crusoe that every person is an end, not merely a
(1719) depicted the autonomous self fiction- means; (2) the romantic and existentialist
ally. Locke, Hume, Adam Smith, Bentham, forms that emphasize individual uniqueness;
and Mill in the 18th and 19th centuries did (3) the political individualism that resents in-
the same thing, with many variations, philo- trusion of the state and asks minimal govern-
sophically. ment; (4) the competitive economic individu-
Some of these names suggest the impor- alism represented by Herbert Spencer's
tance of the modern economy for individual- Social Darwinism and popularized in Amer-
ism. An industrial economy, where persons ica by Andrew Carnegie and Herbert Hoover
and wealth are mobile and interchangeable, ("rugged individualism"); (5) the compas-
encourages individualism. Such an economy sionate individualism that values every per-
may also esteem individual initiative, free en- son, including the "least of these." It is possi-
terprise, and the doctrine of laissez-faire* ble to combine some of these meanings as in
Curiously this very individualism has contemporary American libertarianism*,
seemed to many to destroy the significance of which unites radical versions of political and
the individual person. Industrial society, economic individualism. It is not possible to
often substituting a process or system of pro- combine them all.
duction for personal relations, can generate Individualism is the development of one
an abstract rather than personal individual- aspect of the Christian understanding of the
ism. It tends to deal with masses rather than person-in-community. It needs continuous
persons, to value individuals for their func- correction from those who understand that
tions rather than their selfhood, and there- the self lives only in relation with others. But
fore to make persons expendable (see Indus- it is itself, in some of its forms, a correction
trial Revolution; Industrial Relations). of any doctrine of society or nation that sub-
One result has been the romantic and exis- merges persons.
tentialist rebellion against Enlightenment ra- See Autonomy; Collectivism; Community;
tionalism in the name of an appreciation of Existentialist Ethics; Human Dignity; Liber-
authentic selfhood (see Authenticity). Emer- alism; Libertarianism; Persons and Person-
son, Thoreau, and Whitman in America, like ality; Respect for Persons.
some of the Romantic poets of Europe, ex-
alted the self. Later existentialism, whether Augustine, Confessions; M. Buber, I and
Christian, agnostic, or atheistic, emphasized Thou, ET 1958; J. Dewey, Individualism,
2
the individual person. Kierkegaard, with his Old and New, 1930; S. Lukes, Individualism,
emphasis upon self-exploration and decision, 1973; J. S. Mill, On Liberty, 1859; R. Nie-
and Nietzsche, with his exultancy in the buhr, The Self and the Dramas of History,
uniqueness of every person, were the early 1955; R. Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia,
leaders of the movement. Heidegger and Sar- 1974; J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971.
tre carried it farther. ROGER L. SHINN
It may be asked whether such writers, in
their concern for individual freedom and de- Individuality see Individualism; Persons
cision, have lost the significance of commu- and Personality; Self-Realization
nity. But it is noteworthy to see them reassert
the importance of the individual in the face Indoctrination
of the very society that had so often stifled the The word literally means instruction in doc-
person while flying the banners of individual- trine, and is morally neutral. It has gained a
ism. pejorative sense from its overtones of au-
Industrial Relations 298
thoritarianism, and from unfavorable con- bureaucratic, collgial, or other systematic
trasts drawn between unproven doctrines organizations. An issue of central importance
and established facts. In an ideal type of lib- is the kind of responsibilities superiors have
eral education pupils learn, not by the exer- in directing their subordinates and the nature
cise of coercive authority, nor by the suppres- of the obligations owed by subordinates to
sion of alternative beliefs, but by the free use those above them in performance of their
of their own reason on evidence presented to tasks. Another major issue is the amount of
them without bias. In practice it is doubtful freedom an individual may assume within his
whether any educational system could or or her work or occupational group and the
should operate according to this ideal model. extent to which individual and group goals
Indeed, the model itself depends on presup- can diverge from those of the larger organiza-
positions about the value of liberal educa- tion. These issues arise in various forms,
tional methods, and the capacity of pupils to posed as problems of special conditions, cir-
respond to them, which are imposed without cumstances, and time. What people are to be
argument despite being disputable. Some de- hired and by what standards are they to be
gree of indoctrination is inevitable in any judged? How will their tasks be assigned and
educational system, if only because learning by whom? Why should special communica-
has to start somewhere, time is too short for tions devices be used and for what purpose?
everybody to discover everything for them- How will work standards be defined? Who
selves, and reason is not sufficient to establish will enforce the performance and carry out
in each person de novo the complex matrix of any disciplining? When will promotions,
beliefs, values, and attitudes that make civi- layoffs, or discharges be effected and for what
lized life possible. reasons? Determination of the rates of pay,
This indoctrinational element in all educa- hours of work, and job conditions along with
tion, however, does not justify the deliberate the introduction of technological change are
use of procedures designed to silence criti- among the most difficult problems.
cism and to inculcate disputable beliefs with- Industrial relations as an area of system-
out any indication that they are disputable. atic study did not develop until the 20th cen-
There is a point at which legitimate guidance, tury. Before then scholars generally assumed
and help given in establishing criteria, passes and business people believed that the market
into lack of respect and ultimately into viola- automatically and appropriately governed
tion of personal integrity. the relations of employers and workers. Em-
See Brainwashing; Education, Christian ployers relied upon the market to regulate
Moral; Respect for Persons. their dealings with workers; but they also
looked to the tradition and law of the master-
B. G. Mitchell, "Indoctrination," Appendix servant relationship to define the role of each
B in The Fourth R: The Durham Report on party. Classical economists argued that in-
Religious Education, 1970. dividuals seeking work in a free market could
JOHN HABGOOD not be injured since competition would force
employers to pay the highest wages and pro-
Industrial Relations vide the best conditions possible. While the
Industrial relations involves the conduct of, argument possesses some validity, experience
and the theories analyzing, relationships has not always confirmed it. Workers all too
among people working for large organiza- often enjoyed little choice of employment
tions in a modern industrial setting. Earlier and thus gained none of the protection a
the term was limited to the interactions be- competitive market was supposed to offer.
tween employers and workers or managers To their considerable market power em-
and employees, particularly in business cor- ployers added the traditional "rights" of a
porations. Now it is also applied to the rela- master's prerogatives and of an owner's prop-
tions among all those who contribute to the erty. They were socially superior, as proven
activities of any large organization, private or by their positionthe chosen of God or Na-
public, profit or nonprofit, manufacturing or tureand their authority was reinforced by
service. the law, which warded off all attacks upon
The problems with which industrial rela- their arbitrary directives and absolute rules
tions is concerned are those encountered by because it guaranteed them the right to dis-
people dealing with others in hierarchical, pose of their property and to manage it as
299 Industrial Relations 299
they saw lit. Though today managers seldom were to be chosen rationally on the basis of
appeal to the old traditions to bolster their tests that revealed their individual aptitudes
prerogative claims, many still insist that they and willingness to follow the minute rules
do and ought to possess at least some unques- and regulations imposed upon them. Advo-
tioned rights in directing or administering cates argued that all concerned would ben-
the organization. efit, both workers and employers sharing the
In the mid-19th century, Karl Marx (see assured productivity increases.
Marxist Ethics) powerfully criticized the While it contributed greatly to improving
capitalistic market system, which gave over- work efficiency, scientific management
whelming power to employers. He argued wrongly assumed that there was only one
that it allowed exploitation* which impover- best way of performing a task and expected
ished laborers and that it degraded men by a rationality in organizations that probably
alienating them from their works. Some em- does not exist. The diversity of abilities, tal-
ployers, of which Robert Owen is an out- ents, and temperaments among people allow
standing example, recognized the inadequacy different workers to achieve the same effi-
of the market in providing healthful condi- ciency in their job in a variety of ways; and
tions of work and living standards conducive selection, direction, and administration con-
to an efficient, effective labor force. Interested tinue to involve a great deal of art and subjec-
as well in social reforms, Owen established a tive evaluation despite the use of tests, objec-
model industrial town, New Lanark, in 1800, tive measurements, and rigorously defined
encouraging education, productiveness, and standards. Moreover, groups of employees
moral behavior. Throughout the 19th cen- seldom remain passive instruments to be or-
tury other employers experimented with pro- dered about or manipulated to fulfill the
grams similar to Owen's. They provided con- needs and demands of even a scientific man-
ditions for their workers superior to those ager. They have continued to insist upon
which the market would have provided, but their own approach to their work, on occa-
the improvements usually depended upon the sion subverting the purpose of scientific man-
paternalistic concern or "enlightened" self- agement. Under piece rate (piecework) sys-
interest of the employer, not upon the right tems, for example, work groups not
of workers. Neither their voices nor their infrequently learn to use prescribed tech-
views were allowed free expression, initiative, niques to serve their purposes of maintaining
or decisive role. The employers' values were or raising earnings without a corresponding
almost always served first, and in time of change in production.
depression or low profits the workers* inter- The recognition by social scientists that
ests were disregarded completely. employees in factory, shop, or office formed
Employers were tempted to puff up their social groups, imposing work norms upon
concern for their workers into the presump- their members, led to the development of a
tiousness of the president of the Philadelphia new approach to industrial workersthat of
and Reading Railroad Company in 1902 human relations, which was popular from
when he declared that "the rights and inter- the late 1930s through the late 1960s. Manag-
ests of the laboring man will be protected and ers were urged to listen to their employees'
cared for, not by labor agitators, but by the problems and complaints, not simply to act
Christian men to whom God in his infinite upon their own diagnoses. They were told to
wisdom has given the control of the property make workers feel they were important and
interests of the country." A more common to convince them that their interests were
temptation today is for managers to assume carefully and seriously considered when solu-
a new paternalism*, asserting that they can tions and remedies were proposed. The heart
comprehend the needs of their employees and of human relations is an open unimpeded
serve them equitably and justly. channel of communications between man-
Beginning around the turn of the century ager and employees through which managers
and reaching fullflowerafter the First World learn the foibles, weaknesses, and needs of
War, the theories and movement of scientific their employees. Managers can then help em-
management proposed a new kind of indus- ployees solve their problems, teach them the
trial relations. Specially trained, naturally necessities of business, and encourage them
talented managers were to determine the one to develop socially useful (that is, business-
best way of performing job tasks; workers oriented) attitudes and habits.
Industrial Revolution 300
At its best, human relations can give em- conditions of work which workers feel they
ployees a sense of participating in the govern- must have, they can impose sanctions, dis-
ing of their work lives. At its worst, human rupting production, interfering with distribu-
relations degenerates into attempts to manip- tion, or cutting off sales of the product.
ulate employees as instruments solely to Through such exercise of economic power
serve managerial purposes. It is seldom help- unions can sometimes force managers to act
ful in confronting conflicts of interests and in ways they might not otherwise have cho-
values among employees or between em- sen. Collective bargaining thus allows work-
ployees and managers, however. Improved ers to help establish and administer through
communications resolve conflicts only inso- representatives the rules and regulations that
far as they arose from misunderstandings. govern their work lives.
Conflicts of interests and values may be left All the several varieties of industrial rela-
unresolved or even heightened. If employees tions mentioned above can be found in any of
possess no organization of their own or the Western industrial nations. An organiza-
method of forcefully supporting their inter- tion may follow several of them at the same
ests, the superior position and power of the time depending upon the kinds of workers
managers will, of course, tend to resolve and occupations involved. No one of them
these conflicts in favor of management. excludes the other, nor should one expect it
To ensure themselves the right to partici- to do so. Each can be useful to both manager
pate in managerial decisions and to help re- and worker, depending upon circumstances.
solve conflicts of interest in their favor, some And each can be injurious to the parties and
workers have striven for recognition of col- problematical for society.
lective bargaining as a lawful, regular means See Capitalism; Industrial Revolution;
of conducting industrial relations. Labor Movements.
Collective bargaining* is seldom a process JAMES KUHN
of unilateral imposition of demands; usually
it involves mutual accommodation and ad- Industrial Revolution
justment on both sides. The very success of The term commonly used for the first phase
collective bargaining in the industries where of the industrialization of Great Britain,
it is prevalent has brought about the growth which is dated approximately 1760 to 1820
of large, bureaucratic unions and raised the or 1830. The term seems to have originated
same issues and problems for workers that in France early in the 19th century and in its
the rise of the large factories did. The work- original use there was an implied comparison
ers on the job now find that they may have with the French Revolution. The currency of
exchanged one master for twomanagement the term in Britain can be traced to Arnold
and the union. To guarantee their rights as Toynbee (1852-1883), who in 1881-82 gave
workers and protect their job interests they a course of lectures, published after his death,
must also ensure their rights as union mem- entitled Lectures on the Industrial Revolution
bers (see Trade Unions). of the Eighteenth Century in England. Toyn-
While collective bargaining receives the bee and his successors stressed the social
most public attention because of its conten- losses through industrialization rather than
tious procedure and the dramatic strikes* the technical advances and economic gains.
that sometimes accompany it, only a minor- The term has come in for criticism and has
ity of those in the labor force use it to deter- been largely abandoned by economic histori-
mine the rules under which they work. Not ans owing to its lack of precision. Some writ-
all workers desire to use collective bargain- ers have applied it to the process of industri-
ing. Some believe that the individual bargain- alization that has taken place in country after
ing they enjoy is appropriate and adequate country down to the present day, while oth-
to their demands. Others, such as many pro- ers have used it loosely for any sudden and
fessionals and white-collar workers, find striking technological change in even a single
that the labor market protects and rewards industry. In this way many industrial revolu-
them satisfactorily. Workers democratically tions may be detected by the historian, for
choose representatives to bargain for them. example, economic changes in the woolen in-
The collective strength of the union allows dustry in England in the 13th century, and
workers to deal with managers on the basis of even by the prehistorian, who has found an
some equality. If managers will not agree to industrial revolution in the late Bronze Age.
301 Infanticide
Moreover, the term suggests greater sudden- should be put to death painlessly for their
ness than the facts warrant. While Britain own good as an act of compassion*: they
saw a rise in population, the industrial use of cannot expect to enjoy the pleasures and op-
many important new inventions and a con- portunities available to normal children and
centration of population near sources of adults, and it is kinder to spare them the
power in the later 18th century, the way to frustrations and hardships they must other-
these changes had been pointed by develop- wise inevitably experience. (3) Though infan-
ments in the previous century. Further, no ticide may not be morally permissible, it
reason can be assigned for regarding the rev- should be regarded as a less heinous offense
olution as ended early ifi the 19th century. To than the murder of a grown child or adult,
all appearances it is still in progress. because an infant cannot experience fear or
Nevertheless the vagueness of the term terror or even pain in a comparable degree,
should not blind us to the unique and decisive nor does its removal impose any significant
character of what happened in Britain's clas- hardship or loss on the family circle.
sic period of industrial revolution when a From a Christian standpoint all three ar-
new relationship emerged between human guments are unacceptable. (1) All human be-
beings, machines, and resources. It was then ings derive their essential value not from soci-
that the economic and social pattern of the ety (or from their parents) but from God who
contemporary world, with the ethical prob- gave them their life and to whom they are
lems 4pvolved, began to command attention. infinitely precious; and society is judged by
See Energy; Environmental Ethics; Indus- the extent to which it cares or fails to care for
trial Relations; Revolution; Technology; Ur- its weaker members. (2) The parents may feel
banization. profoundly sorry for their handicapped child
(and not only sorry for themselves, as is
T. S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution, sometimes the case), but the decision to kill
1948; G. N. Clark, The Idea of the Industrial the child even for what they deem to be his
Revolution, 1953. or her "own good" is one which they are not
STEWART MECHIE morally competent to make. The right to life
is the infant's, and on what grounds other
Industrialization see Industrial Rela- than their own subjective feelings can they
tions; Industrial Revolution; see also En- claim to know that it would be "better for the
ergy; Environmental Ethics; Technology; child to die," or that he or she would not wish
Urbanization to live if given the opportunity? There are in
fact many grievously handicapped children
Inequality see Equality; Justice and adults who rejoice that they are alive,
who know happiness despite their sufferings,
Infanticide and who give joy and sometimes practical
Infanticide is the killing of a newborn child service to others despite their limitations.
either by the parents or with their consent. (3) Legally the question can be one of some
Many primitive and non-Christian peoples complexity (and varies from country to coun-
(including the Greeks and Romans) are try), but factors like age and physical or men-
known to have approved the practice (by di- tal handicap have no bearing on the right to
rect killing or abandonment* or exposition*), life. It is never morally permissible deliber-
as a form of religious sacrifice (rarely), as a ately and directly to kill any innocent person.
means of population control, or as a matter Morally the distinction between infanticide
of domestic convenience. In Christian teach- and murder has no significance, though it
ing it has been consistently condemned. may be a convenient one in some systems of
In modern times three arguments have criminal law. This is not to deny, however,
been used by way of defense or mitigation in that in any particular instance of infanticide
the case of infants known to have some gross there may be extenuating circumstances. The
physical or mental handicap: (1) The inter- mother may be virtually inculpable because
ests not only of their own family but of soci- of her mental condition at the time (though
ety as a whole are best served by the painless the same is unlikely to be true of any of her
killing of such infants, because they would accomplices); and she may be in urgent need
otherwise become an increasing social and of medical and spiritual care.
economic burden to the community. (2) They In an age when medical advances have
Inhibition 302
made possible the healthy survival of infants more flexible and more responsive to the
who would previously have died, it is a sad complex demands of reality.
irony that there are occasions when doctors In another usage of the term, most conflict
and parents are suspected of conniving at theories of personality regard the inhibition,
"clinical infanticide." It is one thing to re- or blocking, of natural growth tendencies as
frain from subjecting to complex surgery and a root cause of later psychic distress.
medication a newborn child whose life will be GRAEME M. GRIFFIN
thereby, at best, only very briefly extended. It
is quite another thing deliberately to with- Injury
hold available lifesaving procedures from an Injury may mean the infliction of harm* (see
infant capable of a very favorable response, Nonmaleficence) or the violation of rights*
and to treat only with a "negative care" (see Justice).
which must end with a speedy death, simply
on the grounds of "parental rejection" and/ Innocence
or an otherwise predictably handicapped and Older theology tended to identify innocence
"qualitatively poor" existence. As we have and perfection, to see in Aristotle the ruins of
seen, factors like parental emotions and phys- an Adam. More recent study has tended to
ical or mental handicaps have no bearing on distinguish between the two. Thus F. R. Ten-
an infant's right to life which is conferred by nant pointed out that a child could be sinless
God alone. but could not be morally perfect: "There are
See also Abortion; Children; Handicapped, heights of considerateness and courtesy, for
Care of the; Life, Quality of; Health Care, instance, which are inevitably beyond the
Right to; Life, Prolongation of; Life, Sacred- compass of a child's nature, in that they in-
ness of; Parenthood; Population Policy; volve knowledge of ourselves and of our fel-
Sick, Care of the. lows derived from experience such as cannot
lie within the child's reach" (The Concept of
R. Weir, Selective Nontreatment of Handi- Sin, 1912, p. 28).
capped Newborns, 1984. On its positive side innocence has been
THOMAS WOOD analyzed most acutely by Kierkegaard in his
The Concept of Dread (first published in
Informed Consent see Consent 1844). Innocence, says Kierkegaard, is igno-
rance. Consequently when God said to
Inhibition Adam, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good
The term is used generally of a restraint on and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that
behavior, movement, thought, or feeling that you eat of it you shall die" (Gen. 2.17), Adam
may come either from within or from beyond understood neither the command nor the
the person and may be occasional or habit- threat. But both command and threat open
ual. In physiology inhibition refers to the out possibilities to Adam, possibilities that
blocking of one set of bodily processes by may follow on his actions, possibilities which
another. he does not understand and which for that
Inhibition can be important in the psycho- reason make him anxious. This state of anxi-
logical understanding of memory and of the ety or dread is thus a product of that situa-
learning process. In dynamically oriented tion of freedom and finitude in which human-
psychology, inhibition usually refers to the ity finds itself. This state of dread is an
operation of automatically functioning, un- unpleasant one and it is inevitable that inno-
conscious mental mechanisms that curtail cent humans should try and escape from it,
the free recognition or expression of and it is in this escape that the leap into sin
thoughts, impulses, etc. Inhibition may be ultimately inexplicabletakes place. In-
distinguished from self-control on the nocence therefore involves this state in which
grounds that self-control is essentially a con- humans are overcome by dizziness at the
scious restraint. thought of their own finite freedom. When
Some inhibitions are necessary in the pro- they emerge from it, they find that their free-
cess of socialization; hence psychotherapy dom is real enough, but that its reality has
does not seek to remove all inhibitions so been shown forth in sinful action. In theory,
much as to replace psychically destructive the dread could have been resolved by faith
forms of control with other forms that are why it is not is the enigma of sin, which
303 Instincts or Drives
Kierkegaard never professes to resolve. But tress, while in the lower animals instincts are
in fact what happens is that the soul, caught generally adaptive in character, facilitating
up in this state of dread, attempts to escape life and not hindering it. The adaptive nature
from it by flying from either the finitude or of instincts formerly aroused controversy
the freedom, which are its two constituent over their presumed teleological implica-
elements. In the one case, humans treat tions. They were regarded by many as evi-
themselves as gods. In the other, they surren- dence of purpose, and frequently instinct
der their freedom in exchange for servitude theories were accepted or rejected for that
to their own lusts or the will of a dictator. In reason. Now instincts are not widely re-
either event innocence has been lost. garded as evidence of purpose, but as the
IAN HENDERSON result of mutation and natural selection.
The instinctual behavior of animals is
Insemination, Artificial see Repro- more highly developed and pervasive than
ductive Technologies that of humans, which results in the rela-
tively fixed character of their adaptive pat-
Instincts or Drives tern, as, for example, in the ant. Humans are
The basic notion denoted by the term "in- more flexible because of the less specific
stinct" is that of an enduring tendency or determinants of their instinctual life.
disposition to act in an organized way with- 3. The number of instincts in human be-
out previous performance or foresight. The ings has been a subject of dispute. William
term "drive," though sometimes equated McDougall, a prominent instinct theorist,
with instinct, usually refers to a motive with tended to posit relatively large numbers,
an intense "demand" character which must which fluctuated to some extent. In his Out-
be met by the organism in some way. Drives line of Psychology (1923) he listed fourteen
are generally instinctual, but some writers instincts: escape, combat, repulsion, paren-
speak of secondary or acquired drives which tal, appearance, mating, curiosity, submis-
are partly learned. sion, assertion, social or gregariousness, food
The concept of instinct has long been a seeking, acquisition, construction, and laugh-
controversial one in psychology, and many ter. These embrace all dimensions of the psy-
psychologists prefer not to use it on grounds chic life. Freud, taking a more genetic ap-
that it is too vague and inferential. For those proach, emphasized the drive-like quality of
who do use it, it has the following major the instincts and their small number. He first
connotations. held to one basic drive or instinct, the sexual,
1. Instinct refers to innate hereditary po- but later changed his view to include a sec-
tentials for behavior, as opposed to learned or ond drivethe aggressive. There is consider-
acquired motives. Although some psycholo- able ambiguity in translating Freud at this
gists deny that it is possible to discriminate point, as he used the word Trieb to indicate
between innate and learned behavior, the both the drive quality and the instinct qual-
work of the ethologists, such as Konrad Lor- ity, at least in the phrases translated "life
enz (see On Aggression, ET 1966), has shown instinct" and "death instinct," by which he
that much animal behavior is not learned, in meant basic tendencies rather than immedi-
the sense of learned by trial and error or ately demanding motivations. See his Beyond
conditioning, but is activated by the imprint- the Pleasure Principle (1920), ET 1961 (see
ing of the response on the young of the spe- also Id).
cies at an appropriate time by an adult of the While one may speak of strong or weak
species of a particular sex. Lorenz has instincts, drives are strong by definition.
demonstrated, for instance, that sexual re- They may, of course, diminish in intensity, as
sponses are not completely innate in geese, does the sex drive with the passing of years,
but that young male geese will develop as but in such instances it is perhaps not appro-
homosexuals unless exposed to an adult male priate to speak of a drive. Drives may be
at the appropriate stage of development. In- displaced, as in animals sexual frustration
stinct is, then, an innate potential which must sometimes results in overeating. The princi-
be developed. ple of displacement was also used by Freud
2. Instincts in human beings refer gener- to account for the substitute character of
ally to the irrational aspects of the personal- much human gratification, and it formed the
ity, and as such may cause difficulty or dis- basis of his view that the person who could
Institution/lnstitutionalization 304
love and work was the optimal human being, to be acknowledged as right or good by some-
having displaced his or her primitive sexual one or some group and multiple resources of
and aggressive drives. Drives may also be thought, personnel, financial support, time,
frustrated, turned back on the self, or inade- and space have to be marshaled and orga-
quately expressed. In such cases mental ill- nized in order to establish an institution. In-
ness develops. stitutions are thus artifacts, organized estab-
Acquired drives develop according to the lishments, which both "incarnate" certain
laws of learning through conditioning and values and functionally meet perceived
reward, though partly through unconscious needs, social requirements, or desires.
displacement. Alcoholism is an example of "Institutionalization," therefore, can refer
an acquired drive. Such drives can be "extin- to the "routinization" of specific compounds
guished," though with difficulty. of value and perceived needs into established
The present climate in psychology favors embodiment in practices and organizations
minimizing the role of instincts and maximiz- in social history; or it can refer to the placing
ing the role of learning in the development of of some person or group in an establishment
motivational drives. An instinctual base is for socialization, care, constraint, or rehabili-
acknowledged, but it is regarded as relatively tationas in schools, nursing homes, pris-
vague and inaccessible for study, while sec- ons, or reformatories. The patterns of institu-
ondary drives can be more easily studied and tionalization in a civilization constitute the
controlled. However, specific drive centers basic fabric of social authority predominant
for eating have been discovered in the brain in it, and they are inevitably preferential to
of rats, giving promise of behavior control* some groups. One of the tasks of social eth-
through cortical stimulation. Other "pain- ics* is to analyze and critically evaluate the
pleasure" centers are being searched out, so perceptions of needs, requirements, or desires
that sex and aggressive needs may also be met on the one hand, and the definitions of what
through the medium of electrodes placed in is right or good on the other, to see whether
the brain. that which is institutionalized is morally
Studies of drives and instincts, then, afford valid.
some comfort for those interested in the flexi- In all civilizations, at least four basic needs
ble capability of humans for higher function- must be met for the human community to
ing. They also suggest that human drives do exist: sex (and support systems for the nur-
not have to be thwarted to produce ethical ture of the progeny it produces); techti (i.e.,
behavior, but rather sometimes can be dis- means of extracting food, clothing, and shel-
placed through regulation by the ego. The ter from the environment); order (especially
drives serve the positive social function of defense against arbitrary violence from
limiting the malleability of humans at the within or without); and symbol (i.e., means of
hand of humans, though the cortical stimula- communication and expression). Every civili-
tion experiments mentioned above warn that zation will define right and good ways to
even the drives may become subject to con- meet these needs and establish institutions to
trol by others. do so "properly." Thus, every viable human
See also Aggression; Behavior Control; community will have some institutionalized
Evolutionary Ethics; Motives and Motiva- form of family, economy, government, and
tion. culture and will institutionalize penalties or
JAMES N. LAPSLEY punishments for those who break the estab-
lished patterns.
Institution/lnstitutionalization The basis of normative understandings of
An institution is an organized practice (such the right and good ways to structure these
as an initiation rite or a marriage ritual) or a institutions, however, is not given in the
social body (such as a hospital or an army) needs or in the institutions themselves. Nor
established to meet a basic human need, so- is the proper relationship of these institutions
cial function, or felt desire. Institutions do provided by the necessity of their existence.
not spontaneously spring from needs, func- Should families control politics, economics,
tional requirements, or desires, however; and culture, for example; or should politics
they have to be constructed and maintained control family life, economy, and culture?
by intentional human actions. That is, the Some "transcendent" basis is inevitably in-
needs or social requirements or desires have voked by peoples and civilizations to certify
305 Insurance
or legitimate the normative principles that tive attitudes toward institutions as the artifi-
are to guide institutionalization. In short, in- cial constrictors of spiritual and moral vital-
stitutional life requires a governing "meta- ity.
physical-moral vision." Thus, to the initial The characteristic institution of Christian-
four basic, or "natural," institutions of soci- ity is the church (see Church; Sect; Ecclesi-
ety must be added a fifth, supranatural one ology and Ethics). Internal to the church,
"religion" (or its substitutes: authoritative patterns of sacrament, proclamation, and
tradition, philosophy, or ideology). Those polity shape the character of this religious
forms of social ethics which focus on institu- institution. Every church (or sect or denomi-
tional analysis, therefore, must eventually nation) also develops characteristic teachings
reckon with "religious social ethics" and de- about "the world's" institutions and ways of
velop a normative polity for institutional ex- relating, positively or negatively, to the sur-
istence or its reform. rounding institutionalized patterns of civili-
In highly developed societies, not only zation. Every church will have at least an
basic needs but also increasingly differen- implicit ethic of sex and the family, of politics
tiated systemic requirements and wider and power, of economy and work, and of
ranges of human desires also become the bases communication and the arts consistent with
for institutions. Universities, libraries, and its core beliefs. In complex societies, any
pornographic bookstores; stock exchanges church that hopes to develop a relevant social
and multinational corporations and crime ethic will also have both an explicit doctrine
syndicates; clubs, recreation industries, and of differentiated institutions and ways of pro-
brothels, to name but a few examples, are viding normative guidelines for believers who
institutionalized as well. These too embody participate in them. The clarification of
specific values, but their relationships to a Christian principles of the right and the good
governing metaphysical-moral vision are as they bear on urban, military, international,
often attenuated. Religious values become scientific, technological, professional, and
more focused in specific voluntary associa- paraprofessional institutions is one of the
tions* and distinct from the increasing influ- most important tasks of Christian ethics as
ence of nonprimary establishments. The latter the church faces an increasingly complex net-
are regulated more by legal procedure, public work of local, societal, and global institu-
opinion, the ethical codes of relatively auton- tions.
omous professional groups, or the passionate
concerns of interest groups than by the direct J. R. Earle, D. D. Knudsen, and D. W
influence of religious ethics. Shriver, Spindles and Spires, 1976; C. Geertz,
In every age where complex civilizations The Interpretation of Cultures, 1973; R. M.
have developed, religious reformers, proph- Maclver and C. H. Page, Society, 1949; T.
ets, and seers have developed a hostility to Parsons, The Social System, 1951; D. Reeck,
"artificial" institutions {see also Conven- Ethics for the Professions, 1981; M. L. Stack-
tions). Where this hostility does not lead to house, Creeds, Society and Human Rights,
theocratic attempts to total control, it usually 1984.
eventuates in an anti-institutionalism and the MAX L. STACKHOUSE
quest for a pure spirituality and a pure moral-
ity. However, if the metaphysical-moral vi- Insurance
sions of reformers are not institutionalized A device for securing a payment to offset loss
and connected to patterns that can meet basic occasioned by some foreseeable risk through
needs, human desires, and complex civiliza- a system of equitable payments from mem-
tion requirements, either the normative vi- bers of a group exposed to the risk. For cen-
sion dissipates as a force in society or the turies it has been possible to insure against
civilization falls into chaos, without moral fire, death, shipwreck, theft, and other haz-
coherence in its institutions. Civilizational ards with commercial insurers. State insur-
history can be written according to the ance is relatively modern. It arose from the
changing definitions of the governing meta- insecurities of industrial society and was de-
physical-moral vision as they become more signed to secure against sickness, industrial
or less institutionalized and as they engender injury, old age, invalidity, and loss of a bread-
positive attitudes toward institutions as the winner. Social insurance, financed out of
preservers of civility against chaos or nega- compulsory contributions of employers and
Intention 306
employees, is distinguished from social as- place, but by a certain description of it (true
sistance to the needy, financed from govern- or false) which I "have in mind." Thus I may
ment resources, and from public assistance, intend to dial ABBey 4520 (if asked what I
given to all in a particular group from gov- was doing, I should say "Dialing ABBey
ernment revenues (see also Mutual Aid; 4520"), but in fact be dialing ABBey 4250. A
Welfare State). man who intends to do what he does under
Insurance is an expression of human soli- one description may not intend to do it under
darity and offers several advantages. It less- another description; he may intend to wound
ens dislocations of business, reduces business a man, but not to kill him, though the act of
insecurity, relieves anxiety, prevents poverty, wounding does kill him. Similarly, I may be-
and encourages saving. Compulsory insur- lieve that I am wounding a man, but not that
ance limits freedom but reaches more people I am killing him, although by wounding him
than commercial. I am in fact killing him.
Church documents have welcomed social The fact that we can intend to do what we
security for the security it gives and because do not actually do shows that intention is not
it redistributes wealth. They have stressed any sort of knowledge of the future or the
the obligation of governments to provide this present. Nor is it any sort of belief. It is more
service. akin to the kind of thought that is expressed
The ethical obligations of the insurer are to by commands and requests; indeed, when I
establish an equitable relation between the tell somebody to shut the door, I might be
premium and the risk and to carry out the said to express the intention that he should
terms of the contract. The insured party must shut the door. It is therefore tempting to
not make false declarations or indemnify for compare intentions with self-addressed com-
contingencies that he has caused, e.g., by mandsbut this remains an obscure meta-
arson. Both parties should abide by the civil phor.
law. Professionalism on the part of the in- If the genus to which intention belongs is
surer benefits both parties, and consumer ig- "being of a certain mind" the species is to be
norance can damage the public interest. sought by asking what counts as "having the
same intention" or "having a different inten-
G. Clayton, British Insurance, 1971; B. Hir- tion." Suppose that at a certain time I intend
ing, The Law of Christ, vol. 3, ET 1967, pp. to do a at time t in the future. If, when time
469f.; Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, t comes, and I know that it has come, and am
1961. not forgetful of my intention, and can do a,
BRENDAN SOANE I shall be said to have changed my intention
(changed my mind) if I do not do a. An
Integration see Apartheid; Race Rela- attractive definition of "intention" (though
tions; Segregation; see also Persons and not a complete one) is: "A man is said to have
Personality an intention to do a if and only if he is of such
a mind that he will have changed his mind if
Integrity see Conscience; Dirty Hands; he fails, other than through inability or mis-
Persons and Personality take or forgetfulness, etc., to do a. If the
"etc." could be satisfactorily filled out, this
Intention definition would at any rate differentiate in-
The concept of intention has been thought to tention from belief, though not without a per-
be important for ethics mainly because haps unavoidable circularity, in that, by the
whether a man is blamed for an act can some- reference to mistake, a prior definition of "be-
times depend on whether he did it intention- lief* is presupposed.
ally. It belongs to the same group of "mental The definition, however, requires at least
concepts," whose nature is still very obscure, the following qualifications: (1) We do many
as belief and desire; two people who had the acts intentionally without having had, previ-
same belief or desire or intention could in all ously, an intention to do them; (2) it must not
cases be said to be "of like mind." It is char- be thought that to have an intention (any
acteristic of these states of mind that they more than to have a belief) is to have some-
have what are called "intentional objects"; thing going on currently in one's mind (a
that is to say, what is the object of my inten- man whose mind is at the moment a complete
tion is determined, not by what actually takes blank or who is thinking solely about the
307 International Order
game of football he is watching, can still be See also Negligence; Responsibility.
truly said to intend, or even to be intending, R. M. HARE
to return to London tonight); and (3) at the
same time, a definition of intention solely in Interest see Usury and Interest
terms of dispositions to action will have diffi-
culty in distinguishing between intentional Interim Ethic
and unintentional actions. The expression was used by Albert
It has recently been disputed whether all Schweitzer for the ethic of Jesus. This teach-
foreseen consequences of an action must be ing was given in the expectation that there
intended, even if not desired. That this is so would be an almost immediate end to the age.
is suggested by the legal maxim that a man It is to be understood therefore in relation to
must be presumed to intend the natural the situation of the imminent end and not as
consequences of his actions; for this is arrived applying universally to any and every situa-
at by^deduction from the two premises, "A tion.
man must be presumed to foresee the natural See Eschatological Ethics; Jesus, Ethical
consequences of his actions" and "All fore- Teaching of.
seen consequences of actions are intended." JOHN MACQUARRIE
The maxim would lose its basis if either of
these premises were false. Some, however, International Order
reject the second, on the ground that there A paradoxical and elusive, but necessary,
are always many foreseen consequences of concept. When one contemplates the cruel,
my actions which I should not properly be chaotically opportunist way in which states
said to intend: for example, when I dive into conduct their rivalries with enemies and
the pool, I know that I shall make a splash, friends alike, one is tempted to ask, if this is
but I do not dive in with the intention of order, what disorder would look like. But
making a splash. Nor is the making of a long-term historical perspective suggests
splash unintentional; but on this view "inten- strongly that a measure of international
tional" and "unintentional" are not contra- order already exists, containing within itself
dictory terms but only contrarya conse- fairly clear indicators of the direction in
quence of an action may be neither. which further progress is to be sought.
If this view be accepted, it alters the rela- In the wars of religion that preceded the
tion, with which we started, between inten- Treaty of Westphalia (1648), the princes of
tion and blame; for, if I foresaw a conse- Europe strove without success to impose by
quence of my action, I shall be blamed for it, force a universal definition of the meaning of
whether or not I intended it in the narrow Christianity, and hence of religious truth. At
sense proposed. Thus absence of intention, in and after Westphalia, they acknowledged
this narrow sense, does not excuse. This has failure in a potentially creative way. They
a bearing on the so-called "Law of Double recognized one another as possessing sover-
Effect" (see Double Effect). The Law is eignty* the legitimate authority to decide
sometimes put in the following way: if an act, matters of great moment within agreed fron-
not sinful in itself, has two consequences; and tiers. In this new way of thinking, two rulers
if one of these consequences is something might come to opposed conclusions about the
which it is normally sinful to bring about, most vital matters and both have therightfor
and is a necessary condition of the other, their views to hold sway in their separate
which is good, it may not be sinful to do the countries. Sovereignty, the basis of interna-
original act, because only the good conse- tional order, is the alternative to absolute war
quence is intended, the other not. It may be between militant faiths. Iran since the Shah
that this doctrine rests upon an equivocation has shown some signs of posing a basic chal-
between wider and narrower senses of "in- lenge to sovereignty in favor of the promo-
tend": in the sense in which absence of inten- tion of a particular conception of Islam with-
tion excuses, we intend all the foreseen conse- out respect for boundaries but, for good or ill,
quences of our actions, bad as well as good; most states show some respect, however
but in the sense in which undesired conse- grudging and imperfect, for sovereignty as
quences are not intended, the absence of in- the organizing principle of international rela-
tention is no excuse, but only the absence of tions.
knowledge. The sovereign states of the world consti-
308 International Order
tute one another sovereign by recognizing institutions whose smooth running is pre-
one another. Since the end of World War II, vented by the deplorable state of great
they have done so largely in terms of the power relations.
United Nations, whose grand design is re- One of the main instruments by which
vealing about the conclusions of the most so- sovereignty and international organization
phisticated thinking to date about how to or- operate is diplomacy. The members of the
ganize a world of sovereign states. The UN is UN have inherited from the European states
a two-tier organization. All recognized states a highly developed system of diplomacy that
are members of the General Assembly, a permits mutual communication without en-
grand debating group with majority voting dangering the lives of the communicators.
and very limited powers. Private individuals The necessity and immunity of diplomats is
do not have direct access to the General As- almost universally recognized, but has been
sembly, since states reserve to themselves the subject to two major challenges in recent
right to address one another as equals. (Con- years which bring into sharp focus central
trast with this the arguably more progressive problems of international order.
rules of the European Court of Human 1. The Iranian hostage crisis occurred in
Rights, to which individuals can gain access.) the latter part of the administration of US
The General Assembly has little real power, President Carter. For weeks and months, the
but is a potent symbol of the equality of President was seen on television as being
states, for there even the mightiest must re- powerless to act against desperadoes who,
spond to the reproaches of the weakest, and with the blessing of a minor power, held
must face the possibility of humiliating American diplomats hostage. Many com-
denunciation by a majority of its equals. mentators consider this episode to have been
In counterpoint to the General Assembly a crucial factor in Carter's subsequent elec-
is the Security Council, whose permanent tion defeat, and in the swing of American
members are few, and who operate a public opinion toward a highly intervention-
unanimity rule for voting on serious mat- ist, militarily assertive foreign policy. The
ters. At present, the permanent members important point for thinking about interna-
happen to comprise all of the avowed tional order is that the USSR did nothing to
possessors of nuclear weapons (USA, show solidarity with the US administration.
USSR, UK, France, China), but this is an Superpower relations were so poor that on an
accident of history. The main original idea issue as noncontentious as the immunity of
was that the permanent members would be diplomats, letting the opponent be humili-
the great powers of the day, acting in con- ated took precedence over considerations
cert to order international relations for the both of principle (including the vulnerability
common good. With this grand aim in of Soviet diplomats to similar attacks) and of
mind, they were endowed with draconian interest (the consequent electoral success of a
powers (e.g., of intervention). When the UN President still less congenial to Moscow than
was created, tensions were already increas- Jimmy Carter). International order is bound
ing between the USSR and the Western to be feeble when the great powers are so
powers, so it is not surprising that a veto ill-coordinated for minimal cooperation as
was built in, allowing Security Council pow- they proved to be in this episode.
ers to be exercised only when all the perma- 2. Diplomatic immunity is getting a bad
nent members were in favor. This has been name from the practice of smuggling arms,
a grave limitation on the UN's effectiveness. and even the attempted smuggling of a kid-
So much of the disorder since 1945 has re- napped individual, under cover of the diplo-
sulted directly from, or been exacerbated matic bag. If this practice grows, the feasibil-
by, East-West tensions, and great power re- ity of diplomatic immunity is bound to be
lations have been so poor and petty, that the subverted. But a very simple technical rem-
Security Council has lacked the coordinat- edy is possible. X-raying of the diplomatic
ing powers envisaged by the more idealistic bag would reveal the presence of guns and
of its creators. Many serious-minded people kidnap victims without exposing documents
view the UN with deep skepticism as a re- to the scrutiny of enemy intelligence agen-
sult, but it is arguable that they should be cies. Revision of the law to provide for such
criticizing the great powers rather than the x-raying would be simple, and it is hard to see
309 International Order
that any state could oppose it in good faith. national common good in a way that can find
But even if technical means are available to broadly based popular support despite the
restore the credentials of the diplomatic bag, grave ideological disputes that set so many
(1) above indicates that international organi- nations at odds, and despite the new wave of
zation can operate effectively only if states in nationalism that has been unleashed by the
their sovereign wisdom strive to make it do replacement of the European empires by a
so, rather than indulging in acts or omissions vast number of internally unstable successor
of petty spite. states. Somefindslight hope in the possibility
Mutual communication by diplomacy is a that nuclear deterrence enforces a new sobri-
very minimal kind of international order, be- ety in the mutual dealings of nuclear weapon
cause underlying it may be the kind of unbri- states, but if this sobriety does exist, it has
dled egoism in which every state is essentially shown no sign of driving the great powers
opposed to every other, and none is guiding into constructive cooperation. Furthermore,
its conduct by reference to a shared concept by far the majority of states face one another
of the common good. Even in that sort of with traditional military power untrammeled
world, diplomatic contacts are necessary. by fear of nuclear reprisal. The huge number
But what do we need for a configuration of of wars since 1945 shows little sign of abat-
international relations more worthy of our ing, and there are many reasons for doubting
ordinary understanding of what order means that the spread of nuclear weapons is a desir-
and requires? able way of spreading such mutual restraint
Perhaps the most illuminating discussion as the great powers do display toward one
of this is to be found in a difficult but reward- another.
ing essay by the great German philosopher Is there some alternative to Kant's idea of
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). The meaning creating a more civilized order by self-con-
of his Perpetual Peace (1795) is much sciously pursuing it? Some speak of the need
debated. One interpretation of it is roughly for world government, but the establishment
this. We are irretrievably committed to sov- of such a thing would surely be as impossible
ereignty, and can move beyond its more de- now as it was before the Treaty of Westphalia
structive implications only by the sustained signified its abandonment as an objective by
will of states to exercise their sovereignty in the princes of 17th-century Europe. Some
pursuit of mutually compatible definitions of put their faith in functionalism, i.e., in the
the common good* on an organized basis. In idea that underlying economic necessities are
other words, the great powers and other drawing states into closer accord against
states must strive, actively and constantly, to their will and without their knowledge, forc-
make some such organization as the UN a ing them to cooperate on an ever-growing
central part of their common pursuit of jus- range of functions and creating a web of in-
tice and peace (whose value is universally terdependence that will necessitate more pru-
acknowledged, but whose meaning is the sub- dent policies. There is certainly something to
ject of profound ideological and pragmatic be said for this hidden hand argument: wit-
dispute). ness as one example the arguably construc-
In the present bad state of international tive web of interdependence between the
relations, Kant's argument is a dismaying USSR and the countries of Western Europe.
one, since it demands that human beings But functionalism is not necessarily a vehicle
learn from their errors and make their way of justice and peace: witness the fears of
toward a better world by self-consciously many Europeans and many in the Third
willing to do so, without benefit of any hid- World that on the rare occasions when the
den hand. We know too much history to find superpowers are driven to cooperate, they do
this a comforting argument. Ever since the so for their mutual advantage at the expense
French Revolution, the state has been domi- of the rest of the world. Furthermore, so long
nated by popular passion, nationalism, and as some states or peoples are intensely ag-
ideology. The simpler environment of the grieved about their place in international re-
18th century, in which foreign policy was the lations, their relation with their principal ad-
prerogative of narrow elites with limited and versaries is bound to be a focus for rivalry
relatively easily reconciled interests at stake, and conflict among the stronger powers to
is not available to us. We must will the inter- whom they turn for help. Only an organizing
Internationalism 310
consensus on the desirability of minimizing International Relations
and isolating conflicts in order to overcome see International Order
them through reconciliation can offer a real-
istic hope of an international order that is Internationalism
informed by substantial justice. The conviction that all human beings share
A much less ambitious definition of certain basic common characteristics and are
"order," but somewhat more substantial of equal worth, and that the shared attributes
than the minimal order of diplomatic com- are more significant than differences of na-
munication, is espoused by writers who con- tional or ethnic origin, language, culture, re-
trast order* with justice*, and assert that ligion, or ideology. The spirit of internation-
order must take priority over justice. One alism was behind the attempts to outlaw
influential expression of this view has been slavery, the colonial system, racial discrimi-
from writers on US foreign policy who have nation, and war, and to provide aid for the
argued that Washington should support gov- victims of natural or human-made disasters
ernments that lack a secure domestic base in through the Red Cross movement, agencies
the interest of strategic stability. This argu- of the UN, or voluntary humanitarian organ-
ment has the merit of taking legitimate West- izations. It has also been the driving force of
ern interests very seriously, but has two seri- attempts to bring together adherents of dif-
ous drawbacks. First, it is very difficult to be ferent Christian churches, members of na-
confident that according priority to "order" tional parliaments, and people of different
over justice in fact facilitates the subsequent professions and vocations such as doctors,
pursuit of justice. If one is supporting a nar- scientists, writers, and athletes.
row clique against an oppressed majority or Nongovernmental organizations based on
substantial minority, then one's clients are an aspect of internationalism began to flour-
unlikely to be able or willing later on to move ish in the West in the second half of the 19th
toward justice. They are likely to be less ca- century with the convening of international
pable of movement because more dependent peace congresses and with the foundation of
on military dominion over their opponents, such organizations as the International Com-
and are likely to be in a position to exploit mittee of the Red Cross, the International
their very vulnerability to deter their protec- Workingmen's Association, movements ad-
tor from putting them under serious pressure vocating Esperanto or some other world lan-
to reform. Giving priority to order over jus- guage, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the
tice is thus likely to amount to signing a Olympic Games, the Nobel prizes, and move-
blank check of support for tyranny and op- ments for arbitration or judicial settlement of
pression*. Second, in a time of great power international disputes. In the 20th century,
rivalry (and the great powers have always the international spirit has found expression
tended to rivalry), support by one power of in movements for disarmament*, human
one faction in the furtherance of one defini- rights*, and world government* and, at an
tion of order is very likely to motivate sup- intergovernmental level, in the League of Na-
port of another faction by another interven- tions, the United Nations and its agencies,
tionist power seeking a different definition of and regional organizations. The international
order. In short, order before justice is a recipe idea has also been evident in literature,
for ever-growing great power animosity of music, art, and other forms of aesthetic ex-
the sort that is bound, in an age of ideology pression, because culture cannot be confined
and nationalism, to confine international within borders. It is a basic element in the
order to the bare minimum. Christian message, the belief that all men and
See Internationalism; Nationalism; Peace; women are children of one God and in equal
State; World Government. need of liberation (1 Cor. 12-13; Gal. 3:28;
Eph. 4:4-6).
H. Bull, The Anarchical Society, 1977; H. The intense strength of national or local
Butterfield and M. Wight (eds.), Diplomatic feeling (see Nationalism) has in some parts of
Investigations, 1966; M. Frost, Towards a the world been a barrier to the growth of
Normative Theory of International Relations, internationalism, especially in states based on
1985. exclusivist religious or ethnic sentiments (Is-
BARRIE PASKINS rael, Pakistan, South Africa) or in areas with
311 Intuition
acute communal tensions (Cyprus, Northern monotheism. The interpretation of situations
Ireland). becomes important when there are deep un-
See also International Order; National derlying problems in social existence that
Sovereignty. tend to escape awareness. It is a critical un-
SYDNEY D. BAILEY dertaking, an attempt to open up avenues of
thought and action that previously have not
Interpretation even come into consideration. A correct
Interpretation has two references in Chris- reading of a situation implies a social consen-
tian ethics: to the mediation of traditions of sus reached through a process of unre-
moral understanding, and to the assessment strained public discourse, an ideal that pre-
of contemporary situations calling for moral supposes the transcendence of the underlying
response. Though both references have roots bases of social conflict. In practice, the moral
in Christian origins, they have taken on new import of complex social situations remains
importance since the rise of historical con- ambiguous, (see Situation Ethics).
sciousness in 19th-century Europe.
The reference to tradition* reflects the fact H.-G. Gadamer, Truth and Method, ET
that Christian thought is governed by hap- 1975, pp. 235-345; J. Habermas, Communi-
penings in the past and by biblical witnesses cation and the Evolution of Society, ET 1979;
to those happenings. A crucial component of H. R. Niebuhr, The Responsible Self 1963;
Christian ethics is the interpretation of moral T. Ogletree, "The Activity of Interpreting in
understandings contained in the biblical wit- Moral Judgment," JRE, Spring 1980, pp. 1-
nesses in a fashion that is pertinent to con- 26; P. Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil ET
temporary experience. Interpretation in- 1969, pp. 347-357.
volves three processes: (1) exegesis, reading THOMAS W. OGLETREE
the biblical materials in their own social and
cultural settings, aided by the tools of histori- Intuition
cal and literary criticism; (2) critical engage- Intuition is the name given to supposed direct
ment, reading the biblical materials as speak- knowledge by rational insight of states of
ing to questions which are also our questions, affairs; for example, in the ages when Euclid's
and, therefore, as possibly saying something axioms were thought to be absolute (in spite
true to us; (3) constructive appropriation, un- of the criticism of the "parallels postulate,"
folding a coherent, contemporary account of which goes back at least as far as Proclus)
the moral life which contains a reformulation and believed to obtain in respect of the space
of biblical notions. Attention to the full scope of the physical world, these axioms and the
of Christian tradition figures in each of these theorems deduced from them were thought
processes (see also Bible in Christian Eth- to embody universal and necessary truths
ics). concerning the structure of configurations in
The reference to situations reflects the fact actual space. The axioms were believed to be
that our perceptions and assessments of the established by immediate inspection of their
realities we confront in our social world are terms, or by construction of these terms in an
governed by preconceptions and biases of ideal medium. Thus one only had to think
which we are not necessarily aware. The first what one meant by a straight line to see, by
question to be asked in each situation, H. a kind of direct intellectual insight, that it
Richard Niebuhr argues, is, What is going was the shortest distance between two points.
on? This question is not simply an empirical The development of non-Euclidean systems
one, an admonition to get our facts straight. of geometry, beginning with the work of the
It is itself an ethical question, a summons to Russian geometer Lobachewski (who num-
cut through prejudices and taken-for-granted bered Lenin's father among his outstanding
assumptions that distort or obscure our cor- pupils) and Bolyai and culminating in the use
rect seeing. It involves self-consciousness of such systems for the effective correlation of
about our social location and about the im- measurements in actual space in Einsteinian
pact of the movement of history upon us. For physics, constituted an intellectual revolu-
Niebuhr it finally entails responding to all tion of the greatest importance, in that the
situations as elements in our response to claim made on behalf of geometry, viz., that
God, understood in the tradition of radical it was a non-inductive study, giving us incor-
Involuntary Hospitalization 312
rigible insight into necessary relations within lustration of an important distinction be-
the actual world, must be regarded as in- tween such an understanding as ours, which
validated, although philosophers of mathe- is inherently discursive and relies for the pos-
matics are by no means agreed in their under- sibility of objective knowledge on resources
standing of the nature of pure geometry, the (viz., a sensible intuition) extraneous to itself,
logical character of its proofs, etc. This revo- and one which he calls intuitive such as the
lution is particularly significant where moral understanding enjoyed by God, if he exists,
philosophy is concerned. Thus many philoso- which posits its own objects, and to which
phers (e.g., John Locke in the 17th century therefore all things are transparent. Kant de-
and H. A. Prichard in the 20th) had sup- velops this distinction in order further to
posed an analogous insight where the first elaborate his fundamental awareness of the
principles of conduct were concerned, to that limitations of characteristically human
supposedly enjoyed where the axioms of Eu- knowledge; he is not in any sense arguing for
clidean space were at issue. It is not for noth- the existence of God; but in his discussion of
ing that several moralists, who like Prichard the notion of an intuitive understanding and
would be regarded as intuitionists, fought a the contrast he draws between its condition
sustained, if somewhat pathetic, rearguard and that of a human being relying on percep-
action against the claims made for non- tion, theory building (itself dependent on the
Euclidean geometry. But the sort of apolo- elaboration of more powerful forms of math-
getic for moral absolutism that has relied on ematics), experiment (bound to the state of
the supposed analogy of geometry must be technical apparatus available as well as to the
judged finally invalidated. The moralist, inventive genius of the experimenter), induc-
therefore, who is convinced that the intui- tion, observational invalidation, etc., he
tionist tradition embodies genuine percep- throws an enormous amount of light on the
tions concerning the nature of moral experi- nature of that omniscience predicated of God
ence is faced with the task of presenting in traditional metaphysical theology.
alternative models of the direct insight into See Ethics.
the moral universe he or she claims that we
enjoy. H. A. Prichard, Moral Obligation, 1949.
Other uses of the term which must be dis- D. M. MACKINNON
tinguished carefully from the foregoing and
from one another and which should be no- Intuitionism see Intuition; see also Eth-
ticed include the following: The term is ics; Metaethics
sometimes used to refer to the synoptic vision
of all forms in the light of the "Idea of the Invincible Ignorance see Ignorance
Good," which Plato distinguishes from the
preceding grasp of individual forms. It oc- Involuntary Hospitalization
curs also in exposition of Bergson's contrast The involuntary hospitalization (civil com-
between two sorts of temporal experience, mitment) of the mentally ill is a particularly
measured and immediate. In common par- problematic issue for modern psychiatry, the
lance it is used to refer to allegedly feminine courts, and moral philosophers. Coercive
quick perception concerning, for example, confinement, even for therapeutic reasons, vi-
human motives sometimes hardly defensible olates deeply held values in a free society and
by inductive argument but often disquiet- scarcely provides an auspicious beginning for
ingly correct. a collaborative physician-patient relation-
Finally in Kant's theory of knowledge in ship. Moreover, commitment to an institu-
the Critique of Pure Reason (1781) the term tion for treatment does not guarantee that
is used to refer to the passive sense-awareness effective therapy is available or, if it is, that
by which the subject receives the temporarily it will be provided in individual cases. Yet the
successive, and spatially discrete, data which severity of some mental disorders with their
through the cooperation of imagination and profoundly destructive impact upon personal
discursive understanding yield us knowledge function and the social fabric have impelled
of the single world of space and time, the civilized societies to enact legislation author-
detail of whose causal order it is the task of izing involuntary hospitalization under cer-
the physical sciences to establish. In his third tain conditions.
Critique Kant makes use for purposes of il- In the USA these laws are the responsibil-
313 Involuntary Hospitalization 313
ity of the states; hence there is considerable tary confinement to achieve social ends, as in
variation across the country. Usually three commitment on grounds of "dangerous-
criteria have been specified: (1) dangerous- ness." Here it is the welfare of others and of
ness to others, (2) dangerousness to self, and society at large, not the welfare of the patient,
(3) mentally ill and in need of treatment. In that primarily justifies the commitment. Al-
most states (e.g., California), the third crite- though in modern Marxist states the welfare
rion is disallowed, while in others (e.g., New of the state is accorded preemptive impor-
York), it is legally sanctioned. Notoriously tance, physicians in the free West follow the
difficult to define reliably and precisely, these Hippocratic tradition (see Hippocratic Oath;
criteria frequently must be applied in crisis Professional Ethics) in ethically grounding
situations with incomplete data. treatment on the patient's best interest.
Political and legal forces have brought Moreover, the Western criminal justice sys-
about a number of changes in psychiatric tem is founded upon the presumption of a
practice regarding involuntary hospitaliza- person's innocence until proven guilty. To
tion and treatment in the past decade involuntarily hospitalize patients, then, who
through the passage of legislation. These have not yet harmed anyone, upon the pre-
changes have been in the direction of tighten- text that they are "dangerous" is problematic
ing the criteria for involuntary hospitaliza- legally, clinically, and morally. Combined
tion, mandating periodic review of patients' with the lack of evidence establishing the pre-
involuntary status, protecting the individual dictability of violent behavior, these factors
patient's right to treatment and right to re- have diminished support for the "dangerous-
fuse treatment, and requiring that the justifi- ness" criterion.
cation for involuntary treatment is fully Psychiatrists are far more comfortable re-
documented, including the opinion of a qua- sorting to involuntary hospitalization for pa-
lified consultant. tients refusing treatment who are suffering
Similar social and legal forces in Great from severe mental illness that endangers
Britain generated extensive parliamentary their life and health. But this poses a second
debate culminating in the Mental Health Act ethical dilemma by coercively instituting
of 1983. This legislation greatly increased in- treatment without the patient's informed
voluntarily detained patients' access to ap- consent*. The doctrine of informed consent
peal of their detention through a Mental has become securely established as funda-
Health Review Tribunal and established a mental to ethical medical practice in the past
new body, the Mental Health Act Commis- twenty years. But in psychiatry its applica-
sion, to review the care and treatment of de- tion has never been satisfactory. Because in
tained patients. Moreover, if a psychiatrist cases of severe mental disorder it is the pa-
wishes to administer electroconvulsive ther- tient's ability to make prudential judgments
apy or prescribe psychopharmacologic which is itself malfunctioning, it is clear that
agents for a period exceeding three months to such patients may repeatedly "choose"
a patient who is incapable of giving informed behaviors that are self-destructive and even
consent, a second psychiatric opinion is re- suicidal. The determination of the level of
quired. self-harm at which coercive treatment is jus-
Currently the psychiatric profession is as- tified is highly contentious. A large literature
sessing the impact of these regulatory has developed utilizing the concepts of
changes. There is concern that some of this rights*, including the right to suicide*, jus-
legislation, well-intentioned though it is, has tified paternalism*, patient autonomy*, com-
resulted in failure to hospitalize, inadequate petence, and rationality. The consensus
treatment of, and/or premature discharge of among ethicists appears to be that the mor-
patients who later committed violent acts ally decisive judgment is the determination of
against themselves or others or who were the rationality or competence of the patient.
relegated, without adequate financial, social, The decision of competent patients to refuse
and medical support, to a life of street va- hospitalization is to be respected while in-
grancy (e.g., the "bag ladies" of New York voluntary hospitalization may be ethically
City). recommended for incompetent patients.
From a moral perspective, two major is- Yet problems remain. The attempt to eval-
sues are at stake. First is the double agency uate patients' competence without basing
problemthe psychiatrist utilizing involun- that judgment on their treatment choices is
Islamic Ethics 314
an effort to discern their capacity to make rich and the idolaters are warned of disaster
rational decisions without judging the deci- and punishment, while worshipers of the One
sions they make. But ultimately we must God are promised Paradise. "Righteous-
judge the process by the product. Sooner or ness" is described in the Qur'an (2:177) as:
later we must specify which patient decisions belief in Allah (God), the Last Day, the an-
we ought ethically to respect and which, for gels, the Book (scriptures) and the prophets;
the patient's good, we ought to override. spending one's wealth for love of God on
Clinicians are particularly concerned that kindred, orphans, the needy, the wayfarer,
many psychiatric patients who are legally the beggar, and ransom of captives; perform-
competent are, nonetheless, incapable of ing worship and paying the alms tax; keeping
making adaptive choices. Profound disturb- one's promises and covenants; patient endur-
ances in self-esteem, persistent emotional ance in adversity and in battle. The Qur'n
states of depression or rage, and severe de- lists most of the religious requirements of the
fects in the ability to maintain interpersonal Muslim (17:23-40). Commanded are: wor-
relationships scarcely qualify patients for the ship of the One God; kindness to parents,
label of "incompetent." But compassionate kindred, the poor, and travelers; protection
concern for their suffering and ultimate well- of the property of orphans; just dealings in
being may indicate temporary involuntary trade; humility. Forbidden are: wastage of
treatment. goods; the killing of unwanted children; adul-
See Mental Health; Mental Illness; tery; killing except in a just cause.
Health and Disease, Values in Defining; Muhammad himself is described in the
Consent; Coercion; Paternalism; Autonomy; Qur'n as "a fine example" (33:22) and one
Human Dignity; Respect for Persons; Sick, who possesses "high moral excellence" (68:
Care of the. 4). As such, he has been taken as a model of
good conduct, and his practice (sunna) fol-
J. R. Hamilton, "Mental Health Act 1983, lowed in minute detail. The sunna is pre-
British Medical Journal 286 (May 28, 1983). served in the hadthnarratives of his
ROGER C. SIDER words, deeds, and silent approval on a vast
range of subjects. These, whether or not his-
Irresponsibility see Responsibility; torically accurate, reflect the thinking of the
Sin(s) Muslim community, and have come to form
the second source of law. Despite the stress
Islamic Ethics on detail, a famous hadth states that "ac-
Islamic ethics is based on religious sources: tions are judged by the intention" (niyya).
primarily the Qur'n, the scripture of Islam, Qur'n and hadth are supported by ijma\
supported and expanded by the hadth (tra- the consensus of the community, and by
ditions of Muhammad), with other elements qiys, analogy, when no specific ruling can be
derived from pre-Islamic tribal morality, found. In practice this means the teaching of
from custom, and from Persian and Greek the theologians and lawyers of the first centu-
sources. ries of Islam.
Emphasis is on conformity to the law: an The religious duties of the Muslim are five-
action is commanded or forbidden by God, fold: profession of faith in the One God (the
rather than inherently right or wrong. All shahada)\ worship (salt) five times a day;
aspects of life are regulated by the sharl'a, fasting (saum) during the month of Rama-
the religious law, which covers belief, wor- dn; almsgiving (zakt); pilgrimage (hajj) to
ship, social and individual morality, warfare, Mecca at least once in a lifetime if possible.
hostages, the family. The primary authority, To these is added jihad, often explained as
the Qur'n, has the status of the Word of "holy war" but also interpreted as the strug-
God as revealed to the prophet Muhammad gle against evil inclinations of the soul, de-
(d. A.D. 632), and since its appearance in the scribed as "constantly inciting to wrong" (Q.
early 7th century has been for Muslims the 12:53).
ultimate criterion of good and evil. Within the sharVa, there are two types of
Earlier suras (chapters) of the Qur'n duties (fard): individual and collective. Ac-
stress monotheistic belief, worship, good tions themselves are recognized as falling
works, and social justice. Individual and within five categories: obligatory (fard or
community alike are called to repentance: the wjib), recommended but not obligatory
315 Islamic Ethics
(mandub, sunna), neutral or permitted c. 923) wrote on the virtues and vices to be
(mubh, ja'iz), disapproved (makrh), for- imitated and avoided in the proper conduct
bidden (harm). of life, avoiding extremes (al-Tibb al-rhni,
Another source of ethics was the pre- translated by A. J. Arberry as The Spiritual
Islamic legacy of tribal nomadic life. This Physick of Rhazes, 1950). The Brethren of
strict code enjoined honor, loyalty to the Purity (Ikhwn al-SaJa') in the 10th century
chief and the clan, hospitality, courage, and taught in their Epistles that the soul could
endurance. To a large extent this was refined raise itself above the limitations of the body,
and Islamized, and tribal loyalty replaced by through ascetic practices. Ibn Miskawayh (d.
religious allegiance, for "all Muslims are 1030) considered that the soul, the spiritual
brothers." Further, customary law ('da) element in man, needed ethical formation. In
was in some regions absorbed into the Is- his Tahdhib al-akhlq he spoke of the inner
lamic system. value of religious duties (C. K. Zurayk, The
This might seem to leave little room for Refinement of Character, 1968).
any ethical theory. However, the concept is This last point, and others from his work,
indicated early in Islam by the term adab were taken up by one of the greatest Islamic
(good conduct, refined manners). Hence the theologians, al-Ghazli (d. 1111). He
titles of two books by the Persian Ibn al- stressed the importance of conformity to the
MuqaffV (d. 757). Later, Ibn Qutayba (d. religious law, but even more the inner
889) harmonized the pre-Islamic and Persian spiritual dimension: the intention (niyya)
elements with the Islamic, in his UyUn al-
4 being necessary for all religious duties. Gha-
akhbr. In time, ethics came to be denoted by zlf considered that knowledge (V/m) would
the term akhlq (pi. of khuluq, character, produce the right attitude in the soul and
disposition). Makrim al-akhlq (noble thus lead to good action Carnal). He too put
qualities of character), a phrase attributed to forward the example of Muhammad as the
Muhammad, is also the title of some collec- highest ideal of human virtue.
tions of hadlth. Ghazlf s teachings were founded on mys-
Only within the comparatively restricted ticism, on the ideals of the Sufis, who
milieu of philosophy was ethics a study in its preached a way of life based on poverty,
own right, 7/m al-akhlq. Greek philosophy, prayer, and rejection of the world. The move-
especially works of Plato and Aristotle, were ment was inspired by Qur'n and hadith, and
introduced to the Muslim world from the arose in the early 8th century, partly as a
mid-8th century onward, translated into Ar- reaction to the worldliness of the ruling
abic generally via Syriac. Many ideas, such as classes and the dry legalism of the theolo-
the Aristotelian mean and the need for moral gians. Some of the Sufi values are explained
education, were in harmony with already ex- by Ghazl in his great work Ihy' 'ulum al-
isting views, while others were condemned by din (Revivification of the Religious Sci-
religious circles. During the 8th and 9th cen- ences): sabr (patient endurance and resigna-
turies the Mu'tazila, a theological school re- tion to God's decrees); tawakkul (absolute
lying chiefly on the use of reason to support trust in God); dhikr (constant remembrance
revelation, tackled the question of free will of God)the foundation for the Sufi ritual of
and predestination. In an attempt to preserve dhikr. Sufi brotherhoods are widespread
the absolute justice of God, they taught that throughout the Islamic world, and while they
humans are the sole source of evil actions, for preach the search for perfection they also
which therefore they are totally responsible. offer a way of practical ethics for the ordinary
The orthodox, on the other hand, saw this as Muslim and have had a considerable influ-
denying the absolute power of God. The two ence on personal morality and devotion.
extremes were moderated by the formula- Comparatively little development in theol-
tions of al-Ash'arf (d. 935), with the principle ogy or ethics has occurred since Ghazalf. In
of acquisition (iktisb or kasb): humans are more recent times Muslim thinkers have
given the ability to "acquire" what God has looked again to Qur'n and sunna for guid-
decreed, and thus they acquire the merit or ance for their community, while seeking free-
censure due to their actions, and deserve the dom from Western influence; such are exem-
reward or punishment promised by the plified by Jamal al-Dn al-Afghnf (d. 1897)
Qur'n. and Muhammad 'Abduh (d. 1905). Some Is-
The physician and philosopher al-Rz (d. lamic states today are seeking an idealized
I-Thou Relationship 316
Qur'nic legislation, as in Saudi Arabia, Pa- logue. His influence has been particularly
kistan, and Iran. Others while officially Is- strong in Protestant theology and ethics
lamic have allowed considerable freedom of e.g., in Emil Brunner, Friedrich Gogarten,
interpretation and are more open to external H. Richard Niebuhr, and Reinhold Niebuhr.
influences. While most are in sympathy with In Brunner's theological ethics, for example,
the United Nations Charter and Universal themes similar to Buber's appear in his inter-
Declaration of Human Rights, they would pretation of human life in personalistic
claim that Islam has already made full provi- terms, particularly responsibility, his sharp
sion. Such a view is seen in the Universal distinction between personal and institu-
Declaration of Human Rights in Islam tional realms, his affinities with the "no-
(1981), which, while addressing modern po- church" movement in Japan, and his suspi-
litical and social questions, contains some cion of modern technology. As Brunner's
hundred references to the Qur'n and fifty to work suggests, one of the major questions for
the hadth. In general, Islam is able to absorb this sort of personalistic ethic is its assess-
a great deal from external sources, but any ment of and guidance for institutional life.
ethical theory must be in full accord with See also Existentialist Ethics; Institutions;
Islamic principles. Personal Ethics; Personalism; Social Ethics.
D. M. Donaldson, Studies in Muslim Ethics, M. Buber, I and Thou (1923), ET 1937; new
1953; L. Gardet, La cit musulmane, 1954. ET 1970; E. Brunner, The Divine Imperative
PENELOPE JOHNSTONE (1932), ET 1937.
JAMES F. CHILDRESS
l-Thou Relationship
Although the concept of "I-Thou" relation- Jealousy
ships has roots in the thought of Kierkegaard In the Decalogue* the reason for God's pro-
and Feuerbach and was also developed by hibition of graven images and idols is his jeal-
others, such as F. Ebner, its most striking ousy for his people: "for I the LORD your
and influential formulation appears in the God am a jealous God" (Ex. 20:5). Despite
writings of Martin Buber, the 20th-century this positive assessment of divine jealousy,
Jewish philosopher. According to Buber's re- human jealousy is generally, though not al-
nowned I and Thou (published in German in ways, criticized. For example, it appears in
1923), there are two basic attitudes, postures, lists of condemned "works of theflesh"(Gal.
or stances toward the world, represented by 5:19-21), and of acts, emotions, and attitudes
the two primary words of "I-Thou" and that are not appropriate for Christians (2
"I-It." The former is relation, dialogue, en- Cor. 12:20). Thomas Aquinas makes jealousy
counter; the latter experience; the former in- almost synonymous with envy, a capital sin,
volves the whole self, the latter only a part of but envy* may be viewed as a strong desire
the self, such as reason. The distinction is for a good that someone else possesses, while
between openness and engagement, on the jealousy is a desire* to possess a good exclu-
one hand, and objectivity and detachment, sively for oneself.
on the other. Only through relationships or JAMES F. CHILDRESS
encounters does a human being become a
person and live authentically. The world it- Jesus, Ethical Teaching of
self is not divided into "Thous" and "Its," The ethical teaching of Jesus is virtually
and it is possible to have an I-Thou relation confined to the first three Gospels, though a
with a thing, such as a tree or a work of art, small number of instructions given by Jesus
as well as with other persons. I-It is not evil are to be found in the letters of Paul, and one
and is necessary for human life. In fact, every ethical saying appears in Acts 20:35. Impor-
"Thou" must become an "It" since it is im- tant preliminary questions arise before the
possible to live only in encounter. But to live teaching can be understood and interpreted.
only on the level or from the stance of I-It is First, recent study of the Gospels makes
evil. Some critics have suggested that plain that each of them is a more or less
"I-You" interactions, for example, in cooper- coherent theological whole, the work of a
ative endeavors, are not reducible to either writer who was not merely assembling stories
"I-Thou" or "I-It." In ethical terms, Buber's and sayings of Jesus but presenting a theolog-
key themes were responsibility* and dia- ical account of Jesus' significance. While
317 Jesus, Ethical Teaching of
opinion differs concerning the extent to in the sense that it contained detailed guid-
which the Evangelists have adapted or even ance for ordinary daily livingfor such liv-
created material, it is evident that the presen- ing would soon be a thing of the past. On this
tation of Jesus' teaching in each case is in- view, the comparative (though by no means
debted, in part at least, to the writer and the total) lack of ethical material in the Gospel of
Christian outlook he represents. It is hard, Mark, seen as the first of the four to be writ-
therefore, to be sure of drawing accurate lines ten, is understandable. Indeed, such ethical
between the ethical teaching of Jesus and that material as Mark gives is itself to be taken as
of, e.g., Matthew, all the more so if each part of the proclamation of God's new age
Evangelist can be shown to present a really rather than as standing in its own right as
distinctive and consistent account of Jesus' anything like moral law. The command to a
teaching. prospective follower to sell his possessions
Second, there is the question of what is (Mark 10:17-22) is a challenge to his whole
meant, in the context of the early church, by direction of life in the light of God's call, not
the ethical teaching of Jesus. Some have held the enunciation of a timeless rule on the
that his sayings were transmitted verbatim by lightness or wrongness of possessions; and
his followers, as the teachings of a revered the forbidding of divorce (Mark 10:2-16) is a
rabbi. But it is increasingly clear that the picturing of life in the kingdom, a renewed
matter is not so simple. In the first place, an Eden, not law for the church. It is then neces-
understanding of the conditions of oral trans- sary to hold that the subsequent Gospels of
mission in constantly changing settings indi- Matthew and Luke show some movement
cates the navet of such a view. In the second away from this overwhelmingly theological
place, it is evident that factors in early church conditioning of ethics. Their much more
belief and life led to the creative growth of the abundant presentation of Jesus' ethical teach-
tradition of Jesus' teaching, in particular to ing may reflect neither the emphasis of his
the existence of prophets who, seized by the lifetime nor indeed a genuine legacy of it, but
Spirit, mediated the teaching of the present, rather the need of somewhat less eschatologi-
living Lord to his church. Such activity is cally minded congregations in the later 1st
seen most vividly in 1 Cor. 14, and its fruits century for authoritative guidance on a host
are probably found in sortie of the (admit- of everyday problems. Here our third ques-
tedly few) moral teachings of the Lord given tion links with the first two: Both the activity
by Paul (e.g., 1 Cor. 14:37; 1 Thess. 4:2); in of the Evangelists in developing the tradition
the letters to the churches in Rev. 2-3; and, and that of inspired Christian preachers
less identifiably, in sayings in the Gospels. In representing the voice of the living Lord may
1 Cor. 7:10, Paul shows that this kind of have contributed to the meeting of this need.
access to Jesus' teaching was compatible with At all events, the ethical teaching of Jesus
a concern for the historically mediated tradi- came to be, in the Gospels of Matthew and
tion coming down from his ministry. The Luke, a much more substantial and, to a de-
very fact that the tradition of Jesus' teaching gree, independently identifiable entity than it
developed so freely (witness the evidence of had been before, so far as our evidence goes.
both the canonical Gospels and a document The third of the preliminary questions
like the Gospel of Thomas) shows how pow- amounts to a caveat about the very status of
erful and legitimate such prophetic activity, this subject: It is not as isolable as it may
with ancillary literary processes, was in the seem, and to take it as an independent topic
view of many Christians. may be to falsify. The other two questions
Third, there is the question of how far it is have a different role. They show how prob-
proper to abstract Jesus' ethical teaching lematic is any attempt to discover the ethical
from the rest of his work. The best under- teaching of Jesus. Granted that it should not
standing of his ministry is that his prime con- be set apart from his message as a whole, its
cern was for the sovereignty (the kingdom) of content can only be reached by making a
God, seen as the reality of his power, soon to judgment about the contributions of mem-
be triumphantly revealed in an act of cosmic bers of the early church, whether prophets or
scope. In that case, Jesus' message was a the Evangelists themselves, to the teaching
challenge to decision: for or against the cause that lies before us in the Gospels; and it is
of God. It was therefore ethical in the sense impossible for that judgment to be made with
that it was a call to repentance, but scarcely finality and certainty. In that case, the subject
318 Jesus, Ethical Teaching of
may dissolve altogether, and we may have to church that had radicalized the teaching of
be content with "the ethical teaching of Jesus. But it is easier to see this as the authen-
Mark," etc. Certainly, the problems are not tic note of a Jesus who thereby attracted the
such that they can simply be raised in a theo- hostility of the more orthodox of his contem-
retical way and then put aside while we pro- poraries and who was distinctive enough to
ceed to a straightforward account of the Gos- launch, in effect if not necessarily by design,
pel material, topic by topic. a movement that survived. This has a strong
Nevertheless, it is important to balance the claim to be the truth, even though parts of
account so far given. There are certain the church proved unable to maintain Jesus'
thrusts in the Gospels that are so dominant, radical teaching on some of the matters be-
and often so original, that they bear every fore us. In particular, the Gospel of Matthew
mark of representing to us the authentic em- testifies to a reaction against the radicalism
phases of Jesus' teaching. found in Mark. The crucial statement on the
The most pervasive and far-reaching in its Sabbath in Mark 2:27 is omitted and the love
effects is Jesus' attitude to the Jewish law. command is specifically said to offer no miti-
Though, as it is presented in the Gospels, this gation of the rest of the law (Matt. 22:40),
is a prime example of overlay by later Chris- which plainly remains in force (Matt. 5:17-
tian developments, that attitude seems to 19; 23:3, 23), even though that command,
have had both negative and positive aspects. brought to a position of primacy and in effect
In Judaism, the law was far more than a code expounded in Matt. 5:20-48, sets the law in
of ethics. With its stories of primeval events a quite new perspective. It enables an ethic of
and the foundations of Israel, as well as its law to be received in the new and invigorat-
detailed provisions for life and worship, the ing spirit of Jesus, the gentle, saving Messiah
Mosaic law*, contained in the Bible's first for whom love is central (11:28-30). In mak-
five books, gave a comprehensive framework ing such a fusion of elements, Matthew's
for the life of God's people. Essentially, it was Gospel is a major achievement in the devel-
the gracious gift of God to Israel, the chief opment of Christian ethics. To be sure, it
expression of the bond between them. But the retains an attachment to the Jewish law as
center of Jesus' message was the kingdom of valid for Christiansthough some important
God*: The new immediacy of God's relation- aspects of it, such as circumcision, make no
ship with his own could not but set the law appearance, and we cannot tell whether they
in a wholly new light. In its fundamental role, have been dropped or are taken for granted.
as providing the structure of an ordered life, But this attachment to the law did not, it
it was redundant. A new situation had ar- seems, long survive the circumstances of
rived, and "ordered life" was not a way to Matthew's church, and Matthew's Gospel
describe its character and concern. So there was widely interpreted in less strenuous
is a major shift of interest. By comparison terms. It is true that while Matthew's depen-
with the Judaism of his day, Jesus represents dence on Mark need not be taken to mean
(even in the somewhat exceptional Gospel of that, on this crucial issue, his different pre-
Matthew; see below) an abandonment of in- sentation moves away from an authenticity
terest in the major issues of the law as dis- that Mark preserved, there is no adequate
cussed in his day: matters ofritualcleanliness ground for believing that he was better in-
and table fellowship, which in practice domi- formed historically than Mark, and the
nated the current scene, and questions of words of condemnation of Mark's radical
calendrical and ritual observance, especially Jesus are more credible than those of Mat-
in relation to the Sabbath. The emphasis falls thew's less deeply disturbing figure.
instead on direct response to God's urgent In the Gospel of Luke, too, there is some
summons, forcibly expressed in obedience to "deradicalizing" of Mark (e.g., Mark 2:27 is
the dual command to love God and love the once more omitted), but in the interests of a
neighbor. weaker endorsement of the law than Mat-
All this is most clearly seen in the Gospel thew's, apparently in line with Luke's sense
of Mark, where the Sabbath law is dismissed of Judaism's vital preparatory role for the
(2:23-3:6), ritual cleanliness set at nought gospel. The two later Evangelists, in other
(7:1-23), and the love command emphasized words, have theological convictions that
(12:28-34). There is of course a chance that make it possible for us to see why they should
we have here the doctrine of a Marcan amend Mark's picture. And while it cannot
319 Jesus, Ethical Teaching of
be demonstrated that Mark's picture is itself of a whole response to God, of which moral
not similarly motivated (indeed, there is no action is one crucial expression. That charac-
reason to deny that Mark believed the teach- ter is one of simplicity and opennessthe
ing he presents), there is good ground for childlike attitude enjoined in Mark 10:13-16.
saying that it makes the best historical sense There is an absence of hankering after
to take Mark's picture as broadly faithful to worldly gain and prestige, and a readiness to
Jesus' own outlook. serve rather than to rule (Mark 10:35-45;
This is all the more likely to be so because Luke 22:24-27), to forgive and be forgiven
on other related matters the Evangelists are (Matt. 6:14-15). Though it is no doubt possi-
at one, and on at least one matter there is ble to see here the values of a small charis-
greater coherence with Mark's general pic- matic and missionary communityperhaps
ture than with Matthew's. This is the matter the Palestinian churches in the decades after
of Jesus' open acceptance of social (and legal) Jesus' lifetimethere is every reason to sup-
outcasts, especially into table fellowship. pose that there was no discontinuity in these
Mark's fundamental statement of this theme matters between Jesus and his subsequent as
(2:13-17) is taken over by his successors well as his immediate followers. This is all the
without significant modification. It is appar- more likely when, clearly, it was precisely
ent that Jesus issued a merciful and gracious features of this kind which were hardest to
call that brushed aside moral andritualqual- maintain in the more settled urban congrega-
ification as a prerequisite for acceptance into tions that soon came to predominate in the
his circle. In Matthew, this aspect is bound to church of the eastern Mediterranean lands.
seem a piece of messianic largesse, an excep- In giving an account of the ethical teaching
tion to a general policy of acceptance of law. of Jesus, it is hard to avoid securely and
We note that once more it is hard to distin- scrupulously all the pitfalls that the nature of
guish ethics from doctrine: Is this a picture of historical investigation and the character of
the life of the kingdom, God's way with the Gospels place in our path. It is hard to
human beings, or an expression of the ethic avoid being at some points more confident
of love? Or is it false to distinguish? than the evidence strictly allows or more cau-
Nevertheless, ethical guidelines may be tious than probabilities indicate. It is mis-
discerned. Even if the words to therichman leading simply to abstract sayings from the
(Mark 10:17-22) are best seen as the expres- Gospels and arrange them subject by subject.
sion of God's call, there is still a refusal to This would represent not the ethical teaching
ratify the possession of wealth. The Gospel of of Jesus but exactly what has been said: a
Luke makes this one of its major themes, topically arranged abstract of the ethical say-
with its blessing of the poor (1:53; 4:18; 6:20) ings in the Gospels. But it is also misleading
and its condemnation of the rich and the ex- to suppose that in the Gospels we have no
tortionate (16:19-31; 19:1-10), but the basis access to anything below the surface. The
is there in Mark: This is not to be dismissed Evangelists were inspired and nourished by a
as a piece of Lucan creativity, even though it tradition that stemmed from the life and
is certainly a Lucan emphasis. work of Jesus. What we do not know is where
Moreover, it is not a feature that is out of authentic tradition ends and later develop-
line with other aspects. The blessing is upon ment takes over. And we must reckon that in
not only the poor but also those who mourn considering spoken teaching we are dealing
and are persecuted (Luke 6:21-22). Once with something so fluid, shifting from occa-
more, these words may or may not be close sion to occasion and audience to audience,
to those of Jesus in his lifetime, but they typ- that fixity and authenticity are false objec-
ify an emphasis that is too strong and perva- tives. A grasp of major thrusts, such as those
sive to be put aside. It is partly a matter of the we have identified, is the best we can hope to
reversal of worldly fortunes and worldly val- achieve. There is a likelihood that, while both
ues, partly a matter of an outlook character- the theological message and the ethical teach-
ized by the coming kingdom: the assurance of ing of Jesus were open to modification in the
the future determines attitudes in the present. years following his ministry, the latter was
Again, ethical matters do not stand alone. particularly prone to such change, under the
But not only do they merge into belief, pressure of the needs of the churches. That is
they are also close to what later times would the fundamental reason why appeal to the
call spirituality. It is a matter of the character teaching of Jesus for present-day guidance is
Jewish Ethics 320
so risky. The Evangelists themselves, even ethics were swallowed up in the overwhelm-
dealing with such general questions as the ing claim of God to human allegiance.
proper attitude to the law, differ very consid- See also Eschatological Ethics; Neighbor;
erably in their presentation of Jesus' attitude. New Testament Ethics.
How false then to dogmatize for quite differ-
ent circumstances on the basis of teaching R. Bultmann, Jesus and the Word (1926), ET
found in only one of the Gospels or, worse, 1934; J. L. Houlden, Ethics and the New Tes-
an uncritical and incoherent mixture of them tament, 1973; W. H. Kelber, The Oral and
all that corresponds to what no one actually the Written Gospel, 1983; R. Schnackenburg,
taught. A discernment of the major thrusts The Moral Teaching of the New Testament,
gives no license for any such assembling of ET 1965.
texts with a view to direct modern applica- J. L. HOULDEN
tion.
What is called the Sermon on the Mount* J e w i s h Ethics
(Matt. 5-7) is often the victim of such mis- Numerous issues divide scholars seeking to
handling. On the surface it seems to be the characterize the ethics of Judaism. Two gen-
quintessence of Jesus' moral teaching and fit eral difficulties prevent easy delimitation of
to serve as a basic text for the ethics of those thefield:lack of agreement as to what consti-
who wish to follow him. But quite apart from tutes "ethics" and the philosophic contention
its numerous parallels in Jewish teaching, that theocentric moralities, such as that of
this is clearly a literary composition as it now Judaism, may not properly be termed "eth-
stands, one of five major discourses intro- ics." More troublingly, the authoritative Jew-
duced, largely, by Matthew into the narrative ish sacred texts, the Bible and the Talmud, do
taken over from Mark, and made upin un- not use the term "ethics" or reflect so Hel-
certain proportionsof traditional elements lenic an intellectual category. The holy,
and his own doctrine of the Christian life in rather than the good, seems to be their most
the community to which Jesus' message and inclusive value. Efforts to describe the ethics
work had given rise and to which Jesus con- of Torah, God's "instruction," began only in
tinued to give his presence (Matt. 28:20). As the 9th century C.E. when Jews encountered
we have seen, its balance of endorsement of Greek philosophy via Muslim culture. These
the old law and new stringency, but under the treatments struggled to discover generaliza-
gracious tutelage of Jesus the Messiah, is a tions that would be true to the multiple, dis-
change from Mark's radicalism and is the crete behests of the Written and Oral Torahs
specific achievement of Matthew's genius in (one dynamic whole), God's instructions.
the circumstances that faced him. That is When the fifteen-century European seg-
where the Sermon belongs: it is not timeless. regation and persecution of Jews ended (be-
This is not to say that such long-ago ginning about the time of the French Revolu-
achievement has no relevance to other times tion), Jewish thinkers responded to the grant
and places, such as our own. But it is to say of equality by creating new theories of the
that it must come to us through the filter of ethics of Judaism. The most notable of these,
the best understanding we can gain of its his- that of Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), radi-
torical origins, with their complexity and un- cally identified the ethics of Judaism with
certainty. Only in the light of such discrimi- neo-Kantian ethics. In some watered-down
nation can we expect both to hear the voice sense, that notion lies behind the use of the
and grasp the context of Jesus' teaching term "Jewish ethics" in most discussions.
about the human response to God's call. We But despite the continuing efforts of a few to
shall then hear a voice that met the coming rehabilitate this position, most Jewish think-
end of all things, not with passive or fearful ers, for historical and philosophical reasons,
acceptance, but with joyful and life-giving have abandoned it. Consensus now exists
activity. This voice replaced the casuistry of only on the problems involved in working on
Judaism by a grasp of the total demand of the ethics of Judaism and on certain themes
God and of the essential features of the life he it encompasses. But how to respond to the
required; and it substituted, for a way of reli- former and structure the latter remain highly
gion in which ethics threatened to legislate contentious. This article seeks to communi-
their way into the whole of life, one in which cate a representative historical overview plus
321 Jewish Ethics
ai) account of divergent contemporary ap- of the utterly sinful Ninevites, for all that
proaches to this field, all necessarily filtered Jonah found it a personal affront, indicates
through one perspective. how firmly the relationship between God and
For the biblical authors, human responsi- the Gentiles remains in force.
bility derives from God's reality. One God In rabbinic Judaism, this universal doc-
and no other created the universe, set its trine was reflected in Jewish law. On the basis
rules, oversees its affairs, and participates in of the covenant God made with Noah and his
its activities in both ordinary and extraordi- children, the rabbis held Gentiles to be bound
nary ways. This sovereign yet involved God by seven fundamental commandments: not
created humankind different from other crea- to blaspheme, or to practice idolatry, or to
tures, making people uniquely capable of steal, or murder, or commit sexual offenses,
knowing and doing God's will. Remarkably, or to cut limbs off living animals and, posi-
the undisputed Ruler of the universe gave tively, to establish courts to administer jus-
human beings the freedom to do or not to do tice. Obviously, authoritative Jewish teach-
the divine commands. The ethics of Judaism ing has an embracing sense of the (religious)
begins at this juncture: a God who might but ethical competence of all human beings, one
does not coerce persons and a person created which rabbinic tradition amplified in its cus-
for special intimacy with God who may tomary extension of these basic laws.
freely will to obey or transgress God's stated The rabbis' teaching about human nature
will (see Old Testament Ethics). similarly applies equally to Gentiles and
The distinctive urgency connected with Jews. Two inner urges, the will-to-do-good
the Bible's injunctions to action stems not and the will-to-do-evil, battle within each
only from their being God's stated behests human soul. No one ever fully staves off the
but from the knowledge that God "cares" will-to-do-evil, but like Moses, God's most
supremely about human action. Diverse intimate servant, all eventually sin. With sin
human metaphors are employed to make the understood as a choice, its rectification also
divine priorities plain. God weeps, pants, takes place by a free human act: repentance,
suffers, roars, regrets, rages, threatens, the turning back to God. If, however, one has
punishes, and much else, in response to sinned against another human being, one
humankind's freely chosen sinfulness. God's must first make such restitution as one can
concerns embrace much more than the before asking for God's forgiveness (which,
Greeks considered ethics, e.g., the interdic- the rabbis stress, is always forthcoming to the
tion of idolatry. Nonetheless, moral consider- sincere soul). All this transpires without ben-
ations occupy a major place in the biblical efit of special rite, personnel, or occasion, as
legislation, are a constant theme in the histor- the case of the Ninevites demonstrates.
ical books, run strongly through wisdom lit- One other aspect of the ethical theory of
erature and dominate the prophetic condem- human nature deserves attention. For the
nations of their people. Classic Judaism biblical authors and the rabbis, human na-
summons humankind and the Jewish people ture remains critically social. One is indis-
to action for God's sake. One can only hope soluble not only with one's family but with
to understand its character and the ethics it one's folk or nation. Thus the classic ethics of
encompasses if one appreciates the manifold Judaism address the community or society as
religious levels on which its teaching is com- much as the individuals who constitute them.
municated and experienced. So seamlessly do these notions blend that
This centrality of ethics in the service of often in the book of Psalms we cannot tell
God applies to all human beings equally. Nei- whether an individual or the nation speaks or
ther the Bible nor the Talmud contains seri- is being addressedand occasionally the
ous denial that God is the God of all human- poet moves between the two with no appar-
kind and established and maintains a ent unease. So too the traditional ethics of
covenant with them all. The early chapters of Judaism manifests an utter interpntration
Genesis specify God's ethical expectations of of what might elsewhere be distinct domains
humankind. As the fate of Sodom and of individual and social ethics*.
Gomorrah indicates, God cares about Gen- The biblical authors and the rabbis believe
tile behavior even after there are Jews. More God brought the Jewish people into being
tellingly, God's acceptance of the repentance and established a special covenant with it be-
Jewish Ethics 322
cause the Gentile nations consistently sin. literature is homiletic or exegetic, it contains
God's election involves the gift of God's many general comments on how one ought to
Torah, the divine "instruction." The Torah livebut also a puzzling diversity of opinion.
proper, i.e., the first five books of the Bible, Students of ethics have found agadic teach-
indicates the acts God's people ought to do, ings of particular interest because they appeal
expressing this more in the form of law than to one's self-determination. Thus, while the
of the stories and teaching which extend its halakhah enjoins some obligations of parents
application and give it its meaning. The rest to their children, the bulk of the famous Jew-
of the Biblethe rabbis spoke of the whole as ish family ethos is taught in the agadah and
the Written Torahincludes considerable in the community traditions which are its
exhortation but little commandment. In the complement.
latter books of the Bible, Torah-instruction While neither the teachers of the Bible nor
occurs as intimate poetry and practical apo- those of the Talmud define duty* primarily in
thegm, touching short story and detailed his- terms of virtue* (or vice), it may convey
tory, social criticism and bizarre vision of a something of the flavor of Jewish ethics to
distant future. indicate some characterological concerns of
The ethical thrust of the covenant* with the rabbis. They abominate lying, stealing,
the Jews hardly comes as a surprise given the sexual immorality, violence, and bloodshed.
biblical view of God and humankind. It urges They decry gossip, slander, faithlessness, in-
Jews to be just with others and yet more than justice, hard-heartedness, arrogance, and
just. A repetitive theme in the command- pride. They glorify the industrious, honest,
ments demands special concern for the pow- compassionate, charitable, trustworthy,
erless: the widow, the stranger, the orphan. humble, forgiving, pious, God-fearing soul.
So, too, the community must take care of the Their sense of the social emerges in homey
poor; not to the point of perverting justice for fashion in their continuing emphasis on "ac-
them (one may also not pervert justice for the quiring a good name" and such customs as
rich), but in acknowledging the right of the requiring even the poor supported by com-
indigent to community support. Such laws, munity funds to contribute to the communal
so to speak, command compassion*, seeking philanthropic funds.
to make personal response as urgent a re- The rabbinic understanding of duty
sponsibility as obedience to specified duties. focuses on this world and prizes life as an
For God's justice* and mercy* can never be ultimate if not absolute good. The rabbis be-
completely spelled out, and the fullest service lieve devoutly in the resurrection of the dead.
of God must come through living up to one's (They made it central to postbiblical Juda-
personal likeness to God. ism.) And they often invoke its promise of
The Oral Torah, i.e., the dynamic, still eternal life and its threat ofjudgment-punish-
continuing, rabbinic elaboration of the Writ- ment as motives for righteous living. But
ten Torah and the received traditions, only these themes, like the love and fear of God,
amplifies these tendencies (for Jews read the which medieval thinkers were to write about,
Bible through the rabbinic tradition). Ethics remain in the background of their thought.
remains a subcategory of holiness*, and the Being intensely consciousoverawed would
rabbis impart ethical instruction in many not be too strong a wordat possessing
different ways. God's own instruction/instructions, they de-
Their vast literature has customarily been vote themselves to studying, explicating, ap-
read in terms of two levels of authority. The plying, and living them. They disparage spec-
one, halakhah, "the way," had the power of ulation on what happened before creation,
law and was enforceable in Jewish courts have some greater tolerance of theories of
(though some of it remained more ideal than what will happen in the days of the Messiah,
practical). The other, agadah (or haggadah), but remain resolutely agnostic about what
perhaps "the lore," included all that was not will follow it in the future-to-come.
halakhah; while an integral part of God's One result is a passion for life and what-
Oral Torah, it allowed for greater individual ever will make it possible (see Life, Sacred-
freedom of response and action. Ethical pre- ness of). Should someone's life be at stake,
scriptions abound in the halakhah with its every law of the Torah which stands in the
detailed concern, for example, about fair way of saving it must, as a divine command,
business practices. Since much of the agadic be broken, save three: the prohibitions
323 Jewish Ethics
against idolatry, murder, and sexual sins. binic Judaism recognizes some dichotomy
Thus, Jewish medical ethics has been rela- between body and soul, the rabbis had a far
tively open to experimentation and advance more integrated and less dualistic notion of
whenever they culd be shown to save threat- the self than that of the musarists. However,
ened lives. This "bias toward life" cannot be whatever temptation they had to move on to
reduced to an easy formula. Thus, rabbinic full-scale asceticism was reined by the law
law on the dying patient is strongly weighted which commanded marriage, procreation,
against hastening the end. But though the festive celebrations, and other worldly activi-
rabbis have great respect for a fetus as a po- ties.
tential person, if its mother's life is threat- The musar literature was intended for the
ened by it, it must be aborted. In the latter masses and became widely read. Its influence
case, note that the "is," as determined by may be judged from the growth of the cus-
competent medical personnel, becomes fun- tom, in late medieval times, of writing an
damental to the legal-ethical decision of the "ethical will" for one's family. Few signifi-
rabbi. cant pietistic works appeared after the 18th
From the completion of the Talmud to the century, largely because they seemed out of
beginnings of Jewish modernity (roughly place in the humanistic, self-confident 19th
from 500 C.E, to the French Revolution), sev- century. An attempt to recast the insights of
eral intellectual movements affected the fur- the pietists was made by Israel Lipkin (1810-
ther development of Jewish ethics. Each 1883). He founded the Musar movement,
based itself on the Bible and the Talmud and which introduced pietistic-ethical devotion
accepted the ongoing developments in Jewish and practices into the traditional East Euro-
law as the context of its teaching. They all pean yeshivot, the academies devoted almost
learned from one another, making the dis- entirely to the study of halakhak
tinctions between them somewhat artificial. Medieval Jewish pietism arose amid Mus-
Nonetheless, for clarity's sake scholars speak lim civilization, and scholars have sought to
of the separate genres of musar, or pietistic explicate its roots in Muslim piety, particu-
literature, of philosophy, and of mysticism. larly in Sufi mysticism, as well as in the Neo-
The nature of musar literature is epito- platonism* that figures so strongly in them.
mized in the title of its first major work, This Hellenic-Muslim mixture also formed
Bahya ibn Pakuda's Hovot Halevavot, the the background of medieval Jewish philoso-
Duties of the Heart, a Spanish-Jewish book phy and was responsible for the ethical trea-
of the late 11th century. Bahya sought to tises which form a minor part of it. In these,
clarify the inner responsibilities that devolve however, the Aristotelian heritage, with its
upon the Jew and complement the external emphasis upon intellect and its understand-
obligations specified by the rabbis. Primarily, ing of human nature, became dominant.
he urged individuals to cultivate an intimate Medieval Jewish mysticism was, like Jew-
sense of God's greatness. That would lead ish philosophy, an essentially elitist enter-
them to act so as to gain God's favor and prise until its last period, that of Hasidism
avoid God's judgment. This inner sensitivity (beginning in the 18th century). Through its
would also bring them to deep concern for long history it retained a strong ethical con-
others, seeking to do more than merely fulfill tent. While teaching its adepts the proper
their obligations toward them. The cultiva- way to intimate communion with God, it
tion of piety and with it compassionate living affirmed the immutability of God's Torah
so characterizes this work and the literature and hence of the content it commanded.
which followed it that some scholars have Thus, Jewish mystic experience did not be-
characterized the musar books as primarily come antinomian. Rather, it reinforced and
ethical. extended the content of classic Jewish teach-
The pietists introduced other themes of ing, particularly the musar stress on ethical
ethical import into medieval Jewish thought. sensitivity as a means to holiness.
They counseled heightening one's sense of After fifteen centuries of segregation and
the evil of sin and of the terror of God's persecution, the grant of equality* which
punishment so as to strengthen one's will-to- came fitfully to various European Jewries
do-good. They also thought of the body as shattered the old patterns of Jewish life and
the antagonist of the soul in the fight to re- thought. Modernity meant secularization*,
main pure in heart and deed. Though rab- certainly for Jews, whose only hope of social
Jewish Ethics 324
equality lay in the creation of civic domains could now freely express itself. Jews should
where religion, i.e., Christianity, did not rule. give up anything in their tradition that con-
It also changed the scope of Jewish responsi- tradicts ethics and preserve everything that
bility. Where Jews had once been excluded either teaches or abets it. Contemporary Jew-
from civic affairs they were now expected to ish duty must now be as directed toward
be good citizens and think in terms of the humankind as to the Jewish people. Indeed,
general welfare. The classic Jewish sources Cohen argued that Jews had a historic mis-
had not considered such an eventuality. sion to teach this concept of ethical monothe-
Much talmudic and later Jewish law assumes ism to all of humanity since their religion
(with good reason) existence in a hostile so- possessed it more purely than did any other.
cial environment. It therefore divides Jewish Ideas such as these had an almost incalcu-
duty into the spheres of those who share lable influence upon the lives of all modern-
one's laws and values, other Jews, and those ized Jews, though they were for long particu-
who do not, Gentiles. One's kin receive more larly cherished in Reform Judaism. Even
generous treatment than do the oppressive those Jews who have given up Jewish belief
outsiders, though God's covenant with Gen- have often still maintained a commitment to
tiles mandated significant ethical duties to- ethics as the criterion of true humanity. The
ward them. When, however, social equality statistically disproportionate involvement of
came, it required a new Jewish social ethic. Jews in every activity for human betterment
Elaborating it became a major intellectual derives from this reinterpretation of Jewish
task for 19th-century Jewish thinkers. responsibility. The same is true of the stan-
Producing a more explicitly universal Jew- dard apologies for Jewish practicethat they
ish ethics required facing another challenge: are, essentially, training for ethics; and for
secularization made human experience the Jewish continuitythat no other religion
substitute for divine revelation, the founda- produces such devotion to ethical living.
tion of classic Jewish thought and ethics. The Critics have challenged the Jewish and eth-
successful resolution of this intellectual prob- ical adequacy of this theory. Its identification
lem gave rise to what has become the ac- of Judaism with a universalistic ethics has
cepted ideology of contemporary Jewry been rejected as untrue to Jewish history and
and also to the criticisms which have brought destructive of particular Jewish duty. Over
into being three alternative theories of mod- the centuries, Jews have thought of them-
ern Jewish ethics. selves as rabbinic rather than "prophetic"
In Immanuel Kant's ethics, 19th-century Jews and rabbinic law may have some univer-
Jewish thinkers found a philosophical frame- sal, ethical themes but cannot, without dis-
work by which to specify what they now took tortion, be equated with a humanistic moral-
to be the essence of Judaism (see Kantian ity. Rather, this theory says more about
Ethics). In the work of Hermann Cohen, the 19th-century German philosophy than it
founder of Marburg neo-Kantianism, this does about the Jewish tradition. If proof of
effort achieved academic fulfillment. Cohen this charge is required, it can be found in the
argued that the ethical dimension of human "commandments" generated by this system.
rationality must be said to undergird its other It commits Jews primarily to universal eth-
Kantian modes, scientific and aesthetic ics, relegating Jewish ritual and communal
thought. To integrate these three activities of responsibility to a secondary, optional role.
the mind, every rational world view requires That may create good people but might also
a unique, transcendent idea, what religions lead to the disappearance of the unique Jew-
call God. Philosophy therefore mandates re- ish service of God.
ligion of reason, ethical monotheism. In reaction to Judaism-as-ethics, some
In actual history, Cohen argued, this idea thinkers advocated a historicist approach to
first appeared in the prophets of Israel and it Jewish duty, and though it has found institu-
remains the rational unity integrating all the tional expression in Conservative Judaism it
subsequent development of Judaism. Thus, has not yet been given academic theoretical
Jewish law is at heart a training for ethics, explication. These thinkers contended that
and that ethics, for all its limitation to one history indicated that there could be no Juda-
community, ideally aims at universal inclu- ism without its legal system, halakhah. Any
siveness. In the modern period, with Jews modern Judaism, to be worthy of the name,
freed from the ghetto, this universal core must therefore operate within the classic
325 Johannine Ethics
legal framework. That, however, should now that Jewish law does not explicitly prohibit
be understood in terms of the modern notion greater equality for women, such as their
of historic development. As scholarly re- right to be ordained, but, dynamically read,
search indicates, Jewish law has changed can authorize changes in women's status.
over the centuries, not infrequently as the A personalistic, Buberian approach to
result of growing ethical sensitivity. Were a these issues has also been advocated. It ac-
modern scholar class to respond dynamically cepts the liberal notion that a universal ethi-
out of Jewish law to questions of the day, cal sensitivity must be basic to a modern Ju-
contemporary Jews might hope to have a daism. But it denies the continuing adequacy
properly ethical and Jewish determination of of the Kantian understanding of the ethics,
their responsibility. which derives from a conception of the self as
This view, too, has had its critics. Ortho- fundamentally a construction of one's rea-
dox Jewish thinkers have charged that while son. Instead it proposes to integrate rational-
it properly identifies Judaism with halakhah, ity into a more comprehensive, existentialist
it perverts the classic Jewish understanding sense of the self, producing thereby an ethics
of how the law develops. Changes in Jewish of relationship rather than of rational rule.
law in the past arose primarily out of concern Likewise, it reinterprets Jewish authenticity
for Jewish teaching and only secondarily to in relational terms, suggesting that Jewish
adapt to the Gentile world. The inauthen- responsibility derives from personally shar-
ticity of the historicist treatment of the law ing the Jewish people's covenant with God.
has been made manifest by its validating The halakhah and agadah may then be the
changes in practice that traditionalist schol- Jew's best guides to authentic obligation
ars and the bulk of the observant community but they must now be read in terms of a given
have found contrary to halakhah. Consider- individual's present response to God as one
ing the moral and spiritual emptiness of of God's dedicated ethnic community. The
much of Western civilizationa civilization proponents of this view find its pluralism
which could give rise to the Holocaustits amid traditionalism appealing, but its critics
values should not become a guide to the Jew- charge that its individualism will destroy the
ish service of God. Rather, the determination community cohesiveness necessary for the
of Jewish law and ethics should be left to Jewish people to continue to serve God in
those who have come to merit the respect of history.
the observant, learned Jewish community. Two centuries of growing freedom have so
Reverent continuity, not presumptuous ingrained the expanded ethical commitment
change, should be the hallmark of Jewish ob- of Jews that it has become fundamental to
ligation. their Jewish existence. But the community
Feminists have radically challenged the and its thinkers remain deeply divided as to
ethical sufficiency of the historicist and Or- just how to define the character and content
thodox interpretations of Jewish duty. By of Jewish ethics.
universal standards, Jewish law is sexist and
unethical. This is not to deny that the hala- J. D. Bleich, Contemporary Halakhic Prob-
khah may have extended women's rights lems, vols. 1 and 2, 1977-83; E. B. Borowitz,
over the ages and given Jewish women a Choosing a Sex Ethics, 1969; H. Cohen, Reli-
higher communal status than that of other gion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism,
women of their time. Nonetheless, it denies 1972; D. Feldman, Birth Control in Jewish
women equality with men, most troublingly Law, 1968; S. Spero, Morality, Halakhah and
by insisting that men make all the decisions the Jewish Tradition, 1983.
about women's Jewish religious status. De- EUGENE B. BOROWITZ
spite these charges, the sages of Orthodoxy
have ruled that halakhah prohibits any Johannine Ethics
major changes in Jewish law and practice A cursory reading of the Gospel of John in
with regard to women. The historicists have the interests of a quest for ethical material is
split over this issue. The more traditional bound to lead to disappointment. By contrast
among them agree with the Orthodox that with the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in
loyalty to the procedures and precedents of particular, there is here no teaching on such
Jewish law makes it impossible to grant many practical topics as marriage, divorce, posses-
of the changes feminists desire. Others argue sions, tax-paying, or even on desirable moral
Johannine Ethics 326
qualities such as mercy, humility, or peace- teaching of Jesus to include not only all in
ableness. All that emergesand then not need, even where taboos meant an absence of
until the Gospel is half overis the "new obligation (the point of the story of the good
commandment," to "love one another" Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37), but even enemies
(John 13:34; 15:12, 17), and three references (Matt. 5:43-48). When we turn to the Gospel
to keeping the commandments of Jesus, of John, that remarkable and attractive open-
which remain unspecified (14:15, 21; 15:10). ness has been lost and, in one perspective,
The reference to "my commandment" (sin- there is a return to the old narrowness of
gular) in 15:12, following close on the refer- feeling loyalty and duty only to one's own:
ence to Jesus* commandments (plural) in 15: "Love one another."
10, suggests that in fact in all these passages We may account for this Johannine teach-
the writer had in mind only the single com- ing both sociologically and theologically. It is
mand, that Jesus' followers should love one likely that it reflects the peculiarly close-knit
another, and used the plural either loosely or quality of the Johannine congregations. In
to signify "what Jesus commanded," i.e., to modern terms, they were sectarian in as-
love, in its many applications. The "new sumptions and outlook, and, while able to
commandment" itself is excessively general, survey the universe in their doctrine, lived in
but there appears to be a clue to its content practice segregated from "the world," viewed
in the story of the foot washing in ch. 13, with largely as alien or hostile (see Sect). Theolog-
which it is (if a little distantly, vs. 12-17, 34) ically, this teaching reflects not so much a
associated. To love one another is to serve narrowing of horizons or a meanness of spirit
one another in deep humility and against as the writer's understanding of the nature
worldly expectation. and mission of Jesus. He is God's envoy to
Two points are to be noted. First, this em- the world, who reproduces among the believ-
phasis on the reversal of worldly values and ers that relationship of intimacy which Fa-
on the duty of mutual service (see Mutual ther and Son have enjoyed from all eternity.
Aid) in the community of Jesus is a link with "Love" signifies not simply a style of moral
other parts of the tradition, even though the disposition but rather the loyalty and attach-
story of the foot washing itself is confined to ment that binds together first Father and
John: Mark 10:35^5; Luke 22:24-27. Thus Son, and then the believers to one another
it is a common and pervasive feature of Jesus' through their shared relationship with Christ
teaching. Second, the message of the foot (John 13:34; 15:9-10). There is an important
washing story is not purely ethical, it is also, sense then in which even this commandment
probably primarily, doctrinal. It sets forth is not appropriately classified as a purely ethi-
the character of Jesus' condescension and cal statement, for it betokens a mode of being
self-abasement as God's Son to the lowliness more than a program for action. Yet it has an
of human existence, exemplified dramatically ethical aspect: set forth in Jesus' own self-
in his servile act. This fusion of ethics and giving for his own ( 15:13 ; 13:12-17)though
theology is an important clue to the Johan- his laying down of his life is itself not only an
nine outlook. What is enjoined in ch. 13 is not act of love but also one of salvation (3:13;
so much a particular line of behavior ("love 12:32).
one another") as a total standpoint, or rather The Johannine epistles, probably coming
the recognition of the true position of each of from a later stage in the life of these congre-
us in relation to God and humankind, real- gations, testify to a sad and notable shift in
ized in the new life brought by Jesus. the bearing of the command to love one an-
This fusion goes some way to explain the other. Although it is expressed here in sub-
single-minded concentration on the one com- lime language, it is apparent that its applica-
mandment and the form in which it is put. To tion is now limited still further as far as this
take the latter point first, it is notable in its writer is concerned: to those members of his
divergence from the Synoptic Gospels (and churches who have not fallen into what he
Paul, Rom. 13:9), where the moral law is regards as false belief (especially in the un-
summarized by direct quotation of Lev. 19: reality of Jesus' humanity and their own im-
18: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." munity to sin), and have not broken away in
That command, originally taken to apply to schism (1 John 3:18-24). Nevertheless, as in
one's fellow Jews, was greatly widened in the the Gospel of John, Christ's love, shown in
327 Just Price and Just Wage
his death, is the source and model for love of vantage of temporary shortages to extort
the brethren (3:16), and love certainly re- high prices was regularly condemned.
ceives a practical application here that the The just wage, similarly, was a price for
Gospel lacks (3:17; 4:19-20). It also carries labor fairly regarded as equal to the value of
with it a clear future hope (2:28; 3:3). In the the service provided by the seller to the
First Epistle, this insistence on love here and buyer. Hence it was held to imply equal pay
now, yet in the light of future destiny, yields for equal working capacity, and that in each
a sense of the need for continued repentance type of occupation the pay should be ade-
(1:8, 10) combined, perhaps uneasily, with a quate to enable the worker to maintain the
conviction of Christian life as always essen- status associated with his or her position in
tially one of sinlessness, even though restora- life.
tion after falls is clearly provided for (3:5-6; The detailed application of these principles
2:1; 5:16-17), at least in cases that fall short to actual prices and wage rates was obviously
of the ultimate sin of separation from the true easier in a slowly changing society, where
community of believers. As in the Gospel, customary rates were known and accepted
but now more institutionally, the framework over long periods, than it could be amid the
of God-given existence is the context of the rapid technological and social changes of the
moral life. present day. When new products are always
See Ecclesiology and Ethics; Jesus, Ethi- appearing and when technical innovation is
cal Teaching of; Love; Mutual Aid; Neigh- constantly changing costs of production,
bor; New Testament Ethics. creating a demand for new skills and destroy-
ing the demand for others, it is very difficult
R. E. Brown, The Community of the Beloved to say in practice exactly what a just price or
Disciple, 1979; J. L. Houlden, Ethics and the a just wage should be. Modern economic the-
New Testament, 1973; J. T. Sanders, Ethics in ory, being thoroughly positivistic, does not
the New Testament, 1975. use such concepts, but seeks rather to analyze
J. L. HOULDEN the forces which lead to actual market prices
and wage rates.
Jurisprudence see Law Yet the idea of fairness* or justice inevita-
bly underlies much of our thinking on these
Jus ad bellum matters. Consumers are concerned about
Therightto go to war or the justice of resort- the high prices charged by monopolies, or
ing to war. See Just War. the results of resale price maintenance,
whereas producers feel that prices should
Jus in bello not be cut below what they consider to be a
Right or just conduct in war. See Just War. fair level. Trade unions* defend the "rate
for the job" and seek to maintain compara-
J u s t Price and J u s t Wage bility of pay with other occupations. During
The doctrine of the just price, and that of the inflationary years of the 1960s and
the just wage which is a special case of it, 1970s, many countries tried to develop price
arose out of the medieval attempt to apply a and income policies, which inevitably in-
detailed system of Christian ethics to every volved the establishing of fair norms for pay
aspect of life. In any transaction, it was and price rises.
held, justice* requires that the seller re- M. P. Fogarty, in The Just Wage (1961),
ceives a value equivalent to that of the made an interesting attempt at a critique of
goods and services which he or she provides contemporary British wage and income pol-
to the buyer. In practice, this price was icy in the light of the doctrine. More recently,
taken to be that arrived at by common eval- the papal encyclical Laborem Exercens
uation, as reflected in prevailing market (1981) reaffirmed the moral basis of the just
prices. Hence it was recognized that it must wage as being the means by which workers
reflect changes in the general conditions of and their families can have access to a fair
demand and supply, though it was also share of the goods and services produced for
strongly maintained that a buyer's excep- common use. Hence it is seen as a means of
tional necessity did not give the seller the verifying the justice of the socioeconomic
right to exact a higher return. Taking ad- system.
Just War 328
See Wages and Salaries; Work. logue with the requirements of statecraft as
manifested in different eras.
M. P. Fogarty, The Just Wage, 1961, repr. In the Middle Ages the problems posed by
1975; Papal Encyclical, Laborem Exercens, the historical context were quite different:
1981. how to restrain internecine warfare among
JOHN F. SLEEMAN petty nobles and the depradations of maraud-
ers. Beginning with the Council of Narbonne
J u s t Wage see Just Price and Just Wage; in 1054 the church sought to impose limits by
Wages and Salaries; see also Justice the Truce of God, which defined certain days
as illicit for fighting. Another effort at re-
Just War straint was the Peace of God, a version of the
The term "just war tradition" properly ap- idea of noncombatant immunity, which
plies both to the moral tradition on war, its sought to spare persons on religious duty the
justification, and its limitation that has devel- ravages of war. Weapons limitation was at-
oped historically within Western culture as a tempted by the Second Lateran Council in
whole, and to the Christian component of 1139, which banned crossbows, bows and ar-
this larger tradition. The nature of the Chris- rows, and siege machines. All these restric-
tian idea of just war can be understood both tions were somewhat piecemeal and applied
thematically and historically. Thematically, only to wars among Christians, where the
it is the result of thinking through the im- church had moral authority over both sides.
plications of what may be called the "original The 12th-century compiler of canon law
just war question": May a Christian ever jus- Gratian in his Decretum (first published in
tifiably take part in violence? A negative an- 1148) began the process of systematization.
swer to this question implies nonviolent pac- His definition of just war drew heavily upon
ifism, a major strand alongside just war Augustine. Gratian's emphasis, like Augus-
tradition in Christian attitudes toward war. tine's, was on the justification for use of force
A positive answer requires going a stage fur- (that which later came to be termed the jus
ther to address a number of corollary ques- ad bellum ), though the beginnings of a doc-
tions defining the conditions under which use trine on restraint in prosecuting just war (jus
of violence is morally permissible for a Chris- in bello) can be found in his retention of the
tian. Thematically, Christian just war tradi- earlier conciliar statements.
tion is the collective response, over history, of Before Gratian there was no unified body
individual Christian thinkers and of the of Christian teaching on just war, only iso-
church as an institution to these corollary lated and occasional statements. In the 13th
questions. century, largely on the foundation of the De-
Historically Christian ideas of just war cretum, such a coherent doctrine began to
may be said formally to begin with the writ- coalesce. Two generations of canonist succes-
ings of Ambrose of Milan and especially sors (known as the Decretists and the Decret-
Augustine of Hippo in the 4th and 5th centu- alists) clarified who might justly authorize
ries. Both these early writers drew upon the war and elaborated on the Peace of God to
existing Roman idea ofjustum bellum as well produce a recognizably modern idea of non-
as on the OT paradigm of war commanded combatant immunity. (In both cases they
by God; Augustine additionally identified the drew copiously on existing jus gentium and
reluctant and limited use of force as one of chivalric mores.) Simultaneously, theolo-
the ways in which a Christian might be re- gians (most notably Peter of Paris and
quired in charity to serve the needs of an Thomas Aquinas) focused also on defining
innocent neighbor under attack by an assail- just cause and right intention. Right author-
ant. The historical context of this reasoning ity, just cause, and right intention, listed by
was provided by the perceived need for Aquinas as the conditions for a just war, all
Christians to participate in defending the derive from Augustine and entered medieval
Roman Empire, by that time a Christian consciousness through Gratian; they have re-
state, from invading Germanic peoples. Just mained the nucleus of the jus ad bellum.
war tradition in Christian thought thus his- By the end of the Middle Ages just war
torically came into being as a product of a tradition had solidified into a general cultural
close relation between church and secular so- consensus on the justification and proper lim-
ciety, and it has ever since developed in dia- its of the use of force; this was reflected in the
329 Justice
thought of the Renaissance-Reformation pe- age of nuclear weapons is often challenged in
riod, in which this body of doctrine was as- contemporary debate, and it may be that pac-
sumed. Not only the concepts of authority, ifism is again, as at other times in the past,
cause, and intention existed here; the jus ad moving into the forefront of Christian con-
bellum that was passed on included as well sciousness. But in any case the question
the ideas that force should be a last resort, should not be the relevance of the just war
should be proportionate to the evil remedied idea as such; unless the use of force for the
(see Proportionality), should expect to suc- protection of values is to be utterly repu-
ceed in its ends, and should contribute to a diated, then it is necessary to have some such
new state of peace*. The jus in bello was body of moral wisdom and cultural practice
defined by a broad and concrete consensus on on when force is justified and what limits
noncombatant immunity (see Discrimina- should circumscribe it. For Western culture
tion) and a concern for proportionate means and within Christian thought, that body of
in war. Regulation of weapons and of the moral wisdom is just war tradition. The more
days for fighting had disappeared as ineffec- important questions are, as always in the
tive. past, how to relate Christian moral concerns
Among the chief problems posed for just to the larger tradition of just war and to the
war thought by the historical context in this exigencies of the time. In the present context
period were how to limit religious warfare this implies such diverse lines of inquiry as
and the use of excessive force. In the mid- asking whether arms limits should not now,
16th century Franciscus de Victoria declared as first in the Middle Ages, be a means of
baldly, "Difference of religion is not a cause choice to set limits on war; or whether lim-
of just war." But a century of religious war- ited conventional war may not be the upper
fare remained necessary to bring the point limit of allowable force for Christians; or
home. Apart from this issue, both religious whether "wars of liberation" may not be just
and secular just war thought in this period in spite of the unsavory means, including ter-
concentrated on restraining the prosecution rorism*, they often employ; or what should
of war, a tendency marked in subsequent be the limits to conscientious objection* in a
Western moral thought on war up until the national draft law. All these are the sorts of
present. questions that have shaped just war tradition
Much religious concern regarding war in in the past; to engage in present debate over
the 19th century focused on the existence of them is to enter that tradition and to help to
large standing armies among the European shape its further development.
powers, along with the expense of new mili- See also Conventions; Crusade; Deter-
tary technologies. These concerns have con- rence; Disarmament; Humanitarianism; In-
tinued into the present, where they are found ternational Order; Militarism; Nuclear War-
in opposition both to what is often described fare; Pacifism; Peace; Torture; War.
as "militarism"* and to nuclear weaponry
(see Deterrence). While partly rooted in a G. Best, Humanity in Warfare, 1980; J. F.
resurgent Christian pacifism*, much of this Childress, Moral Responsibility in Conflicts,
properly should be understood as following 1982; J. T. Johnson, Ideology, Reason, and
from such just war concepts as opposition to the Limitation of War, 1975; and Just War
force except as last resort, the need that vio- Tradition and the Restraint of War, 1981 ; W.
lent means be proportionate to the values V. O'Brien, The Conduct ofJust and Limited
served, and the concern to protect the inno- War, 1981; F. H. Russell, The Just War in
cent. That force may nonetheless sometimes the Middle Ages, 1975; L. Walters, "Five
be employed by Christians has also been Classic Just-War Theories," Ph.D. diss.,
strongly argued in this period, as for example Yale University, 1971.
in Reinhold Niebuhr's break with Christian JAMES TURNER JOHNSON
pacifism in the 1930s and his writing during
World War II, Paul Ramsey's application of Justice
just war reasoning to nuclear deterrence and Christian interpretations of justice have
the Vietnam War, and a stream of Catholic drawn in part on Greek thought, particularly
doctrine including the 1983 pastoral letter of Aristotle's categories as mediated through
the American Catholic bishops. Thomas Aquinas. Aristotle distinguished
The relevance of just war thinking to the general or legal justice from particular jus-
Justice 330
tice, the former being close to righteousness* in creation and history, in the Law and the
in human relations, the latter being divided Prophets, and ultimately for Christians, in
into commutative and distributive justice. the story of Jesus Christ. The exact character
Commutative justice, which focuses on rela- of the link between human justice and its
tions of members of a society to each other, source in correspondence to the being of God
rectifies both voluntary transactions, such as may vary across different Christian tradi-
contracts*, in which both parties consent*, tions. For example, in much Protestant
and involuntary transactions, such as theft or thought correspondence is established pri-
robbery, in which only one party consents. marily by the analogical correlation of
Its main setting is civil law rather than crimi- human action to the pattern of God's saving
nal law, but it often includes criminal penal- righteousness for the world as depicted in
ties because of the state's interest in prohibit- scripture. Another position, prominent in
ing, deterring, and punishing such actions as Roman Catholic ethics, focuses on the way
theft (see Penology). Distributive justice, human moral action corresponds to the mind
which considers the whole in relation to its of God, who as creator orders all things to
parts, focuses on the community's distribu- their proper ends; hence one may speak with
tion of benefits, such as honors and wealth, Thomas Aquinas of the natural moral law as
and burdens, such as taxation, to individuals participating in God's eternal law (see Natu-
and groups. Especially since Pius XI's encyc- ral Law). In the first case human justice
lical Quadragesimo Anno (1931), the phrase mainly consists in imaging God's saving jus-
"social justice" has been widely used to focus tice, while in the second it involves discern-
on the common good* of the community, ment* of and response to God's ordering of
including the distribution of benefits and bur- creation to natural and supernatural ends.
dens and respect for rights* (see Official 2. Considered traditionally as a cardinal
Roman Catholic Social Teaching). virtue*, justice stands with and in relation to
Four senses of justice often employed in prudence*, temperance*, and fortitude* As
theological discussion will be considered virtue*, justice is a trait of character* em-
here: (1) a norm for human moral agency powering and disposing an agent to act in
that has its source in the being and agency of ways constitutive of human flourishing. As a
God; (2) a virtue of the moral agent; (3) a cardinal virtue, justice is an operative habit
norm for the governing of human relation- setting the will in the direction of impartially
ships that compares and contrasts with a rendering to each his or her due or desert; but
standard of love for neighbor (agape); (4) the justice requires for its effective realization the
normative ordering and distribution of social power to discern the right means to secure
benefits and burdens among citizens of a the good toward which justice disposes (pru-
commonwealth. These senses are distin- dence), the ability to order the passions for
guished from, but not exclusive of, one an- single-minded pursuit of the good (temper-
other; they may and do overlap in various ance), and steadfastness in the pursuit even in
contexts, and each may be understood to give face of threats to the self (fortitude). As a
content to a certain formal sense of justice: virtue relevant to Christian ethics, justice and
the rendering to a person what is due him or the other cardinal virtues are shaped and di-
her (reddere suum cuique). rected by charity*, the love of God and
1. The biblical conception of God depicts neighbor. Given the idea that charity is the
him as one who is just or righteous, and who "form of the virtues" (Thomas Aquinas), one
as such remains faithful to the demands of a can say that the claims to which the charita-
relationship with human beings that is di- bly just person attends are those proper to
vinely established and constitutive of human one's status as indebted to God the creator
well-being (see Righteousness). God's justice and redeemer, and those proper to the "alien
may be expressed in deeds that liberate the dignity" of persons created by and beloved of
weak and vulnerable from bondage, as well as God. Persons may also derive claims from
in judgment on the unfaithfulness of the peo- their membership in a particular group (e.g.,
ple; yet both expressions reflect God's role as family, political community), and these
Lord of a covenant* relationship. Corre- claims gain fuller theological justification by
spondingly, the justice of human activity is reference to theological anthropology and ac-
measured by its faithfulness (see Fidelity) to counts of how particular human relation-
the covenanting God, who may be identified ships witness to the being and agency of God.
331 Justice
3. There is a tradition of thought in con- lationships in question; for example, it can
temporary Christian ethics that compares be argued that ill health and not ability to
and contrasts the norm of Christian love* pay is the relevant reason for receipt of
with the norm of justice. Contrasts often take medical care, and that justice, therefore, re-
their point of departure from the different quires prima facie that health care be dis-
moral situations to which the norms apply. tributed independently of such ability (see
For example, love in the sense of sacrificial Health Care, Right to; Triage). But the basis
regard for another's well-being may apply in for moral regard in the case of Christian love
relations between the self and the neighbor; is one's status as "beloved child of God," or
justice, the impartial and evenhanded consid- as "sister or brother for whom Christ died,"
eration of competing claims to well-being, or as "one made to be a companion in the
may be the more fitting Christian response to sharing of beatitude." Apart from all particu-
the claims of third parties. Sometimes this lar statuses, and in virtue of this "alien dig-
contrast is softened to permit justice claims nity," the neighbor's well-being is to be
to apply to the self in the former case and sought simply as such. Thus a pattern of re-
agape to operate beyond the requirements of gard for the neighbor* may and must em-
justice in the latter. Alternatively, justice brace regard for the citizen or patient or
may refer to contexts deeply conditioned by buyer insofar as human well-being or flour-
finitude and sin, in which individuals and es- ishing is in some way at stake with respect to
pecially groups assert themselves over those roles. So agape may and does require
against one another from dominantly self- more, but never less, than the demands of
interested motives and perspectives. As the justice. (For further discussion of the rela-
norm of adjudication of claims to achieve a tions of agape and justice, see Love).
tolerable peace and harmony, justice is dis- 4. A renewed and sophisticated interest in
tinguished from the law of utterly disinter- the justice of the political community has
ested love, which presupposes for its realiza- emerged since the publication of John
tion the absence of conflict and inordinate Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971). Con-
self-assertion (Reinhold Niebuhr). More sim- ceived as "the first virtue of social institu-
ply, a contrast is sometimes drawn between tions," justice concerns the fitting assignment
personal and impersonal bonds among per- of rights and duties, and of the benefits of
sons. Finally, contrast shades into strict op- social cooperation, to persons who partici-
position when the situation appropriate to pate in political society as free, and equal,
justice encompasses considerations of merit and in pursuit of plans of life according to
simpliciter, over against the radically unmer- particular conceptions of the good. It applies
ited, unconditional, and gracious character to social circumstances characterized by
of neighbor-love, for which God's own love scarcity of resources and by disagreement
is paradigm. among persons about what sort of life makes
Several positive relationships have also for human fulfillment. Principles of justice
been proposed for love and justice. Princi- are warranted through arguments which de-
ples of justice entailing equal consideration pict a hypothetical agreement about the orga-
of (competing) interests and respect for in- nization of major political and economic in-
dividual freedom may be viewed as approxi- stitutions among persons who abstract from
mations of neighbor-love under the condi- their particular life plans, and who thus
tions of history. Criteria of justice for the would agree together as free and equal. For
distribution of goods according to need also Rawls, a deeply egalitarian conception of jus-
approximate Christian love. One way to re- tice emerges from this procedure; rights to
flect on the positive relationship is to locate equality* of liberty and opportunity are to be
the relevant bases for moral regard for each guaranteed, and social and economic
norm. What is due a citizen or medical pa- inequalities must work to the benefit of the
tient or buyer in the marketplace is deter- least advantaged persons in society.
mined through a relevant, and therefore This vision contrasts with utilitarian con-
nonarbitrary, assessment of the claims of ceptions that identify justice with the maxim-
these persons, given their status in political ization of total or average "happiness" or
or medical or economic relationships. Spe- desire-satisfaction in society, rather than
cification of justice requires specification of with equal respect for persons' separate life
criteria appropriate to the nature of the re- plans (see Utilitarianism). In its effort to
Justification, Moral 332
combine values of liberty and material equal- tice of God differ, for the purposes of human
ity into a uniform moral ideal, Rawls's view behavioral requirement, from the love of
(and others like it) is to be distinguished from God? How compatible are theological and
two other approaches: (1) libertarianism* particular nontheological conceptions of so-
(see also Capitalism), which gives priority of cial justice? Thus the agenda for Christian
place to protection of arrangements freely ethics is as imposing as it is important.
consented to and therefore uncoerced; and See Charity; Equality; Exploitation; Fair-
(2) socialism*, which stresses above all an ness; Freedom; Liberalism; Love; Respect
ideal of social and material equality* through for Persons; Rights; Social Service of the
the overcoming of private privilege. Liber- Church; State; Welfare State.
tarians criticize socialists for the way their
proposals interfere with private freedom of J. C. Haughey (ed.), The Faith That Does
choice, and socialists respond with the Justice, 1977; J. R. Lucas, On Justice, 1980;
charge that libertarian recommendations G. Outka, Agape: An Ethical Analysis, 1972;
effectively undermine genuine human free- J. Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues, 1966;
dom by their inattention to human needs, P. Ramsey, Basic Christian Ethics, 1950; J.
and to the domination of persons by the ac- Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971; J. Sterba
cumulation of political and economic power* (ed.), Justice: Alternative Political Perspec-
in private hands. Modified versions of each of tives, 1980.
these criticisms may be directed at Rawls's WILLIAM WERPEHOWSKI
egalitarianism as well.
Questions about social and political justice Justification see Justification by Faith;
in Christian ethics are often posed along the Justification, Moral
lines of the different positions sketched
above. May one commend the deprivation of Justification, Moral
individuals' life prospects for the purpose of Moral or ethical justification is usually de-
maximizing happiness overall, as some manded and provided only when there are
utilitarians claim? Is the threat of govern- reasons to think that an act is wrong or bad,
mental intrusion into private engagements so and it involves offering moral or ethical rea-
great as to warrant severe restrictions on sons for the act in question and showing that
state power in providing for basic material they outweigh the reasons against it. This
needs of its citizens? On the other hand, does sort of justification is common in ordinary
the satisfaction of basic human needs for moral discourse, being demanded by our con-
health care, food, shelter, and the like have a sciences* as well as by others. And there is an
special priority, compatible with public inter- ongoing assessment of these reasons, often
vention when private initiatives fail? What involving various principles, rules, and val-
ought to be the proper balance between re- ues, as well as critical reflection on these rea-
spect for human needs and respect for human sons by moral philosophers and theologians,
preferences? Disagreements among Christian among others. Nevertheless, some theolo-
ethicists about the answers to these questions gians are very suspicious of moral or ethical
finally hinge on disagreements over various justification of such actions as abortion, re-
background beliefs, such as the propriety of sistance, and ware.g., justified abortion
claims to sacrifice for others, the character of not because they believe that such actions are
political community in a created but fallen always wrong, but because they so fear legal-
world, and the concrete meaning of that dig- ism* and self-righteousness (e.g., Helmut
nity* which attaches to human beings in vir- Thielicke) or restricting the sovereign free-
tue of their common origin and destiny in dom of God's command (Karl Barth) that
God. they repudiate ethical justification. Hence,
Reflection on the notion of justice may ad- some theologians replace ethical justification
dress the issue of specifying each of these four by an assurance of justification by faith* or
senses; but it also needs to pursue questions by an inner certainty of the divine com-
posed, as it were, to one context of use from mand* According to Jacques Ellul (Vio-
others. For example, how is the justice of lence, ET 1969), "it is not so much violence
political life compatible with the idea that itself as justification of violence that is unac-
justice is a virtue? How exactly does the jus- ceptable to Christian faith." For other Chris-
333 Justification by Faith
tians moral justification, including appeals to good tree brings forth good fruit (Matt. 7:
moral principles, rules, and values, is impor- 16-20). At the beginning of the life of the
tant and even indispensable, but it does not Christian stands the once and for all, com-
eliminate the need for God's grace or limit plete act of justification, which makes the
God's freedom. Its place is modest but sig- sinner fully the forgiven child of God and
nificant, as long as agents are aware of the heir of all the blessings of salvation. Full as-
dangers of self-deception*, rationalization*, surance of salvation thus rests wholly upon
bad faith, ideology* (in its negative sense), God's word which accomplishes what it says,
and hypocrisy* For a discussion of the pro- and not on our faith in our own faith or on
cess of justification, which is social as well as our good works. The Christian remains al-
individual, see Deliberation. ways "simultaneously righteous and a sin-
See also Casuistry; Decision; Norms; Situ- ner" and, therefore, in need of daily repent-
ation Ethics. ance and renewal.
JAMES F. CHILDRESS This has profound implications for the
Christian life, for it is only when our pride
Justification by Faith and egocentricity, in which we seek ourselves
Justification by faith or, more fully, justifica- in all we do, are broken by the act of justifica-
tion by grace through faith has been called tion, that we are free not to use our neighbor
"the article by which the Church will stand as a means to personal salvation. Then we
or fall." The usual designation, "justification become, by God's grace, channels through
by faith," is subject to such misunderstand- which God's agap flows through us out to
ing that the fuller statement "justification by the neighbor. The direction is altogether
grace alone, for Christ's sake, through faith from God down to humanity and out to the
active in good works" is preferable. Faith world's needs. There is a genuine "life to-
then is to be regarded as "the comprehensive gether" based on openness to the neighbor
name for the Christian God-relationship" where each one knows himself equally sinful
(Gustaf Auln). yet equally beloved and accepted. This rules
For Paul, the only righteousness that saves out false "perfectionism."* In all respects
is the active righteousness of God which is and at all times, in thoughts, words, and
imparted to human beings (especially Rom. deeds, a person is justified only by grace
1:16-17; Eph. 2:8-10). The agent in justifica- through faith, which is never a meritorious
tion is entirely the gracious God, who covers work on the person's part since it is the work
the human being's sin, thus justifying the un- of God in him or her (see Good Works).
godly (Rom. 5:6-11) and at the same time Thus it is invalid to object to "by faith
creating the "new being" in Christ, that is, alone." Works are not added to faith as its
sanctification (2 Cor. 5:17-21). This view is consequence, because faith is present only as
abundantly substantiated by the total biblical it is alive in works, just as the sun is present
witness. only in its shining. Therefore, also, there is no
Luther understood "justification" compre- contradiction when James says that faith
hensively: "Where there is forgiveness of without works is dead (James 2:17) or when,
sins, there is life and salvation." In distinc- in the final judgment, it is the deed of love
tion from the Roman conception of justifica- which is decisive (Matt. 25:31-45).
tion as a gradual process of growth in saint- Thus the quality of the Christian life can
hood via sacramental infusions of grace always be judged by whether or not there is
employed in good works, he affirmed the all- the realization that a person lives only by
at-once, gracious act of justification, which is forgiveness* and is thereby freed and empow-
at one and the same time a forensic act and ered to do God's will of love in service to the
an act of renewal. Grace* is not a power neighbor in his or her particular standing
infused by God himself in his gracious dispo- place. But it does not follow that this must at
sition toward human beings and his gracious all times be put in terms of "justification."
self-impartation to them. It is the sinner who The NT is rich in variety of expressions and
is declared righteous and at the same time different times demand different emphases,
made righteous. One does not become good just so the substance of the gospel, which is
by doing good, but a person must first be the "justification of the sinner by grace
good before he or she can do good. Only a alone," is preserved.
Juvenile Delinquency 334
See also Faith; Law and Gospel; Lutheran sociologist has called "moral panic," whicji
Ethics. in turn can provoke a firm controlling re-
sponse from the police or other agencies. It
G. O. Forde, Justification by Faith: A Matter has been suggested that attention like this
of Death and Life, 1982; W. H. Lazareth, may actually give the subculture an exag-
Luther on the Christian Home: An Applica- gerated status and credibility, strengthening
tion of the Social Ethics of the Reformation, and nourishing it.
1960, esp. pp. 34-165; G. Quell and G. The diverse range of behavior that may be
Schrenk, Righteousness, Bible Key Words, called delinquent and a strong moral concern
vol. 4, ET 1951 (also in TDNT II, pp. 174- for youth have prompted important develop-
225); G. Rupp, The Righteousness of God, ments in the diagnosis and classification of
1953. symptoms of delinquency, as well as the es-
MARTIN J. HEINECKEN tablishment of programs of treatment. In
particular, social workers have been given
Juvenile Delinquency the responsibility for the "care and protec-
Be they infringements of the criminal law or tion" of juvenile delinquents. A mandate like
of an unwritten rule of conduct, the mis- this affords professionals in the social services
demeanors of young people are often called a wide measure of discretion and power.
acts of delinquency. The phrase "juvenile de- There is now a significant view which, while
linquency" tends to encompass not only wanting to retain some special facilities for
crime, but also behavior like truanting from young offenders, asserts "children's rights."
school, resistance to parental discipline, and Young people, then, may require a measure
attitudes of an intolerant nature. This defini- of protection from those social influences
tion is related to a particular legal, social, and which could precipitate adult criminality,
moral understanding of youth. and from the particular morals of the caring
In most industrial societies the law sets an professions.
age of criminal responsibility, which differs See also Children; Crime; Penology.
across jurisdictions and is subject to histori-
cal change. In Great Britain, children under A. Morris et al., Justice for Children, 1980;
ten years of age cannot be charged with a M. Rutter and H. Giller, Juvenile Delin-
criminal offense. A special system of judicial quency, 1983.
administration and justice has been estab- SIMON HOLDAWAY
lished in America and in Britain to deal with
juveniles. There have been some attempts to Kantian Ethics
make the juvenile court a place of last resort Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a native of
and a provider of welfare, but this remains a East Prussia, is generally regarded as the
contentious proposition. greatest modern philosopher. Brought up in
The roots of this understanding of young the rationalist (Leibnizian) school, he never-
people are diverse. Of particular importance theless became convinced of the impossibility
is the belief that the learning of appropriate ofjustifying "metaphysics" (a priori theoreti-
rules of conduct and of morality during the cal knowledge of reality). In his major work,
early years has a significant impact through- the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), he
2
out adulthood. It has been argued that juve- maintained that all judgments capable of giv-
nile delinquency, like a contagious disease, ing new information about matters of fact
may lead to an established pattern of crimi- must include both an empirical and an a pri-
nality. There is a small amount of evidence to ori element, the former providing matter or
support this view but most juveniles, con- content and the latter form or organization.
victed or not, seem to mature into law-abid- This enabled him to furnish a justification of
ing adults. causality and other a priori categories against
The perceived threat to societal disorder philosophers like Hume, on the ground that
posed by young peopleespecially males they were necessary if we were to make any
who display and sustain a highly visible, if judgments at all, but also to refute theoretical
fragile, membership of a youth subculture metaphysics on the ground that it depended
has stimulated academic curiosity. "Hip- for its arguments on using the categories il-
pies," "Rockers," "Rastas," "Acidheads," legitimately beyond the realm of experience.
and so on, are likely to invoke what one But he took a quite different view of judg-
335 Ke
i rkegaarda
i n Ethics
ments as to moral principles, regarding these Kant's best-known work on ethics is his
as essentially a priori. This enabled him to Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals
produce ethical arguments for the objective (1785), though we must remember that it was
validity of the only metaphysical ideas that intended as the introduction to a work in
he considered of practical interest to man which he would develop ethics more in de-
namely, God, freedom, and immortality. For tail, as he did in the Metaphysic of Morals
according to his view an ethical proposition (1797). ("Metaphysic" is here used not in the
could say something new (be "synthetic") sense in which Kant denied its possibility,
without being dependent on empirical facts that is, a priori theoretical knowledge of real-
and therefore could yield conclusions that ity, but simply to mean a systematic investi-
went beyond the realm of experience, thus gation of the a priori elements in our moral
escaping his objections to a priori arguments thinking.) His ethics, as already suggested, is
in theoretical metaphysics. The general prin- noted for its a priori character. He holds that
ciple behind his argument for God and im- only "hypothetical" and not "categorical"
mortality is that the moral law bids us pursue (genuinely moral) imperatives can be derived
the supreme good as attainable. It cannot, from considering the consequences of ac-
however, be attained in this life or in any tions. If I am to attain a certain end, I am
finite time, hence immortality, and since the subject to a hypothetical imperative to adopt
possibility of realizing it depends not only on the means needed for this purpose, but the
ourselves but on external circumstances we imperative is binding on me only insofar as I
must think of the latter as ordered for the desire the end, and even so it is only a pru-
greatest good, which we can only do by en- dential and not a moral "ought." A categori-
visaging everything as created and controlled cal imperative, on the other hand, is con-
by a being who is both perfectly good and cerned with the principle ("maxim") of an
omnipotent. (This is the essence of the argu- action and not with its consequences.
ment, but its actual form would have been This is connected with Kant's view of what
improved if Kant had not restricted his idea is good in itself. The Groundwork opens with
of the good to "good will" and happiness; see a statement that the only thing uncondition-
below.) The argument is held by him to give ally good is the good will, by which is meant
indeed not theoretical knowledge but suffi- the will to do our duty just because it is our
cient evidence to justify a subjectively certain duty. This is not the same as saying that the
practical belief. It occurs in the Critique of good will is the only thing good otherwise
Practical Reason (1788). He not only regards than as a means. Kant regards happiness also
religious belief as justifiable solely by ethical as good in itself but only if the happiness is
arguments but takes the view that religion is deserved by the exercise of the good will, and
of value only as a means to leading a good so only conditionally on the other higher good
moral life, and in Religion Within the Bounds being attained. He does, however, seem to
of Reason Alone (1793) he reinterprets the deny the value of anything else besides good
dogmas of Christianity in terms simply of will and happiness, even of intelligence and
ethics and of a belief in the moral government knowledge, love, aesthetic and religious ex-
of the world. periences, except as a means. He points out
Kant's view of freedom is very difficult, and that the goodness of the good will does not
he admits that the concept, though we must depend on its being successful in its endeavors
accept it, is unintelligible to us. As the result or on its actual consequences. He denies any
chiefly of various epistemological arguments merit to action that is not morally motivated,
and the antinomies about infinity he had come however well it conforms outwardly with the
to the conclusion that everything in space and moral law, and this has aroused criticism on
time is appearance and not reality. This he the ground that many acts are better done out
applied even to our view of ourselves in intro- of love than out of a sense of duty. It is,
spection. The appearance self, he thought, however, doubtful whether Kant meant to
must be like everything in time completely deny moral value to an action that was done
subject to causation by previous events, but both from love or some other (good) desire
the real self was timeless and so could be free, and from a sense of duty, provided the latter
not being determined by previous events. Its was strong enough to bring about the action of
freedom consisted in the possibility of moral itself even if the other motive had not been
action, "ought" implying "can." present also. And he insists that, if we are
Ke
i rkegaarda
i n Ethics 336
really moral, we will do our duty gladly de- of truthfulness should be given priority over
spite the prima facie opposition between duty the principle of preserving life. But Kant has
and desire. His rather rigorous attitude is to the merit of being the first moral philosopher
be understood as a reaction against the view, to realize the immense importance of the con-
very common in his day, that the reason for cept of universality for ethics. It is an essen-
doing our duty was ultimately to be found in tial part of the moral attitude that any reason
the agent's own happiness. for or against an act must be capable of state-
Since the good will is a feature of the action ment in general terms and must be such that
itself and its motives and not of its conse- it would apply to anybody without exception
quences, and since happiness, although an granted similar circumstances.
end that could serve as a ground for action, Kant's second formulation of the central
is regarded by him as of comparatively subor- moral imperative is the direction to "act so as
dinate importance, his view of the good de- to treat humanity never only as a means but
barred him from setting up an ethic that always also as an end." We must note that he
derived our obligations mainly from an ap- does not say that we should never treat peo-
peal to consequences. Instead he uses univer- ple as meanswhich would be incompatible
salizability as his main criterion. He does not with our ever employing them to do work for
indeed hold that we ought to act according to our benefitbut that we shall never treat
every principle that could be universalized, them only as a means, that is, we must never
but he does hold that we ought not to act employ them under such conditions as in-
according to any principle that could not be volve a disregard of their well-being or
universalized. What cheats want is not that human dignity. These words of Kant have
everybody else should cheat them, but that had as much influence as perhaps any ever
an exception should be made in their own written by a philosopher; they serve indeed as
case. And Kant thinks there are certain prin- a slogan for the whole liberal and democratic
ciples such that it would be impossible for us movement of recent times. But for their ap-
to will their universalization. Thus we could plication we seem to need a fuller idea of the
not have a state of affairs in which all people ends of humankind than Kant supplies, to-
always made any promise they chose without gether with more empirical content.
any intention of keeping it, because there In the most important version of his third
would be then no point in making the pro- formulation Kant introduces the concept of
mises since they would not be believed. Simi- a kingdom of ends, all the members of which
larly he tries to base the obligation to help treated each other as ends as well as means.
others in need on the argument that we could Kant insists that we ought to act as if we were
not will the universalization of the opposite members of such a kingdom, though we
principle since we ourselves might need help know that not all our fellow beings are such
from others. This must be distinguished from in their actions; for example, we ought not to
the merely prudential argument that we cheat because others cheated us.
ought to help others because we are then Kant emphasizes very strongly the "auton-
more likely to be helped ourselves. Kant is omy" of ethics*, by which he means that
appealing not to the actual consequences of moral principles must be derived from the
any kindness we may show but to the purely nature of the rational will which refrains
hypothetical situation that would arise if from acting on any principle that it could not
kindness were never shown. I think his con- consistently will to be universalized, and not
tention is in essence that it would be unfair to from any idea of private advantage, nor from
break ourselves a general rule which we can- some feeling, nor from metaphysics or theol-
not help expecting others to obey in their ogy. He is insisting on the unique status of
dealings with us. Kant assumes that the ethics.
moral principles he establishes hold univer- In the 1960s James Gustafson wrote that
sally, as one would indeed expect an a priori "surely Kant remains the philosopher of
principle to do, but then the question arises greatest impact on European Protestant eth-
what we are to do if two of them clash in a icsBrunner and Barth particularly." Per-
particular case. Kant expressly defended the haps in part because Kant reflected Protes-
view that one ought never to tell a lie even to tant thought to a certain extent, his influence
save the life of a man pursued by a would-be in Protestant ethics has been strong (see, for
murderer, but it is not clear why the principle example, Ritschlian Ethics; Modern Prot-
337 Kierkegaardian Ethics
estant Ethics). Nevertheless, it has occurred Three stages on life's way. A beginning
in various ways, sometimes shaping only part theme is that human life consists in stages of
of the perspective; for example, neighbor- development. Each stage must be confronted
love (agape) has been interpreted in the light as a preparation for the next, and each gener-
of the Kantian principle of respect for per- ates its own characteristic values. Kierke-
sons* (G. Outka, Agape, 1972; A. Donagan, gaard distinguishes aesthetic, ethical, and re-
The Theory of Morality, 1977). In addition, ligious stages. All of us begin at the aesthetic
Kantian themes have been prominent in re- stage where the pursuit of pleasure and
cent moral philosophy, for example, in the enjoyment holds sway. Whenever this start-
work of Alan Donagan and that of John ing point turns into a way of life, all of the
Rawls (A Theory of Justice, 1971). Kantian varied expressions lack individual decisive-
ethics has been subject to various criticisms, ness. "Entirely finitized" expressions include
including charges of overemphasis on moral sensuous eroticism and sheer conformity to
reason in contrast to the inclinations, on social custom and etiquette. More reflective
deontological ethics (see Deontology) in con- expressions play out an "imagination exist-
trast to teleological ethics*, on principles andence" intoxicated by infinite possibilities:
rules rather than virtues, on the moral self boredom is the great enemy and the strategy
apart from time and community, etc. For for avoidance is endlessly to "rotate the
further discussion of Kantian ethics, see Re- crops." The "decisions" of reflective aes-
spect for Persons. thetes are plagued by a both-and or neither-
See Categorical Imperative; Duty; Het- nor quality. Manipulation marks all of their
eronomy; Kingdom of Ends; Practical Rea- social relations. Certain commentators see in
son; Universalizability, Principle of. Kierkegaard's depiction of the aesthetic stage
a version of eudaemonism* or hedonism* A.
B. Aune, Kant's Theory of Morals, 1980; Im- Maclntyre ties the portrayal of reflective aes-
manuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic thetes to emotivism (After Virtue, 1981, pp.
of Morals (1785), tr. H. J. Paton as The 23-24). Kierkegaard himself reserves the
Moral Law, 1948; Critique of Practical Rea- term "ethical" for precisely the sort of indi-
son (1788), tr. L. W Beck, 1949; O. Neill, vidual decisiveness the aesthete lacks. Judge
Acting on Principle: An Essay in Kantian Eth- William, the quintessential ethical pseudo-
ics, 1975; H, J. Paton, The Categorical Im- nym, claims that the aesthetic stage has to do
perative, 1947; W D. Ross, Kant's Ethical with what a person immediately is, the ethi-
Theory, 1954. cal with what a person becomes. "Becoming"
A. C. EWING/J. F. CHILDRESS involves an affirmative effort of the will,
initiative-taking, and the assumption of re-
Kierkegaardian Ethics sponsibility* The person at the ethical stage
S0ren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) turned re- acquires narrative continuity and biographi-
peatedly to ethical questions in his books and cal depth. Such activity is fraught with reli-
journals. His views, or in many cases the gious significance, albeit of a dialectical kind.
views attributed to him, have proved highly On the one hand, as another pseudonym,
influential in both Christian and secular cir- Vigilius Haufniensis, insists, "the good sig-
cles in the 20th century. Matters are compli- nifies continuity, for the first expression of
cated because among his most relevant works salvation is continuity" (The Concept of Anx-
some are pseudonymous (e.g., Either/Or and iety, p. 130). This first expression is the nar-
Fear and Trembling) and others are under row gate that leads to the religious life. The
his own name (e.g., Purity of Heart Is to Will ethical and religious accordingly form a "glo-
One Thing and Works of Love). Claims about rious alliance" over against the aesthetic. On
ethics in the pseudonymous works do not the other hand, ethical personalities like
always represent his own constructive pro- Judge William underestimate the power of
posals, yet they figure prominently in subse- the forces that foster disorder and discon-
quent discussion. Thus, to speak of "Kier- tinuity; the limits of the ethical are revealed
kegaardian ethics" one must attend to when such persons succumb to these forces
various distinctive claims considered in his despite stringent standards and earnest effort.
corpus and widely canvassed in later genera- Here Kierkegaard sometimes sounds a Paul-
tions, not all of which are, or were intended ine and Lutheran note: "What is said of the
to be, compatible. law is also true of ethics: it is a disciplinarian
Kierkegaardian Ethics 338
that demands, and by its demands only doctrine of the highest good (summum
judges but does not bring forth life" (The bonum) which, as with Aquinas and Kant, is
Concept of Anxiety, p. 16). The life in ques- eternal. Ethical practice consists in actually
tion turns out to be unavailable apart from "willing one thing," and this rules out not
divine grace known as such only at the reli- only purely personal ambitions but all goals
gious stage. Judge William's own views are that can be exhaustively specified in temporal
nevertheless a key source for the idea devel- terms. Various kinds of "double-minded-
oped by secular existentialist writers that ness" are exposed, including the "reward dis-
moral autonomy* rather than moral truth is ease." What emerges is the claim that no
the fundamental concept in ethical theory temporal goal can be the one thing success-
(see also Existentialist Ethics). But for Kier- fully willed; every such goal when pursued to
kegaard, the doctrine of the stages contains a excess turns into its opposite, and this be-
religious telos (which we certainly remain cause the goal cannot bear the single-minded
free to frustrate); it plots various steps in the commitment appropriate solely to the eter-
individual's concern for eternal blessedness. nal. The anthropological consequence is that
A teleological suspension of the ethical. the will itself, and not what it does or
Other widely discussed claims are advanced achieves in the world, is the ethically good.
by the pseudonym Johannes de silentio in This work displays two of Kierkegaard's own
Fear and Trembling. Johannes examines the most notable points of influence: (1) The
biblical story of Abraham's near sacrifice of claim that the eternal is the only appropriate
Isaac in obedience to a direct divine com- object of a single-minded commitment lends
mand, calling Abraham's action "a teleologi- support to Kierkegaard's well-documented
cal suspension of the ethical." As Fear and vindication of the individual. The person
Trembling is often read to commend the ac- who strives to will one thing must realize that
tion, it supports four claims: (1) we should one cannot succeed unless he or she acquires
not commit ourselves in principle to a neces- independence from, even invulnerability to,
sary link between antecedently known moral the way the world goes (including the judg-
prohibitions and God's will, but instead ments of other people). One's commitment
should remain dispositional^ open to God's cannot be made hostage to the uncertain flux
self-disclosures here and now; (2) the distinc- of limited temporal goals: this condition ob-
tive and irreducible importance of the indi- tains for every person. (2) A particular type
vidual's relation to God requires that it re- of writing serves to cultivate commitment.
main direct and unmediated; (3) such a Kierkegaard calls his work an "edifying dis-
relation is constituted only by a personal en- course." Here, unlike Kant, he writes to pro-
counter with God; (4) given God's nature, mote an actual transformation of the will and
this encounter takes the form of a divine not only to offer an intellectual examination
command and a primal response of obedience of the practical reason.
(see also Divine Command Morality). While Ethics after dogmatics. Haufniensis distin-
the "ethics" that is suspended differs from its guishes between a "first ethics" which is ship-
more favorable depiction elsewhere in Kier- wrecked on the individual's sinfulness and a
kegaard's literature (e.g., Concluding Un- "second ethics" which presupposes dogmat-
scientific Postscript), the claims themselves ics and "has the actuality of sin within its
are appropriated in part by a group of 20th- scope" (The Concept of Anxiety, p. 23). Sev-
century theologians all of whom share a spe- eral of Kierkegaard's most confessional writ-
cial wariness of legalism* The group in- ings treat ethical questions as governed by
cludes K. Barth and E. Brunner most clearly; Christian concepts. In Training in Christian-
and also, with qualifications, D. Bonhoeffer, ity, for example, the authority of Christ rela-
H. R. Niebuhr, and P. Lehmann. They en- tivizes one's station in life and frees the estab-
deavor to retain some element of personal lished political order from deification; and in
encounter in which God's command is im- Works of Love the biblical commandment to
mediate, concrete, and requisitely self-inter- love one's neighbor casts a shadow over the
preting (see also Modern Protestant Ethics). motives of all preferential loves (see Love).
Commitment to the highest good. A case More generally, Kierkegaard brings Chris-
where the ethical is favorably depicted is Pu- tian beliefs critically to bear on the received
rity of Heart, a nonpseudonymous work with moral opinions of the age, a practice per-
striking affinities to Kant. We meet with a petuated in the 20th century by otherwise
339 Kingdom of God
quite different thinkers. K. Barth, for in- use is concerned, in any writing at all. Its
stance, annexes philosophical ethics to theo- known use in Judaism in the period is so rare
logical ethics, and R. Niebuhr employs a doc- that it has the strongest possible chance of
trine of sin* (with an acknowledged debt to being the central theme of Jesus' preaching,
Kierkegaard) to illuminate the possibilities just as the Synoptic Gospels show. But
and limits of ethical and political life. The though the phrase is relatively rare in the
legacy of Kierkegaardian ethics includes a Judaism of the time, the ideathat of God's
nonapologetic and radical attempt to tell the sovereign rule over his people or over the
age something it cannot tell itself. worldhas its roots deep in Jewish theology
in theology, not ethics. Although God cer-
S. Kierkegaard, Either/Or, ET 1971; Fear tainly has a will and law for his people, the
and Trembling, ET 1983; Purity of Heart Is idea is essentially that God rules as king (Pss.
to Will One Thing, ET 1956; Works of Love, 93; 97; 99). It expresses a conception of God's
ET 1962; Concluding Unscientific Postscript, being and position, not a program for human
ET 1960; The Concept of Anxiety, ET 1980; living and social improvement.
Training in Christianity, ET 1972; A. Han- The usage of the Gospels, in their account
nay, Kierkegaard, 1982; G. Malantschuk, of the preaching of Jesus, is wholly in line
Kierkegaard's Thought, ET 1974; M. C. Tay- with this. Jesus proclaims the nearness of the
lor, Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Author- revealing of God's victory (Mark 1:1415).
ship: A Study of Time and the Self, 1975. His acts of power fill out the character of
GENE OUTKA God's rule; and the parables evoke both its
mysteriousness (Mark 4:26-29) and the ur-
Kingdom of Ends gency (Matt. 13:44-46; 25:1-13) of its chal-
This term was used by Kant for an ideal lenge.
society in which the members treated each Yet it is easy to see how this essentially
other never merely as means but always at theological term, signifying God's initiative
the same time as ends. He insisted that we and the assurance of his power, has come to
ought to act as if we were already members be treated as predominantly ethical. While
of such a society, even though others may not the underlying Semitic phrase involved the
do likewise in their dealings with us. idea of sovereignty, the Greek word basileia
See Kantian Ethics. (kingdom) brought into prominence the con-
A. C. EWING comitant image of the sphere within which
sovereignty is exercised, and so the nature of
Kingdom of God the life within that sphere. Sayings in the
Writers on Christian ethics sometimes use Gospels (particularly Matthew) express this
this phrase as a shorthand for the ideal state quasi-territorial idea of kingdom, which is
of affairs to whose realization Christian effort itself only a step away from the later tend-
is to be directed. The petition in the Lord's ency to equate the kingdom of God with the
Prayer, "Thy kingdom come," is taken to be church: Matt. 16:28; 19:28; 20:21; and note
an obvious aspiration toward such an out- 13:41. Indeed, a strong impulse in this direc-
come. The kingdom is the world order that tion was already given by one of the most
God desires. Characteristically it is seen as an striking features of Jesus' preaching. In say-
order marked by social justice, freedom for ings like Matt. 12:28 and Luke 17:21, there
the oppressed, fulfillment for the individual is the idea that Jesus' presence and deeds are
the whole gamut of liberal values. Such a more than signs of the kingdomthey are
use of the term has had a wholly understand- the very proof of its realization already in the
able revival (in more Marxist dress) in the world. Around Jesus, among his followers
crisis-evoked liberation theology* stemming therefore, in this language of realized es-
from South America, and it has often been chatology (as C. H. Dodd named it), the ex-
linked in the writings of that school with the pected end is brought forward and seen as
exegesis of the Gospels. planted in the midst of human life and affairs.
Yet in truth, this direction of thought is As for the character of life in the kingdom,
almost wholly misleading if it is a question of prophetic passages, such as Isa. 35:5-6 and
attending to the meaning of the term in the 61:1-3, colored the picture of the coming
NT where, after all, it found its origin in new age and illuminated Jesus' acts of heal-
Christian writing, and, as far as its prominent ing and restoration. It is no wonder that in
Koinonia 340
the long term, charitable work and Christian ics, the term is used by those who hold that
social effort came to be seen as the building Christian action is determined by the living
or (with a greater retention of the eschatolog- context of the community.
ical origins of the idea) the hastening of the See also Ecclesiology and Ethics.
kingdom, with a prominence given to human JOHN MACQUARRIE
effort that the writer of the Gospel of Mark
would not have understood. Labor Movements
In this way, "the kingdom of God" has Modern industry and technology have pro-
been the great bearer of the two major shifts duced a type of society new in the history of
in the perspective of Christian faith after its the world; in turn this has produced new
earliest days: the shift from the dominance of types of political movements among its work-
eschatology and the shift to the prominence ers. Britain was the pioneer in the "Industrial
of the church as the institutional embodi- Revolution,"* as it is commonly called, and
ment of Christianity and provider for practi- the labor movements it provoked are a good
cal Christian living. The ethicizing of the idea example of them. After inchoate movements
of the kingdom is then the ultimate develop- in the early years (including the Christian
ment of the process thus initiated (see Kan- Socialist experiment sponsored by the theolo-
tian Ethics; Kingdom of Ends; Ritschlian gian F. D. Maurice and his friends 1848-54),
Ethics; Social Gospel). and a quiescent period after that, a three-
Alternatively, the process may be de- pronged labor movement developed.
scribed as a movement from the kingdom of 1. Trade unions*. These began with craft
God as a theological term (almost a peri- unions in, e.g., engineering, and the general
phrasis for God himself in his purposive or "industrial" unions of relatively unskilled
and ultimately triumphant activity) to the workers came later, from about 1880. In
kingdom as the community where this rule some European countries unions developed
of God is already welcomed; thence to the under Christian labels as counterparts to
church in a more formalized sense, and secularist ones, but not in the UK.
finally to the church in its work of extend- 2. Cooperative societies. Consumers' Coop-
ing the sphere of life in accordance with eration began in Rochdale, Lancashire, in
God's demands, whether seen in predomi- 1844; the shops were owned and managed
nantly religious or social and political through elected representatives of the cus-
terms, to the world as a whole, a program tomers, who received a dividend on pur-
of which Rev. 11:15 might be seen as the chases, and from this the societies developed
visionary statement. and owned manufacturing enterprises to sup-
See Ecclesiology and Ethics; Eschatologi- ply their shops, through the Cooperative
cal Ethics; Hope; Jesus, Ethical Teaching of; Wholesale Society. They grew rapidly and
New Testament Ethics. became a powerful social, educational, and
cultural force in working-class communities,
R. H. Hiers, The Kingdom of God in the and today are used by a wider public, particu-
Synoptic Tradition, 1970; N. Perrin, The larly in the grocery trade. Lately they have
Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus, been meeting severe competition from super-
1963; J. Weiss, Jesus* Proclamation of the markets. There have also been Producers'
Kingdom of God (1892), ET 1971. Cooperatives, particularly in agriculture,
J. L. HOULDEN which have had a less strong corporate sense,
since farming is more an individualist family
Kingdom of Heaven see Kingdom of occupation than industrial work. However
God there have also been a number of manufac-
turing units owned and managed by the
Koinonia workers, but they have been fewer and on a
A NT expression, koinonia may be translated smaller scale until the recent Mondragon Co-
as "fellowship," "communion," "participa- operative in northern Spain, which is attract-
tion," or even "community." The basic idea ing wide attention. Some co-partnership
is that of sharing. The Christian life is a schemes in industry and commerce have been
shared life, shared with God through Christ, established but they have more of a "liberal"
and with the other members of the body of than a "labour" flavor.
Christ, the community of the Spirit. In eth- 3. Political parties*. In the UK the Inde-
341 Laissez-faire
pendent Labour Party, which later became the belief that it is best to leave the working
the Labour Party, arrived in Parliament at of the economy to the free play of the self-
the 1906 election (which swept the Liberals interest of producers and consumers, relying
into power) when they won 29 seats. In the on the "invisible hand" of competition in the
early 1920s they replaced the Liberals as the market to bring about the best interests of the
main opposition party. In Europe, Social community.
Democratic parties were formed in opposi- Christian thought would emphasize the
tion to Christian Democratic parties; these importance of individuals being free to exer-
latter have been conservative, and so the So- cise responsible judgment and choice, and the
cial Democratic parties have tended to be dangers of excessive state power, but extreme
anticlerical and often anti-Christian; in the laissez-faire has usually been condemned. It
UK there were enough links between the has been held to be incompatible with Chris-
churches and working-class institutions to tian beliefs about the fallibility of human na-
avoid this. In the USA the open frontier and ture, which makes it impossible to rely solely
the large-scale immigration have meant a less on an invisible hand to restrain the effects of
defined situation. greed and exploitation. Christians who be-
In addition there have been various Marx- lieve in the need for self-seeking to be trans-
ist parties deriving from the First, Second, formed by the love of God into self-denial in
and Third Internationals. They have had a the service of others could not accept as ade-
checkered history and proved very fissipa- quate a social philosophy of possessive in-
rous. Some have been anarchist; others have dividualism* based expressly on self-seeking.
arisen from the split between Stalin and Christian responsibility for one's neighbors'
Trotsky, with great hostility between them. welfare made it imperative to advocate col-
The Communist Party is the most "official" lective action by the community to correct
and least radical of the Marxist parties. The the inevitable abuses of self-interest.
influence of all of them in the UK has been Thus the Amsterdam Assembly of the
small, and chiefly among middle-class intel- World Council of Churches in 1948 con-
lectuals. In Marxist countries there is usually demned laissez-faire capitalism* as well as
one party operating, on Lenin's theory of communism*. The papal social encyclicals
democratic centralism. In Third World from Rerum Novarum (1891) onward have
countries the situation varies considerably also condemned it. R. H. Preston points out
between and within Asia, Africa, and Latin that a free market economy presupposes not
America. only a legal structure of law and order and
Individual Christians have made striking property rights but also a commitment by all
contributions to labor movements, but concerned to basic moral virtues, such as
churches have not yet come to terms with the honesty* and charity*. Ideally it involves
phenomenon of the industrial worker. also freely contracting individuals who have
See also Industrial Relations. complete knowledge of the market, can move
RONALD PRESTON freely from place to place, and are completely
rational in their attitudes to present wants as
Laborem Exercens see Official Roman against future growth.
Catholic Social Teaching Given these limitations, the practical
choice becomes one of how much freedom of
Laicity the market should be advocated, and in what
A term used (chiefly in France) to mean the framework of corporate community action.
control of civil affairs by laypersons, to the Where the choice falls tends to reflect funda-
exclusion of clerical influence. The principle mental political, philosophical, and theologi-
is similar to that known in the USA as "sepa- cal beliefs. Among Christians, those in what
ration of church and state." may be called the Social-Catholic tradition
See Church and State. have tended to believe that the market can
JOHN MACQUARRIE only work equitably and efficiently within a
strong framework of community action, in
Laissez-faire the form of social services to meet the needs
This phrase, literally meaning "let do," was of the less fortunate and government overall
first used by the French physiocratic writers planning of the economy. This tradition
of the 18th century. It has come to stand for came to be the most influential from the
Law 342
1930s on through the 1960s. Those in what ity of a lawmaker, the ordered sequences ob-
we can call the Individualist-Evangelical tra- servable in nature were recognized as the ex-
dition have always been more concerned with pression of his directive judgments and the
the dangers of state action and the impor- word "law" was attributed to them. But such
tance of individual responsibility, and their a use of the word "law" is imprecise and
strength has grown more recently as the rise equivocal, because law refers to the directive
of the new Radical Right has coincided with judgments of a lawmaker and not to the pro-
the economic recession of the late 1970s and mulgation of these judgments All the more
early 1980s. is the use of the word "law" equivocal when
See also Ecumenical Movement; Evangeli- it designates this uniform order in itself and
cal Ethics; Official Roman Catholic Social unrelated to its intelligible rationale.
Teaching; Socialism; Welfare State. Similarly in the science of ethics, the word
"law" is used in such phrases as "law of na-
N. Bosanquet, After the New Right, 1983; G. ture" or "natural law"* to denote either the
Gilder, Wealth and Poverty, 1981; R. H. basic drives that humans observe operative in
Preston, Church and Society in the Late themselves, or the value judgments naturally
Twentieth Century: The Economic and Politi- made according to the demands of these
cal Task 1983. drives and even the conclusions deduced
JOHN F. SLEEMAN therefrom by a reasoning process. Here like-
wise the use of the word "law" is lax and
Law equivocal. Human drives at best, when seen
In its primary sense law is a guide or directive related to a higher cause, are not law but the
of human actions. Specifically defined, law is expression of a law. Nor are the basic value
a directive judgment of lawmakers regarding judgments that humans make "law," because
means necessary for the common welfare. they are not the directive judgments of a law-
This view of law, as essentially a directive, is maker who has the authority to direct all
part of the great tradition in human thinking. people to their common welfare.
"Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; In the perspective of God and humans,
and I will keep it to the end. Give me under- there are two basic kinds of law: God-made,
standing, that I may keep thy law and ob- eternal law and human-made, temporal law.
serve it with my whole heart. Lead me in the God-made law is known either through posi-
path of thy commandments, for I delight in tive means such as the Decalogue or through
it. Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a natural means such as the elementary drives
light to my path. Therefore I direct my of human nature. The positive promulgation
steps by all thy precepts" (Ps. 119:33-35, of God-made law has been called by some
105, 128). "divine law" and its natural promulgation
Sometimes law has been looked upon as an has been termed "natural law." But, as al-
undesirable restriction on human freedom or ready indicated, the use of the word "law" to
as a necessary evil for remedying trouble designate the publication of a law is incorrect
situations. Such a myopic outlook is usually and equivocal.
the result of a foreshortened prelegal educa- Human-made law is made for the most
tion that precludes viewing law in its true part by legislators. Judges, however, some-
perspective. Law seen in its total sweep is, times also make law. This is done intersti-
rather, like the guide marks on a map that tially when, in applying statutes, they have to
restrict people only that they may more cer- fill up gaps left by the statute, or when they
tainly reach a definite goal, even when this is decide cases of "first impression," or when as
the seeking of remedies. members of a highest court they render deci-
Law is also used in a secondary sense that sions by way of judicial review. Executives
refers to a uniform order of sequence observ- also may in certain circumstances make law
able in nature. Such a usage is not uncommon by proclamation. Finally the people them-
in the physical sciences to denote the order selves, the political source of all lawmaking
perceived in natural phenomena or events. authority, make law by means of the customs
This use of the word "law" was undoubtedly they have established. Customs are ways of
related originally to an interpretation of na- acting that are necessary for the common
ture that saw in it the handiwork of a maker. welfare, have been in use by the people over
When this maker was also seen in the formal- a long period of time, and are recognized as
343 Law
such by legislators and judges. The lawmak- are also private or public inasmuch as some
ing judgments of lawmakers out of office or laws regard the private claims of one citizen
long dead continue as law inasmuch as it is as against another and other laws are con-
a matter of recorded fact that they did so cerned with the public claims of all the citi-
directively judge, and succeeding lawmakers zens against one or many. Private law em-
are assumed to have made the judgments of braces torts, property, contracts, domestic
their predecessors their own unless they give relations, equity, and the like. Public law is
evidence of the opposite by attempting concerned with the constitution, administra-
amendment or appeal. tion, crimes, and procedure.
The promulgation of human-made law to The obligation of law derives from the ne-
the people is, of course, a condition prerequi- cessity of the content of a law for the com-
site for its effectiveness in directing the people mon welfare. For obligation is the moral ne-
to their common welfare. But the making cessity of choosing a means that is necessary
known of a law does not constitute it as law. for a desired end. If I desire the safety of
A law is fully fashioned before it is made myself and others, I must choose to restrict
known, somewhat as a road map is complete my speed according to the limit set by the
and finished before it is distributed as a guide. speed law. If I choose to exceed this limit, the
Custom law has its own particular kind of safety of myself and others is in jeopardy.
promulgation. It is made known by the pub- In the long history of law, this objective,
licly repeated actions of the people which means-end foundation of obligation has at
manifest their directive judgments regarding times been lost sight of Some have said that
some practice as necessary for the common obligation had a subjective basis in the will of
welfare. the lawmakers. A statute obliged me only if
The end of law, the common welfare, is a the lawmakers so desired. Otherwise, the law
unique kind of goodthe common good*. was merely indicative of what the lawmakers
This is not a total of goods proper to all wanted done but it was not obligatory. This
individuals such as the sum of all producer type of philosophico-legal thinking gave rise
and consumer goods. Nor is it a collective to the theory of "merely penal law." This
good such as the family fortune which dimin- phrase was used to designate a law that sup-
ishes as it is communicated to each member. posedly did not oblige me to the execution of
The common good is, rather, the kind of what was commanded (because the lawmak-
good that is communicable to all and is not ers did not so desire to oblige me) but merely
lessened by being so communicated. The to the payment of a penalty if I was ap-
peace, security, and protection of law itself prehended violating the law (because this was
are prime examples. They are not lessened by what the lawmakers wished). Others, also
the number of participants nor does this considering human will or practical reason to
number cause each to have less. Th effectua- be autonomous and incapable of being put
tion of the common good is in proportion to under any determination by an objective,
the amount of cooperation put forward by means-end relationship, said that obligation
the members of the society. derived from the interior reverence that I
The content of law includes whatever is should have for law itself. The nobility of law
necessary for the common welfareeither itself, and not what it specifically stipulates,
absolutely necessary such as police protec- commands my respect. In this theory, obliga-
tion or relatively necessary such as direc- tion is for obligation's sake.
tional turning indicators on automobiles. Still others, rejecting all models explaining
Statutes that would purport to dictate, for obligation philosophically or morally, said
instance, what people should believe or how that obligation was the same as sanction, that
they should worship would invade areas that the obligation of a law was the same as its
pertain directly to the private welfare of in- enforceability by power. Some who held this
dividuals and not to the common welfare of position did so ndt because they denied the
the community. Such laws would be the em- validity of morals but because they wished to
bodiment of tyranny and dictatorship*. On keep morals and legal obligation separate (see
the basis of content, laws are either substan- also Morality, Legal Enforcement of). Oth-
tive or procedural, depending on whether ers who held this position did so because they
they are concerned with claims themselves or believed that morals rested on an emotional
with methods of enforcing these claims. Laws basis and were consequently noncognitivist
Law and Gospel 344
and nonscientific. Morals therefore, accord- tom laws of preliterate peoples. Recent and
ing to them, had no place in scientific think- reliable research in anthropology and eth-
ing. nology has shown that in many situations
But time, the great practical tester of theo- found among preliterate groups, regulations
ries, has shown that once obligation is cut are observed and order preserved without the
adrift from its means-end anchor, it loses all threatened sanction of physical force. Many
meaning. It becomes a will-o'-the-wisp of ei- times the threat of public ridicule, a much-
ther the lawmaker's will or of my own; or else needed sanction in so-called civilized soci-
it becomes synonymous with force and eties that so frenetically shun adverse public-
power, and this connotes might is right. Obli- ity, is sufficient. Further, preliterates' idea of
gation is anchored in my desire for an end. why they are obliged to follow their regula-
There is one end which I cannot help desiring tions appears explainable only on the
and this is my own complete self-actualiza- grounds of their implicit recognition that
tion or happiness. It is the objective relation what is required by these regulations is in
of a particular fact-situation to this end most instances something necessary for their
which gives substance to my obligation. own common welfare.
The sanction* of law is of a different nature See also Civil Disobedience; Law and Gos-
than obligation. Sanction refers to the re- pel; State.
wards that are consequent upon the keeping
of a law and to the punishments that follow T. Davitt, The Elements of Law, 1959; L.
the breaking of a law. Sanctions are either Fuller, The Morality of Law, 1964; and Anat-
extrinsic to the law itself insofar as they are omy of the Law, 1969; H. L. A. Hart, The
affixed to it, or they are instrinsic to the law Concept of Law, 1961.
insofar as they follow from the very content THOMAS E. DAVITT, S.J.
of the law. Examples of extrinsic sanction
would be rewards offered by law for the ap- Law and Gospel
prehension of criminals, or punishments that The whole content of the word of God may
consist in the deprivation of property by fine, be summarized in terms of "law and gospel."
of freedom by imprisonment, of physical Martin Luther maintained that the ability to
well-being by flogging, or of life itself by exe- make the distinction and preserve the right
cution. Examples of intrinsic sanction would relation was the most difficult of all theologi-
be the reward of safe driving conditions that cal tasks, at which no one really succeeded.
result from observing traffic laws, or the pun- Accordingly, law* is what God demands.
ishment of dangerous driving conditions that It means a lawgiver who coerces, rewards,
ensue from violating the laws. Inasmuch as and punishes. Nothing less than uncondi-
intrinsic sanction has to do with the accom- tional and complete obedience can fulfill the
plishment or nonaccomplishment of the end demands of the law. The law, therefore, by
of law and this same end is the anchor of my definition, excludes mercy*, grace*, forgive-
obligation to observe the law as explained, ness*. Under the law there can be no escape
there is this relation between intrinsic sanc- from its demands. Under the law a person
tion and obligation. The extrinsic sanction of gets what he or she deserves. The law is invio-
force and physical punishment is undoubt- lable; it allows of no exceptions, or else it is
edly needed to ensure the enforcement of law not law. That is why an elaborate system of
the perverseness of humans being what it casuistry* is necessary in order to apply the
is. But it is not of the essence of law itself and law in all fairness to specific cases.
there can be valid laws without a stipulated, The gospel, on the other hand, is what God
affixed punishment. The constitutions of gives. It runs counter to the law as the good
many nations are examples of this. news of God's grace and forgiveness, which
Law, then, is a directive for humans re- does not deal with persons in accordance
garding those things that are necessary for with their deserts, but accepts them as they
their common welfare, and obligation to ob- are, in their unworthiness. It is love of the
serve law is based on this means-end relation- unworthy, of the enemy, it is "justification by
ship. This concept of law and obligation finds grace alone without the works of the law"
verification not only in the written laws of (Rom. 1:16-17; Eph. 2:8-10) (see Justifica-
literate peoples but also in the unwritten cus- tion by Faith).
345 Law and Gospel
Defined in this way, the law and the gospel stick" use of the law. This is God's rule with
stand in direct opposition and are mutually his "left hand," made necessary because of
exclusive. The gospel goes counter to the law, sin. It is God's "strange work" of coercion as
which always accuses. The very meaning of opposed to his "proper work" with the "right
the reconciling act of God in Christ is that it hand" of grace. It applies not only to the laws
breaks through the order of justice. The fact of the state, but applies wherever human be-
that God is gracious can be defined in no ings live, work, and play together and cannot
other way. Otherwise the law loses all its get along without rules to impose order upon
meaning and power. If the law can be broken them. Among sinful human beings it is un-
with impunity, all ordered living becomes realistic to dispense with law and to rely upon
impossible. Law has to be dependable or it is spontaneous obedience. As Luther said, the
not law. Any game must be played strictly sheep would keep the peace, but they would
according to the rules, with no forgiveness not live long. Law and justice must be en-
permissible; so it is then, a fortiori, with forced, as is so evident in the whole struggle
God's law and the game of life. for human rights and racial equality. The law
This alone makes meaningful the good must continue to function justly and with
news that God does not deal with us accord- proper rigor in the home, the school, the
ing to our iniquities. Forgiveness is not for- state, and even in the church as an institu-
giveness if it is based on conditions that must tion. This is the meaning of the God-given
first be met and if the law must somehow first power of the sword (Rom. 13).
be kept, unless it breaks through the order of Although some have advocated a third use
justice and goes counter to the law. Love* is of the law, the so-called didactic use, to serve
not agap except as love of the unworthy; it as a guide to the Christian, this Lutheran
is most clearly manifest as love of the enemy orientation would not allow such a third use.
and in vicarious suffering, which is never just, The law always functions either in its peda-
but loving. gogical use to convict sinful human beings of
On this definition the law necessarily pre- their sin or in its political use to keep sinful
cedes the gospel. It presupposes the human human beings in line. Insofar as a person is
being's fall. The fact that God must make reborn as the new human being he or she is
demands is the sign of the human being's free from the law and does the will of God
sinfulness, for if the relationship were right spontaneously. Love is both the fulfillment
there would be only the indicative (1 John and the end of the law (Matt. 22:37-40; Rom.
4:19). Thus the law serves to reveal the 13:10; Gal. 5:14; 1 John 2:7-10). Love in obe-
human being's sin and lead him or her to dience to law is not love. The one who acts
Christ (Rom. 3:20; 7:7; Gal. 3:24). This is the in love is free to meet the needs of the neigh-
so-called proper, theological, pedagogical, or bor creatively in the moment without being
elenctical Gaging) use of the law. The law is bound by principles or a code morality, even
never itself salvatory, but it reveals human- though, because still a sinner, he or she will
ity's bondage under God's wrath. It is, there- submit also to the political use of the law out
fore, an essential part of Christian proclama- of love for the neighbor. The Christian is free
tion to awaken the terrors of conscience to frame such laws as will meet the neigh-
before the gospel can do its gracious work. bor's needs (a contextual ethic).
True contrition of heart is worked by the This orientation does not deny the pri-
preaching of both law and gospel, while trust macy of God's love, which is manifest in
and confidence are worked by the gospel creation before it is manifest in redemption.
alone. God is love and manifests that love in many
In addition to leading to a sense of sin, the different ways. Creation is a work of love by
law, however, also serves a second function, the same God who in Christ redeemed the
the so-called political use which prompts and fallen creation; it is creation through the
coerces human beings to do God's will, even Word and in the power of the Spirit; it is a
when they are not willing to do it freely. work of the entire Trinity. God's love is
Since all human beings are sinful, and the manifest, therefore, also in the structures of
believers, too, continue to be sinful (simul- creation (see Orders), the lawful order of
taneously righteous and sinful), all human the world, which makes the world a fit thea-
beings are at all times subject to this "big ter for the realization of God's purpose.
Law and Gospel 346
Human beings are set down into the midst of are not a burden but a delight. It is not the
interdependency; they are persons-in-com- condemning voice of the accuser but the lov-
munity, whose human life depends upon ing will of the gracious heavenly Father.
their observing the created order. The law This, however, does not alter the fact that
of creation is love. Here, however, law does the law must first do its judging and con-
not mean the law which is connected with demning work before the gospel of the re-
God's wrath and always accuses, but it demption in Christ can do its gracious
means the dependable order which furthers work. Nor does it alter the fact that insofar
human well-being. On it are based and from as the Christian is still under the law he or
it flow all human beings' potentials for con- she is so as a sinner who is in need of coer-
quering the earth and also for the develop- cion. When, therefore, the law is called "the
ment of a "civil righteousness," that is, a necessary form of the gospel" (Karl Barth),
righteousness before humanity, which, how- the terms are confused. Law is, to be sure, a
ever, has no merit in the place of justifica- manifestation of God's love in the sense
tion before God. All this (the family, the ec- defined above. In its political use it is the
onomic order, the state, education, form which love takes under the circum-
entertainment, etc.) is "under the law," in stances of human sinfulness. To refuse to
the realm of creation and not of redemption, enforce the law would not be loving. Also,
not to be derived from the gospel in the in its pedagogical use it is a manifestation of
sense of the redemptive work accomplished love by leading persons to repentance. But
in Christ. (This is Christocentricity as op- the law, which accuses and condemns, can
posed to Christomonism.) The "new age" never be a form that the gospel, which ac-
inaugurated in Christ does not change these cepts and forgives, takes on.
given, created structures which remain Moreover, if the law follows after the re-
under the law. It does, however, affect, the demption, then the Christian life will again
men and women who enter into these given become a life under the law. With the best
structures as new creatures, and through will in the world it cannot be prevented that
them the creative possibilities of those struc- the gospel becomes a new law and that legal-
tures are opened up, without the law ever ism, code morality, and work righteousness
becoming redemptive in the sense in which take over, as the history of Christian ethics
only the gospel is redemptive. Though the clearly shows. The danger of antinomian-
whole creation is to share in the eventual ism*, where the sequence is law and gospel,
fulfillment (Rom. 8; Eph. 1) in the eschaton is not as great as the danger of legalism* and
when this age and history are over, it re- the loss of Christian freedom*, where the se-
mains under the law as long as this present quence is gospel and law (John 8:36).
age endures. Only this positive emphasis The situation may be clarified if the NT
upon the law enables one to claim the realm distinction between the will of God (thelma
of culture for God. God claims all humans theou) and the law of God (nomos theou) is
in virtue of their creation and the fact that observed (Paul Althaus). The will of God for
they have nothing which they have not re- human beings is always a will of love and the
ceived. There is "good" in the world which doing of it will be the delight of the redeemed.
is not derived from the reconciling act of But the law of God is the tyrannous, coercive
Calvary but from the fact of creation. There element which has no place in the new life in
is no profane realm, but the whole creation Christ. As a way of salvation in which hu-
is God's. The so-called "secular," too, is mans put their trust it must be altogether
holy in a "sacred secularity" and persons rooted out.
may take real delight in the law of God (Ps. The alternatives can thus be set in bold
119). relief. On the one hand, the law precedes the
If now the order is reversed, this may be gospel and always accuses, while only the
only to show that love is primary, that the gospel redeems. Moreover, the law continues
choice of Israel (the covenant) antedated the to coerce the unwilling and thus preserves
giving of the law to Moses (Gal. 3:17), and order. There is a "sacred secularity" of the
that therefore the appeal for keeping the law created world. And finally, the new life under
is based on the prior fact of love's gracious the gospel is one of creative freedom meeting
act of deliverance. On that basis the law and the needs of the neighbor in love. On the
the keeping of it within the covenant relation other hand, when the gospel precedes the
347 Liberalism
law, the law loses its power-and the gospel Liberalism
becomes a new law. The created order loses "Trust of the people, qualified by prudence"
its goodness under God and is turned over to was how that great British Liberal William
the devil. Gladstone once described the approach of
See Lutheran Ethics; Orders; Two the party he led into government on four
Realms. occasions. An appeal to peoplerather than
classes, racial or religious groups, or property
P. Althaus, Divine Command: A New Per- interestslies at the heart of liberalism.
spective on Law and Gospel, ET 1966; W. An- In turn, that is itself a reflection of the
derson, Law and Gospel, 1961; G. Auln, cornerstone of liberalismthe belief in the
Church, Law and Society, 1948; K. Barth, supreme value of the individual, and the indi-
God, Grace and Gospel, ET 1959; C. H. vidual's freedom* and rights*; and a convic-
Dodd, Gospel and Law: The Relation of Faith tion that the only value of the State* is to
and Ethics in Early Christianity, 1951; C. F. remove obstacles in the path of liberty, and to
W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between create the positive conditions of freedom
Law and Gospel (1893), ET 1929; G. whereby human beings might realize their
Wingren, Creation and Law, ET 1961. human potential to the full.
MARTIN J. HEINECKEN The earliest struggles of liberals the world
over have been in affirming the necessity for
Law, Uses of see Calvinist Ethics; Law limited governmentfor confronting arbi-
and Gospel; Lutheran Ethics trary power and asserting that the individual
possesses rights and liberties which no sover-
Legalism eign power has the authority to take to itself.
Legalism is the type of ethic that seeks to Such principles are recognizable in Magna
prescribe rules for every conceivable occasion Carta, imposed on an unwilling King John by
of moral choice; or for the type of mentality his barons in 1215. The continuing struggles
that follows what is supposed to be the rule in between King and Parliament in England,
every situation. Some systems of ethics have culminating in the Civil War and the English
in fact worked out extremely detailed rules of Republic, were part of the same tradition.
conduct, so that merely to remember them, let But the flowering of liberal thought, and its
alone fulfill them, would be extremely bur- decisive struggle with absolutism, was in the
densome. In practice, however, such systems 17th and 18th centuries, in the American
have always allowed some flexibility, accord- War of Independence from British rule; in
ing to the demands of the situation. A legalis- the French Revolution; and in the philoso-
tic mind is probably much more dangerous phy of such figures as Spinoza, Locke, Paine,
than a legalistic code of ethics. Montesquieu, Bentham, and J. S. Mill.
See Law; Law and Gospel; Formalism; Liberal thinkers have argued that the indi-
Moralism; Norms; Situation Ethics. vidual has natural rights*, which are univer-
sal, springing from a human condition that
JOHN MACQUARRIE transcends time and place. The goal of hu-
mans everywhere is to realize their freedom
Legitimacy see Illegitimacy and if they accept the emergence of the
State, it is as a necessary evil, a guarantor of
Leisure
see Amusements; Work, Doctrine of their liberty, justifiable only to the extent that
it maximizes freedom and protects the indi-
Lesbianism vidual from those who would deprive the per-
Female homosexuality of any kind. The word son of his or her liberty. The individual's
came from Lesbos, the home of the Greek obligation to the state is balanced by the
poet Sappho, who was said to have practiced state's recognition and fulfillment of its own
it. duties. State power rests upon the consent* of
See Homosexuality. the people. That much is common to all lib-
SHERWIN BAILEY eral theories of government, with Rousseau's
doctrine of the social contract* perhaps being
Letting Die see Euthanasia; Life, Prolon- the prime example.
gation of; Life, Sacredness of; Omission, Hand in hand with such principles goes a
Sin of belief in democratic freedoms; in the rule of
Liberalism 348
law and the right to national self-determina- Human Rights). Once again, it was Glad-
tion, in freedom of speech and association, in stone who captured this essential dimension
tolerance of the religious and political con- of liberalism:
victions of others, andflowing naturally "Remember that the sanctity of life in the
from a view of human beings possessing a hill villages of Afghanistan, among the win-
common dignity*in the rights of the mi- ter snows, is as inviolable in the eye of Al-
nority against what J. S. Mill called "the tyr- mighty God as can be your own. Remember
anny of the majority." It was this element that He who has united you as human beings
seized upon by Jos Ortega y Gasset when he in the same flesh and blood, has bound you
said: "Liberalism . . is the supreme form of by the law of mutual love; that that mutual
generosity; it is the right which the majority love is not limited by the shores of this island,
concedes to minorities and hence it is the is not limited by the boundaries of Christian
noblest cry that has ever resounded in this civilisation; that it passes over the whole sur-
planet." face of the earth, and embraces the meanest
Nor is liberalism unchanging. Liberals in along with the greatest in its unmeasured
Britain have all drawn upon liberal thinkers scope."
and writers of the past hundred yearsfrom DAVID STEEL
J. S. Mill, L. T. Hobhouse, and T. H. Green
through to Jo Grimond and many more re-
cent figures. But their texts are not sacred, Liberalism has not lacked critics, in part
nor are their assumptions beyond question. because its commitments to freedom* and to
Liberalism is a dynamic philosophy, moving equality* are sometimes in tension. Some lib-
with the demands of the new age. eral thinkers have argued that both are
It was this conviction that led liberals in grounded in a principle of respect for per-
19th-century Britain to recognize that sons*, human dignity*, or "equal concern
laissez-faire* liberalism was not enough. and respect" (R. Dworkin), but difficult
True, it proved essential in unlocking the new questions remain about how to balance
economic forces of the Industrial Revolu- claims to freedom, privacy*, autonomy*,
tion* and in loosening the grip of privilege property*, etc., on the one hand, and claims
and the landed interests. But it offered few to equal access to a decent minimum of wel-
solutions to the social misery which was the fare. (For examples of this debate, see Capi-
outcome for many of that economic talism; Health Care, Right to; Justice; So-
upheaval. Political rights alone were not cialism; Welfare State; for other issues, see
enough. Freedom from oppression* needed Autonomy; Morality, Legal Enforcement of;
to be matched by freedom from wantby the Paternalism; Pluralism.) Libertarianism* de-
State promoting the positive conditions for fends the priority of freedom; communism*
the liberty of all its people. the priority of equality. Liberals criticize the
Thus it was that the foundations of the former for its excessive individualism* and
welfare state*of old-age pensions, unem- the latter for its collectivism*. Liberalism it-
ployment benefits, public education, and self has been criticized for its concentration
health insurancewere laid and developed on rights* and for its failure to attend suffi-
by liberals like Asquith and Lloyd George ciently to the common good* (see Official
and by the later pioneering work of William Roman Catholic Social Teaching) as well as
Beveridge. And under the influence of for its inadequate appreciation of commu-
Keynes and others, liberals accepted the need nity*, tradition*, ritual, etc. (see Conserva-
for state intervention, providing a framework tism). Some critics have proposed retaining
within which a genuinely free enterprise sys- the spirit of liberalism along with its institu-
tem could operate and safeguarding a society tional achievements while modifying some of
from which the scourge of mass unemploy- its principles. Major disputes also emerge on
ment* could be lifted. In the USA New Deal the international level, where liberal concep-
liberalism resulted in reforms that were simi- tions of human rights* are controversial, par-
lar but less extensive. ticularly when they are invoked to justify in-
Finally, the belief in the universal dignity tervention in other countries.
and worth of humanity makes liberalism See Capitalism; Conservatism; Democ-
unassailably internationalist in outlook (see racy; Equality; Freedom; Human Dignity;
349 Liberation Theology
Individualism; Liberation Theology; Perse- an uncompromisingly "prophetic" perspec-
cution and Toleration; Pluralism; Politics; tive against both the mainstream churches
Poverty; Property; Socialism; State; Volun- and the dominant patterns of society. Both
tary Associations; Welfare State. are confronted in their oppressive character-
istics by the divine judgment of Christ the
R. Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously, 1977; Liberator.
H. K. Girvetz, The Evolution of Liberalism, Within this generic description, it should
1963; L. Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in be possible to analyze the structures common
America, 1955; D. MacLean and Claudia to the entire spectrum of liberation theolo-
Mills (eds.), Liberalism Reconsidered, 1983; gies. This is not to say that there are no differ-
J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971; M. J. ences, say, among various Latin American
Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, liberation theologians on the uses of Marxist
1982. perspectives in their work, or that all North
JAMES F. CHILDRESS American feminists agree in their analyses of
the degree to which sexism has distorted the
Liberation see Afro-American Religious Christian ethos, or again, that black libera-
Ethics; Conscientization; Ecumenical tion theologians in the USA resonate to the
Movement, Ethics in the; Feminist Ethics; same Christian traditions that empower Lati-
Justice; Liberation Theology; Political nos and other oppressed minorities in the
Theology USA (see Afro-American Religious Ethics;
Feminist Ethics). Nevertheless, while each
Liberation Theology group with its distinctive history of oppres-
First popularized in the English-speaking sion and appropriate style of theological re-
world by Gustavo Gutierrez's A Theology of flection deserves serious study for its own
Liberation, this term refers to a range of sake, generic analysis of liberation theology
practical theologies having the following makes a limited contribution in illuminating
characteristics: (1) All claim to represent the the basic structures that need to be under-
concrete experience of groups seeking to un- stood if an adequate diagnosis of the
derstand their Christian faith in the midst of strengths and weaknesses of these theologies
organized struggle against various forms of is to be made.
oppression*. (2) All conceive the theological What are these strengths and weaknesses?
task within certain philosophical assump- Liberation theology has been most successful
tions regarding the unity of theory and prac- in challenging the dominant styles of "aca-
tice. The methodological focus shifts from demic theology" to do some consciousness-
perceiving the truth to doing the truth. (3) raising about their own ideological dynamics,
Since the practice of these groups is confron- tacit or otherwise. Orthodoxyand most
tational, their theoretical reflections take the forms of neo-orthodoxy, for that matter
form of criticism of the reigning ideologies of cannot be sustained in the light of demands
oppression and construction of alternative by liberationists for critical reflection on the
ideologies of liberation. While the latter concrete historical experiences of the Chris-
inevitably project Utopian images of the fu- tian churches and groups. Their insight into
ture, they remain functionally ideological to the unity of theory and practice, once appro-
the extent that they are oriented to the pre- priately qualified for specifically theological
sent struggle against oppression. (4) Such reflection, may turn out to be an epoch-mak-
ideological reflection qualifies as theology, ing achievement in the history of Christian
precisely because liberation theologians theology. Moreover, during the past decade
affirm an intimate connection between their or so liberation theologians have probably
struggle and the authentic meaning of Chris- done as much as any group in the English-
tian faith. Typically, they seek to understand speaking world to keep the plight of the op-
this connection in terms of a vast com- pressed before the conscience of public opin-
municatio idiomatum, transferring the epi- ion. Theirs is the thankless task of effective
sodes and images of biblical narrative to the "prophetic" witness.
concrete struggles experienced by these Equally impressive, however, are their
groups, and vice versa. (5) This "new way of weaknesses, both substantive and methodo-
doing theology" ensures each of these groups logical. Not surprisingly, the two are inter-
Libertarianism 350
connected. At the methodological level, the cal criticism of a variety of oppressive
unity of theory and practice advocated in this ethoses. Unlike Miguez-Bonino, they have
genre of theology places a certain form of felt no need to recognize that their very own
"political analysis" or critical social theory in struggles present all the moral ambiguities
a theologically constitutive position. The that heretofore have given rise to ethical re-
problem is not so much that the analysis is flection. When those ambiguities have been
often inspired by Marxism (see Marxist Eth- discussed, too often they have been couched
ics), but that any social theory placed in this in terms of the single problem of revolution-
position tends to predetermine the theolo- ary violence, a uniquely perplexing place to
gian's approach to biblical interpretation. begin (see Revolution; Resistance). It is not
While all biblical interpretation is inevitably surprising that such discussions have tended
theory laden, placing a particular theory in to yield little more than a superficial endorse-
this constitutive role makes it extremely diffi- ment of situation ethics*.
cult for theologians to hear the Word of God It is too early to tell what, finally, will be
as a possible judgment against their own con- liberation theology's ultimate contribution to
victions and commitments. At a substantive Christian ethics. The weaknesses identified
level, the question arises: What if, in fact, the here may be overcome in genuine dialogue if
preferred form of political analysis turns out both liberation theologians and their critics
to be inadequate? What if the critical social keep uppermost in mind the overriding obli-
theorists revise their theories? At that point gation placed upon all true Christians, wher-
wouldn't the very unity of theory and prac- ever they may find themselves among the
tice that dictated the theological construction structures and ideologies of the particular
in the first place now call for its dismantling? historical moment, to seek justice and peace
This is not a hypothetical problem: Latin for the sake of the kingdom of God.
American liberation theology, for example, See Conscientization.
bases its focus on "liberation" on the assump-
tion that "dependency theory" adequately J. C. Bennett, The Radical Imperative: From
accounts for the experience of oppression in Theology to Social Ethics, 1975; J. Cone, A
Latin America. Yet after a decade or more of Black Theology of Liberation, 1970; M. Daly,
debate, dependency theory has all but met Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy
the death by a thousand qualifications that of Women's Liberation, 1973; J. M. Gustaf-
eventually awaits all forms of political analy- son, Can Ethics Be Christian? 1975; G. Gu-
sis. At the very least, those advocating this tirrez, A Theology of Liberation, ET 1973; B.
"new way of doing theology" may have to Mahan and L. D. Richesin (eds.), The Chal-
resign themselves to making a routine of lenge of Liberation Theology: A First World
shaking their own foundations. Response, 1981; J. Miguez-Bonino, Toward a
None of this would be of much direct con- Christian Political Ethics, ET 1983; M.
cern to Christian ethics were it not that liber- Novak et al. (eds.), Liberation South, Libera-
ation theologians typically exercise their pro- tion North, 1981; R. Ruether, New Woman/
phetic mission by confronting the ideological New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human
residue of oppression embedded in Christian Liberation, 1975; J. L. Segundo, The Libera-
moral teaching. This confrontation, so far, tion of Theology, ET 1976; C. West, Prophesy
has had salutary effects. It has reawakened Deliverancel An Afro-American Revolution-
most fair-minded ethicists to what John C. ary Christianity, 1982.
Bennett refers to as Christianity's "radical DENNIS P. MCCANN
imperative" for social justice and peace. Lib-
eration theologians have also strengthened Libertarianism
the hand of those ethicists who have indepen- There are two distinct though allied mean-
dently concluded that ethical analysis cannot ings to libertarianism. The older sense of the
proceed responsibly without careful atten- term refers to a metaphysical or ethical doc-
tion to a variety of "contextual" dimensions. trine that the human will* is free, rather than
But liberation theologians have not been very determined (see Free Will and Determinism;
helpful in breaking new ground for ethical Freedom). In this sense, libertarian views
reflection. Apart from notable exceptions, contrast with necessitarian or deterministic
like Jos Miguez-Bonino, they have been viewpoints. Distinctions have been drawn
content to reduce the ethical task to ideologi- with regard to the degree of freedom or deter-
351 Life, Prolongation of
mination, in that libertarian viewpoints range ily to provide protection against external and
from those holding that individuals are abso- internal aggressors. For example, Robert No-
lutely free and undetermined (the liberum ar- zick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974)
bitrium indifferentiae) to those holding that, argues that the state does not possess more
though there are influencing or predisposing authority than is needed for minimal police
factors, persons* are able to choose despite functions. Since 1971, there has been a Liber-
such influences. Libertarians in this sense in- tarian Party in the USA, which supports this
clude philosophers such as F. H. Bradley, last sense of libertarianism as a doctrine of a
Alfred North Whitehead, and Charles Harts- limited state and of paramount individual
horne, who have argued that the outcomes of rights. Its presidential candidate received
decisions by persons are not fully predictable over 930,000 votes in the 1980 election, but
because of the role played by self-determina- less than a quarter of a million in 1984.
tion. Others, such as Immanuel Kant, have H. TRISTRAM ENGELHARDT, JR.
distinguished between the ways in which in-
dividuals are regarded as persons, and the Libertinism see Gnosticism, Ethics of
ways in which individuals are regarded as
objects of science. In the first case, they must Liberty see Free Will and Determinism;
be considered to be self-determining as a con- Freedom; Libertarianism; Persecution and
dition of the very possibility of morality (see Toleration
Autonomy). Libertarian viewpoints have
been criticized, insofar as they rely on meta- Liberty of Religion see Church and
physical assumptions or construe human State; Conscientious Objection; Freedom;
choice* as unpredictable, therefore making Persecution and Toleration
human actions* chance occurrences.
The more popular sense of libertarianism Life, Prolongation of
refers to a political doctrine stressing the Prolongation of life is an imprecise term of
rights* of individuals vis--vis the state and medical ethics that refers to decisions
other societal organizations, including corpo- whether to initiate/withhold or continue/
rations and large associations (e.g., unions). withdraw life-sustaining efforts. This long-
Libertarian understandings of political the- standing moral problem is frequently sym-
ory see governments as fashioned through bolized by the question of whether to use
the consent of individuals, as having no "life-support systems" (e.g., respirators, ar-
rights not possessed by individuals, as limited tificial hearts) for critically ill patients, but it
in their moral authority*, and as properly potentially embraces questions of the use of
existing on as local and decentralized a basis both simple and sophisticated means of both
as is feasible (see Individualism; State). A diagnosing and treating impairments of vital
major source for libertarian viewpoints is to functions (by aiding, supporting, or supplant-
be found in traditional Western thinkers such ing them), and of health more generally (e.g.,
as John Locke in his Letter Concerning Toler- through medication and surgery not directly
ation and Second Treatise of Government, as and immediately related to vital function).
well as in the writings of Richard Overton, In Christian perspective, the life of hu-
Edmund Burke, and Alexis de Tocqueville. mans is the most fundamental of goods, un-
Libertarianism has been drawn as well derlying all other values; but concrete bodily
from the debate between anarchist and Com- existence is not the highest of values. A
munist thinkers over the last century (see framework for guiding decisions about the
Anarchism; Communism). Ideal Communist prolongation of life is offered by the princi-
views with regard to the withering of the ples of "ordinary" and "extraordinary"
state and the decentralization of authority (hereafter abbreviated o/e) means of treat-
bring such views close to individualistic ment, which have a long history in Christian
anarchists and their concern that society be thought and are employed in professional di-
in the hands of individual persons, in particu- rectives, in court decisions, and in the lan-
lar, individual workers. Contemporary liber- guage of clinicians and ethicists. The o/e
tarian views have in great proportion aban- principles in their classic form state that
doned such explicit anarchist and syndicalist there is an obligation to use ordinary means
commitments in favor of a general defense of to preserve life, but no strict obligation to use
a limited state, which would function primar- extraordinary means. Extraordinary means
352 Life, Prolongation of
are all medicines, treatments, and operations hold that such standards offend the principle
that (1) do not offer a reasonable hope of of fundamental equal worth of human lives
success or (2) cannot be obtained or used and create a "slippery slope"* on which there
without excessive hardshipi.e., excessive is no logical or practical way of halting the
pain, cost, or other inconvenience. Because of slide toward excluding other categories of
ambiguities ("ordinary" does not mean cus- humans from sustenance.
tomary in medical practice but morally oblig- Additional key issues in applying o/e prin-
atory), vagueness (e.g., does "hope of suc- ciples are: development of "do not resusci-
cess" refer to restoration to full health, to a tate" orders; whether and according to which
prior condition of health, to a satisfactory principles of socioeconomic allocation a sec-
quality of life?), and misleading categoriza- ond party may deny life support to a patient
tions (due to rapid medical advances the on grounds of "excessive cost"; and whether
means themselves cannot be o/e; circum- use of food and water can ever be dispropor-
stances may render them nonobligatory), it is tionate. Elements in the latter dispute include
now commonly urged that the terms "ordi- whether hydration and alimentation viewed
nary" and "extraordinary" be replaced by as medical therapies may become dispropor-
more precise terms: "obligatory" vs. "op- tionately intrusive means of artificial life sup-
tional" measures, determined by what is port, or whether giving food and water ifr
judged "proportionate" or "disproportion- always an obligatory, minimal support be-
ate" when one weighs "benefits" and "bur- cause of the symbolism of this basic human
dens" in the use of available treatments (see gesture.
Proportionality). Regarding the question who should de-;
Relevant to any discussion about whether cide about life prolongation, principles of
the o/e principles themselves should be aban- autonomy* and conscience* favor primacy
doned is their significance, for they are not a of the patient; principles of beneficence* and
mere distinction; they are code terms for a social justice* ground a secondary role for
cluster of values, obligations, and limits to physicians/hospitals and the state, respec-
obligations. They also presuppose and em- tively. Following this principled ranking,
body important moral distinctions: between proxy decisions for the incompetent but for-
duties of beneficence (doing good) and non-
41 merly competentmade by a designee of
maleficence* (not inflicting harm), killing the patient or by family where possible-
and letting die, and direct and indirect effects should employ a "substituted judgment"
(see Double Effect). While these principles standard, making the decision the patient
have served for centuries to remind us chiefly would have made, based, if possible, on the
that there are limits to the duty to preserve patient's previously expressed (orally or in
life, their principal service to the current era writing) wishes; while proxy decisions for
may be to convey a presumption of a duty to those who have never been competent
preserve life. should be madeby family, physicians,
The two standards of "hope of success" (or committees, or court (in that order)based
the prospect of proportionate benefit) and on objective standards of the best interests
disproportionate hardship necessarily in- of the patient.
volve judgments about various qualities of See Euthanasia; Life, Quality of; Life, Sa* i
life; but there is considerable debate about credness of; Paternalism.
single, overriding quality-of-life norms.
Thus, while some hold there is no obligation Anglican Working Party, On Dying Well: An
to sustain a human life when, in the absence Anglican Contribution to the Debate on Eu-
of mental activity, there is "only biological thanasia, 1975; T. L. Beauchamp and J. F.
life," others argue that the "only biological" Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics,
assessment manifests an inadequate concept 21983, pp. 106-147; U.S. President's Com-
of embodiment* associated with personhood mission for the Study of Ethical Problems in,
(see Persons and Personality). Similarly, Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral?
some hold that it is "extraordinary" (non- Research, Deciding to Forego Life-Sustaining
obligatory) to prolong the lives of newborn Treatment: A Report on the Ethical, Medical,
infants with serious impairments that will and Legal Issues in Treatment Decisions,
cause an incapacitating disability in the area 1983; relevant articles in EB and DME.
of meaningful social relationships; others WARREN THOMAS REICH
353 Life, Sacredness of
Life, Quality of mutilation that is not necessary for the health
Quality of life is often distinguished from of the whole organism (see Sterilization; To-
quantity of life (which might include the tality, Principle of). Respect for both life and
length of an individual's life or the number physical integrity sets limits to the mode and
of lives affected), equality of life, and sanc- extent of therapeutic and nontherapeutic
tity of life, particularly in debates about ac- medical experimentation with fetuses and
tions and policies to prolong or to save lives, fetal material as well as with children and
such as abortion* and euthanasia*. One adults (see Experimentation with Human
issue is whether biological life should al- Subjects). Because all human beings derive
ways be prolonged regardless of its quality, the right to life from God, our value as per-
"quality" sometimes indicating the value of sons is constant, whether we berichor poor,
the life to society, but often indicating the strong or weak, handicapped or normal, so-
value of the life to the human being himself cially "useful" or "useless"; therefore neither
or herself. Theologians generally find the our life nor our well-being canrightlybe sac-
former unacceptable and the latter some- rificed to the economic or political welfare or
times acceptable, within carefully defined convenience of society: indeed, society itself
limits, but there is vigorous debate about is to be judged by its protection of and the
the ethical relevance of either interpretation solicitude it shows for its weaker members.
of the quality of life. Since all persons have been given life that
See Embodiment; Life, Prolongation of; they might fulfill themselves in the service of
Life, Sacredness of. God and their fellow humans, we may prop-
erly take actions that endanger our life, and
R. McCormick, "The Quality of Life, the even be ready to sacrifice it, in a weighty and
Sanctity of Life," HCR 8, Feb. 1978; P. righteous cause. In certain exceptional cir-
Ramsey, Ethics at the Edges of Life, 1978. cumstances, we may also be held to be law-
JAMES F. CHILDRESS fully deprived of it. But, since God remains
the absolute owner of all our lives, the Chris-
Life, Right to tian tradition has held that it is a sin deliber-
see Life, Prolongation of; Life, Sacredness ately and directly to kill an innocent person,
of not simply for revenge but for any reason
whatever (see Homicide). It is in the light of
Life, Sacredness of this conception of the sanctity of human life
Christian belief in the sanctity of human life that the Christian must consider questions
is derived from the doctrine of God as Crea- relating to procreation*, and practices like
tor. Humankind was made in God's image abortion*, infanticide*, suicide*, eutha-
with power to reason and the capacity to nasia*, organ transplantation*, capital pun-
choose (see Image of God). Each individual ishment*, and war*.
is infinitely precious to God and made for an Because God is the Lord and giver of all
eternal destiny. Thus the Christian attitude life, humans have a duty to respect and act
to human life can only be one of reverence* responsibly toward forms of subhuman life.
enjoined by the whole of the Decalogue God has given to humankind authority to
(not only by the Sixth Commandment) and exercise dominion over all other living
confirmed by the incarnationwhich is to be things: we may kill them for food and harness
extended to every individual from the mo- them to our use, but we must not exploit
ment of conception to extreme old age and them for our greed or inflict unnecessary pain
death. Our right to life, grounded in our di- upon them (see Animals). Even more is it a
vine origin, is the basis of all other human matter of Christian concern that this sacred
rights, natural and legal, and the foundation gift of God which is human life shall itself
of civilized society. become truly sanctified: that all humans, by
Our worth to God implies the duty of cher- the grace of God, as members of the body of
ishing, protecting, and preserving human life, Christ, shall grow in the way of holiness (see
and the taking of all moral means for the Holiness; Sanctification).
relief of suffering and the eradication of dis- See also Body; Double Effect; Embodi-
ease. It implies a proper regard for the ment; Handicapped, Care of the; Human
human body itself and a refusal willingly to Dignity; Human Rights; Image of God; Nat-
accept or deliberately to inflict any physical ural Rights; Pacifism; Persons and Personal-
Love 354
ity; Resistance; Respect for Persons; Rever- obligation of fidelity; and it is this element of
ence. loyalty in a covenanted relationship that is
THOMAS WOOD reflected when love, which as a spontaneous
sentiment cannot be forced, is required in the
Lifeboat Ethics see Hunger, World; Deuteronomic law (Deut. 6:5) as Israel's
Population Policy; Procreation; Triage liege duty to the God who had entered into
covenant with this people. The love of God
Living Will is indeed often coupled with the keeping of
A somewhat misleading term used in the his commandments (Deut. 11:1, etc.); but
USA to denote a person's advance directives there is no need to evade an apparent para-
regarding treatment in case of terminal ill- dox by arguing that the command to love
ness and incompetence to make his or her God really means the requirement of obedi-
own decisions. See Consent; Life, Prolonga- ence to God's law in all the actions of life.
tion of. The command assumes that love in the natu-
ral meaning of the word is the natural re-
Lottery see Gambling sponse to the love so wonderfully bestowed
by God himself upon the people whom he has
Love chosen. To fail in this response would be to
have forgotten the unique relationship in
I. Historical Perspectives which Israel stands to Jehovah. Before the
Few words so indispensable to discourse Deuteronomist, the prophet Hosea had ak
upon Christian ethics as well as Christian ready found in the figure of an adulterous
theology are so imprecise in their denotation wife the most telling image for Israel's apos*
as the word "love." In common English tasy: Israel ought to be true in love to its
usage love means a sentiment of strong at- divine husband. So Joshua demands that Is-
tachment entertained toward a particular ob- rael shall "cleave" to the Lord (Josh. 23:8),
ject or class of objects. A person may be said as the law of nature requires a man to
to love anything in which he or she takes "cleave" to his wife (Gen. 2:24). In the same
special delightthe sea, flowers, birds, way, the command in the Holiness Code of
music, poetry. When the object of love is per- Lev. 19:18"You shall love your neighbor
sonal, it is usually individual rather than ge- as yourself'is to be understood as a real
neric: we do not naturally speak of loving command, based upon the natural bond of
musicians or poets. In the Hebrew of the OT, common membership in the elect nation.
the commonest word for love*ahebhgen- It is possible that the combination of Deut.
erally has a personal object, though it can be 6:5 with Lev. 19:18 had already been made in
used, for example, of savory meat (Gen. 27:4) rabbinic teaching before Jesus; for it appears
or cursing (Ps. 109:17). In Hebrew as in En- in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
glish, the word gets its most characteristic (e.g., Issachar 5:2; 7:5). In any case, the
overtones from the fact that the strongest and scribe in Mark 12:28ff. welcomes as "truly
most enduring form of personal love is that said" Christ's summary of the law as love to
between man and woman. Neither language God and love to neighbor; and both Jesus
has a separate word for erotic love. The Sep- and his questioner must be taken to have
tuagint translation of the OT generally rend- understood the operative word in each of the
ers 'ahebh and its derivatives by the Greek two commandments so associated as having
agapan and its noun agape, even when as in -the same meaning: the second is really (as in
the Song of Songs the natural word for the Matt. 22:39) "like" thefirst.There has been
love described would be erbs. In prebiblical much discussion about the meaning of "as
Greek erbs is a passion, an ecstasy, a mad- yourself," and the nature of the "self-love"
ness; while the verb agapan and the noun which the saying appears to sanction. But the
agapsis (the form agap seems not to occur phrase will not bear the weight of any such
earlier than its use in the Septuagint) denote far-reaching inferences; it simply describes a
the cooler and calmer love of rational prefer- love as intense and compulsive as that of
ence, which chooses its object and holds to it Jonathan who loved David as "his own soul"
freely. This is in accord with the most impor- (1 Sam. 20:17)so that the fortunes of the
tant feature of biblical usage, which is that beloved are as important to the lover as his
the love of husband and wife includes the own. But it should be clear that to love one's
355 Love
neighbor as thus commanded does not mean love for God without qualification, for exam-
to succour him in distress, any more than to ple, in 1 Cor. 8:3; and we may be sure that it
love God means to keep his commandments. was not a loye of neighbor but an answering
It is a separate question, in what kind of be- love to the God whose own forgiving love he
havior must the love of God or neighbor be had known in Christ that took him to his
exhibited and its genuineness verified? death in Rome. For him as for Rabbi Akiba
In the teaching of Jesus, the pattern love is and many another persecuted Jew, martyr-
God's, which is displayed (1) in his indis- dom "for the Name" was the ultimate fulfill-
criminate goodness to all his creation, (2) in ment of the great commandment.
his free forgiveness for the repentant sinner, What is harder to find in the NT is any
and (3) in his redeeming activity, going out expression of love toward God which recalls
"to seek and to save." So we are bidden to the "thirst" of the psalmists (Pss. 42 and 63).
imitate the divine love (1) by doing good to And this is the sense of unsatisfied longing
all without distinction, (2) by forgiving as we which dominated the minds and hearts of
have been forgiven, and (3) by ready response later Christians educated in the philosophic
to every call of need. The love-ethic of the atmosphere of Platonism (see Platonic Eth-
NT epistles is true to that of the Gospels in ics; Neoplatonism). The erds which in Plato
the second and third of these characters; but was the desire for vision of the ideal beauty
the universalism implicit in Christ's exten- became for the Neoplatonist the desire for
sion of love to enemies is replaced by an em- union with God; and union with God was not
phasis on "love of the brethren" which is to be distinguished from the eternal life
hardly less marked in the Pauline than in the which was the promise of the Christian gos-
Johannine writings. For Paul, love is the pel. The famous words of Augustine in the
greatest of the Spirit's gifts because it serves Confessions (1.1), that our hearts are restless
for the "building up" of the Christian com- till they find their rest in God, would have
munity. Love is the solvent of all divisive been echoed by nearly every one of his great
forces, all individualism which threatens the predecessors, at least in the Greek-speaking
life of the one Body; it is the "bond of whole- church, as voicing the essence of religion.
ness [shalom]" (Eph. 4:3; Col. 3:14). For And Augustine is the mainspring of the great
John, the new commandment is that we love tradition of Catholic mysticism which flour-
one another: this mutual love of Christians is ished throughout the Middle Ages. The tra-
to be the proof for all people that we are dition received its intellectual formulation
Christ's disciples, and by the love which from Thomas Aquinas. In the Summa
unites us, as it unites Father and Son in the Theologiae all natural love is treated as a
Godhead, the world will know that the Fa- passion, stirred by some good to which the
ther has sent him (John 13:34f.; 17:22f.). love is adapted; but the "love of concupis-
Here certainly OT influence is at work. The cence*," which is the desire of possession, is
church is the true Israel, whose members are distinguished from the "love of friendship*,"
bound in the new covenant, sealed in Christ's which seeks only the good of the friend.
blood, to be true in love to God and their Charity* as the supernatural gift of grace is
brethren. It is the nature of love to be the a love of friendship, based on God's self-com-
supreme unifying power. munication to humanity, in which God is
Apart from the summary of the law, there loved "for himself' and not for anything to
is not more than a single reference (Luke be obtained from him.
11:42) in the Synoptic account of Jesus' The scholastic distinction, however, did
teaching to human love for God. In the rest not impress Anders Nygren, who in his influ-
of the NT the "love of God" nearly but not ential study of the doctrine of love in Chris-
quite always means God's love for humanity. tian theology maintained that the "ers-
In 1 John 5:3 love for God is expressly iden- motif" predominant in Catholicism is ir-
tified with the keeping of his commandments reconcilable with the "agap- motif' of the
(cf. John 14:15, 21); and Paul in Gal. 5:14 NT because erds is always egocentric as the
and Rom. 13:10 calls love of neighbor the pursuit of a good to be acquired for the self.
fulfillment of the law. But these texts are The acquisitive nature of the desire is not
insufficient justification for assuming an in- affected by its transference from a "lower" to
tentional reduction of the first great com- a "higher" good, from things earthly to
mandment to the second. Paul does speak of things heavenly. Agap on the contrary is
Love 356
entirely unselfish, seeking only the good of form of the love of self; and it is necessarily
others, and is therefore theocentric because it exposed to alteration and failure. Christian
is the reproduction of God's own outgoing love, which does not choose its object but
love, a love "uncaused" by any existing good- goes out to the neighbor who is everyone, is
ness in its object. In Nygren's view, Augus- secure from change just because it is accepted
tine attempted to achieve a synthesis of ers as a duty, as obedience to a "you shall" (see
and agap, in which the restless longing for Kierkegaardian Ethics).
God in the human hearta longing im- Karl Barth in his Church Dogmatics
planted by God himselfis met by the de- (IV/2, p. 68) agrees with Nygren that ers
scent of the divine love in the incarnation, so and agap are contraries; for agap conforms
that the union with God which is the object to the true nature of human beings as created
of desire is participation in the selfless love for relationship, to God and to their fellow
which is the very nature of God. But (so humans, while ers opposes it. So, though in
Nygren holds) the synthesis must be pro- most if not all of us, both loves are present
nounced a failure, because it involves (con- and active in varying degrees, they must al-
trary to Augustine's own principles) "using" ways be inrivalry:the love which seeks self-
God for the satisfaction of a human need. fulfillment must be at issue with the love
The synthesis was shattered by Luther's which is Hingabe, total surrender of the self.
"Copernican revolution," in which the ers- But Barth is too good a biblical theologian to
inspired Catholic doctrine of love was seen to approve the "Puritanism" of Nygren's re-
be the expression of "works-religion," seek- fusal to allow that humans can have love
ing fellowship with God on God's own toward God. Christ accepted the loving ex-
"level" by an ascent Godward on the wings travagance of Mary's offering, and rebuked
of spiritual desire; whereas the doctrine of the moralistic protests of his disciples. With-
justification by faith means that fellowship out love to Jesus there can be no following of
with God is only to be had "on the level of Jesus: without love to God there can be no
sin," where God's love meets the sinner in obedience to God. Love is the presupposition
Christ. Ers is always the attempt of human of all else in the Christian life; and it is pre-
beings to "establish their own righteous- cisely the freedom to love both God and
ness," to make themselvesfitfor the vision of neighbor that is the gift of grace, the creation
God; and it must therefore be ruthlessly ex- of God's own redeeming love in Christ. So
tirpated to make room for the entry of aga- Barth can see only an intolerable legalism in
p The logical conclusion, accepted by Kierkegaard's insistence that love must be
Nygren, is that since humans may not love made "secure" by the obligation of obedience
God in the sense of ers, and cannot love him to a command. He holds equally firmly
in the sense of agapthe creature cannot against Nygren (or Luther!) that the love of
"seek the good" of the Creatorthe love en- neighbor which springs from and is "like"
joined in thefirstgreat commandment is re- human beings' love for God must be a genu-
ally indistinguishable from the faith which is inely human activity; Christians are not mere
the only proper human attitude to God; "channels" for God's love. But he maintains
while the Christian love of neighbor is noth- that because God's own love is not a disposi-
ing less than God's own agap flowing tion or a sentiment but an act, the same must
through human hearts (see Augustinian Eth- be true of the love humans have for their
ics; Lutheran Ethics). fellow humans. The act in which it consists
Nygren's confrontation of ers and agap is essentially an act of witness to the gospel,
may be compared with the position of S0ren to the accomplished fact of redemption; and
Kierkegaard in his Works of Love (1847). accordingly Barth follows the Pauline and
Kierkegaard contrasted Christian love not Johannine example in treating Christian love
with the mystic's desire for union with God as in principle an act that is not indiscrimi-
but with the love between man and woman or nate in its reference, but has the "brother" as
friend and friend, which is selective, concen- its objectthough it must always be ready to
trated upon a particular person or persons find a "brother" in one who was not such
preferred to all others. Such love, depending before.
as it does upon the presence of certain quali- Differences in the understanding of Chris-
ties in its object found lovable, is for Kierke- tian love arise to a large extent from the in-
gaard (as ers is for Nygren) only a disguised curable ambivalence of a religious ethic. For
357 Love
secular morality there is an obvious distinc- guishes contemporary discussion above all
tion between the love which links persons to perhaps is the amount of attention certain
one another because of something peculiar to normative questions receive. These questions
them as individuals or members of a class, center on the meaning of neighbor-love itself
and the love of humanity as such which ex- and its implications for modern problems in
presses itself in the service of others not be- both personal and social life. Sketches of four
cause of their characters but because of their questions follow.
situation. Kantian rigorism will allow moral 1. Universal human dignity and the ques-
quality only to the second of these loves. The tion of its recognition and enhancement.
"problem of love" in Christian ethics is posed Many writers begin by affirming that God's
by its theological basis: What is the conse- love in the teaching of Jesus serves as pattern
quence for Christian behavior of the belief and prototype for love between human be-
that God is love? The image of divine father- ings. This affirmation (formally, divine exem-
hood which was central to the teaching of plar theory) means at a minimum that we
Jesus does not suggest a love that is exhibited should imitate on our own level and with our
in pure altruism, regardless of any personal own capacities God's bestowal of value or
relationship to its recipients. The love of God dignity on every person. Love conforms to
of which the gospel speaks is more than a grace when it is unconditional: nothing a per-
love of beneficence; it is a reconciling, in the son does in particular qualifies or disqualifies
strict meaning of the word an atoning love. him or her from respect and active help. The
We cannot suppose that the heavenly Father question discussed extensively is what this
does not care whether his children love him affirmation implies for our spatiotemporal
or not. The labor of his love is to overcome existence. Does it, for example, call for cer-
the pride and covetousness that estrange peo- tain patterns of personal, social, and legal
ple alike from God and from one another, recognition and enhancement, patterns that
and to bring them to that state of mutual may disrupt and transform as well as ratify
attachment and mutual dependence which is any particular set of status quo arrange-
proper to a family. Christian love, therefore, ments? Some refuse to ascribe "final" signifi-
cannot be perfected without the warmth of cance (for our religious prospects at any rate)
personal affection which is the cement of to our drawing of patterns. For them, if
unity between parent and children, brothers God's bestowal of dignity is constitutive of
and sisters. The grace of our Lord Jesus our human condition, so that we do not es-
Christ is what gives that warmth to people's tablish it by any act of ours and cannot undo
service of one another and to their loyal obe- it, then we betray a false temporal seriousness
dience to the law of God. when we suppose we must work to guarantee
that dignity is recognized and enhanced.
E. Brunner, The Divine Imperative, ET 1937; Does our work not disclose an absence of
J. Burnaby, Amor Dei, 1938; M. J. D'Arcy, confidence that our dignity is "real" after all?
The Mind and Heart of Love, 1945; J. Guit- Do we not attest to our dignity most fittingly
ton, Essay on Human Love, 1951 ; S. Kierke- by rising above or transcending all of our
gaard, Works of Love, ET 1962; J. Moffatt, spatiotemporal determinations? Most, how-
Love in the New Testament, 1929; R. Nie- ever, do engage in the work of recognition
buhr, An Interpretation of Christian Ethics, and enhancement. Not to do so risks abstrac-
1936; A. Nygren Agape and Eros, ET 1953; tion and fails to confront the realities of a
sinful, conflict-ridden world. Our efforts may
t
tions? Heroes of labor will not do; there is no Marx-Engels Reader, 1978.2
ogy was practically identified with the manu- tic renewal insisted that the good is the pri-
als of moral theology*. These textbooks mary ethical category, held that something is
employed a natural law* methodology and commanded because it is good, emphasized
had the primary purpose of preparing priests the centrality of the virtues, and rejected the
for the role of confessors in the sacrament of legal model of most manuals.
penance*. Their orientation was pragmatic These various reforming trends in Catholic
and casuistic with the ultimate goal of deter- moral theology continued to grow somewhat
mining what was sinful and what was the before and after the Second World War, but
gravity of the sin (see Casuistry). The most the manuals of moral theology remained en-
renowned moral theologian was Alphonsus trenched as the primary way of understand-
Liguori (d. 1787), who had successfully de- ing and teaching moral theology. The most
Mode m Roman Catholic Moral Theology 389
significant work in the revival of moral theol- done, one does not go immediately to God
ogy in the 20th century was Bernard Hr- and God's will, but rather, to the plan of
ing's The Law of Christ, published originally God, as discovered by human reason reflect-
in Germany in 1954 as a 1146-page volume, ing on human nature. Contemporary Catho-
which later went through many different edi- lic moral theology continues to insist on the
tions and has been translated into more than role of reason and the human, but now tries
fifteen modern languages (ET 1961-63). Hr- to understand it in a more integral way in the
ing followed in the footsteps of the Tbingen light of a total faith perspective. Mediation
school but also did not neglect many of the continues to characterize Catholic moral the-
concerns of the manuals of moral theology. ology.
The German Redemptorist emphasized the Major developments in Catholic moral
scriptures and saw all the moral life in terms theology have occurred in the following
of the believer's response to the gracious gift areas: the role of the scriptures; its relation-
of God in Christ. Th Law of Christ did not ship to all theology; its philosophical under-
overlook the morality of particular acts, but pinnings; its life-centered emphasis; and its
it stressed the person and the growth of the emphasis on dialogue.
person through continual conversion. Hring Role of the scriptures. The papal encyclical
attempted to relate moral theology to the Divino Afflante Spiritu in 1943 cautiously
broader concerns of scripture, systematic opened the door for Catholic exegetes to em-
theology, and liturgy. At the same time his ploy a critical method in understanding the
philosophical understanding rested heavily scriptures. Vatican II continued this ap-
on the phenomenology* of Max Scheler. In proach and affirmed the primary role of the
addition to Hring, Josef Fuchs and Gerard scriptures in all theology. The Decree on
Gilleman contributed to the renewal of Cath- Priestly Formation of Vatican II specified
olic moral theology in the pre-Vatican II pe- that the scientific exposition of moral theol-
riod. ogy should be more thoroughly nourished by
There can be no doubt that great changes scriptural teaching.
have occurred in Catholic moral theology The recognition of the scriptures as the
since Vatican II. The rest of this article will "soul of all theology" had significant reper-
summarize these developments, but two cau- cussions on moral theology. Above all, mo-
tions are in order. First, although Vatican II rality is seen as a religious moralityas re-
represents a significant turning point, the sponse to the gift and call of God. This theme
Council must be seen in its proper historical from the scriptures also argues against the
context. New developments in scripture, the- Pelagianism and danger of works righteous-
ology, liturgy, and catechetics had begun to ness that was a perennial temptation in Cath-
appear before Vatican II, and the Council olic thought. A scripture-oriented approach
gave authoritative and official approval to changes the whole scope of moral theology
these developments. which could no longer be primarily oriented
Second, while change has taken place in to train confessors as judges in the sacrament
the last few decades in Catholic moral theol- of penance. A life-centered moral theology
ogy, there has also been great continuity as shows the need for the Christian to respond
well. The most distinctive characteristic of ever more fully to the gracious gift of God in
Catholic moral theology has been its insis- Christ Jesus. The work of Bernard Hring
tence on mediation by the connecting "and": best illustrates such a biblically based ap-
scripture and tradition; faith and reason; proach to moral theology.
grace and nature; Jesus and the church; faith However, moral theologians are also con-
and works. At times distortions have arisen scious of the limitations in the use of the
in the past by giving too independent a role scriptures, especially in terms of the her-
to the second element in the couplet. Con- meneutical question of going from the time
temporary Catholic theology in continuity and circumstances in which the scriptures
with its own tradition has held on to the were written to the different historical and
second elements but now sees them in closer cultural realities of our age. There is wide-
relationship with and even dependent upon spread agreement that the scriptures play a
the first elements. Traditional Catholic natu- more significant role in the more general as-
ral law theory well illustrates this emphasis pects of moral theology such as the disposi-
on mediation. To determine what is to be tions of the person and the important values
Modem Roman Catholic Moral Theology 390
present in social life but a lesser role on par- particularly a Christology from below that
ticular questions more influenced by chang- emphasizes the importance of Jesus and his
ing historical and cultural circumstances. life. Political and liberation theologies stress
The scriptures cannot be used as a proof text the struggle of Jesus against the forces of
for a very specific moral conclusion that is oppression and the call for a salvation that
often arrived at on other grounds. The proper embraces the whole person as well as the
role of scripture in moral theology requires social and political structure of human exis-
continued study, particularly in relation to tence (see Liberation Theology; Political
the place of tradition and reason, both of Theology). With an emphasis on praxis con-
which remain important (see Bible in Chris- temporary Catholic moral theology also ex-
tian Ethics; Interpretation; Tradition in Eth- plores much more the relationship between
ics). moral theology and liturgy.
Relationship to all theology. Moral theol- Philosophical underpinnings. In pre-Vati-
ogy has become more integrated into the can II moral theology the human and human
whole of theology. Perhaps the most signifi- reason were understood in terms of manualis-
cant change occurred in understanding the tic Scholasticism's approach to natural law.
relationship between the natural and the su- Three significant criticisms of the older philo-
pernatural. Previously the Catholic tradition sophical understanding have been made by
often understood the supernatural as a realm revisionist Catholic moral theologians. First,
above the natural. Life in the world was the shift from classicism to historical con-
under the guidance of the natural law, sciousness has given greater importance to
whereas those who wished to follow the gos- the particular, the individual, and the chang-
pel left the world and entered religious life. ing rather than to the universal, the essential,
Vatican II recognized that both faith and the and the unchanging, as in the older Scholas-
scriptures had to be related ever more inti- tic understanding. Historical consciousness
mately to daily life in the world. Theologians, calls for a more inductive methodology in
especially Karl Rahner, have overcome the addition to deductive and syllogistic logic.
supernatural-natural duality on the grounds Second, there has been a turn to the person
that nature is at best a remainder concept in and the subject and away from nature and the
Catholic theology. Pure nature as such has object as illustrated by the new emphasis on
never existed. The remainder concept is an freedom. Some want to ground all moral the-
abstract reality to prove that God's gift of ology in the self-transcending subject. Even
sharing in the fullness of God's grace is sheer many (e.g., Ashley and O'Rourke; Wojtyla)
gift and not due to us as human beings. All who come to the same conclusions as the
human beings have been created to share in older Catholic approach still emphasize the
the fullness of God's love. The older duality personalistic aspect of their understanding. A
and extrinsic relationship between the realm third criticism accuses the older approach of
of the supernatural and the realm of the natu- physicalism in identifying the human moral
ral can no longer be accepted. Overcoming act with the physical structure of the act and
the dualism between the natural and the su- thus condemning contraception or direct
pernatural has occasionally resulted in down- killing as understood in terms of the physical
playing the traditional view of mediation and causality of the act. On this matter sharp
natural law, but for the most part mediation debate continues.
and natural law have been integrated into a A pluralism of philosophical approaches
more holistic approach. At times efforts to now exists in Catholic moral theology. Per-
overcome the dualism have led to an overly haps the most common philosophical ap-
optimistic theology which neglects the reali- proach is a form of transcendental Thomism
ties of finitude, sin, and the fullness of the associated with Karl Rahner and Bernard
eschaton as future, but most moral theolo- Lonergan. Phenomenological, linguistic, and
gians affirm an eschatology that recognizes pragmatic philosophies also undergird differ-
the tension between the now and the not yet ent approaches in contemporary Catholic
(see Eschatological Ethics). moral theology. Some political and liberation
In addition to anthropology and es- theologies have emphasized the importance
chatology, contemporary moral theology of praxis and of orthopraxis. Although the
recognizes the importance of Christology, insistence on the human and human reason
391 Modem Roman Catholic Moral Theology 391
underscores the continuity with the tradition, may be called right or wrong, but it alone
the human and human reason are now under- cannot be an adequate criterion forjudging if
stood differently. there has been a change in the fundamental
Life-centered moral theology. In general, option. In an older approach mortal sin as a
almost all contemporary moral theologians serious act against the law of God was con-
recognize the need for a life-centered moral sidered to be a somewhat common occur-
theology whose primary function is not rence. Mortal sin understood as a fundamen-
merely to prepare confessors as judges in the tal option occurs much less frequently in
sacrament of penance. In some ways this new Christian existence.
emphasis can claim continuity with the The emphasis on the person in moral the-
broader theological tradition in the past and ology has focused attention on growth and
with a Thomistic emphasis on the role of development in the moral life. Such growth
grace and the virtues in moral theology. is often understood in terms of continual con-
The person is both agent and subject. Espe- version which has both scriptural and philo-
cially in the light of the biblical renewal, con- sophical roots. Moral theology has also been
version has been stressed as the fundamental in critical dialogue with psychological theo-
response of the Christian to the call of God. ries of growth as espoused by Piaget, Erik-
Conversion or change of heart makes one a son, Kohlberg, Gilligan, and others.
disciple of Jesus who will then walk in the With a greater emphasis on the person,
way of discipleship. From a more philosophi- character* and virtue* have again become
cal perspective, conversion has been seen in important topics in moral theology. Contem-
the light of Lonergan's understanding of the porary approaches to virtue usually abandon
self-transcending subject. A very significant the Thomistic concept of the cardinal vir-
development is the concept of fundamental tues* and the faculty psychology on which
option which is most often construed in the they were based. There have been no system-
light of transcendental Thomism. In Thomis- atic approaches to the whole question of vir-
tic moral theology the basic human choice is tues and to the development of a moral theol-
that of the ultimate end and this choice then ogy on the basis of the virtues, but individual
directs and governs the other particular virtues such as hope* and truthfulness* as
choices that one makes. One either loves God well as justice* and peace* have been
above things and directs all other actions to stressed. The importance of the person as
that end or one chooses a creature, ultimately agent and subject has linked moral theology
oneself, as the last end and directs all other with spiritual theology, liturgy, and sacra-
actions to that end. Transcendental Tho- mental theology. The interest in narrative in
mism sees the basic option on the level of the contemporary theology finds its most appro-
subject and of transcendental freedom as dis- priate application in the attitudes, character,
tinguished from the level of the object and of and dispositions of the person.
categorical freedom. In every categorical act Some, however, have pointed out the dan-
(e.g., walking, praying, lying) there is also ger that emphasis on the subject might ob-
present the I who performs the act. The fun- scure the social, political, and cosmic dimen-
damental option or the relationship with God sions of the Christian life. But Catholic
is on the level of transcendental freedom. The ecclesiology and the Catholic theological tra-
subject is related to God not as object but as dition in general have consistently recog-
the absolute horizon of human reality. The nized the communal and social dimensions of
concept of fundamental option as the basic human existence, and the eschatology de-
orientation of the person can then serve as scribed above also underscores the political
the philosophical starting point for a more and social dimensions of Christian life in this
positive and dynamic moral theology. world.
Most often the concept of fundamental op- The dialogical nature of contemporary
tion has been used to interpret mortal sin as moral theology. Perhaps the most significant
a change of the fundamental option away characteristic of the entire work of Vatican II
from union with Goda change that usually was its emphasis on dialogue, which also
occurs as the result of a process and obvi- marks contemporary Catholic moral theol-
ously cannot be judged merely on the basis of ogy. Above all there is ecumenical dialogue
the categorical act alone. A categorical act with other Christians. Such a dialogue has
Modem Roman Catholic Moral Theology 392
brought about significant convergences in debate in contemporary Catholic moral the-
Protestant and Roman Catholic moral theol- ology, but three significant disputes stand
ogy. There is also a dialogue with contempo- out: the existence of a unique Christian mo-
rary philosophical approaches so that Scho- rality, the question of universal moral norms,
lastic philosophy no longer serves as the and the possibility of dissent from official
monolithic philosophical basis of contempo- church teaching.
rary Catholic moral theology. A dialogue On the methodological level the question
with the sciences has been encouraged by a of the relationship between Christian ethics
more inductive methodology with its empha- and human ethics has been raised. Many
sis on the signs of the times. Official church moral theologians maintain there is no
documents now recognize the need for dia- unique material content to Christian moral-
logue with all people of goodwill. ity in terms of norms and proximate goals,
Other developments. There can be no doubt attitudes, and dispositions. History and expe-
that very significant changes have occurred rience indicate that non-Christians in theory
in Catholic moral theology since Vatican II. and in practice often recognize attitudes and
Since these changes are recent, few system- actions that sometimes have been thought to
atic approaches to moral theology have yet be uniquely Christian, such as self-sacrificing
been developed in the light of new tendencies. love or reconciliation. A theological accept-
Methodological shifts logically involve sig- ance of the fact that all people are offered the
nificant changes on specific substantive issues gift of salvation also tends to downplay differ-
as is evident in the controversy over artificial ences between Christians and others which
contraception. In the 1960s some Catholic would be based on the presence or absence of
theologians gingerly suggested the possibility saving grace. Proponents of this position cite
of change in the official Catholic condemna- Thomas Aquinas in their favor and maintain
tion of artificial contraception* for married that Catholic moral theology has viewed the
couples. The pope announced a commission Christian as bringing the human to its fullest
to study the question. More theologians perfection. In this view the specifically or
began to argue for a change, but Pope Paul uniquely Christian affects the levels of inten-
VI on July 25, 1968, issued the encyclical tionality, motivation, and the thematic un-
Humanae Vitae,, which reiterated the con- derstanding of the transcendental aspects of
demnation of artificial contraception. Con- the Christian life. The other position main-
tinued discussion of this particular issue tains that faith, grace, and Jesus Christ
merged with newer developments in method- should have some unique effect on Christians
ology, and the revisionist approach to Catho- and how they act. Even those who deny that
lic moral theology spread. Many revisionists Christian morality has unique content recog-
also questioned other accepted teachings of nize that a Christian moral theology must
the Catholic Church in the areas of personal, reflect on moral experience in the light of
sexual, and medical morality. However, in all specifically and distinctively Christian under-
these areas the official teaching has remained standings and symbols. At the same time,
the same. those who hold to a unique Christian content
Methodological and some substantive to morality also recognize that there is much
changes have also occurred in social and po- in common with all human beings.
litical ethics, e.g., liberation theologies in- Perhaps the most divisive debate in con-
volving women, the poor, and blacks, the ac- temporary Catholic moral theory concerns
ceptance of religious liberty, a greater stress the existence and grounding of universally
on the communal nature of the goods of crea- binding norms. The Scholastic moral theol-
tion that exist to serve the needs of all, the ogy of the manuals held that certain acts
possibility of dialogue between Catholics and were intrinsically evil on the basis of the ob-
Marxists, the acceptance of pacifism* as a ject of the act itself independent of intention,
legitimate option for the individual. Many of circumstances, and consequences. Revision-
these changes have been accepted by official ists maintain that the evil in acts such as
church teaching (see Official Roman Catho- contraception or even direct killing is not
lic Social Teaching). However, there has also moral evil but physical ontic or premoral evil
been opposition to these methodological and which can be justified for a proportionate rea-
substantive changes. son. In subsequent discussion proportional-
It is impossible to chronicle all the areas of ists have attempted to refute the charge that
393 Monastic Ethics
their position leads to sheer consequential- Modernization see Industrial Revolu-
ism* and utilitarianism* (see Proportional- tion; Secularization; Technology; Urbani-
ity). zation
Another significant debate centers on the
teaching function of the hierarchical magis- Monastic Ethics
terium* and the legitimacy of dissent* from Monk, monachus (fem. monacha, nun;
authoritative but noninfallible church teach- from the Greek monos, alone) was origi-
ing on specific moral issues. Catholics accept nally the general term for a Christian as-
the hierarchical teaching office committed to cetic who separated himself or herself from
the pope and bishops, but there are different the common life of the world (see Asceti-
ways of understanding this teaching office cism). The word is commonly used, however,
and how it functions. Technically speaking, for one who lives with others in a monastic
the question of dissent in the areas of moral communitythe cenobite (koinobits ) as
theology deals with the authoritative, nonin- distinct from the individual anchorite (from
fallible church teaching on specific questions anachre, to withdraw) or hermit (from er-
such as contraception, sterilization, and di- mos, dweller in the desert). Beginning in
rect killing. Only a small minority holds that the late 3rd century, traditionally with some
these questions involve the infallible church who fled to the desert from the persecution
teaching office. Many argue for the possibil- of Decius (250-51), monasticism became
ity of dissent both by theologians and by the the outstanding form of intense Christian
faithful on a number of grounds. Ecclesiolog- piety in the 4th. Egypt was the classic cen-
ically, the total teaching function of the ter of the monastic movement, but Syria
church is not exhausted by the hierarchical was not far behind, and it soon spread to
teaching office and function. Theologically, Asia Minor and the Latin West. The nu-
these specific moral questions are not central merous hermits of northern Egypt inevita-
to the faith, so that disagreeing with them bly came together in informal communities,
does not entail denial of faith. Epistemologi- such as the crowds of disciples who gath-
cally, on such complex specific questions one ered around Anthony (c. 260-343); in upper
can never achieve a certitude that excludes Egypt the organized common life was devel-
the possibility of error. The argument against oped under the leadership of Pachomius (d.
dissent stresses the presence of the Spirit in 356). Monastic communities became wide-
the official teachers of the church so that the spread, though the East has continued to
faithful can have confidence in following admire the apparently more heroic life of
their teaching in different matters. However, the hermit. However, Basil of Caesarea (d.
the revisionist position recognizes the possi- 379), the great legislator of Greek monasti-
bility of pluralism with regard to some spe- cism (Longer and Shorter Rules), definitely
cific moral questions even where the hierar- preferred the common life as the normal
chical magisterium has already spoken. sphere for the exercise of Christian virtues.
See Counter-Reformation Moral Theol- Eastern monasticism has not gone through
ogy; Double Effect; Magisterium; Natural the varied developments of Western, but is
Law; Official Roman Catholic Social Teach- not without history. In the early Byzantine
ing; Thomistic Ethics. period monks were numerous near the great
centers of church life, and so were often in-
B. M. Ashley and K. D. O'Rourke, Health volved in ecclesiastical and even secular pol-
Care Ethics: A Theological Analysis, 1982;
2 itics; since the 10th century Mt. Athos, the
C. E. Curran and R. A. McCormick (eds.), "holy mountain," has been the outstanding
Readings in Moral Theology, Nos. 1-4, center of Greek monasticism. The stricter
1979-84; J. Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Greek monasteries are cenobitic; in others,
Rights, 1980; J. M. Gustafson, Protestant and called idiorhythmic, the monks lead more
Roman Catholic Ethics: Prospects for Rap- separate lives, assembling only for certain
prochement; 1978; B. Hring, Free and Faith- meals and services. Eastern monasteries
ful in Christ, 3 vols., ET 1978-81; R. A. have not developed the active ministries of
McCormick, Notes on Moral Theology 1965 Western monasticism, but have been impor-
Through 1980, 1981; K. Wojtyla, The Acting tant as centers of devotion and art, and as
Person (1969), ET 1979. places of pilgrimage. Their ancient tradition
CHARLES E. CURRAN of spiritual guidance flourished again in the
Monastic Ethics 394
monastic elders (startsi) of 19th-century are the Carthusians (founded by Bruno, bul
Russia. organized by their third prior, Guigo, aftei
The early history of Western monasticism 1110). Among Benedictines the Cistercians
is reflected in the writings of such fathers as (after 1098) aimed at a return to the primitive
Augustine and Jerome, and later in a series of life of the Rule, while avoiding the dangen
rules drawn up by various leaders for monks of isolation by a federal organization of theii
or nuns. A remarkable development was the numerous monasteries. A new inspiration en-
monasticism of the Celtic church, which tered the ascetic tradition with the vocation
combined the austerity of monastic Egypt of Francis of Assisi to follow "the naked
with the enthusiasm of the Celtic spirit. In Christ" in poverty and joy. In 1209 Pope
the absence of cities, monasteries were the Innocent III recognized Francis's followers
chief centers of church lifeand Celtic as the Order of Lesser Brothers (Friars
monks became missionaries and explorers, Minor), and meanwhile Dominic had orga-
more it seems out of a zealous desire to be nized the Order of Preachers, to light the
strangers and pilgrims on earth than for the spiritual battle of the church by preaching
sake of the results achieved. The germs of this and teaching. The two groups influenced
tradition can be seen in Patrick of Ireland. Its each other and were imitated by others, sc
greatest figures are Columba (d. 596), whose the active and centralized order became the
monastery of Iona was for two centuries the typical form of the monastic movement (foi
center of the Scottish church, and his which the term "friar," as distinct from
younger contemporary Columban. Mean- monk, should be used).
while in Italy the experience of two centuries In the later Middle Ages there was more
of monasticism was brilliantly codified in the official regulation of the monastic life than
Rule of Benedict (c. 540), which combines before. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council
ascetic piety with the classic spirit of modera- ordered Benedictines and Augustinians tc
tion and the Roman feeling for law and federate, and forbade any new monastic
order. By the time of Charlemagne (d. 814) Rules; in 1274 the Second Council of Lyons
the Benedictine Rule had replaced all others recognized four orders of Friars (Francis-
in the Western church, except for some lin- cans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augus-
gering Celtic survivals. But in the feudal age tinians). There were few new developments
Benedict's pattern of work, study, and wor- in the following centuries. Catholic reformers
ship was distorted by the abandonment of combated in various ways the trend to secu-
physical labor. For those not occupied in larism which was aggravated by the decline
business or intellectual pursuits this left a gap in numbers after the Black Death of the mid-
that was only partially filled by the increase 14th century. The more mystical and per-
of devotional exercises. The result was to give sonal piety of the age found its home in sev-
medieval Benedictinism a certain pon- eral new groups, such as the Order of the
derosity that even its great reforms did not Savior founded by Bridget of Sweden (d.
escape, such as those associated with the 1373) and the Brothers of the Common Life
great center of Cluny (founded 910), or the who derived from the work of Gerard de
revival of the monastic life in England in- Groot in Holland. The latter was an informal
spired by Dunstan (after 940). association, but had a monastic wing, the
New forms of the monastic life developed Augustinian Congregation of Windesheim,
as medieval life became more complex and from which comes the best-known classic of
sophisticated. The Rule of Augustine (de- monastic spirituality, the Imitation of Christ
rived from two of his letters) was revived of Thomas Kempis.
after the 10th century. Having the advantage In the 16th century most of the Reform-
of simplicity and flexibility, it was found use- ers attacked the idea of a special ascetic vo-
ful by those who wished to combine the mo- cation*, and monasticism was weakened
nastic life with active work for the church even in Catholic countries. But the Counter-
missionary, educational, pastoral, even mili- Reformation led to revival and reform in
tary. On the other hand, longings for a return many of the older orders (through such
to ancient austerity led to the appearance of movements as the Capuchins in the Francis-
settlements of hermits. Out of these grew sev- cans, and the Carmelite reform, after 1562,
eral orders that combined the common and famous for its missionaries and mystics) and
the solitary life. The most significant of these produced a new type, the "Regular Clerks,"
395 Moral Argument
whose emphasis is less on renunciation of a permanent feature of the Christian life (see
the world than on work for the church. The Asceticism). In the words of a modern Bene-
Society of Jesus (recognized 1540) is one of dictine scholar: "The true monk, in whatever
the first, and the most conspicuous, of these. century he is found, looks not to the changing
Active sisterhoods devoted to education fol- ways around him or to his own mean condi-
lowed, and in the 17th century Vincent de tion, but to the unchanging everlasting God,
Paul (d. 1660) succeeded in the radical step and his trust is in the everlasting arms that
of bringing his Sisters of Charity out from hold him" (David Knowles, The Religious
the cloister into active work in the world. In Orders in England, vol. 3, 1959, p. 468).
modern Catholicism all forms of monasti-
cism, from the strictly contemplative to the D. Baker, A Short History of Monasticism,
primarily active, play an important role. 1982; F. Biot, The Rise of Protestant Monasti-
Though challenged by the 18th-century En- cism, ET 1963; L. Bouyer, The Meaning of the
lightenment, and in many countries sup- Monastic Life, ET 1955; W. Capps, The Mon-
pressed after 1789, the monastic life revived astic Impulse, 1982; D. Knowles, Christian
with the 19th-century Catholic revival, and Monasticism, 1969; T. Merton, Contempla-
has grown steadily since 1830. In recent tion in a World of Action, 1971; and The
years efforts have been made to integrate the Silent Life, 1975; R. Panikkar et al., Blessed
ascetic vocation with the common life of hu- Simplicity: The Monk as Universal Archetype,
manity^as in the Little Brothers and Sis- 1982; H. Workman, The Evolution of the
ters of Jesus, inspired by the example of Monastic Ideal, 1913.
Charles de Foucauld, the soldier-hermit of E. R. HARDY
the Saharaand a new type of society
recognized in canon law since 1947 as the M on erg ism see Synergism
Secular Institute.
Most remarkable has been the revival of Monogamy
monasticism in areas where it had been either Monogamy is the condition of having a single
condemned in principle or abandoned in marriage partner at any one time. The qual-
practice. There has always been some aspira- ification "at any one time" implies that if one
tion in the Church of England toward the of the partners dies, the survivor may re-
monastic life, suppressed under Henry VIII. marry and this will not be counted a breach
Under the influence of the Oxford Movement of the monogamous rule. While monogamy is
the first modern sisterhood was founded in virtually universal in Western countries,
1845, followed by active orders for men and there are many other parts of the world
women, and later by the more traditional where polygamy is accepted as part of the
forms of the monastic life as well. In defi- culture. The Christian ideal of marriage*
nitely Protestant circles 18th-century Pi- visualizes a lifelong monogamous union of
etism* included several attempts at monasti- husband and wife. The institution of such
cism, and the Lutheran deaconess societies monogamous marriage can be defended on
(since about 1830) have many aspects of ac- the general moral grounds that it best pro-
tive sisterhoods. Much as ancient monasti- vides for and protects the fullest development
cism flourished amid the crises of the late of conjugal love, and that it best safeguards
Roman world, Protestant monasticism has the human dignity of the marriage partners.
become conspicuous since the Second World See Polygamy.
War. Its best-known center is the Commu- JOHN MACQUARRIE
nity at Taiz in Burgundy; and mention
should also be made of such disciplined Moral Argument
though not strictly monastic societies as the One of the arguments for the truth of theism
Iona Community in Scotland (comparable to proceeds from the facts of the moral life to
which is the Zo Brotherhood in the Greek the alleged need for their completion or sup-
Orthodox Church, which works in the world plementation in the life of religion.
in a way that the traditional Eastern monk See Morality and Religion, Relations of.
does not). JOHN MACQUARRIE
History seems to show that the special
monastic response to the call to leave all and Moral Autonomy see Authority; Au-
take up the cross is, in one form or another, tonomy; Autonomy of Ethics; Morality
Moral Development 396
and Religion, Relations of; Tradition in for positing the development of a mediating
Ethics internal psychic structure. Morality is
learned directly through rewards and punish-
Moral Development ments which condition cognitions and behav-
The concept of moral development points to ior, as well as through imitation of models
the fact that human beings are not born mor- which provide indirect cues as to what behav-
ally mature and suggests that people grow ior does or does not have positive conse-
morally through a sequence of more or less quences. Development takes place through
gradual changes. This basic thesis is not training. As a person matures, there is in-
widely questioned. But beyond this, there is creasing self-regulation, though this too is at
wide disagreement among theorists working least an indirect result of reinforcement and
in the field. The key questions are: What is modeling cues. Social-learning theorists rec-
morality? What does it mean to be morally ognize that moral thought and behavior de-
mature? What develops in moral develop- pend upon the cognitive, verbal, and social
ment? What is the sequence of changes that competences available to a person. As these
take place? How can these changes be ac- not exclusively moral competencies develop,
counted for? As this list makes clear, the they interact in varying ways with socializing
study of moral development requires answers forces. This accounts for at least a general
to questions that are philosophical and theo- scheme of moral development.
logical as well as psychological, sociological, 3. Cognitive-structural theory. A major
and anthropological. Differences in theories problem for both of the above theories is phil-
of moral development arise from different an- osophical: the problem of relativism.* The
swers to any and/or all of these questions. cognitive-structural theory, most fully for-
The concern for growth in the moral life is mulated by Lawrence Kohlberg, deals with
ancient. Its long history is centered mostly this problem by appealing to a revision of an
around varying conceptions of "con- essentially Kantian formulation of a univer-
science."* The idea of moral development is sal moral order. This order, though it may
modern, however. Four major alternative ap- have metaphysical dimensions, is seen by
proaches can be identified. Kohlberg to be embedded in universal struc-
1. The psychoanalytic approach. The first tures of social interaction, the most basic of
full theory of moral development is the psy- which is the structure of justice. As people
choanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud (see develop in their cognitive capacities and en-
Psychoanalysis). In Freud, conscience* for gage with others in social interaction, role-
the first time comes to have a natural history taking, and social conflict, internal cognitive
the roots of which are exhausted in human patterns develop in individuals which enable
biological development and social interac- them to comprehend and operate in relation
tion. For Freud, the development of morality to these structures at increasingly more com-
is coincident with the formation within the plex, integrated, and comprehensive levels.
child's personality of a structure called the Kohlberg differentiates and places in hierar-
superego*. Through a process of identifica- chical order six such cognitive patterns, and
tion, parental restrictions and ideals become argues that moral development involves in-
internalized by the child and act as an inter- variant sequential movement through them
nal moral judge. Rather than appearing all at (though development may stop at any one of
once, the superego develops through a series them). Each of these six patterns (or stages)
of crises revolving around changes in infan- gives rise to particular forms of moral judg-
tile sexuality. ment and reasoning which, according to
2. Social-learning theory. Freud's theory is Kohlberg, are the major determinants of
ultimately a socialization approach to moral moral behavior and affect.
development. Moral norms are socially con- In his most recent statement of his theory,
structed and moral development involves Kohlberg (1984, Appendix A), lists the fol-
their internalization. A similar view of mo- lowing stages: (1) heteronomous morality;
rality, but a vastly different account of moral (2) individualistic, instrumental morality; (3)
development, is found among social-learning interpersonally normative morality; (4) so-
theorists. Here morality is understood to in- cial system morality; (5) human rights and
volve learned cognitive and behavioral pat- social welfare morality; (6) morality of uni-
terns. There is, such theorists claim, no need versalizable, reversible, and prescriptive gen-
397 Moral Development
eral ethical principles. The definition of each well. The intense focus by Kohlberg on moral
stage delineates a qualitatively distinctive judgment and reasoning is criticized by some
way people at that stage think in making who argue that moral character* and agency
moral judgments, the kind of reasoning they are more adequate and inclusive categories
use (rather than the conclusions they come for discussing moral development (see S.
to) in deciding how to resolve conflicts fairly Hauerwas, D. E. Miller, C. Dykstra). The
in situations where there are competing concern for character is the concern for the
claims. Kohlberg describes the stages in unity of direction of a person's moral life
terms of the "sociomoral perspectives on involving not only judgment and behavior
norms in general and upon the justice opera- but also intention*, perception, outlooks,
tions of equality, equity, reciprocity, pre- language, dispositions, habits*, hopes, val-
scriptive role-taking, and universalizability" ues*, and visions (see Virtue). The concern
specific to each stage (1984, p. 624). The for agency is the concern for the development
broad movement through the stages of these of personal responsibility* in relation to one's
"sociomoral perspectives" is out of embed- character and with how this intentionality is
dedness in egocentric and concretely in- related to moral intentionalities that trans-
dividualistic perspectives toward perspec- cend individual and social life. Although no
tives deriving from participation in and fully developed theory of character forma-
identification with interpersonal relation- tion in this sense has yet been accomplished,
ships and social systems; and then out from a psychological theory which helpfully de-
the latter toward perspectives based in rights, scribes the development of agency is that of
values, and principles which transcend par- Erik Erikson, who relates the development of
ticular relations, societies, and cultures. ego strength to basic human virtues. Ego
Kohlberg has also suggested the possibility strength and the virtues develop, according
of a hypothetical Stage 7 which deals not with to Erikson, through an eight-stage epigenetic
the question of what is just or fair or moral cycle that covers the life span.
as the others dobut with the question, Why No unified theory of moral development
be moral at all? This stage is of quite a differ- now exists. Whether one ever can exist, given
ent kind than the others, since it does not the variety of understandings of morality that
identify a kind of reasoning process so much are likely to remain, is questionable. But any
as suggest the need to come, at the end, to comprehensive understanding of how people
discover some deeper, more metaphysical grow toward moral maturity will have to
even, perhaps, religiousground and justifi- make sense of insights arising from all of the
cation for the whole enterprise of morality; approaches discussed.
something which the reasoning patterns of See Education, Moral; Psychology and
moral judgment cannot alone provide. Ethics.
One significant critique of Kohlberg's
work has come from a feminist point of view A. Bandura and R. H. Walters, Social Learn-
(see Feminist Ethics). Carol Gilligan (1982) ing and Personality Development, 1963; C.
argues that Kohlberg's stages and under- Dykstra, Vision and Character, 1981; E.
standing of morality, with their emphasis on Erikson, Insight and Responsibility, 1964,
increasing autonomy* and differentiation chs. 4-6; S. Freud, New Introductory Lec-
and on conflicting rights*, contain an inher- tures on Psychoanalysis (1932), tr. James
ent masculine bias. Women, she argues, Strachey, 1965; C. Gilligan, In a Different
move toward moral maturity seen and under- Voice, 1982; S. Hauerwas, Character and the
stood as increasingly more complex and ap- Christian Life, 1975; L. Kohlberg, The Phi-
propriate forms of mutual care and connect- losophy of Moral Development, 1981 ; and The
edness with othersdimensions that auton- Psychology of Moral Development, 1984 (Es-
omy and differentiation obscure if not dis- says on Moral Development, vols. 1, 2); D. E.
count entirely. Women usually score low on Miller, The Wing-footed Wanderer, 1977; C.
Kohlberg's scale, not because they are actu- E. Nelson (ed.), Conscience, 1973.
ally less mature than men but because Kohl- CRAIG DYKSTRA
berg's scales are skewed toward one-sidedly
male concepts of self and morality. Moral Philosophy
4. Character formation. Kohlberg has Used interchangeably with "ethics"* to de-
come under criticism for other reasons as note philosophical reflection on morality.
Moral Theology 398
Moral Systems, The how and when those obligations cease or are
see Casuistry; Compensationism; Equi- altered.
probabilism; Probabiliorism; Probabilism; Next the distinction must be drawn be-
Tutiorism; see also Anglican Moral Theol- tween the objective morality of the act and
ogy; Counter-Reformation Moral Theol- the subjective morality of the agent. For the
ogy; Modem Roman Catholic Moral The- act may be wrong but the agent have thought
ology; Moral Theology it right. And so there follows the important
section on conscience*, with the distinctions
Moral Theology between a true and an erroneous conscience,
Moral theology is the discussion of the prin- lax and scrupulous, clear, doubtful and per-
ciples which govern, or should govern, the plexed. In this discussion is included a de-
behavior of a Christian, and of their applica- scription of the so-called systems of moral
tion to particular circumstances or classes of theology, which are different ways of en-
cases. Its sources are scripture, reason in- abling a person whose conscience is in doubt
spired by faith, the teaching of the church to arrive at a state of certainty as to what he
and in particular of certain preeminent or she ought to do. The systems are: tutior-
church fathers and doctorsfor example, ism, probabiliorism, equiprobabilism, and
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. compensationism (see the articles on these
Moral theology judges and advises on the systems).
morality of actions and of agents in the light All this may be regarded as prolegomena
of man's true end, the vision of God. It judges to moral theology. The main business of
everything by one simple standard and prin- moral theology is the consideration of the
ciple: Does it conduce to the attainment of general norms or principles with which
man's last end; does it conform to what is Christian behavior should conform and their
known of the will of the Creator; does it obey application. The usual scheme adopted for
the laws which the Creator has laid down for this purpose is to treat them either under the
attaining man's last end, as those laws are heading of the Decalogue* or of the seven
revealed in scripture or perceived by enlight- virtues. Each of the commandments in order
ened reason or apprehended in the teaching is analyzed into the actions which it com-
and tradition of the church, where faith illu- mands, explicitly or implicitly, and the ac-
mines and guides reason? tions which it prohibits. Or the virtues are
Textbooks of moral theory, accordingly, examined and the kind of conduct to which
all start with a section on humanity's last each prompts is discussed and the vice or
end. But because moral theology is the study vices opposed to the virtue are similarly dealt
of human behavior, they continue with sec- with. For example, in the case of prudence,
tions which analyze the nature of a human first comes a definition, then an analysis of its
act, the necessity for it to be the result of a different parts, then the opposed vices of im-
free act of will accompanied by adequate prudence and anxiety.
knowledge and intention of the end or pur- Though the moral theologian is primarily
pose of the act. Having established the essen- concerned with describing and analyzing
tial ingredients of a human act*, moral theol- that conduct which is in closest agreement
ogy goes on to consider the morality of with the will of God for humanity, and in
actions, the grounds on which an action is to expounding and commending those virtues
be judged as right or wrong; the considera- which all people should seek to acquire and
tions which are to be taken into account; the those types of action through which the vir-
interaction of the immediate and inevitable tues find expression, yet there is no way to
consequences of an act and the intention of avoid dealing with difficult cases when two or
the agent and the circumstances in which the more virtues seem to conflict and to impose
act was performed. Of obvious importance in irreconcilably opposite duties. Then the
this connection is a judgment whether the act moral theologian has to try to determine
does or does not conform with law. And so which is the least of the evils and to advise its
there follows a section on the different kinds choice. Nor can the moral theologian alto-
of law* under which human beings livethe gether avoid answering questions which are
eternal law, natural law, positive divine law, couched in the form "May I do this or that?"
and human law both civil and ecclesiastical "Is such and such permissible?" For the
and the obligations which they impose and moral theologian has the duty of advising
399 Nationalism
and helping the pastor in his task of leading ogy textbooks. Then again, advance in holi-
the errant and sometimes unwilling sheep ness* and the living of the good life depends
gently up "the steep ascent to heaven." so much on a reverent use of the sacraments,
Sometimes to recommend the heroic or the since holiness cannot be attained without
highest course of action does more harm than grace, that it is perhaps natural to follow the
good, and it is important, if not more impor- exposition of the good life by a treatise on the
tant, to know what is the lowest course of sacraments which are so important a means
action to fall below which would be gravely for attaining it. And thirdly, canon law pre-
sinful. It is, no doubt, from this part of the scribes the conditions necessary for the valid
moral theologian's work that casuistry has administration of the sacraments, and the
acquired its sinister reputation. Yet casu- dispositions required for their lawful and
istry*, in the best sense, is expert moral and worthy reception. The clergy need expert
spiritual guidance in solving difficult prob- help in the interpretation of these canons,
lems of conscience, in resolving an agony of especially in the case of the sacraments of
doubt and indecision. The method is to intro- marriage* and penance*. A great mass of law
duce a number of parallel and analogous attaches to these two sacraments and it re-
situations and by comparing them to bring to quires expert handling to explain its applica-
light the essentially relevant considerations tion and its purpose.
and pinpoint the precise area of difficulty or In the Roman Catholic Church moral the-
obscurity. ology has been the subject of continuous
But there is, also, the other side of casu- study (see Thomistic Ethics; Counter-Refor-
istry, the delineation of minimum standards mation Moral Theology; Modern Roman
of conduct. Here the moral theologian over- Catholic Moral Theology). In the Church of
laps the canonist. Every Christian commu- England the 17th century produced a num-
nity has to lay down some minimum stan- ber of eminent moral theologians, notably
dard of external conduct below which it Jeremy Taylor, R. Sanderson, and J. Hall.
cannot allow its members to fall. This is de- From the 18th century to the 20th the subject
manded by the duty of the community to was little studied. An attempt to revive inter-
bear faithful witness to the ethical teaching of est was made by K. E. Kirk between the
the Christian religion. It is also demanded by wars, but it has met with limited success (see
the duty of the community to protect Christ's Anglican Moral Theology). The Protestant
little ones. Some standard must be publicly churches have always mistrusted moral the-
maintained so that "the little ones" are not ology because of its alleged tendency to fall
made to stumble by an apparent condonation into legalism* and formalism*. Protestant
or even approval of conduct which is obvi- writers have tended, therefore, to concentrate
ously and scandalously contrary to the de- on "Christian ethics,"* that is, a treatment of
mands of the Christian life. In consequence general principles and ideals, rather than get
every Christian community must lay down involved in the details and qualifications
certain minima in the form of laws. It then which the moral theologians can scarcely
becomes the business of the moral theologian avoid.
and the canonist to interpret these laws and
to determine precisely what they do and do For a selection from the extensive Roman
not requirein other words, to answer the Catholic literature, see Counter-Reformation
question "Is this or that permissible?" (see Moral Theology; Modern Roman Catholic
Canon Law). Moral Theology. For Anglican writings, see
It is usual to devote the second half of a Anglican Moral Theology.
textbook of moral theology to a treatment of R. C. MORTIMER
the sacraments. Books on moral theology
have tended to be written more as guides and Moral Weakness see Weakness,
helps for the clergy than aimed directly at the Moral; Original Sin; Sin(s); Will
laity. A great deal of the work and thought
of the clergy is taken up with the administra- Moralism
tion of the sacraments and with instructing Historically, the term "moralism" has de-
and preparing the laity to receive them. This, noted thinking about life and actions or living
perhaps, is one reason why the sacraments and acting in light of morality. Although the
occupy such a large place in the moral theol- term "moralist" is still somewhat neutral
Morality and Religion, Relations of 400
(e.g., "Samuel Johnson was a great moral- does, of course, involve an ethics or value
ist"), the connotations of "moralism" and system (VS) and a way of life; in fact, a mo-
"moralistic" are now mainly negative. Mor- rality is precisely a code or view about how
alism, as Bernard Williams notes, is a "de- we should or should not conduct ourselves;
formation of morality." "Moralism" and in morality this is primary, whereas in reli-
"moralistic" suggest excessive, rigid, and gion it may be secondary to a world view. A
inappropriate applications of morality, par- morality does presuppose some beliefs about
ticularly to areas, such as art or politics, that the world and life, of course, but these need
should allegedly be governed by other stan- not be of a religious sort; they may be only
dards. In Christian ethics, when realists re- beliefs about people and what they do or do
ject moralism and idealism in politics, espe- not do to each other, that they are more or
cially in foreign policy, they do not deny the less rational, or that they are in some sense
relevance of morality to politics. free to choose what they do. In fact, it is not
See also Legalism; Realism. hard to imagine a society of people that has
JAMES F. CHILDRESS no religion but has a morality, as well as a
legal system, just because it sees that people
Morality and Religion, cannot live together without rules against
Relations of killing, etc., and that it is not desirable for
For many religious people, morality and reli- these all to be legally enforced. There have
gion are the same or inseparable; for them also certainly been individuals who have had
either morality is part of religion or their a morality but no religious beliefs. Moreover,
religion is their morality. For others, espe- it will not do to reply that such societies and
cially for nonreligious people, morality and individuals necessarily have a religion just
religion are distinct and separable; religion because they have a value system or a world
may be immoral or nonmoral, and morality view, for it boots nothing to say that what
may or should be nonreligious. Even for one lives by is one's religion if it is atheistic
some religious people the two are different or secular. Such maneuvers cannot win even
and separable; they may hold that religion a Pyrrhic victory. What one lives by may in
should be moral and morality should be reli- fact be neither moral nor religious, e.g., if one
gious, but they agree that they may not be. In lives by an aesthetic code or by the principle
thinking philosophically about such matters of egoism*.
we must ask two sorts of questions: first, If these points are correct, then a moral
questions about the definitions of morality value system and a religious value system
and religion, and, second, further questions must be distinct kinds of value systems or
about their relations. action guides, even if or when they require or
Before addressing such questions, how- prohibit the same conduct or character trait.
ever, it is necessary to notice two points. The Besides, they do not ordinarily call for quite
first point is that a religion typically involves the same conduct; prayer, sacrifice, worship,
three things: (1) a world view, e.g., a belief and sacraments are normally parts of a reli-
that there are one or more gods, that they are gious value system but not of a moral one.
important in the affairs of the world, that That we should rest and worship on the sev-
they command or desire a certain conduct on enth day is not as such a moral requirement;
our part, and that we are immortallet us as such all days are morally the same. Thus,
call this a religious world view (RWV); (2) an even theologians have often distinguished be-
associated way of behaving and feeling that is tween moral and ceremonial or cultic laws
regarded as right or good for us, i.e., what is within a religious value system, and between
called its "ethics"let us refer to this as a the Sabbath day commandment and those of
religious value system (RVS) or religious ac- the second table of the OT law. In fact, mo-
tion guide; and (3) an associated institution rality and religion might not call for the same
or church. conduct at all or might call for conflicting
The other point is that morality is different kinds of conduct. It might be, for instance,
from religion. A morality is not as such that the god or gods of a certain religion have
linked with an organized institution like a no concern for human welfare or for how we
church; it may involve only a set of social or treat each other, as long as we worship and
individual rules accompanied by sanctions of serve them in the ways they desire. Even the
praise or blame, and feelings of conscience. It OT and NT writers found it necessary to
401 Morality and Religion, Relations of 401
emphasize that their God was not interested bodying a better, higher, or ultimately more
only or even primarily in burnt offerings and satisfactory way of life. For example, a Chris-
sacrifices. Aristotle's God was not even tian may hold that morality is a matter of
aware of our existence, let alone being con- "natural law"* that can be grasped, perhaps
cerned about us. inadequately but perhaps even adequately, by
Coming to the question of defining moral- an unbeliever, and that one's own religious
ity and religion, then, we must conclude that value system is a matter of revelation and
they are to be defined differently and have no simply more sufficient as a guide to life. But
definitional connections with each other. religious people usually do believe that mo-
Conceptually and in principle, morality and rality is dependent on religion, or rather on
a religious value system are two distinct a religious world view. This claim is, how-
kinds of value systems or action guides. Some ever, ambiguous and vague; there are several
of the criteria for an action guide's being a different senses in which morality has been
morality and some of those for its being a held to depend on a RWV: (0) that it is
RVS must be the same, of course, since a genetically or historically dependent on reli-
morality and a RVS are both value systems gion in the sense that its emergence in the
or action guides, but at least one of the most world was tied up with that of a RWV; (b)
important criteria, formal or material, must that it is psychologically or motivationally
be different in such a way that, though a dependent on religion, since without a RWV,
morality and a RVS may overlap, it is not people are not adequately motivated to be
analytically or logically necessary that they moral; (c) that a RWV is necessary to show
do. The same is true of etiquette and moral- it to be rational to be moral or do what is
ity, or law and morality. Incidentally, one morally right; and (d) that a RWV is needed
must remember that the questions here are to show that something is morally right or
about defining, not morality as opposed to virtuous in the first place.
immorality or "moral" as opposed to "im- Morality may be dependent on religion in
moral," but morality and the moral as op- any one of these ways without being depen-
posed to the nonmoral. They are about defin- dent on it in the others. None of these claims
ing, not religion as opposed to irreligion or are easy to establish, and it may in fact be
"religious" as opposed to "sacrilegious," but doubted that any of them are true, but they
religion and the religious as opposed to the can hardly be adequately discussed here. It
nonreligious. must suffice to make a few remarksfor ex-
This seems to mean that the moral and the ample, showing that the question raised by
religious points of view are importantly dif- (b) has no simple answer. Some individuals
ferent, and that different kinds of considera- have been adequately motivated to be moral
tions are ultimate for judging from them without having religious beliefs; many have
about what we should do or be, e.g., from the not, even though they had religious beliefs.
religious point of view facts about what God No complex actual society, religious or not,
or the gods command, desire, or are like, and has solved the motivation problem satisfac-
from the moral point of view facts about torily, but one may suppose that it might be
what is beneficial or harmful to human beings solved in the nonreligious society imagined
and other sentient creatures. There is not earlier. As for (d), the logic ofjustifying basic
space here to discuss further the problems of moral principles by appeal to a RWV is in-
defining morality and religion, but, granting fested with problems, and in any case it is not
that they are definitionally distinct, we must clear, given the difficulties of justifying a
ask how they are or may be related. Then RWV, tiiat one is ahead if one seeks to justify
there are a number of things to be said. moral principles in this way. In connection
Even if morality and religion are conceptu- with (a) it must at least be pointed out that,
ally distinct in the way indicated, it still may as morality has been influenced by religion in
be that morality is dependent on religion. Re- our history, so religion has also been in-
ligious believers need not think that morality fluenced by morality, e.g., in Plato's criti-
is dependent on religion in any way; they cisms of classical Greek theology and later in
may, for instance, hold that morality is a Christian ones.
valid kind of value system that is wholly inde- Still, even if it is true both that morality
pendent and self-sufficient as far as it goes, and religion are distinct and that morality is
but regard a religious value system as em- not dependent on religion, they may be
Morality and Religion, Relations of 402
related in a number of significant ways. (1) morality, though, of course, this can be so
Morality and religion (or rather a RVS) may only if believing in that RWV is itself reason-
overlap, as morality and law do, i.e., they able on independent grounds.
may call for or prohibit some of the same We may conclude by supposing that a per-
things. Most people think this is the case. But son, A, has both a moral value system and a
then, as was indicated, morality and religion religious value system and is serious about
would or might ultimately, if not proxi- them both (without seeing them as possibly
mately, give different kinds of reasons for re- conflicting), and then asking what difference
quiring or forbidding the same things. (2) It adding religion to morality makes. For such
may be that a certain RVS would include all a person, being morally good would not be
of what morality includes; this would be so, just a "splendid vice," as Augustine thought,
e.g., if God takes the moral point of view in but a genuine virtue, though not a religious
making his commands (other than ceremo- one and not the whole of virtue. Our question
nial ones), as is thought by those who hold is usually answered by saying that religion
that God commands those things because adds a new dimension to A's moral life, but
they are right, rather than the other way there are several respects in which this may
around, and as seems to be implied in the fact be so. A's religion may just add ceremonial
that the story of God's calling on Abraham duties of prayer and religious observance to
to sacrifice Isaac had a "happy ending" ex- A's moral ones. Indeed, if God is conceived
cept for the ram. (3) Of course, a person can of as a being who can be benefited or harmed,
have both a morality and a RVS, thinking, helped or hindered (and not merely pleased
e.g., that for some areas of conduct there are or displeased) by what we do or do not do,
two distinct grounds for regarding actions as then belief in God would add genuine moral
right or wrong, good or bad; and then he or duties to God to A's list of duties to self and
she might see the two either as overlapping or others, human or subhuman, as well as cere-
as merely supplementing each other. (4) Or monial ones. However, religions have not al-
she or he might think that they can on occa- ways conceived of God or the gods in this
sion make conflicting demands and that then way. In any case, A's religious world view
one takes precedence over the other. It would may provide A with new factual premises to
usually be thought that morality takes prece- use in deriving secondary moral principles
dence over ceremonial rules in cases of con- and particular moral judgments from basic
flict, but, in the case of the story of Abraham moral principles. For example, from the
and Isaac, Kierkegaard (and perhaps moral premise that one ought to do good and
Abraham too) regarded the ethical and the not harm to others plus the religious belief in
religious requirements (the latter a ceremo- a hereafter, A can deduce new conclusions
nial one) as being in conflict and the religious about what one morally ought or ought not
one as having priority. (5) However, being to do, such as that one ought to work to save
religious and recognizing the difference be- souls. That is, A's RWV gives A new insight
tween a moral and a religious value system, into ways of doing good and harm. Perhaps
a person might choose to live wholly in the most important, A's RWV may put A's
religious way (whether seeing it as possibly moral life in a new perspective, adding a reli-
conflicting with the moral way or not), think- gious consciousness to A's earlier merely
ing it to be not only sufficient for all of life but moral one. A will then see the moral life in
also in some sense better or higher, in effect a new light, as service to a being that is
letting the "merely" moral way drop out of uniquely authoritative, powerful, perfect,
the picture, except perhaps as something holy, or sacred, and who expects, not only
valid for unbelievers to live byas Sir sacrifices, burnt offerings, and other observ-
Thomas Browne did. In medieval language, ances, but also whatever morality requires of
such a person might hold that the RVS con- A. This general point can be and has been
tains all of morality, but eminently rather expressed by saying that A's motivation is
than formally, much as a quarter contains all changed and increased, that A now has an
of the value of a dime and more. (6) Even if additional obligation to do what one is also
morality is not dependent on or logically de- morally obligated to do, or that A now has a
rivable from a religious world view, it may further rationale for doing what there was
still be that believing in a certain RWV only a moral reason for. It has also been put,
makes it reasonable to believe in a certain e.g., by N. Culverwel in 1652, by saying that
403 Morality, Legal Enforcement of
while what is morally right or good for A to recognized morality is as necessary to a soci-
do or be is right or good in itself and is com- ety as a recognized government. A society
manded by God because it is morally right or may, therefore, take steps to protect its mo-
good, it becomes law and obligatory for A rality in order to protect itself. If a society's
only if and because God commands it. very existence is threatened, its members are
See'also Divine Command Morality; Vol- thereby exposed to harm, and so the morals
untarism. legislation satisfies the harm condition. The
case for a narrower interpretation has been
B. Mitchell, Morality: Religious and Secular, argued by, among others, H. L. A. Hart.
1980; G. Outka and J. P. Reeder (eds.), Reli- Hart accuses Devlin of failing to observe a
gion and Morality, 1973; I. Ramsey (ed.), crucial distinction between two sorts of mo-
Christian Ethics and Contemporary Philoso- rality. One is a morality of "universal values"
phy, 1966. whose recognition and observance is a neces-
WILLIAM K. FRANKENA sary condition of the survival of any society
whatever. The other is a morality of variable
Morality, Legal Enforcement of tastes and conventions, of which sexual mo-
The question at issue in the continuing de- rality is a conspicuous instance. What counts
bate about the legal enforcement of morals is as harm, in a liberal society, should be deter-
whether the fact that certain behavior is, or mined by the morality of universal values.
is commonly held to be, morally wrong is a The attempt to distinguish in this way is
sufficient reason, or any reason at all, for it to Open to the objection, made by Devlin, that
be prohibited by law. The Book of Common every society* possesses institutions*, such as
Prayer gives expression to one view in the those of marriage and property, which may
prayer that those in authority "may truly and differ in form from one society to another,
indifferently minister justice, to the punish- but which in each society are, as they stand,
ment of wickedness and vice, and to the essential to its existence. If they break down,
maintenance of thy true religion and virtue." the society itself is harmed and so are the
The opposing view was classically expressed individuals who compose it. These institu-
in John Stuart Mill's essay On Liberty: "The tions are associated with, and require the
only purpose for which power can rightly be support of, a recognized morality. Hence
exercised over any member of a civilized there may be justification, in terms of the
community against his will is to prevent harm condition itself, for morals legislation
harm to others. His own good either physical in support of these institutions.
or moral is not a sufficient warrant. He can- Hence, within a broad area of agreement
not rightly be compelled to do or forbear about the harm condition, there remains a
because it will be better for him to do so, division between those who would ban a cer-
because it will make him happier, because in tain kind of appeal to morality and those who
the opinion of others to do so would be wise would allow such an appeal; that is to say,
or even right." between those who want the law to be mor-
In modern liberal societies the "harm con- ally neutral and those who do not.
dition" has been generally accepted as the One way in which some have sought to
starting point for discussion, though in a make the harm condition more precise and to
slightly broader form than Mill gave it: no narrow its scope is by distinguishing between
conduct should be suppressed by law unless tangible and intangible harm. In terms of
it can be shown to harm someone. But there this distinction it is possible to accept Dev-
are considerable differences of interpretation lin's insistence upon the centrality of institu-
among those who accept it, in particular as to tions and the need to give them legal protec-
what is to count as harm and as to whose tion while allowing no moral defense of
harm is to count (see Harm; Risk). institutions and no moral assessment of peo-
What is to count as harm. A very broad ple's interests in them except in terms of what
interpretation of "harm" allows for a great can be measured by tangible benefits and tan-
deal of what is generally regarded as "morals gible harms. On this view it is proper for the
legislation," e.g., about homosexuality*, law to be used to protect, e.g., the institution
prostitution*, pornography*, euthanasia*, of monogamy*, and for the maintenance of
abortion*. It is argued, notably by Lord Dev- marriage* and the family* to be accepted in
lin in The Enforcement of Morals, that a the interpretation and application of the law
404 Morality, Legal Enforcement of
as objects of public policy, but only insofar as individual may properly be protected from
the particular form of marriage recognized himself or herself. Another has been sug-
by the law can be defended by these basically gested by Neil MacCormick and relies on the
utilitarian criteria. Thus marriage as securing concept of autonomy* or self-respect:
regular cohabitation and providing a stable "Hence there is a particular inappropriate-
home for the upbringing of children is wor- ness in enforcing upon others performance of
thy of public support; but that marriage any duties which we conceive as duties of
should be for life and entail mutual fidelity self-respect. For example, if obscene publica-
are, arguably, requirements that derive from tions tend to deprave or corrupt a person,
a moral and religious tradition and are justifi- and if it is a duty of self-respect to avoid
able only in terms of it. Doubtless marriage, temptation to self-depraving experiences,
so understood, enables the partners to enjoy there is nevertheless good reason not to use
a deeper and more trusting relationship, but coercions or coercive punishments against
these are intangible benefits, whose value it is one who breaches that duty."
for individuals to assess. MacCormick's principle does indeed help
Thus homosexual relationships should, us to understand why, other things being
from this standpoint, be treated in the same equal, the law should not be invoked to pre-
way as informal heterosexual ones, and any vent individuals doing to themselves what
law concerned with the protection of minors self-respect requires Jhem not to do, but it
should be based only on the need to protect does not seem to be an absolute principle. It
them from the physical or psychological is no doubt desirable for the law to treat peo-
harm they might suffer from premature expo- ple, so far as possible, as if they were fully
sure to adult sexual behavior. The criteria autonomous, but account has, arguably, to be
employed emerge clearly in the Williams Re- taken of the extent to which people in prac-
port, in its treatment of the involvement of tice fall short of this ideal.
children in pornography: "We were not able At this point a further consideration enters
to conclude that participation in these activi- in. In practice it is difficult, if not impossible,
ties was a cause of harm. Allegations to this to draw a sharp line between conduct that
effect were sometimes made to us, but these affects oneself only and conduct that affects
were usually in the context of evidence that others. The behavior of most people is
assumed pornography to be evil and any as- affected as much by the ethos of the society
sociation with it to be contaminating. We in which they live as by their own deliber-
received very little evidence of a more objec- ately chosen moral principles. Hence, al-
tive kind" (6.70, 71). though it is desirable that individuals should
Critics of this position would argue that it refrain from, e.g., drugs or excessive use of
is difficult or impossible to arrive at a value- alcohol out of self-respect alone, their failure
neutral definition of psychological harm and to do so may tempt others similarly to fail
that, in any case, society has a legitimate in- and so to suffer harm. Legislation against
terest in enabling children to develop as nor- drinking while driving may, therefore, have
mal adults (where some value-laden concept as one of its objects not simply the deterrence
of normality is presupposed). They would in of those who will not respond to any other
addition be inclined to argue ad hominem influence, but also the encouragement of a
that opponents of morals legislation in the reasonable standard of habitual good behav-
area of sexuality are often in favor of it in ior in the population at large. This sort of aim
other areas, such as those of racial and sexual in legislation is, perhaps, most plainly dis-
discrimination. cernible in laws against various sorts of racial
Harm to others and harm to self. Mill was and sexual discrimination*, in which, of
firmly opposed to paternalism* but, since his course, duties to others are directly involved;
day, there has been so much legislation de- but a concern to prevent the spread of self*
signed, with common consent, to protect in- harming activities may also, in a similar way,
dividuals from self-inflicted harm that those motivate some legislation.
who stand in his liberal tradition have sought The debate about the legal enforcement of
to discriminate more precisely between legiti- morals tends to reflect certain underlying
mate and illegitimate paternalism. One crite- conceptions of morality. Utilitarians have
rion has already been mentioned, that it is generally, with Mill, wished to circumscribe
only with respect to tangible harm that an the role of law in relation to morality, espe^
405 Mosaic Law
daily if they base morality upon human pref- ing (cf. the practice of Origen in his youth,
erences rather than upon some objective con- Eusebius, Church History 6.3, 9-12)recite
cept of human nature. Since most of the exist- the Psalter daily, perhaps standing in cold
ing morals legislation in Western societies water (a practice of Celtic hermits), or re-
derives from a Christian tradition, the at- nounce baths, considered in ancient times as
tempt to dissociate law from morality has a luxury. Benedict suggests more mildly that
been seen largely as a struggle against reli- his monks could give up during Lent some of
gious control. But the debate is not a simple the allowance of food, drink, sleep, or con-
instance of the opposition between religious versation usually permitted (Rule, ch. 49). In
and secular. Mill's strong emphasis on liberty the Middle Ages painful mortifications were
is not easily defended on purely utilitarian often undertaken as a challenge to worldli-
grounds and has its roots in traditions of reli- ness, in the cloister or outside itthe hair
gious independence which have also attached shirt of Thomas Becket is a famous example.
importance to the individual's responsibility For the Reformers discipline and self-denial
for his or her own actions. Meanwhile in the should characterize the whole Christian life
Roman Catholic Church traditional empha- rather than being a special part of it (see
sis upon the common good* as the proper Augsburg Confession II.5). In modern Ca-
end of legislation has been complemented tholicism the more spectacular mortifications
since Vatican Council II by a greater stress are unusual, though not unknown. But the
upon the rights* of the individual con- etiquette of pious houses and convents still
science* as against the state. offers opportunities for refusing slight indul-
See Autonomy; Freedom; Law; Liberal- gences otherwise permittedand many Epis-
ism; Pluralism; Respect for Persons; Secu- copalians preserve the custom of "giving
larization; Sexual Ethics; State. up" this or that for Lent. Serious discussion
of the subject often takes the line that "volun-
P. Devlin, The Enforcement of Morals, 1965; tary mortifications" are less useful than in-
H. L. A. Hart, Law, Liberty and Morality, voluntary, that is, the acceptance of the
1963; D. N. MacCormick, Legal Right and stresses and frustrations which life itself and
Social Democracy, 1982; J. S. Mill, On Lib- our particular vocation* impose upon us.
erty, 1859; B. A. O. Williams (ed.), Report of And as writers as different as Thomas
the Committee on Obscenity and Film Cen- Kempis and Martin Luther have empha-
sorship, 1979. sized, we must still come to the kingdom by
BASIL MITCHELL the bearing of the cross (The Imitation of
Christ 11.12; Ninety-five Theses, no. 95).
Mortal Sin see Counter-Reformation
Moral Theology; Modern Roman Catholic For a classic treatment of the subject, see
Moral Theology; Sin(s) Augustine Baker, Holy Wisdom, 1657 (repr.
1874 and 1972), Second Treatise. For some
Mortification medieval and later examples, see L. Gou-
Mortification as a term in ascetic theology* gaud, Devotional and Ascetic Practices in the
derives from the Pauline injunction to "put Middle Ages, 1927; A. O'Rahilly, Father
to death" (Latin mortificate) selfish desires William Doyle, S.J.. 1920.
(Col. 3:5). It expresses strikingly the charac- E. R. HARDY
ter of the life of the Christian as one who is
crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20; 5:24), and Mosaic Law
who can say with Ignatius of Antioch "My The term has a number of meanings. Most
desire (ers) is crucified" (To the Romans narrowly defined, the law of Moses is the
7.2), or with John Wesley "Nail my affec- Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, the
tions to the cross" ("O thou to whose all- pithy, brief, primarily negative demands laid
searching sight," 1738, based on a hymn by upon the people of Israel by their God and
N. von Zinzendorf). The term is commonly mediated through Moses, according to bibli-
used in a lesser sense for acts of self-denial* cal tradition. They are found in two places in
going beyond the common rules of prayer the Hebrew Bible, Exodus (20:1-17) and
and fasting* (see Asceticism). For instance, Deuteronomy (5:6-21), and are alluded to or
ancient ascetics would deprive themselves of quoted in part in several other places in the
comfortable sleep and normal food or cloth- Jewish and Christian scriptures (Ps. 81:10
Mosaic Law 406
[11 Heb.]; Hos. 4:2; Micah 2:2; Mark 10: In this collection, certain elements may be-
17-31 and parallels). The Ten Command- long to Moses quite specifically: the demand
ments (the Decalogue*) give the Mosaic law in for exclusive loyalty to the God of Israel; the
its best-known, summary statement. prohibition of the making of sculptured im-
More broadly defined, the Mosaic law ages; the insistence on rest every seventh day;
comprises the classical legal heritage of the and the laws protecting the natural victims of
Hebrew people, including the collection of violence from the exercise of such violence by
cases used by judges to guide them in the the powerful.
administration of justice, and also including Among other noteworthy laws belonging
the many legal prescriptions and principles to these collections we should mention the
found especially in Exodus, Leviticus, Num- laws on slavery (Ex. 21:1-11 and parallels in
bers, and Deuteronomy. Even more broadly the later laws). Slavery* was permitted in
defined, the Mosaic law refers to the entire Israel, but it was regulated and checked, not
Mosaic heritage, found both in the Pen- so much to protect the "property" rights of
tateuch (the first five books of the Bible) and slave owners, as in much of the ancient Near
in the authoritative interpretations of this East, but to check the mistreatment of slaves
heritage preserved in postbiblical Jewish lit- by their owners. The sabbatical year pro-
erature, especially in Mishnah, Gemara, and vided for an end to slavery after 6 years; the
Tosephta. The term "Torah" is often applied jubilee year, after 49 or 50 years (see Lev. 25),
to this whole tradition, a word better trans- meant release from indebtedness as well. The
lated "teaching" or "guidance" rather than laws on slavery clearly treat slaves as human
"law." beings, not merely as property, and check the
Origins. The Mosaic heritage stems from exercise of the authority of slave owners in
many times, persons, and settings. Just how many ways. One of the most interesting laws
much of the Mosaic law comes from Moses appears in Ex. 21:7-11. A slave woman is
himself it is not possible to say with certainty. presumed to be a wife along with any other
Jewish tradition presents Moses as the deliv- wives that the slave owner may have. She is
erer of Israel from bondage in Egypt and as guaranteed her food, clothing, and marital
the giver of the law received on the holy rights (Hebrew onaK a special timethe
mountain. Moses also appears in the tradi- time for sexual relations, in all probability).
tion as a person passionately concerned with Should the woman be deprived of any one of
the weak, the oppressed, and the defenseless, these fundamental rights, freedom from slav-
and the Mosaic law underscores the protec- ery was supposed to be granted immediately.
tion of such regular victims of injustice as The protection of aged parents from ne-
these. From the earliest stories of Moses to glect or abuse by their (adult) children was
the account of his death (from Ex. 2 through also provided by the Decalogue, an element
Deut. 34) he appears as such a champion of in the Mosaic heritage that may well stem
public justice and of the rights of the poor from Moses himself. The prohibition of adul-
and the oppressed. It seems probable that the tery and of murder, and the other laws pro-
Levitical tradition responsible for much of hibiting the exercise of violence against one's
the present form of the book of Deuteronomy neighbor or the members of one's family, also
is to be credited with making Moses the law- probably rightly reflect this same concern on
giver of Israel par excellence. the part of Moses for those within a society
Contents. The legal heritage assigned to who easily become victims of violence and
Moses is found in four chief collections of oppression.
materials: the Decalogue (Ex. 20 and Deut. Developments. The commandment to love
5); the collection known as the Covenant God (Deut. 6:4-5) and neighbor (Lev. 19:18),
Code (Ex. 20:23-23:33); the book of Deu- put together in the NT (Mark 12:28-34 and
teronomy (chs. 12-26 in particular); and the parallels), make an excellent summary of the
Holiness Code in the book of Leviticus (chs. Mosaic law (see Love). When the law of
17-26). The first two of these are the oldest; Moses is understood in this way, one can see
the laws of Deuteronomy and the Holiness that the contrast drawn between law and gos-
Code come from the 7th century B.C. in their pel* has often been overstated, both within
present form, or perhaps from the 6th cen- the NT and in subsequent Christian history.
tury. Actually, law and gospel, rightly understood,
407 Motives and Motivation
go together and reinforce one another, just as ignate the internal factors that move people
they depend upon one another. Love of God to act. We are interested in motives as part of
and neighbor is not only a free act, born of our interpretation and assessment of both
God's own love and grace, but also an obliga- agents and their acts.
tion, a service, resting on God's demand. The In ordinary discourse, motives include
Mosaic law was recognized to follow upon aims, purposes, desires, wants, needs, and the
God's gracious redemption of the slaves from like. In general, we use these other terms,
Egypt (see the prologue to the Decalogue, rarely using the language of motives. Indeed,
Ex. 20:2 and Deut. 5:6). It was recognized to as R. S. Peters suggests, we seek or ascribe
be a special gift of God's love, a delight of motives only "when a breach with an estab-
heart and soul (see Pss. 19:7-14 [8-15 Heb.] lished expectation has occurred and there is
and 119), an unmistakable mark of God's need to justify some action." According to
love and grace to Israel. The Mosaic law Eric D'Arcy, there are several types of mo-
could of course become a burden, as Chris- tive-statements, all of which are explanations
tian obligation frequently became in the of the agent's objective in action. These mo-
course of Christian history. But the demands tive-statements are offered and ascribed when
of God could also be stressed too little, when there is some reason to think that an act is
Christian freedom and divine love were un- good and its motive bad, or that an act is bad
derscored without the accompanying de- and its motive good. The first type of motive-
mands of both law and gospel. statement is forward-looking and explains an
It is remarkable that, in the course of time, act in terms of its function as a means to an
Moses should have become virtually the one end (see Ends and Means). For example, "I
and only lawgiver in the history of Israel. The accepted this job in order to please my par-
Hebrew Bible credits no king with having ents (or my spouse)." The second type of
instituted laws; all law comes to Israel prior motive-statement shows how a course of ac-
to the kingship, prior to the time of the tion that is not intrinsically attractive is wor-
judges, out of the wilderness. We know that thy of pursuit because of some extrinsic cir-
the legislation actually developed over the cumstance. This may be a past circumstance
centuries, long after the death of Moses. But (leading, for instance, to acts of revenge, grat-
the tradition insists that Israel's kings did not itude*, or reparation) or a present circum-
make laws; God gave the law through his stance (e.g., love* or a sense of duty*). For
servant Moses. Law is revealed, and it is re- example, "I am sending him most of my
vealed in a setting of worship and adoration money out of a sense of gratitude." The third
and openness to receive the law's demands on type of motive-statement is not properly a
the part of slaves delivered from bondage and motive-statement at all since it functions
protected and guided in the wilderness. To mainly to deny that ulterior motives, that is,
follow God's law means to share the revela- motives other than the natural outcome of
tion of God at Mt. Sinai, where Moses went the act, are at work. For example, "I am
to hear God's disclosures, speak with the taking care of my elderly father simply and
deity, and even seek to see the very face of solely out of love." Such a statement is de-
God (Ex. 33:12-23). signed to dispel suspicion about the motive
See also Old Testament Ethics. for the action.
It is important to distinguish justifying rea-
A. Alt, Essays on Israelite History and Reli- sons from motivating reasons for action (see
gion, ET 1967; B. F. Childs, The Book of Justification, Moral). Justifying reasons are
Exodus, A Critical', Theological Commentary, the ones that the agent invokes to indicate
1974; E. Nielsen, Law, History and Tradition, why the act is right, all things considered;
1983; M. Noth, The Laws in the Pentateuch, these justifying reasons (e.g., the action is
and Other Studies, ET 1967. required by love* or the natural law*) may
WALTER HARRELSON also function as motivating reasons. But the
action may be motivated by other moral or
Motives and Motivation nonmoral reasons. For example, if an action
Motives and motivation are involved in ex- is justified because of God's command (see
planations of human actions. Derived from Divine Command Morality), it may be moti-
Latin (motus, from movere, move), they des- vated in part because of the sanctions* at-
408 Motives and Motivation
tached to that command (see Rewards and made about various other motives; this mix-
Punishments; Heaven; Hell). Similarly the ture of motives complicates the interpreta-
desire for honor* may motivate actions that tion and evaluation of both acts and agents
are justified by principles of justice*. T. S. (see Mixed Motives; see also Hypocrisy; Ra-
Eliot remarked that "the greatest treason is tionalization; Self-Deception).
to do the right deed for the wrong reason." Some theories of motivation have held that
Even though that statement is too strong, this apparent diversity of motives can actu-
particularly as an assessment of acts in con- ally be reduced to some dominant or over-
trast to agents, it does suggest the importance arching motive such as pleasure*, as in psy-
of motives, especially in the overall assess- chological hedonism*, or happiness*, as in
ment of agents (see Character; Virtue). For eudaemonism*. But such monistic theories
example, a Christian who does X, Y, and Z have been widely criticized for oversimplying
out of gratitude* for God's love more closely human experience and action. In any event,
approximates the ideal of the Christian life there are controversies about what sorts of
than one who performs the same acts out of wants and desires people actually have.
fear of eternal damnation. Some ethicists, In psychology, motive has been defined as
such as Joseph Fletcher (see Situation Eth- any factor that "arouses, sustains and directs
ics), have argued that what is distinctive activity" (P. T. Young, Motivation and Emo-
about Christian ethics is only its motives, tion, 1961). Such a broad definition obscures
such as love* or gratitude, not its material some important distinctions, and many psy-
content. In modern Roman Catholic moral chologists have adopted narrower defini-
theology* recent debates have also focused tions, often focusing on the model of motiva-
on whether motivation or some other feature tion as "in-order-to" (Alston). As James
marks the distinctiveness and uniqueness of Lapsley noted in the first edition of this dic-
Christian morality. For a discussion of the tionary, psychologists are divided in their ap-
role of motives in several ethical theories, proach to motivation: "Most agree that the
particularly Kantian and Utilitarian ones, see paramount questions are what needs are
Mixed Motives. being met in behaviorthat is, what deficien-
It is difficult, if not impossible, for the cies are felt, and what goals are being sought
agent or others to determine either the exis- to meet these needs. Goals are either intrinsic
tence or the strength of various motives. or extrinsic (learned)." Beyond this psy-
There are complex motivations for most ac- chologists are divided on four significant is-
tions; for example, in requesting exemption sues: Which methods, such as direct or indi-
from military service, a person may want rect, can identify and measure motivation;
both to avoid the risk of injury and death and "whether motivation should be understood
to avoid cooperation in evil* in an unjust as a molecular or a molar phenomenon;
war. Should this person's action be counted whether it can completely be comprehended
as conscientious objection* because of the in terms of tension reduction; and whether it
presence of the motive of conscience*? As C. is primarily conscious or unconscious*."
D. Broad has suggested, an objector's con- Lapsley classified motivation theories ac-
science may be (1) necessary and sufficient, cording to their emphasis on one of three
(2) necessary but not sufficient, (3) sufficient aspects of mental functioningdrives*, emo-
but not necessary, or (4) neither necessary tions* or affects, and cognition. (1) Theories
nor sufficient for his or her opposition to par- that emphasize such innate or instinctual
ticipation in war. The second and third are drives as hunger, sex, and aggression. Freud
probably the most common and also the most offered one such theory in his psychoanal-
difficult to assess. If conscience is necessary ysis*. (2) Theories of emotions or affects as
but not sufficient, both conscience and fear amplifying and modulating the underlying
are the agent's motives, but neither is strong motivational drives. (3) Theories that stress
enough by itself to move the agent to action, the controlling and regulating functions of
while both together are strong enough. While cognition, such as cognitive dissonance (L.
it is debatable whether this should be viewed Festinger) or adaptive cognition (e.g., G. All-
as conscientious objection, most interpreters port). (4) Theories of stimulus-response off-
would hold that where conscience is suffi- ered by behaviorists (see Behaviorism). The
cient but not necessary, the action is consci- latter are somewhat similar to (1) even
entious objection. Similar points could be though they dispense with the concept of
409 Mysticism and Ethics
drive. The theories take various approaches to meet needs. Persecution made mutual aid
to the four main issues identified earlier. For even more important. These groups were
example, positions 1, 2, and 4 all view moti- sometimes criticized for limiting their aid to
vation primarily in terms of tension reduc- fellow believers, but such limits were usually
tion, whereas position 3 recognizes the possi- practical rather than principled.
bility of tension-increasing motives. There Mutual aid has also been embodied in in-
are debates about the merits of all of these surance* programs, some of which have be-
theories, but together they suggest the com- come obligatory (see Welfare State). And
plexity of human motivation and the impossi- the term has referred to the sorts of associa-
bility of simplistic approaches to motives of tions advocated by Proudhon and Kropotkin
action, whether in ethics or elsewhere. Of (see Socialism). Most often, then, "mutual
particular importance and continuing con- aid" is rendered by agents who can expect
troversy is the relation between social struc- assistance when they need it because of their
tures, such as capitalism*, and motivation participation in an association of reciprocal
(see Sociology of Ethics) and between biol- aid. But in some ethical theories the principle
ogy and motivation (see Aggression; Evolu- of mutual aid is independent of institutions,
tionary Ethics). voluntary commitments, and reciprocity.
See Deliberation; Desire; Free Will and De- For example, David A. J. Richards (A The-
terminism; Id; Ideology; Instincts or Drives; ory of Reasons for Action, 1971) views the
Intention; Original Sin; Psychoanalysis; principle of mutual aid as "requiring that,
Psychology and Ethics; Unconscious; Will. when a person is in a position where he can do
a great good to another person, at little cost to
W. P. Alston, "Motives and Motivation," himself, he is to do that good." It requires that
EP, 1968; C. D. Broad, "Conscience and individuals save others from grave pain, in-
Conscientious Action," in Moral Concepts, jury, or death, in contrast to works of su-
ed. J. Feinberg, 1970; E. D'Arcy, Human pererogation* that actively promote their in-
Acts: An Essay in Their Moral Evaluation, terests. John Rawls (A Theory of Justice,
1963; R. S. Peters, "Motives and Motiva- 1971) defends a natural duty of mutual aid
tion," Philosophy 31, April 1956; and The because of its "pervasive effect on the quality
Concept of Motivation, 1958. of everyday life" through the knowledge and
JAMES F. CHILDRESS confidence that others will help if we are ever
in need. In these philosophical accounts, mu-
Murder see Homicide tual aid is close to "good Samaritanism,"
based on Jesus' parable of the good Samari-
Muslim Ethics see Islamic Ethics tan; there are vigorous debates about whether
the nature and extent of such a duty of mutual
Mutilation see Circumcision; Organ aidsometimes called beneficence*and
Transplantation; Sterilization; Totality, whether it should be enforced in law (see
Principle of Morality, Legal Enforcement of).
See Charity; Fairness/Fair Play; Love;
Mutual Aid Social Service of the Church.
Often "mutual aid" refers to voluntary par-
ticipation in an association or community of D. F. Durnbaugh (ed.), Every Need Supplied:
mutual assistance in cases of needfor ex- Mutual Aid and Christian Community in the
ample, communal sharing in the early church Free Churches, 1525-1675, 1974; "Mutual
and in some groups of the Radical Reforma- Aid," The Mennonite Encyclopedia III,
tion (see Anabaptist Ethics; Mennonite Eth- 1957.
ics; Quaker Ethics). Henry Bullinger criti- JAMES F. CHILDRESS
cized the Swiss Brethren for holding that
"every Christian is under duty before God to Mysticism and Ethics
use from motives of love all his possessions to Discussion of the relation between mysti-
supply the necessities of life to any of his cism and ethics has often rested on the as-
brethren." Such communities of mutual aid sumption that mysticism is homogeneous,
built on Acts 4:32, "They had everything in going back in one way or another to the
common," usually interpreting this passage kind of neo-Platonism made influential in
to permit private goods coupled with sharing Christian history by the work of pseudo-
410 Mysticism and Ethics
Dionysius (5th century). The essence of this a self-centered cult of a particular experience.
kind of mysticism is that that is most A fundamental theological objection to mys-
spiritual which is most removed from the ticism is that it is accordingly thought to be
material and the bodily. Hence there is a inevitably a form of salvation by works. And
tendency to "angelism" in its anthropology so the Protestant emphasis on divine grace*
and to an asceticism based on metaphysical and justification by faith* strikes "a fatal
dualism. Matter as such is thought to be un- blow at mysticism" (E. Brunner).
redeemable; history and time are unrealities These are some of the strictures brought
from which the spiritual person will seek to against what Teilhard de Chardin has called
be detached. "Sin" is a combination of igno- the "mysticism of the East." With it he con-
rance and imperfection, redemption from trasts the mysticism of the West, which is
which is a process of enlightenment. By closely attached to the Christian doctrines of
spiritual exercises a mystic can achieve the creation, incarnation, re-creation in Christ,
proper destiny of humanity, which is ab- and a sacramental view of the universe. In
sorption into deity. Western mystics like Julian of Norwich, Mei-
If this is how mysticism is understood, ster Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, or John of the
then it is easy to see why certain charges are Cross there is an emphasis on the necessary
brought against it in the field of ethics. context of grace and the need for an active
(1) There is the suspicion that ethical rights ethic ("It is better to feed the hungry than to
and duties are being rooted not in a divine act see even such visions as St. Paul saw"Mei-
of redemption and seen as the fruit of the tree ster Eckhart) which turns the criticism that
but are being radically reinterpreted so as to mysticism is inevitably Pelagian in its atti-
be identical with a new experience of height- tude toward ethics and concentrates on the
ened awareness which mystics seek to culti- higher flights of religious experience for their
vate and retain by their system of discipline. own sake.
The "ethics" of mysticism are derived from Recent studies have suggested that there
this particular experience and hence have no is in the Christian tradition a type of mysti-
necessary relation to the historical incarna- cism to which the usual strictures against
tion and atonement of Christian belief. (2) the neo-Platonic variety do not apply (see
Mysticism is held to involve an attitude to- Neoplatonism). This is the Christian patristic
ward asceticism that is incompatible with concept of "mysticism as mystery." The
Christianity. In Christianity, asceticism* is early fathers used the word "mystical" either
eschatologically and not metaphysically con- of scripture as containing more than meets
ditioned. That is to say, it is based on the the literalisms eye and pointing typologically
inevitable tension of a life lived in two ages or allegorically to Christ, or of the sacra-
simultaneously and not on the notion that ments as again signifying more than meets
matter itself is inherently evil (see Body; Em- physical sight. Mysticism in this sense is a
bodiment). Hence it is assumed that mysti- compelling awareness mediated through the
cism is bound to lead to a self-centered asceti- "mystery," which is some revelatory object
cism where the practitioner is absorbed in his situation, what Tillich calls the "sign event."
or her own self-culture. Mysticism is under- This is a type of mysticism that is extroverted
stood as unreservedly but unconditionally and maintains the closest contact with the
world-renouncing in a way that is incompati- "mystery," the concrete historical sign.
ble with the Christian doctrines of creation Hence the incarnation is here not peripheral
and redemption. (3) Closely associated with but central, and sacraments are seen as the
this stricture is the criticism that mysticism normal and essential means of mystical ap-
is noticeably feeble in its social ethic. A tend- prehension. Against mysticism of this kind
ency to treat evil as unreal means an absence the conventional strictures against the ethical
of indignation or protest and an emphasis on insensitivities of mysticism are not justified.
contemplation and ecstatic experience that
dulls social awareness. The "ethics" of mysti- F. von Hgel, The Mystical Element of Reli-
cism are believed to be inevitably aristocratic gion, 2 vols., 1908; U. King, Towards a New
in temper and content. It has "no message for Mysticism, 1980; A. Pi et al., Mystery and
the toilers" (John Oman) and is "unavailable Mysticism, 1937; K. Ward, Ethics and Chris-
for the burden bearers of the world" (Rein- tianity, 1970.
hold Niebuhr). Fundamentally mysticism is E. J. TINSLEY
411 Nationalism
National Sovereignty was made responsive to constitutional gov-
The dominant principle of legal authority in ernment and the separation of powers. Mod-
the nation-state system since the 16th cen- ern parliamentary and republican govern-
tury has been the doctrine of national sove- ments are heirs of Lockean liberalism*.
reignty. Ethically, sovereignty has a double- National sovereignty is invoked today as a
edged character: its appeal is at once to positive principle of self-determination by
authority* and to freedom *: authority within virtually all national governments. Its typical
domestic society and freedom within the so- corollaries are the right of self-defense and
ciety of nation-states. Political philosophers nonintervention in the affairs of other states.
commonly define sovereignty as "supreme Sovereignty is subject to ethical criticism
legal authority over all persons and objects by some who see it as contrary to universal
within a territory, and freedom from external human rights*, or anachronistic in an inter-
control." dependent world (a view held especially by
While there were biblical, Greek, Roman, world federalists), or an idolatrous rival to
and medieval-papal antecedents to modern the transcendent loyalties that belong to a
ideas of sovereignty, it was the breakdown of world communityor to God.
medieval unity and the emergence of nation- See Autonomy; International Order; In-
states after 1500 that provided the historical ternationalism; Nationalism; State; World
context for the comprehensive development Government.
of such ideas. John Calvin (1509-1564)
sought to resist the secular tides of modern J. C. Bennett and H. Seifert, Foreign Policy
nationalism by appealing to a stern political and Christian Ethics, 1977; F. Bonkovsky,
theology that preached an OT vision of the International Norms and National Policy,
Sovereignty of God and promised a theo- 1980; G. and P. Mische, Toward a Human
cratic society. But it was a more secular World Order, 1977; R. Niebuhr, The Struc-
French lawyer and political philosopher, ture of Nations and Empires, 1959.
Jean Bodin (1530-1596), who is generally ac- ALAN GEYER
knowledged to be the prime formulator of the
doctrine of national sovereignty. In 1576 Nationalism
Bodin was appointed royal attorney to King The sentiments of identification with a par-
Henry III, whose realm was beset by frac- ticular nation are rightly called nationalism,
tious religious and political strife. In that particularly when such sentiments assume an
same year Bodin published his Six livres de la ideological character. In its more extreme
Rpublique, which sought to provide a secu- forms, nationalism-as-ideology is sacralized
lar rationale for national unity in which the into the highest good and the ultimate loy-
authority to govern would derive from alty. More than a century ago, in his Abhand-
human need, not from the invocation of lungen und Versuch, German historian Leo-
God's will. The philosophy he propounded pold von Ranke described this fusion of
was no mere appeal to force: his concept of political and religious sentiments in the
a "well-ordered state" proclaimed that the phenomena of nationalism: "In most periods
realization of virtue, morality, and intellec- of world history nations were held together
tual excellence was the highest purpose of the by religious ties alone." Salo Baron's 1947
state. Bodin defined sovereignty as "supreme study of Modern Nationalism and Religion
power over citizens and subjects, unre- provided a somewhat more dialectical inter-
strained by law." He held that a strong cen- pretation: "Positively or negatively, religions
tralized monarchy offered the best polity for served as the most powerful vehicle of nation-
the effective exercise of sovereignty. alization and denationalization, while receiv-
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) developed ing in turn enormous stimuli from the patri-
the naturalistic foundations of sovereignty otic, ethnic and cultural loyalties of their
into an authoritarian social contract*: an Ab- adherents."
solute Sovereign Will which denies the au- Catholic-Protestant conflicts polarized
thority of God, subordinates church to state, emergent nationalisms in the 16th and 17th
and accords coercive power a priority before centuries. In the 20th century, Hindu-Mus-
any ethical principles. With John Locke lim conflicts led to the partition of India,
(1632-1704), the social contract was liberal- Jewish nationalism created Zionist Israel,
ized in favor of natural rights*: sovereignty and Islamic revival is a prime force in Arab
Natural Law 412
and Iranian nationalism. For four decades, natural environment, inspiring acts of cour-
the Soviet mythology of Holy Mother Russia age and sacrifice. But nationalism is often
(more powerful and more enduring than Bol- invoked to solidify the status quo, suppress
shevik ideology) has been in global conflict dissent, rationalize economic interests, ob-
with an American Puritan ethos of a Chosen struct international cooperation, launch ag-
People. gressive conquests, or wage total war.
Christian ethicists have frequently noted If the darker side of nationalism suggests
that these religious or quasi-religious aspects to some ethicists that its abolition is an im-
of nationalism-as-ideology intensify its moral perative for a peaceful world community,
ambiguity. Nationalism can evoke the most others continue to view nationalism as an
courageous, sacrificial behavioror it can irrepressible cultural force, if not the most
provoke the most brutal, self-aggrandizing powerful force, in the world today.
acts. See International Order; International-
In its early development, nationalism has ism; National Sovereignty; State; World
typically inspired its apostles to a humanitar- Government.
ian struggle for justice* and freedom*. But
the very success of a nationalist movement, S. Baron, Modern Nationalism and Religion,
particularly if it involves victory in a violent 1947; J. C. Bennett, Foreign Policy in Chris-
revolution* or warfare, is likely to be mem- tian Perspective, 1966; H. Butterfield, Inter-
orialized in a cult of militaristic virtues that, national Conflict in the Twentieth Century: A
in turn, become the sanction for new acts of Christian View; 1960; E. Tuveson, Redeemer
imperialism, oppression, and violence. Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial
Nationalism assumes various forms and Role, 1968.
functions according to its political locus. ALAN GEYER
There is a nationalism of colonial status: the
cause of a people struggling for their political Natural Law
independence. There is a nationalism born of The origins of the notion of natural law can
economic oppression*: an ideology* of libera- be traced back at least as far as the 5th cen-
tion from structures of poverty and exploita- tury B.c. In the Antigone of Sophocles a con-
tion. The bitter Latin American experience in trast is drawn between the written laws of the
the Great Depression of the 1930s generated state and the unwritten laws, which have a
modern nationalism as a social force a century higher moral claim on us just because of our
after most Latin states had achieved sovereign common humanity. This contrast is related
independencea force that has more recently to the dispute about the status of moral duties
given expression to liberation theology*. generally. Are moral obligations derived
There is a nationalism of political satellites: from human nature (physis) or convention
the passions of a people having the trappings (nomos)? The most fully articulated early
of sovereignty but under the heavy political theory of natural law is to be found in Stoic
weight of a greater power. The vigor of Polish ethics*, and in the principle that the good life
Catholic nationalism endures and is stimu- consists in physiks zn, living in accordance
lated by the impositions of Soviet hegemony. with nature, where "nature" includes not
There is a nationalism of ethnic separatism: merely our human nature but the entire natu-
the demand of a people for self-determination ral scheme of things in which human beings
and sovereign identity based on a tribal, lin- have their place.
guistic, or religious community with un- Subsequent uses of the term "natural law"
satisfied grievances against the larger political have been various. We shall here be con-
entity to which it is subjected. Biafra, Ban- cerned with theories of natural law within
gladesh, and Quebec are modern examples. moral philosophy. It can in general be said of
These "bottoms-up" forms of nationalism all such theories (and there are several dis-
nationalism as demands for social justice tinct ones) that they start from a view of
and liberationcontrast with the civil reli- human nature arrived at by scientific and/or
gions of established nation-states. The invo- philosophical reflection; and they assert that
cation of nationalist sentiment by rulers and this view of human nature will provide the
leading citizens can be a force for unifying basis for an account of moral values and obli-
the people, preserving a cultural heritage, gations. The classical moral philosophers in
promoting artistic creativity, conserving the the Western tradition have almost all
413 Natural Law
adopted some form of natural law theory. whole. An examination of the proper func-
However, it must also be said that while they tioning of each human capability leads to the
share the crucial tenet of a natural law the- derivation of moral duties. Thus, one func-
ory, i.e., that moral duties can be ascertained tions best, as a matter of natural necessity, if
by reflection on human nature, they differ one has good health, is given an education, is
widely in their views about what human na- allowed to make free choices, and so on. It is
ture is and, as a result, about the moral the- therefore immoral so to act as to damage
ory that can be derived from it. Thus, for anyone's health; it is likewise immoral to de-
example, Hobbes believed that human beings prive people of an education, or of their free-
are motivated entirely by their desire for dom. So far, the approach would be reason-
pleasure and aversion to pain, and that this ably uncontroversial. However, the same
entails that moral theory should be egoistic in method was used to derive much more spe-
character. Butler and Hume take a different cific conclusions. The function of the human
view of human desires and hence reject a reproductive system is to produce children: it
Hobbesian egoism. For Kant, human beings is therefore immoral to act in any way that
as moral agents are essentially rational, and will impede this natural function. Or again,
the binding force of morality is not connected the natural function of sexual organs is repro-
with human desires at all. On a Sartrean ductive: therefore any use of them for other
view, there is no human essence that could functions (such as to express homosexual
serve as the basis for morality; it is character- love) is likewise immoral.
istic of authentic human nature to create its Evidently, such uses of the term "natural"
essence in the exercise of freedom. Again, for are more controversial. It is one thing to say
philosophers like Plato or Augustine, who that the natural function of the eye is to see.
adopt a dualist view of the mind-body rela- But even bodily organs can and do serve sev-
tionship in human beings, the moral theory eral functions. And if one asks of the body as
which results differs markedly from that a whole what its function is, the answer is
derived by Aristotle or Aquinas, who do not much less clear. Even less clear is the answer
adopt such a dualism, especially in regard to to questions such as "What is the function of
the moral valqe to be placed on the body and a human life?" or "What is the function of
its drives, and on the emotions. sexuality in a human life?" The way one
In the Christian tradition, the theory of might try to answer these questions seems
natural law was developed in some detail by quite unlike the way one might try to answer
Aquinas, along fundamentally Aristotelian questions about the function(s) of the endo-
lines. It was Aquinas's view that by using our crine glands or the heart in the human body.
reason to reflect on our human nature, we The notion of ^function" at this point
could discover both the specific ends toward becomes much more a matter of moral as-
which we naturally tend (such as to live, to sessment than of scientific inquiry. It might
reproduce, to acquire knowledge, to have a yet be possible to find some morally neutral
role in an ordered society, to worship God) way of examining such notions as human
and the general ei|d for which God created fulfillment in the scientific manner that is re-
us, a blessed immortality. When we have dis- quired by natural law theories in general. But
covered these ends, it is then possible for us no such approach has as yet been satisfac-
to determine the means required to achieve torily elaborated, and natural law theories
them. This understanding of God's plan for can be regarded as adequate only to the ex-
us, built into our nature by his act of creation, tent that such elaboration is forthcoming.
Aquinas called natural law. The very possibility of a natural law theory
This general approach was taken much of ethics has been attacked on other grounds
further by later Roman Catholic moralists, as well. G. E. Moore argued that the very
tfhose detailed applications of the method attempt to base ethics on any nonmoral ac-
illustrate both the approach and its difficul- count of what human beings are like is radi-
ties. They take as their starting point the cally flawed by the naturalistic fallacy, since
Aristotelian notion of a natural teleology, the it argues from what human beings are like to
view that the human person as a whole has what they morally ought to be like (see Natu-
a function, and that the various human or- ralistic Ethics). This criticism is perhaps less
gans and capacities have their functions conclusive than it was earlier thought to be,
which subserve the good functioning of the but it does point to the major difficulty con-
Natural Rights 414
fronting any natural law theory, that its view toms, or agreements, in claiming against ap-
of human nature is likely to be at least as propriate others certain kinds of perform-
controversial as the moral conclusions at ance or forbearance, which are sanctionable
which it arrives. Those who disagree with the or enforceable upon default. This belief
conclusions are likely to question the picture emerged as a relatively self-contained doc-
of human beings on which those conclusions trine at the end of the 16th century in north-
are based. Unless that picture can be firmly ern Europe and England, and was highly in-
established in sufficient detail to warrant the fluential in that form through the 18th
moral inferences drawn from it, the theory as century. It is taken to be knowable by "natu-
a whole will lack credibility. In particular, it ral" faculties, which means that it is available
will often be argued against natural law theo- to all adult, sane human beings without spe-
ries that the picture of human nature on cial religious or other privileged inspiration.
which they rely will itself be the product of The ascriptions "inalienable" and "indefeasi-
a moral outlook, rather than an indepen- ble" or "imprescriptable" are often attached
dently established basis by which a moral to conceptions of natural rights. This belief in
outlook can be supported. its classical form has been modified and re-
The entire approach has also been attacked vised in numerous ways in the 20th century
on theological grounds. It has been argued (see Human Rights).
that to assert that our human reason of itself, The sources of this belief are deeply em-
reflecting on our human nature, can arrive at bedded in the Greco-Roman and Western
a proper understanding of God's will for us Christian outlooks, particularly in the con-
is to undercut the need for grace, and also to viction found in the Stoics, Paul, the Chris-
ignore the fact that fallen humanity stands in tian fathers, and much medieval Catholic
need of the revelation given in Christ if thought, that all human beings are born with
human beings are to know what is good in an equal potential for individual self-direc-
God's eyes. The attempt to use our merely tion with respect to fundamental matters of
human estimate of right and wrong as a basis conscience, namely, basic questions of faith
for Christian conduct is, on this view, re- and morals. The idea that individual con-
garded as a blasphemous willingness to exalt science* is in some important sense naturally
human reason, and fallen human reason at sovereign over, and thus prior to, all earthly
that, at the expense of God's revelation given authorities has underlain numerous Chris-
to us in Christ. Controversy has arisen about tian reform movements, and most promi-
the precise understanding of the term "na- nently the Protestant Reformation. Refer-
ture" as it is used in Paul, especially in Rom. ences to a "natural right" to hold religious
1:18-21. Theologians of the different Chris- belief and to consent or not to political au-
tian traditions have understood this passage thorities are sprinkled throughout the writ-
variously to refer to fallen nature, or to na- ings of 16th-century Calvinist revolutionaries
ture as originally created by God. like Christopher Goodman and Robert
Whereas those theologians who hold a nat- Browne, and 17th-century English Puritan
ural law theory of ethics will tend to play radicals like the Levellers, ideas that were in
down or deny entirely the specificity of Chris- part inspired by Calvin's own utterances.
tian ethics, those who reject a natural law However, the systematic and self-con-
approach will be much more ready to claim scious formulation of this doctrine occurred
that Christian belief brings with it a radically first in the thought of Hugo Grotius, the
new moral demand. Dutch Protestant theologian and interna-
See Christian Ethics; Law; Medieval Eth- tional lawyer (b. 1583). The crucial step was
ics; Thomistic Ethics; Modern Roman Cath- to state unequivocally, as Grotius did, that
olic Moral Theology. certain moral requirements might "natu-
rally" be known without benefit of belief
J. M. Finnis, Natural Law and Natural in God (though Grotius was a believer him-
Rights, 1980. self). Grotius held that human beings were
GERARD J. HUGHES born free and equal agents with a deep aspira-
tion for peaceful, cooperative existence, and
Natural Rights that the only way to achieve that end was to
The belief that all human beings are equally create laws and institutions that honored and
entitled or justified, prior to all laws, cus- protected the natural condition of equal free-
415 Naturalistic Ethics
dom. The concept of natural rights in maiming, and destruction of other human be-
Grotius's hands thus constituted a funda- ings is wrong and ought to be avoided, and
mental standard of legitimacy for all laws that assisting others in dire need at minor
and governments. According to his teaching, inconvenience is right and ought to be per-
individuals were invested at birth with the formed. These beliefs form the basis for
authority (claimable upon reaching matu- Locke's doctrine of naturalrights.They con-
rity) to exercise control by their consent over stitute the standards for the distribution of
property and over the use of force. Govern- property and} the organization and use of
ments are simply the contrivance of human force. Governments are created to regularize
beings (though also authorized by God) to these functions, that is, to promote and en-
regularize the distribution of property and force the inalienable and indefeasiblerightto
the correction of offenses. protection against arbitrary force and exploi-
There is an ambivalence in Grotius's tation.
teaching which played itself out in the two Hobbes's and Locke's theories of natural
opposing ipterpretations of natural rights rights have been of the greatest influence
that were definitively and influentially ar- upon later 18th-century liberal revolutionary
ticulated in 17th-century England by Tho- thought. Particularly Locke's version reso-
mas Hobbes (b. 1588) and John Locke (b. nated among some of the intellectual leaders
1632). The conflicting assumptions underly- of the American Revolution, like Thomas
ing these two constructions still fuel much of Jefferson and George Mason, and it lay be-
the contemporary philosophical discussion of hind the formulation of many of the docu-
natural rights doctrine. ments of the international human rights
Hobbes grounded his theory in what he movement.
believed was every individual's dominating See also Human Rights; Natural Law;
preoccupation with self-promotion and self- Rights.
preservation. From that assumption, Hobbes
proceeded to define "natural right" in a J. Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights,
rather peculiar way: All human beings are 1980; H. Grotius, The Rights of War and
born with a right "to all things," even to the Peace (1625), ET 1901, repr. 1979; T.
bodies and possessions of others. Strictly un- Hobbes, Leviathan (1651), 1958, chs. 13-15;
derstood, that means that every person is en- J. Locke, Two Treatises on Government
titled or justified, prior to all agreements, (1690), 1965; Essays on the Law of Nature (c.
laws, or customs, to claim "everything" from 1660-64), ET 1954; M. MacDonald, "Natu-
all others and to demand that they forbear ral Rights," Proceedings of the Aristotelian
from interfering with the due exercise of this Society, 1947-48; R. Tuck, Natural Rights
right! Since this is the right of everyone, the Theories, 1979.
end result is social (if not conceptual) chaos. DAVID LITTLE
If chaos is to be avoided, the only rational
solution, on Hobbes's view, is for everyone to Naturalistic Ethics
agree to a system of laws and an agency of This may be defined as covering any theory
enforcement. which seeks to reduce all ethical concepts to
However, since "by inalienable and in- concepts of a natural science, usually psy-
defeasible right" everyone continues to be at chology, but sometimes biology or sociology.
war with everyone else, all will need to agree, If "good" be taken as the fundamental con-
in their own interest, to an absolutist political cept of ethics and be defined as meaning, for
system. Only then will every person's "right" example, "desired" or "satisfying," or
to self-preservation be guaranteed, for there "right" be taken as the fundamental concept
is no other basis for unity and cooperation. and defined as, for example, "generally ap-
Locke's view is radically different. He ex- proved," ethics becomes on principle a
plicitly denied that the natural rights of branch of psychology; if either is defined as
human beings rest in each person's self-inter- "in accordance with the line of evolutionary
est. Rather, by a process of rational self- development" or as "conducive to social sta-
reflection and cogitation, human beings come bility," it becomes respectively a branch of
to discover certain "fixed and permanent" biology or sociology (see Evolutionary Eth-
moral truths, according to which they know ics). The term "naturalism" in this sense is
that the gratuitous infliction of suffering, derived from G. E. Moore, who in Principia
416 Naturalistic Ethics
Ethica (1903) maintained that any naturalist which represents the modern ideal of knowl-
definition of good was on principle impossi- edge and that it avoids the need of appealing
ble. By "definition" is here meant "analysis to intuition* in ethics. It has also been widely
in terms of something other than itself," and felt that it is extremely doubtful whether we
not the naming of a property which merely can detect in ourselves any awareness of the
accompanies the property defined. It might alleged indefinable quality of goodness, but it
be possible to mention properties which are would be easier to claim that we had such an
always present when anything is good and awareness of the distinctive notion signified
vice versa without analyzing goodness; to by "ought" and a theory which took ought as
take an analogous example, the scientist can fundamental could be non-naturalistic as
give a definition of yellow in terms of the well as a theory which thus took good.
accompanying wavelengths, but the color The main general objections to naturalism
yellow as seen still cannot be analyzed in in ethics are as follows: (1) If naturalism be
terms of something else in such a way that true, ethics should be an empirical science
someone who had not experienced it could and its conclusions should then be capable of
know what it was like. To say that ethical establishment by simple observation or em-
concepts cannot be reduced to nonethical is pirical generalization, but this is not at all the
by no means an implausible statement, and if method one follows in order to arrive at ethi-
it is true it must be impossible to give a natu- cal conclusions. (2) In regard to any particu-
ralist definition of them all. It would be a lar naturalist definition offered of right or
mistake to suppose that what was indefinable good, it seems plain that it would not be self-
could not be known, because it might be contradictory to assert that something was
known by direct apprehension of what it was right or good and yet deny that it conformed
like, that is, yellow. It must further be borne to the definition, so the definition cannot give
in mind that Moore's theory was applied only what is meant by "right" or "good." (3)
to one of the senses of "good," that one in "Ought" is essentially different from "is"
which it signified good in itself. A person who (though perhaps inferable from what is), but
held Moore's view on this might well accept naturalism would reduce all ought-proposi-
a naturalistic definition of some other sense tions to propositions about what is, that is,
of "good," for example, instrumentais good. propositions about the actual attitudes of
Moore held that we could see directly (by people or about the kinds of empirical things
"intuition") that what had certain empirical which are good. The only alternative to natu-
qualities must also have the quality of good- ralism is not Moore's; many thinkers would
ness (or badness), but he called the quality say that both sides have a false assumption in
itself "non-natural" so as sharply to differen- common, namely, that the function of what
tiate it from qualities which were themselves we call moral judgments is not to give us
empirical. "Ought" might similarly be re- information about the properties (natural or
garded as signifying a non-natural relation. non-natural) of the real but to do something
Opposed to this is any view which regards quite different, namely, express a practical
ethical terms as standing for a quality observ- attitude (emotive theory). The chief difficulty
able in introspection or a causal property. about such a theory is to reconcile it with the
Moore called the confusion of good with any degree of objectivity we have to admit in eth-
such property the "naturalistic fallacy." No ics and the fact that we do not merely express
doubt there have been many writers in whom an attitude in moral judgments but claim to
it was a fallacy, since they implicitly assumed have good reason for it, but very many
or committed themselves to such a definition philosophers are seeking a middle ground be-
of good without being clear what they were tween these rival theories.
doing, but since Moore's work the doctrine of See Descriptivism; Ethics; Metaethics.
naturalism has been deliberately reasserted
by people who were well aware of Moore's R. B. Perry, General Theory of Value, 1926,
position, and this conscious assertion of natu- and the earlier philosopher David Hume, An
ralism, even if held mistaken, should not be Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals,
described as just a confusion or fallacy. 1751, are among the best examples of a natu-
The advantages of a naturalist theory are ralistic ethics. For criticisms of naturalism,
that it provides an empirical basis for ethics see A. C. Ewing, Definition of Good, 1947,
and assimilates it to the natural science ch. 2; R. M. Hare, The Language of Morals,
417 Negligence
1952, ch. 5; G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica, But the language of necessity obscures the
1903, ch. 1, B. For a criticism of Moore's specific value choices that are in fact being
attack on naturalism, see G. C. Field, Moral made. A society can and perhaps in some
Theory, 1921, ch. 5. contexts should choose to surrender its politi-
A. C. EWING cal autonomy or yield some of its territory
without war; the term "necessity" appears to
Nature see Natural Law; Natural Rights; give weight and finality to a judgment that,
Orders after all, is based on a calculation that certain
means are necessary to achieve certain ends.
Necessity Even if those ends cannot be achieved with-
Several views of necessity are relevant to eth- out means that are ordinarily considered im-
ics. Logical necessity and metaphysical or on- moral, there is still room for debate about
tological necessity are obviously important. whether both those ends and those means are
For example, Reinhold Niebuhr contended necessary (see Ends and Means). Hence
that the doctrine of original sin* should be caution is in order in making and accepting
interpreted as meaning that sin is inevitable appeals to necessity; even when a society has
but not necessary, on the grounds that neces- its back against the wall and has no other
sity would undermine moral freedom and means to preserve itself from imminent de-
thus moral responsibility (see Sin(s); Free struction, the language of necessity may ob-
Will and Determinism). Appeals to necessity scure more than it illuminates.
are also important in morality and law,
where they are invoked to explain, excuse, or A. Donagan, The Theory of Morality, 1977;
justify conduct that would otherwise be K. E. Kirk, Conscience and Its Problems,
wrong. Although necessity is sometimes con- 1927; A. W. B. Simpson, Cannibalism and
flated with self-defense, they are not identical the Common Law, 1984; M. Walzer, Just and
since necessity may be invoked even though Unjust Wars, 1977.
no identifiable agent is guilty of threatening JAMES F. CHILDRESS
one's life or goods. One paradigmatic situa-
tion is the lifeboat on the high seas when Negligence
jettisoning or eating some passengers is There are various ways in which people may
claimed to be necessary. In one famous case act without thinking what they are doing;
of cannibalism (Regina v. Dudley and Ste- they may be tactless, inconsiderate, or ab-
vens, 1884, 14 Q.B. 273), the judge held that sentminded. One such lack of thought is
"it is not correct... to say that there is any carelessness. "Negligence," which is more
absolute or unqualified necessity to preserve commonly used in legal than in ordinary lan-
one's life." This sort of necessity has long been guage, is usually defined by lawyers as legally
rejected by most Christians, for example, culpable carelessness. Carelessness, or negli-
when they discussed the well-known Stoic gence, is a failure to give thought or to pay
case of the board of Carneadeswhat should attention to therisksinherent in one's actions
a person do when the only available plank and to take the appropriate precautions
after a shipwreck cannot support both his against these risks. This failure of attention
neighbor and him? In contrast to the Stoics, may appear either in the manner in which
Ambrose (On the Duties ofthe Clergy), among one does something, as when someone shows
others, held that the Christian should sac- carelessness, or negligence in driving, or in
rifice himself for his neighbor. But when the the very commission or omission of the deed
survival of several neighbors or even the soci- itself, as when through carelessness someone
ety is threatened, matters may not be so clear, drives too near the middle of the road or
and some Christians, e.g., Reinhold Niebuhr omits to sound the horn on a corner. But an
(see Realism), have argued that violence in instance of carelessness, e.g., failing to sound
various forms may be the "lesser of two evils" the horn, is not an effect of carelessness,
and even "necessary evil." It may be neces- e.g., killing a pedestrian. One's carelessness
sary for agents to accept "dirty hands"* and might, fortunately, have no effects; but it
even incur guilt*. The language of necessity could not be without an instance.
implies that agents have "no choice" and that Each kind of task has its peculiar mistakes,
some action, such as war or indiscriminate blobs, muffs, errors, accidents, dangers, and
bombing, is thus justified or at least excused. pitfalls. Because attention to these risks in
Neighbor 418
what one does may be necessary to ensure the the common Christian term for speaking, in
successful doing of it, carelessness, or negli- ethical contexts, of the status of other people
gence, is something one ought not to show; it in relation to oneself, and so of the claims
is something necessarily blameworthy. Yet that they exercise.
because lack of care is not intentional, neither See Jesus, Ethical Teaching of; Love.
common sense nor the law blames the care-
less, or negligent, offender as harshly as the Art. "p/s/05," TDNT VI, 1968; V. P. Fur-
intentional offender. nish, The Love Command in the New Testa-
What is done from carelessness need not be ment,, 1972.
done from ignorance either of what one is J. L. HOULDEN
doing or of its nature; I know that I did not
sound my horn on rounding the bend and I Neo-orthodox Ethics see Modern
know that not to sound my horn in such Protestant Ethics
circumstances is dangerous. But I am negli-
gent insofar as my failure to sound my horn Neoplatonism
was a failure to give my attention to the risks A philosophical movement of late antiquity
involved in my driving and to take the proper which originated in the teaching of Plotinus
precautions against them. (205-c. 269). It represents the culmination of
As well as the lack of care that may be the 1st- and 2nd-century revival of Platonism
displayed in the commission of particular il- which, in the thought of such writers as Al-
legalities, modern law takes account of what binus, Atticus, and Plutarch, had created an
is known as an independent tort of negli- eclectic philosophy that grafted varying ele-
gence. In such a tort it is immaterial whether ments of Stoic and Aristotelian thought onto
what is done was due to lack of thought or to the Platonic stem. Plotinus, working on the
ignorance, incompetence, mistake, or even problems engendered within this broad tradi-
deliberate intent. What matters is that the tion, produced a new philosophical synthesis
offender has neglected a definite duty of care, which was at once an integrated picture of
for example, to use lights when driving at the cosmos and an analysis of human experi-
night or to fence in dangerous machinery. ence informed by a strong mystical vision.
See Intention; Responsibility. Plotinus's career as a teacher began in his
fortieth year, when he gathered a circle of
A. R. White, Errands of Liability, 1985, disciples at Rome. Only after the age of fifty
ch. 7. did he begin to produce the series of essays
ALAN R. WHITE intended simply for circulation among his
pupilswhich Porphyry (c. 233-c. 305) col-
Neighbor lected and arranged topically in six sets of
Because of its use by Jesus when, highlighting nine: the Enneads. In these closely written,
Lev. 19:18, he stated the two great com- nrevised pieces Plotinus sets out his inter-
mands (Mark 12:28-34 and parallels), the pretation of the teaching of Plato.
term "neighbor" has become customary in The ultimate ground and source of all
discussion of Christian duty to other people. beingitself "beyond being" and hence be-
Its characteristic appearance in the singular yond description or comprehensionis the
("thy neighbor," not "others") focuses atten- "One" of the first hypothesis of Plato's
tion on the specific case. Love is to be for this Parmenides, which Plotinus identifies with
person in his or her individuality rather than the "Good" of the Republic. From this tran-
for the human race in general. The Lucan scendent first principle, by a kind of auto-
version of the command, with the appended matic overflow, there derive three "hypos-
parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25 tases" in which its unity and goodness are
37), made this even more striking: the neigh- successively, and ever more dimly, imaged.
bor is the one who acts for good precisely Each of these hypostases represents a level at
where there is no normal obligation. With once of being, of value, and of knowledge,
original reference to the fellow Jew, the defi- and each is continuous with its neighbors.
nition of the neighbor was a subject of intense The firstnous i.e., "Intellect"embodies
t
controversy in the time of Jesus. His teaching both Aristotle's Prime Mover and Plato's
opens the gate as wide as possible. realm of Forms or Ideas. It is that intuitive
From this beginning, the word has become contemplation which, in knowing itself,
419 New England Transcendentalism
knows all things in one: a realm of light and of the religious sense of his teaching. Where
life in which the subject and object of knowl- Plotinus had emphasized intellectual disci-
edge can be distinguished only notionally. pline and contemplation (theria) as the
From Intellect there derives the second hy- soul's way to self-realization, these thinkers
postasis, Soul, which, because it subsists at a stressed ritual and magical techniques
lower level of being, cannot grasp all things (theourgia) for bringing the soul into the
in one. At the level of Soul, therefore, the presence of the Divine. In part this shift of
subject of knowing sees its world one thing at emphasis was occasioned by a desire to make
a time, in succession and separately. Hence of Neoplatonism the systematic theology of
with its appearance time and space, as well as paganism, which was now fighting for its life
individuation, come into being. The lowest within the Christian empire. It is also at-
level of being and knowing is that of Nature tributable, however, to a loss of Plotinus's
(physis). Soul's offspring; and its power of essential optimismhis sense of a given, nat-
contemplation is so reduced that it grasps the ural continuity between soul and the divine
truth of itself only by giving rise to an exter- sphere of Intellect.
nal image of itself which dances on the face At its best and at its worst, Neoplatonism
of formless matterthe corporeal world. was a pagan philosophy. Many of its promi-
The outflow of being from the One, then, is nent exponents (and notably Plotinus's im-
a movement from unity to multiplicity, from mediate disciple, Porphyry) were openly hos-
perfect self-possession to the point where tile to Christianity. It was in Neoplatonist
being knows itself only as outside itself. At circles that the emperor Julian nourished his
the same time, each of these levels is a level hope for a revival of traditional religion.
of being, and hence of goodness. Even the Nevertheless this philosophy was an intellec-
corporeal world is a derivative reflection of tual resource for Christians as well as for
the One, and to be honored as such. pagans. In the East, its influence can be dis-
In this scheme, the human person has its cerned in the writings of Gregory of Nyssa
normal conscious existence at the level of and above all in the thought of the 6th-cen-
Soul. Nevertheless its being and action touch tury theologian and mystic who wrote under
and include the levels above and beneath it. the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite.
In one direction it functions at the level of In the West, Neoplatonism touched Chris-
Nature even whilein another, higher di- tian thinking through the converted philoso-
mension of its selfhoodit shares the life of pher and rhetorician C. Marius Victorinus
Intellect. This picture of human nature pro- Afer (fl. 355), whose writings against Arian-
vides the foundation of the Neoplatonic ism influenced Augustine of Hippo, and
ethic, whose basic imperative calls for the through Augustine himself, for whom Neo-
particular soul's realization of its highest na- platonism was the intellectual means of his
ture as contemplative intelligence. Obedience conversion to Christianity. It became in the
to this imperative entails an inward conver- end the principal intellectual vehicle of the
sion of the soul from Nature's obsession with Christian mystical tradition.
the external, corporeal image of itself, and an See Augustinian Ethics; Mysticism and
ascent by way of intellectual training and ex- Ethics; Platonic Ethics.
ercise (asksis) to the intuitive life of Intel-
lect. The virtuous soul, therefore, purifies it- A. H. Armstrong, An Introduction to Ancient
self of attachment to worldly affairs and Philosophy, 1947; E. Brhier, The Philosophy
fleshly pleasures in order to move inwardly to of Plotinus, 1958; J. Dillon, The Middle
the highest level of life of which it is capable: Platonists, 1977; Plotinus, The Enneads, tr.
that of the impassive contemplation of intelli- S. MacKenna, 3rd ed., rev. B. S. Page, 1962;
gible reality in its integrated wholeness. And Proclus, The Elements of Theology, ed. and
from time to time, in moments of ecstasy, the tr. E. R. Dodds, 1963; R. T. Wallis, Neo-
2
question is what strength or weight should ran and R. McCormick (eds.), Readings in
be assigned to different principles and rules. Moral Theology, No. 1: Moral Nprms and
Some of the major disputes in Christian eth- Catholic Tradition, 1979; P. Ramsey, Deeds
ics focus on whether and when priority is to and Rules in Christian Ethics, 1968; W. D.
be given to deontological norms (see Deon- Solomon, "Rules and Principles," EB, 1978.
tology) and to consequentialist and teleologi- JAMES F. CHILDRESS
cal norms (see Consequentialism; Teleologi-
cal Ethics), since the most defensible ethical Nuclear Power see Energy; Environ-
theories, whether religious or secular, include mental Ethics; Future Generations, Obli-
the intrinsic quality of actions as well as their gations to; Technology
ends and consequences (see Ends and Means).
Finally, the practical application of princi- Nuclear Warfare
ples and rules is not mechanical since it pre- The term refers to the use, or plans for use,
supposes discernment* and prudence*. in warfare of either of two types of weapons,
Norms offer other "oughts" than those of fission and fusion, according to any of a vari-
obligation* or duty* (or, correlatively, ety of tactical and strategic conceptions.
rights*). For example, some norms identify The earliest nuclear weapons were fission
ideals of moral life and action to which we devices with yields (explosive power) mea-
ought to aspire (see Aspiration; Excellence; sured in kilotons of TNT. These were treated
Imitation of Christ). The life of self-sacrifice in accord with assumptions and practices al-
might be viewed as an ideal from the stand- ready developed for aerial bombing with con-
point of natural law*; hence, it might be ventional high explosives. World War II saw
viewed as praiseworthy rather than obliga- the development of two rival concepts of air
tory. This aspect or level of Christian moral- power: one, called "tactical," had as its mis-
ity has been expressed in Roman Catholic sion the support of ground troops in contact
thought by the distinction between counsels* with the enemy; the other, called "strategic,"
of perfection and precepts, a distinction re- had the mission of attacking support for the
jected by the Reformers, who also rejected war among enemy civilians. In practice, stra-
the idea of works of supererogation*. But tegic air power meant the bombing of targets
even within a Reformation perspective, it is that might or might not have had a genuinely
possible to distinguish morally praiseworthy military support function. The Japanese cit-
from obligatory acts without viewing them as ies Hiroshima and Nagasaki, against which
good works* that somehow increase one's atomic bombs were used in 1945, were de-
merit* before God. Some Christian ideals ob- scribed at the time as "mixed" (civilian and
viously include traits of character*, such as military) targets; yet strategic bombing con-
virtues* to be developed and vices* to be cepts allowed the direct targeting of civilians
avoided. alone for purposes of destruction of the
Another fundamental dispute about norms enemy's will to fight.
concerns whether they are natural or re- The postwar development of nuclear strat-
vealed and how human beings can apprehend egy followed as a direct development of the
them (see Divine Command Morality; Dis- concept of strategic air power. Some com-
cernment; Intuitionism; Morality and Reli- mentators (cf. Brodie) stressed the discon-
gion, Relations of; Natural Law; Bible in tinuities between nuclear and conventional
Christian Ethics; Tradition in Ethics; see also weapons, while those involved in strategic
Evangelical Ethics; Fundamentalist Ethics; planning stressed continuity: nuclear weap-
Modern Protestant Ethics; Modern Roman ons, considered principally in terms of their
Catholic Moral Theology). In addition, there blast effect, were regarded simply as larger
are questions about how human beings can and more efficient means toward an end al-
Nullity 428
ready determined in an age of dependence on gic" war (one-at-a-time strategic strikes) and
conventional high explosives. The develop- limited "tactical" war involving the use of
ment of fusion devices, with yields measured tactical/theater nuclear weapons within a
in megatons, not kilotons, of TNT did not discrete geographical area.
alter this direction of policy. Supporting fac- Christian thought has divided sharply on
tors were the small number of nuclear weap- the question of nuclear war. A minority of
ons available in the early years of the nuclear Christian ethicists, including Ramsey and
age, which implied reserving them for "high- some Catholic authors, have argued that
value" targets; and the large radius of de- ideas such as limited war and counterforce
struction of each weapon; both these factors, targeting, together with technological im-
together with the assumptions of strategic air provements (reductions in the yield and col-
power, led to a nuclear strategy based on lateral radiation effects of nuclear weapons,
countercity targeting. This meant that nu- and enhanced accuracy of delivery systems)
clear weapons would likely never be used ex- have opened the possibility that nuclear war
cept in an all-out war, but it also meant that may be fought according to the moral stan-
any war in which nuclear weapons were em- dards of just war tradition. A more widely
ployed would thereby become an all-out war. held opinion, however, regards the idea of
A step in a different direction was taken limited nuclear war as illusory and "war-
when battlefield nuclear weapons began to be fighting" plans involving nuclear weapons as
developed and deployed in the 1950s. Their dangerous. On this view, the only possible
deployment by American forces in NATO moral use for nuclear weapons is deterrence,
was matched by decreases in personnel and in and even this is suspect.
conventional strength, implying that any So- See Just War; Deterrence.
viet attack in Europe would be met with a
nuclear defense. Now nuclear war might be J. C. Bennett, Nuclear Weapons and the Con-
"limited" war, contained within the theater flict of Conscience; 1962; B. Brodie, The Ab-
of land combat. solute Weapon, 1946; L. Freedman, The Evo-
The concept of limited nuclear war was lution of Nuclear Strategy, 1981, 1983; R. E.
further developed by influential authors in Osgood, Limited War, 1957; P. Ramsey,
the late 1950s and early 1960s. By this time War and the Christian Conscience, 1961; The
the USSR also had substantial countercity Just War, 1968; U.S. Catholic Conference,
strategic nuclear capability, enhancing the "The Challenge of Peace," 1983.
idea of a strategic "stalemate." An all-out JAMES TURNER JOHNSON
nuclear attack would imply all-out response
and total mutual destruction. To avoid this, Nuclear Weapons see Deterrence;
three related concepts were put forward: lim- Disarmament; Just War; Nuclear War-
ited war (the most general); graduated deter- fare; Pacifism; Peace; War
rence, implying a sliding scale of nuclear use
in war; and counterforce targeting, a move Nullity
away from the prevalent counterpopulation A declaration of nullity in regard to a mar-
strategy. All three reflected a return to more riage* establishes that there has never been a
traditional military principles such as econ- true marriage, whatever may have appeared
omy of force and engagement with the to be the case, and however long the parties
enemy's military power; they also held the may have lived together. Various reasons,
promise of fighting nuclear war by just war such as defective consent* or other impedi-
principles (cf. Ramsey, 1961, 1968). ments, may make a supposed marriage null.
With these developments the essential Nullity must be clearly distinguished from
dimensions of subsequent discussion were es- the Roman Catholic act of annulment, in
tablished. Nuclear war continues to be dis- which the pope dissolves the marriage bond
cussed in terms of the counterpopulation- in certain cases.
counterforce dichotomy, and the idea of HERBERT WADDAMS
limited nuclear war continues as a challenge
to strategic dependence on what has come to Oaths
be called "mutual assured destruction." Many Christian bodies have interpreted
Within the idea of limited nuclear war is a Matt. 5:33-37 as a total prohibition of all
further distinction between limited "strate- oaths and have forbidden their members ever
429 Official Roman Catholic Social Teaching
to take an oath in any circumstances. The Objectivity see Ethics; Metaethics
Roman Catholic and more general interpre-
tation of the passage is that it forbids un- Obligation
necessary, promiscuous, and frivolous swear- Often used interchangeably with "duty"* in
ing (see Cursing/Swearing). The Church of moral and legal discourse. However, it is
England in Article 39 interprets it this way sometimes distinguished from duty on the
and expressly authorizes the taking of an grounds that obligations involve special rela-
oath before a magistrate. tions and presuppose voluntary actions, such
An oath may be either a solemn affirma- as making promises* or contracts*, receiving
tion of the truth or a solemn declaration of an benefits (see Fairness/Fair Play; Gratitude),
intention to do this or that. To say under oath and harming or wronging others (see Resti-
what one knows to be untrue is to commit the tution), whereas duties rest on status, sta-
grave sin of peijury. It is a grave sin to swear tions, and roles in institutions. Both obliga-
to do something without the intention of tions and duties impose "oughts" that oppose
doing it or without in fact doing it. The bind- contrary desires and inclinations (see Duty).
ing nature of an oath is roughly the same as
that of a vow* and is terminated in the same R. B. Brandt, "The Concepts of Obligation
ways and for the same reasons. and Duty," Mind 73, no. 291, July 1965, pp.
See Affirmation. 374-393.
R. C. MORTIMER JAMES F. CHILDRESS
Obedience Octogesima Adveniens see Official
Christian tradition glorifies obedience. In the Roman Catholic Social Teaching
OT God's people, often disobedient, are re-
quired to hear and obey. In the NT obedient Official Roman Catholic Social
love is emphasized more, not less. The Son Teaching
obeys the Father even to death (e.g., Heb. Since the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII (d.
5:7-10). Full trinitarian doctrine builds obe- 1903) there has existed in Roman Catholi-
dience into the being of God. cism a body of official teaching on social is-
This is filial, not political obedience; re- sues. Papal encyclical letters addressed to the
sponsive, not external; yet contrary to whole church have often been the vehicle for
today's ideals. It has tended to foster hierar- such teaching, but the official teaching in-
chical notions of human relations (though it cludes less authoritative papal statements, as
could encourage equality before God). Mor- well as documents from Vatican Council II
alists today, with totalitarianism in mind, op- and the International Synod of Bishops. The
pose obedience to ethical autonomy* not to most significant of these statements, espe-
rebellion. When the obedient spirit is de- cially from the earlier period, deal primarily
plored, characteristic Christian ethics seem with economic ethics. Leo XIII first ad-
repudiated. But if Christian obedience is alle- dressed these questions in 1891 in his encycli-
giance and not subservience, then (since the cal Rerum Novarum, which dealt primarily
worst is the corruption of the best) pseudo- with the rights of the worker. Subsequent
religious oppression and capitulation can documents were often issued on the occasion
truly be understood as aberrations. of the anniversary of this ground-breaking
See also Authority; Dissent; Freedom. encyclical. The number of official documents
dealing with the issues is great, but the more
P. Baelz, Christian Obedience in a Permissive significant ones include: Pope Pius XI, Quad-
Context, John Coffin Memorial Lecture, ragesimo Anno (1931); Pope John XXIII,
1973; R. Harries, The Authority of Divine Mater et Magistra (1961); Pacem in Terris
Love, 1983; H. Oppenheimer, The Character (1963); Vatican Council II, Pastoral Consti-
of Christian Morality, 1974.
2 tution on the Church in the Modern World,
HELEN OPPENHEIMER Gaudium et Spes (1965); Pope Paul VI,
Populorum Progressio (1967); Octogesima
Objectivism Adveniens (1971); International Synod of
For objectivism, see Ethics. For opposition Bishops, Justice in the World (1971); Pope
to objectivism, see Emotivism; Relativism in John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (1981).
Ethics; Subjectivism, Ethical. These documents thus constitute a totality.
430 Official Roman Catholic Social Teaching
The very nature of authoritative church the mysteries of creation, sin, Jesus Christ,
teaching often commemorating an earlier and the future of the kingdom. Subsequent
document emphasizes the continuity in the church documents tend to adopt a similar
approach. However, the interpreter must methodology which does not deny the role of
also be alert to recognize the development human reason and natural law, but tries to
and changes that have occurred in the course integrate them into a broader Christian per-
of this teaching. The three most significant spective.
aspects of this teaching are the ethical meth- Such a methodological shift also provides
odology, the content, and the binding force of a more intrinsic connection between faith
the authoritative teaching. and the gospel on the one hand and the strug-
Ethical methodology. Pope Leo XIII, who gle for social justice on the other. Before
declared Thomas Aquinas to be the patron of Vatican Council II, the church justified its
Catholic theology and philosophy, employed involvement in the area of social justice be-
Thomistic methodology with its emphasis on cause of its obligation to point out the law of
natural law in his encyclicals (see Thomistic God in all areas of life and to help people
Ethics). Natural law* is the plan of God as attain their eternal salvation. In the light of
mediated in human nature and human reason the newer methodological approach, Justice
created by God. In ethical discussion, two in the World (1971) maintains: "Action on
different aspects of natural law should be dis- behalf of justice and participation in the
tinguishedthe theological and the philo- transformation of the world fully appear to
sophical. From the theological perspective, us as a constitutive dimension of the preach-
the natural law maintains that the Christian ing of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the
finds ethical wisdom and knowledge not only Church's mission for the redemption of the
in scripture and in Jesus Christ but also in human race and its liberation from every op-
human nature as understood by human rea- pressive situation.*'
son. The early papal encyclicals on labor and The philosophical level or aspect of natural
social justice appealed almost exclusively to law concerns the understanding of human
natural law and did not employ distinctively nature and of human reason. Here too a shift
Christian sources of ethical wisdom. The na- has occurred in these documents which can
ture of human beings and the nature of the best be described as moving from classicism
state are the basis for the teaching on the to historical consciousness. Classicism tends
rights of workers and the various roles of to see reality in terms of immutable essences
labor, capital, and the state in society. Pacem and uses a deductive reasoning process,
in Terris (1963) well illustrates a natural law whereas historical consciousness emphasizes
methodology. The laws governing the rela- historicity, growth, and change and uses in-
tionships involving individual human beings ductive reasoning. The classicist approach
and the state are to be sought in the nature associated with the earlier documents em-
of human beings, where the Father of all phasized the essence of human beings and of
things wrote them. John XXIII makes no the state and deduced universal moral norms
sustained appeal to Jesus, to revelation, or to from these essences. Perhaps the best illustra-
Christian love, but only to the order which tion is the plan for the reconstruction of the
the Creator has put into the world and which social order proposed by Pius XI in Quad-
human beings are able to discern in their con- ragesimo Anno (1931). The pope recognized
sciences. that society is an organism and called for
A significant change occurred at Vatican cooperative functional groups involving all
Council II. The Council called for a renewal elements in a particular industrycapital,
of all theology, with sacred scripture being labor, and consumers. These functional or-
the heart of the theological endeavor (see also ganizations, perhaps best described in En-
Bible in Christian Ethics). The Pastoral Con- glish as the industry council plan, were to
stitution on the Church in the Modern include all individuals in a particular indus-
World, Gaudium et Spes (1965), laments the try and would be quasi-public organizations
gap existing between faith and daily life. The with quasi-legal rights, thereby setting the
gospel, faith, grace, and Jesus Christ must be necessary policies for a particular industry.
more directly related to life in the world. Cooperation rather than conflict should be
Gaudium et Spes understands Christian exis- the basic attitude among all those involved in
tence and activity in the world in the light of the same industry. These organizations
431 Official Roman Catholic Social Teaching
would then be related to other similar organi- functions but with the positive goal of striv-
zations on a national level in a hierarchical ing for the common good, which ultimately
manner. Not only do later documents aban- redounds to the good of the individual. Obvi-
don such a plan, which was originally pro- ously there is an important role for authority
posed for the whole world, but in the last few in the state, but authority is not understood
decades official church teaching has moved primarily and only as coercive.
somewhat away from the classicism and de- Such an understanding gives a positive but
ductive reasoning behind such proposals. limited role to the state*. Within society, the
Pacem in Terrisfinisheseach of its four chap- state must respect, uphold, and promote the
ters with a section on the signs of the times. rights of the individual and of the family,
Gaudium et Spes begins its consideration of which is the basic unit within society. In ad-
particular topics not with an abstract defini- dition, there are many other intermediate as-
tion or essence but with a reading of the signs sociations that must function in a properly
of the times. Pope Paul VI in Octogesima organized society, such as educational, fra-
Adveniens (1971) insists much more on his- ternal, and religious organizations.
torical consciousness: "In the face of such Leo XIII's approach to the rights of the
widely varying situations it is difficult for us worker well illustrates how such a view of the
to utter a unified message and to put forward individual and of the state functions. The
a solution which has universal validity. Such worker as a human being has a right not to
is not our ambition, nor is it our mission. It be treated as a mere commodity in the pro-
is up to the Christian communities to analyze duction process. Among the rights of work-
with objectivity the situation which is proper ers is therightto a living wage, because in the
to their own country and to shed on it the present industrial situation a wage is the only
light of the Gospel's unalterable words and to way in which workers can provide for them-
draw principles of reflection, norms of judg- selves and their families. To secure their
ment, and directives for action from the so- rights, workers have the furtherrightto join
cial teaching of the Church." labor unions (see also Labor Movements).
Content. The cornerstone of official Catho- The state itself has the right and the obliga-
lic social teaching is the dignity and social tion to interfere to bring about justice and to
reality of the individual human being, which make legislation in this regard. "Whenever
later documents refer to as the human person the general interest or any particular class
(see Human Dignity; Persons and Personal- suffers or is threatened with harm, which can
ity; Respect for Persons). The basic value, in no other way be met or prevented, the
dignity, and inalienablerightsof the individ- public authority must step in to deal with it."
ual form the foundation for official Catholic Rerum Novarum (1891) admits, however,
teaching from Leo XIII's defense of the there are limits on state intervention: "Law
rights of the worker to John Paul IPs insis- must not undertake more, nor proceed fur-
tence on the priority of labor over capital. ther, than is required for the remedy of the
However, one cannot forget that the human evil or the removal of the mischief."
being is also social. The social aspect of Quadragesimo Anno explains the princi-
human beings grounds the recognition that ple of subsidiarity*, which should govern
the state is a natural society. Human beings the role of the state in society. The state
are by nature called to form political society should offer help (subsidium) to individuals
so that in and through the society they can do and to intermediate associations. It should
what individuals alone cannot do, and thus not take over what individuals and smaller
achieve their end and fulfillment. The end of groups can do, but rather should provide
the state is the common good*. There have those functions which it alone can dodi-
been some differences of interpretation of the recting, watching, urging, and restraining.
common good in the Catholic tradition, but This principle thus tries to recognize and
Mater et Magistra (1961) understands it as encourage the legitimate freedom and re-
embracing "the sum total of those conditions sponsibility of all who make up political so-
of social living, whereby human beings are ciety. John XXIII in Mater et Magistra
enabled more fully and more readily to upset some conservative Catholics by insist-
achieve their own perfection." The official ing on the fact of socialization, or an in-
Catholic teaching does not see the state pri- crease in the complexity of social relation-
marily as coercive or with purely negative ships, which calls for a greater intervention
432 Official Roman Catholic Social Teaching
of the state even in some areas that are of right, but even more against socialism and
intimate concern to the individual. communism on the left, the popes began to
The primary virtues guiding life in political stress not only the duties and obligations of
and economic society are social charity* and individuals, but also their freedom and their
especially justice*. The Catholic theological rights. Earlier popes were, in general, indif-
tradition recognizes three types of justice: ferent about the concrete form of govern-
commutative justice, based on an arithmetic ment, but Pius XII definitely favored democ-
equality, governs one-on-one relationships; racy*. Pacem in Terris contained the first
distributive justice, based on proportionality, in-depth elucidation of human rights within
need, and abilities, governs the distribution of the Catholic tradition. The tensions involved
goods and of burdens to the individual mem- in the developing tradition toward a greater
bers of society; legal justice governs the indi- emphasis on freedom and human rights came
vidual's relationship and obligations to the to a successful settlement when Vatican
society. Quadragesimo Anno introduced the Council II affirmed the principle of religious
term "social justice," but commentators can- liberty as a human right of alla position
not agree on the exact meaning of the term. that had not been acceptable to Roman Ca-
Many understand social justice as a new spe- tholicism before that time (see also Persecu-
cies of justice which directs the individual to tion and Toleration). Octogesima Adveniens
seek the common good with emphasis on or- recognized that in the new context in which
ganized action as the way to achieve that goal. human beings are better informed and better
These general approaches were applied to educated, two aspirations persistently make
the different problems that arose in the themselves feltthe aspiration to equality
course of time. As mentioned, Rerum Nova- and the aspiration to participation, two forms
rum and Quadragesimo Anno dealt primarily of human dignity and human freedom.
with the rights of workers and the proper The understanding of the individual and of
relationships involving labor, capital, and the the state serves as the basis for the Catholic
state. John XXIII in Mater et Magistra em- dissatisfaction with both the individualism*
phasized the need for justice for those in agri- of liberalistic capitalism* and the collectiv-
cultural work. Pacem in Terris and Populo- ism* of socialism* and communism*. The
rum Progressio (1967) emphasized that the condemnation of socialism was somewhat
social problem has now become worldwide stronger than that of capitalism. Quad-
and cannot be considered only within the ragesimo Anno, for example, recognized the
confines of one country. existence of a moderate socialism which miti-
In the course of the last century there have gated the emphasis on class struggle, violence,
been significant developments in official and the condemnation of all private property,
Roman Catholic social teaching on a number but Pope Pius XI concluded that socialism
of issues. Contemporary Catholic teaching which remained truly socialism cannot be
stresses human rights* and the freedom*, reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic
equality*, and participation of all in deter- Church. Catholic Church teaching and Vati-
mining life in society. However, such ap- can diplomacy strongly emphasized anticom-
proaches were foreign to Leo XIII. In Rerum munism in the Cold War period following the
Novarum, Leo did stress the rights of work- Second World War. However, intellectual
ers and their need to participate in unions, discussion, a willingness to work somewhat
but in many encyclicals on the political order with Communist regimes, and contact on a
his primary target was individualistic liberal- practical level between some Christians strug-
ism with its overemphasis on human free- gling for social justice and some Marxists
dom. Liberalism* taught the individual's in- changed the picture. In Pacem in Terris, John
dependence from God and God's law, and XXIII signaled an opening to the left by dis-
failed to recognize the social nature of the tinguishing between false philosophical
human being. In addition, in Leo's time the teaching and historical movements that have
vast majority of people were illiterate and originated from such teaching. Meetings and
needed to be governed by the rulers. As the discussions with such movements might even
20th century developed, the Catholic Church be opportune and productive at the present
saw its primary opponent no longer as liber- time. Later, Octogesima Adveniens recog-
alism but as totalitarianism (see Totalitarian nized a certain splintering within Marxism
State). Against fascism* and Nazism on the and also pointed out different levels of expres-
433 New Testament Ethics
sion of Marxism. Christians can never accept Binding force. In these documents the
atheism or materialism, but some Christians Roman Catholic Church's official teachers
do appreciate the Marxist concern for social claim the right and the duty to state author-
justice and see in it an apt sociological tool for itatively the principles of the natural law, but
analyzing social and political realities (see also also realize they do not have competency in
Liberation Theology). economics or politics as such. In the techni-
Leo XIII strongly defended private prop- cal theological terminology, these documents
erty* as arightof the individual human being belong to the authoritative or authentic, non-
and saw ownership of some private property infallible hierarchical church teaching (see
as the solution for the oppressed worker. Magisterium). Commentators often speak of
Some would judge, however, that he did not the principles that Catholics are bound to
adequately address the abuses of private accept, which remain at a somewhat general
property by the rich. Subsequently the tradi- level, and the concrete applications and judg-
tion, without denying the individual aspect of ments that are left to the consciences of the
private property, gave greater importance to individuals. Some contmporary Catholic
the social aspect, rooted especially in the theologians now recognize the possibility of
God-given destination of the goods of crea- dissent* from such authoritative church
tion to serve the needs of all. Populorum Pro- teaching in general and would logically have
gressa cited the teaching of Gaudium et Spes to apply the same principles in the area of
on the universal destiny of the goods of crea- social teaching. In practice, the principles
tion to serve the needs of all and maintained, contained in these documents tend to be
"All otherrightswhatsoever, including those somewhat general and allow some diversity
of property and of free commerce, are to be of interpretation and judgment within the
subordinated to this principle." Laborem Ex- Catholic Church on specific questions. Some
ercens (1981) taught that the ownership of commentators stress the more evolutionary
the means of production, whether in the form aspects of the social teaching, whereas others
of private or public ownership, must serve emphasize long-term radical solutions. The
labor and thereby make possible the first official teaching calls for a change of struc-
principle of the economic order, namely, the tures and a change of heart, but the exact
universal destiny of goods and the right to importance of both is debated among Cathol-
common use of them. ics. The principle of subsidiarity can be inter-
Pacem in Terris and especially Gaudium et preted differently either to enhance or to
Spes dealt with peace*, war*, and disarma- limit the role of the state. The principles of
ment*. The teaching recognizes the need of the just war also allow different possible in-
all to work for peace and the importance of terpretations.
international structures to bring about peace.
Operating within the context of the just war* J. Y. Calvez and J. Perrin, The Church and
theory, Gaudium et Spes recognizes as a last Social Justice: The Social Teaching of the
resort the right to go to war but only in self- Popes from Leo XIII to Pius XII 1878-1958,
defense. The way in which such a defensive 1961; R. L. Camp, The Papal Ideology of
war is waged is morally limited by the princi- Social Reform: A Study in Historical Develop-
ple of discrimination*, which forbids acts of ment, 1878-1967; 1969; J. Gremillion (ed.),
war aimed indiscriminately at the destruc- The Gospel of Peace and Justice: Catholic So-
tion of civilian populations, and by the prin- cial Teaching Since Pope John, 1976; D. J.
ciple of proportionality*, which requires that O'Brien and T. A. Shannon (eds.), Renewing
the good to be achieved is not outweighed by the Face of the Earth: Catholic Documents on
the evils involved in the war. The arms race Peace, Justice and Liberation, 1977.
is condemned as a treacherous trap which CHARLES E. CURRAN
affects the poor to an intolerable degree and
is not a safe way to preserve peace. Multilat- Old Age see Aged, Care of the
eral disarmament is a moral obligation for
all. The Council document for the first time Old Testament Ethics
conditionally recognizes the pacifist ap- Within the society of ancient Israel there was
proach within the church and also calls upon considerable diversity. Historically, one of
the state to recognize conscientious objec- the main components of that society was the
tion* (see also Pacifism). pastoralists who entered the land, either as
434NewTestament Ethics
peaceful infiltrators (e.g., the patriarchs) or dience to the law in order to maintain its side
as armed invaders (e.g., those who came in of the covenant relationship (see Mosaic Law).
under Joshua). Some of these retained their The same understanding may be presented in
pastoralist life-style; some settled and became rather different perspective by saying that
peasant landholders. They eventually incor- obedience is Israel's fitting response to what
porated into their national community the God has done for it, in making Israel his
agrarian and urban population which they people and in delivering it through his
found already in the land. mighty acts of salvation; notably through the
Thus we have a society composed of pas- exodus. Israel's obedience is thus an expres-
toralists, peasants, and city dwellers, each sion of the people's love for God, responding
group with its own life-style and not all hav- to the love he has shown to them. This view
ing the same historical roots or traditions. of the matter is most prominent in
Each of these groups makes a contribution to Deuteronomy (see, e.g., Deut. 6).
the ethics of the OT, and that ethics is to an The prophets (see Prophetic Ethics)
extent created by the tension between the ground their appeals for right conduct in
groups, their different traditions and their God's demand for righteousness, and they
different needs. Developments that might assert his determination to punish unrigh-
readily have taken place in a more teousness. The prophets show themselves to
thoroughly urbanized society were resisted be very familiar with the traditions of God's
by pastoralists and peasants whose position saving acts, and they take it for granted that
gave them different perspectives and some- theirs is a special relationship between Israel
times gave them an interest in preserving and Yahweh. But very rarely indeed do
more traditional values. prophets earlier than Jeremiah refer to this
We do not, therefore, expect OT ethics to relationship as a covenant, and only rela-
be totally homogeneous and consistent, espe- tively rarely do they appeal explicitly to law.
cially when we consider that the OT contains The wisdom literature*, which is very
material from a period covering at least a largely concerned with questions of right
thousand years. We find, for instance, that conduct, is not very explicit about the basis
some very "primitive" notions of sin and of its morality. It does say frequently that
guilt occasionally find expression. Some of "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wis-
these apparently primitive features have evi- dom," implying that it is the relationship to
dently been reinterpreted, whereas others God which is primary, and that wisdom,
persist without such reinterpretation. which manifests itself in right conduct, pro-
The OT literature draws no sharp distinc- ceeds from this. Wisdom, as the wisdom writ-
tion between ethics and religion. In concern- ers appear to understand it, is a matter of
ing itself withrightconduct it does not distin- acting in harmony with a cosmic order which
guish between right moral conduct and right is "given," and of which God is apparently
religious conduct. The law indiscriminately assumed to be the guarantor. But the sanc-
mixes commands on moral matters with tions that the wisdom writers threaten are
commands on religious matters (as, e.g., the usually pragmatic ones, and the motives to
Decalogue* does), and in the prophetic writ- which they appeal are generally those of en-
ings likewise religious offenses such as idola- lightened self-interest. They do not usually
try are frequently condemned virtually in the urge God's demand forrighteousness,as the
same breath as social injustices (Ezekiel pro- prophets do, or appeal to law or covenant.
vides some especially striking examples, e.g., Neither have they much to say about any
Ezek. 22). Hence, in speaking of OT ethics at special relationship between Yahweh and Is-
all we are imposing a distinction of which no rael attested by its peculiar history. The wis-
ancient Israelite would have been conscious. dom writings' only substantial references to
Demands for right conduct are, not sur- the saving acts of God are in chapters 10-19
prisingly, regularly grounded in religion. of the book of Wisdom and Ben Sira's praise
Yet, not all OT writers make their appeal to of famous men (Ecclus. 44-50).
religious authority or religious motives in the Clearly, the covenant and its associated
same way. In the Pentateuch the basis of Is- law were not seen by Israelites as the only
rael's relationship with God is the covenant*. basis for morality. As additional evidence of
The conditions of the covenant are enshrined this we may observe that the patriarchs, and
in the law, and Israel is committed to obe- others who lived before the introduction of
435 Old Testament Ethics
the law, are assumed to know what God's is totally without foundation. It rests on a
requirements are and to have an obligation to misinterpretation of the custom of making
meet them. Moreover, the OT everywhere bridewealth payments on marriage. There is
takes it for granted that Gentiles, who are no suggestion anywhere in the OT that mar-
outside the covenant, who have not received riage was seen as involving a purchase of the
the Mosaic law and have not experienced the bride.
historic saving acts, nevertheless recognize, One apparent inequality is that men have
or ought to recognize, universal standards of the right to divorce wives whereas women
behavior. This is implied most strikingly in have no corresponding right to divorce hus-
Amos 1:3-2:3. bands. Our knowledge of OT divorce law
These facts, together with the observation rests on a single text (Deut. 24:1-4), and the
that neither the wisdom writers nor the grounds on which divorce was allowed are ill
prophets, in appealing to a popular audience, understood. It is possible that other ways
make much explicit reference to law or cove- were open to a woman of putting an end to
nant, suggest that these themes were less de- an unsatisfactory marriage.
cisive for the thinking of the average Israelite The continuity of the family is all-impor-
than for those who put the OT into its present tant, and the right to produce children is ac-
shape. corded a high priority. There is a positive
What of the substance of OT ethics? What duty to marry, reflected in the divine com-
were the values by which the ancient Israelite mand of Gen. 1:28. Polygyny is allowed,
actually lived? In practice, the chief concern though in practice it was probably made use
in life was the maintenance of the family* of only by the rich and by men whose first
and its integrity. It is true that, if there is a wife proved infertile. The levirate law (Deut.
conflict, loyalty to God is expected to come 25:5-10) seems designed to protect not only
before family (Deut. 13:6-11), but normally the deceased, by giving him a kind of posthu-
this does not arise. Not only as a child but mous right to have children credited to him,
throughout life it is the Israelite's duty to but also the widow, by giving her therightto
honor father and mother (Ex. 20:12; Deut. produce children within her late husband's
5:16; cf. Ex. 21:15, 17; Lev. 20:9, Deut. 21: family.
18-21; 27:16; Prov. 15:20; 19:26; 20:20; 23: The safeguarding of the family property * is
22). To "honor" one's parents meant for the also given high priority. In theory, land was
Israelite not only obeying them but support- regarded as inalienable. It was understood
ing them in their old age. that at the conquest the land was divided
It is worth noting that the mother stands among the tribes and that the tribes had di-
alongside the father as an authority figure vided it among their component families.
(Prov. 1:8; 6:20; 30:17), even though from Thereafter the land was supposed to remain
some points of view the Israelite family and in the family in perpetuity. It is clear, espe-
Israelite society appear to be male- cially from the prophets, that this principle
dominated. The continuity of the family is was not always honored (e.g., Isa. 5:8; Micah
normally expressed in the male line, descent 2:1-2). Various laws and customs were de-
being traced through males and property in- signed to ensure that land sold because of
herited through males. The head of the hardship eventually reverted to its proper
household is a male, if a senior male is availa- owners (see, e.g., Lev. 25:8-55, which is con-
ble, though widows and other unattached cerned both with the institution of the jubilee
women may have their own households. It is and withrightsof redemption). Here we have
not common for women to play much part in an ethical principle that does seem to be
public affairs, though there is no absolute rootedfirmlyin an understanding of Israel's
barrier to their doing so (see, e.g., Judg. 5:4ff.; particular history.
2 Sam. 20:14-22; 1 Kings 21:5ff.; 2 Kings Loss of land meant, for the peasant, loss of
11:1-3; 22:14-20). Woman's sphere is thus livelihood, and this could lead to loss of lib-
primarily a domestic one, but in that sphere erty for the family's members through debt-
her authority is great (Prov. 31:10-31). That slavery. A high value is placed on liberty.
women are to be respected, and treated This is natural enough, but the feeling for
equally before the law, is everywhere as- liberty was probably heightened by the folk
sumed in the OT. The statement occasionally memory of Egyptian bondage, and by the
made that women were regarded as chattels exodus tradition which proclaimed it to be
436NewTestament Ethics
the will of God that all his people should be rigid class structure was at least partly suc-
free. The OT law acknowledges that debt- cessful. That at some periods there were
slavery was sometimes inevitable, but the gross disparities of wealth is not in question,
laws are designed to limit its duration and but all free persons, including foreigners,
ameliorate its conditions (Ex. 21:2-11; Lev. were equal before the law (Lev. 24:22; Num.
25:39-46; Deut. 15:12-18). 15:15f., 29), and slaves, too, had their rights
Important in maintaining the family were safeguarded (Ex. 21:2-11; Lev. 25:39-46;
the functions of the go'e/ (traditionally trans- Deut. 15:12-18; cf. Ex. 21:20f., 26f.; Lev.
lated as "redeemer" but perhaps better de- 19:33f.). This is in contrast to some other
scribed simply as "kinsman.") If anyone fell ancient Near Eastern legal systems under
on hard times his go'el was meant to come to which different social classes did not have the
his rescue; to avenge him if he was murdered same rights before the law and were often
(Deut. 19:4-12; Josh. 20); to redeem his subject to different penalties for the same
property for the family if he was forced to sell offense.
it (Lev. 25:25fF.; cf. Ruth 4:1-4; Jer. 32:6-15), A marked feature of OT ethics is what has
and to redeem his person if he was sold into been called its "worldliness." The good life,
debt-slavery (Lev. 25:47ff.). The go'el should as the Israelite sees it, consists in having nu-
also stand by a man if he was threatened, merous offspring, in living to a ripe old age,
especially if he was accused at law. In theory, in enjoying the respect of one's fellows, and
at least, if a man died childless, the go'el in acquiring enough wealth to be comfortable
might be expected to marry the widow and and secure. These are very materialistic val-
raise children by her (Deut. 25:5-10; cf. Ruth ues and could easily be represented as selfish
3:9-13; 4:1-13). ones. What sets them all in perspective is the
After the maintenance of the family the proviso that all these blessings must be justly
next priority was the maintenance of the acquired and justly used. Wealth is not to be
community*. It is the duty of everyone, but gained by squeezing every last drop of profit.
especially of the wealthy, to support the com- The righteous man does not reap his field to
munity's poorer and more disadvantaged its very edges, or gather the windfall fruit of
members, i.e., both to support them economi- his orchard, or return for the forgotten sheaf
cally and to protect them from injustice (Job (Lev. 19:9-10; 23:22; Deut. 24:19-21). The
29 is a description of how the ideal rich man wealth he acquires is to be used for the sup-
functions in his community). The commu- port of others, and his influence in society is
nity to whom this duty is owed not only con- to be employed in the defense of the weak.
sists of Israelites but includes resident aliens Property is less important than persons.
(who were often, in origin, refugees). The Offenses against the person are consistently
duty to support the poorer members of the treated more seriously than offenses against
community in this way is by no means pecu- property. The death penalty, for instance, is
liarly Israelite. Other ancient Near Eastern never invoked for offenses against property.
cultures recognized similar obligations. This again contrasts with some other ancient
The leader of society par excellence is the Near Eastern systems.
king, and he above all is to be the protector Above all, if the pursuit of any of the good
of therightsof the poor and underprivileged. things of life, however legitimate, ever con-
There were strong pressures in Israel at some flicts with loyalty to God, the Israelite is ex-
periods favoring the development of a hierar- pected to put loyalty to God first, whatever
chical, feudal structure of society, with very the cost. This is the clear message of the book
autocratic powers being exercised by the of Daniel, for instance.
king, but there were also strong pressures The ethical demands of the OT can be
from some quarters in resistance to such de- summed up under the overarching demand
velopments. Kings were not immune to criti- for righteousness* Righteousness is obedi-
cism (see, e.g., 1 Sam. 15; 2 Sam. 12:1-14; 2 ence to God. Righteousness is an expression
Kings 20:1-7); they did not make laws, only of love for God, for love inevitably (as an
applied the laws, and they had norightsover Israelite would see it) expresses itself in obe-
land, to redistribute it (1 Kings 21). dience. Righteousness is at the same time an
Deuteronomy lays down firm rules governing imitation of God. Leviticus 19:2 sums up
kingship (Deut. 17:16ff.). God's demands as, "You shall be holy; for I
The resistance to the development of a . am holy." God not only demands righ-
437 Omission, Sin of
teousness in those who serve him but is him- the sick and the prisoners (Matt. 25:31-45).
self righteous. His righteousness expresses it- This is consistent with the vision of Isaiah:
self not alone in rectitude and fairness but in "If you pour yourself out for the hungry and
mercy and grace. It is an expression of God's satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall
righteousness that he saves the oppressed, your light rise in the darkness and your
delivers those who are threatened, feeds the gloom be as the noonday" (Isa. 58:10).
hungry and the poor. Those who serve him The sin of omission is prominent in the
are expected to act similarly. To love him, to Bible because the theory of duty and respon-
obey him, and to be like him are all synony- sibility* is so sweeping. Biblical morality is
mous. biased in favor of the poor. Because "the pov-
It is not, however, true to say that for the erty of the poor is their ruin" (Prov. 10:15),
OT writers righteousness is defined by what we are enjoined to eliminate poverty*:
God does; i.e., an act is not made righteous "There shall be no poor among you" (Deut.
by the fact that God does it. There are at least 15:4). No one will be without "his own vine"
hints in the OT that righteousness is some- and "his own fig tree" (Micah 4:4; cf. Zech.
how self-authenticating and that in principle 3:10). We are to make our own the cause of
God himself might be judged by it. This is the those whom we do not even know, becoming
whole basis of the complaint of Job, and is eyes for the blind and feet for the lame (Job
implied in Abraham's argument in Gen. 18, 29:14-17). Such a massive commission to ac-
summed up in his rhetorical question: "Shall tivism and social responsibility opens the
not the Judge of all the earth do right?" door to the Bible's salient stress on sins of
omission (see also Sloth).
J. Barton, Amos's Oracles Against the Na- The distinction between omission and
tions,, 1980; E. W. Davies, Prophecy and Eth- commission is widely discussed in contempo-
ics, 1981; W. Eichrodt, Man in the Old Testa- rary bioethics*, particularly regarding the
ment, ET 1951; J. Hempel, "Ethics in the Old difference between hastening death and let-
Testament," IDB II, 1962; W. C. Kaiser, To- ting die. Some few authors argue that since it
ward Old Testament Ethics, 1983; H. W. is at times permissible to let persons die, it is
Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, ET inferentially moral also to actively induce
1974; C. J. H. Wright, Living as the People of death. This conflating of omission and com-
God, 1984. mission is ill considered because omission
HENRY MCKEATING and commission represent different moral
and psychological realities (see Double
Omission, Sin of Effect; Euthanasia; Life, Prolongation of)*
The sin of omission is the failure to do that Omission and commission differ in the fol-
which one has a duty* to do. To choose not lowing ways: (1) They differ in their effects.
to act may be a choice of considerable moral Though omission is not always more benign
import. Omission is not the same as inaction in its potential psychological effects, the im-
or passivity since it may be psychologically pact on the bereaved is foreseeably different
active and intense. Omission connotes delib- if death is passively allowed or actively in-
erateness and decision*; inaction and passiv- duced. Omission and commission in this con-
ity do not. text would also have differing effects on the
The sin of omission receives prominent at- medical profession and on social attitudes to-
tention in the biblical theology of sin. In the ward illness and dying. (2) Omission and
Bible, it is omission, not commission, that commission may differ also in their deliber-
best shows where the heart is. The scribes ateness, or voluntariness. Both omission and
and Pharisees were excoriated by Jesus not so commission involve myriad and distinguisha-
much for what they did as for what they did ble modes of consent.* The decision not to
not do. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, operate and the decision to give a fatal injec-
hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and tion are not volitionally identical choices, no
cummin, and have neglected the weightier matter how they are evaluated ethically.
matters of the law, justice and mercy and (3) The notions of agency* and responsibility
faith" (Matt. 23:23). In Matthew's judgment differ for omission and commission. Agency
scene, it is the omitters who are condemned, is diffuse in omission. It is easier to say who
those who did not bring food, drink, and did something than to say who did not do but
clothing to the needy, and who did not visit should have done something. Since the sin of
Oppression 438
omission is a failure to respond to duty, the disclosures of the biblical heritage. This con-
determination of whose duty and responsibil- sciousness has opened the way for a thor-
ity it is or was has its own special complexity. oughgoing integration of sociopolitical anal-
The differences between omission and ysis with theological and hermeneutical
commission show up in the practice of law, work. Thus the compartmentalization of the-
which often applies ethical categories. The ological studies is now coming seriously into
efforts of various systems of law to cope with question, though the established faculties
problems of omission, seen, for example, in continue to pursue rather fragmented inqui-
"Good Samaritan" laws, show the infeasibil- ries.
ity of collapsing omission and commission See Afro-American Religious Ethics;
into the same moral and human reality. Colonialism; Ecumenical Movement; Exploi-
See Sin(s). tation; Feminist Ethics; Genocide; Human
Rights; Liberation Theology; Marxist Eth-
D. C. Maguire, Death by Choice, 1984; S. C.
2 ics; Political Theology; Race Relations; Rac-
Mott, Biblical Ethics and Social Change, ism; Repression; Resistance; Revolution; Sex
1982. Discrimination; Totalitarian State; Tyranni-
DANIEL C. MAGUIRE cide; Women, Status of.
Oppression Kim Yong Bok (ed.), Minjung Theology: Peo-
The use of power* or coercion*, whether ple as the Subject of History, 1981, rev. ed.
violent or nonviolent (see Resistance), to 1983; E. D. Gray, Green Paradise Lost, 1979;
constrain another's freedom*, to violate G. Gutirrez, A Theology of Liberation, ET
another's rights*, to exploit another (see Ex- 1973.
ploitation), or to deny another's just claims GIBSON WINTER
(see Justice).This theme has become a cru-
cial category in politico-ethical and religious Optimism
interpretation since World War II. Oppres- Optimism is a way of thinking and living that
sion is probably as old as the human species; on the one hand affirms the capacity of in-
for example, biblical narrative is replete with dividuals to improve themselves and the
stories of exploitation*, including the suffer- whole human condition, and on the other
ing of Israel under Pharaoh and the later hand claims that ultimate reality, being
judgments pronounced by the prophets under the control of good rather than evil,
against oppressive practices within Israel (see supports, if not guarantees, this improve-
Prophetic Ethics). The decolonization that ment. There are various degrees of optimism,
followed the Second World War brought into various grounds on which it is affirmed, and
full view several centuries of oppression by several different philosophical and theologi-
the Western powers (see Colonialism). The cal frameworks of which it is an integral part.
churches had conspired in this exploitation An extreme version of optimism is ex-
for the most part, but began to break with the pressed in Browning's phrase, "God's in his
established powers by the mid-1960s. The heaven, all'srightwith the world." A second
Magna Carta of this new ecclesiastical move- extreme version is exemplified in Leibniz's
ment was forged at Medellin in 1968 (see philosophy that because God is all good, all
Liberation Theology). Other movements for wise, and all powerful he has created this
liberation have emerged simultaneously in "the best of possible worlds." Both of these
Africa and Asia. In the same period, the fit with the derivation of the word (from op-
women's movement revitalized what has timus, superlative of bonus, good)that is,
been called the "oldest revolution," forging belief that the best is in control. More moder-
new lines of attack on sexist exploitation (see ate versions of optimistic philosophy, directly
Feminist Ethics). related to belief in progress, are illustrated in
Perhaps the most significant politico- the Spencerian evolutionary naturalist and
ethical insights emerging from these move- Hegelian Marxist beliefs in the inevitability
ments for liberation are the retrieval of the of progress, and in the Deweyan affirmation
fully political character of the biblical faith that human beings can, by the use of intelli-
and the awareness that structures of oppres- gence, i.e., applied scientific knowledge,
sion such as patriarchy and anti-Semitism* achieve the enrichment of all human life.
are interwoven with the moral and spiritual The grounds for optimism may be said to
439 Order
center chiefly on judgments about the nature All varieties of optimism have been criti-
of humanity, history, and ultimate reality. As cized and its extreme versions ridiculed on
a philosophy of life it involves sometimes a the following grounds: (1) on general
belief in the basic goodness of human beings, grounds of personal experience, namely, that
at other times a more cautious affirmation events in the lives of individuals are at best a
that they are capable of improvement and of frightening mixture of good and of very real
increasingly achieving well-being and happi- evil, issuing into despair as well as hope; (2)
ness. In both the Roman Catholic and evan- on the religious grounds that original sin*,
gelical Protestant theologies there have been though it may be forgiven, leaves the human
surprisingly optimistic estimates concerning being always a sinner, capable of incredible
the human achievement of goodness, always, cruelty and destructiveness; (3) on historical
it must be noted, as a result of God's guid- grounds, citing not only the disasters of two
ance and grace*. In the former, people's ca- world wars but, much more frightening and
pacity both to perform good works by their urgent, humankind's present capacity and
own effort and to achieve saintliness with preparation for total destruction. These and
God's help is affirmed; among the latter, one similar considerations appear to render the
encounters John Wesley's counsel to Chris- outlook of optimism unwarranted at best, ab-
tian perfectionism*, and the social gospel* surd at worst.
movement, which was certainly optimistic in Is a Christian necessarily optimistic?
talking about building the kingdom of God in Those who say "yes" usually emphasize
the future. Paul's statement: "In everything God works
Historical grounds for optimism usually for good with those who love him" (Rom.
involve teleological assumptionsthat is, not 8:28). Jowett coined the phrase "apostolic
merely that history has discernible meaning optimism," a view that is temporarily pessi-
and purpose, but that it is actually moving mistic, i.e., about the actual condition of
toward a particular end. The Hegelian and humankind, but ultimately optimistic, hold-
Marxist view is of a patterned historical pro- ing that God is the Lord of history. Finally,
cess moving toward a rational and good end. Jesus' statement, "Be of good cheer, I have
The Marxist view is Promethean: it sees overcome the world" (John 16:33), is often
human beings as capable, like Prometheus, of used as a basis for the qualified affirmation
defying the gods and stealing their fire to that Christ has already won the victory of
provide themselves with the warmth of phys- good over evil* and so furnished the ground
ical comfort and the light of understanding for Christian hope* and joy.
(see Hegelian Ethics; Marxist Ethics). See also Enlightenment; Meliorism; Pessi-
In contrast with dialectical materialism, mism.
one Christian version holds that God acts CHARLES W. KEGLEY
and guides within history in such a way that
it is moving toward the kingdom of God* Order
and/or toward an eschatological end (see Es- Order, viewed as a structured state of affairs
chatological Ethics). rather than as a command, has been a peren-
Optimism has related the above beliefs nial concern of social ethics* in both philo-
about humankind and history to metaphysi- sophical and theological contexts as well as of
cal assertions. Central among these is the politics*. According to Thomas Hobbes,
claim, expressed by William James as the es- anarchy* prevails in the. state of nature,
sence of all religion, that "the eternal is where life is "solitary, nasty, brutish, and
good." Still more contemporary instances are short." Christian social ethics has tradition-
modern theologians such as Paul Tillich, ally emphasized the need for orderand the
who, in agreement with classical theology, threat of disorderbecause of its convictions
emphasizes that the ontological ground of about the universality of sin (see Original
being is good. Optimism has appeared within Sin; Sin(s); Total Depravity) and God's will
such differing and even conflicting frame- to preserve the world from chaos. Thus,
works as that of Herbert Spencer's biologi- order is viewed as a requirement of love*. For
cally grounded belief in the inevitability of example, Paul Ramsey (Deeds and Rules in
progress, the writings of the transcenden- Christian Ethics, 1967) argues that "there
talist poets, and the Christian theologies in- will be an inner pressure within acts that seek
dicated above (see also Progress, Belief in). to be concretely loving also toward order
Orders 440
(and not only order so far as it is just) as in international relations, see International
among the fundamental needs of men." Orde^; Peace.
There has been debate about whether order is Order is also important in Christian com-
a good in itself or a conditional good, but it munities, and the balance between freedom
has often received priority in Christian social and order requires constant attention and
ethics. When order has been viewed as the readjustment; see Discipline; Dissent; Ec-
primary end of the state*, justice* has re- clesiology and Ethics; Excommunication;
ceived correspondingly less attention. Magisterium; Scandal.
Emil Brunner (The Divine Imperative,
1932, ET 1937) contended that the Chris- P. C. Kuntz (ed.), The Concept of Order,
tian's first response should always be one of 1968.
accepting and preserving the existing order, JAMES F. CHILDRESS
even though the second response may be one
of resisting and reforming that order. But Orders
even when Christians have recognized the In his doctrine of the "two realms" of crea-
legitimacy of the second response of resist- tion* and redemption, Luther reaffirmed the
ance* or revolution*, they have emphasized "sacred secularity" of the ordinary tasks of
the threat of disorder and the importance of the common life as those which best meet our
establishing another order after the revolu- neighbors' needs in the service of Christ. He
tion. Order is not only a matter of rational further refined this doctrine with his view of
calculation, for it is dependent on forces be- the three "orders" or "estates" of society
yond human control and is construed as a which provide human beings with divinely
matter of divine providence. This emphasis ordained bulwarks against sin in the fallen
on order, particularly in Protestant doctrines realm of creation. He wrote (WA 26, pp.
of the orders* of preservation, has not gone 504f.):
unchallenged in the last twenty-five years. The holy ordinances and foundations in-
Theologically, G. Wingren has argued that stituted by God are these three: the minis-
we should attend to God's ordering of the try, marriage, and civil authority Ser-
world rather than to established orders, and vice in them constitutes true holiness and
H. R. Niebuhr has held that in all of God's pious living before God. This is because
actions upon us, God is creating, ordering these three ordinances are grounded in
(ruling or governing), and redeeming human God's Word and command (Gen. 1:28),
life; thus, Christians should respond to all of and are thereby sanctified as holy things
the dimensions of God's actions, rather than by God's own holy Word.
to a single dimension such as ordering. Rein- Above and beyond these three founda-
hold Niebuhr tried to escape conservatism* tions and ordinances is the general order
through a dialectical relation between justice of Christian love which constrains us even
and order: justice cannot be realized without beyond the boundaries of the three ordi-
order, but order cannot survive without jus- nances to serve the needs of our neighbors
tice, which for Reinhold Niebuhr includes by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the
both liberty (see Freedom) and equality*. thirsty, forgiving our enemies, praying for
Liberation theology* and theologies of revo- all men on earth, suffering all kinds of evil
lution* hold that the traditional focus on on their behalf, etc. These are good, holy
order ideologically obscures the need for so- works.
cial change and limits the options for the
realization of justice, liberation from oppres- This means for Luther's social ethic that
sion*, etc. Whether they in turn have paid the earthly kingdom in the "old age" of
sufficient attention to the need for order and Adam must be ruled primarily by God's law
to the structure of particular orders after the through human reason. Since most of God's
revolution is a matter of controversy. For creatures are not numbered among his saints,
related issues, see Anarchism; Democracy; and because sin persists even in the life of the
Institution; Law; Resistance; Revolution; redeemed, the "fruits of the Spirit" can play
State; Ecumenical Movement; Modern Prot- only an auxiliary role in governing the world
estant Ethics; Realism; for the dangers of of temporal affairs.
assigning priority to order over justice "Faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6)
441 Organ Transplantation
can nourish a sinful and unjust world only quality of life. Rapid progress is being made
indirectly through the social action of Chris- in the 1980s, particularly with the develop-
tians. The church can never directly "chris- ment of improved immunosuppressive drugs
tianize" the secular "orders" of politics, eco- that reduce the rejection phenomenon. Yet
nomics, education, etc., even though it is the supply of organs and tissues is inadequate
essential for loving Christian politicians, to meet the need and demand for transplanta-
economists, and educators to hold society tion. Enough cadaveric organs exist, but soci-
and the state accountable to God's sovereign ety has not yet found an effective, efficient,
law by making justice as humane as possible. and morally acceptable way to obtain them.
Luther's dialectical teaching on the rela- For example, enough deaths occur in the
tive autonomy* of the "orders" (free from USA each year under conditions that would
church-rule yet bound to God-rule) belies permit salvaging so that more transplantable
those ethical dualists, like the Nazified Deut- organs would be available than are needed
sche Christen ("German Christians"), who (estimate: 20,000 of approximately two mil-
have tried to give a "Lutheran" sanction to lion deaths). And yet in 1982 only 3,681 post-
the "orders of creation" (Schpfungsordnun- mortem kidneys were transplanted in the
gen ) which would permit the "orders" (espe- USA.
cially the state) to become absolutely autono- There are few religious objections to organ
mous unto themselves (Eigengesetzlichkeit). transplantation. Orthodox Jews are opposed
To stress both sides of these theonomous to autopsies and to the removal of organs
but historical "orders"that they are di- from cadavers, but most Jewish and Chris-
vinely ordained but also subject to God's law, tian groups do not oppose the use of living
dikes against sin* but also corrupted by sin donors of renewable tissue or of nonvital or
themselvesmany Protestant theologians paired organs (such as a kidney), or the use
now prefer to speak of the Creator's "orders of cadaveric organs where there has been ap-
of preservation" (Erhaltungsordnungen) or propriate consent*. Indeed, it may be an act
"emergency orders" (Notordnungen) or even of love* to donate one's organs before or after
"mandates of God" (Mandaten Gottes). death, or a deceased relative's organs, in
See also Lutheran Ethics; Justification by order to meet a neighbor's needs, whether the
Faith; Order, State; Two Realms. neighbor is identified or unknown, and some
WILLIAM H. LAZARETH Christian groups have urged postmortem
organ donation. While even a risky premor-
Orders of Creation see Orders tem donation could be justified by love, it
would probably be condemned as suicide* if
Ordinary and Extraordinary it would certainly or with high probability
Means of Treatment result in the donor's death (see Risk). Within
see Life, Prolongation of the Catholic context, mutilating surgery
(e.g., amputation) was justified by the princi-
Organ Transplantation ple of totality*sacrificing a part of the body
The first transplantation of an organ from for the welfare of the whole body. This prin-
one human being to another occurred in ciple was extended to justify a donor's use of
1954, when a kidney was removed from one part of his or her body in order to benefit
identical twin and transplanted in his another person and also benefit the donor as
brother. Since that time there have been over a whole moral-spiritual person. However, as
40,000 kidney transplants in the USA. Other many theologians have noted, this expanded
organs (heart, liver, pancreas, lung, and principle of totality would be dangerous if it
heart-lung) have been transplanted with reduced the potential donor to a mere part of
varying degrees of success, and tissue trans- a larger social whole. The principle of respect
plantation (e.g., cornea, bone, bone marrow, for persons* or autonomy* and derivative
and skin) is also widespread. In addition, rules such as privacy* dictate a policy of not
blood is commonly transfused, and hormone removing tissues or organs from a person's
extracted from pituitary glands can enable body, whether dead or alive, against that per-
dwarfs to grow. Thus, several transplanted son's will even to save someone else's life
organs and tissues can increase a recipient's (though, of course, compulsory autopsies are
chances of survival or improve a recipient's performed after certain deaths). It is difficult
442 Organ Transplantation
to imagine a sufficiently compelling state in- sent). However, a policy of express consent is
terest to warrant a policy of conscription* of ethically preferable, because it promotes ac-
organ donors. Relevant religious perspectives tive generosity and community.
also include convictions about the body*, A second ethical issue is that of living do-
embodiment*, and stewardship*. nors of renewable tissues, such as skin and
Several ethical issues appear in debates bone marrow, or nonvital or paired organs,
about public policies to increase the supply of such as kidneys. Living related donors now
organs. provide a smaller proportion of the kidneys
First, there is the issue of cadaver organs. for transplantation than earlier, and there are
In both the UK (Human Tissues Act of 1961) now very few cases of living unrelated kidney
and the USA (The Uniform Anatomical Gift donors, who provided 14.5 percent of the
Act adopted by all fifty states in the late transplanted kidneys in the USA prior to
1960s and early 1970s) the law allows in- 1967. The use of cadaver organs should be
dividuals to determine what will be done with favored if possible because it avoids risks of
their organs after their deaths and allows the morbidity and manipulation and coercion of
next of kin to donate a dead person's organs living donorse.g., a family may put pres-
unless the decedent previously objected. Fur- sure on a reluctant donor to provide a kidney
thermore, in both countries brain death legis- to another family member. But not using kid-
lation was passed to facilitate organ donation neys at all from living unrelated donors may
(it has not yet been passed in all states in the represent unwarranted paternalism* since
USA). (See Death, Determination of.) Yet in such a donor's decision may be adequately
both countries there is a shortage of cadaver informed, voluntary, and based on a strong
organs for transplantation, despite the re- moral or religious sense of love* or compas-
ports of opinion polls that large numbers of sion*. There is, however, widespread suspi-
people are willing to donate their organs or cion about the motivation of living unrelated
their relatives' organs after their deaths. donors who claim to be acting altruistically
Within this policy of express consent, it is toward their neighbors in donating organs.
possible that vigorous efforts to educate the Furthermore, the medical profession is reluc-
public and health care professionals about tant to impose medical risks on one person
the need and procedures, etc., and to for the medical benefit of another person
strengthen organizations for organ procure- since it violates the principle primum non
ment, would reduce the scarcity. Since it is nocere (first of all do no harm) and may cre-
difficult for health care professionals to raise ate the risk of a malpractice suit.
the subject of organ donation with a grieving Judgments about the adequacy of a living
family, one proposal is to provide incentives related donor's understanding and voluntari-
or even require hospitals to set up organ pro- ness can only be made in the situation, and
curement teams and to request organ dona- professionals should be sensitive to subtle
tions. Other proposals would modify the ex- signs of coercion* from other members of a
press consent policy to require individuals to family. Physicians sometimes justifiably pro-
make a decision for or against organ dona- vide a "medical excuse" for potential donors
tion or even to presume consent where in- under severe pressure to donate. Two classes
dividuals have not explicitly dissented or ob- of living related donors are particularly con-
jected. Such presumed consent legislation has troversial because their autonomy* is
been enacted in several countries, including severely limited and even nonexistent in some
Denmark, France, Israel, Italy, Norway, cases: children (especially preadolescent chil-
Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, but no En- dren) and mentally retarded persons. Be-
glish-speaking country had adopted it by cause of the limitations on their capacity to
1984. Yet the ethical objections to a policy of give valid consent, it may be unjust to impose
"contracting out" or "opting out" rather the burdens andrisksof organ removal (espe-
than "contracting in" or "opting in" may not cially kidneys) on them in order to benefit
be insurmountable, as long as individuals and some other member of the family. The coun-
perhaps their families have a clear right to terargument is that children and mentally re-
object and understand that they have this tarded persons frequently derive significant
right. Indeed, such a policy could be under- nonmedical benefits from "organ donation,"
stood as one of "tacit consent" and might for example, from the survival of a family
be considered ethically acceptable (see Con- member who contributes greatly to the
443 Original Sin
"donor's" well-being and happiness. Some example, pig valves in heart surgery. The
have proposed independent review of such moral objection to the sacrifice of animals
cases to determine whether the heavy pre- should be taken more seriously, but for most
sumption against using organs from a non- moral theories, religious or secular, it is out-
consenting person can be rebutted because of weighed when there is a significant chance of
significant nonmedical benefits to him or her extending human life or reducing pain and
in the absence of alternative means to save suffering.
the recipient's life. Finally, organ transplantation appears in
A third issue is a more radical proposal to the context of decisions about macroalloca-
tolerate or encourage a market in organs and tion (how much of a good should be made
tissues (a) to alleviate the shortage of organs available?) and microallocation (who should
and tissues for transplantation, and (b) to receive that good when its supply is limited?)
respect the freedom* of individuals to do in health care. In part, the question is
what they want to with their lives as long as whether there is arightto a decent minimum
they do not harm others. The main rejoinder of health care (as in the USA) or to equal
to the first argument is that there are other access to health care (as in the UK), and
effective, safer, and ethically preferable ways whether this right includes funds for organ
to increase the supply of organs. The main transplantation or for artificial organs, such
rejoinder to the second argument is that in- as the dialysis machine and the artificial heart
dividuals are not acting freely but are being (the former being routine, the latter currently
exploited when they dispose of their bodily experimental).
parts in a commercial transaction (see Ex- See Bioethics; Health Care, Right to; Life,
ploitation). Opponents also contend that a Prolongation of; Medical Ethics; Sick, Care
commercial system would be costly, would of the.
drive out altruism*, would be similar to pros-
titution*, and would reflect, symbolize, or R. Fox and J. Swazey, The Courage to Fail,
express societal values that are not defensi- 1979; P. Ramsey, The Patient as Person,
2
ble. In the USA, an earlier market in blood 1970; R. Scott, The Body as Property, 1980;
was replaced by a voluntary system, which R. Titmuss, The Gift Relationship, 1971.
already existed in the UK, in part because of Also see articles on "Organ Donation" and
arguments by Richard Titmuss, among oth- "Organ Transplantation" in EB and DME,
ers, that the commercial system, when com- as well as various articles in JME and HCR.
pared to the voluntary system, was ineffec- JAMES F. CHILDRESS
tive, wasteful, and dangerous and that it
expressed and encouraged nonaltruistic con- Original Sin
duct. Despite the opposition to a market in Biblical authority for this doctrine has been
organs, some have proposed incentives for found in Ps. 51:5 and Rom. 5:12ff. The latter
individuals to donate (e.g., tax deductions). It passage states a causal connection between
may be instructive to consider where the line Adam's sin and our sin, and this connection
should be drawn: coverage of a donor's medi- was defined more closely and linked with the
cal expenses, compensation of a living sexual act by Augustine. His argument goes
donor's lost wages, payment for the burial as follows: The church is baptizing infants.
expenses of a deceased donor, etc. Baptism cleanses from sin. Infants have not
A fourth issue is that of organs from ani- sinned themselves (Rom.. 9:11). Therefore
mals*. Despite futuristic visions of animal they must have inherited sin. They do this
farms for organs, at the present transplanting because conceived in the act of sexual inter-
animal organs into humans is considered course. "That alone was not sinful flesh
only as a last resort and a stopgap or bridge which was not born of such concubinage"
to gain time while a human cadaveric organ (On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.13).
is sought. Controversy erupted in the USA in What Augustine professes to find wrong in
1984 when a baboon heart was transplanted sexual intercourse is that in it the sexual or-
into a young baby. The taboo on interspecies gans are not under the direct control of the
transplantation is difficult to take seriously, will (the same is true of the secretion of the
apart from immunological considerations, es- gastric juices when eating). Augustine finds
pecially when a human life is at stake; after this a consequence of the Fall. Because Adam
all, animal parts are already being usedfor rebelled against God, his body rebelled
Original Sin 444
against him. That is at any rate true of human (though by no means all) Germans felt them-
sexual organs. It is because they are not like, selves responsible for the actions of Hitler?
for example, the arm, in direct control of the That again is a possible meaning of Paul, who
will, that human beings find shame in con- sometimes indulged in this type of group
nection with them. This rebellion is transmit- thinking. But again it is a difficult concep-
ted through the act of sexual intercourse and tion, for while it might be argued that the
as a result unbaptized infants are excluded Germans could have done something about
from heaven (presumably a test-tube baby Hitlerthough plenty will point out that
would not be). Calvin refused to accept they could notit is hard to see what we
Augustine's exclusion of unbaptized infants could have done about Adam. Or does it
from heaven. But the latter's influence on the mean that we have inherited Adam's sinful-
doctrine of original sin remains as one main, ness? Maybe, but if so, are we responsible for
and by no means academic, problem for the our inheritance as distinct from the use we
church. The church today is to distinguish make of it (cf. the example of people who
between the good and the not so good in inherit a tendency to alcoholism)? Or does it
Augustine's teaching. Over against his clear just mean that since Adam sinned, everybody
view of the universality of sin and the need has been born into an evil environment and
for divine grace must be set his unbalanced in the end environment gets us all down?
view of sex. It must at least be considered Again maybe, and yet all human sin cannot
whether any sound Christian view of mar- be attributed to environment. One of the ear-
riage can be framed today without some liest and most creditable motives for monasti-
break with Augustine. cism was the desire to get away from an evil
It would, however, be unfortunate if the environment. Yet even in the desert and the
idiosyncrasies of Augustine's view of sex or cloister men met with temptation.
the lack of historicity of Gen. 3 were to blind All these interpretations of the causal con-
people to the importance and necessity of the nection between Adam's sin and our sin have
Christian doctrine of original sin. It is an their obvious difficulties. But they are at-
attempt to provide a solution to the problem tempts to find a solution to the real problem
that sin* though universal is not necessary. arising out of the fact that sin while universal
All theories of original sin, artificial is not necessary. Even more important, they
though some of them are, are attempts to express the conviction that evil is something
solve this real difficulty. That is why Adam which cannot be eradicated from human life
plays in them a central role that he does not by social and political measures, valuable
play in the biblical teaching about sin. (Jesus though these may be. The evil in life is some-
and the prophets who speak profoundly thing like the dent in a burst ball, something
about sin do not mention Adam once.) But in which can be got rid of in one place only to
theological treatment of original sin Adam reappear in another.
inevitably plays a leading part. For he, their Of modern writers on sin, among the most
common ancestor, is one thing all humans significant are T. R. Malthus, whose Essay on
have in common. If in some sense it can be the Principles of Population (1798) while not
shown they have a share in andthough this directly concerned with the subject makes
is more difficulta responsibility for his sin, the salutary point that evil is something that
then the problem seems well on the way to cannot be eradicated by social and political
solution. In Adam's act all humans sinned revolution. Then there is F. R. Tennant,
and yet since Adam's act was voluntary, whose The Sources of the Doctrine of the Fall
there is no necessity about the matter. and Original Sin (1903), The Origin and
The later theology of original sin can be Propagation of Sin (1902), and The Concept
seen as a series of attempts to provide a solu- of Sin (1912) were written at a time when sin
tion to the causal connection asserted by was an unfashionable topic. Tennant made a
Paul: Is it that we were all present in Adam's sustained effort to correlate the traditional
loins and so had a share in his sin? Possibly, teaching with the fact that human beings
but if so, it is not an easy conception, for most have evolved and that moral standards
of us do not feel responsible for the sins of our change so that what is sinful action to one
more remote ancestors. Is it that Adam acted generation is not so to a later one. Written
as the representative of humankind and that earlier but influential later is Kierkegaard's
we are responsible for his actions as some The Concept of Dread (1844), one of whose
445 Otherworldliness
insights has been the recognition that the sins exercised as humanely as one would have
of thefleshand the sins of the spirit are basi- liked, it is arguable that since 1601 more or-
cally the sameflightfrom the Angst which is phan children in England have been cared for
a feature even of the state of innocence. In by public authorities than by private charity.
Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932) the In 1867 Dr. Thomas Barnardo, who was dis-
young Reinhold Niebuhr faced courageously tressed by the large number of homeless chil-
up to the fact that religion by absolutizing the dren in London, started a Home of Refuge,
relativities of the human struggle for power, financing it from voluntary funds. This
has sometimes, though not always, served to started a great national movement for the
intensify rather than to ameliorate sin. Nie- provision of homes for children; the Noncon-
buhr's The Nature and Destiny of Man (2 formist "National Children's Homes" in
vols., 1941-43) offers a major influential rein- 1869 and the Church of England "Waifs and
terpretation of original sin. Other important Strays Society" (now the Church of England
works include G. C. Berkouwer, Sin (ET Children's Society) in 1881. In the USA the
1971), and Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Infants Hospital was started in New York in
Evil (ET 1967). Emphasis on the social con- 1868, the Sisters of Charity Foundling Asy-
text and dimension of sin appears in libera- lum in 1869, and the Infant Asylum in 1871.
tion theology* and political theology*. In spite of the fact that under the Children
See Image of God; Innocence; Temptation; Act of 1948 the basic responsibility for
Sin(s). provision of children's homes in England
IAN HENDERSON (unlike the USA) is now a local authority
function, a very large number of children are
Orphans now being cared for by voluntary societies. In
Children who have lost or have been deserted the past, large numbers of children in the
by both parents. The Bible mentions full or- care of the big English children's societies
phans only once, the fatherless a great deal, were sent to Canada, Australia, and New
and the motherless not at all. From this one Zealand as emigrants when they grew up.
can assume that the Hebrews were able to The ideal solution to the sad problem of
absorb orphans and motherless children into the orphan is, of course, adoption*. This was
the extended family system, but that the lot made possible in England by an act of 1926.
of the fatherless child was tied up with that Adoption is not, however, suitable for all
of the widow*. children and must berigorouslycontrolled if
The numbers of true orphans have always exploitation is to be avoided. Public provi-
been small and within extended families pro- sion for orphans now include children's
vision for them was comparatively easily homes, preferably very small homes which
made. The medieval church took a considera- are like ordinary houses in ordinary districts,
ble responsibility for the care of orphans and and the boarding out of children with recog-
as early as the 6th century the diocese of nized foster parents.
Trves accepted all children placed in the See Children; Social Service of the
church porch. The Second Council of Nicaea Church.
(A.D. 787) extended the practice and the first
true foundling home was started in Milan in M. P. Hall, The Social Services of Modern
the same year. Most countries have since England, 1952; J. S. Heywood, Children in
then set up a variety of hostels of different Care, 1959; M. Hopkirk, Nobody Wanted
kinds for the care of parentless children. In Sam, 1949; D. Owen, English Philanthropy,
England the Foundling Hospital started by 1660-1960, 1965.
Captain Thomas Coram in 1739 was the first BRIAN RODGERS
of the large institutions. It must be remem-
bered of course that the development of sys- Orthodox Ethics, Eastern see East-
tems of public assistance in most countries ern Orthodox Christian Ethics
gave such authorities responsibility for or-
phans, and in England the Elizabethan act Otherworldliness
setting up the Poor Law made specific men- While the Christian life contains an element
tion of orphans and charged those responsi- of world renunciation, this is a dialectical
ble for the Poor Law with their special care. element that must be held along with world
Though this responsibility was not always affirmation. Nowadays the expression
Pacifism 446
"otherworldliness" is generally used in a lation to the Roman Empire, it is probable
somewhat pejorative sense for an undialecti- that few Christians were soldiers. In the 2nd
cal withdrawal from the world and an exces- century, Celsus criticized Christians for not
sive preoccupation with the world to come. participating in military service, but there is
See Eschatological Ethics; Secularism; evidence from A.D. 170-180 that some Chris-
Worldliness. tians were in the army. Their numbers in-
JOHN MACQUARRIE creased in subsequent decades, and it appears
that soldiers who converted to Christianity
Pacem in Terris see Official Roman were not expected to leave the army. Dra-
Catholic Social Teaching matic changes occurred in the early 4th cen-
tury with the conversion of Constantine, and
Pacificism see Pacifism
by A.D. 416 only Christians could serve in the
army. Nevertheless, Roland Bainton's com-
ment is apt: "The age of persecution down to
Pacifism the time [of] Constantine was the age of pac-
Pacifism, which means "making peace," ifism to the degree that during this period no
encompasses many different activities be- Christian author to our knowledge approved
cause "peace"* itself can be narrow or of Christian participation in battle." (See also
broad, because "making" involves various Patristic Ethics.)
positive and negative actions, and because it These Christian writers had many different
can be applied to personal, group, or na- grounds for their opposition to participation
tional policies. Peter Brock holds that con- in war: Rome's persecution of Christians, an-
temporary pacifism combines "advocacy of ticipation of the imminent end of earthly so-
personal nonparticipation in war of any ciety, suspicion of the world, fear of idolatry
kind or in violent revolution with an en- and divided loyalties in military service, im-
deavor to find nonviolent means of resolving morality among soldiers, and aversion to
conflict." A minimal, negative definition bloodshed. All but the last reason were only
covers a wide range of historical positions: contingently connected with military service,
opposition to war* and/or to direct partici- and many of them became irrelevant with the
pation in war through military service. Both conversion of Constantine and the increased
violent resistance* and revolution* raise role of Christians in the military. Contempo-
somewhat different problems about the rary nonpacifists tend to emphasize all of
Christian's relation to the state and have these reasons but aversion to bloodshed,
often been rejected even by Christians who while pacifists tend to emphasize aversion to
have accepted war and participation in war. bloodshed based on neighbor-love. (There is
They have frequently drawn a sharp distinc- also debate about whether the early church
tion between using violence for the state drew a sharp distinction between the police
and using violence against it. functions and the military functions of sol-
Despite the emphasis on "peace" in several diers.)
senses in the NT, there is considerable debate Even early Christian pacifists offered a
about whether the NT is a pacifist document, "relative justification of war" (Cadoux) as
in part because of ambiguities in Jesus' atti- part of their interpretation of the role of gov-
tudes toward violent resistance (see Resist* ernment in a fallen world. And in their apolo-
ance). Although Jesus' response to the centu- getics, they argued that Christians assumed
rion (Luke 7:9) suggested that it was not their fair share of the burdens of social life,
necessary to reject military service in order to including indirect participation in war
enter the Kingdom of God, many non- through their prayers for the emperor. They
pacifists concede that the dominant tendency were part of the militia Christi and con-
of Jesus' life and message is pacifist. How- stituted what Origen called a "special army
ever, it is clear that Paul and others justified of piety" and the "salt of the earth" that held
the government's use of the sword, both in- the empire together. Even though they
ternally and externally (see Rom. 13:1-7; 1 avoided direct participation in military ser-
Peter 2:14). Until A.D. 170-180, there is no vice, they rendered a more efficacious alter-
direct evidence that Christians participated native service. As threats to the Pax Romana
in military service or that they abstained increased, it became harder to justify Chris-
from such service. For various reasons, in- tian participation only through prayer rather
cluding their position in society and their re-
447 Pacifism
than through military service, especially cause it violates the commandment against
under a Christian emperor. killing (better translated as "murder"), the
When military service became acceptable norm of neighbor-love, the imitatio Christi,
for Christians, pacifism was channeled into a the requirements of discipleship, the de-
higher way of life based on the counsels* of mands of the suffering community in the
perfection. Earlier there had been a division world, etc. One of the most important con-
between the church and the world, now there temporary proponents of Christian pacifism
was a division within the church and among is John Howard Yoder, who draws on the
Christians. According to Eusebius of Cae- broad Christian tradition, as well as the Men-
sarea, Constantine's bishop and adviser, nonite tradition, to argue that Christians do
there were two levels of Christian vocation: not have a duty to make history come out
lay people could participate in just wars, right since it is in God's hands. Stanley
marry, etc., while the clergy could not partic- Hauerwas also defends pacifism in the frame-
ipate (by bearing arms) even in just wars, work of Christian narrative, story, and char-
could not marry, etc. The monastic* move- acter. This first type of^acifism emphasizes
ment also reflected pacifist tendencies. In ad- the Christian's witness rather than the conse-
dition to distinctions between higher and quences of that witness. (2) Pragmatic pac-
lower ways of life and between counsels and ifism (see Consequentialism; Pragmatism;
precepts, other dualistic strategies evolved to Teleological Ethics; Utilitarianism) holds
accommodate the "hard sayings" of the NT that pacifism will work for individuals,
to participation in war: (1) The distinc- groups, and nations and that it will produce
tion between actions for oneself and actions a net balance of good over bad effects in the
for others (e.g., Ambrose, Augustine, and world. It affirms pacifism as a policy and usu-
Thomas Aquinas). Even when the church ac- ally presupposes an optimistic view of human
cepted participation in war it continued for a nature. (3) Redemptive witness, a combina-
long time to prohibit killing in self-defense. tion of (1) and (2), holds that pacifism is both
(2) The distinction between attitudes and right and effective, perhaps through the
bodily actions (e.g., Augustine and Luther). transformation brought about by unmerited
According to Augustine, Jesus ruled out suffering. This position has been defended by
malitia (hatred), not militia (military serv- some Quakers (see Quaker Ethics; Resist-
ice). (3) The distinction between private and ance), and it has been vigorously rejected by
public actions (e.g., Augustine and Luther). realists (see Realism), such as Reinhold Nie-
As Augustine developed this distinction, war buhr, who sometimes find (1) tolerable and
is just only when it is fought under divine or even meritorious because of its representa-
governmental authorization, and rebellion tion of Christian love, but who repudiate
has no place. both (2) and (3) because their claims about
These distinctions did not satisfy all Chris- effectiveness overlook the reality of sin and
tians, and during the Middle Ages such evil in the world. (4) Technological pacifism
groups as the Waldenses and the Czech usually nuclear pacifismis very different
Brethren were pacifists. During the Reforma- because it only opposes modern wars and not
tion, the Swiss Brethren and some other Ana- necessarily all of them. It usually appeals to
baptists (but not all) were pacifists; for exam- just war* criteria to hold that such wars, par-
ple, the Schiesheim Confession of Faith ticularly nuclear wars, would be unjust be-
(1527) rejected the sword as "outside the per- cause disproportionate, indiscriminate, or
fection of Christ." Erasmus, among others, both (see Deterrence; Nuclear War).
defended humanistic pacifism. Pacifism has Some religious pacifists have displayed sec-
been common, but not universal, among the tarian tendencies to withdraw from the
members of the "historic peace churches" world, while others have thought that the
Quakers, Mennonites, and Brethrenand it world itself could renounce the use of armed
has attracted such adherents as Leo Tolstoy. force. Pacifism has been more common in
Although any typology will oversimplify various Protestant groups, but in the last few
the many different versions of religious and decades it has become increasingly familiar
secular pacifism, it is possible to identify sev- in Roman Catholicism (e.g., Gordon Zahn,
eral major types: (1) Deontological pacifism Dorothy Day, and the Catholic Worker
(see Deontology) holds that war and/or Movement). Pacifists and nonpacifists share
Christian participation in war is wrong be- more than is often recognized because both
Parenesis 448
begin with a presumption against the use of Parenthood
armed force but disagree about whether that In most cultures "marriage"* refers to the
presumption can be rebutted. Both also have public bonding of a woman and a man for the
a stake in securing national compliance with purpose of sharing a common life. Since this
the standards of the just war tradition in common life involves sexual relations, mar-
order to limit the resort to and the conduct riage has usually been the foundation of fam-
of war. Nevertheless, there are fundamental ily life, though not all marriages produce
divergences, not only in the interpretation families. "Family"* refers to an intergenera-
and application of moral norms, such as love tional unit formed through procreation* or
and justice, but also in conceptions of human adoption* and involved with the raising of
nature, society, and the church. children. In traditional Western culture,
See Conscientious Objection; Conscrip- marriages have been monogamous, though
tion; Just War; Militarism; Peace; Power; families headed by single parents, usually
Resistance; Revolution; State; War. women, have often resulted from separation,
divorce, death, or unfavorable socioeconomic
R. Bainton, Christian Attitudes Toward War conditions. Today more and more families
and Peace, 1960; P. Brock, Pacifism in exist beyond the marriages that initiated
Europe to 1914, 1972; and Twentieth-Cen- them, or become combined with families
tury Pacifism, 1970; C. J. Cadoux, The from two or more marriages. Together with
Early Christian Attitude to War, 1919, repr. the increased use of contraception* within
1982; J. F. Childress, "Moral Discourse marriage, and changing attitudes toward
About War in the Early Church," JRE 12, child-raising itself (see Children), these de-
no. 1, Spring 1984; A. Harnack, Militia velopments have cast parenthood more
Christi (1905), ET 1981; S. Hauerwas, The clearly as a state related to but separable
Peaceable Kingdom, 1983; J.-M. Hornus, It from marriage. Two-parent, single-parent,
Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight, ET 1980; G. and multi-parent (formed through remar-
Nuttall, Christian Pacifism in History, 1958; riage with more than one set of parents hav-
J. H. Yoder, Nevertheless: The Varieties of ing a role in child-raising) families, and same-
Religious Pacifism, 1971; The Politics of or mixed-gender households (child-raising
Jesus, 1972; and The Priestly Kingdom, pairs or groups not formed by traditional
1984. marriage), immensely complicate the social,
JAMES F. CHILDRESS psychological, ethical, and theological under-
standing of parenthood.
Paederasty see Pederasty Traditional views in Christian ethics on
parenthood have been closely tied up with
Pain see Evil; Suffering views on marriage and family, with parent-
hood usually seen as a gift or duty received
Papal Social Teachings see Official or assumed in marriage. Yet it is also possible
Roman Catholic Social Teaching to see marriage and parenthood as vocations*
(see Family). Such a view must still contend
Pardon see Absolution; Amnesty; Forgive- with the many instances of parenthood not
ness; Mercy; Penology entered intentionally, though these may in
time come to be regarded as a vocation.
Parenesis Virtues and vices of parenthood. Whether
A word from Greek meaning advice, admo- entered by procreation, adoption, or mar-
nition, or exhortation (also spelled paraene- riage into an existing family, and whether
sis). It identifies a form of ethical discourse or seen as gift, duty, or vocation, parenthood
writing commonly employed in the literary exhibits virtues and vices related to the prac-
analysis of biblical writings, e.g., Matt. 7; tice of child-raising.
Rom. 12. The hortatory mode of ethical Combination of love and authority. Pro-
statement is characteristic of religious ethics. viding care and nurture for each child along
It presupposes a strong basis for duty and the with discipline and the setting of limits con-
need for improvement, and often a doctrinal tributes to the psychosocial and spiritual de-
framework in which the mere outlining of velopment of children. It fosters a sense of
moral reasoning is inadequate. self-worth in a setting of interpersonal re-
J. L. HOULDEN sponsibility, and in Christian terms reflects
449 Paternalism
the mercy and justice, grace and law of God. theories ofLexperts in education, psychology,
Related vices include the rigid separation of and sociology; diverse religious traditions;
love and authority along gender lines, disci- popular culture; each parent's own upbring-
plining by physical or psychological abuse, ing; and the peer groups of parents and chil-
and setting no limits or vague limits in the dren. Christian ethical reflection tries to sort
name of love. out these issues in ways appropriate to Chris-
Modeling and training. Parents inevita- tian belief and experience.
bly provide role models and training in social
skills, as well as exercising primary responsi- J. Blustein, Parents and Children, 1982; S.
bility for the assignment of certain special- Hauerwas, A Community of Character, 1981,
ized child-raising tasks to others (educators, pp. 155-229.
day-care center operators, etc.). Evaluation RICHARD BONDI
of how they perform these tasks is related to
what vision of the good of children one holds Passion see Emotion
(see Children). Related vices clearly include
trying to live through the lives of the children Pastoral Constitution on the
and demanding an unrealistic perfectionism. Church in the Modern World
Balance of loyalty and interdependence. see Official Roman Catholic Social Teach-
Both within the family and between the fam- ing
ily and the rest of the world parents can do
much to foster personal allegiance and social Paternalism
responsibility, including affirmation of sup- The term "paternalism" first appeared in the
port and love at times of failure, assignment 1880s, but the idea is much older. Paternal-
to children of important tasks in family life, ism is "the principle and practice of paternal
and explicit recognition of the family's inter- administration; government as by a father;
dependence with other families and com- the claim or attempt to supply the needs or
munities. Related vices include neglect of re- to regulate the life of a nation or community
sponsibilities, abuse of loyalty by fostering in the same way as a father does those of his
isolationism, and refusal to admit errors or children" (OED). Although the term "pater-
failures of parents or children. nalism" is widely used, especially in a pejora-
Problematic issues of ethical reflection in- tive sense, other terms such as "parentalism"
clude the following: have been proposed because paternalism is
Impact of marital relations and status. sex-linked and because it reflects the image of
Sexual, power, role, and other related issues the 19th-century father. Even though family
in the parent's marriage, and also whether structures have changed greatly in the 20th
the parent is single, married, remarried with century so that fathers do not generally act
a stepparent and a biological parent now in- "pateraalistically" (i.e., the way the meta-
volved in child-raisingall offer problems phor "father" appears to presuppose), the
and possibilities for a given family. metaphor may still be useful because of what
The social network in which families it suggests and evokes. Furthermore, women
exist. Schools, governments, media, the econ- in various roles, such as mothers and physi-
omy, class and ethnic status can both support cians, may also act pateraalistically.
and threaten individual families. What is evoked by the metaphor of father
Disruptions of parenthood. Illness, dis- in paternalism? First, the father's motiva-
ability, death, unemployment, generational tions and intentions are assumed to be benev-
conflicts, alcohol and drug abuse, pre- and olent, caring, and loving, and the father is
extramarital affairs, and divorce all present assumed to seek the child's best interests.
special problems in the families in which they Second, the father makes some of the deci-
occur. sions regarding the child's interests, even if
Conflicting visions of a good family life. the child opposes those decisions. A paternal-
Ethical reflection on parenthood is compli- ist, such as the government or a professional,
cated by the diversity of convictions as to refuses to acquiesce in another person's
what constitutes good family life. This prob- wishes, choices, or actions for that person's
lem is exacerbated when family life is seen as own benefit, often by using force or control-
a private and thus arbitrary matter. Conflict- ling information (e.g., by deception or non-
ing sources of normative visions include the disclosure of information). The debate about
Paternalism 450
paternalism frequently appears in the context sult, but according to the line of argument
of such matters as suicide* and suicide inter- just identified, all assistance against a compe-
vention, refusal of lifesaving medical treat- tent person's wishes is an insult.
ment (see Life, Prolongation of), involuntary Even vigorous opponents of paternalism
hospitalization*, and health promotion (e.g., usually recognize some exceptional circum-
laws discouraging the use of tobacco*, alco- stances under which paternalistic actions can
hol, and drugs). (See also Alcoholism; Drug be justified. Mill limited his antipaternalistic
Addiction; Morality, Legal Enforcement of; principle to people in "the maturity of their
Risk.) faculties," and he justified the use of force to
Paternalism clearly expresses some impor- stop someone from crossing a dangerous
tant moral principles in Western religious, bridge, at least temporarily, in order to make
humanistic, and professional traditions. For sure that the person is competent, informed,
example, the Hippocratic tradition in medi- and acting voluntarily. Using similar exam-
cine holds that the physician's primary duty ples, philosophers and theologians have dis-
is to benefit the patient, and traditionally tinguished strong and weak paternalism or
codes of medical ethics have emphasized pa- extreme and limited paternalism. For strong
tients' needs rather than theirrights(e.g., the or extreme paternalism, it makes no differ-
right to information). (See Hippocratic ence whether the person whose wishes,
Oath; Medical Ethics; Consent.) The princi- choices, and actions are overridden is compe-
ple of love* of neighbor* also supports pater- tent, informed, and acting voluntarily; the
nalism: the agapistic agent should seek the only question is whether paternalistic actions
neighbor's welfare and best interests. For the would provide a net benefit to that person. By
most part, the Christian tradition has as- contrast, for weak or limited paternalism, it
sumed an objective interpretation of the is necessary to show not only that the pater-
neighbor's needs and interests and has paid nalist's actions would probably provide a net
little attention to the conflicts that are gener- benefit to the neighbor, but also that the
ated when the neighbor has a different inter- neighbor suffers from some encumbrance, de-
pretation of those needs and interests. After fect, or limitation in deciding, willing, or act-
all, the good Samaritan did not encounter a ing. In weak or limited paternalism, benevo-
resistant stranger who refused assistance and lence* or love* provides the motivation, but
asked to be allowed to die. the action is also constrained by the principle
There are various reasons for suspicion of of respect for persons*. Only if the neighbor
paternalism in a pluralistic society where is not able to determine or pursue his or her
there are different interpretations of human own interests will that person's wishes,
interests: concerns about increasing the choices, and actions be overridden. It is not
power of the state or professionals by allow- insulting or disrespectful to treat an incompe-
ing them to use force or control information tent person so as to benefit that person, even
in order to benefit people; concerns about if he or she desires something else (see Auton-
whether the paternalist's own interests dis- omy). According to some interpretations,
tort his or her interpretation of the neighbor's weak or limited paternalism is not controver-
interests; concerns about the subjective val- sial and should not even be considered a form
ues that enter definitions of needs (e.g., such of paternalism.
categories as health, disease, and illness). Several major conditions have been pro-
(See Pluralism; Health and Disease, Values posed for justified (weak or limited) paternal-
in Defining.) One of the main reasons for istic actions toward a neighbor: (1) the neigh-
opposition to paternalism appears in Jqha bor's defect, encumbrance, or limitation in
Stuart Mill's classic essay On Liberty (1859): deciding, willing, or acting; (2) the neighbor's
Paternalism tends to violate the principle of high probability of serious harm apart from
respect for persons*, or autonomy*, at least a paternalistic intervention; (3) the probabil-
in settings where no one else is harmed. Pat- ity that a paternalistic intervention will pro-
ernalism is generally wrong because it tends duce a net balance of benefit over harm to the
to violate a person's dignity and to insult or neighborthis is the condition of propor-
display disrespect to that person to treat him tionality*; (4) selection of the least restric-
or her as a child in need of paternal control tive, least insulting, least humiliating means
(see Human Dignity). Friedrich Nietzsche of intervention (Childress). In a pluralistic
suggested that all assistance is a form of in- society where there is disagreement about
451 Paternalism
substantive ends and goods, this sort of weak temptation of respect for persons or auton-
or limited paternalism recognizes the neigh- omy, uncoupled from agape or benevolence,
bor's right to make his or her own decisions is sloth* and indifference to the needs of oth-
where able to do so and where this does not ers.
harm anyone else or the society. It is a It may be useful to distinguish active pater-
procedural solution to conflict about the nalism from passive paternalism. In active
good life: it allows each competent person to paternalism, the paternalist attempts to
decide for himself or herself (see Pluralism). thwart the preferences of the neighbor (e.g.,
The Christian doctrine of sin* implies that having the neighbor involuntarily committed
people's preferences may not be identical for medical treatment), while in passive pa-
with their true interests, and this doctrine, ternalism, the paternalist refuses to carry out
along with others, lends support to paternal- the neighbor's wishes (e.g., a physician
istic actions. But since Christianity recog- refuses to sterilize a young woman at her
nizes the universality of sin, it may also sup- request because of a belief that elective sterili-
port procedures to prevent one sinful person zation would not be in her best interests). It
from overriding the wishes, choices, and ac- is easier, ceteris paribus, to justify passive
tions of another sinful person when no one paternalism than active paternalism. Passive
else is threatened. Opposition to paternalistic paternalism is, after all, an expression of the
actions rules out the use of force and the paternalist's conscience and refusal to be a
control of information, but it does not rule mere instrument or means in the service of
out efforts to persuade others of the value of the neighbor's wishes. Love does not issue the
certain ways of life. neighbor a "blank check" (Outka).
The tendency of a love-ethic to become Most criticisms of paternalism presuppose
paternalistic has often been neglected, with Mill's distinctions between self-regarding
unfortunate theoretical and practical conse- and other-regarding actions (the former pri-
quences. Determination of the neighbor's marily affecting the self and the latter primar-
welfare has been assumed rather than ily affecting others), and between voluntary
analyzed, and little attention has been paid to and nonvoluntary actions (the former involv-
which of the neighbor's interests has priority ing competence, information, and voluntari-
if not all of them can be realized, or if the ness and the latter lacking one or more of
agapist has a different ranking than the recip- those characteristics). Several arguments for
ient. The principle of neighbor-love fre- increased control by the state, professionals,
quently becomes paternalistic when con- or others hold that the boundaries between
joined with certain values and beliefs about self and other or between voluntary and non-
human nature, the soul, the body, life after voluntary actions have become increasingly
death, and so forth. For example, if an aga- tenuous, and that the actions Mill exempted
pist believes that an act of suicide not only from external controlvoluntary, self-
ends the suicide's earthly life but deprives the regarding actionsare almost nonexistent. It
suicide of eternal salvation, he or she may be is true that in an interdependent society "no
likely to intervene to prevent suicide. man is an island" (John Donne) and many
As the discussion of weak and limited pa- actions may adversely affect others; but these
ternalism suggests, it is important to view adverse effects are not always sufficient to
agape as limited, constrained and restricted justify restrictions on actions. Furthermore,
by the principle of respect for persons, or, it is not clear that all of pur actions are so
alternatively, as including concern for the conditioned or determined, for example, by
neighbor's wishes as well as his or her needs. social forces, that we have no autonomy and
The neighbor's freedom, including choices, tliat weak paternalism is commonly justified.
decisions, and preferences, may count as one Smoking is a good example of some of these
of the neighbor's interests, along with others. debates about paternalism (see Tobacco, Use
Still there is a problem of ranking interests. of).
Thus, it may be important to balance agape See Behavior Control; Individualism; Lib-
and respect or, within agape, to balance the eralism; Libertarianism; Morality, Legal En-
neighbor's interest in freedom and other in- forcement of.
terests. The temptation of paternalism, moti-
vated by agape or benevolence, is pride*, ar- J. F. Childress, Who Should Decide? Pater-
rogance, and self-righteousness; but the nalism in Health Care, 1982; G. Dworkin,
Patriotism 452
"Paternalism," in Morality and the Law, ed. and Immoral Society (1932), which held that
R. A. Wasserstrom, 1971; W. Gaylin et al., group morality is inferior to personal moral-
Doing Good, 1980; J. Kleinig, Paternalism, ity, Niebuhr portrayed the "altruism" of pa-
1983; G. Outka, Agape, 1972; R. Sartorius triotism as "simply another form of selfish-
(ed.), Paternalism, 1983. ness." Nation-states have become the
JAMES F. CHILDRESS embodiments of a collective egoism which
asserts a will to power typically unrestrained
Patriotism by any rational social force.
Pride in one's nation, a zealous devotion to A more positive valuation of both patri-
its welfare, and a fervent loyalty* to its gov- otism and world community is suggested by
ernment are the common marks of patriot- several modern prophets. Dietrich Bonhoef-
ism. Typically there is a mingling of the secu- fer felt driven to return to Germany from
lar and the sacred in the sentiments of America to share in his compatriots' strug-
patriotism. It is the sacred exaltation of na- gles against Hitler in order to earn the right
tional loyalties above all other loyalties to participate in a postwar peace. Dag Ham-
which makes some forms of patriotism a reli- marskjld insisted that separation from na-
gious issue and an ethical burden. In Hegel's tionhood can lead not to life but to spiritual
Philosophy of Right, patriotism is pictured as death; his own Swedish pride mixed marvel-
the sentiment which is fully conscious of obli- ously with a profound appreciation of other
gation to the state itself as the fulfillment of cultures which was crucial to his style of
the Divine Idea in history. peacemaking. Martin Luther King, Jr., was
Historically, patriotism has typically been second to none in his power to evoke images
a function of international conflict: antipathy of the American dream which were conso-
to enemies may be the prime source of patri- nant with prophetic theology.
otic emotions. Modern warfare has not only The tendency of liberals to forfeit the
demanded heroism and sacrifice and the ut- struggle over the symbols of nationhood to
most of national unity: its propaganda* has regressive groups, such as the New Right,
whipped up inhuman images of enemies, the has deprived both the churches and the pub-
conduct of war has tended to collapse moral lic debate of some of their most potent ethical
constraints, and the legacy of war has been an resources.
unreconciled and chauvinistic portion of the See International Order; International-
public, if not the whole public. Thus war and ism; Loyalty; National Sovereignty; State.
internationalrivalrytend to make patriotism
a love-and-hate phenomenon. M. Janowitz, The Reconstruction of Patriot-
It is the manipulation and exploitation of ism: Education for Civic Consciousness, 1983;
these nonrational elements which makes the J. Morray, Pride of State: A Study in Patrio-
pretense of patriotism a constant temptation tism and American National Morality, 1959;
to demagoguery. Patriotism may begin, then, R. Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Soci-
as a noble virtue but it may end as a vulgar ety, 1932; J. Yoder, The Politics of Jesus,
vice. When reason retreats and fairness flees, 1972.
and the only thing that matters is to discredit ALAN GEYER
political opponents,flag-wavingis a common
weapon. Patriotic rhetoric has sought to Patristic Ethics
sanctify racism, sexism, antiunionism, excess The phrase "patristic ethics" refers in the
profits, witch hunts, religious bigotry, and first instance to the prescribed and accepted
environmental plunder. In 1775 Samuel life-style of Christian communities in the 2nd
Johnson declared to James Boswell that "pa- and following centuries, and then to the theo-
triotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." retical and practical teaching of certain
Arnold Toynbee's Study of History described prominent Christian thinkers and leaders
patriotism as "the last infirmity of noble about Christian morality and its foundations.
minds." In all cases, the Christian morality of the first
Among modem ethicists, Reinhold Nie- four or five centuries was understood to have
buhr provided perhaps the most ambiguous, its basis in the gifts of repentance and of new
if not cynical, estimates as to what the dy- life which were conferred in baptism. It had,
namics of patriotism really amount to. In therefore, a negative and a positive moment.
keeping with the central thesis of Moral Man On the one hand, it was a turning from the
453 Patristic Ethics
world and its waysfrom a life in the service The seriousness with which these stan-
of the demonic powers, which were the pagan dards and ideals were taken is evident from
gods, and from the acquisitive, luxurious, the problem that was created for 2nd-century
and licentious habits that prevailed under communities by the phenomenon of serious
their sway. On the other hand, it was a turn- postbaptismal lapse into sin. Baptism and the
ing to the way of Christa way of trium- repentance which it presupposed were under-
phant suffering and of sharing in love, which stood as the beginnings of a new lifea life
was not only a fulfillment of the precepts of in full accord with the spirit and the precept
the gospel but at the same time an anticipa- of Christ. Some (see Heb. 10:26) had held
tion of the immortal life of the future age. It that there could be no forgiveness of postbap-
was, therefore, the ethic of a community that tismal sin; and this seems to have been the
sought not to reform the world, but to dem- assumption on which the Christian prophet
onstrate God's alternative to the world's Hermas operated when, in his work The
ways. In substance, this ethic owed much, in Shepherd, he announced a single, extraordi-
its original shape, to the moral traditions of nary, and final opportunity of repentance for
Judaism. At the same time, it soon recog- the Roman congregation. Others, like the
nized analogies to its own values in those writer of the Johannine letters, held that
commended by the philosophical schools there was forgiveness for sins which were not
Stoic and Platonist alikeand was able not "mortal"; and in time a discipline of repent-
merely to employ the ethical terminology of ance ("penance") grew up for the benefit of
the philosophers but also to assimilate its pic- believers who had sinned gravely, but with-
ture of the Christian life to the philosophical out committing the irrmissible sins of mur-
ideal of a practice of virtue that led to fellow- der, apostasy, or adultery. It was not until the
ship with, and likeness to, the Divine (see 3rd centuryand then only in the face of
Neoplatonism; Platonic Ethics; Stoic Eth- great controversythat this "rigorist" posi-
ics). tion was relaxed and the possibility of a "sec-
The earliest sources (apart from the letters ond repentance" for any and all sins was ad-
of Paul and the Gospels themselves) that set mitted. Even so, it continued to be the
out an ethic for the Christian communities are common understanding that baptism en-
concrete descriptions of a way of life and tailed a complete reformation of lifeinclud-
reflect for the most part the ethical catechesis ing, if necessary, the surrender of professions
which accompanied Christian initiation (see or occupations that were tied in with the ser-
Matt. 28:20). The general shape, if not the vice of the pagan gods (see Penance; Recon-
invariable content, of such instruction can be ciliation).
gathered from a traditional catechesis which, Three problems about the character of the
in different forms, is incorporated both in the Christian life were foci of discussion or con-
Didache (1-6) and in the Epistle of Barnabas troversy in the early period. The first and
(18-21). Drawing both on the Hebrew scrip- most obvious of these was the question of the
tures and on sayings of Jesus, it sets out "the relative merits of marriage* and the life of
Two Ways," of life and death, darkness and continence* (egkrateia). Paul had expressed
light. It enjoins love and gentleness, sincerity a preference for the latter (1 Cor. 7:25ff.),
and truthfulness. It insists on sexual purity, though he saw nothing to condemn in the
and on the avoidance of anger, idolatry, and married state. Within a generation or two,
money-loving. It calls for evenhandedness however, it had become necessary, at least in
and for sharing of goods with the needy. Simi- certain communities, to insist, sometimes in
lar ideas and standards are reflected in the the face of teachers who forbade marriage (1
letters of Ignatius of Antioch (d. c. 113), for Tim. 4:3), that that state "be held in honor
whom the Christian life is a way of disciple- among all" (Heb. 13:4). Marcion (fl. c. 140)
ship and an imitation of God and Christ that forbade marriage to full initiates, and the
begins in faith and culminates in love. Con- Montanist movement, toward the end of the
temptuous of worldly goods and values and century, discouraged it. Clement of Alex-
on guard against "the Prince of this world," andria (c. 150-c. 215), who in this regard
the Christian lived, according to Ignatius, in represents the view that came to prevail
view of God's kingdom and the resurrection, among the churches, mounted a systematic
prepared to share Christ's suffering in martyr- attack on Gnostics who denied the propriety
dom for the sake of a new and immortal life. of marriage (Stromateis 2, 3), insisting that
Patristic Ethics 454
marriage was a natural provision for the pro- 225), himself a Montanist in his later years,
creation of children and "the perfection of wrote that Christians not only "have no
the world" (,Stromateis 2.23.141), and that dread" of the sufferings visited on martyrs,
continence consists not so much in absten- "but on the contrary, even invite them" (To
tion from marriage as in freedom from domi- Scapula 5); and Origen of Alexandria (c.
nation by desire of all sorts. Thus, honor can 185-c. 254), in his own way as much a rig-
be given both to those who marry and to orist as Tertullian, wrote an Exhortation to
those who practice sexual continence as long Martyrdom, which portrays the martyr as
as, in both cases, their state stems from ratio- the "athlete of piety" who fulfills his baptis-
nal choice and not from the compulsions of mal vow to renounce Satan and practices the
desire. self-denial enjoined by Jesus.
Clement applies the same principles to the A more reserved view of martyrdom was
question of wealth*a second problem that taken by Clement of Alexandria, who while
had preoccupied Christian moralists. The regarding it as "the perfect work of love" to
strictures of Jesus against the rich were well which the mature Christian gladly goes when
known and caused embarrassment to Chris- called, nevertheless emphasizes that what is
tian communities which found persons of of ultimate importance is confession of Christ
some wealth and property among their num- "before men" by "conduct and in . life."
ber. The letter of James had reiterated the The most perfect martyrdom is that of per-
primitive polemic against the rich (5:1-6), sons who, for love of Christ, have loved their
and the pastoral epistles had asserted baldly fellows. Further, Clement regards the Chris-
that "the love of money is the root of all tian who deliberately offers himself or herself
evils" (1 Tim. 6:10). Like the author of 1 for martyrdom, or seeks it, as cooperating in
Timothy, however, Clement of Alexandria the evil deed of the persecutor (Stromateis
saw the evil not so much in the possession of 4.9-10). In his eyes, then, the attitude of folk
wealth as in the desire for it and the conse- like the Montanists is contrary to the true
quent misuse of it. Even the rich man, he meaning of martyrdom, which consists in a
thought, could be saved if he used his money life lived according to Christ, in self-control
generously to succor others. and love.
A third, and perhaps even more difficult, In the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries
subject of debate was provided by the issues with Clement, Origen, and Tertullianthe
surrounding martyrdom. In early Christian morality of the early Christian communities
communities, martyrdom was more than just became a subject of more systematic reflec-
a conscientious witness to religious or moral tion. These writers had much in common.
principle. It epitomized the shape and sense For all three, the Christian life was essen-
of Christian existence insofar as the martyr tially a "way"an engagement with God
imitatedand was indeed united toChrist through Christ which took the form of a
in his conflict with the powers of evil and in practice. All, moreover, saw the heart of this
his triumphant suffering. Hence, martyrdom practice to lie in obedience and responsive-
was the perfect baptisma completed re- ness to the commandments and teachings of
pentance that went hand in hand with initia- God, conveyed in the first instance through
tion into the life of the coming kingdom; and the moral instruction of the Mosaic law, but
the martyr was remembered and honored as supremely in the perfect law of Christ's gos-
one of Christ's living companions. Yet there pel. At the same time, all three, though in
was debate about whether it was right ac- different ways, drew on the tradition of Hel-
tively to seek martyrdom. Gnostic Christians lenistic philosophical ethics for their han-
no doubt because their gnosis was in itself dling of particular themes and, to one degree
the assurance of ultimate salvationtended or another, for their understanding of the
to hold that martyrdom was unnecessary and basis and aims of Christian praxis. In spite of
were frequently charged with "denying" these agreements, however, there was a sig-
Christ (see Gnostic Ethics). By contrast, the nificant difference of spirit between the two
Montanist movement, with its strong apoca- Alexandrians, Clement and Origen, and the
lypticism and its equally strong repudiation North African Tertullian.
of all secular powers as tools of Satan, en- For Clement, the life of the Christian after
couraged believers to seek the opportunity of baptism was conceived as an educative pro-
public witness and death. Tertullian (d. c. cess whose goal was likeness to God. Under
455 Patristic Ethics
the tutelage of the divine Logos himself, who brings. Sin as he saw it arose when the free
actedfirstas "trainer" (paidaggos) and then rational spirits whom God originally created
as "teacher" (didaskalos), believers learned lost their hold on God and found their love,
through practice of self-control to actualize and themselves, uncentered, dissipated
the freedom and knowledge given in baptism, among the distractions of a material world.
and so were purified of the "passions" that This situation is rectified by two means:
marked their subjection to and domination through the incarnate presence of Wisdom
by external influences. Thus liberated, they herself in Jesus, whose human life is a
could rise to the level of the "true gnostic," "shadow" of the divine reality that is human-
whose autonomy and understanding of ity's model and original; and through the in-
things human and divine expressed itself in spired scriptures, which similarly, by their
love for God and neighbor and in assimila- literal sense, intimate the mysteries summed
tion to the divine Logos who is the image of up in God's Logos. Grasped by these realities
God and hence the archetype after which through the faith and knowledge which the
humanity was originally created. For Clem- Spirit enables, believers enter upon the way
ent, then, the Christian way was an asksis, of purification from passion, detachment
a process of training, whose goal was the ap- from material concerns, and the practice of
propriation, through knowledge and rational virtue. By this means they are once again
freedom, of humanity's transcendent identity centered and brought to themselves in the
in God's Word. knowledge of God. Origen's is thus essen-
Tertullian, by contrast, envisaged Chris- tially a Platonist interpretation of the Chris-
tian existence not so much as a process of tian way, in which the moral life is an ask-
training and growth but as a matter of keep- sis through which the human person is led,
ing the declared will of God as revealed su- under the tutelage of Word and Spirit, to
premely in Jesus Christan obedience that fulfillment in fellowship with the Divine.
would be rewarded in the immortal and joy- In none of these writersdespite the criti-
ous life of the age to come. Believers lived in cism of the world's ways and values that was
a world whose values and accepted patterns embodied in early Christian practicewas
of behavior were determined above all by its much note taken of social or political issues.
idolatryits service of demons who pro- Like most inhabitants of the Roman Empire,
claimed themselves as gods. Christians, the early Christians saw much to admire in
therefore, must live apart from this world the peace and order that Rome had brought
and its illusions, exhibiting in their behavior to the Mediterranean world. Further, they
their commitment to realitythat is, to the tended to take for granted the social order on
God who would in the end vindicate their which it was based. The gravamen of their
commitment, and the suffering it entailed, by complaint against Rome was, in any case,
acknowledging them as his own people. They religious: the trouble with the Empire itself
were to practice the mutual love that Jesus and the peoples within it was that they were
had enjoined, to cultivate continence, purity, in the service of false godsdemons. This
and simplicity, and to avoid all actions or subtle combination of admiration and disap-
occupations which might be interpreted as proval was continued when, after Constan-
countenancing the world's idolatry, from at- tine, Christianity was tolerated and then
tendance at public shows and entertain- gradually became the official religion of the
ments, to service in the military. They were, Empire. On the one hand, it became natural
in short, to keep that disciplina, that way of for Christians to admit their loyalty to the
belief and life, which Christ had handed on imperial system, since it had relinquished its
to the churches through the apostles, and by commitment to idolatry. On the other hand,
such strenuous obedience prepare themselves this new situation meant that Christian stan-
for the impending judgment in which God dards and values now applied to the society
would claim those who had claimed him. at large, which could be expected to reflect
Origen, though more the rigorist than and embody them. This factnot to mention
Clement, followed in the path that his prede- the issues that arose about the relations of
cessor had laid down. For him, the only church and Roman societyintroduced new
proper goal of human aspiration is knowl- themes, and a new critical note, into Chris-
edge of God in God's Wisdom or Word, and tian moral discourse.
the likeness to God which such knowledge This does not mean, however, that the cen-
Patristic Ethics 456
tral thrust of patristic moral teaching was Christians. He sees the economic contrast be-
altered. The morality of the primitive com- tween poor and rich, resting on the institu-
munities as that was interpreted in the ascetic tion of private property, as the product of
tradition remained the core of the Christian envy and avarice; and he denounces the dou-
ideal. Indeed, this traditional, and strenuous, ble standard for men and women in sexual
morality found, in the late 3rd and 4th centu- behavior.
ries, a new institutional embodiment in the Similar views appear in the West in the
monastic movement, with which all of the writings of Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397),
great moralists of the Christian empire were who on the one hand developed the Western
associated in one way or another. ideal of the state as ally and protector of the
Beginning among the peasantry of Egypt church catholic, and on the other hand in-
and Syria, monasticism represented both a sisted on the moral (and doctrinal) autonomy
rejection of the burdens and complexities of of the church in relation to secular authority.
society and culture in late antiquity, and a Afirmadvocate of the ascetic ideal, who saw
search for simplicity and single-mindedness the practice of the moral virtues as a prepara-
in the service of God and in the pursuit of tion of the soul for the enjoyment of God in
salvation for soul and body. It embodied the a blessed immortality, Ambrose emphasized
martyr spirit of struggle against the powers of renunciation of worldly goods, whose posses-
evil; it espoused continence in matters of sion he regarded as an affliction for which the
food, drink, and sex; and it enjoined the re- only remedy was sacrificial almsgiving. A
nunciation of material possessionscustoms broadly similar position was taken up by
that echoed in a new and self-conscious form Augustine of Hippo (354-430), whose con-
the spirit of the early Christian communities. version to Christianity under the influence of
Furthermore, in thinkers like Athanasius of Ambrose was at the same time a conversion
Alexandria (d. 373), Basil of Caesarea (d. to the ascetic life of continence and personal
379), and Basil's younger brother Gregory of poverty*. Like Ambrose (and others before
Nyssa (d. c. 395), the monastic movement him), Augustine accepted the classical Stoic-
found guides and interpreters who set its Platonist scheme of four virtues (prudence*,
practices within the frame of a theology of justice*, temperance*, and courage*, but in-
the ascetic life that drew, though not without sisted that it was only as these were actuated
severe modification, on the tradition of Clem- by love for God, the ultimate good, that they
ent and Origen. In this way, monasticism be- became true excellences of the human being
came the embodiment for this era of the heri- (see Cardinal Virtues). Such love for God
tage of Christian ethical and spiritual the product, as he insisted against Pelagius
practice, and thus the matrix of Christian and Coelestius, of the Holy Spirit's gracious
thinking about social and political problems working within the soulinvolved love of
(see Asceticism; Monastic Ethics). neighbor as well as of self, and so dictated a
In Eastern Christianity, the fruit of the life devoted to seeking the good of others. By
monastic ethic is probably best studied in the contrast, Augustine thought, human loving
sermons of John Chrysostom (c. 354-407), that did not have God as its object (and
who was ordained to the priesthood in 384 source), but was directed to the goods of the
after a failure in health forced him to give up temporal and material orders for their own
the life of an anchorite. As presbyter in Anti- sake, arose from self-centeredness and engen-
och and as bishop of Constantinople, he dered competitiveness and violence. It was
preached with the aim of turning his flock such sinful loving that had given rise to pat-
from conventional Christianity to a faith that terns of domination (e.g., slavery) and to the
expressed itself in inward and outward dedi- contrasts of wealth and poverty which were
cation of life. He emphasized an active and institutionalized in the system of private
loving obedience to God, which would ex- property.
press itself, on the one hand, in abstention It was these two contrasted ways of loving
from worldly pleasures and preoccupations to which Augustine appealed when, in the
and, on the other, in the positive practice of City of God, he addressed himself to the
love and justice in personal and social life! He problem of the relation between the secular
attacks what seems to him a scandalous ne- order and the church. The church, as Augus-
glect of the poor and underprivileged and tine understood it, aimed at the transcendent
calls for sacrificial almsgiving* on the part of peace and justice of God's kingdom. It repre-
457 Paul, Ethical Teaching of
sented, even though its life did not fully actu- vices and virtues, 1 Cor. 6:9-10), and while
alize, love for Godfor the ultimate good he is inclined to add Christianizing phrases
which belongs to all persons in common. By even to lists of duties to which all would
contrast, the state aimed at an earthly peace subscribe (e.g., Col. 3:18-4:2; 1 Thess. 4:
and justice: its life was formed by a love that 1-12), on occasion he is hard put to find con-
sought fulfillment in created goods and there- vincing reasons to support what his view of
fore presupposed self-seeking and violence. commonsense morality ("nature") dictates (1
There could, then, be no question of identify- Cor. 11:13-16). So at the level of everyday
ing any secular order with the City of God, ethical assumptions Paul owes much to his
or of ascribing (as some Christians had done Jewish background (e.g., in his deep abhor-
in the wake of Constantine's conversion) a rence of sexual misbehavior) and to the con-
sacred character to the Roman, or any other, ventions and ordinary moral intuitions of the
political system. Not even the church embod- Hellenistic world (e.g., 1 Cor. 5:1).
ies the City of God, which for Augustine But for a few items he draws upon the
remains an eschatological reality. But love teaching of Jesus in what we, if not Paul,
for God is real in the church and so in the would distinguish as two different ways.
world; and such love will cooperate in the There is explicit appeal to the tradition of
search for earthly peace and justice, even Jesus' sayings: in 1 Cor. 7:10, on divorce; in
though these will always be temporary, rela- 1 Cor. 9:14, on the support due to Christian
tive, and flawed. Augustine's perspective on missionaries. There is also appeal to what the
social and political issues is thus informed Lord here and now enjoins, probably
as were Chrysostom's and Ambrose'sby through the inspired utterance of Christian
his conviction that the true human good is to prophets, including Paul himself: in 1 Cor.
be found only in the vision or knowledge of 14:34, on the conduct of women in church
God, in an order of things which transcends meetings; probably in 1 Thess. 4:2, on sexual
that of the present age (see Augustinian Eth- purity. He can, however, also give directives
ics). on his own authority, apparently lacking
such inspiration, in 1 Cor. 7:12, 25, on as-
C. J. Cadoux, The Early Church and the pects of marriage and celibacy. The guidance
World, 1925; H. Chadwick, The Sentences of of which he is aware can be ascribed to the
Sextus, 1959; and Early Christian Thought Spirit (1 Cor. 7:40) as easily as to the Lord.
and the Classical Tradition, 1966; J. Dani- It is noteworthy and problematic that at nu-
lou, Platonisme et thologie mystique, 1944; merous points where Paul's teaching has par-
G. W. Forell, History of Christian Ethics, vol. allels in the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels,
1, 1979; A. von Harnack, The Mission and no ascription to Jesus is made, most star-
Expansion of Christianity in the First Three tlingly with regard to the love command
Centuries, 2 vols. (1902), ET 1904-1905; K. (Rom. 13:9).
E. Kirk, The Vision of God, 1931; E. Osbora, Jesus is the source of ethical judgments in
Ethical Patterns in Early Christian Thought, another, deeper sense. Though Paul may
1976; W. Telfer, The Forgiveness of Sins, have in mind specific instructions such as we
1960; E. Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of have just referred to, it is probable that when
the Christian Churches (1912), ET 1931, he writes of imitating Christ (1 Cor. 11:1; 1
vol. 1. Thess. 1:6) he means a comprehensive fol-
R. A. NORRIS, JR. lowing of the moral implications of Christ's
saving work as a whole. This is brought out
Paul, Ethical Teaching of most clearly in two passages: In Phil. 2:1-11
Three major matters are discussed here: Paul urges humility on the basis of Christ's
sources and motivation, content and develop- self-abasement, his taking the form of a slave
ment, and the status of ethics in Paul's work and dying by crucifixion. In 2 Cor. 8:9 Paul
as a whole. urges financial generosity on the grounds of
1. Sources and motivation. Paul's moral Christ's act of self-impoverishment, whether
teachings derive from no single source, and in his manner of life or in his forsaking heav-
not all aspects are equally deeply integrated enly glory to live in the world (see also Rom.
with his Christian beliefs. Some of his teach- 15:3). This Christological basis for ethics is
ings come from the conventional wisdom of one of the two most striking and distinctive
the culture in which he lived (e.g., lists of features of Paul's teaching. It is innovative
Paul Ethical Teaching of 458
too in that it means bringing to a position of city governments more immediate to life in
prominence, not paralleled in Jewish or Paul's churches, but (as for Jews at the time
Greek ethics, qualities like humility and pro- and as indeed in Paul's own life) they were
found self-sacrifice. also a safeguard against local oppression. So
The other distinctive feature is the influ- perhaps it is not surprising that Paul sees
ence of Paul's eschatological convictions on divine backing for their power.
his ethical outlook. This comes out most However, he gives a reason: they are a
dramatically in 1 Cor. 7, where his judgment force for "the good." In Rom. 12-13 Paul,
on a series of cases arising in the area of coming closer to a philosophical basis for eth-
marital relations is largely determined by this ics than elsewhere, makes much appeal to
perspective. Responsibility for what now ap- "the good" as the objective of moral action.
pears as a predominantly negative attitude is Even so, there is no doubt that in Paul (as in
to be laid at this door. Marriage ties are to be the teaching of Jesus) the overriding moral
eschewed if at all possible, in view of the imperative is the command to love*. It per-
nearness of the coming end of all things, an vades the many injunctions of Rom. 12 and
eventuality demanding of the believer austere is stated explicitly in Rom. 13:9 (as in Gal.
vigilance and singleness of mind and pur- 5:14). It overrides even his belief in Christian
pose. It affects other matters too: though in freedom, in the matter of the treatment of
the new Christian community ("in Christ") tender consciences (1 Cor. 8). And Paul lays
social and other differences are erased ( 1 Cor. out its character in 1 Cor. 13, a passage that
12:13; Gal. 3:28), nevertheless Paul does not is fairly closely tied to the difficulties (social
recommend action to give practical expres- divisions and overregard for spectacular
sion to this judgment. In the interim before spiritual gifts) facing him in Corinth, but that
the end, people are to remain content with also may well be inspired by his beliefs about
their lot (1 Cor. 7:17-24), though certainly a Jesus. TTie emphasis on self-giving in Rom.
wholly new spirit of acceptance and fellow- 12 is wholly in line with what Paul sees as the
ship is to pervade the Christian community, essential mark of Christ's continued life in his
notably in its gatherings for worship. Paul is people through the Spirit (Rom. 8:11; Gal.
at pains to see how the interests of the sim- 5:22). So, though Paul does not tell us
pler and poorer members can be safeguarded whether his highlighting of the love com-
in face of thericherand socially more power- mand derives from knowledge of Jesus'
ful (1 Cor. 8; 11; Rom. 14). teaching, it is closely related to his adherence
Undoubtedly, the church's situation as the to Christ and his faith concerning Christ's
community of the redeemed, but as awaiting significance.
the final consummation, led to tensions and 2. Content and development Much that
inconsistencies in a number of respects. True, might properly be said under this heading
"in Christ there is neither male nor female" has appeared above, but we should now draw
(Gal. 3:28), but the subordination of women Paul's teaching together and look at it as a
to men remains part of Paul's practical whole. This immediately raises the questions
scheme of things, even in most aspects of of development and of consistency. Paul's
church life (1 Cor. 11:3, but note v. 5; 14: letters were written ad hoc. Even Romans,
33-38), though it is plain that women could his most considered and judicious work, was
occupy an important place in the life of probably directed to the known needs and
Paul's congregations (Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:11; circumstances of the Christians in Rome.
and names in Rom. 16). It is true that the Much of his ethical teaching is better clas-
approaching end gives a prospect of Chris- sified as pastoral counsel aimed to alleviate
tians being in a position of superiority over specific difficulties and draw the misguided to
all, so that recourse now to earthly judicial a fuller appreciation of their Christian com- j
authorities is out of place (1 Cor. 6:1-8; in mitment. We should therefore not be over- j
fact, other groups like pagan "clubs" felt zealous to force Paul's teaching into too tight
similarly about the regulation of their inter- a straitjacket of rational system.
nal disputes); nevertheless, this prospect Nor should we resist the rather different
gives no license to idleness (1 Thess. 4:11-12) possibility that his outlook as a whole altered
or even for a dismissive attitude to the impe- as his experience grew. Thus there are signs
rial authorities (Rom. 13:1-7). Admittedly, of balanced statement in a later letter like
those authorities were at a remove from the Romans on matters where earlier teaching
459 Paul, Ethical Teaching of
was, by comparison, a response to immediate freedom in Christ seemed to be the primary
need (see the broad treatment of the issue of characteristic of the new Christian dispensa-
food regulations in Rom. 14 alongside 1 Cor. tion, witjh love displacing rules and regula-
8 and 10). And it has been plausibly sug- tions as the summation of what God re-
gested that behind 1 Corinthians lies a pro- quired. It takes only a reading of one of
cess of discussion between Paul and the con- Paul's major letters to show that this is a
gregation in the course of which he shifted caricature of his teaching.
his position considerably on a number of is- The key to the matter lies in an understand-
sues. For example, 1 Cor. 7, which on the ing of what law meant to him. To us the term
face of it seems negative in its attitude toward "law" belongs almost wholly in the realm of
marriage, may well represent an attempt by ethics, or at any rate in the realm of the order-
Paul to move to a much more pro-marriage ing of social behavior. For Paul it was not so:
position than he had adopted beforein the Greek nomos (law) represented the Hebrew
light of a realization that his earlier asceti- torah, which signified the first five books of
cism, motivated by the expectation of the scriptures, regarded as normative in Juda-
Christ's imminent return, had led to serious ism and containing not only moral and cultic
difficulties in the area of sexual relations. regulations but also the story of God's activity
The fairest way to sum up the content of in the world from creation to the eve of his
Paul's ethics may then be to have regard to people's entry into the land of Israel (see Mo-
the picture given in each letter, that is, at saic Law). It was, as a totality, God's gift to
each stage in his ministry or in relation to his people, the outstanding instrument of his
each situation that faced him. Each made its gracious covenant. And it was in this func-
own demands and drew from him its own tion that Paul saw the law as superseded by
kind of response. For example, it is clear that Christ, so that its role had shifted: it was
the multitude of difficulties in the Corinthian chiefly prophetic and preparatory. These
church compelled him to a degree and range writings foreshadowed Christ's work (Rom.
of rule-making that was at odds with his con- 4) and provided for Israel before his appear-
victions about Christian freedom, which are ance (Rom. 7:12; Gal. 3:19,23). But as in any
to the fore in Galatians. Yet this must not be way conveying salvation, they were now of
taken too far. In the early 1 Thessalonians no account. They did, however, retain a place
there is a notable quantity of firm moral as a repository of moral guidance. Paul is
teaching that, from a libertine or enthusiastic nowhere explicit on the matter of the princi-
viewpoint, would appear to be of a restrictive ple by which he distinguished between obso-
or law-centered kind. There is in all of Paul's lete and still valid commands in the law.
many letters an ethic that, dominated by Clearly (at any rate for Gentile Christians),
Christ-inspired love though it is, combines circumcision and food laws are at an end
freedom in Christ with quite specific moral (Rom. 4:14; 1 Cor. 8), as are the traditional
teaching on matters of behavior, as well as observances of the calendar (Gal. 4:10); and
with more general commendation of virtues for all Christians the rules forbidding table
and condemnation of vices. But still, the bal- fellowship between Jews and Gentiles are
ance is not always the same: 1 Corinthians is abrogated (Gal. 2:11-13). Equally clearly,
full of advice on particular matters; Romans the basic moral provisions of the Decalogue*
contains much more reflection on ethics in and the command to love the neighbor re-
general (Rom. 12-14) than any of the other main in force for all (Rom. 13:8-10). So it is
letters; and Galatians trusts much more to by no means the case that law, in the sense
Christ's indwelling of the believer, showing a of rules for moral conduct, is done away
tendency toward a kind of intuitive ethic. with. While love "fulfills" the law (Rom. 13:
This immediately raises the connected issue 10; Gal. 6:2), there are other commands too
of the status of ethics in relation to Paul's that fill out its meaning. And while Paul
outlook as a whole. sometimes offers suggestions about conduct
3. Ethics in Paul's work. A superficial ac- in the manner of a pastor (1 Cor. 7:35; 2 Cor.
count of Paul's theology might give the im- 1:24), he is also capable of a much more au-
pression that he was not much interested in thoritarian note (2 Cor. 6:14) and rigorous
ethics. In thefirstplace, the end was near. In apostolic judgment (1 Cor. 16:22). And final
the second place, his attitude to law, and the judgment remains (2 Cor. 5:10).
Jewish law in particular, was so negative that But as we have seen, the morality Paul
Peace 460
puts forward is, as the emphasis on love viv- of the covenant of Israel with God and as a
idly illustrates, chiefly determined by the gos- description for the eschatological time of
pel which he has received and of which he is the coming of the Messiah. Jeremiah (6:13-
the apostle; by the person and work of Christ, 14) connects the lack of peace in Israel with
sent by God to acquit the guilty and receive false dealing by everyone from prophet to
them as sons and daughters, as free persons, priest; a similar message is found in Ezek.
reconciled to himself. In fact, so Christ-cen- 13, where this lack of peace is tied to wide-
tered is Paul's thought that sometimes the spread idolatry. Isaiah 48 depicts the ab-
autonomy of the individual as a moral agent sence of peace as God's anger at Israel's
may appear to be almost obliterated (1 Cor. failure to follow his commandments; had
2:16; 2 Cor. 5:14; Gal. 2:20). Yet precisely the the people attended to them, he asserts, Is-
control of Christ or the Spirit is, in Paul's rael would have had peace "like a river,"
eyes, the condition of true freedom (2 Cor. "righteousness like the waves of the sea,"
3:17), a condition he can even express (with innumerable offspring, and immortality.
a degree of paradox?) as being under Christ's The eschatological theme surfaces also in
law (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2). these prophets. Ezekiel 37:26 looks to the
The word that most succinctly summa- establishment by God of an everlasting
rizes the relationship in Paul's thought be- "covenant of peace" with his people; Isa.
tween theology and ethics, the gospel and the 32:16-18 describes the messianic time as
moral life, is righteousness*. The moral one in which justice and righteousness will
strength of God is no passive quality, but it prevail, with the effect being "peace," "qui-
is his dynamic determination, expressed in etness and trust for ever," and "a peaceful
the sending of Christ, to restore alienated habitation, in secure dwellings." Other ex-
humankind to his company, that is, to a amples include Ps. 85:10-11, linking righ-
sphere of life where each human being can teousness and peace, and Isa. 42:2-3, join-
also live in righteousness (Rom. 1:16-17; 5: ing the themes of justice and peace. Even
1-5; 6:13-14). Such is the primacy of God's without the explicit use of the word
gracious act, which alone makes moral life "peace," the same idea is found in many
as Paul envisages it in the light of Christ other places, as for example in Micah 4 t
both possible and attractive, as the new age where the vision of the messianic age is one
dawns and moves toward its glorious con- in which nations shall no longer "learn
summation. war" and every man shall sit "under his
See also New Testament Ethics. vine and under his fig tree," at peace with
himself and with his neighbors.
J. Drane, Paul: Libertine or Legalist? 1975; Carried forward into the NT, these con-
V. P. Furnish, Theology and Ethics in Paul cepts are linked there with the person and
1968; J. L. Houlden, Ethics and the New Tes- work of Jesus. Jesus opened his ministry of
tament, 1973; E. P. Sanders, Paul and Pales- preaching with the message, "The kingdom
tinian Judaism, 1977; J. A. Ziesler, The of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15); many of his
Meaning of Righteousness in Paul, 1972. followers saw in him the actual presence of
J. L. HOULDEN that messianic kingdom. As the ethic for this
new age he proclaimed meekness, righteous-
Peace ness, mercy, and peacemaking (Matt. 5:3
In ordinary usage, "peace" denotes the ab- 10). Going beyond the mere doing of justice,
sence of conflict, the state that obtains be- Jesus asked his followers to love not only one
tween wars. It is also the term used to de- another but also their enemies (Matt. 5:43-
scribe the end of a war. Similarly, an 47; Luke 6:32-36) and to meet injustice and
individual is "at peace" when not disturbed even violence with forgiveness, prayer, and
by internal conflicts. In Christian thought, blessings for the enemy and attempts at rec-
however, the idea of peace carries more than onciliation (Matt. 5:38-42; Luke 6:27-30).
this negative implication; it also refers to a All this is in clear continuity with the concept
positive state of individual and communal life of peace found in the OT prophets, where the ,
in the presence of the power of God. achievement of a just,righteous,and tranquil
This broader concept first appears in the life in community was depicted as the goal qf J
OT, where peace is depicted both in terms the covenant between God and Israel and |
461 Pederasty
expected to characterize the age of the Mes- tists of the Reformation period sought to find
siah. If Jesus was the Messiah, then peace the peace that presumably characterized the
justice, righteousness, and tranquillity in life early Christian community in enclaves that
within human communitywas at hand. included family groups. The tension remains
Another theme from the OT, that the lack of and may be put in the form of a question: Is
peace is the result of God's anger, is not pur- the peace of God to be realized by the Chris-
sued in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life, but tian through efforts to achieve social justice
it does surface in Paul's writings, where through the transformation of society, or is
"peace with God through our Lord Jesus this peace only to be experienced inwardly
Christ" (Rom. 5:1) is the fruit of justification through the transformation of an individual's
by faith. Here the focus is on the individual heart by the presence of God?
in community with God, not on the peace of A special problem in Christian thought is
the human community in the messianic age. the relation of nonviolence to peace. The
A similar concept is found in John, who re- early church was nonviolent, both out of ne-
ports Jesus as leaving to his disciples a gift of cessity and out of conviction; such separa-
peace linked to the presence of the Spirit tism as that mentioned above also has often
(John 14:15-29). This same connection is (though not always) been accompanied by a
made in John's telling of Jesus' meeting with profession of nonviolence. But just as the
the disciples after the resurrection (John 20: Christian notion of peace is not simply the
19-22): Jesus greets them with the words, absence of war, the achievement of peace in
"Peace be with you," then breathes on them Christian thought is sometimes linked with
and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit." In these war: God's anger, in the OT prophets, was
passages, as in the case of Paul noted above, often manifested in a war that chastised and
peace is the presence of God, implying inner purified Israel; the eschatological time, as in
transformation. the books of Daniel and Revelation, is to be
The early church sought to embody the a time of war; in the just war tradition, war
ideal of peaceful life together in its com- itself may not be fought except for the "end
munitarian practices (cf. Acts 4:32-5:11), its of peace." Just as there exists a continuing
addition of Gentiles to what had originated tension in Christian thought between the
as a Jewish sect, and its efforts to distance communal and personal aspects of peace, so
itself from the state in such ways as avoid- there is also a similar tension over whether
ance of lawsuits and of military service. But, the achievement of that peace requires nonvi-
as we see clearly in Paul (cf. Col. 1:18-23), olence as a precondition, or whether it may
this was explicitly tied to the reconciliation be secured by violent means.
with God and the presence of "the fulness of See Deterrence; Just War; Pacifism; Re*
God" given to Christians through the risen sistance; War.
Christ. A continuing problem was the ten- JAMES TURNER JOHNSON
sion of living this sort of life "in but not of the
world," a world that obstinately refused to Pederasty
accept reconciliation, renounce war, and cor- Pederasty, or pedophilia, is the sexual love
rect injustice. In the early Christian centuries of children. Such love may be homosexual,
the desire to escape this tension led some to but it is important to note that the majority
embrace the life of the hermit; somewhat of homosexuals are not pedophiles, and
later the same desire fueled cenobitic monas- much pedophilia involves heterosexual con-
ticism; later still it became an impetus for tact with young girls. Although Freud high-
separation from "the world" by entire com- lighted the significance of the psychosexual
munities of men, women, and children. strivings of the young child, this does not
Alone, the hermit could experience peace imply that overt sexual contact is appropri-
with God but not with other people. The ate or beneficial for normal maturation. In
monastery made the extension of the peaceful any case, the child is not able to give mean-
experience to other persons possible within a ingful consent to such contact. Moreover,
community still markedly artificial by the the adult who prefers pedophilia to adult
measure of society outside the cloister walls. sexual contact is typically insecure in his
Lay movements such as the Waldensians of sexual identity. On a psychodynamic per-
the Middle Ages and the Anabaptist separa- spective, many pedophiles are still involved
Penance 462
in an infantile relationship with their par- tivists were placed on the defensive. The
ents. As a result, they are unable to relate to 1950s saw the attempt to establish the re-
adults as equals, and only feel at ease with tributive understanding of punishment by
children. making it a matter of definition: logical
rather than moral considerations were placed
M. Cook and K. Howells (eds.), Adult Sexual to the fore. However, postwar criminology in
Interest in Children, 1981; W. Kraemer (ed.), general has been dominated by the reforma-
The Forbidden Love, 1976. tive ideal.
ELIZABETH R. MOBERLY Deterrence, reformation, and rehabilita-
tion are expressions of the utilitarian under-
Penance standing of punishment. The classical deter-
Penance is a sacrament of the church, though rent approach was shaped in reaction to the
nowadays it is often called the sacrament of capriciousness and employment of savage
reconciliation*, to emphasize its affirmative penalties common in the 18th century. Prom-
character. This sacrament, like baptism and inent among the reformers were Beccaria and
the eucharist, may claim NT evidence for its Bentham, who considered that no more pain
dominical institution (John 20:23). In the should be inflicted than was necessary to
early church it was developed to take care of deter. The application of utilitarian philoso-
sins committed after baptism. The penitent phy was of great benefit in the sphere of crim-
makes a full and sincere confession of sins, inology, and led to substantial improvements
declares genuine sorrow for them, and prom- in penal systems.
ises to amend his or her life and to make Unfortunately, the right and necessary op-
restitution to those whom he or she has position to practical abuses was on the theo-
wronged. The priest, on his part, gives coun- retical level equated with the rejection of re-
sel, sets a penance in the limited sense of tributive principles. Thus for two centuries
some act (such as reading a psalm) which the the utilitarian and retributive approaches
penitent must perform as an earnest of re- have often been defined in contrast to each
pentance, and pronounces absolution. other, rather than as truly complementary.
See Absolution; Confession; Restitution; The chief effect of defining utilitarianism* in
Sin(s). opposition to retributivism has been the re-
jection of the concept of desert. The original
B. Hring, Shalom: PeaceThe Sacrament motivation behind this may have been hu-
of Reconciliation, 1968. mane, but its implications are alarming. By
JOHN MACQUARRIE what right may one deprive a person of lib-
erty, and subject him or her to reformative
Penitence see Repentance treatment, if this is not deserved? By under-
mining the concept of desert, the utilitarians
Penology have in effect exposed themselves to the criti-
The philosophy of punishment is generally cism of advocating undeserved suffering. Ei-
conceived of in terms of two main ap- ther the given individual has been found to be
proaches, the retributive and the utilitarian. delinquent, in which case intervention is re-
The retributive understanding of punishment tributive, in that it is based on this fact. Or
may be said to date back throughout history, an individual has not been found to be delin-
and in recent centuries it has been supported quent, in which case there is no need, or jus-
by philosophers such as Kant and Hegel and tification, for such intervention. In any case,
the Christian writer C. S. Lewis (see also it is not sufficiently realized that deterrent
Retribution). Retributivists insist on the cen- theory logically includes retributive consid-
trality of the concept of desert. Other consid- erations. Why should punishment deter any-
erations are not precluded, but must be re- one from crime, unless it is in fact imposed
garded as derivative from this. Thus, for crime? Deterrence clearly implies a pre-
Hegelians such as Bradley and Bosanquet diction of retribution, and is meaningless
combined retributivism with a considerable without such retributive considerations.
emphasis on annulment or reformation. Sub- It has sometimes been suggested that the
sequent to the Hegelians, the retributive ap- pursuit of deterrence or reformation may jus-
proach met with increasing disfavor, and by tify indefinite or even lifelong deprivation of
the second half of the 20th century retribu- liberty. In this way, an originally benevolent
463 Phenomenoo
l gy
concern for the offender may prove to sanc- community service orders). To regard pun-
tion manifest injustice. Utilitarian theory is ishment merely in terms of containment
also held to allow of the possibility of high would seem to be a counsel of despair, stem-
penalties generally, or proportionately higher ming from the current inability to see an ade-
penalties for smaller crimes, in order to maxi- quate rationale for dealing with an offender.
mize their deterrent value. Ironically, the Another possible response to contempo-
study of history makes it clear that it was rary difficulties in penology is to seek reinte-
precisely this that the original utilitarian re- gration of the retributive and reformative
formers were protesting against! The harsh viewpoints. The Hegelians achieved this at
penalties of their time were realized to be the beginning of this century, and more re-
both unjust and ineffective. Originally, deter- cently their general approach has been
rence implied no more punishment than was renewed and developed by Sir Walter Mo-
necessary to deter, and it contrasted with the berly and Dr. Elizabeth Moberly. An inte-
harsh penalties of retributivism. More re- grated theoryof moral realism or personal
cently, these positions have been reversed. realismis proposed.
Deterrence can be interpreted as justifying The Moberlys affirm that wrongdoing
maximal rather than minimal penalties, and brings its own retribution, of moral deteriora-
it has become the contribution of the retribu- tion. This is the truest and most congruous
tive school to insist on a due sense of propor- retribution of wrongdoing. Strictly speaking,
tionality in punishment. punishment is not itself a consequence of
Certain major pbints emerge from this dis- wrongdoing, but rather, an instrument lor
cussion, above all the tendency to draw an dealing with the inherent entail of wrongdo-
unsatisfactory dichotomy between the re- ing in the personality. By punishment it is
tributive and utilitarian approaches to pun- hoped to check this inherent process of retri-
ishment. The history of penology in recent bution, and to promote reformation. Tradi-
centuries, above all in recent decades, has tional retributive statements are not usually
been the history of an oscillation between capable of drawing the vital distinction be-
these two viewpoints. Moving from one ex- tween punishment and the intrinsic retribu-
treme to another has proved a poor substitute tion of wrongdoing. Blameworthiness im-
for an adequate integration of the two view- plies that there is a situation to be remedied.
points as being essentially complementary. The essential insight of the retributive ap-
The reformative ideal of recent decades has proach is not that punishment is retributive
proved inadequate, and contemporary crimi- in itself, but that there is such a thing as
nology is often considered to be confused or retribution and that punishment is to be ap-
even in a state of crisis. Certain trends may plied in an attempt to deal with this. More-
be discerned. One is the resurgence of certain over, it is needless to contrast reformation
forms of retributive model, most notably the with punishment, since punishment is itself
"justice model" on the one hand, and the call the instrument for checking moral deteriora-
for measures of increased severity on the tion and for promoting reformation. The de-
other hand. Unfortunately, neither of these sire to eliminate vindictiveness from the prac-
proposals retains the insights of the reforma- tice of punishment must not be equated with
tive approach, and for this reason they are the rejection of the concept of desert, since
likely to prove unsatisfactory. Another sig- this renders punishment meaningless, and in
nificant trend is the call for reparation, which practice has led to serious difficulties. Refor-
may at a theoretical level be linked with the mative thought is to be reintegrated with re-
reformative ideal. In practice, it stresses com- tributive presuppositions, and the Moberlys
pensation to the victim, rather than restraint insist on the essential complementarity of the
of the offender, and it is significant as being two approaches.
one of the few theories of penology that gives Penology must be concerned not only with
any serious attention to the victims of crime punishment as such and the various forms it
an important oversight in many theories of may take, but also with a number of wider
punishment. A third trend is to speak of con- concerns. The reintegration of ex-offenders
tainment or incapacitation as the justification into society needs careful attention, especially
for imprisonment (which is of course only at times of economic recession when employ-
one form of punishmentmany others are ment may be particularly difficult to obtain.
noncustodial, such as fines, probation, and Concern for the victims of crime is essential,
Perfectionism 464
and yet has often been relatively neglected. Philosophical Perspectives on Punishment,
However, it is a questionable sense of priori- 1972; E. R. Moberly, Suffering, Innocent and
ties to focus largely on the offender, and not to Guilty, 1978.
make adequate provision for giving help and ELIZABETH R. MOBERLY
ongoing support to victims. Insurance
schemes and self-help victim-support groups Perfectionism
are of great value, but these do not cover the In Christian ethics perfectionism may mean
full range of help that is needed for all con- (1) taking the "evangelical counsels of perfec-
cerned. They are in any case largely depen- tion" (see Counsels) as binding duties; or (2)
dent on private initiative, whereas the ques- John Wesley's doctrine of "perfect love"
tion of dealing with offenders is undertaken by (also called "scriptural holiness"), in his
community initiative. The overall question of sense, a state of regeneration in which atti-
crime prevention is important, and this de- tude and motive are sinless, even though con-
pends not only on adequate policing but on duct may be objectively faulty because of
such factors as street lighting, alarm systems, creaturely limitations of knowledge, etc. (see
and the willingness of householders to install Wesleyan Ethics). The term is sometimes ap-
and use suitable locks, thereby reducing the plied to an ecclesiastical view that church
actual opportunities for some forms of crime. membership should be restricted rigidly to
Are the training and working conditions of those who are wholly committed and show
police, prison officers, and other personnel the moral fruits of such religious sincerity. In
satisfactory? Do the media engage in selective philosophical ethics the original Latin sense
and sensational reporting of crime, or do they of perfectio, completeness, persists: it indi-
provide a responsible and unexaggerated cates the full development of one's distinc-
commentary? What effect do political and tively human capacities, cognitive, aesthetic,
economic trends have on society's response to moral, religious. In this wide sense the notion
crime and the criminal? comes from the Greeks, who included health
Finally, it should be noted here that the or bodily perfection. It rose to a philosophi-
quest for justice will be undergirded by vary- cal doctrine in Plato and Aristotle. In the
ing religious and ideological assumptions. 19th century a new metaphysical turn was
Much contemporary criminology is set given to it in Hegel's doctrine of complete-
within the framework of the Christian- ness as wholeness: the individual mind is an
influenced perspective of secularized West- organ of the world-spirit, which latter presses
ern society. However, recent years have seen on from potentiality to actualization and
the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, from individuality or separateness to union
with its application of Qur'nic penalties for with the whole. Hegel held that in its moral
crime, such as physical mutilation. Most aspect the process is achievable not in the
Western criminologists assume a certain gen- individual but only in the social whole. T. H.
eral ethical consensus as to the limits of what Green, though largely Hegelian in metaphys-
is acceptable in penal policy. However, it will ics, conceived perfection as self-realization*,
be important to bear in mind that many of its and spelled this out into the Greek and Chris-
values are inspired by Christianity and are tian virtues, insisting on its social reference
not to be taken for granted on a worldwide but preserving individuality (see Hegelian
perspective. The Christian affirmation of the Ethics; Idealist Ethics).
value of the person will remain of fundamen- See also Holiness; Saintliness; Sanctifica-
tal importance for criminology. Crime re- tion.
quires action, but it does not give the commu-
nity unlimited rights over the offender. R. N. Flew, The Idea of Perfection, 1934.
Ethical seriousness and redemptive possibili- T. E. JESSOP
ties must be continually interlinked in the
concerns of penology. Persecution and Toleration
See also Capital Punishment; Corporal Persecution carries the connotation of unjust
Punishment; Crime; Rewards and Punish- injury or harassment, usually because the vic-
ments. tim espouses values or beliefs contrary to
those dominant in a society or because he or
A. E. Bottoms and R. H. Preston (eds.), The she belongs to a group that does so. Tolerar
Coming Penal Crisis, 1980; G. Ezorsky (ed.), tion, in this context, refers to the degree to
465 Persecution and Toleration
which nonconformist belief or behavior is ac- even more concerned about the spiritual
cepted within a society. Pressure toward so- well-being of those whose faith, and therefore
cial conformity exists in all communities, whose souls, might be destroyed by the pub-
particularly at points where the existence of lic teaching of false doctrine. Later, by en-
the community is perceived to be at stake, dorsing the execution of Michael Servetus,
and some level of nonconformity is tolerated John Calvin took the same view. Actual exe-
in every society. But the degree of toleration cution of heretics subsided by the 19th cen-
varies widely among human societies. tury, but religious persecution under Chris-
Christian ethics has a long history of deal- tian sponsorship has continued here and
ing with persecution and toleration, not only there to the present.
because the Christian church began its exis- Catholicism before the Second Vatican
tence as a persecuted minority espousing de- Council often justified a double standard on
viant beliefs and values but also because the subject of religious liberty by means of
Christians have found it difficult at times to the "thesis-hypothesis" formulation. Ac-
accept the existence of dissident groups cording to this, under optimal conditions (in
themselves. The history of the transition of "thesis") when Catholicism is in power, error
Christianity from the status of persecuted mi- should be suppressed. Only when Catholi-
nority in the Roman Empire to that of a dom- cism is not dominant should error be toler-
inant and sometimes intolerant social force is ated as a lesser evil (in "hypothesis"). The
well known. But persecution and intolerance church, as possessor of the truth, should
are not confined to previous history. In our claim full freedom for its own mission under
own time Christians are frequently per- any historical circumstances; but it should
secuted in Marxist countries and Marxists tolerate error only when forced to do so by
are frequently persecuted in Christian coun- the historical situation. This is a double stan-
tries. Shiite Islam exhibits great intolerance dard only from the standpoint of the norm of
of dissent wherever it enjoys social power, religious toleration; but the church's more
some Oriental countries prohibit Christian basic norm was understood to be the truth of
missionary activity, Christian socialists are Christian faith and whatever might be re-
harassed in some Latin American countries, quired to express it freely and convincingly in
sectarian and cult groups are sometimes the world. Since error can cause real damage
treated intolerantly in North America, and to those who believe it, the church must sup-
some of these same groups practice the most press it wherever there is sufficient social
rigid control of their own adherents. On the power to do so. While this approach to reli-
evidence, the subject of persecution and tol- gious liberty was roundly criticized by many
eration is perennial, however much the par- Protestant thinkers as a peculiarly Roman
ticulars may vary from age to age. Catholic hypocrisy, it was never exclusively
The intuitive view of much contemporary Catholic. Many religious groups and ideolog-
Christian thought is that tolerance is a virtue ical movements have claimed a freedom
and persecution an evil. That has not always while in minority status which they have not
been the dominant Christian attitude. To be been willing to accord others after arriving at
sure, Christian thinkers from Paul to the pre- social power. This is not necessarily inconsis-
sent have claimed freedom to worship and to tent if one believes oneself to be in possession
proclaim the faith without hindrance. But of the truth. It is easy enough to believe that
many notable thinkers, including Augustine, the truth should be given very advantage
Thomas Aquinas, and John Calvin, have when its advocates are in power and that it
considered it the duty of the state to act should claim at least the right to freedom of
against religious nonconformity. Thus, Aqui- expression when the advocates of error are in
nas prescribes in the case of a persistent here- power.
tic "that the Church gives up hope of his In the 20th century, Christian ethics has
conversion and takes thought for the safety of increasingly departed from this kind of dou-
others, by separating him from the Church ble standard by condemning persecution and
by sentence of excommunication; and, fur- treating toleration as a norm in itself. John
ther, leaves him to the secular court, to be Courtney Murray, S.J., was particularly in-
exterminated from the world by death" (ST fluential in reversing the longstanding
II-II.11.3). While remaining concerned Roman Catholic position prior to and during
about the soul of the heretic, Aquinas was the Second Vatican Council. He gave partie-
466 Persecution and Toleration
ular emphasis to the pragmatic principle that most) Christian ethicists, provides substan-
policies conducive to social conflict ought to tial support for tolerance even in countries
be avoided. The practical effect of the thesis- where Christians might have sufficient politi-
hypothesis approach has always been the ex- cal power to persecute dissidents and adver-
acerbation of social conflict in a pluralistic saries.
society. Murray argued that it was this con- It should be remembered, however, that
sideration more than any other that this line of argument does not supply unam-
prompted the founders of the United States biguous support for toleration. Persecution
to adopt the peculiarly American approach has sometimes been undertaken, no doubt, in
to religious freedom and separation of church order to create converts or to express vindic-
and state. Freedom and separation were un- tiveness toward the "enemies of God." But
derstood to be "articles of peace," that is, the classical rationale for intolerance has not
social agreements among competing groups been to punish the persecuted or influence
necessary to preserve the peace*. Centuries their beliefs so much as to stop them from
of bitter warfare among competing religious infecting others with their heresies. Love
groups in Europe threatened to erupt anew in sometimes is understood to require negative
the pluralistic New World if rules of competi- actions. Aquinas did not advocate that Chris-
tion guaranteeing equal rights to all religions tians should cease loving heretics; but he be-
could not be observed. Of course, such a lieved that deviance should still be punished
pragmatic basis for toleration presupposes in order to protect others. If error threatens
high regard for social peace as a necessary the well-being of the soul, then it seems to be
condition for the achievement of all other an act of love to protect people from its cor-
objectives, including the advancement of true rosive influences. The medieval mind some-
religion. It might not be effective where one times even understood the burning of here-
considers peace secondary to the truth tics to be the loving thing to do for the
(which one believes one possesses) or where unfortunate victims: purified by a few mo-
a dominant group has sufficient power to ments of earthly fire, they might avoid the
quash dissent with little disruption of social fires of eternal damnation! It is still possible
peace. to rationalize policies based upon intolerance
Other Catholic and Protestant thinkers as being best for everybody concerned if it is
wished to go beyond Murray's more prag- believed that truth and error can easily be
matic and juridical argumentation to ground identified and that the expression of error is
a doctrine of tolerance in the duty of Chris- fundamentally harmful.
tian love* and the inherent inviolability of Theological views based upon the positive
the conscience*. Christian love, the central contributions of the expression of dissent
norm of Christian ethics, was understood to avoid such rationalization of intolerance.
provide deeper grounding for tolerance than Toleration then can be perceived not as a
the juridical norm and to be more faithful to reluctant acceptance of the right of people to
the meaning of Christian faith than older dis- believe and do harmful things, but rather as
tinctions between abstract truth and error. a positive openness to criticism and new
Indeed, many thinkers came to understand truth. The theological basis for such an atti-
that religious persecution cannot even be tude can include the respect for human dig-
effective on its own terms because faith can- nity and love cited above; but it also finds
not be coerced into being. Only those who grounds in the transcendence* of God. God
freely assent to the truth really believe it; a is understood to be greater than all human
coerced conscience is no conscience at all; so manifestations of truth and godness, and
it appears to be a contradiction in terms to humanity itself is limited and sinful. Accord-
try to force the acceptance of beliefs or values ingly, no human expression of truth and
just as it is against love to do so. This line goodness can be taken as complete, final, and
of argument was embodied in the Second all-inclusive. God's truth and goodness may
Vatican Council's own declaration that "reli- break forth in unanticipated ways at unex-
gious freedom has its foundation in the very pected times. When one prevents a sister or
dignity of the human person as this dignity is a brother from bearing witness to truth and
known through the revealed word of God goodness as she or he sees it, therefore, one
and by reason itself' (see Human Dignity). runs the risk of opposing an authentic
The point, accepted now by many (perhaps though unrecognized, word of God.
467 Persecution and Toleration
While such argumentation may appear to important contributions, such as (1) the ex-
be based upon skepticism or indifferentism, ample of deeply honest, though misguided,
that is not necessarily so. Christian love of commitment to what a nonconforming be-
truth and goodness commits one to bear wit- liever regards as truethereby at least bear-
ness to the faith, as one sees it, and to live out ing witness to the importance of honesty and
its implications in the life of love. It commits conviction; (2) an emphasis upon some as-
one to criticize what one considers to be evil pects of the truth which the community
or in error. But it also opens one up to take needs to hear, even though combined with
seriously what other people believe, to enter much that is untrue; (3) a stimulation to the
into dialogue, to protect the right of all to clarification of truth; (4) the continued op-
express their views freely, and to respect ac- portunity for nonconformists to make other
tions motivated by conviction. important contributions which may be un-
Is such a view really an expression of related to their errors; (5) the expression of
Christian faith? It is interesting to note that social interests, issues of justice, which have
some authorities on the history of persecu- been neglectedsince heresy or social devi-
tion attribute religious intolerance to the ancy often has a social basis in the alienation
monotheism of the Hebrew-Christian faith of oppressed people; (6) the prevention of
tradition. For instance, the Italian jurist premature consensus, it being remembered
Francesco Rufhni held that intolerance is a that in one sense every consensus is prema-
logical corollary of that tradition. From "the ture in a world peopled by finite, sinful
idea of a single and universal God," he ar- human beings; and (7) the expression of what
gued, there followed "not only an inextin- we now consider to be wrong but what we
guishable spirit of proselytism, but also the ourselves may later come to regard as true.
principle that he only could be saved who In light of such values, should society tol-
worshipped the true God; that is to say, the erate all forms of deviancy? Clearly not. Such
principle of absolute intolerance." One can- values justify a very high degree of tolerance,
not deny that that implication has been but the continued existence of human society
drawn by many adherents of Hebrew or places some limits upon deviancy. Certain
Christian faith from the beginning, or that it distinctions may be useful in determining the
is logical. If there is but one God, it appears justifiable limits to tolerance. First, Christian
to follow that those who worship other gods ethics may well subscribe to John Stuart
or support other religions are simply wrong. Mill's principle that nobody should enjoy the
But there is another logically possible appli- freedom to infringe upon the equal rights of
cation of the monotheistic principle: If there others. Antisocial behavior injurious to oth-
is but one God, who is center and source of ers may fairly be constrained by law. This
all being, then no finite human being can leads to a second distinction between the ex-
claim to know all that is worth knowing pression of deviant ideas, as ideas, and behav-
about God. God is thus understood to trans- ior based upon such ideas. The expression of
cend every human manifestation. This hum- ideas can enjoy greater toleration in light of
bler view also has a long history; and along- the foregoing theological considerations. But
side the arrogance of those who have justified not all behavior can be tolerated just because
persecution on the grounds of their superior it claims to have theologically principled mo-
knowledge of and devotion to God, there has tivation. Even the most heinous crimes have
been a persistent tradition of tolerant open- sometimes been committed by people claim-
ness that also appears to be grounded in the ing to be motivated by religion, including the
faith. The chauvinism of Ezra-Nehemiah is awful mass suicide of Jonestown and the rit-
countered by the broader universalism of the ual murders of some offbeat cult groups.
OT books of Ruth and Jonah, the intolerance Even the normal presumptions of parental
of crusade and inquisition by the generous responsibility sometimes have to be set aside
spirit of Francis of Assisi, the arrogance of when parents, prompted by sincere religious
many Puritans by the tolerant spirit of many faith, have withheld medical care or ne-
Baptists and Quakers. glected the education of their children. Since
How, then, are Christians to understand almost any kind of behavior can be motivated
the open expression of what they consider to by some form of religion, behavior itself can-
be error? They may well reflect that even not claim absolute tolerance within the com-
what one considers to be error may make munity. Nevertheless, the general theological
Personal Ethics 468
rationale for toleration might establish a pre- to compel persons not sharing the religious
sumption in favor of freedom of action, with scruple to obey the law.
this right of freedom overridden only when it There is a sense in which the foregoing
seems clear that particular behaviors are in- remarks can be held to support the concept
jurious to individuals or to the community. of a secular state or one in which formal
A more difficult distinction involves forms neutrality among religious viewpoints is pre-
of communication which incite antisocial be- served. But there may be a difference between
havior or defame persons or debase the pub- negative and positive forms of secularism*. A
lic culture. Those who oppose the general negative secularism avoids all religious val-
norm of tolerance argue that heresy has pre- ues and beliefs because it considers them to
cisely such effects, so the distinction between be superstitious or divisive. A positive secu-
communication of serious beliefs and values larism is formally neutral because of the pos-
and the degradation of public society with sibility that any and all religious viewpoints
inciting or corrupting beliefs and values may may have important contributions to make to
be a difficult one to maintain in practice. Ab- the well-being of the community. This article
solutizing freedom of expression could allow has suggested that the weight of Christian
any kind of public display imaginable and ethics should be felt on that side in light of
permit open incitement to riot or the verbal the recognition of God's transcendence and
injury of other persons. On the other hand, human finitude.
these dangers should not be taken to justify See Church and State; Conscience; Con-
intolerance and prohibition of unpopular scientious Objection; Cults; Deprogram-
ideas in general. The burden of proof should ming; Dissent; Freedom; Liberalism; Moral-
be borne by all those proposing to limit free- ity, Legal Enforcement of; Nonconformist
dom of expression to show that objective Conscience; Official Roman Catholic Social
harm to the community or to individuals is Teaching; Order; Peace; Pluralism; Seculari-
threatened. zation; Totalitarian State.
A somewhat more absolute principle can
be stated concerning the requirement that M. S. Bates, Religious Liberty: An Inquiry,
members of society express values or beliefs 1945; A. F. Carrillo de Albornoz, The Basis
they do not hold. Early Christians and Jews of Religious Liberty, 1963; Declaration on
were sometimes persecuted for refusing to Religious Freedom, in The Documents of
worship the Roman emperors, and in our Vatican II ed. W. M. Abbott, S.J., 1966; J.
own time members of some sectarian groups C. Murray, S.J., The Problem of Religious
(such as Jehovah's Witnesses) have suffered Freedom, 1965; and We Hold These Truths:
legal disabilities for refusal to pay formal Catholic Reflections on the American Proposi-
homage to the state. But it is difficult to imag- tion, 1960; F. Ruffini, Religious Liberty
ine any circumstances that would warrant a (1901), ET 1912; T. G. Sanders, Protestant
social policy requiring people to affirm as Concepts of Church and State, 1964; A. P.
true or good that which they do not believe Stokes and L. Pfeffer, Church and State in the
to be true or good. The absolute right to si- United States, 1964; J. P. Wogaman, Protes-
2
lence ought to be preserved even in those tant Faith and Religious Liberty, 1967.
circumstances where overt behavior has to be J. PHILIP WOGAMAN
regulated for the public good. A more diffi-
cult problem is posed by the question Personal Ethics
whether people should ever be compelled to The term does not have a generally accepted
act on the basis of the religious scruples of or technical meaning in the field of Christian
others. Should women in a Muslim country, ethics. Adding "personal" to "ethics," the
for example, be compelled to wear a veil in disciplined, critical inquiry into moral self-
public on the basis of the teaching of the hood and moral action, suggests several
Qur'n? The fact that any law can reflect in ideas.
some degree the religious motivations of law- First, personal ethics might be contrasted
makers suggests the difficulty of a simple neg- with nonpersonal interpretations of human
ative answer to the question. But where no behavior. In Christian ethics this usage em-
rationale other than a religious one exists in phasizes that human beings are centered
support of a law, it would appear intolerant selves, moral agents, accountable for their
469 Personalism
moral behavior, always existing in relation- representatives in W. Wundt and H. Lotze,
ship to God (also understood in a significant French thinkers like C. Renouvier and E.
sense as personal) and to one another, and Mounier, and recent British philosophers like
under the necessity of deciding who they are J. Macmurray (see Idealist Ethics). In
and what they will do. They are thus not America, personalism was formulated by
mere materials to be manipulated, not simply Borden Parker Bowne (Personalism, 1908)
results of the conditioning of their heredity and developed by E. S. Brightman (Moral
and environment, not interacting machines. Laws, 1933; A Philosophy of Religion, 1940),
This usage likewise stresses the personal A. C. Knudson, R. T. Flewelling, L. Harold
qualities that are often hidden in the imper- De Wolf, Peter Bertocci, and others. In these
sonality of much of life in urbanized industri- thinkers theism and natural theology are
alized society. However valid these ideas are, closely related, and have theological affinities
the term "personal" may be superfluous in with Christian evangelical liberalism, being
this sense of the phrase, in that Christian critical of fundamentalism and of irrational-
ethics as a discipline appears to presuppose ism in neo-orthodoxy (K. Barth, E. Brunner,
such assumptions. R. Niebuhr). Personalists affirm self-con-
Second, personal ethics might be con- scious experience to be the nonreducible
trasted with social ethics. In this sense the synoptic key to reality and define value as of,
former might represent a focus upon those by, and for persons-in-community. Person is
aspects of the moral life which involve direct the ontological ultimate, and personality is
interpersonal relationships, in contrast with the fundamental explanatory principle. Per-
the focus of social ethics upon the larger and sonalism, broadly conceived, has several
more complex aspects of human life in soci- types. Personal realism interprets ultimate re-
ety (see Social Ethics). This is a useful dis- ality as spiritual and supernatural, but recog-
tinction so long as it is not assumed that nizes a natural order of nonmental being
personal ethics are in any way separable from created by God and not intrinsically spiritual
wider social structures and processes, or that or personal. In the scholastic tradition such
moral judgments and behavior or important realism includes J. Maritain, E. Gilson, and
ethical questions are private or merely indi- E. Mounier (A Personalist Manifesto, 1936).
vidual matters. Nonscholastic-oriented realists include J. B.
Third, the term might refer to ethical in- Pratt (Personal Realism, 1937), G. Harkness,
quiry that gives special attention to the moral and A. C. Garnett. They view the categories
agent, i.e., what it means for a person to be of scientific thoughtspace-time, motion,
morally responsible, which moral traits are cause, substanceas incredible in the mental-
virtues and therefore commendable and de- istic idea of nature. Idealistic personalism of
sirable, and which are vices. Although the the absolutist type holds that finite persons
term is not ordinarily used in this sense, the literally participate in one Absolute Mind (J.
usage would be understandable. Royce, M. W. Calkins, B. Blanshard). Pan-
Finally, one might speak loosely of per- psychistic idealism has been presented in
sonal ethics when one means what would America by A. N. Whitehead and C. Harts-
more precisely be called personal morality, horne, who have developed an organic pro-
referring to persons' actual moral disposi- cess philosophy. Personal idealists (Boston
tions, convictions, and behavior, rather than tradition) typically view all reality as personal
to the discipline that inquires into them. and pluralistic. Reality is a society of persons
See also Social Ethics. grounded in the Supreme Person who is the
creator offinitepersons. As "world ground,"
B. Hring, Free and Faithful in Christ, 1978; God's self-directing intelligent agency shows
S. Hauerwas, Character and the Christian itself in the order and continuity of the phe-
Life: A Study in Theological Ethics, 1975; C. nomenal world. In Brightman the epistemo-
F. H. Henry, Christian Personal Ethics, 1957. logical and metaphysical argument distin-
JOSEPH L. ALLEN guishes the "shining present" as experienced
and the "illuminating absent" as a hypothesis
Personalism of objective order, including nature and oth-
Modern personalism has its roots in the ideal- ers' minds. Personalism stresses the unity of
ist tradition since Plato, with major German subjective and objective orders of being on a
Persons and Personality 470
broader and more synoptic empirical basis tion can be offered. Several interrelated
than is postulated in science. Its view of being meanings can be noted, clustering round the
is activist, including values, and hence em- notion of the individual human being as the
phasizes both ethics and religion. The prob- possessor of unique or at least distinguishing
lem of "good and evil" tends to divide person- characteristics. The contexts of use are im-
alists between those who hold traditional portant, the term "person" being employed
views of God's power and finitists like Bright- mainly in ethical and theological discussion,
man, Bertocci, and S. P. Schilling (God and while "personality" features more promi-
Human Anguish, 1977). nently in psychological literature, particu-
The impact of personal idealism on theo- larly in theories derived from psychotherapy
logical ethics includes: the interdisciplinary and counseling.
character of Christian social ethics; stressing Philosophy and theology. The classical
metaphysical issues in the ideas of creation, source for ethical and theological accounts of
nature, and personality; emphasizing the in- the nature of person is the definition of Boe-
terpntration of faith and reason; develop- thius in his Against Eutyches and Nestorius:
ing a critical value theory; rejecting irration- "the individual substance of a rational na-
alism and heteronomy; offering a system of ture" (naturae rationabilis individua sub-
regulative moral laws (Brightman, Moral stantia; 3.5). The hallmarks of this approach
Laws) in contrast to deontological cultural are individuality and rationality. Designed
prescriptions; emphasizing the purposive and originally to establish a case in the contro-
relational aspects of personality, particularly versy concerning the nature of Christ, this
of rational love; and insisting on the dialecti- definition has wider significance, since it cap-
cal unity of theory and practice. These ideas tures a tendency (evident in Western thought
form an ethic of personal development and especially) to isolate the individual from the
social structural transformation. Brightman community and to emphasize rationality at
applies the metaphysical characteristics of the expense of other aspects of human nature.
personality directly to ethics since personal- In theology the stress on individuality has
ity is an empirical complex whole, both ac- found many articulations, perhaps nowhere
tive and interactive, a unitary agent, free to more passionately and eloquently than in the
choose among given possibilities. In Britain, writings of Kierkegaard, the precursor of the
John Macmurray (The Self as Agent, 1957; existentialist theologies of the 20th century:
and Persons in Relation, 1961) has argued "Had I to carve an inscription on my grave,
that all meaningful knowledge is for the sake I would ask for none other than 'the individ-
of action and all meaningful action for the ual'" (1847; The Journals of Kierkegaard,
sake of friendship. Moreover, he insists on sel. and tr. A. Dru, 1959). Such a view repre-
the social nature of person and that the politi- sents a reaction against essentialist philoso-
cal is derivative from the moral. phy and theology in which human nature and
In the field of social action M. L. King, Jr. God's nature have been described in the lan-
(Stride Toward Freedom, 1958), based his guage of substance and attributes, an out-
nonviolent philosophy of social change on moded terminology, ill suited to living beings
the metaphysics of Brightman and the Chris- whose uniqueness consists as much in action
tian doctrine of love. Theologically, his men- as in static characteristics (see Existentialist
tor was DeWolf. For King, nonviolence was Ethics; Kierkegaardian Ethics). Thus both in
not simply a method or tactic but a coherent Christological theory and in theological an-
way of life. thropology the notion of the person as an
See Human Dignity; Idealist Ethics; Love; agent rather than simply as a rational indi-
Persons and Personality; Respect for Per- vidual is gaining prominence. In this context
sons; Self-Realization; Values and Value the writings of John Macmurray (The Self as
Judgment. Agent, 1957; Persons in Relation, 1961) are
WALTER G. MUELDER an important source of an action-oriented,
personalist philosophy (see Personalism).
Personality see Persons and Personality Ethics. In ethical theory "person" has been
used to denote a status accorded to human
Persons and Personality individuals, which describes them both as the
Such ambiguity surrounds these terms, espe- possessors of rights and as the bearers of the
cially in modern usage, that no simple defini- responsibility to respect the rights of others.
471 Persons and Personality 471
This view derives from Immanuel Kant's ac- count of human nature rather than concen-
count of a moral law enjoining duty by virtue trate on research which isolates those aspects
of its universal applicability to rational be- of human behavior amenable to study in lab-
ings. Kant's formulations of the categorical oratory or quasi-laboratory conditions. The
imperatives* of morality included the imper- need for such an account has been especially
ative to treat all rational beings, including felt by theoreticians interested in the practi-
oneself, as ends in themselves and never as cal applications of psychology to counsel-
mere means (see Kantian Ethics). This for- ing*, therapy, or education. In the writings of
mulation finds a modern equivalence in the the psychotherapist Carl Rogers the phrase
norm of respect for persons*. Kant's theory, "becoming a person" is extensively used to
however, depended upon a radical disjunc- denote a transition achieved by therapy from
tion between reason and emotion, since he an inauthentic, socially conditioned self to
believed that the obligations of morality "that self one truly is." An implication of this
could never depend upon the vagaries of approach is that most individuals are not per-
emotion. Modern accounts have tended to sons, most of the time. Rogers's view derives
reinstate nonrational elements, while still from the more thorough exposition by C. G.
seeking to avoid the emphasis on feeling and Jung of the contrast between the persona (the
desire of egoistic or utilitarian theories. What actor's mask, the Latin term from which the
is worthy of respect, it is argued, is the aware- word "person" originally derives) and the
ness, sensitivity, and consistency that make it "self." The persona is the social presentation
possible for humans to seek moral ends in of the self, but the "whole person" or "self'
community with others. This version of Kant- is much richer, containing elements con-
ianism seems to accord well with the Chris- cealed from consciousness, but nonetheless
tian value of love* of neighbor as oneself part of the individual's unique identity. Ac-
(agape), and writers as diverse as Paul Til- cording to Jung the archetypal self reveals
lich, Paul Ramsey, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul the wholeness of the individual. This self is
Lehmann, and Joseph Fletcher have all of- open to discovery through psychotherapy or
fered interpretations of agap that relate it to through the symbolic communication of
the requirement to respect others as persons. dreams, art, and religion.
This approach has also proved influential in Theories of the type espoused by Rogers
a number of contemporary moral debates, and Jung are regarded by other schools of
notably in the establishment of a list of basic psychology as insufficiently supported by em-
human rights* (Universal Declaration of pirical evidence. Most psychologists would
Human Rights, 1948) and in the search for accept some distinction between the social
norms to guide the judgments of modem self and that blend of personal consciousness
scientists and physicians (see Paul Ramsey, and public behavior which constitutes the
The Patient as Person, 1970). Nevertheless, particular character of individuals. It is evi-
theories based on personalist values tend to dent that the term "personality" can be used
lack precision and to miss some aspects of to describe either. We speak of someone hav-
moral obligation. The communal and nonra- ing a strong personality or an attractive per-
tional elements of morality remain on the sonality. Here we are referring to self-presen-
periphery, and the function of moral princi- tation in social situations, and this lends itself
ples which transcend individual choice re- relatively easily to study through the experi-
mains a matter of controversy. This is espe- mental methods of social psychology. A large
cially evident in the continuing debate within body of psychological literature is now de-
Christian ethics about whether agape is pro- voted to personality theory based on the
ductive only of an attitude toward others or study of traits that can be ascertained
whether it is the source of exceptionless, or through the use of personality inventories
nearly exceptionless, rules that have social as and other questionnaire methods. Parallel to
well as individual applicability. this is the study of personality development,
Psychology. Within psychological theory where changes in attitudes and behavior typi-
the concept of person and the related concept cal of different "life crises" are identified
of personality have had a different but no less from observation of samples drawn from dif-
controversial history. They have found favor ferent age groups and different cultures.
with those schools of psychology which have More elusive, however, is that supposed
attempted to develop a comprehensive ac- "personality," or self, which underlies the
Pessimism 472
self-reporting and the social presentation. of rational agent and the psychological cate-
Behaviorists regard the search for such a sub- gory of an organized, self-directing system of
jective entity as misguided, indeed as mere individual consciousness and behavior. Even-
metaphysical speculation. But many theories tually Christian ethics has to return to some
of personality in this second sense have been form of Christological formulation in order
formulated. Apart from those stemming to express fully the dignity and uniqueness of
from the psychodynamic schools of Freud the individual person as the recipient of
and Jung, there have been theories based on God's gracious call. It must do this, however,
factor analysis, organismic organization, in a manner that avoids the inadequacies of
field theory, and the mathematical models of past formulations. The language of theology
cybernetics. No single personality theory has must always be sought from contemporary
gained widespread acceptance, but the re- sources. It is probable that in the debates of
quirement to explain how the separate as- contemporary moral philosophy and social
pects of individual experience and behavior psychology at least some of the appropriate
gain a central organization seems inescapable terminology will be found.
for psychology. Despite the methodological Finally, it may be observed that the con-
difficulties a human psychology must take troversial and ambiguous character of the
account of the uniquely personal (see Psy- terms "person" and "personality" need not
choanalysis; Psychology and Ethics). be a matter of regret. These terms attempt to
Conclusions. Debate about the nature of describe that which must inevitably elude
person and personality raises a number of precise definitionthe particularity and
interesting issues for Christian ethics. First, open-endedness of individual human exis-
the notion of "becoming a person," with its tence. So long as debate flourishes among the
related ideas of wholeness, maturity, and self- moral philosophers and the social scientists
actualization, may provide a contemporary there is some prospect that the richness of
interpretation of the Christian hope for personal being will be better understood and
human flourishing through love (see Self- respected. The person fully explained could
Realization). But the quest for "authentic easily be the person lost. (For a discussion of
personhood" can also be regarded as both some of the issues about when personhood
elitist and egocentric. It is unclear how a gos- begins and ends, see Abortion; Death, Deter-
pel of self-actualization can incorporate the mination of.)
prophetic elements of Christianity, in which See Human Dignity; Humanistic Ethics;
justice for the oppressed is more important Respect for Persons; Responsibility.
than self-development, and love may entail
sacrifice and self-denial. Secondly, issues of H.-M. Barth, Fulfilment, ET 1980; R. S.
freedom and determinism are raised by all Downie and E. Telfer, Respect for Persons,
sociological or psychological theories seeking 1962; C. S. Hall and G. Lindzey, Theories of
a total explanation of human character and Personality, 1978; J. Macmurray, Persons in
3
behavior (see Free Will and Determinism). Relation, 1961; R. Ruddock, Six Approaches
The more comprehensive the theory, the less to the Person 1972.
room there may appear to be for individual ALASTAIR V. CAMPBELL
choice and responsibility. Some personality
theories attempt to include notions of self- Persuasion
determination and self-transcendence within Usually refers to the act, process, or result of
their compass (see A. H. Maslow, The Far- convincing a person to accept a belief
ther Reaches of Human Nature, 1976). through arguments, in contrast to such other
Nevertheless, the tension between freedom acts, processes, or results as brainwashing*,
and responsibility and "bondage of the will" indoctrination*, coercion*, and physical
characteristic of most Christian ethical the- force. See also Behavior Control; Etepro-
ory is not easily captured in purely psycho- gramming; Science and Ethics.
logical categories. The need for Christian
ethics to take account of God's purposes for Pessimism
humankind and of God's specific vocation to Pessimism may be understood as a reflective
each individual within his or her life span attitude, asserting as a philosophy that reality
appears to leave behind the ethical category is evil, either predominantly or essentially
473 Phenomenology
and totally. The pessimist puts the least fa- defeating, because in seeking to fulfill its
vorable construction on actions and events, desires humankind is doomed to alternate be-
and views life as basically futile. Both as a set tween the pain of want and the boredom of
of beliefs and as an outlook on life it says that satiety.
human nature is weak and evil, and an indi- Finally, pessimism, whether on grounds of
vidual's capacity for improvement small or its doctrine of humanity, history, metaphys-
nonexistent. For example, those Christian es- ics, or all three, has usually led to the follow-
timates of human beings which emphasize ing attitudes: (1) belligerent resentment by
not only their original sin but also their con- human beings of their nature and condition
tinuous state as sinners even when forgiven, e.g., the "angry young man"; (2) resigna-
are matched by other, less theologically in- tione.g., the conservatives (religious and
formed interpretations which hold that secular) who reject progress and yearn for a
humankind is basically stupid and indolent. past age; (3) despair and anxiety, as analyzed
And on a deeper level, the latter dwells upon by depth psychologists and by theologians
psychological and sociological research (Tillich); and (4) people oriented to the next
which now seems to show that humans are world.
controlled by nonrational and irrational Is the Christian pessimistic? A distinction
forces to a far greater degree than had must be made between the object and
hitherto been imagined. grounds of the estimate; that is, human be-
Pessimism also involves historical evalua- ings are said to be sinners in a sinful world,
tions. Thus, it characteristically judges his- nonetheless they are capable of response to
tory to be, if not meaningless, then at least and rapport with God's love, and history
without any discernible meaning. Its attitude may be seen as the drama under his guidance.
is basically one of gloom and despair. Rus- Concerning the ultimate ontological status of
sell, while not a pessimistic philosopher, good and evil, Christianity has consistently
sums up this view when he cites the compari- rejected Manichean dualism, that is, the be-
son of life to a bird whichfliesfrom the dark- lief that good and evil are equally ultimate
ness and cold through the momentary light forces in reality.
and warmth of a castle and thence out again See Buddhist Ethics; Hindu Ethics; Mani-
into the endless night. Hindu and Buddhist chean Ethics; Meliorism; Optimism; Prog-
philosophies of life are often described as pes- ress, Belief in.
simistic, but theirs is a pessimism only with CHARLES W. KEGLEY
respect to this world. The Buddha's teaching
that "all is suffering" refers only to experi- Phenomenology
ences short of nirvana, while the Hindu's in- Phenomenological method in philosophy
volvement in samsarathe struggles and dis- originated principally with the work of Ed-
appointments of worldly life in one mund Husserl (1859-1938). He sought to
incarnation after anotherwill in time give clarify the truth of intentional acts of con-
way to the bliss of final release. In a some- sciousness by a method of description and
what similar vein, Christian thought, espe- imaginative variation that would yield access
cially that of NT times and of the period of to the "things themselves." In his view, such
monasticism, is pessimistic about the present a grasp of the essences of things would yield
world but looks with anticipation toward the apodictic truth or rational knowledge in a
world to come. world plunging into irrationality. According
In addition, pessimism embodies central to this method, questions of existence or
metaphysical assertions, some of them di- nonexistence of the objects of consciousness
rectly related to one's philosophy of history. would be bracketed, and the inquirer would
Thus, one school of thought claims not only ask only how the objects give themselves in
that the total amount of evil exceeds that of lived experience. This openness to lived expe-
the good, but that things are going from bad rience commended the method to scholars in
to worse. Another point of view has its best- history of religions, ethics, theology, and the
known embodiment in Schopenhauer's The arts, for a reductionistic positivism* had rele-
World as Will and Idea (1819, 1844; ET
2 gated their inquiries to a realm of nonrational
1883, 1958), in which he claims that life ex- subjectivity.
presses blind will. Life is intrinsically self- Alfred Schutz developed this method in
Philanthropy 474
the human sciences, Mircea Eliade in history its proximate origins in Bismarck's Germany
of religions, Paul Tillich in systematic theol- and its remote precedent in ancient Rome,
ogy, and more recently Edward Farley in has increasingly assumed philanthropic func-
theology, and Howard Harrod in moral phi- tions. But the term "philanthropic" more
losophy. Significant differences in the work of narrowly refers today to giving by private
these authors are indicative of the wide varia- donors, voluntary communities, or incorpo-
tions in appropriation of the phenomenologi- rated foundations rather than to giving
cal method. within the reciprocities of family life or citi-
Martin Heidegger, an early collaborator zenship.
with Edmund Husserl, pursued this method In the UK, philanthropic giving (dona-
in his first inquiries but shifted away from the tions by private individuals, companies,
concern with apodictic truth to the question trusts, and government grants to private
of being. This break with Husserl's project agencies) has increased from 2,400 million
opened the way to a hermeneutical phenom- in 1976 to 10,000 million in 1984, in part as
enology that is now unfolding in linguistic the result of new fund-raising efforts. In the
studies and political ethics. USA, voluntary communities, aided and
abetted by the principle of the separation of
H. G. Gadamer, Truth and Method, 1975; H. church and state, have played a significant
Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Move- role in the meeting of communal needs. For-
ment, 2 vols., 1960; G. Winter, Elements for eign observers from de Tocqueville forward
a Social Ethic: Scientific and Ethical Perspec- have singled out the strength of voluntary
tives on Social Process, 1966. communities as the distinctive feature of
GIBSON WINTER American social life. By 1982, philanthropic
giving reached a total of 60 billion dollars.
Philanthropy Recent advocates of the minimal state have
The ideal of philanthropy commends a love* sought to divest the government of its welfare
of humankind that issues in concrete deeds of functions and return them altogether to vol-
service to others. These gifts of service can untary communities.
take the form of goods, time, or money. They The proposal to meet human needs and
help either to meet the basic needs of others foster excellence through individual initiative
(food, clothing, shelter, and medical care) or and voluntary giving faces a variety of diffi-
to foster their excellence (support for art, cul- culties. First, very practically, voluntary
ture, research, parks, museums, public build- communities depend for their continuing vi-
ings, and education). Ancient religious tradi- tality on the contributions of treasure and
tions of charity* largely directed gifts to time from their members. Prolonged infla-
relieve or console those in misery (the hun- tion, however, has eroded the financial base
gry, the thirsty, the sick, the imprisoned). of churches, synagogues, and service organi-
Modern managers of philanthropic founda- zations; and the women's movement (com-
tions have largely concentrated their re- bined with the pressures of inflation) has pro-
sources on the fostering of excellence, believ- pelled women into the work force, thereby
ing that support for research and education reducing the number of people available to
will help prevent and eliminate the structural contribute their services. Voluntary com-
causes of human misery rather than merely munities have not had enough money or time
treat its outer manifestations. at their disposal to take up the slack created
Historically, aid to others has articulated by the abrupt withdrawal of the government
itself through a variety of institutions. In tra- from welfare responsibilities. Further, mod-
ditional societies, the family, the kinship ern communities have so organized them-
group, caste, or extended clan largely orga- selves as to provide the rich and the poor
nized aid. In classical Western society, the little contact with one another.
church, which at one time possessed over one The ideal of philanthropy at its best divides
third of the usable land in Europe, supple- the human race into two groups: relatively
mented familial support systems. (The sacred self-sufficient benefactors and needy benefici-
writings of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Bud- aries. It presupposes a unilateral or one-way
dhists, Confucians, and other religious tradi- transfer from giver to receiver, overlooking
tions also provide warrants for giving.) In the the fact that the benefactor receives as well as
modern world, the welfare state, which had gives. A two-way street of giving and receiv-
475 Pietism, Ethics of
ing marks human community, and not PhiliB see Love
merely in the setting in the family.
A society that relies too heavily on the Philosophical Ethics
voluntarist/philanthropic approach falls into Contrasted with theological or religious eth-
a series of moral traps that derive from the ics. See Christian Ethics; Ethics; Moral The-
pretense of the self-sufficient giver. Donors ology.
can be too overbearing, too demeaning, too
given to covert control, too insensitive to Physicalism see Double Effect; Modern
long-range side effects of their interventions, Roman Catholic Moral Theology
too given to monumentalism, too oriented to
their own glory, and sometimes too inflexible Pietism, Ethics of
or narrow. Pietism in Germany originated toward the
While agreeing with some of these criti- end of the 17th century as a reaction, on the
cisms of the ideal of philanthropy, the Chris- one hand, to Protestant orthodoxism with its
tian moral tradition hardly justifies with- one-sided emphasis upon intellectual assent
drawal from personal and organized giving. to correct doctrine, which, however, repre-
Rather, it puts the imperative to give on a sented a departure from the Reformation em-
different basis. Specifically, it breaks with the phasis upon the right proclamation of the
philanthropic division of the world into bene- gospel as alone leading to faith and renewal
factors and beneficiaries from which many of of life in Christ. On the other hand, it was
the philanthropist's moral pretensions and also a reaction to the legalistic attempts that
difficulties flow. were being made to bring order and disci-
Scripture provides powerful warrants for pline into the disrupted church life, particu-
giving but always within the setting of a pri- larly after the ravages of the Thirty Years'
mordial receiving. The Jewish farmer leaves War. Instead, the Pietists advocated a deep-
some of his crop for sojourners but as one ening of the inner "spiritual" life.
who long ago received while himself a so- Its chief proponents in Germany were
journer in Egypt. The Christian's love, from Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) and Au-
beginning to end, Can only respond to pri- gust Hermann Francke (1663-1727), who
mordial gift. "Herein is love, not that we gave a great impetus to the work of social as
loved God, but that he loved us. .. . [So] we well as foreign missions. Count Nicholas Zin-
also ought to love one another." The trivial zendorf (1700-1760) developed a community
gifts that men and women give, from the of Brethren who cultivated a religion of the
widow's mite to the Rockefellers' fortune, heart and an intimate personal relation to the
take place within a transcendent receiving. Savior. Pietism is particularly in evidence
The Christian tradition also supplies pow- today in Wrttemberg. Through Schleier-
erful warrants for the expenditures of time macher it has influenced modern theology
and treasure in the institutional setting of with its attention focused on inner religious
voluntary communities. A society should experience, It has again and again manifested
not, for all the reasons already cited, try to itself whenever the church has become for-
solve its welfare needs exclusively through mal and institutionalized and too much
voluntary communities, but these "little pla- "conformed to this world" (as in England,
toons" of organized charity supplement the e.g., at the time of the Wesleyan revival).
capacities of a community to serve the In general it may be said that Pietism in-
needs and excellences of its members be- sists upon a conscious conversion experience
yond the limited resources of the family or and a living faith relation to Jesus as personal
the impersonal distributions of the state Savior from sin, resulting in a changed life
alone. and in outward evidence of this change.
See Charity; Social Service of the Church; Right belief is set over against right belief,
Voluntary Associations; Welfare State. with the former receiving the major empha-
sis. Reliance upon sacramental ministrations
Council on Foundations, Inc., The Philan- is regarded as a mechanical ex opere operato
thropy of Organized Religion, 1985; W. not requiring personal response. The objec-
Gaylin et al., Doing Good, 1978; D. Owen, tivity of the means of grace is thus set in
English Philanthropy, 1964. opposition to the subjective reception of
WILLIAM F. MAY God's grace, distorting the unity of the di-
Platonic Ethics 476
vine-human encounter in which revelation Plato was twenty-nine or thirty (see Socratic
and faith are always corollary, with God as Ethics). He was also the co-founder of an
the author of both. Hence faith in one's own Athenian school known as the Academy, one
faith tends to replace reliance upon God's of whose students was the young Aristotle
promise. (see Aristotelian Ethics).
Likewise, with insistence upon outward The generally accepted corpus of Plato's
evidence of inner conversion, the emphasis writings includes (in addition to a few letters)
falls upon externalities of conduct under an some twenty-four philosophical works writ-
individual's control. The Sermon on the ten in the form of dialogues. Most of these
Mount is taken as a set of principles rather dialogues include Socrates as protagonist or
than as paradigms of the new life of love. It at least a minor character; Plato himself is
is forgotten that it is the hidden life of love mentioned by name in only one (the Apolo-
which is known by its fruits. gy). In most of the early dialogues Socrates
Moreover, the continued presence of the is portrayed as searching for definitions of
old sinful self along with the "new man" is virtue*, or excellence* of character* (aret)
obscured, leading to false "perfectionism."* by means of his method of "dialectic,"* in
The complexity of the human situation is un- which one disputant attempts to defend a
derestimated along with the ambiguity of position while his questioner attempts to lead
moral choices. It is forgotten that the will of him into statements refuting that position by
God is always particular, at a time and place, asking questions requiring a Yes or No an-
affecting a unique individual within given swer. In the early dialogues, Socrates demol-
structures. The gospel tends to become a new ishes arguments for definitions of particular
law, while the law loses its coercive power. virtues and for answers to such questions as
Nevertheless, Pietism has been and contin- "Can virtue be taught?" While these dia-
ues to be a valid protest against sterile ortho- logues identify the deficiencies of various
doxism and false sacramentalism and consti- conventional notions, they rarely construct
tutes a proper plea for a genuine break with particular definitions themselves. Glimpses
the old sinful self and an unregenerate of ethical doctrines do, however, emerge; and
"world." In its best manifestations it has re- one to which Plato seems clearly drawn is
sulted in active concern for the needs of Socrates' equation of virtue (aret) with
human beings. In the genuineness of their knowledge (<epistm), although Plato has
piety the Pietists led simple, quiet, peaceful, Socrates offer caveats to that equation in the
joyous lives. They sent missionaries into Protagoras and Meno.
many parts of the world in their zeal to save This idea of virtue-as-knowledge provides
souls and to relieve human misery, poverty, a good starting point for examining Plato's
and injustice. The danger lies in a self-righ- complex and evolving moral theory in the
teous separation from the world instead of a great ethical and political dialogues of his
free and joyous living "in and for the world" middle period (such as the Republic) and his
in the servant-form. It destroys the "hidden- late period (such as the Politicus and the
ness" of the one, holy, Christian, apostolic Laws). For it presages the development of
Church. several Platonic doctrines that inform his
ethics, including his theory of knowledge,
R. N. Flew, The Idea of Perfection in Chris- particularly the Doctrine of Forms, and his
tian Theology: An Historical Study 1934; E. divisions of the soul (psych).
W. Gritsch, Born Againism: Perspectives on a Knowledge. Rejecting the idea that truth is
Movement, 1983; A. W. Nagler, Pietism and relative or a matter of convention (see Soph-
Methodism, 1918; K. S. Pinson, Pietism as a ists), Socrates distinguished between mere
Factor in the Rise of German Nationalism, sense-perception, on the one hand, and
1934. knowledge of eternal values (epistm), on
MARTIN J. HEINECKEN the other. True knowledge must be of univer-
sal. Plato's doctrine of Forms (or Ideas) is
Platonic Ethics both an epistemological and an ontological
Plato (428/7-348/7 B.c.) was closely as- theory. There is an immutable, objective real-
sociated with Socrates in Athens in the years ity corresponding to each true universal con-
leading up to the latter's trial and execution cept. Though Plato's language sometimes
for "impiety" and "irrligion" in 399, when suggests an utterly transcendent world of
477 Platonic Ethics
pure Forms, these essences are also imma- tive parts under reason's rule (see Cardinal
nent in the phenomenal and particular. The Virtues). The proper rule of reason in the
Forms give being to that which partakes in virtuous soul clearly requires true knowl-
them. The Idea of courage, for example, is edge, in the sense of discovering the absolute
the source of courage in all who are truly and unchanging nature of goodness; this is
courageous. The Forms are also in an onto- but another way of stating the doctrine that
logical hierarchy; their being is grounded in virtue is knowledge. And with such virtue
the Absolute, which is transcendent to and comes true happiness.
yet immanent in them. This Absolute is iden- Happiness and virtue. Plato's moral theory
tified in the Republic as the Idea of the Good. is not primarily an ethics of judging particu-
Ideas of virtue (courage, temperance, wis- lar actions. Indeed, one of the points of book
dom, justice) are subordinate to, and yet par- 1 of the Republic is that moral virtu cannot
take in, the absolute Good. We apprehend be defined simply in terms of "right" action
these timeless essences and the absolute even when done in the "right" spirit. For
Good discursively, that is, by means of dia- while there is a close connection between aret
lectic. (Here Plato's interpretation differs andrightaction, all actions must odcur in the
from that of latter Neoplatonists like Ploti- world of sense and chang, a world in Which
nus, who conceived of an "ecstatic" rather virtue must be expressed under varying phe-
than intellectual approach to the Ultimate nomenal conditions. Platonic ethics is eu-
One; see Neoplatonism). daemonistic in the sense that it is centered
Plato held that man's attraction to his per- around the attainment of man's highest good,
ceived good is through the motivation of his true happiness, which involves the right
Eros (desire for the good). The "level" of cultivation of his soul and the harihonious
perceived good to which he is drawn by Eros well-being of his life (see Eudaemonism;
is a function of the rational development of Happiness).
his soul in apprehending true essences. One For all his emphasis on true knowledge
cannot be virtuous by nursing fleeting, muta- and rational direction of the soul, Plato does
ble sensations of goodness, but only through not characterize the good life as pure ascetic
proper orientation toward their real essences. contemplation*. The spirited and appetitive
Virtue is, then, a quality of the well-ordered parts must "justly" be given sme rein as
soul. well; so the good life is a "mixed" one of
The Soul. Plato believed the soul to be sep- intellectual pleasures and moderate satisfac-
arate from (and superior to) the body. It is tion of desire. Happiness must be ttained
the human being's greatest possession, and its through the pursuit of virtueby becoming
orientation his or her greatest concern. "like the divine so far as we can." And while
Plato's famous tripartite division of the soul Plato distinguishes particular virtues accord-
is sketched in the Republic (and recurs iii the ing to their objects or the parts of the soul of
Phaedrus and Timaeus). The soul is said to which they are the habits, he also holds that
consist of a rational part, a "spirited" part, they form a "unity" as expressions of the
and an appetitive part. The dominant theme same knowledge of good and evil. "Pru-
of the Republic is the nature of justice, and dence"* is his term for this unified virtue
Plato's Socrates defines the "just" person as the knowledge of man's good and of the
one in whose soul each part performs only its means of attaining it. Ultimately the virtues
proper function: bodily appetites and physi- are inseparable.
cal spiritedness should be under the direction In addition to his general equtioh of
of reason. For the rational part is akin to the knowledge and virtue, Plato also seems to
divine in its approach to true Forms and is have held fast to the idea that no one evr
immortal, while the other two parts operate does evil willingly and knowingly. The urge
in the phenomenal realm and are thus bound of Eros is always toward the good as we per-
by mortality. In addition to defining the vir- ceive it. We may perceive an (objective) evil
tue of justice * as the harmonic operation of to be our good through ignorance* of our
the soul, Plato also assigns other virtues to "real" good; or our knowledge of the real
the soul's parts and their relations: wisdom * good may be obscured temporarily by pas-
is the virtue of the rational part; courage* the sion (an imbalance of the functional parts of
virtue of the spirited part; and temperance * the soul). In either case, however, we would
the virtue of the union of spiritual and appeti- not be deliberately choosing evil but rather
478 Platonic Ethics
misperceiving the good. Doing the good fol- The Platonic tradition. A. N. Whitehead
lows naturally and logically from knowing noted that the history of philosophy is a "se-
the good. ries of footnotes to Plato," and yet only some
Political theory. In the Republic, Plato of those footnotes are actually in the Platonic
draws an analogy between the just person tradition of ethics. This tradition closely con-
and the just state and constructs a model of nects metaphysics and ethics and holds that
the just state with three social classes repre- it is possible, for humans to apprehend tran-
sentative of parts of the soul: workers and scendent realities. According to D.-A. Rees.
artisans, auxiliaries (soldiers), and guardians. "Platonism holds that a valid system of
The guardian class is composed of people, moral conceptions will reflect the nature of
male and female, who have shown excellence the universe, and morality is thus seen as
in every phase of their education and who more than merely human. Correlatively, Pla-
have been chosen to undergo rigorous physi- tonic ethics stresses the importance for con-
cal and intellectual training. The most capa- duct of knowledge and enlightenment and
ble guardians will become philosophers and tends to place the highest good for man in the
will be given complete political rule, since contemplation* of truth (the theoretical life);
every good ruler is one who governs in virtue moreover, Platonic ethics lays less stress on
of knowledge of the truth. duty* and responsibility* than on virtue*
Plato's insistence upon the ideal of philoso- and the realization of good... There is also
pher-kings is a political manifestation of his a disposition sometimes manifested to assimi-
doctrine of Forms coupled with his moral late the moral and the aesthetic (as through
psychology. For the state exists to guarantee the notion of thefittingor the appropriate)."
the good life for its citizens and should thus In this tradition, then, ethics is teleological
be ruled by those with a developed capacity rather than deontological (see Teleological
for approaching the essence of good life (just Ethics; Deontology), and there is no sharp
as the reason must rule the soul because it is distinction between the self and others in the
the part of the soul which has this capacity). realization of good. Self-realization* involves
Plato's famous story of the "Cave" in book 7 happiness* rather than pleasure* in a narrow
of the Republic is an allegorical presentation sense; it is thus eudaemonistic rather than
of this. hedonistic (see Eudaemonism; Hedonism).
Having thus proposed and defended an As Rees further suggests, when Platonism
ideal philosophical aristocracy*, Plato pro- was combined with Christianity, several
ceeds in books 8 and 9 of the Republic to themes oftenbut not alwaysemerged:
describe its inevitable degeneration through denial of a sharp dichotomy between reason
plutocracy into democracy* and tyranny*. and revelation; emphasis on the divine spark
This foreshadows the more pessimistic, or in humans and their drive toward the good
"realistic," approach of Plato's later political rather than on the effects of original sin; em-
works, particularly the Politicus ("The phasis on the incarnation rather than on the
Statesman") and the Laws. For example, in atonement; high evaluation of contempla-
the Laws, Plato's vision of the ideal ruler tion; appreciation of the "spirit" rather than
with knowledge of moral values is replaced the "letter"; and suspicion of rules and insti-
by a polity of law.* Although Plato's anthro- tutions. In early Christian ethics, both Clem-
pology is darker here than in earlier works, ent of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 211) and Origen
human beings are still viewed as capable of (c. 185-c. 254) combined Christianity with
achieving virtue by observance and fulfill- the Platonism that was common in Alex-
ment of law. And Plato still affirms the re- andria (see Patristic Ethics). The Neopla-
sponsibility of the polis to promote the good tonic school (see Neoplatonism) embodied
life for its citizens through education in vir- several of the above themes and significantly
tue. In this century there has been vigorous influenced Augustine (see Augustinian Eth-
debate about whether Plato's political ics), who combined Christianity with a Neo-
thought was authoritarian, totalitarian, and platonic structure while muting several of the
racist (see Totalitarian State; Racism), as above themes. In many syntheses of Chris-
Karl Popper charged in The Open Society tian and Neoplatonic perspectivesfor ex-
and Its Enemies, 1945. (For this debate, see ample, the Pseudo-Dionysian writings,
T. L. Thorson, ed., Plato: Totalitarian or which were wrongly attributed to Dionysius
Democrat? 1963.) the Areopagitethe mix was Christian mys-
479 Pleasure
ticism, which valued contemplation as the ing, swimming, doing mathematics or philos-
highest way of life (see Mysticism and Ethics). ophy) and sometimes the crown, which, as it
By the 13th century the rediscovered Aris- were, perfected the manner of a person's
totelianism eclipsed Platonism in Christian presence to the successive phases of his or her
thought, and the Thomistic synthesis of Aris- life, supervening on those phases as its bloom
totelianism and Christianity became domi- upon the spring of the year. For Aristotle
nant. However, Platonic perspectives were pleasure is not something abstractive from
prominent in the Renaissance* and then in the states of affairs to which it belongs. We
the latter half of the 17th century among the cannot separate the pleasure of swimming
Cambridge Platonists, such as Ralph Cud- from swimming nor that of doing mathemat-
worth. In the 19th century, the Platonic tra- ics from mathematical work. Yet we know
dition influenced such Anglican thinkers as that sometimes we enjoy ourselves ia these
F. D. Maurice (see Anglican Moral Theol- activities and sometimes we do not. On this
ogy) and such philosophers as Hegel and the view pleasure is identified with enjoyment
English Idealists (see Hegelian Ethics; Ideal- and enjoyment is intimately bound up with
ist Ethics); for example, the English idealists the activity or the state enjoyed. In conse-
drew on Plato's organic interpretation of quence when we ask what various pleasures
state and society to oppose individualism*. have in common, or on what principle- they
Although Plato has been the subject of nu- are grouped together as pleasures, we have to
merous philosophical studies in the 20th cen- recognize that they cannot be regarded as
tury, Platonic thought has been only partially possessing a generic or specific identity;
reflected in moral philosophy. For example, rather, they must be judged properly grouped
as Rees notes, G. E. Moore (Principia Ethica, together as pleasures by analogy, viz., in the
1903) reflected the Platonic tradition in mak- same way in which Aristotle grouped to-
ing the good rather than the right central to gether in the last chapter of his Categories
his ethics and, in contrast to many of his various forms of having, whereby a man may
fellow utilitarians (see Utilitarianism), in em- be said to have a wife, an overdraft, a Siamese
phasizing several goods, rather than pleas- cat, a copy of the Archbishop of Canter-
ure, that could be known by intuition*, even bury's sermons, a hole in his trouser pocket,
though he departed from the Platonic tradi- etc. It is Aristotle's view (often denied on
tion in rejecting any naturalistic ethics* on abstract, dogmatic grounds by earnest ^Chris-
the grounds that it is not possible to derive an tian apostles of self-sacrifice, and by their
"ought" from an "is," or ethical propositions modem existentialist successors, but very
from metaphysical propositions. often true, for all that) that people do best
what they most enjoy doing and that there-
D. J. Allan and H. E. Dale (gen. eds.), The fore in certain cases their relish for a given
Dialogues of Plato, tr. B. Jowett, 4th ed., rev., form of activity is evidence that they are mor-
4 vols., 1953; F. C. Copleston, A History of ally wise in adopting it (see Aristotelian Eth-
Philosophy, vol. 1, 1946; I. M. Crombie, An ics).
Examination of Plato's Doctrines, 2 vols., For the thoroughgoing hedonistic utilitar-
1962; J. C. B. Gosling, Plato, 1973; J. Gould, ian, for whom pleasures are ultimately homo-
The Development of Plato's Ethics, 1955; E. geneous and measurable, pleasure is-iden-
Hamilton and H. Cairns (eds.), The Collected tified with satisfaction and assumes in the end
Dialogues of Plato, 1961; P. Huby, Plato and the status of a technical term in that system.
Modern Morality, 1972; T. Irwin, Plato's The utilitarian denies th viability of any cri-
Moral Theory: The Early and Middle Dia- tique of satisfactions, and urges moral toler-
logues, 1977; D. A. Rees, "Platonism and the ance as well, of course, as religious, within a
Platonic Tradition"; and G. Ryle, "Plato," framework capable of either providing for
EP, 1967. persons an increasing overall product of sat-
JAMES B. TUBBS, JR./JAMES F. CHILDRESS isfaction or else guaranteeing their private
and individual pursuit of happiness against
Pleasure interference by those who, from selfish mo-
The study of this topic is best approached tives or from dogmatic conviction, menace
initially along the lines of Aristotle, for the kind of life which most fulfills their needs
whom it sometimes represented the un- (see Utilitarianism).
impeded exercise of an activity (whether eat- In the history of the theory of pleasure we
Pluralism 480
must distinguish Aristotle's logical analysis The second conception of pluralism is al-
of the concept of enjoyment from the utili- lied to the first but is more philosophical in
tarian so-called "psychological hedonism" inspiration. Whereas thefirsttakes it as a fact
which is less an empirical generalization (if it that there is moral diversity, the view now
is so, it is certainly false) than a program for under consideration takes this to be an
abandoning any attempt at a critique of satis- ineradicable feature of the nature of moral
factions in the name of an empirically based concepts. Moral concepts are embedded in
tolerance where questions of value are con- more general metaphysical theories about the
cerned, coupled with a determination to gear self, its relation to other selves, and a person's
moral principles, customs, laws, etc,, to the place in the world. Given that these different
fulfillment of actual human needs. metaphysical and religious theories are in-
See also Hedonism; Happiness. commensurable and that disagreements be-
D. M. MACKINNON tween them are intractable, value diversity is
inevitable. As such, this form of moral plu-
Pluralism ralism is a philosophical theory about the
There are three different types of pluralism intractability of moral dispute as opposed to
relevant to the discussion of Christian social monism, which turns on the assumption that
and political ethics, all of which are allied to all of our values form a coherent and consist-
a liberal political perspective. ent structure which can be objectively
Thefirstform concentrates upon the polit- grounded, with the result that moral dis-
ical consequences of moral and religious di- agreement is a ubiquitous consequence of the
versity in modern societies. Given as a matter limitations on our rational capacities (see
of fact, groups of individuals in modern soci- Natural Law). This vision of pluralism is
ety differ over their conception of the good, closely allied with the first in the sense that
the purposes and the ends of life; how should if there is no single, true, objective way of
social and political institutions accommodate combining values into a rationally grounded,
themselves to this diversity? The answer coherent whole, then it could well be argued
given by liberal pluralists such as Ronald that it would be wrong for the state to seek
Dworkin in Taking Rights Seriously and to impose a particular structure of values
John Rawls in A Theory of Justice is to argue upon societyit is, rather, a matter of indi-
that the state cannot treat its citizens equally vidual citizens pursuing a conception of the
if it prefers one conception of the good to good in their own way.
another. Consequently the state should as far The third conception of pluralism consti-
as possible be neutral over questions of mo- tutes a particular theory about the nature of
rality and should be concerned to secure that politics in Western societies. In contrast to
framework of law and institutions within Marxist theories which see power in capital-
which individuals and groups would be able ist societies as class based, and in opposition
to pursue their own good in their own way. to elite theories which hold that democratic
On this view, interference with the rights of politics is always a sham, with power being
others to pursue their own good could only concentrated into the hands of a ruling elite,
be justified when their pursuit causes harm to pluralists argue that in modern Western soci-
others. Of course, this qualification gives rise eties power, the capacity to make decisions
to difficulties if the concept of harm is itself and to get them implemented, is widely dis-
value dependent in a morally pluralistic con- persed among diverse groups in society. It is
text. The central thesis of this form of plural- also central to the theory that these groups
ism is that a liberal society does not need are such that they countervail one another so
substantive moral agreement over and above that no group has absolute effective power in
basic agreement on the importance of the society. This theory is based upon a recogni-
mutual toleration of diversity. This thesis tion of the growing complexity and special-
contrasts with views from both the left and ization within society which has led to the
the right which hold that a stable political formation of more and more interest groups.
society requires a common culture on what Government, both national and local, be-
Hegelians call an ethical lifean agreement came the focal point for interest group pres-
on a common good* which is not just an sure, and political leaders have to make poli-
aggregate of individual goods as a focus for cies which require a high common factor in
communal identity. interest group demands. Political leaders ex-
481 Political Theology
ercise power only when they are able to rely based on cells at workplaces (notably Com-
on coalition between interest groups, and munist parties); and parties with military dis-
these coalitions are always in a state of flux. cipline (e.g., the Nazi Party). Their routine
Groups are therefore diffuse but at the same functions include facilitating communication
time powerful bodies in society. This does not between rulers and ruled; articulating popu*
mean that some groups will not have more lar political demands, defining policy objec-
power than others, but nevertheless power is tives, recruiting future leaders, and nurturing
more widely diffused than Marxist or elite the intellectual or emotional loyalties of ad-
theorists can explain. This type of theory was herents.
particularly characteristic of a good deal of Party competition may exist in the context
American political success in the 1960s and of two-party systems (as in the USA) or mul-
1970s and drew much of its impetus from the tiparty systems (as in most of Western
writings of Robert Dahl. Europe). Alternatively, as in contemporary
Pluralism in this conception not only is an India, one party may de facto be dominant
empirical explanation about how power in despite the existence of legalized opponents.
Western societies is in fact distributed, but Typical of many Third World and Commu-
also came to have normative overtonesthat nist states is the legal monopoly of a single
in a complex and diffuse society the competi- party.
tion for power between a plurality of groups, Party systems tend to reflect major con-
none of which can exercise a monopoly of it flicts experienced during the relevant nation's
over the rest, is what democracy relevant to development. Typical conflicts are owners or
an advanced society should mean. The diffu- employers vs. workers; centralizing vs. re-
sion of power between competing interest gional forces; church vs. state; and urban vs.
groups, rather than individual participation rural interests. Recently some Western de-
in decision-making, on this view articulates a mocracies have witnessed a resurgence of
more realistic and feasible conception of de- local nationalist parties and the emergence of
mocracy. parties dedicated to, e.g., environmental is-
See Democracy; Liberalism; Morality, sues. Economic crisis could mean polariza-
Legal Enforcement of, Paternalism. tion along more traditional lines.
See also Democracy; Politics.
I. Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty, 1969; R.
Dahl, Who Governs? 1961; R. Dworkin, Tak- M. Duverger, Political Parties, ET 1964; L.
ing Rights Seriously, 1977; D. Nicholls, The Epstein, Political Parties in Western Democ-
Pluralist State, 1975; J. Rawls, A Theory of racies, 1979; G. Sartori, Parties and Party
Justice, 1971. Systems, vol. 1: A Framework for Analysis,
RAYMOND PLANT 1976.
KENNETH N. MEDHURST
Political Parties
Political parties are characteristically mod- Political Theology
ern devices for facilitating popular political Political theology, in its contemporary mean
participation. Acting alone or in coalitions ing, originated in the 1960s as a movement
they seek decision-making power at national among Roman Catholic and Protestant
and/or local levels and consequently main- scholars to develop a new hermeneutics in
tain national or local organizations aimed at Christian thought responsive to the temper
mobilizing mass support. Some (e.g., the and problems of modernity. Stressing the so-
British Conservative Party) were created by cial context and historical character of reflec-
traditional rulers seeking support from newly tion, political theology is critical of other
enfranchised voters and others (e.g., Britain's forms of theological method: traditional
Labour Party) were created to acquire power Thomism, with its doctrine of nature and
for previously unrepresented groups. Their natural law, is ahistorical; transcendental
organizations are of four main kinds: loosely Thomism (Karl Rahner), with its turn to-
structured groups of prominent politicians ward the subject, is apolitical; Lutheranism,
lacking permanent local machines (charac- with its two-kingdom theory and orders of
teristic of developing countries); parties de- creation, is dualistic and static; modern Prot-
pendent on a mass local membership (as with estantism (Rudolf Bultmann), with its exis-
Social Democratic parties); mass parties tentialist commitment, is individualistic. The
Political Theology
movement, strongly influenced by revisionist promise of God thus functions in a twofold
Marxism (Ernst Bloch, Theodor W. Adorno, way: as the ground for the formation of
Max Horkheimer, Jrgen Habermas), con- moral judgment and as the basis for hope that
joins a. Marxian concept of praxis with a the structures of the world ^an be trans-
Christian doctrine of eschatology as a ground formed.
for constructing its understandings of rela- 3. The moral problem of history is suffering.
tions between the world and God, sin and In political theology, the concept of suffer-
salvation, church and society. The primary ing* is central in depicting human experience
proponents of political theology are from throughout history. Suffering, in its moral
Germany (Johannes Baptist Metz, Jrgen aspect, is induced and sustained by social sin,
Moltmann, Dorothee Soelle, Helmut Peu- by traditions and institutions through which,
kert), but the movement has been influential while some persons benefit, many are op-
in other Western nations as well (in Spain, pressed and dehumanized. Moltmann char-
Alfredo Fierro; in Canada, Charles Davis; in acterizes five "vicious circles of death" typi-
the JJnited States, Matthew Lamb, John fying suffering in contemporary society: in
Cobb). Despite its praxis orientation, politi- economic life, poverty; in politics, the domi-
cal theology has yet to develop a systematic nation of one class or nation over others; in
approach to ethics. However, several distinc- cultural relations, structures of alienation
tive themes of ethical significance are evident among races, sexes, and ethnic groups; in the
throughout its work. ecosphere, industrial pollution; and overall, a
1. The moral agent is a political subject. sense of meaninglessness and loss of purpose.
The world, according to political theology, is To Metz, these circles taken together are
not a cosmos, a finished whole, in which each signs of a "looming social apocalypse." To
entity occupies a predetermined place and is Lamb, they constitute an "anguished world"
intended to fulfill a fixed function. Rather, it calling for "solidarity with victims."
is a social-historical process whose direction 4. The ultimate purpose of moral action is
and form remain always to be decided anew. solidarity. Since the moral problem is the re-
To be human, therefore, is not to be part of sult of social sin, moral action must be di-
a natural order, but to be a subject, one who rected toward social transformation. Moral
in interaction with others is engaged in the action begins in solidarity with those who
creative formation of the future. On this suffer, with the poor and exploited, but its
basis, political theology is critical of the im- ultimate motivation is "the indivisible salva-
plied determinism of a strictly scientific-tech- tion of the whole world" (Soelle, Cobb).
nological approach to social problems and of While moral action, by itself, is insufficient to
the explicit determinism of historical materi- effectuate redemption in its full mystical
alism. Moreover, it is critical of all social sense (indeed, it is pretentious and dangerous
structures that deny political participation to to think that it might), it does intend, accord-
any class of persons as dehumanizing, and it ing to political theology, a new global society:
encourages participation in historical strug- a society beyond class struggle and domi-
gles for emancipation. nation, a society of friendship (Moltmann)
2. The ground of moral judgment is the and of open and free communication (Peu-
promise of God. From the perspective of po- kert). Solidarity thus signifies a kind of social
litical theology, the character of God's pres- identity that is more inclusive and public
ence in the world is represented in Christ's than the I-Thou relation, yet more intimate
crucifixion and resurrection, dialectically and devoid of narrow self-interest than rela-
related as present and future. As crucified, tions of exchange (Metz).
God is understood as present in the suffering J. The moral critique of society is a funda-
of all creation. The human counterpart of mental mission of the Christian church. The
this side of God's presence is, in the strictest church, according to political theology, is a
sense of the term, sympathy*. As resur- messianic association within society, bearing
rected, God is understood as future, as the witness to the two-sided history of suffering
effective promise of a new kingdom of peace and liberation. Through its "dangerous
and justice. The resurrection is an eschato- memory" (Metz) of Christ's crucifixion and
logical symbol in contradiction to which the resurrection, it is a call to identify with for-
actual conditions of the present world can be gotten and victimized peoples and to engage
discerned and judged for what they are. The in emancipatory praxis. The church is always
483 Politics
political in some sense, but to be true to its complexity, and not all of these criteria have
mission under modern conditions it must un- to be satisfied in order to justify the identifica-
dergo a radical reformation. Internally, it tion of a particular action or event as politi-
must overthrow its patriarchal tradition and cal. Secondly, the judgment about which cri-
become a church of and for the people. Exter- teria are relevant and the relative importance
nally, it must become an effective force repre- of particular criteria and their ordering in
senting the meaning of the kingdom of God relation to one another is not independent of
in history through a critique of prevailing political and ideological preferences. To em-
economic, social, and cultural idolatries and phasize one criterion as against another will
through a specification of justice and love, yield a different conception of politics, its
the mandates of discipleship. scope and place in human life. That is to say,
d A predominant principle of social moral- the selection and ordering of the criteria
ity is democratic socialism. Correlative to the which thn define & particular sphere as polit-
five "vicious circles of death," Moltmann ical is itself a politically salient action in that
specifies a set of ways toward liberation": in
ifc the criteria are selected and ordered in rela-
economics, socialism; in politics, democracy; tion to the more general social, metaphysical,
religious, and political beliefs of the actors
in cultural relations, respect for others; in the
ecosphere, peace with nature; and, overall, (see Ideology, the first meaning identified).
the courage to be. All these ways are marks Consider the following range of criteria,
of the promised kingdom of God, the con- which are not exhaustive, and the ways in
summation of righteousness. Political theol- which emphasis upon one as opposed to an-
ogy generally is supportive of democratic so- other will yield a different view as to the
cialism* and human rights*, but Cobb, scope and nature of politics.
joining political theology to process thought, 1. The view associated historically with
would deepen and extend its principle of jus- Aristotle and defended again by B. Crick in
tice to embrace the ecological sphere. On the In Defence of Politics that politics has to do
use of violence in social change, political the-with the regulating, conciliation, and recon-
ology tends to adopt principles of last resort ciling of the diverse range of interests which
and limited use. However, Moltmann sug- occur within a state. The difficulty with this
gests that pacifism is the only realistic re- definition is partly that it turns upon an un-
sponse to the threat of a nuclear holocaust. defined concept of interests over which there
Thus, while political theology is lacking in are equally many disputes, and the fact that
a rigorously developed ethical theory, these it confines politics to complex, differentiated
six themeson the world and God, sin and societies in which a wide divergence of inter-
salvation, church and societyrepresent a ests is allowed to be expressed. This would
remarkably coherent ethical orientation to have the effect of denying political activity in
the modern world derived from its her- homogeneous societies in which there was no
meneutical principles. sense of diverse interests and in totalitarian
See also Liberation Theology. societies in which conflicts of interest are not
allowed to surface. In this sense, politics
J. B. Cobb, Jr., Process Theology as Political would be typically confined to Western-style
Theology, 1982; A. Fierro, The Militant Gos- societies.
pel, ET 1977; J. B. Metz, Faith in History and 2. Politics has to do with actions which
Society, ET 1980; J. Moltmann, On Human relate to the basic welfare of the community.
Dignity: Political Theology and Ethics, T However, without a further definition of the
1984. basic concept of welfare this criterion does
DOUGLAS STURM not take us very far, and clearly the use of this
criterion would mean that politics could
Politics occur without the idea central to (1) of con-
It is impossible to give a set of necessary and ciliating diverse interests.
sufficient conditions for the use of the term 3. It is possible to contrast politics with the
"politics" which would then yield an unam- organization of an authoritarian regime in
biguous and uncontroversial definition. This that, for politics to exist, some form of con-
is so for two interconnected reasons. The first sent is necessary. On this view, politics exists
is that the term is complex, there are a wide not only where laws and rules are enacted
range of criteria which go to make up this and implemented but where an attempt is
Politics 484
made to secure consent and the agreement of against (4) but would be restricted to areas
the relevant population to these rules. Poli- where there is a clear rule-governed structure
tics requires relations between citizens not for example, in unions and universities.
subjects; autocratic regimes on this view do However, this criterion is too restrictive for
not have politics. some who believe that politics can exist in
4. Politics can exist only where there is a informal groups and encountersfor exam-
demonstrable relation to the legally binding ple, in football crowds and on campsites.
authority of the state in government. Cer- This makes politics a ubiquitous human ac-
tainly this is a widely held view, both at the tivity.
level of common sense, that politics has to do 7. Another criterion which would make
with the actions of government organs and politics an endemic feature of human life is
agencies, and at the level of political philoso- that politics is fundamentally about conflict
phy, in which the problem of political obli- and cooperation over the use of resources.
gationwhy should individuals obey the However, unless some restriction is placed on
state?is a central question. However, it the range of resources in question, politics
cannot without controversy be regarded as a would be a feature of a very wide range of
necessary condition because it would rule out transactions.
the idea that unions, corporations, commit- 8. A further view is that politics is closely
tees, universities, and football clubs, for ex- connected to the extensiveness of the effect of
ample, have a political dimension or engage a discussion or policy. It seems plausible to
in politics. Equally it cannot be a sufficient suggest that a decision which affects all the
condition because many of the regulative population on a significant point is political,
functions of the state, for example, in secur- but it is difficult to pin this down. It would
ing adherence to standards of weights and mean that politics could not occur in small
measures, would hardly be called political. groups, whereas many commentators have
5. Politics is about the exercise of power wanted to argue that politics does occur in
and the conflicts which arise from this. How- groups such as families, groups of kin, and
ever, depending upon one's view of power, tribes as well as in interest groups.
this can yield a very narrow or almost ubiqui- 9. One suggested criterion has been that
tously wide view of politics. If power is the extent to which the outcome of an action
defined in terms of the ability to make deci- is intended by the actors concerned is crucial
sions and implement them against the ar- to its identification as political. This of course
ticulated interests of others, then it gives a could only be a necessary condition because
very narrow definition of politics. Politics oc- not all intentional actions are political. How-
curs only where there is a clear decision-mak- ever, even its status as a necessary condition
ing center and a clear conflict of interests. has been disputed by radicals who want to
However, radicals such as H. Marcuse have argue that while certain outcomesfor ex-
wanted to argue that the way we come to ample, of free market transactionsare not
conceive of our interests may be the result of intended by anyone, nevertheless the distrib-
an exercise of power, operating through cul- utive consequences of these outcomes are of
ture and ideology, without this being the re- central political concern.
sult of anyone's particular decision and with- These are only some of the range of criteria
out overt conflict. On this view of power, which have been brought to bear when trying
culture and ideology are both intrinsically to identify the sphere of politics, and several
political because they relate to how power is points need to be noticed. The first is that
exercised over the definition of interests. some of these criteria make use of terms
In addition, power is exercised in a wide which are themselves complex and contesta-
range of contextsin corporations, unions, blefor example: interests, consent*, the
universities, and family life, for example state*, authority*, and power*. A conception
and these would then become political, on of politics goes hand in hand with these other
this view, in opposition to criterion (4). concepts and cannot be abstracted from
6. Politics requires formal organization them, and the interrelations between these
with clear structures of authority and deci- terms will constitute a part of a belief system
sion-making. On this view politics can exist or ideology. These belief systems are them-
outside formal government agencies as selves pointedly engaged and presuppose po-
485 Population Policy
litical preferences. Thus, we cannot attain a mains a phenomenon beneath the surface in
"real" definition of politics which can be used these societies.
independently of the ideological preferences See Monogamy.
of political agents.
E. Hillman, Polygamy Reconsidered, 1975.
Aristotle, Politics; B. Crick, In Defence of JOHN MACQUARRIE
Politics, 1962; A. Leftwich, Redefining Poli- Pontifical Social Encyclicals
tics, 1984; H. Marcuse, One Dimensional see Official Roman Catholic Social Teach-
Man, 1964. ing
RAYMOND PLANT
Poor, Care Of the see Almsgiving; Jus-
Pollution see Energy; Environmental Eth- tice; Poverty; Social Service of the
ics; Future Generations, Obligations to; Church; Wealth; Welfare State
Technology
Population Policy
Polygamy The explicit concern with population policy
The condition of having more than one as a response to population growth is recent.
spouse at a time. Usually the term "polyg- Catholic responses to falling birth rates in the
amy" is taken to mean what is more strictly late Roman Empire, in the medieval period,
called "polygyny," the possession by one and in the 19th century consisted of criti-
man of several wives at one time. Very rare cisms of the idea of restraining population
indeed is "polyandry," in which a wife has growth. Protestants in the 19th century were
more than one husband at one time. Polyg- also concerned with falling birth rates. By the
amy is an accepted institution in many cul- First World War, Protestants began to take
tures throughout the world and is sanctioned up birth control as a way of relieving human
by many religions. It has sometimes been de- suffering, and to explore the relations be-
fended on economic grounds; for instance, tween population size and resources. Yet in
some claim that the early Mormon experi- the 1930s some Protestant bodies urged
ment with polygamy served a colonizing pur- Christians not to limit the size of their fami-
pose in a sparsely populated territory. On lies, except out of necessity, because of falling
moral grounds, however, polygamy may be birth rates.
criticized as tending to produce family ten- For Catholicism, a systematic treatment of
sions and jealousies, and as being harmful to the morality of population policy as a distinct
the dignity of women (see also Women, Sta- issue began during the time of Pius XII. In
tus of). 1951 ("Address to the Italian Catholic Union
While Christianity has always espoused of Midwives") Pius XII discussed population
the monogamist ideal, it is recognized today in relation to resources, and the move by gov-
that it is unwise to seek to impose this too ernments to formulate policies to influence
rigidly in cultures where it is novel. The older demographic trends. In 1958, Richard M.
Christian missionaries sometimes insisted Fagley, a Protestant, published "The Popula-
that converts should getridof all their wives tion Problem and Family Planning," which
but one, and this caused much undeserved argued for voluntary family planning, re-
suffering among the women concerned. viewed Catholic opposition to contracep-
Today Christian moralists recommend a tives, and urged an ecumenical conception of
more humane approach to the problem. responsible parenthood*. The broad consen-
While still believing in the ideal of monog- sus on responsible parenthood for which he
amy, they recognize that in cultures where hoped has been realized, except for official
polygamy has long been the rule, it cannot be Roman Catholic opposition to artificial con-
instantly abolished, even where families or traception*.
tribes have been converted to Christianity. It Christians generally agree on the moral ac-
should be remembered too that although ceptability of limiting family size and doing
Western societies have turned away from so with some attention to the population situ-
open polygamy, the prevalence of prostitu- ation. Churches have granted that govern-
tion*, sexual promiscuity, and easy divorce* ments may have a legitimate role in policies
means that something very like polygamy re- that affect population size. That does not
486 Population Policy
mean that governments should be coercive. is not understood in the same way by these
The consensus for voluntary family planning, two groups, and that is part of a larger split
and for procreation* as a right, is strong. that divides Christians. Abortion* as a
Equally strong is the ecumenical agreement woman's legal right to decide for herself is a
that special assistance be given to the poor key part of the difference, already discussed
and hungry (see Hunger, World; Poverty) above, insofar as population policy is con-
and that justice* be served by governmental cerned. Equality of opportunity and compen-
facilitation of socioeconomic development in sation in the work force is not disputed, and
all less developed areas of the world (see Eco- the positive role of sexual equality* in keep-
nomic Development). Equitable distribution ing family size small is widely perceived (see
of resources is a key concern of the churches Sex Discrimination; Women, Status of).
and of Christian literature in ethics. The United Presbyterians in 1972 raised
Christian groups and individuals are not of the possibility that government tax incentives
one mind with regard to whether it is appro- or disincentives be used to discourage births.
priate to speak of "overpopulation" in the However, they did not accept any of the cur-
world, and whether present population rent tax schemes; they were persuaded of
growth rates constitute some kind of immedi- their unfairness (see Fairness), sharing the
ate, or fairly imminent, crisis. A number of view of Christian ethicists who have analyzed
Protestant bodies, though by no means all, do such schemes. Moreover, the most recent lit-
view population growth with alarm and urge erature on procreative matters of the United
government action to help solve what are Presbyterians, and of a number of other
considered very serious population problems. churches, has emphasized procreative free-
For example, the United Methodists (1970) dom. However, this literature has gener-
made a number of suggestions: (1) creating ally not addressed policies in China and
major governmental agencies to work on elsewhere to reduce population growth.
"the population crisis"; (2) creating special Whether this stress on freedom is intended to
committees on population in the US Con- rule out all coercive measures remains to be
gress; (3) international cooperation and as- seen.
sistance in implementing family planning The Christian consensus that the hungry
and population policies; (4) approval by the should be fed has come under attack in the
states of abortion on request; and (5) no re- past decade. Proponents of "lifeboat ethics"
strictions on voluntary sterilization*. Indeed, have charged that it is not actually charitable
the various churches opposed to any legal and not morally justifiable to aid starving
restrictions of abortions do refer to excessive people in nations whose governments do not
population growth as one of the reasons for pursue effective population policies. The ar-
their stand. gument is that saving some lives now will
Official Catholicism, and some other cost more lives in the future because of over-
Christian theologians and ethicists, have not population, accelerated by the lives saved
seen population growth as the major source through food aid. Christian ethicists have
of problems such as malnutrition, poverty, largely held firm against this. Some will not
and environmental degradation. That is not relinquish their commitment to save lives as
to say that such growth is not, or never will the need arises even if it should mean disaster
be, a problem. The priorities for governments for the world: some values are seen as more
lie in programs of social and economic jus- important than survival. Others argue that it
tice. In Populorum Progressio (1967) Pope is not survival as such that is the issue, but
Paul VI explicitly recognized the obligation rather the survival of a way of life. The only
of governments to help people curb popula- reason to "write off" certain poor nations
tion growth (voluntarily) when population now is to maintain the status quo for the
begins to outstrip development. In com- wealthy nations, and that is unacceptable
mending socioeconomic development that from a Christian perspective. Still others at-
benefits those in need as the first step toward tack the relationship drawn between saving
solving problems many associate with popu- lives and fostering overpopulation. There are
lation growth, he was not very far apart from reasons to believe that food aid is itself a way
a number of the policy suggestions adopted of helping to reduce birth rates: people will
by the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) only plan for their families and risk small
in 1972. Equal Rights for women, however, families when they have some assurance that
487 Poverty
their children will live (see Hunger, World). ple by scientific method narrowly conceived.
Love* and justice*, some Christian ethi- This view achieved wide influence in Britain
cists contend, are at the heart of what popula- and America through Alfred J. Ayer's Lan-
tion policies are all about. From this perspec- guage, Truth and Logic (1936), which argued
tive, population policy should emphasize that theological and ethical utterances fail
governmental or private facilitation of self- the test of cognitive meaningfulness. The
help in communities where life is still too movement waned in the years after 1950 as
precarious for planning small families, and its assumptions about knowledge and mean-
government involvement in family planning ing came under increasing criticism. Critics
should concentrate on the provision of infor- found the positivist conception of science too
mation and health services. There are grow- narrow to account for revolutionary mo-
ing hints of such an approach in some church ments in the history of science and too rigid
literature as development is increasingly seen to justify ordinary inductive reasoning. They
as something that happens insofar as people also found positivist distinctions between
make it happen. truth by definition and factual truth, between
See Abortion; Contraception; Coercion; theory and observation, and between fact and
Economic Aid; Environmental Ethics; Fair- value too sharp to explain actual linguistic
ness; Family; Freedom; Hunger, World; Op- practice.
pression; Parenthood; Poverty; Procreation;
Sexual Ethics; Sex Discrimination; Sterili- A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic,
zation; Women, Status of. 1936; A. J. Ayer (ed.), Logical Positivism,
1959; W. M. Simon, European Positivism in
R. M. Fagley, "The Population Problem and the Nineteenth Century, 1963.
Family Planning," Social Action 25, no. 4, JEFFREY STOUT
1958, pp. 3-17; S. S. Harakas, "Population
Ethics: Eastern Orthodox Christian Perspec- Poverty
tives," EB, 1978; J. B. Hehir, "Population There are two articles on this subject. The
Ethics: Roman Catholic Perspectives," EB, first considers poverty as a voluntary condi-
1978; G. R. Lucas, Jr., and T. W. Ogletree tion accepted by Christians who have a voca-
(eds.), Lifeboat Ethics: The Moral Dilemmas tion to the religious life; the second considers
of World Hunger, 1976; W. Yates, "Popula- poverty as a social problem.
tion Ethics: Protestant Christian Perspec-
tives," EB, 1978. I. Poverty as a Voluntary Condition
ARTHUR J. DYCK Poverty is in the OT an object of sympathy
(cf. Ps. 41:1), especially when suffered by the
Pppulorum Progressio see Business righteous, but not considered in itself desir-
Ethics; Official Roman Catholic Social able. The praise of poverty as bringing free-
Teaching dom from the burdens and temptations of
wealth can be found in Hinduismwhere
Pornography see Censorship; Morality, traditionally the householder, having dis-
Legal Enforcement of; Sexual Ethics charged family obligations, should end his
life as a wandering asceticand among some
Positivism Greek philosophers, of whom Diogenes in his
Positivism, in its original sense, refers to the tub is the most famous example. In the NT
doctrines of Henri, comte de Saint-Simon poverty is commended by the example and
(1760-1825) and Auguste Comte (1798- precept of Jesus (cf. Luke 9:58; 6:20) and by
1857), who held that science has displaced the call, addressed at least to some disciples,
theology and metaphysics as the sole legiti- to abandon property in order to follow him
mate means for seeking truth, informing ac- more closely (cf. Luke 5:11; 12:33; 18:22;
tion, and governing society. In contemporary etc.). (See Counsels,) Paul gave a further ex-
usage, positivism more often denotes the ample of "apostolic poverty" in laboring for
"logical positivism" of the Vienna circle that his support and refusing to live by the gospel
gathered around Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) (Acts 18:3; 1 Cor. 9:18; 2 Thess. 3:8). And
in the 1920s. Logical positivists maintained the voluntary generosity of the Christians of
that all cognitively meaningful utterances are Jerusalem (Acts 2:4445) provided a prece-
either true by definition or testable in princi- dent for later monastic communities. But
Poverty 488
about 190 Clement of Alexandria ( Who Is the problems of prosperityfor instance, the En-
Rich Man That Is Saved?) suggested the glish Quakers in the 18th century, and some-
milder interpretation that the essence of true what later the Methodists. In a world aware
poverty is freedom from the desire* of of the problems of poverty we need witnesses
wealth*, which may be consistent with its to the balancing truth that property also can
actual possession (see Covetousness). be a spiritual danger. Modern religious com-
However, the early church generally ad- munities, Catholic and Protestant, and oth-
mired and often practiced the "philosophic ers who voluntarily adopt the life of the poor
life" of poverty and simplicity (Eusebius used bring the challenge of Francis or the milder
the term of Origen's asceticism: Church His- witness of Benedict to our time. In the words
tory 6.3.13). The more ascetic hermits car- of the Rule ofTaiz (1961, p. 57), which may
ried this to the greatest possible extreme, yet be considered as presenting an existential in-
even they had to possess some means of sub- terpretation of holy poverty, "the spirit of
sistence. A different interpretation was devel- poverty is to live in the gladness of today."
oped in cenobitic monasticism, and finally See Asceticism; Mammon; Monastic Eth-
codified by Benedict. He wished his monks to ics; Vocation; Vows.
have no personal property whatever, but to
find their needs provided for by the commu- C. Butler, Benedictine Monachism, 1924, ch.
2
nity adequately though not luxuriously. But 10; J. F. Fletcher (ed.), Christianity and Prop-
in a well-administered and perhaps hard- erty, 1947; D. Knowles, The Religious Orders
working community individual poverty may in England, vol. 1, 1948; M. D. Lambert,
be combined with corporate wealth; this ex- Franciscan Poverty, 1961; Poverty, Religious
perience was repeated more than once in Life, vol. 4, ET 1954.
monastic movements which began with a re- E. R. HARDY
turn to apostolic simplicityfor instance, the
Cistercians often became prosperous agricul- tl. Poverty as a Social Problem
turists and graziers. Francis of Assisi at- Great concern about poverty can be found in
tacked this danger by committing his follow- the biblical tradition. From the 8th century
ers to corporate as well as personal poverty, B.c. onward there is sharp criticism of unjust
living by work or alms (as long as not re- oppression of the poor (cf. Amos 2:6f.; 4:1;
ceived in money); his ideal was adopted, Isa. 3:15; Jer. 2:34; etc.). Failure to uphold
though less rigorously, by the Dominicans the rights of the defenseless is also criticized
and other active orders. But the effort to turn (Isa. 1:23), as is the withholding of wages
the Franciscan challenge into a law led to (Jer: 22:13). In the Psalms we hear the voice
difficultiesthe Conventual Franciscans ac- of those who call themselves poor and who
cepted adjustments which became evasions, appeal to God for justice. These represent
while the "Spirituals" fell into a rigoristic either a group within the nation or, at least
legalism. Nevertheless a return to the free- in some cases, more likely the nation as a
dom of poverty was the mark of later Fran- whole. The parallelism of the psalms (with
ciscan revivals, such as the Observants in the synonyms and antonyms) makes it clear that
15th century and the Capuchins in the 16th. real need is in question as well as piety. The
The Franciscan call, with its basis in the Gos- poor are contrasted with those who oppress
pels (cf. Matt. 10:9-10) remains as a chal- them (e.g., Ps. 72:4) and see themselves as
lenge to easy acceptance of any property* having a righteous claim on God (e.g., Ps.
system, whether feudal, capitalist, or social- 86:1-2; cf. v. 14). In the laws there is also
ist. concern to protect the poor by legislative en-
Protestantism has generally thought in actment. Gleanings are for the poor (Lev.
terms of stewardship* of wealth, with an 19:9f.), and limits are set to harsh contracts
awareness of its dangers (cf. Luke 12:21), (Ex. 22:25-26) involving loans and pledges.
rather than of renunciation, except in the Equality before the law is demanded (Lev.
case of a special missionary or evangelistic 19:15). Land sold can be redeemed (Lev. 25:
vocation, for example, the quasi-Franciscan 25-28).
discipline imposed on its officers by the Sal- In the NT there is very positive treatment
vation Army. As with medieval monks, of the theme of poverty. Disciples are urged
movements dedicated to simplicity and work to renounce property and follow Jesus (Mark
have sometimes found themselves facing the 1:18; Luke 9:58ff.; 14:33) as itinerants an-
489 Power
nouncing God's kingdom. But that message based on civil parishes. It was some radical
is also good news for the poor (Luke 4:18; Reformers who proposed more drastic reme-
6:20; 7:22), just as it brings healing to the dies and encountered fierce resistance. The
sick. God's kingdom will transform the exist- Quakers stand out for their emphasis on sim-
ing order, and already brings hope and heal- plicity and social concern. In the 19th cen-
ing through the activity of Jesus and his disci- tury, poor relief was made harsher as a result
ples. Jesus did not teach political revolution, of a concept of "less eligibility." But along-
but neither did he teach passive acquiescence. side much approval of economic inequality
A sharper note is found in pre-Lucan pas- should be set the campaigns of Christian and
sages which envisage reversal of fortune in other social reformers, and the contribution
the new age (Luke 1:53; 6:21-25; 16:25). If of Methodists and others to the struggle of
later than Jesus and earlier than Luke, these trade unions for a just wage.
passages may reflect the famine when the rich In more recent decades analysis of the
feasted while the poor starved. Such gross causes of poverty was followed eventually by
inequalities and injustices are sharply con- legislation to provide pensions, social insur-
demned. Luke himself likes to show Jesus ance*, unemployment* relief, and health
and Paul on good terms with the wealthy and care*, more so in Europe than in the USA.
influential, while retaining warnings of the Christians and others have recognized that it
dangers of riches. The account of so-called is important to address poverty as relative
communism of Acts 4:32 contains literary deprivation in addition to eliminating pov-
allusions to Plato and Greek utopianism. The erty as absolute deprivation. Awareness of
historical reality seems to have been epito- absolute poverty and gross inequality on a
mized in the story of Barnabas selling prop- world scale has produced voluntary associa-
erty to aid the needy. Paul emphasized the tions*, directly or indirectly promoted by
importance of work when faced with apoca- Christians, and proposals for fairer regula-
lyptic disorders in Thessalonica. He himself tion of basic commodity prices. In Latin
renounced the right to aid from his converts America liberation theologians have again,
and worked to support free proclamation of though sometimes in a more political man-
the gospel. But he also proclaims an ideal of ner, voiced the sharp criticism of oppressive
equality* (2 Cor. 8:14) which was not so inequality to be found in the Bible, and the
much egalitarianism as the duty of communi- theme of hope for the poor to be found in the
ties with resources to assist poorer communi- Gospels.
ties (Gal. 2:10; Rom. 15:26), especially those See Almsgiving; Capitalism; Charity;
in Jerusalem impoverished after the famine. Equality; Hunger, World; Health Care,
First John 3:17 condemns the failure to aid Right to; Justice; Liberation Theology; Love;
those in need. James 2:1-5 declares the poor Mammon; Mutual Aid; Oppression; Philan-
heirs of the kingdom and condemns disre- thropy; Property; Revolution; Social Service
spect to them and in 5:4 the withholding of of the Church; Socialism; Unemployment;
wages. Usury and Interest; Wealth; Work; Welfare
In the early Christian centuries asceti- State.
cism*, voluntary poverty, and the obligation
to charity* form a constant refrain. Hermits, J. F. Fletcher (ed.), Christianity and Propertyf
and new monastic foundations, and later the 1947; D. L. Mealand, Poverty and Expecta-
Franciscans, returned again and again to this tion in the Gospels, 1980; J. F. Sleeman, Eco-
ideal. The problem was that orders tended to nomic Crisis: A Christian Perspective, 1976.
become rich. The alleviation of poverty was DAVID L. MEALAND
to some extent attempted by means of alms-
giving*, condemnation of usury*, and max- Power
ims such as that of the just wage*. Power is the capacity to effect intended re-
Luther sympathized with the just griev- sults. According to the Bible all power be-
ances of peasants but bitterly criticized the longs to God, who is himself Power (Matt.
Peasants' Revolt. Calvin taught equality be- 6:13; 26:64). God shares his power with hu-
fore God but inequality in society, though his manity and with the created order. He gives
scheme to provide work for the poor in Ge- us the freedom to choose how we will exer-
neva deserves mention. Systems of poor relief cise that power, in the service of our neighbor
were set up in Europe; in England they were and the care of the earth, or for prideful self-
Power 490
deification. Our choice to exercise power irre- grounding in divine creation. This allows for
sponsibly results in our becoming the slave of a much more pragmatic view of institutions*
the forces we were created to command. and suggests the possibility of altering them
God's purpose for us is to restore us to a when they no longer serve a humanizing pur-
responsible and loving exercise of power. pose.
God discloses this purpose in history, cen- A more recent issue in theological ethics is
trally in Jesus Christ, in whom the power of the problem of revolution*, the seizure of
love is lived out to the death and by whom power through extralegal means. Although
dehumanizing and destructive forms of Thomas Mnzer raised this question in the
power are dethroned and harnessed, not an- early 16th century in connection with the
nihilated. Thus the gospel calls humanity to German Peasants' Revolt, Christian theol-
share in and exercise power (dominium ter- ogy has usually denied the legitimacy of the
rae), and our abdication of our responsibility revolutionary exercise of power. Calvin
as God's stewards is the sin of sloth* taught that when the sovereign is unjust, the
(acedia). lesser magistrates should assume responsibil-
Christian theological ethics has often made ity for replacing him. Luther rejected the
the mistake of assuming that any exercise of right of revolution, insisting that even an un-
power was sinful, but sin has more to do with just ruler does preserve that order without
how power is exercised. Although Lord which political life is impossible. During the
Acton claimed that power corrupts, it is also Puritan period in England, the revolutionary
true that the unwillingness or inability to ex- reorganization of the state according to the
ercise power also corrupts. By using power demands of God was seen to be the duty of
humans order their common life, specify the Christian people. Thus the use of power to
goals of society and distribute its goods. Not alter political institutions to serve moral pur-
to share in power means not to share in the poses became not just a right but an obliga-
life of the community. Since sharing in the tion (see Resistance).
community is an indispensable ingredient of Some years ago the ideal of the "responsi-
human life, misusing or being deprived of ble society" was used to suggest that power
power reduces human beings to something should be utilized in response to the legiti-
less than humanness. mate needs of those governed. Though the
The problem of civil power has long been term "responsible society" is now used less
a central issue for theological ethics. State* frequently, the idea that people should con-
sovereignty is the way civil power is orga- trol and participate in the institutions that
nized and legitimated (see Sovereignty, Na- exert power over them continues tofindwide
tional). There is no single biblical view of support. Power is not always responsible. It
state power. Luke-Acts accepts the legiti- is exercised in various ways and with varying
macy of the Roman Empire almost uncriti- degrees of legitimacy. It can take the form of
cally. The book of Revelation views it very (1) coercion*, in which people are forced by
negatively. For many years the passage in extrinsic means to act contrary to their will;
Rom. 13 about respecting "the powers that (2) authority*, in which power is exercised by
be" was interpreted as a sacral legitimation of agencies in some way answerable to those
state power and sometimes even as a Chris- ruled; (3) manipulation, by which people are
tian metaphysic of the state. This frequently made to act against their will without realiz-
led to an ultraconservative view of the state. ing it. Only when power is controlled and
Some Christians see the state as an "order of exercised by legitimate authority can it be
creation" (see Orders). More recent exegesis, called responsible.
however, generally agrees that Rom. 13 con- The subject of power occupies a central
tains no theology or metaphysics of state place in the sociological study of communi-
power. In it the apostle Paul merely answers ties and therefore is crucial to social ethics.
a specific question of the church in Rome, Some sociologists speak of a "power elite,"
using the understanding of state power avail- that is, a relatively closed circle of influential
able to him at the time. Current theological decision makers only peripherally responsive
ethics tends to view the state, like other insti- to those outside. Others see power dis-
tutions for exercising power, as strictly in- tributed much more widely and diffusely,
strumental to human justice and devoid of with "decision-making centers" emerging
metaphysical substance or supernatural and disappearing from issue to issue. All
491 Pragmatism
agree that the sources of power in a commu- terror." This balance of power was disrupted
nity include wealth, property, holding elec- both by the weakening of the two coalitions,
tive or appointive office, reputation, control mainly through the independence of-France
of information and media, and organiza- vis--vis the USA and China vis--vis the
tional skill USSR, and by the emergence of the "Third
Recent studies have emphasized the in- World" of Africa, Asia, and South America,
creasing importance of technical skills and often uncommitted in the power struggle be-
scientific knowledge as sources of power in tween the USA and the USSR. A recent di-
advanced industrial societies whose depen- lemma for the large powers has been posed
dence on technology steadily grows. Some by so-called "wars of national liberation" in
have even compared the role of scientific formerly colonial areas. Strategies of massive
technologists today with the role of bourgeois deterrence built on nuclear weaponry seem
capitalists at the close of the age of feudalism. unable to quell guerrilla uprisings in territory
Both were used at first by the predominant where the insurgency has widespread popu-
groups of their time with little recognition of lar support, forcing a serious redefinition of
how this might affect the distribution of the nature and limits of military power.
power. Both began to exercise their power to Future theological research on power will
change the structure of the society itself, the have to clarify how Christ's defeat of the
capitalists demanding mercantilist measures dehumanizing powers and the gospel's call to
that eventually subverted feudal economies, humankind to subdue the earth and exercise
the scientists requiring a type of planning and responsible stewardship* can illuminate such
resource allocation that will eventually un- obdurate ethical problems as the legitimacy
dermine capitalism*. If the values of scien- of revolution*, the alienation of large seg-
tific technologists influence the coming soci- ments of the population in industrial coun-
ety as much as those of the capitalists have tries from effective participation in govern-
influenced the present one, then respect for ing, the growing influence of technology*,
empirical verification, unlimited research, and the awful hazards of nuclear deterrence*
free exchange of information, and the thrust as a method of securing peace*.
toward quantification may become more per- HARVEY G. COX
vasive as the power of science grows.
In international relations, power is orga- Practical Ethics see Applied Ethics
nized in nation-states limited only marginally
by international organizations and world Practical Reason
opinion (see International Order). Before the By this is understood usually reason as con-
First World War, the concept of the "balance trolling action. The term is specially as-
of power," that is, not concentrating too sociated with Kant who contrasted it very
much power in any single nation or group of sharply with theoretical reason. The latter
nations as opposed to any other, was relied tells us what is in fact the case and is limited
on to maintain peace. After the First World to the realm of experience (or the world of
War the balance of power theory fell into appearances), but practical reason which lays
disfavor, with such diversefiguresas Wood- down moral laws is conceived by him as a
row Wilson and V. I. Lenin opposing it. The priori, and therefore it can serve as the
idea of collective security organized through ground of arguments in metaphysics for God,
the League of Nations was introduced as a freedom, and immortality which quite trans-
substitute. America's decision not to join the cend experience.
League and the failure of the League to pre- See Kantian Ethics.
vent aggression resulted, after the Second A. C. EWING
World War, both in a strengthening of the
idea of collective security* in the United Na- Practical Wisdom see Prudence
tions and in the return of a de facto balance
of power between the USA and its allies on Pragmatism
one side and the USSR and its allies on the Pragmatism, a movement considered by
other. The introduction of nuclear weapons many to be America's most important con-
(see Nuclear Warfare) and the theory of de- tribution to philosophy, made its greatest
terrence* in international affairs led some to impact in the first four decades of the 20th
refer to the new situation as a "balance of century. It arose in reaction to idealist
Pragmatism 492
philosophies, drew heavily on empirical, static interpretations of the universe to insist
scientific, and evolutionary thought, and on the changing and evolutionary character
tended not to build philosophical systems but of reality, especially in A Pluralistic Universe
to address specific problems of philosophy (1909). All theories, including metaphysical
and life. It has had considerable general influ- and theological theories, are to be considered
ence in many areas, including education, eth- as instruments to be tested in their working.
ics, and religion. As a philosophical move- James made much use of the distinction
ment, pragmatism was dominated by two between the "tender-minded" (who tend to
brilliant and prolific thinkers, William James be rationalistic, idealistic, religious, monistic)
and John Dewey. and the "tough-minded" (empiricist, materi-
William James (1842-1910) was educated alistic, irreligious, pluralistic). He classified
at Harvard University, where he studied first himself among the latter, yet he continued to
at the Lawrence Scientific School and then at be fascinated by the religious question. He
the Medical School (M.D., 1869). Three found that religion is always a live hypothe-
years later he began his lifetime of teaching sis, and that the choice for or against it is
at Harvard, serving successively in the fields momentous and cannot really be evaded, for
of physiology, psychology, and philosophy. evasion itself is a denial in practice. In The
In his definitional work, Pragmatism (1907), Will to Believe ( 1897), James showed the part
James indicated that the general background played by inner or emotional evidence in de-
for the movement was British empiricism as- termining one's world view, and justified the
sociated with such names as Locke, Hume, appeal to purpose and will as an unavoidable
and Mill; appropriately, James subtitled the element in the process. In his famous Gifford
book "a new name for some old ways of Lectures, published in 1902 as The Varieties
thinking" and dedicated it to the memory of of Religious Experience, James affirmed that
John Stuart Mill. The work of Charles San- there is a certain empirical justification for
ders Peirce (1839-1914) provided the specific religious experience in the way that it en-
point of departure for pragmatism. Peirce riches life and shapes conduct. He demon-
also had divided his time between between strated a willingness to be open to all kinds
science and philosophy, and was devoted to of experience in the search for new truth. His
the mood and method of the laboratory. His understanding of religion was open and
seminal article, "How to Make Our Ideas searching but certainly not traditional; the
Clear," was popularized by James twenty study of experience led him to suggest a finite
years after its first appearance in 1878. Peirce God in the pluralistic universe.
affirmed that beliefs are really rules for action James was deeply concerned with the
that establish habits. Different beliefs are to moral life. Though he never developed his
be distinguished by the different modes of ethical views systematically, he discussed
action to which they give rise. To develop a them often. For him, ethics admits no trans-
thought's meaning, then, we need only to de- empirical basis, rejects all intellectualiste de-
termine what conduct it is fitted to produce; mands that it be based on reasoning only (for
to attain clearness in our thoughts of an ob- the emotions and the will must be consulted
ject, we need to consider what practical and respected), and denies that any one indi-
effects the object may involve. vidual or any group has the final word in
James developed this principle of pragma- ethical questions. Ethics is, however, more
tism in his own way, especially applying it as than mere description of the actual concrete
a test of truth. In Pragmatism he declared behavior of humans; it does provide stan-
with emphasis: "True ideas are those that we dards of conduct. But they are those which
can assimilate, validate, corroborate and ver- have grown up within human experience;
ify. False ideas are those that we can not. " they are to bfe verified pragmatically by seeing
The truth of an idea is not some stagnant if they help people to deal successfully with
property inherent in it, he insisted, but their practical problems. On pragmatic con-
rather: "Truth happens to an idea. It becomes siderations, James frankly based ethics on the
true, is made true by events." The meaning will to believe those concepts which answer
and value of ail our conceptions and terms human cravings for moral order and which
must be evaluated in a radically empirical direct people fruitfully in organizing their ex-
way by attention to their practical conse- periences. Though not unaware of the impor-
quences in use. James rejected any fixed or tance of social factors in individual moral
493 Pragmatism
choice, James stressed the importance of the which rearrange and reconstruct in some
individual's decision and the freedom to way, be it small or large, the world in which
make it. Once made, however, a decision is we live."
open to revision as it is tested by results. Dewey was more critical of traditional reli-
John Dewey (1859-1952) drew much from gion than James had been. He rejected any
James, but in a long and influential career association of ideas about value with Ante-
gave pragmatism an interpretation often cedent Being, arguing that they should be
called "instrumentalism" or "experimental- associated always with practical activity. He
ism" and became the acknowledged leader of himself espoused a position of religious hu-
the later pragmatists. Educated at the Uni- manism, signing the "Humanist Manifesto"
versity of Vermont and at Johns Hopkins of 1933 and the next year publishing A Com-
(Ph.D., 1884), he taught at the universities of mon Faith, in which he urged the separation
Michigan, Minnesota, and Chicago before of religious values from organized religion, in
coming in 1904 to Columbia University, order that the values might be focused on the
where he taught until retirement a quarter actual possibilities of life.
century later. A man of broad interests, he Concern for ethics marked Dewey's entire
wrote in the fields of philosophy, logic, eth- career. One of his very early books, Outlines
ics, education, religion, art, and politics. of a Critical Theory of Ethics (1891), was
Much of his philosophical work centered on based on dynamic idealism, but as his prag-
the epistemological problem and on the rela- matic philosophy developed, his ethical ap-
tionship of thinking to conduct. As he put it proach was largely recast. The new style
in an important work of 1903, Studies in Log- shows in many of his later books, as, for ex-
ical Theory: "Thinking is adapation to an ample, Ethics, written jointly with James H.
end through the adjustment of particular ob- Tufts in 1908. Ethics became for him an ex-
jective contents." Mind is thus a tool of the amination of the norms that actual condi-
organism to guide action; the function of tions continually generate for the adaptation
mind is to redirect activities by an anticipa- of habitual conduct to new circumstance. In
tion of their consequences. Dewey later Human Nature and Conduct (1922), Dewey
'defined instrumentalism as "an attempt to affirmed that "morals is the most humane of
constitute a precise logical theory, of con- all subjects. It is that which is closest to
cepts, of judgments and inferences through human nature; it is ineradicably empirical,
their various forms, by considering primarily not theological nor metaphysical nor mathe-
how thought functions in the experimental matical." All conduct is interaction between
determinations of future consequences." His elements of human nature and the total envi-
development of pragmatism was along more ronment. Hence behavior is controllable
naturalistic and less individualistic lines than through the modification of the physical and
that of James; he devoted much more atten- social setting. Ethics always looks ahead, not
tion to the social dimensions of personality. back; punishments are not ends in themselves
In his Chicago years, Dewey was associated but are instruments for the development of
with George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), a responsibility in persons. Ethics for Dewey
pragmatist who did much of his work on the involves a never-ending search for actual in-
social nature of the self. In Experience and terests and values; through the making public
Nature (1925), Dewey explained that acts are of various and often hidden factors a truly
of both the organism and its environment, open, democratic society in Which continu-
natural and social. The world cannot be ous reform is always possible can be main-
called a whole or given a meaning as a whole; tained. Thus ethics is not normative or
meanings, purposes, ideas, and minds are merely descriptive, but always prospective,
being generated continually. Experience is studying the total range of individual and
not seen as subjective, but as a process of social behavior in the quest for ways of living
undergoing, of doing and suffering, as a rela- that lead to more enriching, satisfying, and
tionship between various types of objects. freeing relationships of persons to others and
Thus the human and the mental are seen to to the world about them.
be in continuity with natural processesall The impact of pragmatism on Protestant
of them subject to modification. "Ideas are theological and ethical thought and practice
worthless," wrote Dewey in The Quest for was strong, especially on liberalism. Centered
Certainty, "except as they pass into actions at the University of Chicago, efforts were
Prejudice 494
made to reinterpret Christian faith in terms of justed to correspond with reality no harm is
pragmatic and empirical philosophy. The re- done, and the process of thinking may be
ligious education movement, immensely in- made more efficient. Quite frequently, how-
fluential in American Protestantism in the ever, the judgments of individuals or groups
earlier decades of the century, drew heavily are not corrected by reference to the facts of
on progressive and pragmatically based edu- the situation, and a favorable or unfavorable
cational theories and practices. Ethical bias, often based on stereotypes, enters into
thought of conspicuously different orienta- moral evaluation and action. If the bias is
tions from pragmatism nevertheless had to favorable and does not result in harm to any
take account of its emphases. Outside the individual or group, it may lead to positive
United States, the leading exponent of prag- moral acts, such as love, charity, or mercy.
matism was F. C. S. Schiller (1864-1937), There is a tendency, however, to restrict the
though he preferred the term "humanism." term "prejudice" to attitudes and actions
Pragmatism also had some impact on the with an unfavorable bias that has been
Catholic Modernist movement in Europe. formed without due consideration, is resist-
With the rise of realistic and neo-orthodox ant to correction when the facts upon which
trends in Protestant theology and ethics in the it is based are disclosed to be erroneous, and
1930s, the influence of pragmatism began to results in harm or injury to some individual
wane. or group. Prejudice is most often manifested
toward individuals or groups because of their
B. P. Brennan, The Ethics of William James, racial, religious, national, or gender identity.
1961; J. J. McDermott (ed.), The Writings of Such prejudices are commonly called rac-
William James: A Comprehensive Edition, ism*, anti-Semitism*, ethnocentrism, or sex-
1967, 1977; J. E. Smith, Purpose and
2 ism (see Sex Discrimination).
Thought: The Meaning of Pragmatism, 1978; Attitudes of prejudice are frequently ex-
H. S. Thayer, Meaning and Action: A Critical pressed in acts of discrimination*, particu-
History of Pragmatism, 1968. larly when prejudiced individuals or groups
ROBERT T. H A N D Y feel that their self-interest and advantages are
threatened by others. The term "prejudice" is
Praxis see Conscientization; Counseling, often used to denote this practice of discrimi-
Ethical Problems in; Ecumenical Move* nation.
ment, Ethics in the; Liberation Theology; Attitudes and actions of unfavorable preju-
Marxist Ethics; Political Theology; Revo- dice clearly violate standards of fairness*,
lution; Socialism justice*, impartiality, and universalizability*
affirmed in both philosophical and religious
Pregnancy, T e r m i n a t i o n of ethics and of love* affirmed in Christian eth-
see Abortion ics. Even favorable prejudice is ambiguous
because, by implication, it tends to assert the
Prejudice superiority of one individual or group an4
The OED'sfirstthree definitions of the word the inferiority of another. Loyalty* to a
"prejudice" state the essential elements for a group, association, or cause may reflect fat
moral understanding of the concept: Preju- vorable prejudice, but it usually implies un$*
dice is an injury, detriment, or damage vorable prejudice toward outsiders. Even if
caused to a person by judgments or actions such favorable prejudice is acceptable ig;
that disregard hisrights;prejudice is a previ- some intimate relationships, such as love qt;j
ous judgment, especially a judgment formed marriage, it is not acceptable in most interact
before due examination or consideration; tions in the society and is acceptable only ig-'i
prejudice is a favorable or unfavorable pre- a qualified sense when there is a conflict b* ]
conceived opinion, bias, or leaning. The third tween loyalties to intimate relationships aity]:
definition is the generic meaning of the con- other associations. In addition, both unfavor -
cept, but the first definition is crucial for reli- able and favorable prejudice stand under tfypl
gious and philosophical ethics. moral requirement to have all judgments
Prejudgments are normal and common be- amined and tested by reference to the reUfl
cause perception and cognition require the vant facts in the situation. But various ps$|
placing of particular items into more general chological and sociological theories, as wej||
categories. As long as the prejudgment is ad- as most theological interpretations of sin* ^JJj
495 Pride
suggest that the eradication of prejudice can- disapproval of overweening presumption into
not be accomplished merely by appeal to a reversal of the world's values. Alan Rich-
moral principles and to the facts of the situa- ardson describes the biblical teaching as "un-
tion, however indispensable and helpful such paralleled in other religious and ethical sys-
appeals may be. tems" ("Pride," A Theological Word Book of
See Race Relations; Women, Status of. the Bible, 1950). In both OT and NT, proph-
ets and saints bear witness that it is not the
G. W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice, great and the proud who matter most to God,
1954. and that human pride really is due for a fall;
PRESTON N. WILLIAMS though eventually what is to topple it is not
to be the pride of God but his undefeatable
Prenatal Diagnosis see Abortion; Gen- gentleness. In the NT, though there is a good
etics deal about boasting, especially in Paul's epis-
tles, there is not very much talk of pride and
Prescriptivism proudness in so many words. There is an
Prescriptivism is a name commonly given to essential and pervasive emphasis expressed
views which hold that moral judgments are by different people in many different ways on
in some strong and special sense action-guid- Christian humbleness rather than pretension
ing, and that this forms part of their meaning, (even, indeed especially, religious preten-
in addition to any descriptive meaning which sion). This whole way of thinking is summa-
they may have (thesis (1) of Ethics). It is to rized by Paul, not a man to whom humility
be distinguished from emotivism*, relativ- came easily: "Far be it from me to glory ex-
ism*, subjectivism*. cept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"
R. M. HARE (Gal. 6:14).
This reversal of values is more than the
Price, J u s t see Just Price and Just Wage; establishment of a different set of people to be
Justice the esteemed and important ones. What it
involves is a diagnosis of the human condi-
Pride tion as such. We have to understand that
An unattractive sin, pride is not only "inordi- pride besets us all, not only the mighty. "No
nate self-esteem" but the "contempt for oth- people," said William Law, "have more occa-
ers" to which it gives rise (OED). It is more sion to be afraid of the approaches of pride
nearly synonymous with arrogance than with than those who have made some advances in
mere vanity and conceit. People are glad to a pious life," and "You can have no greater
think that it "goes before a fall." sign of a confirmed pride than when you
Yet there is a strong human tradition that think you are humble enough" (A Serious
admires pride. To Aristotle, the pride that is Call to a Devout and Holy Life, ch. 16).
"magnanimity,"* "greatness of soul," is the That is easy enough to understand, but
desirable mean between "empty vanity" and notoriously hard to abide by. Besides the
"groveling humility." He expatiated upon its practical corruptibility of human beings, who
nobility, its concern with "honor on the are as quick to thank God that they are not
grand scale." He offers an ethic for the great Pharisees as the Pharisee was confident of his
on the assumption that it is a good thing to superiority over the publican (Luke 18:11),
be great. More impishly, in reaction against there is a more subtle difficulty that creeps up
centuries of Christian teaching against pride, slowly. With every good intent it is possible
David Hume stated as a fact that "pride is a to lose one's grasp of the specific sin of pride
pleasant sensation, and humility a painful," by expanding it to mean anything or nothing.
and invited his readers' agreement that "the In Christian teaching pride includes more
most rigid morality allows us to feel a pleas- than the kind of obvious presumption that
ure from reflecting on a generous action" (A shows itself in arrogance, more even than the
Treatise of Human Nature, bks. 2.1; 5; 7). insensitive worldliness that shows itself in
Later, in An Enquiry Concerning the Princi- snobbery (cf. Law, Serious Call, ch. 17). It is
ples of Morals (9.1), he called humility "a the more fundamental presumption by which
monkish virtue," almost a vice. any human creature or group, large or small-
The characteristic Christian horror of scale, constantly puts itself in the place of
pride develops well beyond commonsense God. The biblical teaching has been unfolded
Primitive Ethics 496
over the centuries to explain this. "This it at either end of this spectrum. The empha-
then," said Augustine, "is the original evil: sis of the moralist, Christian or otherwise,
man regards himself as his own light" (City will not be static but likely to shift along the
of God 14.13). That is why pride has been line, constantly trying to redress falsity of
regarded as the root of all sin, the sin of emphasis; though Christian moralists have
angels and of the first human beings. Under- been especially alert to dangers at the arro-
stood in this way, pride becomes a technical gant end.
term for human rebellion against God. To Second, there is pride not as a sin but as
belittle the wisdom of this understanding the root of sin. It is the self-centeredness that
could itself be an example of rebellion. shuts out other people and God, the turning
But when pride is allowed to colonize the upon oneself that makes love impossible. In-
whole country of sin there comes a time when stead of a spectrum here there is a precipice,
it cannot hold down its territories. Human the fall from the innocent self-love of a child
beings are not prepared to believe that all sin of God to rebellion against God. There is a
is pride, or even that all pride is sin. If it is real cliff-edge here. To recognize one's own
taken for granted that sin is practically syn- "lovability" ought to be gratitude not pride,
onymous with self-centeredness and that self- the model not the rival for Christian love.
centeredness simply is the same thing as The easy slip, both in theory and in practice,
pride, this lumping of possibly distinguish- from the best to the worst is the clearest indi-
able ideas together will tend to revive a kind cation of human sinfulness.
of discontent, a feeling that there is more to This is the main point. The worst is, pre-
be said for the "great-souled" virtues than cisely, the corruption of the best, the spoiling
Christians like to admit. To talk grudgingly of a splendid creature. It is no wonder that
about "proper pride" does not quite meet the the sin of pride is so near, not just to amiable
case. There is dignity; there is magnanimity; weaknesses but to great virtues. Christian
there is even nobility; there is greathearted- theology, said G. R. Dunstan, "fearful (and
ness; and on the other hand there is the petty with good cause fearful) of naughty pride,
small-mindedness which is a persistent cari- . . has all too often played man down; but
cature of humility. If Christianity means a in its fulness Christian theology can only
reversal of values in favor of the latter, it is warn man against his pride because it ranks
not morally obvious that Christianity has got him as a creature so high. We do not preach
it entirely right. "It is as though there were humility to the worm" (Not Yet the Epitaph,
two moral universes: the Promethean and the 1968, p. 13). What really matters about pride,
religious. In one a chief virtue is a properly considered as the heart of sinfulness, is not
measured pride. In the other a chief virtue is just any selfishness but the corruption of
faith . . the virtue of one is the vice of the glory.
other" (J. Kellenberger, "Religious Faith See Humility; Hybris.
and Prometheus," Philosophy, Oct. 1980, pp.
500-501). Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 4.3; Augus-
From a Christian point of view it is no tine, City of God 12.6; 14.13-14; D. Hume
answer to arrange a head-on confrontation of A Treatise of Human Nature 2.1; A. Kolnai,
Augustine with Aristotle, nor to parcel out "Dignity," Philosophy, July 1976, pp. 266-
the territory between their rival concepts of 271; D. L. Sayers, "The Other Six Deadly
pride, nor to belittle the difference of empha- Sins," Creed or Chaos, 1947, pp. 85-88.
sis between their accounts. An answer could H E L E N OPPENHEIME1&
begin by distinguishing two senses of pride,
but not as one sinful and one virtuous: they Prima Facie Duties, Rules, etc.
can both be sinful in different ways. see Conflict of Duties; Dilemma; Norms
The first sense puts pride at one end of a
spectrum with its contrary sin, small-mind- Primitive Ethics
edness, at the other end. To condemn pride All peoples distinguish in various ways be-
as overweening grandeur could be to con- tween good and bad behavior, and have ways
demn it, not as an Aristotelian mean, but as of transmitting these values to their growing
an extreme. Both arrogance and the petty children. The content of this morality, it$;
"umbleness" of Uriah Heep are wrong. If one goals and ideals, the personality characterise
is looking for magnanimity one will not find tics selected for approval or disapproval, 11
497 Primitive Ethics
rules and expectations, sanctions and justifi- less of who is at fault. The skill shown in
cations, however, all differ widely among reciting appropriate proverbs will often win
"primitive" peoples. an African legal case rather than the evidence
The study of the ethics of preliterate shown in court. Armed force, ambushes, and
groups is not very advanced. Few anthro- raids may be a principal institution for retri-
pologists have been primarily interested in bution.
this phase of the culture of the groups they Variety in the content of morality is also
were studying, and few philosophers have en- very wide. The Pueblo Indian must^not be
tered the complex field of the cross-cultural competitive. It is shameful to seek to do bet-
study of cultures. Ethical values, of course, ter than one's neighbors. The neighboring
are a part of many aspects of the life of Plains Indian is highly competitive and ag-
groups, and most of the information about gressive in war and trade, seeking an individ-
primitive ethics is thus buried in other con- ual vision from the gods to set him apart from
texts in anthropological descriptions. his fellows. In some groups an individual has
The psychological undergirding of moral- the rights to the fruits of a tree he inherited
ity varies widely in primitive groups. Guilt* no matter how long ago his ancestors sold the
is not widespread. Shame* at being caught, at land to someone else. In others no crop is
theridiculeof members of the community, is private. All produce is communal property.
more nearly universal. Pride* sustains many For a man to eat a deer may be the most
peoples in their support of the moral code, as shameful of acts, causing him to become ill
the Plains Indian undergoes torture rather and die, whereas his wife may eat it with
than betray the community. Fears of illness, impunity. He belongs to the Deer clan and
of spirits, of mana, of ancestors are often very she does not.
powerful forces. As wide as the variety of good and bad
Morality in primitive societies may be behavior may be, some kinds of action are
taught or expressed in a variety of ways. universally condemned. Incest* is one such
There are injunctions to children, moralism, well-known universal prohibition. Relations
proverbs; the fear, horror, or revulsion of with mother or sister are almost always in-
relatives is transmitted to children, as when cluded within the incest restriction, but be-
they learn to feel disgust and revulsion over yond that cultures differ widely in the size
the idea of sexual contact with their mother's and scope of the incest group. It may include
sister's child but not their father's sister's all the mother's relatives, in an extended fam-
child in a society where cross-cousin mar- ily comprising scores of people who would
riage but not parallel cousin marriage is per- not be counted in our kinship system, or a
mitted. Laughter, approval, scolding, pun- multitude of other relationships, large and
ishment, threats, are many of the devices of small. It may be ritually broken on special
society to instill its moral values in the young highly charged emotional occasions for reli-
learning member. gious purposes. But whatever the variety, the
Some preliterate societies have developed incest prohibition is there.
highly specialized sanctions for the enforce- In-group aggressions are limited or con-
ment of proper behavior. Among some Plains trolled in all societies to some degree. The
Indian groups the infant learns not to cry by degree of limitation may be the Zuni extreme
having water poured down its nostrils every of eliminating all competition, or it may
time it starts. The gods periodically come in allow a large amount of friction, tension,
the form of masked men to Hopi children, fighting and ill will, but there are always lim-
whipping them for their misdeeds. Some kin- its. Some kind of reciprocity in the group,
ship systems have a "joking" relationship, some requirement of telling the truth, at least
allowing considerable sexual license and the under certain circumstances, is universally
right to tease and ridicule the joking relative required.
with impunity. The whole community shares The size of the world of a primitive group
in the laughter and keeps the deviant in line. is smaller than that of industrialized society.
In the Eskimo drum contest one man chal- The world to which ethical behavior is re-
lenges someone who has wronged him to a quired may also be much smaller. The out-
rhyming contest, and the community, sider, the stranger, may often and without
through its laughter and ridicule, supports compunction be treated far differently from
the cleverer verse maker of the two, regard- "people," as primitives often call their own
Privacy 498
group in distinction to others. The rights of limited access to a person." Persons have a
humanity in the abstract are not likely to be right of privacy if they can control others'
a part of the morality, but interpersonal rela- access to them, including access through
tionships in the community or family may be touching, observing, or obtaining informa-
sharply defined. tion about them. Much of the modern debate
Real behavior and ideal behavior often about privacy has focused on access to infor-
differ. The very fact of ideal behavior among mation about a person. The right of privacy
a people, however, is evidence of moral val- is valued in part because personal control
ues. This ideal behavior among primitives is over access to information about oneself is
not formally coded. When people have it essential for important human relationships.
called to their attention it is justified in the In Alan Westin's image of concentric circles,
terms that "our fathers did so formerly," the core self with its secrets (see Secrecy) is
"the gods have commanded it," "the ances- at the center, and it chooses to grant others
tors would be displeased if it were not done," access to information in accord with the rela-
or "the consequences of infringement would tionships it wants to establish. The outer cir-
be terrible." In the actual structure of the cles represent less intense and less personal
society, however, ideal behavior is tied in relationships that require less personal infor-
with the rest of the culture in its prevalent mation. We grant others access to informa-
themes and value system, its economics, its tion about ourselves in order to create, main-
social structure and religion, deriving its tain, and symbolize such relationships as
strength from its functional relationship to love, friendship, and trust. In addition, there
them. are specific reasons in health care and else-
See Anthropology and Ethics; Compara- where to share personal information with
tive Religious Ethics; Taboo. other people. In therapeutic contexts, confi-
dentiality becomes important because it is a
R. B. Brandt, Hopi Ethics, 1945; M. and A. mode of control over others access to infor-
1
Edel, Anthropology and Ethics, 1959; J. mation disclosed in that relationship. But the
Ladd, The Structure of a Moral Code, 1957. rule of confidentiality* is not absolute and
WILLIAM A. SMALLEY others mayand sometimes shoulddis-
close information in order to protect other
Principles persons.
See Lore; Middle Axioms; Norms; Situation The right to privacy has been criticized as
Ethics, as well as such principles as Equality; excessively individualistic (see Individual*,
Justice; and Respect for Persons. ism); disruptive of community*, and protec-
tive of wrongdoing. Yet privacy, as the right,
Prison Reform see Penology; Social to be let alone, has also been praised as a
Service of the Church bulwark against unwarranted intrusion by
the state* and others. The critical question is;
Privacy the appropriate balance between individual
As a moral and legal category privacy re- and community. It is not clear that any infor-;
ceived little explicit attention until late in the mation as such is intrinsically private; defini-
19th century when J. F. Stephen defended tions of what is private and unavailable foi*
therightof privacy in a brief passage and two public scrutiny are socially relative. But j|
legal scholars argued for arightof privacy in nothing is private and protected as private^
an influential article in the Harvard Law Re- the self and its relations surely suffer. Some?
view (1890). In 1965 the US Supreme Court forms of privacy result from human neglect^
explicitly invoked the right of privacy to for example, F. Schoeman has observed tha|i
overturn legislation that prohibited the use or the industrial revolution* and its associated^
dissemination of contraceptives, and in 1973 urbanization* increased anonymity, the kin#
it appealed to this right to overturn restric- of "privacy that results from the indifference
tive abortion* legislation. of others." However, in modem society witi|
There are controversies about the defini- the development of computer* technologie^
tion of privacy, in part because some defini- in the hands of the state and others, many art*
tions seem to focus on the right of privacy concerned about the threat to privacy. -j
rather than privacy itself. According to F. See Autonomy; Computers; Confidential^
Schoeman, privacy is "a state or condition of ity; Freedom; Human Dignity; Individual^
499 Procreation
ism; Liberalism; Morality, Legal Enforce- until its rehabilitation toward the end of the
ment of; Persons and Personality; Respect 18th century in a modified form. This soon
for Persons; Secrecy; Totalitarian State. became official Jesuit teaching and, with its
well-understood safeguards, is the casuistical
S. I. Benn and G. F. Gaus (eds.), Public and method most commonly practiced through-
Private in Social Life, 1983; F. Schoeman out the Roman Catholic Church: it will not
(ed.), Philosophical Dimensions of Privacy: An allow any opinion in favor of liberty which a
Anthology, 1984. truly prudent man would not consider to be
JAMES F. CHILDRESS solidly probable"; nor is it to be applied to
44
person and another. This would be compati- Macbeath, Experiments in Living, 1952; Ci
ble with holding that if they were, then the L. Stevenson, Facts and Values, 1963, ch. 5$
same duty would apply. It would be a puz- E. Westermarck, Ethical Relativity, 1932; B4
zling belief, however, as it would fail to ex- R. Wilson (ed.), Rationality, 1970.
plain how general terms in morality NINIAN SMAR*
("lying," "stealing," etc.) have come to be
used. Religion and Morality, Relation^
Analytic relativism, in its subjectivist of see Morality and Religion, Relations ofj
form, encounters the difficulty that moral ar- Religious Ethics see Comparative Rtm
guments ought to evaporate. For if "A is gious Ethics; see also Afro-American Retfi
wrong" means "A is disapproved of by gious Ethics; Buddhist Ethics; Christian
Henry"; and if George disagrees, so that "A Ethics; Confucian Ethics; Eastern Orth^l
is not wrong" means "A is not disapproved dox Christian Ethics; Hindu Ethics; Im
of by George," there is no incompatibility lamic Ethics; Jewish Ethics; ManicheMn
between "A is wrong" and "A is not wrong." Ethics; Modern Protestant Ethics; Moil
There is no incompatibility between the ern Roman Catholic Moral Theolog$f
propositions that Henry disapproves of A Taoist Ethics; Zoroastrian Ethics
and that George does not. Thus analytic rela-
tivism is not a good reflection of the way Remarriage see Divorce; Marriage
533 Renaissance, The
Remorse being instinct with high and versatile pos-
Stronger than mere regret, remorse is heavy sibilities that could and should be realized
sorrow over the guilt* one has incurred here. The classical world was indeed being
through actions that harm or wrong others or pictured too rosily; nevertheless what the
that violate religious requirements. It may be Renaissance scholars saw in it really was in
appropriate or inappropriate, depending on it. They caught the force and fragrance of
the circumstances. At any rate, it is not iden- forgotten ideals, and revived them in letters,
tical with, but may and should lead to, re- conversation, and to some extent in conduct.
pentance* that may involve acts of repara- They became a new aristocracy, and some of
tion or restitution* where possible. Through the ruling aristocrats welcomed them, the
confession* the Christian seeks God's for- most remarkable instance being the close as-
giveness* as well as the neighbor's forgive- sociation of the Medici dukes with the Flor-
ness. Unresolved remorse may, of course, entine Academy, the noble firstfruit of the
have detrimental psychological consequences Renaissance.
for the agent. The changed attitude was called in a later
See Absolution; Penance; Reconciliation. period "humanism," intended as a term of
JAMES F. CHILDRESS praise (see Humanistic Ethics). In its very
recent disparaging use it would not be appli-
Renaissance, The cable generally. True the attitude could, and
While it produced nothing new in philosophi- here and there did, contract into a purely
cal ethics, the Renaissance introduced a this-worldly one. Its original basis was cer-
change of general perspective that helps to tainly the sense, evoked by the intellectual
explain the differences of method and criteria and artistic greatness of the Greeks and the
between the medieval and the modem views moral heroism and political magnanimity of
about morality. The recoil from the medieval the best Romans, of the wrongness of a low
outlook and way of living had undoubtedly a view of human nature. A low view had been
variety of causes (e.g., natural reaction, men- propagated by the church's doctrine of origi-
tal maturing, commercial advance, and polit- nal sin*; but a high view could be grounded
ical events), but the usual reference to the on other church doctrines, or in the Platonic
recovery of the knowledge of the ancient theory of the supremacy of the Good, or in
Greeks and Romans has still to be stressed. the Stoic conviction that every human is a
The broad effect of that recovery was an ex- part of the divine Reason. Although, then, in
cited recognition of the width and height of some persons and groups humanism took a
the achievements of the classical age. These very earthy form (for a while even in papal
smote astonished minds with the force of a circles), largely under the ideal of virtu (viril-
revelation; and the vision of the past became ity as proved by powerful action, sometimes
an apocalypse of the future, for what two splendid, sometimes merely gross), it was not
Western peoples had done might be done in general antireligious. On the whole it had
again. The ancient philosophy and science in the writers a high tone, varying from aes-
showed that the structure of the physical thetic idealism and cosmic emotion to Pia-
world and the laws of its processes could be tonism pure or christianized, or to a Christi-
investigated; the ancient literature showed anity inwardly liberalized. It gave us, among
that it could be admired, honored, and loved; other things, the NT in Greelt and the Greek
and the ancient ways of living showed that fathers.
the human lot could be handsomely al- So far as philosophy was concerned, one
leviated by hygiene, self-respect, and grace- feature was an exchange of ecclesiastical au-
fulness (there were Renaissance manuals of thority for the authority of the ancient pagan
good manners). The contrast with the medie- thinkers, whose systems were revived rather
val outlook, temper, and manner of life was than rethought, one consequence being that
immense. Human beings, it now seemed, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Ethics, Cicero's
were not merely sinners, in need of little but On Duties, and Epictetus's Manual came to
a postmortem salvation. Their present life be the favorite ethical books of the 17th and
was not just a testing for the next, a testing 18th centuries. In another respect philoso-
in which the material and temporal were to phizing came to mean an escape from the
be despised as corruptible and corrupting. It medieval kind that served the church to the
had much value of its own, human nature Greek kind that stood on its own rational and
Repentance 534
empirical feet. The very few relatively inde- created international law as a subject of mod-
pendent philosophers let themselves go, un- ern technical juristic study. It is more than an
classically, in riotously imaginative specula- addendum to note the controversy (1524-27)
tion about nature as a whole. For them the between Erasmus, prince of Renaissance
problem of the place and rightful life of scholars, and Luther, on the subject of moral
human beings does not seem to have been responsibility. The former argued for it with
central. Rather than being interested in hu- restraint, acknowledging the mystery of
mans as particular living beings with prob- God's sovereignty; the latter could think only
lems of conduct daily facing them, they were of sin and unmerited grace. The issue was
thrilled at the discovery of how much (and that of Pelagius and Augustine again (to be
how well) humans were able to think and feel renewed a century later by Arminius). The
about; that is, their attention was directed clash is a reminder that the Reformation was
more on the universe than on themselves. contemporary with the Renaissance. The re-
This objective interest ran also into the lation between these two reactions against
groove that led to modern astronomical ecclesiastical authority was neither simple
physics, that is, to Galileo and Newton, but nor constant: felt affinity and felt hostility
before it reached these the largely medieval varied with the personalities involved. The
priest Copernicus (d. 1543) had pushed the one was intellectual and aesthetic, the other
earth from the center of the solar system, and a practical passion for religious and moral
the unmedieval monk Bruno (d. 1600), a pan- righteousness; yet both were liberating, and
theist of passion and genius, had announced, both, in shifts of harmony and conflict,
entranced, an infinity of worlds beyond the shaped the modern erawith the difference
solar system. This reduction of humanity's that the Reformation reached much more
abode by the former to a peripheral and by quickly the common people.
the latter to a minute status in the physical
universe embarrassed orthodox Christians J. Burckhardt, Civilization of the Renaissance
and delighted sophisticated libertines, but in Italy (ET 3rd ed., rev., 1951), is still invalu-
hardly became formative of an antireligious able as a general survey, though confined to
and wholly this-worldly morality until the the first home. On the philosophical and
new science had proceeded to something like scientific ideas, see H. Hffding, History of
proof, and even then the effect was ambigu- Modern Philosophy (ET 1900, repr. 1955). See
ous, for a vaster and more marvelous uni- also W. J. Bousma, The Culture of Renais-
verse was seen by many as resounding to the sance Humanism, 1973; P. O. Kristeller,
greater glory of God, and the spatial pettiness Renaissance Thought and Its Sources, 1979;
of the earth as leaving untouched either the C. Trinkaus, The Scope of Renaissance Hu-
humanist's conviction of humanity's spiritual manism, 1983.
greatness or the Christian conviction of T. E. JESSOP
human responsibility, immortality, and privi-
lege under God. Reparation see Reconciliation; Repent-
The few works of moral reflection that are ance; Restitution
remembered from this period do not support
the common view that the Renaissance was Repentance
wholly a wave of individualism, for they Jesus called the people to "repent, for the
are about social and political morality. kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17).
Machiavelli's The Prince belongs to political Repentance (metanoia, a change of mind)
science, and More's Utopia to serious imagi- presupposes regret, remorse*, sorrow and
native literature rather than to ethics. Cam- contrition* for one's unrighteousness, and it
panella's City of the Sun is an adaptation of involves turning to God and changing one's
Plato's Republic. The one weighty ethical ways. Explications of repentance depend on
treatise was late, Grotius's On the Law of various anthropological and theological con-
War and Peace (1625) in which the Stoic and victions, particularly ideas of faith*, forgive-
Roman concept, familiar to the medievals, of ness*, grace*, justification* and salvation,
natural law* as the rational (though God- and conceptions about the respective roles
given) criterion of right human laws was ap- played by God and human beings. In general,
plied to the changed situation of emerged and Roman Catholics have had a larger place for
emerging nation-states. This work virtually acts of penance*, while Protestants have em-
535 Reproductive Technologies
phasized the personal relationship between important of all the defense mechanisms*
God and humans, but these differences are no and is carried out in such a manner that the
longer so pronounced. There is wide agree- person concerned remains unaware of the
ment that repentance involves the whole per- threatening material and of the steps taken to
son and not simply mind, will, emotion, or prevent its intrusion into consciousness. Re-
action. pression can be effective against even the
most powerful instinctual impulses, but since
J. Haroutunian, "Repentance," A Handbook it involves a refusal to recognize and accept
of Christian Theology, ed. M. Halverson and whole tracts of psychic life, it can also result
A. A. Cohen, 1958. in the destruction of the integrity of the per-
JAMES F. CHILDRESS sonality. Even when not pathological in de-
gree, repression can rob life of much of its
Repression richness for the person. If, for any reason, the
Repression has the root meaning of checking repression ceases to be effective, the conse-
or holding something back and hence has quences can be explosively disruptive.
been used in social and political contexts in The psychic phenomenon of repression is
areas as diverse as the putting down of sedi- often discussed in relation to sexual ethics*,
tion, on the one hand, and, on the other, of and there has been a popular misunderstand-
overstrict control of children which has an ing that any regulation or disciplining of sex-
inhibiting effect on their development. In ual impulses and desires could have the
more recent usage it has tended to imply the unfortunate effects of repression. The distinc-
denial, often by fear or by force, of the legiti- tive thing about repression, however, is that
mate rights and aspirations of others. it is not within the conscious control of the
Modern political repression is commonly subject and its negative effects are directly
based on ideological, racial, tribal, or ethnic related to its unconscious nature. An under-
rivalries or is shaped by economic considera- standing of repression and other defense
tions. It is as much a feature of the post- mechanisms is important to an understand-
colonial era as of colonial days and may be ing of neurotic behavior, including neurotic
present within all political systems, although sexual reactions. Genuine repression may be
more obvious in dictatorships of both the left overcome constructively through psycho-
and the right. It is a weapon of power* and therapy.
may be exercised both by minorities over
majorities (as in colonialism*) and by majori- P. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, ET
ties over minorities (as, e.g., in the treatment 1970; A. Freud, The Ego and the Mech-
of many aboriginal peoples). Serious ethical anisms of Defence, 1937.
issues arise in the use and abuse of power and GRAEME M. GRIFFIN
the denial of rights*. Contemporary social
liberation movements, including women's Reproductive Technologies
liberation and gay liberation, are responses to Researchers in embryology, obstetrics, and
perceived repression. (See also Oppression; medicine have developed procedures that
State; Totalitarian State.) alter or replace altogether human fertiliza-
Repression may be the result of deliberate tion by heterosexual intercourse and initial
policy or the unintended result of actions and gestation in utero. Two of-these procedures
forces that are not necessarily evil in them- are: (1) artificial insemifiation by husband
selves. In either event, it usually requires the (AIH) or by sperm donor (AID), and (2) in
active or passive acquiescence of other peo- vitro (outside the human body) fertilization
ple. Organizations such as Amnesty Interna- (IVF) using sperm of husband or donor, and
tional have demonstrated the power of public egg of wife or surrogate mother. These proce-
opinion to correct or mitigate some instances dures, and especially the many possibilities
of repression, particularly of individuals. and ramifications of IVF, were occasions for
In dynamic psychology the term "repres- recent conflict in religious ethics. Key issues
sion" is used to express the exclusion from were that these techniques involved a third
consciousness of impulses, ideas, wishes, atti- party in the sexual relationship, posed possi-
tudes, feelings, etc., which would result in ble social and physicalrisksto offspring, and
intolerable threat or pain if openly acknowl- displaced the traditional mode of conception
edged. Repression is regarded as the most and childbearing. Disputes still exist about
536 Reproductive Technologies
the validity of the moral arguments for and apply to AIH, e.g., objection to masturba-
against these methods. tion* and departure from natural processes.
Other aspects of reproduction such as But the theologically based opposition to
banking sperm, ova, and zygotes are also AID rests primarily upon views of human
controversial. The potential of cloning (asex- sexuality and parenthood* shaped by the be-
ual reproduction of) a human being was lief that the unity in God as Creator is the
widely discussed in the early 1970s, but no foundational unity for the various goods and
arguments for cloning have yet been made on goals of sexuality (see Sexual Ethics). With-
any ethical grounds that appeal to religious out this deeper unity, according to these
views of life and its meaning. This article will views, these goods and goals fragment, be-
not discuss cloning but will concentrate on come competitive, and result in alienation of
AID and IVF, practices that actually affect human beings from their Creator and them-
growing numbers of persons, and briefly refer selves. The separation of marital love and
to ancillary techniques. Each year, perhaps procreation by acts of AID was considered to
as many as 10,000 infants in the USA and be harmful to the fidelity of the couple and
1,000 in the UK are born as a result of AID. probably harmful to offspring and family.
Since the birth of the first child following Additionally, the promises of marital
IVF in 1978, approximately 800 have been so fidelity* and monogamous marital bonds
conceived and delivered. were understood to be violated by the use of
Married couples mainly request AID or semen obtained from a man other than the
IVF to overcome involuntary infertility. The husband. By the nature of the AID proce-
extent of infertility in the USA is estimated dure, the unity that is supposed to be cher-
to be between 10 and 15 percent of all mar- ished between the husband, wife, and child
ried couples. Problems with the female ovi- was disrupted.
ductal system cause 30 to 35 percent of cases Paul Ramsey, a Protestant ethicist, pro-
of infertility. Male infertility is largely due to ceeded from a Christocentric interpretation
various forms of sperm incapacitation or low of the meaning of creation, based on the Pro-
sperm production. Some couples request logue of John's Gospel and Ephesians 5, to
AID to avoid transmission of a genetic dis- oppose AID either to overcome infertility or
order, especially when both parents are carri- for genetic reasons. In his view, the love out
ers of a recessive gene. Such practices are of which God created the world found its
now totally voluntary, although some people ultimate expression in Christ. Accordingly,
would favor more control over selective re- Christians should tell their own creation
production. AID with selected sperm from story rooted in the belief that their one Lord
supposed highly fit donors figured strongly in and the unity he represents presides over
the thought of some eugenicists who desired "procreation as well... as all marital cove-
to improve hereditary qualities with social nants." The proper end of sexuality and par-
control of human reproduction by selection. enthood is the indivisible unity between
No contemporary religious ethicist has sup- Christ and his love for the church, which is
ported "positive eugenics," and the weight of the prevailing symbol in a Christian mar-
Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish moral tradi- riage. Ramsey found AID theologically ob-
tions remains firmly against the loss of free- jectionable because it "means a refusal of the
dom and equality such practices would entail image of God's creation in our own." Sexual-
(see Eugenics). ity and procreation in the sole context of the
Artificial insemination by donor (AID). marital bond was thus the only way to re-
AID's growing use in recent decades main faithful to God who in creation estab-
prompted a significant ethical debate about lished the unity, between love and procrea-
its validity and effects on the ethics of sexual- tion.
ity and parenthood. This older debate partly The argument of Richard McCormick, a
conditioned the positions currently taken by leading Roman Catholic moral theologian,
Christian ethicists about IVF. rests primarily on ethical rather than explicit
Roman Catholic ethical teaching and theological categories. He argues that AID
warnings against AID have dominated the disrupts the continuity of love necessary for
contrary position, but significant opposition the optimal expression of sexuality and par-
also arose from some Protestant and Jewish enthood. If the foundation of procreation in
sources. Some arguments against AID also marriage has been violated, in McCormick's
537 Reproductive Technologies
view, this violation probably will also under- weighed, in Fletcher's view, the minimal
mine the parental obligation to love and care chance that anonymously donated sperm
for children. There is little evidence to sug- would be wrongly interpreted by husband
gest that these negative consequences are and wife as a real intrusion in their sexual
highly probable, much less inevitable, in relationship. The present writer and others
most cases. also generally supported AID as a morally
It is also difficult to find evidence to sup- acceptable exception for fertilization of a
port two other consequentialist arguments desired child provided there is informed con-
that have been used against AID: (1) it might sent by the husband and safeguards for the
encourage adultery if women once granted recipient and the donor.
therightto AID began to prefer receiving the Informed consent of recipients of AID
sperm by intercourse, and (2) AID's wide- ought to include information about genetic
spread use in animal husbandry and breeding history and genetic screening of donors, espe-
experiments could be used as a pretext for a cially when the woman is at a higher risk to
"stud-farming" attitude toward marriage. transmit a genetic disorder. AID is not with-
Opposition to AID does not necessarily out geneticrisk,and some recent studies sug-
imply opposition to all control of fertility or gest that the procedure may be linked to a
to all alternatives to infertility. For example, higherriskof malformations. The President's
Ramsey supports voluntary contraception* Commission (1983) recommended genetic
and sterilization* to avoid transmission of history-taking on all sperm donors, new laws
genetic disorders. Although official Roman to permit informing recipients of genetic
Catholic teaching opposes both means, some facts about donors without violating confi-
Catholic moral theologians have also ac- dentiality, and more safeguards for the use of
cepted them. McCormick supports adop- AID. The Committee of Inquiry Into
tion* as an alternative to AID as a way to Human Fertilisation and Embryology,
overcome infertility, but he indicates that it chaired by Dame Mary Warnock, a philoso-
is not as desirable as genetic parenthood from pher, made similar recommendations for the
an ethical standpoint. UK in 1984 and also proposed changes in the
Joseph Fletcher was an early challenger of law to deny the semen or egg donor any
the prevailing negative view of AID in reli- rights or duties in relation to the child and to
gious ethics, basing his challenge on Chris- grant the child at age eighteen access to ge-
tian personalism*. By placing higher values netic information about the donor.
on the personal relationship of husband and In vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo
wife than their sexual generativity and on the transfer (ET). Early and sharp debate be-
moral relationship between parents and chil- tween proponents and opponents of IVF
dren than their biological relationship, showed some continuity with the AIH and
Fletcher supported AID as a morally valid AID issues but also raised several new ethical
means to overcome infertility. He viewed the questions, including the moral status of the
practice of levirate marriage (Deut. 25:5-6) human embryo, the unnaturalness of tamper-
as a clear biblical exception to an exclusive ing with the mystery of nature, risks of IVF
claim of husband-wife reproduction. Fur- to the transferred embryo and surgery
ther, he stressed that AID emancipated (laparoscopy) to the mother, allocation of
human beings from natural causality and de- health resources, social-psychological effects
terminism, therefore providing more hu- on the identity of the child and family, and
manly satisfying goals and relief of the emo- the precedent IVF may set for eugenic mea-
tional deprivation of childlessness. Indeed, sures. Only the first three of these issues will
for Fletcher we are more human in artificial be discussed here.
reproduction than in natural reproduction. Does the moral status of the new zygote
(See Genetics for a discussion of attitudes demand the same respect due to a newborn
toward control of natural processes.) or to an adult? When does the developing
Another key element in Fletcher's support human being begin to have claims on society
of AID was that the protection of anonymity for the protection deserved by persons? In
of the donor by physicians effectively dis- IVF, this question becomes important in the
counted the idea that a third person was per- cases of the embryos that may never be trans-
sonally involved in the sexual relationship. ferred, since two or more ova may be fertil-
The outcome of a desired pregnancy out- ized after superovulation in order to spare the
538 Reproductive Technologies
mother more surgery. For those who confer themselves as persons, it does not follow that
personhood at the time of biological fertiliza- they ought to be deprived of a chance to have
tion, to waste embryos is equivalent to kill- a child.
ing. Reflection on the biological evidence lent Ramsey and Hans Tiefel challenged IVF
support to the idea that the rudiments of self as fundamentally unethical because of the
are truly present at about eight weeks of ges- unknown degree of risk of chromosomal
tation. The integral oneness of self is absent damage to the embryo and subsequent child,
at fertilization and even at implantation, for and because consent of the child-to-be is im-
twinning may yet occur or cell differentiation possible. Normally, investigators would seek
may result in a tumor rather than an eventual consent especially from those who are most
fetus. The possibility of sentience is probably directly affected by research, including new
not present until electrical brain activity and therapeutic measures. The lack of the child's
nerve cells mature at six weeks. In recogni- consent became, in their view, a door to ex-
tion of biological development and the con- amine the wrongs that may be justified by the
troverted nature of the discussion, an Ethics moral reasoning of those who defend IVF.
Advisory Board (1979) to US federal health Scientifically, little is known about the
authorities, among whose members was risks of IVF. Too few births and no signifi-
Richard McCormick, concluded that 'the 4
cant follow-up studies of children have oc-
human embryo is entitled to profound re- curred to make a valid estimate of risk. In
spect; but this respect does not necessarily terms of the animal and human results to
encompass the full legal and moral rights at- date, some researchers place the risk at an
tributed to persons." This stance allowed, additional 3 percent that an IVF child may
with the previous consent of egg and sperm be born with an abnormality. Ramsey held
donors, the disposal of excess or maldevelop- that even a 1 percent chance of error in any
ing embryos. Similarly, the Warnock Com- procedure surrounding the unborn child is
mittee in the UK concluded that "the em- not negligible, and that such a possibility cre-
bryo of the human species should be afforded ates a "conclusive argument" against any at-
some protection in law," though not the full tempt at IVF. Tiefel agreed with Ramsey and
protection accorded to persons. It recom- claimed that most arguments for a low risk
mended that "no live human embryo," which rate began with calculations on the high rate
has not been transferred to a woman, be kept of spontaneous abortion in the earliest weeks
alive or used for research purposes beyond of pregnancya fact that does not address
fourteen days after fertilization (excluding the question of whether the procedure leads
any time during which the embryo may have to an initial increase in those abnormal em-
been frozen). bryos. The upshot of the conflict about the
The US Ethics Advisory Board approved unknown risks of IVF left the burden of
IVF only if done with consenting married proof and caution clearly on the side of those
couples, but the Warnock Committee recog- who would do IVF in the name of relieving
nized the legitimacy of infertility treatment the suffering of involuntary infertility.
for stable, nonmarried heterosexual couples. The Warnock Committee's recommenda-
The restriction to consenting married cou- tions also encompassed two pf the most eth-
ples may accord more closely with the tradi- ically controversial ancillary developments
tions of sexuality and procreation in Chris- of new reproductive technologies, surrogate
tian ethics, but it may be difficult to defend mother arrangements and freezing human
in a pluralistic society. Even the broader embryos (or ova) for future use. Surrogacy
standard favored by the Warnock Committee means, in the most usual case, that one
will be subject to pressures from homosexual woman carries a pregnancy for a man whose
couples or other individuals who want to wife is infertile. She becomes pregnant by
have a child. AID using the commissioning father's sperm
Does IVF interfere with the mystery of our and by request of the infertile mother. The
human existence in the name of an inordinate intent is that the surrogate will give the child
desire to have children? It has been objected to the commissioning parents after birth.
that biological parenting has been unfairly Payment of the surrogate is usually involved,
made a measure of personal human worth. sometimes mediated by an organization
The force of this objection to IVF is limited. created for the purpose of facilitating surro-
Because some infertile couples may devalue gate arrangements. In response to arguments
539 Resistance
for surrogacy that it may be the only chance sey, Fabricated Man, 1970; and "Manufac-
to remedy infertility, the Warnock Commit- turing Our Offspring: Weighing the Risks,"
tee did not recommend that the act of surro- HCR 8, 1978; H. O. Tiefel, "Human In Vitro
gate gestation be made illegal. However, out Fertilization: A Conservative View," Journal
of concern to protect vulnerable surrogates of the American Medical Association 247,
and parents from exploitation and to avoid 1982; W. Walters and P. Singer, Test-Tube
the dehumanizing effects of commercializa- Babies, 1982; M. Warnock (chairman), Re-
tion of substitute gestation, the British gov- port of the Committee of Inquiry Into Human
ernment was requested to (1) ban agencies Fertilisation and Embryology, July 1984;
that recruit or arrange for women to be sur- and the relevant articles in DME.
rogates, (2) make such organizational activ- JOHN C. FLETCHER
ity punishable as a crime, and (3) enact legis-
lation to render surrogacy agreements illegal Rerum Novarum see Business Ethics;
contracts unenforceable in the courts. The Laissez-faire; Official Roman Catholic
Committee also recommended that no use of Social Teaching; Wages and Salaries
frozen pva for therapy in infertility be al-
lowed until research shows noriskof abnor- Research w i t h Human Subjects
malities to the subsequent embryo. The use of see Experimentation with Human Sub-
frozen embryos, which avoids repeated at- jects
tempts to obtain ova, was allowed, with the
provision that observation be made after Resistance
thawing that the embryo is developing nor- Resistance is standing against or opposing
mally. A number of other provisions sought other persons, groups, or institutions, espe-
to reduce conflict and disputes over "owner- cially the state*for example, the resistance
ship" in eventual disposition of frozen and movements in various countries in World
stored embryos. The paths opened by the War II. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.
Warnock Committee have yet to be officially 5) Jesus admonished his followers, "Do not
explored in the USA, since no governmental resist one who is evil," specifying "nonresist-
body designated for this task has yet been ance" with the hard sayings about turning
appointed to succeed the expired President's the other cheek, going the second mile, etc.,
Commission. Cultural differences will likely in the context of the demand to love one's
result in a less prohibitory stance toward sur- enemies. In Romans 13, Paul noted that "he
rogacy in the USA, although efforts to re- who resists the authorities resists what God
strict commercialization of gestation would has appointed, and those who resist will incur
fit ethically with the intent behind restric- judgment." Nevertheless there has been de-
tions on sales of organs for transplantation. bate, especially in the last twenty years, about
Taking unfair advantage of human suffering whether Jesus accepted and even participated
for financial reasons is an undesirable but in more resistance than Christians have usu-
controllable aspect of technological develop- ally admitted. On the one hand, there are
ment. suggestions of connections between Jesus and
See Children; Eugenics; Marriage; Par- the Zealots, who led the abortive violent re-
enthood; Procreation; Sexual Ethics; Tech- bellion against Roman occupation in A.D.
nology. 66-70. It has been argued that some of Jesus'
followers participated iii the Zealot move-
Ethics Advisory Board, U.S. Department of ment; the temptation* story (Luke 4:1-13)
Health, Education, and Welfare, Report and may include the temptation to use violence to
Conclusions: HEW Support of Research In- obtain the kingdoms of the world; Jesus' use
volving Human In Vitro Fertilization and of "force" in cleansing the temple, his entry
Embryo Transfer, May 4, 1979; J. Fletcher, into Jerusalem, the response of the people,
The Ethics of Genetic Control 1974; C. the response of Jewish and Roman authori-
Grobstein, From Chance to Purpose: An Ap- ties, the mode of his execution, and the sign
praisal of External Human Fertilization, over the cross all have political overtones. On
1981; R. A. McCormick, "Reproductive the other hand, Jesus clearly distinguished
Technologies: Ethical Issues," EB, 1978; and his message from the Zealot position at im-
How Brave a New World? 1981; O. O'- portant points, particularly in his call to
Donovan, Begotten or Made? 1984; P. Ram- practice "nonresistance" and to "render to
Resistance 540
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to evil is widely accepted, often in distinction
God the things that are God's" (Mark 12:17). from resistance to "one who is evil." How-
Despite the terminology of "nonresist- ever, this distinction is subject to the criti-
ance," the practice of most Christians who cism that evil is embodied and that institu-
have taken these NT passages with utmost tions consist of individual acts. Position (5),
seriousness can be described as "passive re- unlimited violence, often appears in cru-
sistance." But if the term "resistance" im- sades* or holy wars to destroy the forces of
plies efforts to effect or prevent social and evil and injustice; it is usually rejected be-
political change, their actions might better be cause it equates human and divine responses
viewed as noncompliance or conscientious to evil, neglects the ambiguity of all human
objection*. Instead of passively obeying rul- actions, and justifies inhumane actions. Most
ers, Christians have refused to comply with of the Christian debate about responses to
laws, orders, or demands that conflict with evil concerns the legitimacy of positions (2)
God's will, usually accepting the conse- through (4). The justification for moving
quences of their noncompliance. Thus, when from one position to the next one, for exam-
Christians were ordered to commit idolatry*, ple, from nonviolent to violent resistance,
for example, they were willing to suffer mar- usually focuses on the Christian's responsi-
tyrdom* rather than violate their duty to bility for the outcomes of action and inaction.
God (see Patristic Ethics). Noncompliance For many Christians, the critical dividing
is consistent with the division of loyalties be- line is between (2) and (3). Such defenders of
tween God and Caesar and also with the the moral priority of nonviolence as Martin
statement attributed to Peter and the apos- Luther King, Jr., argue that there is an in-
tles: "We must obey God rather than men" trinsic distinction between nonviolence and
(Acts 5:29). However, Christians have fre- violence in resistance to the evil deed rather
quently disagreed about where to draw the than the evil doer. They affirm nonviolence as
line between what is God's and what is Cae- a way of life, not merely as a tactic to be
sar's. It is not possible to limit God's sphere adopted as the circumstances dictate. Nonvi-
to the inner life, since faith always requires olence and violence are not two alternative
some actions such as worshiping God and ways to reach the same end; because of the
avoiding idolatry. But there has been vigor- interpntration of means and ends, they
ous debate about whether loyalty to God pre- achieve different ends (see Ends and Means).
cludes military service, taking an oath*, etc. Many proponents of nonviolence in social
The distinction between "passive" and conflict contend that it is both right and effec-
"active" resistance is not always clear. For tive to assume rather than to inflict physical
example, "active" could mean (a) violent ac- harm*. Their claims about the effectiveness
tions, or (b) vigorous, but nonviolent actions. of nonviolent actions often rest on religious
It is thus more instructive to consider a con- convictions about the efficacy of love and
tinuum of Christian responses to evil and in- suffering, about the human capacity for and
justice: (1) nonresistance; (2) nonviolent re- propensity to goodness, or about God's ac-
sistance; (3) violent resistance limited by a tions in the worldfor example, the Quaker
principle of discrimination* among targets belief in "that of God in every person,"
(as in just war* theories); (4) violent resist- King's belief that "unmerited suffering is re-
ance limited by a principle of proportional- demptive," and Gandhi's claim that "the law
ity* or a calculus of probable good and bad of suffering will work, just as the law of gravi-
effects; and (5) unlimited violent resistance. tation will work, whether we accept it or not"
Christians stop at different points on the (see Quaker Ethics; Afro-American Reli-
continuum, but their arguments for stopping gious Ethics). These claims are challenged by
at those points are strikingly similar: they realists who argue that human beings are sin-
usually contend that the end of reduced evil ful and that coercion is necessary in social
or injustice will not justify the next means on interactions (see Realism). In Moral Man
the continuum, and that God is in control of and Immoral Society (1932) Reinhold Nie-
history so that humans do not have to take buhr contended that the differences between
the next step to ensure that goodness and nonviolence and violence are extrinsic rather
justice will prevail. For most Christians, (1) than intrinsic; they are differences in degree
is morally irresponsible when others are suf- rather than in kind because both often in-
fering evil and injustice. Thus, resistance to volve coercion, that is, forcing people to act
541 Respect for Persons
against their will. Thus, Niebuhr insisted that criterion of legitimate or right authority is
the choice between nonviolent and violent reinterpreted, usually to refer to the people.
means is mainly pragmatic; he recognized A major debate about violence concerns posi-
that nonviolence could be an important tactic tions (3) and (4)whether violence is limited
in some conflicts (e.g., the black struggle for by the principle of discrimination*, which
equality in the USA), but he insisted that it requires that innocent persons not be direct
would be ineffective in many other conflicts. targets of violence, or only by the principle of
Studies suggfest that nonviolent resistance proportionality*, which balances the proba-
sometimes works because it stimulates the ble good and bad effects of violence. Some
sense of injustice in third parties who then forms of violence, such as terrorism*, clearly
bring moral, economic, and political pres- violate the principle of discrimination. Then
sures to bear on oppressors. It is possible, the question is whether they can ever be jus-
however, to combine an affirmation of the tified by their ends and consequences. De-
moral priority of nonviolence with a realistic fenders of position (4) may accept such forms
recognition of its limitations, especially in of violence in some cases; defenders of posi-
some contexts, and of the role of coercion in tion (3) repudiate them as immoral.
its effectiveness. See Coercion; Just War; Law; Pacifism;
Not all nonviolent resistance is justified Power; Revolution; State; Terrorism; Tyran-
merely because it is nonviolent and poten- nicide. For a discussion of the causes of vio-
tially effective. It is important to examine the lence, such as homocide*, see Aggression;
mechanisms of various nonviolent actions; Crime.
since nonviolence often involves coercion* it
cannot be assessed merely as persuasion or J. F. Childress, Moral Responsibility in Con-
conversion. It is also important to consider flicts,, 1982, ch. 1; J. Douglass, The Nonvio-
particular forms of nonviolent resistance, lent Cross, 1969; J. Ellul, Violence, ET 1969;
such as economic boycotts* and civil M. K. Gandhi, Non-violent Resistance, ed. B.
disobedience*, because they raise distinct Kumarappa, 1961; M. L. King, Jr., Stride
moral issues. Finally, Paul Ramsey (Chris- Toward Freedom, 1958; T. Merton, Faith
tian Ethics and the Sit-In, 1961) has pro- and Violence, 1968; W. R. Miller, Nonvio-
posed limitations on the targets of nonviolent lence: A Christian Interpretation, 1964; R.
actions, claiming that it is not right to attack Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society,
innocent persons, even nonviolently, in order 1932; G. Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent
to oppose other persons or groups. Action, 1973.
In part because of a recognition of the need JAMES F. CHILDRESS
for order in a fallen world, Christians have
generally justified violence for the state more Respect for Persons
readily than violence against the state. This The phrase commonly refers to a moral prin-
general tendency is evident in Augustine's ciple expressed most influentially by Kant in
interpretation of Jesus' statement that "all his second formulation of the Categorical
who take the sword will perish by the Imperative* (in Groundwork of the Meta-
sword." According to Augustine, "To take physic of Morals, p. 96): "Act in such a way
the sword is to use weapons against a man's that you always treat humanity, whether in
life, without the sanction of the constituted your own person or in the person of any
authority." Liberation theologians* and oth- other, never simply as a means, but always at
ers have argued that it is also necessary to the same time as an end." Some regard the
consider "structural" or "systemic" violence. principle as important and inspiring; others
Otherwise it is easy to condemn revolution- judge it to be vacuous or unintelligible.
ary violence while overlooking the violence Claims for alliance and overlap between the
of the system it opposes. From this perspec- principle of respect for persons and the scrip-
tive, the violence of the oppressed is counter- tural commandment to love your neighbor as
violence. yourself recur throughout the philosophical
The criteria for justifying violent resistance literature (see Love). A. Donagan in his own
are similar to those for justifying warfor restatement of the principle purports to draw
example, just cause, last resort, reasonable more closely together Kant's second formu-
chance of success, and proportionality (see lation and this commandment. And Kant
Just War). One major difference is that the himself incorporates the love commandment
542 Respect for Persons
into his account when he treats duties to noninterchangeable, both in the sense that it
other persons (The Doctrine, of Virtue, pp. is unquantifiable and so can never be mea-
118-119). Finally, W. G. Maclagan and also sured or traded, and irreplaceable in that its
R. S. Downie and E. Telfer insist that their loss cannot be compensated (the presence of
depiction of respect for persons converges one person cannot make good the loss of an-
with the Christian notion of agap. Such other); (c) permanent in that in no circum-
claims make the philosophical literature on stances can someone cease to matter (see also
respect for persons especially important for Maclagan).
Christian ethics. Though humanity is not a producible or
We may ask the following questions about quantifiable end, it still, qua end in itself,
the principle: (1) what content it possesses; ought to be maintained and promoted. We
(2) how it applies to specific moral problems; are to combine negative restraint (duties of
(3) what status it occupies in ethical theory; omission) and positive furtherance (duties of
(4) how it may be justified. commission). In his discussion of duties to
L Content. Modern interpreters often treat others, Kant restricts respect (Achtung) to a
Kant's Categorical Imperative as substantive refusal to abase any other person to a mere
and not merely formal or abstract by point- means to my (subjective) ends, and construes
ing to the importance of the second formula- love (as a maxim of benevolence or practical
tion. They call attention to two salient fea- love, not as feeling) as making others' ends
tures of "humanity" that prove basic to the my own (provided these ends are morally
meaning of our principle: humanity is not permissible) (The Doctrine of Virtue, pp.
itself a goal to be produced or a value to be 115-117). The concept of respect in modern
traded off. (a) Kant writes that human beings usage typically encompasses both: we should
"are called persons because their nature al- treat the subject as inviolable, and cultivate
ready marks them off as ends in themselves" his or her subjective ends (e.g., Downie and
(Groundwork, p. 96). His statement assumes Telfer).
his distinction between subjective and objec- Now in many cases respect involves an im-
tive ends. Subjective ends are objects of our personal concern for oneself and all others.
free choice and remain relative to our inclina- We are to regard ourselves and others impar-
tions. They do not exist and must be pro- tially or at least similarly, and never make an
duced (bewirkender), i.e., we pursue them arbitrary exception on our own behalf. "In a
only insofar as we endeavor to bring about sense, the requirement is that you love your
some prospective situation or state of affairs. neighbor as yourself: but only as much as you
Objective ends, on the other hand, are self- love yourself when you look at yourself from
existent (selbstndiger). They are not relative outside, with fair detachment" (T. Nagel,
to our inclinations, but are prescribed by Mortal Questions, 1979, p. 126). Since each is
pure practical reason. Just so, persons qualify an end in itself, beyond all price, the points
as ends by virtue of what they are, i.e., ra- of view of self and others alike are to receive
tional creatures. An "end" in this sense is not separate and equivalent weight.
a goal to achieve or a quantity to increase. Yet the general notion of respect must like-
Rather than produce something valuable, we wise accommodate structural and fixed dif-
cherish persons as already existent beings ferences between my relation to myself and
"for whose sake" we act or refrain from act- my relation to another. Kant specifies these
ing (Donagan). (6) Absolute value is at- differences in The Doctrine of Virtue. Here
tributed to human beings as rational crea- we are told that we are not required to main-
tures. Here Kant invokes another distinction: tain and promote happiness and perfection in
between price (either a market or a fancy general, for this is impossible. Instead, I have
price), which allows something else to serve a duty to develop my own natural and moral
as a substitute, and dignity (Wrde). Dignity perfection, but my happiness cannot be a
has "unconditioned and incomparable duty since I necessarily desire it. I have a
worth" (Groundwork, p. 103); human beings duty to promote the happiness of others, but
as rational creatures are "exalted above all not their perfection. I contradict myself if I
price" and admit "of no equivalent" (p. 102). say that it is my duty to promote the perfec-
The absolute value of each person is thus (a) tion of others, because each agent's per-
incommensurable with the value of contin- fection is, again necessarily, the work of his
gent desires satisfied or profits secured; (6) or her own freedom. So in my own case, "an-
543 Respect for Persons
other person can indeed compel me to per- toryeach of which identifies "a species of
form actions.which are means to his end, but action as falling or not falling under the fun-
he cannot cmpel me to have an end; only I damental generic concept of action in which
myself can make something my end" (Doc- every human being is respected as a rational
trine p. 38). creature" (Theory of Morality, p. 68).
This claim about structural differences and To judge seriously the success of these
the restrictions they impose concerns sheer efforts would require us to evaluate case by
capabilities, particularly what we can and case how convincingly specific duties are
cannot effect in others. It should not be con- derived from the principle. It is only feasible
flated with another claim voiced by Dona- to give examples of Kant's duties to oneself
gan: "One does not fail to respect another as and Donagan's duties to others. Kant's list of
a rational creature by declining to procure a negative duties includes the following. To the
good for him, if that good can be procured human person as an "animal being," the ac-
only by relinquishing an equal or greater tions of suicide, carnal self-defilement, and
good for oneself' (The Theory of Morality, p. immoderate consumption of food and drink
86). The second claim returns us to questions are all forbidden (the latter, for instance,
of impartiality and receivesrivalassessments weaken one's capacity to use one's powers
by different writers, some of whom prefer a purposefully); and as a "moral being," the
riskier standard where one's own good is con- actions of lying, avarice, and servility are also
cerned. All of the discussants in this second forbidden because they rob one of the prerog-
case assume, however, that the courses they ative to act in accordance with inner freedom
commend are realizable ones. and make one instead "a plaything of the
2. Application. What follows practically mere inclinations and hence a thing." More-
from the principle that persons are to be re- over, Kant in places recognizes that attitudes
spected as ends in themselves? For Kant and and gestures are significant, e.g., when he dis-
Donagan in particular the single fundamen- cusses the vices of pride, calumny, and mock-
tal principle yields a comprehensive set of ery. Donagan considers, under duties to
duties or precepts. Both appeal overall to our other human beings as such, the use of force
rationality and capacity to set ends, and they at will on another (killing, bodily injury or
acknowledge the structural differences noted hurt, and slavery), injuries such as loss of
above by dividing the duties of each person property, honor, and reputation, veracity,
between those one has to oneself and those the principle of beneficence; and under insti-
one has to other human beings as such. Kant tutional duties, promising, the prohibition of
adds duties to other human beings regarding robbery and theft, marriage and divorce, the
their circumstances ("differences in rank, conception and rearing of children, obedi-
age, sex, health, prosperity or poverty"; Doc- ence and disobedience to laws in a civil soci-
trine of Virtue, p. 139), which he maintains ety, and military conscription.
cannot be classified completely; Donagan Such attempts at systematic application
adds duties that arise from participation in must answer certain standard questions.
human institutions (institutions of purely (a) Do the actual lists of duties which the
voluntary contract, and civil or noncivil soci- principle yields remain incomplete? If so, can
eties of which individuals are members). those not identified also be derived from the
Kant distinguishes further under duties to principle? If they cannot, is the principle no
oneself between (a) limiting or negative or longer fundamental? (6) Are the actual lists
perfect duties which forbid certain actions for of duties as we have them pulled in large part
the sake of preserving the self-existent end out of a given cultural or traditional hat? (c)
(and which always take precedence), and Does the normative universalism governing
(b) widening or positive or imperfect duties so much of the discussion (i.e., duties outside
which promote certain actions for the sake of stations and roles, applicable to human be-
perfecting the self-existent end; and under ings as such)however formidably opposed
duties to other human beings as such, be- to various forms of tribalism and hierarchy
tween duties of love which are meritorious skew badly the moral claims we ordinarily
and duties of respect which are due others. must weigh? Donagan attends at greater
And Donagan includes in his moral system length than Kant to duties tied to institu-
three classes of specificatory premisesthe tional arrangements, but does even he mis-
permissible, the forbidden, and the obliga- leadingly downplay communal and role-
544 Respect for Persons
related claims? Is there a viable place for re- rationale of specific rules and judgments; it
spect due to persons as defined by social organizes and integrates them (thus the
roles? Do these roles not effectively deter- moral life is not a "mere heap" of unrelated
mine the distribution of moral attention and obligations); it resolves conflicts among them;
energy, to an extent that goes unrecognized? and it furnishes a criterion for assessing criti-
(<d) If both negative and positive duties derive cally new problems and changed circum-
from the same principle, should the former stances. (c) Respect for persons is the funda-
always take precedence? Does the effort to mental principle of morality as such: it serves
avoid a conflict of duties in this way fail to as the basis or originating source of all other
give complexity in the moral life its due? principles, rules, and particular judgments,
3. Status. One's answers to the questions and does not depend on them for its own
just posed doubtless connect directly with the binding power (see Kant and Donagan).
status one ascribes to the principle of respect Foundationalist versions of this claim main-
for persons in ethical theory. We can envis- tain that to acquire genuine moral knowledge
age three claims, (a) Respect for persons is and to avoid an infinite regress, a first princi-
one among several principles (e.g., benefi- ple must be (i) relatively context-free, allow-
cence) all of which are equally basic. To ac- ing for a strictly deductive order of epistemic
cord any one principle fundamental status dependence; (ii) exceptionless and thus never
provides no determinate guidance in specific rightly overridden; (iii) substantive, in the
situations of moral choice. The putatively sense that it provides answers to specific
basic principle is either so vague and general questions about conduct and character.
that it contains its own internal conflicts 4. Justification. In the famous passage that
without resolving them, or so delimited that exemplifies why Kant believes human beings
extraneous considerations intrude to influ- possess incomparable worth, he writes: "Two
ence or determine conclusions reached. Em- things fill the mind with ever new and in-
bedded in our moral judgments are diverse creasing admiration and awe, the oftener and
considerations that require a range of basic more steadily we reflect on them: the starry
principles to articulate adequately, and clar- heavens above me and the moral law within
ity is served if we opt formally for such plu- me" (Critique of Practical Reason, p. 166).
ralism. (b) Respect for persons stands as the Kant goes on to say (and this is usually ig-
most general substantive principle, not of nored) that the moral law within me "reveals
morality as such, but of a distinctive scheme a life independent of all animality and even of
of morality. This claim has two versions, (i) the whole world of sense . , a [purposive]
All moral judgments commonly made in our destination which is not restricted to the con-
(Western) society presuppose the principle, or ditions and limits of this life but reaches into
can be explained in terms of it. Downie and the infinite" (p. 166). Here is the point per-
Telfer, for example, argue that the principles haps at which Kant comes closest to a doc-
of both social morality (utility, equality, and trine of the imago Dei*. No wonder then that
liberty) and private morality presuppose it as the autonomy of the will, so bound up with
their ultimate justification, (ii) All moral the moral law and making one "free of all
judgments may be traced to the principle as laws of nature," constitutes "the ground of
a final or irreducible normative reference the dignity of human nature" (Groundwork,
point. It is not the originating source of all p. 103). Modern exponents such as Downie
other principles, rules, and particular judg- and Telfer similarly contend that human be-
ments in the sense that they must be self- ings differ from animals by virtue of two
consciously deduced from it, or explained in abilities: each of us can be self-determining,
terms of it. A more dialectical relation ob- and each can adopt rules one accepts as bind-
tains in which respect for persons both sum- ing on oneself and on all rational beings.
marizes and adjudicates. On the one side, it Donagan interprets the Kantian justification
generalizes those features of our specific rules of the principle of respect for persons as less
and judgments which are not tied to their than an a priori demonstration or a matter
immediate surroundings but perdure over a whose force is intuitively self-evident.
range of cases and historical periods; and it Rather, Kant "drew attention to certain
conveys in abridged form the distinctive characteristics implicit in being a rational
"spirit" of the particular scheme in question. creature, with regard to which he claimed to
On the other side, it locates the point and have sufficient insight into the nature of prac-
545 Responsibility
tical reason confidently to affirm that it must F. Skinner's radical behaviorism). His critics
prescribe that rational creatures be uncondi- to date often conclude that to cite traditional
tionally respected" (Theory of Morality, p. presuppositions which by no obvious reckon-
237). These characteristics include a negative ing are universally shared jeopardizes his
freedom requiring us to distinguish agent own attempt to seek moral foundations for
causation from event causation, and so an the principle of respect that are ascertainable
absence of determination to any end by our at any period, and permanently valid.
physical or biological nature; and it is this Any comprehensive assessment of the
former type of causality which marks us as claims for alliance and overlap between re-
creatures of a different and higher kind than spect for persons and the scriptural com-
others in nature. In brief, our own rational mandment to love your neighbor as yourself
nature is already an end which is not produci- should consider all four questions canvassed
ble, but rather itself generates action, and here. And even if one finds the claims exag-
accordingly warrants respect. gerated or otherwise mistaken, the work of
Two criticisms of this Kantian justification comparing this philosophical literature on
regularly surface, (a) Rational self-determi- each of the questions with materials in Chris-
nation serves as the too-restricted basis not tian ethics yields important clarificatory ben-
only of human distinctiveness but of human efits and sets one promising agenda for the
dignity*. Neglected (at least relatively) as future.
candidates for our respect are features of sen- See Autonomy; Categorical Imperative;
tience, as found in both human beings and Honor, Human Dignity; Image of God;
nonhuman animals, especially a liability to Kantian Ethics; Love; Persons and Personal-
pain and suffering. Moreover, those sympa- ity; Reverence.
thetic to the Kantian interpretation face the
problem of what to say about beings who by A. Donagan, The Theory of Morality, 1977;
mental or physical impairment appear to lack R. S. Downie and E. Telfer, Respect for Per-
rational self-determination. Does this lack sons, 1969; O. H. Green (ed.), Respect for
compromise their claim to dignity? (b) Expo- Persons, 1982; I. Kant, Critique of Practical
nents of the principle prove unpersuasive Reason, tr. L. Beck, 1962; The Doctrine of
when they claim to give it a purely secular Virtue (pt. 2 of The Metaphysic of Morals),
meaning and defense. Maclagan (as well as tr. M. Gregor, 1964; and Groundwork of the
Donagan, and Downie and Telfer) is firm in Metaphysic of Morals, tr. H. J. Paton, 1964;
his rejection of a theological answer to the W. G. Maclagan, "Respect for Persons as a
question of justification: the principle can Moral Principle," Philosophy, 1960.
sustain the absence and survive the loss of the GENE OUTKA
theistic faith so frequently cited in support of
it ("Respect for Persons," p. 208). Some Responsibility
philosophers, however, express doubts that Responsibility, now so familiar a word in
Kant, Donagan, and others convincingly ex- moral discourse, came into general use in the
tract a notion of respect for persons from the languages of Western culture only in the 17th
entire web of Hebrew-Christian belief. For century. In the late 19th century, two works
example, some critics hold that Donagan's gave the term a central place in the lexicon of
arguments lose much of their force when morality: F. H. Bradley's essay,"The Vulgar
they are separated from a theistic framework Notion of Responsibility and Its Connection
and that even a Kantian ethics needs a reli- with the Theories of Freewill and Determi-
gious foundation. Such doubts find specific nism" (1876) and Lucien Lvy-Bruhl's study
illustration in Donagan's acknowledgment of the problem of freedom, L'ide de respon-
that the common morality of the Hebrew- sabilit (1883). As its etymology suggests
Christian tradition to which he appeals rests (from Latin respondere, "to answer"), the
on a view of human persons as autonomous most obvious meaning of the term is account-
and responsible, and as living in a natural ability, being answerable for one's behavior.
world governed by morally neutral laws. Thus, it is within discussions of the condi-
These presuppositions are at odds, he admits, tions requisite for moral liability to praise
with those found in other "venerable cul- and blame, punishment and reward, that the
tures" (e.g., Hinduism) and in some post- term is most frequently encountered. How-
Christian theories of human nature (e.g., B. ever, a deeper etymology reveals another di-
Responsibility 546
mension: within the word for response is the necessary presupposition for responsible
hidden the Greek word for "promise,"* re- action, that is, action for which moral praise
calling the practice of reliably performing and blame was appropriate. Aquinas begins
one's part in a common undertaking. In this his article on whether there is free choice,
sense, responsibility refers, not merely to the "Man has free choice, otherwise counsels, ex-
conditions for imputability, but to the trust- hortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards
worthiness and dependability of the agent in and punishments would be in vain" (ST I.
some enterprise. This meaning has been ex- 83.1). Kant's elaborate argument for freedom
plored by theologians rather than by philoso- as a postulate of practical reason asserts that
phers. In this article, the concept of responsi- the unconditioned ought of the law requires
bility will be explained in terms of thqse two a can on the part of the rational will (Critique
notions, accountability and commitment. of Practical Reason 1.2.2). Responsibility,
I. Responsibility as accountability. The then, in the sense of being subject to praise or
classical discussion of accountability is found blame for one's actions, requires, in some
in the first chapter of book 3 of Aristotle's sense, the existence of a free cause, a being
Nicomachean Ethics. The student of virtue that is self-determining and capable of choos-
and the lawmaker, says Aristotle, should un- ing otherwise than one actually does choose.
derstand the distinction between voluntary However, since the 18th century, another
and involuntary action, in order properly to position has developed that denies the neces-
distribute rewards and punishments. He pro- sary logical association between freedom and
poses that actions are involuntary when per- responsibility. This position, championed by
formed under coercion or in ignorance* and Hume (Enquiry Concerning the Principles of
defines voluntary action as "one in which the Morals, sec. VIII) and Mill, requires not a
initiative lies with the agent who knows the "free cause," but only the absence of impedi-
particular circumstances in which the action ments to the realization of one's wishes and
is performed" (3.1, lllla21). In this brief desires, which themselves are caused by
chapter, Aristotle sets the terms in which dis- many determinants. In fact, moral responsi-
cussions of accountability will be carried on bility, far from presupposing freedom, pre-
throughout the history of Western thought. supposes determinism, since properly to as-
Subsequent thinkers will specify various sorts sociate agent and act, the rational desires of
of coercion: physical violence, fear, passion, the agent must be the determining cause of
habit, psychological and social influence, consequences; praise and blame, punishment
pathological conditions; and they will distin- and reward are themselves causes that mod
guish various sorts of ignorance: of fact and ify the character of the agent. This "soft de-
of law, vincible and invincible, antecedent terminism," as William James called it,
and consequent, etc. In all these discussions, seems the dominant view today, although the
the basic question is, Under what conditions debate continues (see Free Will and Determi-
of the agent and the action can it be said that nism).
the agent deserves to be praised or blamed, The second issue concerns certain charac-
rewarded or punished, for the action he or teristics of moral action itself, such as inten-
she performed? tion*, motive*, deliberation*. While it i$
This question is exceedingly complex. An commonly believed that judgments about
answer depends on what an action is under- praise and blame must take into account the
stood to be, how action is distinguished from motives, intentions, understanding, and rea*-
consequences, what it means for a person to soning of the agent, it is extremely difficult to
be the cause of an action and, in particular, do so. All of these can be known only on the
a "moral" cause of a "moral action." All report of the agent or by inference: both
these matters are controverted; this article sources may be deceptive or faulty. Also, re-
can only refer to two issues raised by the final peated philosophical analysis of these con-
question, What is it to be a moral cause? cepts has never succeeded in making them
During most of the Western cultural tradi- very clear.
tion, "moral causation" was identified as ac- Responsibility as accountability is as im-
tion resulting from the unique property of portant in the law as it is in morality. Legal
human beings, "freedom." Freedom, ex- judgments must assign fault to individuals;
plained in various ways by Stoics, Neopla- the validity of legal instruments, such as con-
tonists, and various Christian thinkers, was tracts and wills, requires capacity on the part
547 Responsibility
of the agent. Thus, both in criminal and civil attributed to this person), differ significantly.
law, conditions for designation of responsi- 2. Responsibility as commitment. The sec-
bility have been developed. Categories of in- ond meaning of responsibility, as a descrip-
tentional wrongdoing, recklessness, and neg- tion of the character of a person. This mean-
ligence* specify the sorts of action or ing reflects the deeper etymology of
nonaction for which persons can be held le- performing one's promised part in a solemn
gally responsible or blameworthy; similarly, engagement. In this sense, responsible per-
responsibility can be excluded or diminished sons are not only those who are uncoerced
by such factors as threats, mistakes, accident, and aware of the nature of their action and its
provocation, duress, and insanity. In civil consequences; they are also persons who
matters, incapacity to perform certain legal demonstrate certain stable or habitual atti-
acts can be ascribed to duress, undue influ- tudes to their relationships with other per-
ence, minority, etc. Centuries of analysis, in sons. In this sense responsibility describes the
legal judgments and in legal theory, have character of a person.
brought these concepts to a high degree of Responsible persons conscientiously and
specificity and technical refinement. Philoso- consciously commit themselves to a task or
phers have been attracted by this feature of form of life and readily accept accountability
the legal doctrines about responsibility and for its success and failure. They enter into the
have, in recent years, drawn analogies be- task, aware of its potential and itsrisks,will-
tween these and the questions of moral re- ing to be blamed if it is performed faultily and
sponsibility (Hart, 1955; Feinberg, 1970). rightfully claiming credit for its probity. In
Despite suggestive similarities, important addition, the moral quality of a person grows
differences must be recognized. The courts out of the commitments made and stood by:
are concerned with claims that can be sus- persons form their lives in certain ways and
tained by evidence about events in the public come to be identified by others as responsible
world of spoken words, observed actions, for themselves and their actions. Responsibil-
manifest consequences; moral judgments ity is, as Nicolai Hartmann stated, "the basic
evoke, as well, the private world of inten- ethical capacity of a person . . . assuming the
tions, motivations, attitudes. The former is in moral quality of the value and disvalue of his
foro externo; the latter in foro interno. While mode of action" (Ethics, 1926; ET 1932, vol.
legal responsibility cannot avoid looking to- 3, p. 162). Modem moral philosophy has
ward the inner forum, it must eventually showed little interest in analyzing these di-
move in the external forum of provable acts mensions, although some discussion about
and relationships. Thus, concepts such as the nature of assuming or accepting a role
"intentional," "voluntary," "foreseen," and (e.g., the professional responsibility of being
"unforeseen" must be translated, for legal a physician or a lawyer, or the social respon-
purposes, into pragmatic concepts suscepti- sibility of parenthood), as well as a renewed
ble of demonstration. The long dispute in the interest in the traditional subject of virtue,
criminal law about the ancient term mens rea may stimulate more careful analysis.
(guilty mind) bears witness to the law's need Theologians have been attracted to this di-
to remain in the realm of the demonstrable. mension of responsibility. Judeo-Christianity
Further, law serves practical objectives of has always stressed responsibility in the sense
public order; morality serves, as well, the of accountability: God as creator dictates a
ideal objectives of personal integrity. Thus law and will judge accordingly; human be-
definitions and standards of responsibility in ings must know God's law and freely obey it.
the law will often be framed to meet the ends They are responsible, that is, accountable be-
of policy or the need to conclude some busi- fore God's judgment. In modern theology,
ness expeditiously. Questions of moral re- however, the etymological relationship be-
sponsibility, although often pressed by the tween response and responsibility has ap-
urgency of a public or social resolution, re- pealed to theologians as a fundamental meta-
main largely matters of conscience for in- phor for the relationship between God and
dividuals. They can be debated perennially humanity: humanity must respond to God's
and can tolerate ambiguities and paradoxes. call and intention for the world. The Calvin-
Thus, legal and moral responsibility, while ist theologian Karl Barth writes, "It is the
similar in many ways (particularly in the root idea of responsibility which gives us the most
question whether this act can properly be exact definition of the human situation in
Responsibility 548
face of the absolute transcendence of the di- ing of redeeming the world in concert with
vine judgment" (Church Dogmatics II/2, ET its creator (see Ecclesiology and Ethics).
1957, p. 641). The Jewish thinker Martin This concern to promote a morality of vital
Buber, the Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the involvement reflects the distinction made by
Catholic Bernard Hring, and H. Richard the German sociologist Max Weber. He was
Niebuhr from mainstream American Protes- the first to use the expression "ethic of re-
tantism all identify their ethics as an ethic of sponsibility" in contrast to an "ethic of ulti-
responsibility. Each of these authors gives mate ends." The latter describes a morality of
profound theological meaning to the term, absolute injunctions; it forbids adoption of
setting it within the theological doctrines of any means that would compromise these
creation, redemption, and eschatological rec- absolutes. It is concerned principally with
onciliation. Common to the ethics of respon- purity of intention and necessitates a with-
sibility is the Judeo-Christian belief that God drawal from the ambiguities and contami-.
speaks to human beings in the words of nation of worldly affairs. The former engages
created nature, of sacred scripture and, above in a search for the best available means to
all (for Christians), in the Word incarnate, attain worthy ends within a highly imperfect
Jesus Christ. Central to this message is the world. It is principally concerned with the
announcement that humans are made re- consequences of actions that will always be a
sponsible for self, for society, and for crea- manipulation and balancing of the good and
tion. Human moral life consists in the dedi- evil in every decision. In "Politics as a Voca-
cated effort to discern the word of God in the tion," Weber proposed that the morality gov-
situations of life and to respond to that word erning the vocation of politics must be an
by faithful, loving, and hopeful action. Moral ethic of responsibility pursued by responsible
life is not passive obedience to an immobile persons, "with a trained relentlessness in
law. It requires initiative, interpretation, revi- viewing the realities of life and the ability to
sion. It reveals both stability of commitment face such realities and to measure up to them
and the attentive readiness to change. inwardly." Lutheran Pastor Bonhoeffer
This interest in an "ethic of responsibil- shaped a theological version of Weber's ethic
ity" reflects the concern of contemporary of responsibility in his revulsion at the reluc-
theologians that the church has historically tance of German Christians to condemn Na-
fostered an ethic of withdrawal and defen- zism. He was repelled particularly by their
siveness in the face of the realities of per- theological justification for this reluctance:
sonal and social life. The extent to which the avoidance of the moral contamination of
this is so is controversial, both as a matter political activity. The Christian must engage
of history and of doctrine, yet certain trends in politics and seek realistic means of reach-
and teachings, such as the concentration on ing goals suitable to the gospel of God's
individual holiness, justification by faith grace.
alone, preservation of a pure conscience by Authors espousing an ethic of responsibil-
retreat from an evil world seem to draw be- ity reveal differences stemming from their
lievers away from the political and social theological traditions and from their view of
world to a world of private religious experi- the problems facing the church and persons
ence or, at best, into a closed community of who profess religious belief in an unbelieving
the "saved." The ethic of responsibility world. One problem they share is how to
repudiates this trend. God calls individuals express the content of such an ethic. Since the ]
to himself, not by calling them away from notion of responsibility, either as account- ]
the urgent needs of social and civic life, but ability or as commitment, refers primarily to J
by summoning them to work within the the subjective state of the agent, it implies |
world, redeeming and reforming its struc- nothing in itself about the standards, norm$, J
tures so that all persons might live freely or principles against which the value of a |
and responsibly. The moral life is not moral action must be assessed. For some au- -j
merely a life of accountability to God's thors, such as Hring, the normative content!
preordained law. It is a response to God's of an ethic of responsibility differs but little J
invitation to live in the world and, in the from the traditional natural law* ethic tA
deeper etymological sense of the term "re- Roman Catholicism. The responsible person J
sponse," to enter into the solemn undertak- heeds the values revealed in nature, particu-$
549 Retribution
larly the nature of persons. For others, such L. A. Hart, "The Ascription of Responsibil-
as H. Richard Niebuhr, the normative con- ity," in A. Flew (ed.), Logic and Language I,
tent is designed by viewing moral action as 1955; H. L. A. Hart and A. M. Honore, Cau-
"fitting action," that is, as acts that fit into sation in the Law, 1959; A. R. Jonsen, Re-
the ongoing creation of integrity of the self sponsibility in Modern Religious Ethics, 1968;
within the human community and the uni- H. R. Niebuhr, The Responsible Self 1963.
verse. Authors differ also about how the ALBERT R. JONSEN
word of God's invitation and command is
communicated: in the scripture, through the Restitution
created order of nature, in the structured yet Genuine sorrow for a sin implies not only the
evolving relationships between human be- desire for future amendment of life but the
ings. They differ about how that word is dis- desire to repair or minimize the injuries in-
cerned: in personal inspiration, by faith flicted by the sin or sins already committed
alone, by reasoned affectivity, in historical and now repented of. Restitution is the mak-
and personal experience. ing good of whatever injury has been in-
Two simplifications plague the ethic of re- flicted. Of course, it may sometimes be im-
sponsibility: "situationism" and "activism." possible to make restitution. Wherever
In the first, the responsible persons are de- possible, however, an act of restitution or the
scribed as those who are "responsive" to the sincere intention of performing such an act
demands and needs of the situation in which must be regarded as a necessary part of re-
they find themselves; the context of moral pentance*, and as a condition for receiving
values, principles, and structures is de- absolution*.
preciated in favor of immediacy (see Situa- JOHN MACQUARRIE
tion Ethics). In the second, immersion in ac-
tivities to reform social structures becomes so Retribution
deep as to stifle the perennial warning of The lex talionis"An eye for an eye, and a
Judeo-Christianity: all persons are marred by tooth for a tooth"is often regarded as the
sin and are in need of divine grace to bring core concept of retribution. However, it pro-
about the good. hibits unlimited revenge, and any mature un-
Apart from theological ethics, a pervasive derstanding of punishment must likewise
concern for responsibility, in the sense of seek to discard crude concepts of retribution.
conscientious commitment, appears in dis- The problem is particularly acute for Chris-
cussions of the ethics of professional and pub- tians. How may one balance the ethical seri-
lic life. The "responsibility" of government ousness of sin with the possibilities of
leaders, physicians, journalists, scientists, mercy*, forgiveness*, and redemption, which
business people, and others is constantly are so central and crucial to the Christian
debated. Their personal integrity in dealing gospel?
with the demands of their task is examined; On a historical perspective, the retributive
the relationship between personal integrity approach has been championed by some
and the needs of society is explored. Philoso- major modem philosophers, such as Kant,
phers and other scholars have only begun to Hegel, and the Hegelian school of British
analyze this widespread concern in ways that idealists. The concept of desert is of central
would bring greater conceptual clarity and importance here, and at the same time it is
more vivid empirical description to the dis- combined with an emphasis on annulment or
cussion. In addition, the ways in which re- reformation. Unfortunately, contemporary
sponsibility is imparted to individuals in their criminology has divorced retribution and ref-
upbringing and education and how it is en- ormation. The reformative ideal of recent
dorsed and supported (and subverted) by the decades is now declining, and there is a
structures of professional and social life re- renewed call either for a "justice model" or
quire further explanation. for measures of increased severity. Histori-
cally, the latter have generally proved ineffec-
J. Feinberg, Doing and Deserving: Essays in tive, and their ethical justification is question-
the Theory of Responsibility, 1970; J. Glover, able. The current agenda for secular and
Responsibility, 1970; J. M. Gustafson and J. Christian criminologists must be the reinte-
Laney (eds.), On Being Responsible, 1968; H. gration of retributive and reformative ideals,
Reverence 550
to prevent further oscillation from one ex- ing interpretations of revolution. On the reli-
treme to another. gious side, the fact that thefirstedition of this
See also Capital Punishment; Corporal dictionary had no article on revolution not
Punishment; Penology; Rewards and Punish- only lends credence to the revolutionary crit-
ments. icism that religion is inherently conservative
but also displays the difficulty that modern
H. B. Acton (ed.), The Philosophy of Punish- consciousness has posed for Christian ethics.
ment, 1969; E. R. Moberly, Suffering, Inno- Revolution in its modern meaning must be
cent and Guilty, 1978. kept distinct from traditional ideas of resist-
ELIZABETH R. MOBERLY ance* to tyranny or of civil disobedience*.
The latter notions may be treated ethically
Reverence along lines parallel to "just war"* analysis:
The attitude of respectful attentiveness to- these all have in common the assumption of
ward God and things divine or consecrated a universal ground for moral argument, the
to God, which can focus in praise and wor- notion of the normal legitimacy of political
ship, and whose absence can take extreme institutions* measured against this universal
forms in expressions of blasphemy or acts of moral ground, and the idea that political
sacrilege. The Latin revereor has a root strife and violence, whether war, civil
meaning of "fear," but theology, influenced disobedience, or resistance to tyranny, are
by Rom. 8:15, has distinguished between exceptions to the norm, requiring careful eth-
"servile fear," as a self-regarding attitude, ical grounding and limitation. In all cases,
and a "filial fear of the Lord," expressing a the purpose of political conflict or violence is
proper respect for the majesty of God, which to restore a previously established but tempo-
is a delight and gift of the Spirit (Isa. 11:2-3) rarily lost or abrogated situation of legiti-
and is consonant with love of the heavenly macy (see also Tyrannicide).
Father and the friendship of Christ (John The modern notion of revolution denies all
15:15). The attitude of reverence to God has these premises. The term wasfirstused in its
been considered to extend to those deriving modem sense during the French Revolution
their function from God, notably parents (cf. (the American Revolution was so named
Eph. 6:1-4) and civil authorities (cf. Rom. only in retrospect) and its distinctiveness lay
13:1-5). Reverence for rulers has frequently in the revolutionaries' sense that they were
made more acute for Christians the difficul- creating something genuinely new in history,
ties of resisting unjust forms or exercise of not restoring, or correcting a violation of, a
government (see Resistance). Reverence for previous legitimate regime. All the previous
the sacredness of human life, of which God errors and evils of the human race were to be
is the author, is often appealed to by Chris- swept away and a new social order estab-
tians in contemporary discussions on such lished in the name of liberty and under the
matters as abortion* and euthanasia*. canons of reason. As the religious rhetoric of
See Blasphemy; Human Dignity; Persons the French Revolution displayed, and as
and Personality; Respect for Persons; Sacri- Tocqueville later noted, such utter transfor-
lege. mation of both individual consciousness and
J. MAHONEY the social order was akin to religious conver-
sion.
Revolution Such ideas have clear roots in the eschato-
In its plainest sense revolution refers to radi- logical and apocalyptic ideas of Judeo-Chris-
cal political and social change, yet the in- tianity and clear predecessor movements in
capacity of the social sciences to give it clear millenarian politics (see Cohn, Hobsbawm)
definition and its widespread use in nonpoliti- as well as in developments of Calvinism and
cal contexts suggest that revolution is as Puritanism (see Hill, Walzer). But the theory
much a normative idea in modern conscious- of modern revolution is provided by Karl
ness as it is an empirical reality. Modern so- Marx and the Marxist tradition with its dis-
cial theory and social science are deeply in- tinctive interpretation of human action and
tertwined with the first modern revolutions history: that all previous forms of human so-
in the 17th and 18th centuries, and critical ciety and consciousness have been alienated
divisions in social science and other contem- modes (see Alienation) because human activ-
porary disciplines often have roots in differ- ity has been subjugated to the forces of nature
551 Revolution
and constrained by the particularistic and re- tian tradition is undeniable, although that
ligious consciousness connected to specific history is far more complex than any general-
forms of production and class domination; ization admits, and Christian movements
that the advent of capitalism* has made pos- have contributed to profound social change
sible the emancipation of the human species far more often than critics recognize. But
from nature and the release of consciousness modern revolutionary ideas have signifi-
from the particularistic horizons of previous cantly affected Christian thought, drawing
modes of production; and that capitalism has attention to the political and economic
produced a class, the proletariat, which is sources of much human misery, pointing to
potentially (but only that) a universal class in the churches' complicity in some of this mis-
a very specific sense. The proletariat is, nega- ery, reminding Christians of their own radi-
tively, the first class not to have familial, cal beginnings and their radical and critical
tribal, national, or even class identity (there- resources. The response has been a host of
fore, Marx says, it is not genuinely a class); new theological modes: liberation theology*,
it is thefirstclass to have at its command the political theology*, theology of hope*, theol-
technical capacity (in the double sense of ogy of revolution. These "theologies" are by
knowledge and accomplished productive no means alike but they have several key
technology) to produce abundantly and points in common: (1) they all take the es-
thereby to release humans from the necessity chatological dimension of Christianity as
of condemning certain of its members to the normative for understanding the whole; (2)
perpetual drudgery of production on behalf they all make positive use of Marxist lan-
of others; and it is thus potentially the first guage and analysis; (3) they all understand
class able to transcend the unconsciously Christian life and action in terms of the
evolved forms of particularistic human asso- Marxist notion of praxis, a deeply ambiguous
ciation (class, nation-state, religion, etc.) notion that embraces both the conversion as-
with consciously created universal forms that pects of revolutionary change and the idea of
serve human ends (see also Marxist Ethics; critically self-conscious historical transfor-
Social Class). mation.
This conscious creation of human institu- Any assessment of this modern theological
tions* is revolutionary praxis. Its power as an proclivity must attend to these features and
idea lies not only in the promise that such any moral analysis of revolution is dependent
historical transformation is possible but also on this assessment. The following issues and
in the special historical role accorded revolu- problems are critical.
tionary agents, a role that holds great fascina- 1. Any attempt to make one part of Chris-
tion for peoples who have been politically tian faith and doctrine normative for the
powerless and exploited. Even when revolu- whole (a canon within the theological canon)
tions fall far short of their goals (as they al- is always open to internal theological criti-
ways do), they can help transform politically cism. Two points are particularly relevant:
passive peoples into active political partici- First, while the eschatological theme cer-
pants, so being vehicles of modernization. tainly can and should help correct the institu-
Virtually all modern revolutions, Euro- tional rigidity of the church and its uncon-
pean or non-European, have been waged scious social captivity, it carries its own deep
under the banner of either Christian mil- ambiguities to the task. Chief aunong these is
lenarian thought or a version of Marxism. the tension between the emphasis on God's
(Islamic revolutions, hostile to both Marxism miraculous transformation (conversion) of
and modernization, probably fall into a dif- persons and the world, and the emphasis on
ferent category altogether.) And many have human freedom and social action. This an-
argued that the Marxist tradition, in spite of cient tension is newly translated but not re-
its criticism of religion, has kept alive the solved simply by substituting the idea of
eschatological dimension of the Christian re- praxis. The second point is connected. The
ligion while the Christian mainstream has emphasis on radical conversion and the
served mainly to legitimate existing social transformation of consciousness betrays a
patterns and various forms of political and deep kinship with a long ethical tradition that
economic injustice (see also Eschatological includes not only millenarian thought but
Ethics; Utopian Thought). also the Lutheran emphasis on justification,
The conservatism* of much of the Chris- the Barthian ethics of divine command, the
Revolution 552
Bultmannian ethics of radical obedience. As the Christian not with a contemplated action
this brief list indicates, the kinship system as requiring justification but with religious con-
a whole is not inherently revolutionary and it version. To the extent that this conversion
is open to the criticism of those ethical posi- represents a move from political passivity to
tions that emphasize sanctification, the im- political activity, and afightingagainst domi-
portance of virtue, the institutional dimen- nation and injustice, the Christian will find
sions of ethics, and the creative aspects of much to support. To the extent that revolu-
law*. tion is committed to the eradication of evil,
2. Some may well argue, as this writer Christian involvement in it must be deeply
would, that Marxist thought must be appro- ambiguous and precarious, and this precari-
priated by theology (generally as a significant ousness requires the whole art of Christian
interpretation of the institutional dimensions ethics. On the critical and hermeneutical side
of sin, specifically as a powerful critique of it requires the analysis of moral failure, injus-
capitalism), but it would be ironic if theology tice, and wrongdoing, particularly under the
came to embrace Marxism as its chief social circumstances of modern social life, within
translation just as we are witnessing Marx- the structure of the Christian narrative. Its
ism's decomposition. The theological use of positive normative task is to articulate insti-
Marx is often facile and chiefly rhetorical tutions for "after the revolution," when evil
(e.g., when all oppressed persons are iden- persists in spite of genuine social transforma-
tified as the universal class) and serves more tions.
for political motivation than for theological At the center of this problem is the relation
or ethical direction. What is at stake is the of ethics to both evil and redemption, the way
interpretation of evil* in the world, and even in which faithful Christian character, inten-
careful Marxist class analysis has not been tion, and action are related to moral failure
adequate to the complexity of modern society as well as to unintended social consequences.
and to the immense variety of human oppres- The moment one moves from this center
sion*, wrongdoing, and suffering*. An ade- through any sustained analysis, one encoun-
quate Christian ethical analysis of revolution ters the deepest perplexities of modern con-
must attend to this variety. It may be helped sciousness, involving inquiries as diverse as
in this by more sophisticated versions of neo- philosophy, economics, social theory, lin-
Marxist thought, but even this must be sub- guistics, and science: the problem of rational
ject to theological control. agency and unintended social effect, of lan-
3. It is not at all clear that programs which guage and world, of continuity and 4iscon?
make radical transformation the paradigm tinuity, of personal identity and politic?)
for all human action can sustain a consis- legitimacy, of reason and historical con-
tently ethical interpretation of human life. As sciousness. If Christian ethics comes to un:
implied in thefirstpoint above, such theolog- derstand social revolution, it may come also
ical programs often are not revolutionary in to a theological understanding and construct
their social effect and those that are often fail. of these intellectual features of modernity,
In fact, successful revolutionary programs They are, after all, theological problems.
(successful in the sense of being able to give
ethical shape to human life) have often been Classical texts: F. Fanon, The Wretched qf \
carried out by those for whom the language the Earth, ET 1963; K. Marx, Critique <$ft
of sanctification* and institution* take prece- Hegel's "Philosophy of Right" (1843), EJ
dence over, or at least balance, the language 1970; "A Contribution to the Critique cf
of radical transformation (as, e.g., in Puritan- Hegel's "Philosophy of Right": Introducfi
ism). More often, the disillusionment that tion" (1843-44); and other writings; K. Marjt l :
comes from the failure to eradicate evil, and and F. Engels, The German Ideology (1846,
the absence of an adequate institutional ethic ET 1970; The Communist Manifesto (1848jj;|
for the continued ambiguities of human exis- A. de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and tdep
tence, motivate the desperate attempts to French Revolution (1856), ET 1955.
root out persisting evil ("revolutionary ter- Religion and revolution: N. Cohn, The
ror"), and thus prepare the ground for new Pursuit of the Millennium, rev. ed. 1970; C
forms of tyranny. Hill, Puritanism and Revolution, 1958; E.
From this it is evident that revolution is a Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels, 1959; M.
peculiar kind of ethical problem: it presents Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints, I960.
553 Rewards and Punishments
Revolution, modernity, and rationality: P. tions, making the poorrich,the weak victori-
Berger, The Sacred Canopy. 1969; J. Haber- ous, etc. Above all, those who resist to the
mas, The Legitimation Crisis, ET 1975; T. point of giving their own lives are rewarded
Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolu- with eternal life, while those who betray the
tions, 1970; H. Marcuse, Reason and Revo- fight are "rewarded" with everlasting shame.
2
Although the development and installa- trived by rationalist planners but has to grow ;
tion of robots may be expensive, they offer through community of interest and spiritual 4
increased efficiency and savings in costs to affinity in an expanding tradition. One ex-
manufacturing industry and hence contrib- pression of this respect for tradition was a J
ute to economic growth and the more effec- love of things medieval, another a gathering |
tive meeting of human need. up for thefirsttime of Germanic and Indian 1
See also Automation; Computers; Technol- lore and an admiring use of them in literature il
ogy; Unemployment. and philosophy. European culture was at last J
breaking its local bounds. I
R. U. Ayres and S. M. Miller, Robotics: Ap-
plications and Social Implications 1982.
t J. J. McGann, The Romantic Ideology: A4
PAUL BRETT Critical Investigation, 1983; H. Peyre, What \
Is Romanticism? ET 1977; S. Prickett, RQ-A
Roman Catholic Moral Theology manticism and Religion, 1976; J. R. Talmon, ^
see Counter-Reformation Moral Theol- Romanticism and Revolt, 1979; C. Thacker, J
561 Sanctification
The Wildness Pleases: The Origins of Roman- ceptable to God, "Of course, he was no
ticism, 1983. saint," lest anyone should imagine a narrow
T. E. JESSOP personality. Christians must reckon with this
usage, not imagine mere counteraffirmation
Rules see Anglican Moral Theology; Casu- will end it. They may concentrate on praising
istry; Christian Ethics; Love; Modern certain characteristics agreed to be both
Protestant Ethics; Modern Roman Catho- "saintly" and attractive: serenity, patience,
lic Moral Theology; Moral Theology; Nat- loyalty, integrity, wisdom. Yet these excel-
ural Law; Norms; Situation Ethics lencies are still preconceived and in a way
selective. Saintliness looks like a character
Sabbatarianism someone is either born with, or not, rather
The term properly refers to the understand- than everyone's goal. It might be better to
ing of the Christian Lord's Day as a Sabbath, define saintliness as "fitness for heaven": not
applying to it the Fourth Commandment. In a particular set of qualities but the maturity
particular it refers to the attempt to impose of a whole personality, nature perfected by
this understanding on the community as a grace. Then, for instance, the witty as well as
whole through legislation. the patient, the eager as well as the calm, can
See Sunday Observance. aspire to fulfillment.
JAMES A. WHYTE See Sanctification; Holiness; Perfection-
ism.
Sacrifice see Love
W. Beach and H. R. Niebuhr (eds.), Chris-
Sacrilege tian Ethics: Sources of the Living Tradition,
An extreme lack of reverence manifested in 1955, e.g., ch. 5; K. E. Kirk, The Vision of
deliberate violation of religious places, per- God, 1931; J. Macquarrie, Paths in Spiritual-
sons, or objects. Local sacrilege includes ity, 1972, p. 5; J. Urmson, "Saints and
desecration of churches and cemeteries. Per- Heroes," in Essays in Moral Philosophy, ed.
sonal sacrilege refers to sinful actions per- A. Melden, 1958.
formed against, or sometimes by, ecclesiasti- HELEN OPPENHEIMER
cal or religious persons as such. "Real"
(Latin res) sacrilege involves deliberate irrev- Salaries see Wages and Salaries; see also
erence toward sacramental rites or the Bible Just Price and Just Wage
and profanation or theft of sacred vessels,
statues, etc. Sanctification
See Reverence. The idea of sanctification is rooted in the idea
J. MAHONEY of setting someone or something apart for
ritual purposes. In the NT the Greek hagia-
Saintliness zo is used for "sanctify," "consecrate," and
To say that saintliness is the quality saints "make sacred," from the heights of John 17
have is somewhat like saying that humanity to the technicality of Matt. 23:17, 19. In
is the quality human beings have. The saints Christian history the ethical sense of the
are, according to biblical usage, the holy peo- word, having to do with the attaining of
ple of God. One would expect their diversity moral perfection, has been both dominant
to be as great as the good diversity of people. and controversial. The greaf question has
Yet, just as we tend to pick out certain char- been, In what sense is holinessgiven or
acteristics and call these "humane," so we earned, within the reach of God's people in
tend to pick out other characteristics and call this life? Is "You shall be perfect" command,
these "saintly." Because "saint" came to promise, or hyperbole?
mean, not any member, nor even any faithful Sanctification cannot be considered op-
member, of God's people, but a hero or hero- tional; but to treat it as compulsory can be
ine of the faith, it has been the heroic virtues just as misleading. There are plenty of availa-
that have been singled out as notably saintly; ble heresies, Catholic or Protestant, mostly
and in practice the virtues of asceticism and brandishing proof-texts. Compulsory sanc-
austerity. tification develops the rigorism that requires
So it is even said anxiously of some beloved Christians to be sinless on pain of rejection,
person whom we deeply believe has been ac- or the superstition that supposes that grace
Sanction 562
works like magic. Optional sanctification al- even the Eastern Orthodox emphasis on
lows the antinomianism* that justifies sinners deification, so alarming to Western propri-
and stops there (as in the famous satire of ety, is safe and salutory. People made in the
James Hogg), or the worldliness that asks image of God* are to shine with reflected but
only for decent behavior and hardly cares for real light.
holiness. 2. The holiness to which we are to aspire
Perfectionism* is easily attacked as arro- is not a static concept. "The perfection of
gant, its denial as defeatist. There is always human nature," suggested Gregory of Nyssa,
the safety net, or snare, of a doctrine of two "consists perhaps in its very growth in good-
standards, a minimum for all and a better ness" (Life of Moses 10). "The continual de-
way for some: an understandable expedient velopment of life to what is better is the soul's
to avoid legalistic rigorism*, but desperately way to perfection" (ibid., 306). The idea of
unsatisfactory as a self-sufficient theory, as maturity, and a developing maturity at that,
K. E. Kirk pointed out (The Vision of God, is more promising than an emphasis upon
1931, ch. 4). It is essential to hold on to the attained sinlessness, for this world or the
understanding that sanctity is for everyone next.
(cf. A. M. Allchin in Man's Concern with 3. It could be the case that the most pro-
Holiness, ed. M. Chavchavadze, 1972, p. 38), found understanding of sanctification is after
and that somehow, explain it as we may, all the nearest to its primitive roots. "Holy in
"morals constitute a preamble to beatitude" the Bible does not mean devout or virtuous
(Tran0y on Aquinas in A Critical History of but separated by God" (K. Barth, Ethics, ET
Western Philosophy, ed. D. J. O'Connor, 1981, p. 112). Such an idea could be crudely
1964, p. 116). What matters is to set no limits superstitious, with fear uppermost and ethics
upon the ultimate capacity of God's crea- lost. But the consecration of a sacrificial of*
tures to glorify God: to take seriously the fering can mean more than the propitiation
idea that "You are holy, for I am holy" is of incomprehensible powers. When the
meant to be fulfilled (Lev. 11:44; 1 Peter 1: human impulse to consecrate a sacrifice is
16). To stop short with justified sinners is no allowed to develop in the context of sacra-
more adequate than to celebrate an aristoc- ment and indeed of eucharist, the ethical
racy of blessed ones. meaning of "sanctification" can be removed
Are we driven by a process of elimination from the optional/compulsory trap and as-
to a Wesleyan doctrine of perfection? One sociated with grace, gift, and thanksgiving
need not call such a view proud or priggish; (cf. E. McDonagh, Invitation and Response r
but its precise application is not easy to deter- 1972, p. 25). To be sanctified is to be offered
mine; and it has a tendency to lose itself in a like the elements of a sacrament, to be blessed
dispute about words. Without denying any- and given back to nourish other people.
one's assurance, one may sit loose to such a
decided formulation (see Wesleyan Ethics). R. N. Flew, The Idea of Perfection in Chris-
Three things need to be said about sanctifi- tian Theology, 1934; B. Hring, Christian
cation. Maturity, ET 1967, pt. 3; W. Law, A Serious
1. Whatever it is, sanctification is a harvest, Call to a Devout and Holy Life, 1728, chs, :
the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Our 2-3; V. Taylor, Forgiveness and Reconcilia-J
hope of becoming our true selves does not lie tion, 1952, ch. 5; J. Wesley, A Plain Account !
in making an effort but in response, in being of Christian Perfection, 1766.
2 j
taken out of ourselves. "The Gospel preceded HELEN OPPENHEIMER J
the demand" (J. Jeremias, The Sermon on the
Mount, ET 1961, p. 29, and see pp. 32-33). Sanction
"To follow Christ is not to go in pursuit of an Although the term "sanction" sometimes
ideal but to share in the results of an achieve- denotes the authority* for an action, it most:
ment" (T. W. Manson, Ethics and the Gospel, often denotes the penalties that ensure com4
1960, p. 59). Augustine loved to quote, pliance with formal or informal rules in mo*
"What have you that you did not receive?" (1 rality, law, religion, etc. For example, in reli- j
Cor. 4:7), and summed the matter up: "When gion, whatever the authority for some model,
God crowns our merits, he crowns nothing of conduct, such as God's will, some sano-i
but his own gifts" (Epistle 194.19; see J. Bur- tions may make compliance more likely (se*
naby, Amor Dei, 1938, ch. 8). In this context, Rewards and Punishments; Heaven; Helfy)
563 Science and Ethics
Even conscience* itself is sometimes viewed we should remember the advice given by
more as a sanction than an authority when its Paul in 1 Cor. 10. Things that are lawful may
threat of disunity and disharmony motivates not be expedient, and even where individuals
the agent to perform actions that he or she are passionately convinced of the lightness of
otherwise would have had difficulty under- their acts or opinions, they ought to act with
taking (see also Mixed Motives). Some charity* toward their brethren. It may be-
philosophers distinguish morality and law* come a very difficult matter to decide be-
in part according to the nature of their sanc- tween the prompting of the individual con-
tions: Morality often involves sanctions of science and the distress caused to the
praise and blame, while law often involves community. Conscience cannot be coerced,
sanctions of force. The term "sanction" fre- but before causing scandal by some unilateral
quently refers to coercive measures such as act, a member of the community should con-
criminal punishment or embargoes. Hence sider very carefully whether he or she is act-
the major ethical questions focus on when it ing with charity to the others, and whether
is justifiable to use coercion* and what sort of really impelled by conscience or by less wor-
coercion is justifiable. Views about the neces- thy motives, such as pride and the desire for
sity and importance of sanctions as motivat- notoriety.
ing reasons for actions often depend on doc- JOHN MACQUARRIE
trines of human nature, particularly its
disposition to sin* (see Original Sin; Real- Science and Ethics
ism). The word "science" covers a wide range of
See also Behavior Control; Coercion; In- meanings: (1) a system of knowledge, split up
ternational Order; Law; Morality, Legal En- into a number of distinct "sciences," which
forcement of; Penology; Power; Resistance; together constitute a more or less coherent
State. scientific world view; (2) a method of investi-
JAMES F. CHILDRESS gation characterized by a rational empirical,
objective, and critical approach to natural
Sanctity of Life see Life, Prolongation phenomena; (3) applied science (technol-
ogy*)the ability to manipulate the natural
of; Life, Sacredness of world predictably. "Science" in all these
senses is of concern to ethics, though in diff-
Sanctuary see Refugees erent ways that need to be carefully distin-
guished.
Satyagraha 1. Science as a source of factual informa-
Gandhi's designation for his movement of tion. Moral judgments are not made in vacuo,
nonviolent resistance against the British in but require a knowledge of facts and an abil-
India. It means firm and steadfast adherence ity to predict the probable consequences of
to the truth. See Civil Disobedience; Resist- actions. Scientists are concerned with both.
ance. The general scientific understanding of the
Scandal world is therefore an important part of the
Scandal arises when a member of the Chris- background of moral choice, and many tradi-
tian community, by action or opinions, goes tional moral issues have been seen in a differ-
against the commonly accepted standards of ent light as scientific knowledge has in-
the community and causes distress to the creased. Sexual morality, for example, has
other members, perhaps even bringing the been affected by advances in physiology and
whole community into disrepute. From the psychology, even among those who would
earliest times, the church has had to exercise claim that there has been no change in the
discipline* in order to deal with erring mem- fundamental principles that should govern
bers and to maintain its standards. The really sexual behavior. Homosexuality remains for
difficult case, however, is the one in which the many an area of moral uncertainty, partly for
person who givesriseto the scandal is acting the reason that there is not as yet any scien-
not from carelessness or rebellion against the tific agreement about its causes. A soundly
church, but from conscience*, sincerely be- based concern about the moral dimensions of
lieving that he or she has arightor a duty to animal welfare needs to pay proper attention
declare the opinion or perform the actions to biology. Sociologists offer interpretations
that are scandalizing the others. In such cases of human behavior that, by revealing the
Science and Ethics 564
character and extent of social constraints, ics*, of which T. H. Huxley, Julian Huxley,
can enlarge the area of choice. To know that and, from a Christian perspective, Walter
one is conforming to type is to be given the Rauschenbusch were notable exponents,
freedom not to do so. Psychology can create made use of the idea of evolutionary "prog-
similar areas of freedom, as well as enlarge ress"* as a moral guide, as if it could some-
perceptions of the consequences of behavior how be read directly from the biological facts
on other people. themselves. Sociobiology provides the most
In addition to these countless general ways modem attempt to perform the same opera-
in which scientific knowledge has ethical im- tion, but has difficulty in producing convinc-
plications, there are also examples of particu- ing evidence of evolutionary traits in human
lar discoveries that relate to particular moral nature strong enough to be treated as eth-
choices. The link between cigarette smoking ically normative. Psychology has been a
and lung cancer has created new moral prob- fruitful source of hidden norms, as expressed
lems for smokers and tobacco manufacturers. in such concepts as abnormality or maturity,
Work on the deleterious effects of bottle-feed- both of which are extremely hard to detach
ing infants in Third World countries has from their cultural contexts.
opened up a new moral dimension in the pro- The most powerful claim that science pro-
motion and export of dried milk. Once again, vides a source of values is made, not on the
the list is endless (see Risk). basis of any particular discoveries or theories,
There are also less direct ways in which but by extrapolation from the scientific
scientific information has influenced ethical method itself. Science "works," runs this
thinking. Anthropology* has weakened the claim, and intrinsic to it are certain values
appeal of authoritarian ethical systems by its and attitudes that are validated by this suc-
disclosure of the enormous variety of social cess. Jacques Monod (Chance and Necessity*
patterns and of the extent to which morality ET 1972) proposed what he called "an ethi4
is socially conditioned. The moral sense itself of knowledge" in which the main value is
has become an object of scientific study. Re- objective knowledge itself.
search on the social behavior of animals, de- Monod's proposal was criticized for its ar*!
velopmental psychology, and the evolution- bitrariness and restrictiveness. There is, how
ary origins of altruism have led some ever, a more general and acceptable sense in
scientists to conclude that there are certain which the values inherent in scientific activ|
moral norms or tendencies, discoverable by ity spill over into ordinary life. Scientists
science, built into human nature. The new, form a community with its own professional
and controversial, science of sociobiology at- code concerned with such matters as honesty
tempts to explore this field from an evolu- in reporting facts, the publication of unfavor*
tionary perspective. able as well as favorable evidence, the aoj
2. Science as a source of values. Since G. E. knowledgment of sources and the safeguard^
Moore's description of the naturalistic fal- ing of original discoveries, and cooperation
lacy (see Naturalistic Ethics), it has been with colleagues irrespective of nationality. In
customary to hold that statements of value addition the successful scientist depends oq
cannot be derived exclusively from state- personal moral qualities such as open-mindj
ments of fact; in other words, science by itself edness, a readiness to accept criticism, pajjj
cannot prescribe what is right or wrong. In tience, persistence, love of the truth for m
most practical contexts this is obviously true. own sake, even an element of passion. Son*
Sound factual information is a necessary but have described science as an adventure M
not a sufficient basis for moral choice. Judg- faith. Scientific progress would not be posa
ment about the facts goes beyond the facts ble unless by and large scientists could trui
themselves. one another, and this is why in profession!
This neat distinction, however, ignores the terms the penalties for fraud are high,
extent to which facts and values are inter- In its beginnings modern science depend
related. It can be questioned whether any on the moral and philosophical assumptios
facts are totally value-free. Thus it is possible of Christian Europe. Nowadays, in the ligl
for moral judgments to appear to be made on of its practical achievements, the values thi
strictly factual grounds by overlooking the sustain it have come to be regarded by mail
element of evaluation already built into them. as self-authenticating. Science is its own jul
The various systems of evolutionary eth- tification, and what makes for good scienJ
565 Science and Ethics
must itself be good. Misplaced trust is even- Advances in the biological sciences closely
tually exposed, and the overwhelming weight affecting human life itself already pose some
of scientific opinion acts to reinforce the val- intractable problems that are likely to be-
ues of the scientific community. In this very come even more difficult as research contin-
general sense, therefore, it can be argued that ues. The ethics of research on human em-
science operates as a moral force. Critics of bryos, for example, must depend in part on
this argument point out that in practice the the length of time for which it is possible to
main characteristic of science is power rather keep an isolated embryo alive; and all the
than disinterested knowledge. And scientific evidence suggests that this is likely to in-
power can suffer the same corruptions as any crease. The possibilities of genetic manipula-
other kind of power. tion pose in an especially acute form ques-
3. Science as a source of new ethical prob- tions about the extent to which the
lems. Applied science has given humanity in- "givenness" of human nature should be re-
creasing power to control and adapt its envi- garded as inviolable. Even such a relatively
ronment, and to manipulate some of the most simple operation as choosing the sex of one's
fundamental characteristics of human life children has deep personal and social im-
and society. New powers always create ethi- plications (see also Experimentation with
cal problems of peculiar difficulty, since there Human Subjects; Genetics; Reproductive
are no precedents to act as guides. Neverthe- Technologies).
less certain general principles seem to apply. The abuse of psychiatry for penal purposes
Broadly speaking, answers to questions about in the USSR is a particularly striking exam-
the use of new powers reflect differing views ple of the way therapeutic insights can be
about the place of human beings in nature. used to serve evil ends. Fears that some ge-
At one extreme are those who stress the netic studies might act as a basis for racial
"givenness" of the natural world and the discrimination have led to acrimonious con-
dangers of upsetting the existing order of troversy both in Britain and in the USA. And
things (see Natural Law). At the other ex- at the more trivial end of the scale, there are
treme are those who doubt whether "given- those who regard public opinion polls, a very
ness" means much in an evolving universe, modest instance of scientific data collection,
and who see every new advance as increasing as a threat to electoral integrity.
the range of human choice, and hence the "Big science," of a size that has to be
possibilities of human freedom and personal funded directly by government or some
fulfillment. Both extremes are found among major industry, presents special problems of
Christians, some emphasizing human control and assessment, not least when most
creatureliness and others human creative- of the available expertise is engaged in, and
ness. The weight of Christian opinion, how- therefore has a vested interest in, the particu-
ever, has generally been on the side of con- lar project in question. The preliminary work
servatism*, and there is a long history of on atomic energy suffered this kind of isola-
opposition to new techniques, not least in tion, with the result that its moral and politi-
medicine (see Bioethics). cal implications came to the surface too late
Technical power tends to be morally am- to influence the course of research.
biguous. The new freedoms it brings often It is an open question whether some re-
have hidden costs. The automobile is a classic search may or may not be inherently im-
example of a technological advance that has moral. Clearly there are, or ought to be,
enormously increased the range of human moral limits to the methods used in research,
experience, but has also created new forms of especially insofar as these apply to human
enslavement as well as huge environmental beings or animals*. But are there some things
damage. Nuclear energy contains both a that it is better not to know? Most scientists
promise and a threat. New understandings of would deny this, even though Pandora's box
human psychology open the way to new once opened proves impossible to close.
forms of human manipulation. Perhaps the
biggest source of moral ambiguity today is R. Attfield, The Ethics of Environmental
the extent to which almost any discovery can Concern, 1983; J. Habgood, A Working
be made to serve military purposes (see also Faith, 1980; J. Mahoney, Bioethics and Be-
Energy; Environmental Ethics; Nuclear lief 1984; J. R. Ravetz, Scientific Knowledge
Warfare). and Its Social Problems, 1971; R. Trigg, The
Scrupulosity 566
Shaping of Man, 1982; World Council of autonomy*, privacy*, and confidentiality*,
Churches, Faith and Science in an Unjust as well as to deception and truthfulness*. The
World, 1979. question of the ethical justification of inten-
JOHN HABGOOD tional concealment, or intentional nondisclo-
sure of information, is not reducible to the
Scrupulosity ethics of lying, even though they may overlap
A term used in Catholic moral theology to where there are affirmative duties to disclose
denote the overuse of the confessional for the information. As Bok notes, secrets do not
confession* of trivial and diminutive sins. stand in need of justification in the same way
Though absolution* is eagerly sought, it is as lies, because secrets are morally neutral
never fully satisfying to scrupulous persons rather than prima facie wrong. And secrets
in this sense of "overscrupulous," who fear are frequently legally protected, e.g., in confi-
they may have forgotten something, and who dential relations between physicians and pa-
will soon return to confess many of the same tients and between priests and penitents (see
offenses. Codes of Ethics; Confidentiality; Profes-
From the standpoint of psychology, sional Ethics). However, in several areas of
scrupulosity is closely related to an obsessive- life, such as government, business (e.g., trade
compulsive neurotic pattern of behavior. Per- secrets), and science, there is significant de-
sons afflicted with this disorder are obsessed bate about which secrets, if any, are justified,
with certain ideas which they can only put particularly in view of the interests of others
out of their minds by repeating certain ac- in the concealed information. In a democ-
tions, such as a hand-washing compulsion, racy*, the public is presumed to have a right
which is associated with the need to assuage to relevant information, but secrets are often
guilt feelings. In such cases the thing for alleged to be justified, at least temporarily, by
which guilt is consciously felt (dirty hands) is political or military necessity* in foreign pol-
a disguised representation of unconscious icy and military actions. Such secrets are
guilt too painful to bear in conscious aware- sometimes disclosed to the public through
ness. This is the reason that the confessions whistle-blowing*. In the USA the Freedom
of scrupulous persons deal with such trivial of Information Act (1966, strengthened in
matters. The trivia cloak unconscious guilt 1974) granted citizens broader access to gov-
feelings which usually relate to childhood ex- ernment information, within certain limits,
periences with parents and the fantasies including national security and crime preven-
about these, such as the wish to kill the fa- tion.
ther, though they often have associations
with adult life as well. S. Bok, Secrets: On the Ethics of Conceal-
Though Protestants who do not have for- ment and Revelation, 1983; I. Galnoor
mal confession do not use the term, the phe- (ed.), Government Secrecy in Democracies,
nomenon is present in overzealous church 1977; K. G. Robertson, Public Secrets: A
workers who seemingly cannot find enough Study of the Development of Government Se-
to do in the church, and also frequently seek crecy, 1982; R. B. Stevenson, Jr., Corpora-
the pastor out to pour out their troubles and tions and InformationSecrecy, Access, and
get advice, which is seldom taken. In such Disclosure, 1980.
cases psychiatric help may be indicated, JAMES F. CHILDRESS
though such help may be unwanted, since the
symptoms are partly intended to keep such Sect
persons unaware of their disturbing uncon- In theology and much ordinary usage, "sect"
scious guilt feelings as well as providing a refers to a body of believers who follow a
degree of release from them. particular practice, doctrine, or leader dis-
See also Guilt; Defense Mechanisms. tinct from that of the majority or "orthodox"
JAMES N. LAPSLEY norm, but within the same religion. Until re-
cently, established churches in Europe re-
Secrecy ferred to all nonestablished churches as sects
Secrecy may be defined as "intentional con- and lumped "free churches," cults, and
cealment" (Bok). There are several concep- denominations in this category.
tual and moral questions about its links to A sect may be schismatic, heterodox, or
567 Secularism
heretical. That is, it may break communion See Church; Cults; Ecclesiology and Eth-
with the representatives of orthodoxy, re- ics; Institution/Institutionalization.
main in fellowship but insist on unusual be- MAX L. STACKHOUSE
liefs, or be judged to present such a danger-
ous perspective on faith and morals that it Secularism
must be condemned and excluded. Adher- The shift in the meaning of secularism is one
ents of a sect, of course, often claim that it of the most significant developments in mod-
is the majority that has fallen away from or- ern religious thought. Traditionally the word
thodoxy or has failed to recognize new "secular" has been the antonym of "reli-
truth. gious." It has been taken to mean a way of
Since the work of Ernst Troeltsch and Max life pursued without reference to religious
Weber in the early part of this century, how- realities. Where the functions of religious in-
ever, the term has taken on a meaning in stitutions are taken over by the state, secular-
ethics that is less doctrinally oriented. In reli- ization* is said to have occurred, as in pro-
gious social ethics a sect is understood to be grams of education and social amelioration.
a particular type of religious organization Understandings of life without reference to
which, by combining and applying in a dis- the idea of God and his alleged intervention
tinctive way theological doctrines that in in the process of the world are called secular
themselves may be quite orthodox, forms views.
small, intimate, exclusive, voluntary societies The inception of secularism in Western
based on explicit faith; resistance to compro- culture is usually dated at the Renaissance
mise with "the world"; participatory, and ascribed to the afflatus of human pride*.
protodemocratic, or populist leadership; and Human beings at that epoch put themselves
a normative metaphysical-moral vision, de- at the center of reality and arrogated to them-
manding rigorous ethical standards. This is selves authority over life and responsibility
understood to be in contrast to a church-type for it. Christendom since the Renaissance has
religious organization, which is large and been hard pressed to justify its theocentric
based on implicit faith, adjustment to the universe and its traditional conceptions of a
world, a hierarchical priesthood, and modu- God who is all-powerful, a human creature
lation of ethical rigor. The sect attempts to who is abased and weakened by finitude and
embody "pure" ideals in a new society of sin, and a system of things which is contin-
believers. This attempt can be either with- gent upon the sustaining power of God as
drawing, i.e., by disengagement from the expressed in miraculous interventions in his-
world (in monastic or communal enclaves), tory and nature.
or aggressive, i.e., by energetic action to Friedrich Schleiermacher was the first the-
transform the world by universal prosely- ologian to attempt to express the Christian
tism, or by political and military action to faith in terms of the new understandings of
enforce perfectionist standards. Sects can, in the modern world which the Renaissance*
these terms, be centers of prophetic change or introduced. Protestant theology following
reactionary resistance to change. (Elaborate the First World War made Schleiermacher
typologies of sects have been developed by its primary target. The situation after the
sociologists of religion, such as Bryan Wil- Second World War is quite different, even
son.) though the experiential grounds for the de-
This idea of sect has been taken over from spair of humanity over its secular adequacy
Christian history and applied to other reli- have seemed even more obvious than after
gions (e.g., Druze Islam, Hare Krishna the First World War. Now it is being seen
Hinduism, or Jdo Buddhism). The idea is that secularism, far from being the enemy of
also now commonly used in reference to the church, as theology in the medieval and
schools of philosophical, scientific* or social orthodox Protestant orientation has tended
thought as well as to various branches of to hold, is the product of the Christian faith.
"unorthodox" secular political organization The Protestant Reformation is held to be the
as in forms of pacifism or socialism only major attempt since the apostolic age to
where radical ethical commitments become reintroduce the meaning of the Christian
organized in intentional alternative or movement as the secularizing of the world.
change-oriented groups. In modern Christianity two theologians,
Secularization 568
mainly, have contended for this view. Die- the conservation of secularism. His reasoning
trich Bonhoeffer, in fragmentary suggestions is as follows: God has turned the world over
through his prison correspondence prior to to humans as that for which they are respon-
his death, conceded that modem man had sible. If they do not continually receive the
"come of age." That is to say, human beings world from God as the one to whom they are
are capable of handling their affairs without responsible, they may make the world itself
invoking a god. That is secularism. Bon- their new object of responsibilityas Juda-
hoeffer was probably unique in the conclu- ism and Hellenism did before the time of
sions he drew for this description of modern Jesus, worshiping the creature rather than
life, a description already patent in the Ren- the creator and thus converting law and wis-
aissance period. His conclusion for Christi- dom into demonic powers which thereby lost
anity was that the church ought not force their status as instruments of responsibility.
these modern, mature humans to become If humans become responsible to the world,
weak in the world in order to convert them they will lose their capacity to be responsible
to faith. It might rather call them to disciple- for it. In the Christian proclamation through
ship at the point of their strength. For Bon- which humanity learns to receive the world
hoeffer this was no simple compromise* with from God, responsibility to God is kept alive,
modern humanity. It was the nub of the and with it, responsibility for the world,
Christian revelation. The meaning of the which is the condition we know in the mod-
faith is that God has allowed himself to be ern world as secularism.
edged out of the world onto the cross. Be- See Responsibility; Secularization; Stew-
cause of the cross, therefore, humans can ardship; Technology; Worldliness,
know that the world is now left to them as
their responsibility. D. Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from
Friedrich Gogarten gave this theme its Prison, ET 3rd ed., rev. and enl., 1971; F,
most systematic and comprehensive treat- Gogarten, The Reality of Faith, ET 1959; De-
ment. The major text for Gogarten's explica- spair and Hope for Our Time ( 1958), ET
2
>4
tives from social institutions; (2) in South
Africa, where a white minority has enforced Self-Actualization see Counseling
apartheid*; (3) in the USA, where as an after- Ethical Issues in; Self-Realization 4
571 Self-Love
Self-Deception indeed called on to renounce desire for our
At a commonsense level, it might be thought own true welfare, but to find it in self-sacrific-
that self-dception was similar to deceiving ing loveand the NT does after all accept
others. To deceive others, one must know- the OT precept to love one's neighbor "as
ingly make them believe something one does oneself' (Mark 12:31 and parallels, from
not believe oneself. Similarly, self-deception Lev. 19:18; cf. Rom. 13:9). This is presuma-
would consist in knowingly getting oneself to bly the answer to the doctrine of "pure love"
believe something one does not believe. Sev- maintained by Fnelon against Bossuet in a
eral philosophical difficulties can at once be famous 17th-century controversyor the
raised. If self-deception is possible, must it idea popularized by Nygren's Agape and Eros
therefore be possible for someone to know (or (ET 1953) that Christian love is wholly free
believe) that p is false while at the same time from self-regarding aspects. Yet it remains
believing p to be true? Or to believe that p that in an ethic of love, selfishness disappears;
and also not to believe that p? Or is "decep- as Augustine points out, two cities are
tion" a misnomer, and self-deception rather formed by two loves, the earthly by love of
a case of attending to the reasons in favor of self even to contempt of God, the heavenly by
p (for instance, because one wishes to act as love of God even to contempt of self (City of
if p were true) without in fact believing that God 14.28) (see Augustinian Ethics).
p? A useful summary of recent literature is to See Love; Self-Love; Self-Realization.
be found in Jeffrey Foss, "Rethinking Self- E. R. HARDY
Deception," American Philosophical Quar-
terly 17, 1980, pp. 237-244. Self-Determination see Autonomy
See also Ideology; Rationalization.
GERARD J. HUGHES Self-Examination
Critical reflection upon one's own conduct
Self-Denial and character, in relation to the standards
This term is likely to be used by Protestants that one has accepted. While indeed there is
where Catholics would speak of mortifica- the danger of falling into a morbid introspec-
tion*, but its meaning should not be reduced tive brooding or into scrupulosity*, con-
to particular acts of discipline or renuncia- science* will scarcely develop unless there
tion. As Gregory the Great observed, it is are honest attempts at self-assessment. The
easier to give up what one has than to re- examination may be given a systematic
nounce what one is (Homilies on the Gospels framework by basing it, for example, on the
32, on Luke 9:24). But it is to this renuncia- Ten Commandments. Paul enjoins self-
tion that Jesus calls uscf. Luke 14:26; and examination, especially before receiving
Paul adds, when urging a particular form of Holy Communion (1 Cor. 11:28). In the same
self-denial, that even Christ did not please connection, the Book of Common Prayer
himself (Rom. 15:3). We are here confronted urges that we should "examine our lives and
with the paradox of Christian ethics, that the conversations by the rule of God's command-
gospel presents us with an ethic of fulfillment ments," seeking God's forgiveness and mak-
(cf. John 10:10"life more abundantly") as ing restitution to any persons wronged; and
well as of sacrifice, indeed with an ethic of it adds that anyone who "cannot quiet his
fulfillment in and by sacrifice (cf. Mark 8:35 own conscience" by these means should re-
and parallels"whoever loses his life for my sort to the sacrament of penance*.
sake and the gospel's will save it"). One mod- JOHN MACQUARRIE
ern writer like Kierkegaard may find in the
teaching of Jesus a call to utter renunciation; Self-Love
another may comment with equal truth, The OT (Lev. 19:18) injunction to love one's
though not as the whole story, that "the Gos- neighbor as oneself is reiterated in the NT in
pel is a message of joyous eudaemonism" (P. Matt. 19:19; 22:39; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14;
E. More, The Christ of the New Testament, James 2:8. Taken by itself the injunction can
1924, p. 121). As Augustine observes in com- be read as a vindication as well as a limitation
menting on John 12:25, to love one's life "in of self-love. There seems little merit simply in
this world" is in fact to lose it, and to lose making oneself miserable and some, though
one's life is in fact to save it. We are not not all, asceticism would probably now be
Self-Realization 572
ascribed by psychiatrists to the pathology of come the person one "potentially" or "truly"
the self rather than to Christian living. In is. Many critics dismiss this entire subject as
an age where psychological categories are too murky to warrant sustained attention.
widely known, it is well to make it clear that This judgment is not without point, for the
masochism is a counterfeit of Christian disci- injunction encompasses a wide and hetero-
pleship, even if at times it has succeeded in geneous range of normative proposals and
passing itself off as the real thing. beliefs about human nature. Any snap dis-
On the other hand, Luke 14:26, "If any missal nevertheless ignores the pivotal role
one . . . does not hate . . . his own life," set the subject plays in both philosophical and
as it is in the midst of references to martyr- cultural traditions with which Christianity
dom, is a reminder of the sterner side of has had a long and complicated history, and
Christianity. Martyrdom is a possibility of in modern movements that have influenced
the Christian life and the path of the martyr theological literature and ecclesiastical prac-
from Stephen to Bonhoeffer is not that of tice. Versions of the injunction occupy a cen-
those who put self-love unduly high in their tral place, for example, in the traditions of
scheme of things. Platonism, Aristotelianism, romanticism,
In view of this dialectical attitude to self- and idealism (see Aristotelian Ethics; Pla-
love, it is not surprising that the references of tonic Ethics; Romantic Ethics; Idealist Eth-
theologians to it have sometimes appeared ics). Other versions approximate philosophi-
ambiguous. Augustine, for instance, some- cal defenses of ethical and psychological
times speaks of self-love as a good and some- egoism*. Still others appear in modern psy-
times as an evil. But in the former case he is chological and psychoanalytic literature;
probably simply referring to the fact that all here the term "self-realization" occurs along
our desires are conditioned by the structure with others used more or less interchange-
of the self, which has in turn been created by ably with it, such as self-development, self-
God. In the latter he is referring to the fact fulfillment, self-actualization, and individua-
that sometimes the soul puts itself before tion (see Psychology and Ethics). Three
God. traditions especially important for Christian
Of all theologians, perhaps Joseph Butler ethics may be distinguished as follows.
has given the clearest and most rational de- 1. Classical self-development. An early tra-
fense of self-love, pointing out its superiority dition extols the quasi-moral, quasi-aesthetic
as a principle of action to the particular pas- Greek ideal of eudaimonia as the best possi-
sions (such as hunger and sex). Surrender to ble life (see Eudaemonism). Proponents as-
any one of the latter at a particular time may sume that human beings, like all other spe-
be as imprudent as it is wrong and thus self- cies, are endowed with a specific nature, a
love is established as a principle second only proper ergon that distinguishes us, a telos
to conscience. toward which we naturally move. We may
Butler, however, though a great theolo- flurish in varying degrees, according to our
gian, was a figure of the 18th century with all kind. It is with respect to what is incumbent
its distrust of enthusiasm*, and one wonders on us as human beings that excellence is mea-
if his enthusiasm for cool self-love is compati- sured and virtues are specified. In short, we 4
ble with the kind of reckless behavior that is ought to "realize" our "essence" by develop-
sometimes praised in the Bible. The three ing a given capacity to act in a specifically 1
valiant men (2 Sam. 23:13-17) who fetched human way. J
the water of Bethlehem for King David were Specifically human action is linked above !
obviously little concerned for their expecta- all to our capacity to act on reasons or inten- ^
tion of life. Nor was the widow (Mark 12: tionally. Aristotle says that "he who exer^J
42-44) who put her last coin into the collec- cises his reason and cultivates it seems to be^
tion plate paying much heed to her calorie both in the best state of mind and most dear|
intake. to the gods." Yet on the question of how far
See Love; Self-Denial; Self-Realization. reason should dominate, interpreters debate]
IAN HENDERSON between two possible answers they find in]
Aristotle, in the form of two distinguishable j
Self-Realization accounts of eudaimonia. Thefirstaccount i$|
As a subject for moral reflection, self-realiza- intellectualist. Theoretical contemplation^
tion usually centers on the injunction to be- theria (finally, the contemplation of God) is *
573 Self-Realization 573
that activity which attests to the divine ele- After we allow for these complexities and
ment in our human nature, and thus repre- areas of overlap with classical self-develop-
sents the highest attainment of our rational ment, two claims nevertheless set liberal self-
function. Thedria should serve not only as direction apart, (a) I am most myself if and
our single dominant aim but also as the sole only if I choose, and do not have my choices
criterion for evaluating actions of every kind: made for me. The great enemy of this convic-
actions are good and admirable if and only if tion is conformity to existing social roles and
they promote this aim. The second account is conventions*. Mill dwells repeatedly on the
inclusive. Eudaimonia consists in an inter- dullness, mediocrity, and threats to individ-
play between the rational function that dis- ual well-being that unquestioning adherence
tinguishes us from other animals and the to "custom merely as custom" produces.
nonrational functions we share with them. (b) Human nature is perpetually incomplete
We are a kind of compound or an ensouled and capable of unpredictable, inexhaustible
body in which reason interacts with emotion, self-transformations. No single universal
perception, and action. Thedria remains the goal, or pattern of goals, can be discerned.
most valuable human activity, but it cannot Any acceptable account of human flourish-
furnish complete guidance, for a life consist- ing must remain in principle open-ended. Be-
ing only of contemplation surpasses what is cause we may be altered both by our own
humanly possible. Reason must guide practi- actions and by new experiences, "experi-
cal life as well, and excellence here includes ments in living" (Mill) constitute the only
virtuous activities that are good and admira- permanently viable strategy. To extol choice
ble in themselves. Thedria and virtuous ac- is precisely to acknowledge an absence of
tion thus combine to constitute the best pos- final closure (see Liberalism).
sible life. Existentialist writers are more radical.
Despite this difference between the two ac- They are disinclined to grant any inherent
counts of eudaimonia, they share a view of teleological potential or to forge links be-
self-development as more than a haphazard tween will and rationality. On their account,
aggregate of goods. Some objective organiza- to realize oneself simply means to exercise
tion obtains; to realize the best possible life, one's capacity to choose. At the start one is
superior and subordinate goods must be not "truly" anything distinctive beyond a
rightly ordered. being who remains free to set and pursue
2. Autonomous self-direction. Another tra- objectives which are united solely by being
dition, articulated in modern liberal and exis- self-imposed. Such views are summarized by
tentialist writings, shifts what predominantly J.-P. Sartre in the formula, "Existence pre-
distinguishes human nature from rationality cedes essence" (see Existentialist Ethics).
to choice*. 3. Romantic self-discovery. Three features
Liberal writers are more moderate than mark a final tradition, in which the accent
existentialists in that they defend choice as falls on becoming the self one "truly" is.
part of a wider depiction of human nature (a) Uniqueness (Einzigkeit) rather than sin-
and human excellence. They are inclined to gleness (Einzelheit ) defines the self to be real-
grant a given potential, or pregiven potential, ized. To quote F. Schleiermacher: "It became
to human beings, and to link the idea of au- clear to me that each man ought to represent
tonomy* expressly to rationality. Indeed, J. humanity in himself in his own different way,
S. Mill in On Liberty praises the Greek ideal by his own special blending of its elements, so
of self-development. And he observes in a that it should reveal itself in each special
similar vein that religious faith in "a good manner, and, in the fulness of space and time,
Being" most consistently holds "that this should become everything that can emerge as
Being gave all human faculties that they something individual out of the depths of it-
might be cultivated and unfolded... and that self." This differentiation thwarts all at-
he takes delight in . . . every increase in any tempts to characterize the best possible life in
of their capabilities of comprehension, of ac- general terms, for no single goal, the same for
tion, or of enjoyment." Some think that Mill everyone, exists. Yet the absence of a single
in such a passage presupposes, albeit hesi- goal derives not from humanity's alleged
tantly, a conception of human flourishing open-endedness as such, but rather from the
grounded in what is incumbent on us as originality or incomparable image each per-
human beings. son possesses, (b) Emergence implies that an
Self-Realization 574
innate plan or telos inscribed in one's exis- count: we do not choose our supreme good
tence waits to be realized. Emergence also but are necessarily oriented to it by virtue of
connotes discovery, not self-creation or self- the creatures we are. Many Protestants in
constitution as in autonomous self-direction. particular hold that eudaemonist ethics can-
For some writers, one must more or less pas- not be transformed sufficiently to serve as
sively accept a given trajectory and destina- model for Christian ethics: no immanent
tion. At most one follows inner instructions; teleology, however circumscribed, does jus-
one does not actively posit what one will be- tice to the priority that revelation and grace
come. (c) The process by which one discovers must always retain. These well-known con-
and accepts one's own telos is preeminently troversies bequeath uncertainty at two key
affective. At stake is a "vital design" (Ortega points, (a) To the extent that eudaemonist
y Gasset). The personal insight required is ethics requires concern about neighbors to be
too suffused with emotion to be called ra- derived from concern about the selfs own
tional, and too instinctive and spontaneous to flourishing, it will not do. This conclusion
be deemed a choice. however, leaves unanswered another ques-
Uniqueness and emergence are expressed tion often conflated with it: Is concern about
in altered but recognizable form in influential the selfs ownflourishinga substantive moral
modern psychological and psychoanalytic claim along with concern about neighbors?
writings. C. G. Jung, for example, finds (b) Accounts of Christian ethics that take a*
uniqueness in the process of "individuation" their point of departure the priority of revela-
or self-differentiation from collective values tion and grace* confront this question: If
and definitions. Here too self-differentiation, they jettison immanent teleology togethe*
while a generally desirable goal, cannot be with the objective ordering of human goods
characterized in general terms, for paths to internal to it, can they specify such an order?
self-realization may vary from person to per- ing on another basis?
son. Furthermore, one discovers and accepts 2. In the modern period Roman Catholi
one's personal, inner daimn or destiny; as well as Protestant writers stress the import
choice is restricted to whether or not one tance of freedom* in a life of communion
lives in accordance with the destiny one in- with God, and so explicit affinities with aur
nately has (see Destiny; Psychoanalysis; tonomous self-direction have arguably iq?
Psychology and Ethics). creased. This stress disposes them to insist
Assessment. To focus as the three tradi- energetically that we cannot regard a per*
tions do on the selfs own flourishing gener- son's conscious relation to God as a mere
ates complex responses in Christian ethics, "case" of the highest human activity; and w$
responses that reflect in part varying and cannot prevent by coercion all that is morally
sometimesrivaljudgments about the propri- evil in the world. And if we could bring aboi#
ety of "self-love."* At a minimum all re- optimal material prosperity without free-
sponses assume that any such focus remains dom, something essential would be lost. How
(a) incomplete in theory if it neglects a test can such insistence be harmonized with aft
of consistency or omits norms for social re- ongoing commitment to some objective;
sponsibility that limit self-aggrandizement; moral order knowable by human reason!
and (b) corruptible in practice whenever it And religiously, can freedom be more th#i
encourages patterns of self-absorption that passive acceptance but never "absolutely
exclude as a matter of psychological fact seri- ative," so that it continues to reside in appro
ous concern for other persons. Beyond this, priating or resisting a call?
however, difficult issues arise: 3. In many Christian accounts of humag
1. The eudaemonist structure of classical flourishing, no one of the distinctive huma^
ethics is at once perpetuated and transformed capacitiesreason, freedom, and affectiv^
in Augustinian and Thomistic thought (see is banished as irrelevant or given totp
Augustinian Ethics; Thomistic Ethics). In sway. All interact and mutually influent
this thought the best possible life consists in each other. This inclusiveness certainly
communion with God. Our quest for such a affords legitimacy to a romantic emphasis 6$
life reflects a teleological orientation toward personal insight suffused with emotioa|
our supreme good which characterizes our Affirmed as well is a stress on the selfi
humanity as such (see Teleological Ethics). unique relation to God, and a place for 4
A realist interpretation is given to this ac- passive ingredient in one's response to grace!
575 Sermon on the Mount
Nevertheless, a traditional belief that our The Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12). The beat-
human nature is "fallen" casts a permanent itude (pronouncement of blessedness or hap-
shadow over all one's own efforts at self-dis- piness) is a traditional literary wisdom form
covery (see Original Sin). To ascribe primal (Ps. 1:1), here transformed by eschatology.
self-transparency (either noetic or conative) The principle governing Matt. 5:3-6 is that
to any person is a sinful conceit. This belief spiritual-moral emptiness is blessed. "The
does not rule out all insight into our "deep- poor in spirit" might refer to the pious in
est" desires, only that insight which claims spirit, but it can refer as well to those who
total or absolute knowledge. The self "sees lack spiritual resources. This interpretation
through a glass, darkly," plagued always by is supported by the fact that these same peo-
the possibility of self-deception* and ration- ple hunger and thirst forand therefore lack
alization*. And thus many orthodox thinkers righteousness, Matthew's inclusive term
fix a sequence from religious awareness to for what God requires of human beings. It is
"true" self-discovery. not a general principle that those who lack
righteousness are blessed, but rather a matter
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, tr. D. Ross, of the eschatological situation: emptiness is
rev. ed. 1980; I. Berlin, Four Essays on Lib- fortunate whenfillingis near and when emp-
erty, 1977; C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, tiness is the potentiality for being filled (5:3b,
Reflections, ET 1961; S. Lukes, Individual- 6b). Matthew 5:7-12 then suggests that po-
ism, 1973; J. S. Mill, On Liberty, 1859; D. L. tentiality for being filled withrighteousnessis
Norton, Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of already in some sense the actuality of moral
Ethical Individualism, 1976; O. O'Donovan, achievement. For in these verses it is the mer-
The Problem of Self-Love in St. Augustine, ciful, the peacemakers, the pure in heart, the
1980; P. Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeu- righteous achievers, who are pronounced
tic, 1968. blessed.
GENE OUTKA If both the empty and the filled are blessed,
those who are not are the self-deceived, who
Sermon on the Mount are empty without knowing it. With these
Most interpretations of the Sermon on the people the eye, the source of light, the angle
Mount throughout Christian history fall into of vision from which the self sees, is unsound
one of three categories: (a) The demands of (6:22-23). They do not see the truth of their
the Sermon are to be interpreted literally and own moral fault (7:3-5) and thus cannot in-
applied absolutely in all times and situations; terpret with understanding what confronts
(b) the Sermon's demands are to be interpre- them in their history (16:1-4). This leads to
ted literally but were intended to apply only the recognition that those who are empty in
to certain limited timessuch as the brief 5:3-6 are those who do know their lack. Mat-
interim that Jesus expected between his min- thew seems to envision two fundamental
istry and the end of the world; (c) the de- human situations: spiritual-moral lack con-
mands of the Sermon must be adapted to the cealed by self-deception, which is the condi-
realities of ongoing historical existence. tion of the lost; and the simultaneity of ac-
We will approach the Sermon here as an knowledged emptiness and achieved fullness,
integral part of the Gospel of Matthew, prob- which defines the condition of the saved.
ably written by a Hellenistic-Jewish Chris- This paradox, implied by the first clauses
tian. Though the Sermon is a discourse and of the Beatitudes, is underscored by the es-
not a narrative, a simple narrative structure chatological statements that follow immedi-
of process underlies it, the three constituent ately. The kingdom that fills with righteous-
parts of which are potentiality, process actu- ness and makes disciples children of God
alized, and consequence. Viewing the Ser- (5:6, 9) is both present (5:3, 10) and future
mon in relation to its narrative substructure (5:4-9). Realized eschatology frames futuris-
shows that this discourse is not an abstrac- tic eschatology. In the framing verses (5:3,
tion but teaches a way of life. 10) the kingdom is specifically referred to in
1. Potentiality. Employing three different the abstract and is present. In the framed
motifs, the Sermon begins by portraying how verses (5:4-9) concrete manifestations of the
human beings are given the potentiality to kingdom (filling, seeing God, etc.) are pro-
achieve the kind of righteousness necessary jected into the future.
to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20). Identity. Jesus confers identity or moral
576 Sermon on the Mount
character (a continuing disposition) upon the the act (murder or adultery)? Since it is
disciples by pronouncing them the salt surely not the ethical object or other, it must
(purification, preservation, flavoring) of the be the subject. (This could be viewed as an
earth and the light of the world (5:13-16). intuitive anticipation of Freud's claim that
Since light is an image both of who the disci- the punitive action of the superego does not
ples are (5:14) and of the works they perform distinguish between intentions and actions.)
(5:16), works are seen to flow from being. The command to remove an offending eye
Character is potentiality for action. Here we or hand (5:29-30) points to the reciprocal
have the Sermon's first clear statement of eth- interaction between act and character. An
ical intention (a forward-looking reason for act oriented to hand or eye can involve the
acting). The disciple is to perform good whole self, the character, in sin. But the self
works for the purpose of leading others to has power to reverse such an action, to re-
acknowledge the glory of God. If the works move the hand or eye.
attest to the reality of God, then grace as The law allows divorce generally, but Jesus
power for action must underlie them. allows it only on the ground of unchastity.
Jesus fulfillment of the law. Potentiality Here Jesus is made to agree with the rabbi
9
for righteousness is further provided by Shammai and is less radical than in the abso-
Jesus' clarification of what is required: he lute prohibition in Mark 10:1-12. The law is
fulfills the law in that he legitimates it by limited but not set aside.
bringing out its true meaning (5:17-20). In The law requires that oaths be kept, but
5:18-19 Matthew's Jesus affirms the validity Jesus forbids oaths altogether because a disci-
of the law of Moses in every detail. But Mat- ple always has the obligation to speak the
thew also interprets the law by love (5:43-48; truth. If the law is not here abrogated, it is
9:13; 12:7; 19:19; 22:34-40) and in various nevertheless made superfluous.
ways criticizes and abrogates the law (see The law allows an eye for an eye, but Jesus
below). Therefore, whatever may have been forbids all retaliation and resistance to evil.
the intention of the historical narrator (or his Thus the principle of equal retaliation, to
source) in 5:18-19, the contextualized mean- which the law gives voice, is set aside.
ing is that the reinterpreted and radicalized Jesus requires love for the enemy rather
law is still lawa condition for salvation than hatred. The law did not require hatred
even though not all the details of the law are of enemies, but some interpretations of it did
upheld. (e.g., the Qumran Manual of Discipline, 1QS
2. Process actualized (5:21-7:12). The 1.3-4, 9-10; 9.16, 21-22; 10.20-21). Such in-
teaching that comprises the center of the Ser- terpretations may be what is being opposed
mon implies two conflicting narrative pro- here. The disciples' concern for the well-
cesses. Tlie statements of norms defining the being of the other is to be as boundless anci
new righteousness that qualifies a person for inclusive as God's care for the just and the
the kingdom suggest a process of redemption, unjust. In this context we have the second
while references to various manifestations of major statement of intention: in order that !
unrighteousness and hypocrisy imply a pro- they (the disciples) might be children of God
cess of opposition or dissolution. These will they must love their enemies.
be selectively considered. It cannot be said in an unqualified way that '
The antitheses (5:21-48). Jesus says, the antitheses shift interest totally from self"
"You have heard... But I say " If Jesus' to other. The norms do concern themselves
word is placed against the Word of God in radically with the other person: the other is
the law, then what qualifies as the Word of not to be the object of anger, lust, neglect,-i
God, the content of righteousness, must be untruth, or vengeance, but is to be cared for: *"
open to reformulation. With regard to intentionality, however, the J
The law forbids murder and adultery, but generating purposes for action are that the;
Jesus also forbids anger or contempt, and the subject might enhance the glory of God 4
lust that is already adultery in the heart. (Matt. 5:16) and might be his child (5:45). *
Jesus claims for God not only one's action Additional intentions are to inherit eternal ?
but the obedience of one's inner, hidden core. life (6:19-21) and to avoid earthly suffering :
The law is not here set aside; rather, its (5:23-26). Self-interest is also expressed in
claims are intensified. To whom is the inner warnings to avoid such consequences of love- i
disposition (anger or lust) the equivalent of lessness as judgment, hell, guilt, and evil.
577 Seven Deadly Sins
Against hypocrisy. Matthew 6:1-18 at- (Deut. 30:11-14). We might agree that this
tacks the hypocrisy of practicing righteous- obedience is possible to the extent that the
ness (6:1)almsgiving, prayer, and fasting kingdom is present as enabling power (Matt.
for human praise rather than for secret divine 5:3, 6; 7:15-20; 13:16-17). But to the extent
reward. Whether the public pious role is a that the kingdom is future and beyond, the
conscious pretense or is based on the self- ethic is problematical and less possible.
deceived belief that it is true righteousness is When Matthew deals thematically with radi-
not clear. In 7:1-3 the hypocrisy involved in cal obedience as a necessary condition for
judging others is definitely self-deception salvation, he does not really take cognizance
rather than pretense. The guilty judge actu- of the impossibility and ambiguity. Yet there
ally does not see his or her own fault. is an undercurrent in tension with this legal
3. Consequence (7:13-27). The way of righ- strain. Salvation is also by grace as forgive-
teousness is a hard way that leads to life, ness (1:21; 20:28; 26:28). And ethical acts do
while the easy way of unrighteousness leads retain a dimension of ambiguity if the one
to destruction (7:13-14). Matthew warns who performs them has difficulty grasping
against the false prophets who do not pro- their full significance, as in 25:34-40: "When
duce the fruits of ethical works. He com- did we see thee hungry and feed thee?"
prehends human wholeness, a correspon- See also Eschatological Ethics; Jesus,
dence between tree (heart) and fruit (works) Ethical Teaching of; New Testament Ethics.
(7:15-20). Either both are bad or both are
good. This raises a question that cannot be H. D. Betz, Essays on the Sermon on the
pursued here: Do deeds, qualified as good or Mount, 1985; W. D. Davies, The Setting of
bad on the basis of rules, determine the con- the Sermon on the Mount, 1964; M. Dibelius,
dition of the heart, or does the heart, inde- The Sermon on the Mount, ET 1940; R. A.
pendently of rules, determine the quality of Guelich, The Sermon on the Mount, 1982;
deeds? Perhaps it is both in Matthew. W. S. Kissinger, The Sermon on the Mount,
The confession of Jesus as Lord when 1975 (history of interpretation and bibliogra-
based on prophesying and miracle-working is phy); H. Windisch, The Meaning of the Ser-
empty and even evil (7:21-23). This is in mon on the Mount, ET 1950.
striking contrast to the parallel in Luke 13:26- DAN O. VIA
27, where those who are rejected performed
no deeds at all. Matthew is perhaps combat- Seven Capital Sins see Seven Deadly
ing a form of Christian enthusiasm that em- Sins
phasized prophecy and miracles. Against this
he wants to affirm that only words from the Seven Deadly Sins
heart (Matt. 12:33-37) and deeds from the Although the phrase "seven deadly sins" is
heart (7:15-20) count as doing the will of commonly used, the Christian tradition has
God (7:21). often referred to the sins in question as "capi-
At the very end (7:24-27) the conse- tal" rather than "deadly" sins. The word
quences of following the two ways are "capital" is derived from the Latin caput
imaged as the house that stands and the (head). In this context "capital" does not
house that falls. The house that stands in the imply "mortal" sins worthy of death or capi-
flood is the wholeness of hearing (under- tal punishment. Rather, as Thomas Aquinas
standing) and doing that Matthew calls wis- suggested (ST I-II.84.3-~4), its sense is "prin-
dom. The house that falls in the time of crisis ciple, leader, director," and the capital sins
is the foolishness of hearing alone. The Ser- are sources or fountains of other sins, largely
mon ends on the note of fall and therefore because their ends such as wealth are so at-
needs the rest of the Gospel narrative to re- tractive and require other sins for their real-
verse the declining movement. ization. Aquinas also used the terms "capital
However extreme the demands may be, sins" and "capital vices" interchangeably,
Matthew regards acts of radical obedience as "sin" suggesting acts and "vice" suggesting
the necessary condition for salvation (6:14 habits. Contemporary usage includes both
15; 7:13-14, 19, 23-27; 16:27; 18:35), and he acts and habits under the "seven deadly
regards them as possible (7:24-27; 11:28-30; sins." There is no list of seven deadly or capi-
19:17-19; 23:23) just as the law regarded it- tal sins in scripture, even though there are
self as fulfillable and within human reach several other lists of sins. Gregory the Great
Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit 578
presented an early list of seven capital sins tion in the USA is difficult tQ summarize. The
that was modified over the centuries. The absence of basic constitutional provision
following sins are now most often recognized: mandating gender equality before the law
pride*; covetousness* (avarice or greed); (what is now referred to as the Equal Rights
lust*; gluttony*; envy*; anger*; and sloth*. Amendment) means that no consistent, clear
JAMES F. CHILDRESS line of constitutional interpretation about
women's rights has emerged. Constitutional
Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit provisions for the rights of citizenship have
These are the gifts enumerated in the Sep- been applied to women erratically because
tuagint version of Isa. 11:2. They are wisdom, gender fairness is not mandated. Further-
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowl- more, the few pieces of federal civil rights
edge, piety, and the fear of the Lord (godly legislation prohibiting sex discrimination
fear). Augustine considers them in reverse have been casually enforced, or rendered null
order as "seven steps" in the development of and void by subsequent judiciary interpreta-
the Christian life. tion. In addition, many of the laws which
JOHN MACQUARRIE most conspicuously disadvantage women are
shaped by civil or criminal codes that are the
Sex Discrimination province of the separate states or local com-
References to "sex" are ambiguous because munities. In spite of weak legal provisions
this English term may denote a broad spec- against sex discrimination, the accelerating
trum of human reality, from specific genital moral and theological debate about it is cer-
activity to numerous aspects of ancient and tain to increase challenges to its legality. (In
modern social, cultural systems that shape the UK the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act has
the meaning of femaleness and maleness. In been somewhat effective in reducing dis-
spite of ambiguity, sex discrimination most crimination against women in the work
commonly refers to acts, practices, or policies place.)
that disad vantage persons on the basis of gen- The range of ethical and religious assess-
der, whether as female or as male (see Dis- ments of sex discrimination is also difficult to
crimination). Because of widespread histori- summarize. A complex variety of positions i$
cal-cultural patterns of male supremacy (see the result of intricate sets of assumptions
Women, Status of), most expressions of sex rooted in divergent interpretations of humai*
discrimination, or "sexism"as practices and divine nature, including varied theories
that express sex discrimination have come to of society and conceptions of justice implicit
be calledinvolve unfairness to females. in these. Such differences appear not chiefly
Claims of sex discrimination against males as moral disagreement in the narrow sense
are increasing, however, as awareness of the that is, differences over moral principles*
conditioning effects of gender spread. Specifi- but as more inclusive philosophical and/or
cations of what constitutes sex discrimina- theological presumptions. Normative evalua-
tion and evaluations of its legal, moral, and tive opinions about sex discrimination run
religious significance vary. Such disagree- the gamut of the ideological spectrum, from
ments are always ideological because all beliefs that most differing treatment of
human beings have interests and perceptions women and men is "natural" or "divinely
of self-interest related to gender. ordained" and has positive moral and theo*
Because law reflects the interests of domi- logical significance, to convictions that suq
nant social groups, male-dominated societies differences are deeply suspect morally and
have been slow to adopt legal constraints religiously. At the former end of the spec- !
against sex discrimination. Laws aimed to trum, any gender role shifts are themselves ^
proscribe or limit it are of recent origin. wrong because they violate natural and/of )
Much initial legislation aimed to remedy the divine order, while at the latter end, the com-1
disadvantaged status of women actually fur- mon humanity of men and women is pre '
ther legitimated separate and distinctive sumed to require active effort to minimize the ;
treatment of women under law. As a result, differential social advantages of being born
compensatory laws have become sources of male or female.
contemporary men's claims that they are vic- It is important to observe that unless some
tims of sex discrimination. common ontic ground between male and fe-;
The current legal status of sex discrimina- male being is presumed, the existence of "sex ;
579 Sexual Ethics
discrimination" itself will not be acknowl- Price, Women's Rights and the Law, 1977; B.
edged. To speak of such discrimination al- Chiplin and P. J. Sloane, Tackling Discrimi-
ready presumes such a negative moral judg- nation at the Workplace: An Analysis of Sex
ment and affirms the belief that males and Discrimination in Britain, 1983; M. Cohen,
females ought to be considered members of T. Nagel, and T. Scanlon (eds.), Equality and
the same species so that the most basic uni- Preferential Treatment, 1977; L. Kanowitz,
versalizing criteria of morality apply. It is Equal Rights: The Male Stake, 1981; D. Ma-
widely agreed that we should treat like cases guire, A New American Justice: Ending the
alike, so rights and obligations predicated of White Male Monopoly, 1980; J. Pieck, The
one gender must be applicable to both if spe- Myth of Masculinity, 1981; A. Sargent (ed.),
cies commonality is assumed. Not all agree Beyond Sex Roles, 1977; R. A. Wasserstrom,
that the universalizability* intrinsic to the Philosophy and Social Issues: Five Studies,
moral point of view applies to gender. 1980.
This normative diversity is paralleled by a BEVERLY WILDUNG HARRISON
range of empirical disagreements about the
scope and manifestation of sex discrimina- Sexual Ethics
tion. Those whose normative convictions in- The traditional Judeo-Christian framework
cline them to accept a broad range of differ- for evaluating sexual acts and relations is
ence in the treatment accorded men and marriage*. The central purpose associated
women usually presume that manifestations with sexual intercourse has been procrea-
of sex discrimination are rare. The burden of tion*; procreation, sexuality, and marriage
proof as to its existence falls on the claimant, have been understood largely in terms of the
since sex discrimination, in this view, exists welfare of societies rather than individuals,
only in infrequent situations where a woman i.e., of familial, tribal, national, and religious
of demonstrated equal or superior compe- communities. The ideal sexual act has been
tence to a given male can be shown to have defined as heterosexual, potentially procrea-
been the victim of conscious prejudice*. tive, and expressive of the permanent, mo-
Those at the other end of the evaluative spec- nogamous relationship which facilitates nur-
trum, who believe differential patterns of ture of children and domestic and social
gender treatment are ethically and/or theo- stability.
logically dubious, see a different empirical Post-Reformation, especially post-En-
reality. They believe that sex discrimination lightenment, Western Christianity stresses
is widespread, and that its manifestations are the value and subjective experience of the
subtle and self-perpetuating. They assume individual, and construes the importance of
that justifications about gender difference as individuals as on a par with that of society.
"natural," or divinely decreed, are ideologi- The consequences for ethics, especially sex-
cal myths designed to perpetuate gender in- ual ethics, have been significant. Personal
justice, and that such rationales, when criti- fulfillment and interpersonal relationship
cally scrutinized, reveal assumptions of male have become preeminent criteria of sexual
supremacy. morality; marriage and procreation are eval-
Explicit ethical and theological debates uated in relation to these goals. The extent of
about gender have become widespread only this shift may be gauged by the degree to
in the last two decades. In vast areas of the which the influence of five norins of sexual
world this issue is now being raised for the activity has varied in Christian tradition and
first time. As a result, we may predict that its biblical precedents. Three of these norms
ethical controversy regarding sex discrimina- regard the normative purposes of sexual ac-
tion will escalate. tivity: (1) procreation; (2) satisfaction of sex-
See Equality; Fairness; Feminist Ethics; ual desire or drives; (3) expression of a posi-
Justice; Liberation Theology; Oppression; tive affective relation between the partners
Respect for Persons; Women, Status of. (love). Two additional criteria regard the
normative relation within which these pur-
B. A. Babcock, A. E. Freedman, E. H. Nor- poses may be met: (4) marital commitment,
ton, and S. C. Ross, Sexual Discrimination usually permanent and exclusive; (5) hetero-
and the Law, Law School Case Book Series, sexuality. The partnership of persons of op-
1975 (new edition forthcoming); B. A. posite sex is an implicit precondition of pro-
Brown, A. E. Freedman, H. Katz, and A. M. creative marriage; the heterosexual norm
Sexual Ethics 580
comes into question in proportion to a de- in the biblical literature, e.g., Rebekah,
cline in emphasis on procreation and a rise in Sarah, Rachel, Leah, Zipporah, Deborah,
emphasis on interpersonal sexual commu- Naomi, Ruth, Abigail, and Judith (cf. Prov.
nion and pleasure. 31:3-31). A counterpoint to the procreative ,
The Bible is the universal and fundamental focus is the Song of Solomon (Song of Songs),
source of specifically Christian ethics. The in which the tender, passionate eroticism of
OT (Hebrew Bible) presents procreative mar- lovers is portrayed with no reference to pro-
riage as the norm (see Old Testament Eth- creation or even to marriage.
ics). The accounts of the creation of human- In the NT the importance of kinship, mar-
ity in Gen. 1-3 construe sexual differentia- riage, and the production of children is rela- 3
tion as part of God's design, as good, and as tivized by the eschatological horizon and gos- T
you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave debates still continue about the appropriate \
me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed answer, especially about the appropriate linf
me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was between justice* and claims ofrights*,on the
sick and you visited me, I was in prison and one hand, and compassion* and charity* as
you came to me." In response to their ques- expressions of voluntary individual and cor?
tion about when they did all this to him, the porate activity, on the other (see also Capital*
King will answer, "Truly, I say to you, as you ism; Laissez-faire; Socialism).
595 Socialism
Where the welfare state does not exist or is are scarce? (7) What are the best mechanisms
severely limited, the role for the churches' for participation by recipients in identifying
social services is correspondingly greater. and weighing their needs? (8) When there are
But however the line is drawn, it is doubtful disputes between givers and receivers about
that the state could meet all fundamental the relevant needs and their priorities, whose
human needs. Not only will there be holes in interpretation and evaluation should prevail?
the social safety net, but some needs may not When should love become paternalistic (see
be covered adequately or at all. Furthermore, Paternalism) and override the wishes of
churches and various voluntary associations* "victims" in order to meet their needs?
are often able to respond in ways not open to See several other articles on specific social
state bureaucracies. Various mixes of private services: Aging, Care of the; Almsgiving;
and public social services can coexist in the Care; Children; Counseling; Handicapped,
same society. In some social services, the pri- Care of the; Health Care, Right to; Hospice;
vate sector is primary or exclusive; in others, Hospitality; Hunger, World; Orphans; Pov-
it plays a major role, sometimes with public erty; Sick, Care of the; Race Relations; Re-
funds and subsidies; in still others, its role is fugees; Widows. See also Charity; Ecclesi-
minor (e.g., corrections). The public share ology and Ethics; Ecumenical Movement;
comes from taxes, while the rest comes Institution/Institutionalization; Liberation
mainly from private charity* and philan- Theology; Love; Official Roman Catholic So-
thropy*, especially by religious bodies, com- cial Teaching; Philanthropy; Voluntary As-
munities, and foundations. sociations.
Both ethical and practical questions JAMES F. CHILDRESS
emerge, (1) What is the appropriate mix of
public and private? Charity sometimes de- Socialism
means recipients, who prefer to assert their It is no easier to give an objective account of
rights. (2) What is the proper balance be- the essence of socialism than to do the same
tween two legitimate concerns of love*: aid- for Christianity. Neither is amenable to neat
ing victims and reforming structures? (See definition. On the one hand, socialism is an
Liberation Theology; Revolution.) (3) How ideal, a vision of a day when equality, justice,
can instrumental actions be combined with fraternity, and liberty will all find full expres-
expressive actions? Sometimes victims are sion in society. On the other hand, socialism
viewed mainly as occasions for the expression is a set of policies or institutions calculated to
of love, and the effectiveness of different re- initiate and maintain such a society. In par-
sponses is not adequately assessed. Thus, ticular there is usually an emphasis on the
critics contend that the churches' social ser- common control or ownership of the means
vices are simplistic and, in some instances, of production, distribution, and exchange.
even counterproductive (see Compassion; There is much disagreement as to whether
Philanthropy). (4) When should churches ownership is necessary for control, whether
adopt bureaucratic approaches to social ser- control or ownership of only one sector of the
vices? It is not possible to equate bureau- economy is enough, and whether the com-
cratic and personalistic approaches with pub- mon interest can best be expressed through
lic and private approaches respectively, for the state or in other ways. The term socialism
the church itself must sometimes develop is often used interchangeably with commu-
bureaucratic structures in order to increase nism*; or, in some types of Marxist thought,
its effectiveness and efficiency in loving ac- as a stage on the way to a Communist society.
tions. (5) What is the proper balance of re- Among early instances of socialist experi-
sponses to material needs and to spiritual ments, the so-called "apostolic communism"
needs? Evangelicals (see Evangelical Ethics) of the Jerusalem church (Acts 2:44-47; 4:
insist on a major spiritual component in their 32-5:11), the monastic life-style of Plato's
social service, while some other groups ne- Guardians, and the Levellers and Diggers in
glect or shun it. This question also connects 17th-century England are often mentioned.
with questions about whether to provide ser- These suggest that there is a perennial attrac-
vices directly or indirectly and about modes tiveness in the socialist vision, particularly
of cooperation with secular groups that do for Christians, but they have no contribution
not share Christian beliefs. (6) Which human to make to the framing of socialist policies or
needs should receive priority when resources institutions in the modern world. Indeed, al-
Socialism 596
though one may trace socialist ideas from its strong emphasis on a secular eschatologi-
roots in classical philosophy and the Judeo- cal hope, which has had considerable influ-
Christian tradition, and much modern social- ence on theologians.
ist thought stems from Rousseau, the term The alternative, non-Marxist, strand of so-
itselffirstcame into common use referring to cialist thought is often called social democ-
the "Utopian socialists" of the early 19th cen- racy and sees socialism as compatible with
tury such as Robert Owen (1771-1858), liberal democracy*. It often has close histori-
Charles Fourier (1772-1837), and Henri de cal and present links with ChristianityBrit-
Saint-Simon (1760-1825). Through writings ish socialism has been said to owe more to
and experiments in community living they Methodism than to Marxism. A characteris-
maintained and developed a socialist vision tic form of social democracy is Fabianism
and made a significant protest against the (the Fabian Society was founded in 1884),
injustices of their society. But they were which has little systematic theory but seeks a
politically and economically marginal, and range of detailed reforms ("gas and water
did not engage with the structures of political socialism"), is nonrevolutionary ("the neces-
power. With some justice Engels said of sity of gradualness"), and attempted to effect
them: "To one and all socialism is the expres- change constitutionally by influencing the
sion of absolute truth, reason and justice; it administrative and political elites. Social de-
needs but to be discovered in order to con- mocracy believes that capitalism has changed
quer the world by the virtue of its own and that socialist values may be substantially
strength." Their socialism had a timeless realized within a mixed economy in which
quality and was not rooted in detailed and the market'is regulated in the public interest
careful economic analysis. and there is provision for hardship and prog-
What has been called "scientific" socialism ress toward a more equal form of society in
began to emerge in the work of Saint-Simon, some form of welfare state*. The influence of
but Marx and Engels claimed to have made John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) upon
a science out of socialism by placing it on modern social democracy is profound, and
solid ground rather than dreams and specula- the collapse of the Keynesian consensus in
tions. The key idea is expressed neatly by the Western nations has led to a major crisis
Drkheim: "Society cannot become indus- for social democracy. Many contemporary
trial unless industry is socialized. This is how social democratic thinkers like C. A. R. Cros-
industrialism logically ends in socialism." land (1918-1977) eschew Marxist theory and
Marx's great work was a minutely detailed see socialism as essentially the pursuit of
analysis and critique of capitalist society, in equality*, although there is considerable am-
which he saw the seeds of the future socialist biguity in their understanding of that term.
society germinating and sprouting. There is There is a long history of interaction be-
today a vigorous debate under way about the tween Christianity and socialism. English
interpretation of Marx's thought (see Marx- Christian Socialism was founded in the mid*
ist Ethics). One school sees in Marx's early 19th century by F. D. Maurice, J. M. Lud?
humanistic and moral writings the key to the low, and Charles Kingsley and has been car- j
understanding of his thought; the other re- ried on in a variety of groups and societies |
gards these writings as a false start and re- until today. Some of these Christian Social* |
gards Marx's real contribution as his mature ists mainly opposed capitalism's emphasis onl
writings in which he "established a new sci- self-interest and competition. On the contif;
ence: the science of the history of 'social for- nent of Europe there has been an ongoiqgj
mations' " (Althusser). Of the many variants dialogue between theology and socialist idea$1
of Marxist thought three deserve mention which profoundly influenced the thought of!
here: Stalinism was a simplified, rigid, and many major theologians, most notably Kaii|
dogmatic version of Marxism which became Barth and Paul Tillich. Since the death of;
the ruling ideology of the USSR and its satel- Stalin and the rediscovery of the thought 0$
lites under Stalin's regime; Maoism, which the young Marx, more open discussion ha$J
emphasized the role of the peasantry as the been possible between Christianity and;
agents of revolution and asserted that contra- Marxism, and a greater awareness on bothj
dictions and thus change will continue even sides that, despite Marxism's explicit athe-?
in a Communist society; and the visionary ism, there are many common concerns./
Marxism of Ernst Bloch (1885-1977), with Thus, much recent theology has seen Marx- ;
597 Society
ism as an essential and challenging dialogue mants, the secret police, the courts, and even
partner. The influence of Marxism upon the health care system to suppress deviance
Latin American liberation theology* is pro- of all kinds. A pluralistic society (see Plural-
found, and many liberation theologians ism) has many intermediate groups (such as
adopt Marxist social analysis and see Marx- labor unions, voluntary associations, and po-
ism as a constructive corrective to distortions litical parties or relatively independent coali-
in Christian understanding and praxis. tions of constituencies with mobile alle-
See Capitalism; Collectivism; Property. giances) that give vital expression to the
interests of all major segments of the popula-
J. Bentley, Between Marx and Christ, 1982; tion and inspire a sense of legitimacy among
R. N. Berki, Socialism, 1975; L. Kolakowski, the citizens. Mass society contains atomized
Main Currents of Marxism, 3 vols., ET 1978; masses who no longer feel adequately repre-
J. Miguez-Bonino, Christians and Marxists, sented by intermediate groups and no longer
ET 1976; R. H. Preston, Church and Society acknowledge the authority of stable elites;
in the Late Twentieth Century, 1983. therefore, the health of the body politic is
DUNCAN B. FORRESTER endangered by apathy and attendant vulnera-
bility to manipulation by demagogues who
Society know how to use the mass media to exploit
In Ferdinand Tonnies's famous discussion of the anxieties, prejudices, and frustrated aspi-
Gemeinschaft (community*) and Gesell- rations of the citizenry.
schaft (society), society is the type of associa- Establishment social analysts usually main-
tional organization and impersonal human tain that contemporary America is a healthy
contact characteristic of the modern indus- pluralistic society in which representative de-
trial world. Society "is conceived as mere co- mocracy functions reasonably well under the
existence of people independent of each protection of a relatively free press. Critics
other," who relate to one another only be- such as Herbert Marcuse or Bertram Gross
cause it is in their interest to relate segmen- are less sanguine: they contend that it is al-
tally in particular areas of life where they are, ready a "one dimensional society" in which
for utilitarian reasons, interdependent. Apart various forms of surplus-repression and op-
from "transactions" there would be no "com- pression are masked by modern forms of
mon values," and the latter would disappear "bread and circuses," or that we are clearly
when the former had been concluded. Max headed toward a "friendly fascism" that will
Weber stressed society's rationalization of all be justified by progaganda and made palata-
productive energies in the laws and regu- ble by the distraction of "mass culture." Neo-
larized procedures that make bureaucratic conservatives distinguish between totalitar-
institutions so different from traditional col- ian societies and those which are merely
lectivities and legal-rational authority so dif- authoritarian (i.e., those which snuff out po-
ferent from traditional or charismatic au- litical dissent while allowing economic and
thority. cultural freedom), but this distinction is re-
Social analysis rooted in the ideal typifica- garded as an ideological ploy by most observ-
tion of "community" and "society" yielded ers.
an abundance of insights, but both concepts Typologies that are advanced as purely an-
were never more than heuristic devices that alytical usually have, or are given, a norma-
could mislead as well as guide. The unprece- tive thrust. Thus the Gemeinschaft-Gesell-
dented pace of technological, social, and cul- schaft schema is frequently used as a means
tural change in the 20th century soon led to to bemoan the anonymity, rootlessness, and
the development of more highly differen- anomie* of modern urban life. Yet admirers
tiated typologies. One of the most important of the benefits of technological abundance
is that of William Komhauser, whose discus- and pluralism have not been bashful about
sion of the distinguishing characteristics of pointing out the advantages of the "secular
totalitarian, pluralistic, and mass societies (in city" and the "I-You" relationships which it
addition to traditional society, which is fosters, the argument being that Stadt Luft
44
difficult to categorize because they are often no. 2, May 1973, pp. 97-108; J. Fletcher*
voluntarily accepted by the parents and be- Morals and Medicine, 1954; K. Lebacqz,
cause they are not involuntary in the sense of "Sterilization: Ethical Aspects," EB, 1978;
being performed against the will of a compe- K. M. Ludmerer, Genetics and American Sb-
tent person. ciety: A Historical Appraisal, 1972; "NSFG
This recent debate had its background in [National Survey of Family Growth] 1982$
ill-conceived and often discriminatory poli- Sterilization Use Up, Pill Use Down Among
cies of the early 20th century (see Eugen- Married Women," Family Planning Perspec&
ics). In the USA from 1905 to the early 1930s tives 16, no. 1, Jan./Feb. 1984, pp. 40-41; Jf
and in Nazi Germany during the 1930s, there T. Noonan, Jr., Contraception: A History of
was a strong interest in preventing "feeble- Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologian$
minded" persons from reproducing. By 1931, and Canonists, 1965; "Sterilizations 0 $
thirty states in the USA had passed compul- Sharply in 1982," Family Planning Perspec?
sory sterilization laws, which applied to a tives 16, no. 1, Jan./Feb. 1984, pp. 37-38; ^
wide variety of "hereditary defectives." In Walters and W. Gaylin, "Sterilizing the Ra*
1933 Adolf Hitler promulgated the Eugenic tarded Child," HCR 6, no. 2, April 1976, pft
Sterilization Law in Germany. 13-15.
Because of the excesses committed in the LEROY WALTEI
name of eugenics during the early decades of
the 20th century, most Christian thinkers Stewardship see Energy; Environment*!
have been reluctant to support nonvoluntary Ethics; Image of God
sterilization of the mentally retarded. Only
Joseph Fletcher continues to advocate such Stoic Ethics
a policy. Other Christian commentators have For the Greek, philosophy was divided int$
been willing to support hysterectomy for the three parts, logic, physics, and ethics (Cicec&
benefit of some retarded teenagers (see Cur- On the Chief Good and Evil 4.2.4), but for t)g
ran) or the review of individual cases to de- Stoic the other departments of learning
termine whether sterilization fulfills the for- isted solely for the sake of ethics. If the Stftjg
mal requirements of just cause, last resort, speculated, it was in order to live (DiogeiM
and due process (see Walters and Gaylin). Laertius 7.84; Epictetus, Discourses 3.2). i| :
Competent persons. The classic instance Basic to the Stoic idea of ethics is the Stall
in which competent persons were sterilized idea of God. God is everywhere and in eve
against their will was punitive sterilization, human being. "God is near you, with yO
especially in the case of sexual offenders. within you. I say it, Lucilius, a holy spirit $i||
More recent cases involve (1) pressure on within us, spectator of our evil and our goo||
women who have already borne several chil- our guardian" (Seneca, Letters 41.12). Bp
dren to be sterilized, and (2) the requirement not only is God everywhere present. Every*
by some employers that applicants for certain thing is settled and arranged by God. Thtyl
types of potentially hazardous jobs be steril- the Stoic has two allied conceptions. There
ized as a precondition for employment. the conception of heimarmen, which is fat#j
607 Strikes
This in itself might be detached and mechani- humanity is a sacred thing and the resting
cal. But to it there is joined the conception of place of the Divine (Seneca, Letters 92.13;
pronoia, which is providence. The control of 120.14), and that goodness means the total
God is carried out in care for all living things acceptance of the will of God, which is ex-
(Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 2.53.132; pressed in events.
2.56.164). Fate and providence are one, and
literally nothing happens but by the will of E. R. Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, 1931; L.
God. Edelstein, The Meaning of Stoicism, 1966; J.
An obvious question emerges. If every- M. Rist, Stoic Philosophy, 1969; J. M. Rist
thing is settled and arranged, how do human (ed.), The Stoics. 1978.
beings come into it at all? How can there be WILLIAM BARCLAY
such a thing as ethics? To us there is left one
thing, and it is all-importantthe power of Strikes
assent. The ultimate weapon of trade unions* and
This then gives us the key to Stoic ethics. professional associations to induce manage-
Goodness is willingly to accept the will of ments to agree to acceptable terms in wages
God, or, to put it in another way, to live and conditions (see Collective Bargaining).
according to Nature. If everything is th Less extreme forms of pressure include the
will of God, then the secret is to learn to "go slow" or "work-to-rule." Many lightning
want what we have (Epictetus, Manual 8). (or wildcat) strikes are a quick way of getting
Seneca says: "To obey God is liberty" (On grievances at work settled. Others are a more
the Happy Life 15.7). "He does not will it," serious and prolonged trial of strength whose
says Epictetus, "I do not wish it" (Dis- success or failure depends upon a mixture of
courses 4.1.89). We can either accept the the cogency of the cause, the extent of unioni-
will of God willingly or we can struggle zation, the financial strength of the corpora-
against it. Accept it we must. This has cer- tion or public authority, the basic importance
tain consequences. (1) Virtue is a thing of of the product, and the extent of available
the mind. It comes by putting one's mind to alternative sources of supply of the good or
it, and, like walking in a child, it comes by service in question. Strikes are meant to hurt
practice. (2) Virtue may therefore be the employers, and through them the con-
learned, and in the end virtue is knowledge sumers of the product. To what extent strikes
and vice is ignorance. (3) Virtue itself is all- should be regulated by public law, civil or
sufficient; nothing else matters. Everything criminal, is much discussed, and it varies
else is adiaphoros, indifferent. But if every- from country to country. A major question is
thing is indifferent, then action is paralyzed. how far any such law is enforceable against
So the things that are indifferent are divided determined collective opposition. Another
into things to be sought, like health and question is what occupations are considered
beauty and honor and good birth, and so sensitive that strikes in them are forbid-
things that are to be rejected. (4) The Stoic den, and how the community which forbids
draws a distinction between things in our them is to provide for grievances in those
power and things not in our power. Only occupations to be dealt with.
one thing is in our powerthe assent of the Efforts have been made to produce criteria
will. Here we come to the most characteris- for the just strike akin to thpse for the just
tic aspect of Stoicism. If the will is every- war*. (1) Is there a just cause? (2) Have all
thing, then the supreme evil is motion. To forms of negotiation been exhausted? (3) Will
have emotion is to be diseased (Cicero, Tus- the good achieved outweigh the damage
culan Disputations 3.10.23). The wise must caused? (4) Is there a reasonable chance of
become apaths, not apathetic, but cleansed success? (5) How much harm will be done to
of all emotion, so that they can endure the innocent parties? (6) Will the strike be car-
greatest pain, and see even the death of their ried out by legitimate means? If these criteria
nearest and dearest, and say only that this are seen not as fixed rules but as considera-
is the will of God (Epictetus, Discourses tions to be borne in mind, there is the possi-
1.4.111, 112). bility of useful developments along these
Stoic ethics consist of the remembrance lines; they are an instance of traditional
that life is lived in the presence of God, that Christian wisdom in handling conflicts by
Subjectivism, Ethical 608
criteria of prudence* and proportion (see also what lesser and subordinate organizations
Proportionality, Principle of; Ends and can do." In Mater et Magistra (1961), Pope
Means). John XXIII cautioned against a too restric-
Attempts are made to distinguish between tive interpretation of the principle, especially
industrial and political strikes, with the latter in view of the greater complexity existing in
frowned on by many as illegitimate, but there social relationships in the modern world.
is no clear distinction between the two, espe- See also Official Roman Catholic Social
cially when in all advanced industrial coun- Teaching.
tries local and national political authorities CHARLES E. CURRAN
are substantial employers. Using industrial
action to bring down the entire political order Suffering
is another matter and has to be treated under Suffering is the opposite of action*. In action,
the heading of civil disobedience*, its nature a person freely initiates a series of events in
and justification. As to strikes, Christians order to bring about some desired state of
have collective responsibilities in their jobs; affairs. In suffering, a person undergoes a se-
they must stand by their informed conscien- ries of events initiated from outside and lead-
tious judgment (as in the case of conscien- ing to a state of affairs which is not desired.
tious objection* to war), but they are likely to The "problem of suffering" is part of the
be very careful before going against collective wider problem of evil*, and that is a meta-
decisions in the case of a strike, and becom- physical or a theological problem rather than
ing blacklegs (or scabs). an ethical one. There are, however, at least
two points where suffering impinges on ethics.
R. H. Preston (ed.), Perspectives ort Strikes, There still lingers a widespread and an-
1975. cient idea that suffering befalls a person as a
RONALD PRESTON punishment for sins and wrongdoings. Thisj
belief was already contested in the OT dramj|
Subjectivism, Ethical of Job, and was explicitly denied by Jesug
Ethical subjectivism is the view that moral (Luke 13:1-5, etc.). It is true, of course, thai
judgments are equivalent to statements about some sins, especially sins of indulgence, ma>
the psychological states or attitudes of those bring suffering on the sinner, e.g., by undeft
who utter them. It is to be distinguished from mining health. But this is not a divine judg
emotivism*, relativism*, prescriptivism*. ment, and though the world today is full oj
R. M. HARE suffering people, there is no correlation b
tween their suffering and their sinfulness (S|
Sublimation see Defense Mechanisms Theodicy). #
The other point is that in many cases suj$
Subsidiarity, Principle of fering contributes to the development cj(
The term comes from Latin subsidium, mean- moral character*. This would certainly seen]
ing "help." The principle of subsidiarity spells to be an implication of the Christian ethic, fal
out the limited but positive role of the state in insofar as it is understood as a conformation
the light of a social theory that insists on the to Christ, it is a conformation to the crucifiai
dignity and the social nature of the human One (see Imitation of Christ). It is hard tl
person, the rights of the family, the need for imagine how there could be any depth d
intermediate associations, and a limited state sympathy* and love* in a person who tara
with the positive function of seeking the com- never known suffering at first hand. Bt
mon good. The content of this principle is while some suffering has this morally educ
found in Thomas Aquinas and in the Roman tive character, there is much more that is
Catholic ethical tradition. However, the term severe and apparently pointless that it is a
was first used and defined by Pope Pius XI in likely to embitter as to ennoble the suffered
Quadragesimo Anno (1931): "Just as it is Because so much suffering has this appal
gravely wrong to take from individuals what ently senseless character, it is generally r j
they can accomplish by their own initiative garded as a duty to relieve suffering whenevd?
and industry and give it to the community, so possible.
also it is an injustice and at the same time a
grave evil and disturbance of right order to C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 1940.
assign to a greater and higher association JOHN MACQUARRH&j
609 Suicide
Suicide and (3) an offense against humankind in that
Discussions on the morality of suicide are it both deprives society and one's own family
often confused by a failure to distinguish be- of a member prematurely and also denies
tween the willing surrender of one's life and them any opportunity of ministering to one's
the deliberate taking of it. Traditional Chris- needs. (Richard Fox, in the DME, 1981, p.
tian teaching affirms that in certain circum- 426, has noted that suicide "is the most sig-
stances a person may innocently relinquish nificant of all deaths in its impact on survi-
his or her life. They are occasions which call vors, causing long-lasting grief and guilt and
for self-sacrificefor example, in the per- a high suicide-expectancy.")
formance of one's duty while on military ser- It is in accord with this teaching that many
vice, in the defense of a friend unjustly at- codes of criminal law have imposed penalties
tacked, in ministering to the infectious sick, for suicide and attempted suicide, and that
in witnessing to one's faith in time of persecu- over long periods ecclesiastical law has with-
tion. In all instances of this kind the persons held Christian burial from one who has "laid
concerned do not primarily or directly will violent hands" on himself or herself. It has
their own death, but they are prepared to long been recognized, however, that acts of
accept it as the unavoidable consequence of suicide (though always "materially" or "ob-
their performing some act of charity, justice, jectively" sinful) may vary from the coldly
mercy, or piety to which they believe God premeditated to the utterly compulsive, that
has called them. If the same acts could be they can be related to a great variety of ad-
performed without their death they would verse personal, social, and environmental cir-
not choose to die. But the act that can prop- cumstances, and that in any particular case
erly be called suicide, namely, the direct and the degree of culpability depends upon the
deliberate taking of one's life (with or with- state of mind in which the act is done. In the
out assistance) for any self-regarding motive, present century increasing attention has been
is another matter. In antiquity and in modern paid to the psychopathology of suicide, and
times it has been defended as permissible or it seems clear that suicide is very often a less
even virtuous and honorable, on the ground voluntary act than was hitherto assumed.
that, as a human being, one's life is one's Thus, without conceding either that one has
own, and that in the last resort an individual therightto take one's own life or that all who
must therefore be allowed to terminate it at make the attempt must be presumed insane,
his or her discretion. Some Christians have a growing number of Christians support the
also attempted to justify it in cases of painful view that neither suicide nor attempted sui-
and wasting incurable disease especially cide should be regarded as a crime, since
when there are major burdens on others (see medical and sociological studies have shown
Euthanasia). But (notwithstanding those in- the irrelevance of the criminal law to the so-
stances of suicide in the Bible which are not lution of the problem. In some countries this
expressly condemned) the overwhelming is now being recognized. In the UK, for ex-
weight of traditional Christian opinion has ample, suicide ceased to be a felony in 1961,
held that suicide (as defined above) is a grave though to aid or abet suicide remains an
sin. offense. How great is the need for befriending
A human being is not the author of his or ministries specifically for the suicidal is
her own life nor its absolute owner. Life is shown by the enormous worldwide use of
entrusted to us by God that it may begin to them since the foundation of Th Samaritans
find its fulfillment in the loving service of in London in 1953.
God and our fellow humans here in this See also Autonomy; Involuntary Hospital-
world, and it is not for us to decide for how ization; Life, Sacredness of; Mental Illness;
long it shall be so used. Directly and deliber- Morality, Legal Enforcement of; Paternal-
ately to destroy one's own life is therefore ism; Responsibility.
said to be ( 1 ) a sin against God its creator and
redeemer, a rejection of his love and a denial M. P. Battin, Ethical Issues in Suicide, 1982;
of his sovereignty; (2) an offense against the M. P. Battin and D. J. Mayo (eds.), Suicide:
proper love of one's own person as a creature The Philosophical Issues, 1980; E. Drkheim,
made in God's image to share his glory, a Suicide: A Study in Sociology, ET 1952; S. E.
violation of the Sixth Commandment, and an Sprott, The English Debate on Suicide, 1961;
act of despair which precludes repentance; E. Stengel, Suicide and Attempted Suicide,
Sumptuary Laws 610
1970; E. (Chad) Varah (ed.), Samaritans in be kept by a Christian?" (On the Spirit and
the 80's, 1980. the Letter 23).
THOMAS WOOD The view that the Sabbath command was
transferred to the Lord's Day isfirstfound in
Summum Bonum see Agathology; Axi- the late 8th to the 9th century, in Rabanus
ology; Finality; Goodness; Teleological Maurus and Alcuin. It received definitive
Ethics; Thomistic Ethics form from Thomas Aquinas (see Thomistic
Ethics). On his view, the moral precepts of
Sumptuary Laws the Decalogue* correspond to natural law*
Laws intended to restrain extravagant ex- and are binding on all men; the ceremonial
penditure and to prevent the spread of habits precepts are abrogated. The moral precept in
of luxury. Such laws were being passed as the Sabbath commandment is "to give some
long ago as the days of ancient Rome, and time to the things of God"; with respect to
they may be compared with the "credit "thefixingof the time" (i.e., the seventh day)
squeezes" of modern times. it is a ceremonial precept (ST MI. 100.3). To
JOHN MACQUARRIE Aquinas we owe the distinction between
works of necessity and mercy (which are per-J
Sunday Observance missible) and servile work (which is not).
The word "Sunday"firstoccurs in Christian Luther stays close to Aquinas, but stresses
writing in Justin Martyr. In the NT the day the humanitarian reasons for a day of res^
is known by the Jewish term "thefirstday of and repudiates a holy day or Sabbath inv
the week" (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), and once posed on religious grounds, which would b
as "the Lord's day" (Rev. 1:10; cf. Didache bondage. Calvin also distinguishes moral an<
14). This, the day of resurrection (Mark 16:2; ceremonial law, but identifies only the second
etc.), was chosen for Christian gatherings, table of the Decalogue with natural law (a$
which were held either in the evening or very did some early Christian writers). The Sa^
early in the morning, since the day was a bath commandment is interpreted spiritual^
normal working day. by Calvin as a "type of the spiritual rest b^
There is nothing in the NT to associate this which believers were to cease from their ow$
day with the Sabbath. Jewish Christians con- works and allow God to work in then*!
tinued to observe the Sabbath, and problems (Institutes 2.8.28). This accords with his vieil
arose between Jewish and Gentile groups. of the Christian life as self-denial* (see Cajjg
Although this issue is not mentioned in Acts vinist Ethics), and is not confined to one dLrt|
15, for Paul any insistence on holy days, like in the week. Like Luther he sees the prov||
the insistence on circumcision, contradicts sion of a day for rest and worship as humanj|
the freedom and sufficiency of faith (Gal. and convenient, and abhors a "superstitio^
4:9ff.; cf. Col. 2); but otherwise he commends observance of days." He even says, "I do nq|
mutual respect and tolerance (Rom. 14). cling so to the number seven as to bring tl)|j
The Gospels recount the free attitude of church under bondage to it." w
Jesus to the Sabbath, and the conflict that Yet in Reformed churches and countri^j
this aroused. The saying "The sabbath was Sabbatarianism* revived. The WestminsteJ
made for man, not man for the sabbath; so Confession of Faith states it with utter cla|
the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath" ity. "As it is of the law of nature that, |jj
(Mark 2:27-28) seems to be not a general general, a due proportion of time be
principle, but a messianic claim. The Sabbath apart for the worship of God; so, in M
finds its fulfillment in the liberating activity Word, by a positive, moral, and perpettfj
of Jesus, just as does the year of jubilee (Luke commandment, binding all men in all ara
4:21). he hath particularly appointed one day Jj
In 321, a law of Constantine proclaimed seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy ura
Sunday as a day of rest, but the church was him: which, from the beginning of the wojffl
slow to interpret Sunday in a Sabbatarian to the resurrection of Christ, was the lai
way. Augustine can write, "Well, now, I day of the week; and, from the resurrectiS
should like to be told, what there is in these of Christ, was changed into the first day-'J
ten commandments, except that on the ob- the week, which in Scripture is called tra
servance of the Sabbath, which ought not to Lord's Day, and is to be continued to th||
611 Superego
end of the world as the Christian Sabbath" See Morality, Legal Enforcement of; Pa-
(XXI.7). Here the Sabbath is simply trans- ternalism.
ferred to the first day of the week. This
owes more to Thomas than to Calvin or the D. A. Carson (ed.), From Sabbath to Lord's
NT. Yet for centuries this view held almost Day, 1982; A. A. McArthur, The Evolution
unquestioned influence in Protestantism. In of the Christian Year, 1953; W. Rordorf,
Scotland and England, from the 17th cen- Sunday, ET 1968.
tury, the Sabbatarian assumption was ac- JAMES A. WHYTE
cepted. The only difference was over the
strictness of the observance. In the Evangel- Superego
ical revival strict Sabbath observance, and The term "superego" was introduced by Sig-
action for its enforcement, became a mark mund Freud in 1923 to describe the way the
of evangelical seriousness. In 1831 the ego* appears to be able to observe and judge
Lord's Day Observance Society was formed. itself. In this sense superego is a similar con-
Though the foundation of Christian Sab- cept to conscience*, but there are many as-
batarianism was the belief that Sabbath rest pects of conscience that are not included in
was a divine command, the arguments that the idea of a superego.
found widest support were those of Luther Freud believed that the superego develops
and Calvinthe convenience of a day free for between the ages of three and five years when
worship and the humane requirement to en- a child works through the strongly ambiva-
sure rest for servants and laborers. Changing lent feelings he or she has toward parents,
technology and social conditions have been and particularly toward the parent of the
more powerful to alter attitudes than theo- same sex. The superego reflects the child's
logical reflection. By the 1830s, proposals to understanding, or misunderstanding, of what
run railway trains on Sundays occasioned parents approve or disapprove, and hence of
much controversy. Improved travel, in- what they are likely to reward or punish.
creased leisure (thefive-dayweek, the "week- These judgments become part of the way the
end"), television, and the pluralism* of mod- child sees the world for himself or herself and
ern society have contributed to the erosion of are capable of bringing considerable pressure
Sabbath legislation and have made what re- to bear on the ego to inhibit or prevent ideas
mains seem like a relic from the past. The or actions of which the superego disapproves.
blessings of a quiet Sunday are less ap- Associated with the superego is the ego-ideal,
preciated than its restrictions. a conception of an ideal or perfect self mod-
The churches have been reconsidering eled on the parental standards. It is as if there
their position. Reports, such as "The Chris- is a faculty in the ego which stands off and
tian Use of Sunday" (Church of Scotland, constantly watches and criticizes by compar-
1962) and others, distinguish the Lord's ing the actual performance of the ego against
Day from the Sabbath, stress the duty of this ideal.
Christians to worship, and point to oppor- Both superego and ego-ideal are, then,
tunities of rest, family life, and healthful forms of internal censorship based not so
recreation. much on intelligent appraisal of evidence as
The convenience of a day on which people on unexamined acceptance of what the child
are free for worship is obvious, but it is ques- believed about the parents' wishes. The su-
tionable how far the church can insist on perego has the positive function of helping
Sabbath legislation on this ground. More im- the child develop some moral criteria for liv-
portant, perhaps, is the need to interpret rest ing in society. These criteria are inadequate,
and leisure. Much of the "recreation" of the however, as a basis for adult decision-mak-
modern world only continues the anxious ing, in which the ego ought to be the domi-
competitiveness that mars the rest of the nant psychic structure. The superego is com-
week. Men and women need more than ever monly too severe and limiting. Sustained
to learn how "to cease from their own works conflict between ego and superego can pro-
and allow God to work in them." But such duce deep psychic distress and strong feelings
a rest cannot be made binding on all people, of guilt even when the person concerned can
however much they need it. It is the fruit of see nothing wrong or immoral in his or her
faith. actions.
Supererogation, Works of 612
Some psychologists have dismissed reli- cepted the following rule: "The fact that the
gion as nothing more than a product of the Defendant acted pursuant to the order of his
superego. While it is clear that some religious Government or of a superior shall not free
belief and practice is an unreflective adoption him from responsibility but may be consid-
of parental views or is dependent upon ex- ered in mitigation of punishment if the Tribu-
periences with the earthly parents, this is a nal determines that justice so requires." The
totally insufficient explanation for all reli- plea of superior orders could serve to excuse
gious experience and phenomena. There is no conduct under some circumstances, or at
agreement among psychologists as to the least mitigate the blame, even when it cannot
roots of religion in human life. justify the conduct. But, Michael Walzer
argues, "only a man with a gun at his head
S. Freud, The Ego and the Id (1923), ET is not responsible" because people can still
1927; G. Peterson, Conscience and Caring, choose not to do what is illegal or immoral
1982. even if they are ordered to do so under the
GRAEME M. GRIFFIN threat of severe sanctions*.
See Civil Disobedience; Coercion; Con*
Supererogation, Works of science; Conscientious Objection; Conscrip-
In the traditional moral theology, these were tion; Just War; Military Service; Pacifism;
deeds going beyond what could be regarded Resistance; Responsibility; Sanction.
as of strict obligation. For instance, to obey
the counsels* of perfection was to go beyond G. Lewy, "Superior Orders, Nuclear War-
what is demanded by duty. Protestants have fare, and the Dictates of Conscience," in War
tended to reject the whole notion of works of and Morality, ed. R. A. Wasserstrom, 1971;
supererogation, and of course it is surely the M. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, 1977.
case that nothing humans can do could be JAMES F. CHILDRESS
more than they owe to God. Yet it is equally
true that one can distinguish between acts Surrogate Motherhood see Repro?
that are obligatory on all and acts that arise ductive Technologies
from a distinterested and wholehearted pur-
suit of the good. To give a concrete illustra- Swearing see Cursing/Swearing; Oaths)
tion, one could hardly say that it was Albert Vows
Schweitzer's duty* to give up his career and
train as a doctor. It may well be that he him- Sympathy
self saw it as a duty, once he had pondered Sympathy relates primarily to the human
it; but no one would have dreamed of blam- ability to understand and to share the feeling)
ing him had he continued his earlier activi- of other human beings. One common form if
ties. Perhaps we could say that in such cases may take is the arousal of, for example, coitf?
there is unusual sensitivity to what consti- passion* and pity in one person by the suffer-
tutes one's duty. But judged by the common ings of another. By extension, sympathy $
level of human and even Christian conduct, also used in a social or political context $0
one might well call such extraordinary acts describe a sense of approval and support $
"works of supererogation." ideologies or activities in which one is n<|
JOHN MACQUARRIE oneself directly engaged. M
Sympathy may also take the form | |
Superior Orders awareness of the feelings of another in SQ$
In Shakespeare's Henry V one of the soldiers a way that the person concerned experienqlj
says, "We know enough if we know we are those same feelings within his or her Q$jfl
the king's subjects. If his cause be wrong, our being. When sympathy in this sense is distm
obedience to the king wipes the crime of it guished from empathy*, attention is com
out of us." This doctrine of respondent supe- monly drawn to the danger of overinvoh
rior, of a soldier's plea of superior orders as ment in the feelings of others.
an excuse for and a denial of his responsibil- Ethically, sympathy is important for its
ity* for his illegal or immoral actions, such as pacity to motivate action in relation to tip
killing innocent civilians, was rejected in the situation of other people. It is, theref<$
Nuremberg Trials after World War II. The open to manipulation, and strong feelings Gf
United Nations War Crimes Commission ac- sympathy are not always reliable guides t<|
613 Taoist Ethics
appropriate action. People are said to play on from which he or she has no protection.
the sympathy of others when they attempt Unusual mana, which by definition goes with
deliberately to influence decision-making by high status in Polynesian society, made it im-
arousing feelings of pity or of involvement. possible for a king and a commoner to come
GRAEME M. GRIFFIN in physical contact because of the danger to
the commoner, thus forcing the most power-
Synderesis ful of kings into lonely, isolated lives.
Synderesis (or synteresis) is a term used by In less elaborately defined fashion, taboo
medieval theologians for our knowledge of can be seen on all levels of ancient and mod-
thefirstprinciples of moral action. The word ern life. The Ark of the Covenant and the
is generally supposed to be a corruption of Holy of Holies were taboo to the ancient Is-
the Greek syneidsis, "conscience"*. raelites. Here danger stemmed partly from
JOHN MACQUARRIE inherent mana and partly from the wrath of
God, depending perhaps on the sophistica-
Synergism tion of the observer. The caste system of
Synergism (derived from Greek synergeiti, India is an extraordinary complex of taboos,
"work together") is the teaching that the as are the attitudes of many racists for whom
human person cooperates with the divine calamity runs in the form of the degeneration
grace*, even if such co-working is no more of the "pure" race in some undefined but
than a response or acceptance of the gift of deeply feared manner.
God. If there were no such co-working, the Incest* is taboo for all societies, although
human recipient of grace would seem to be not all societies define incestuous relation-
only a puppet. The term was used for the ships in the same way, and some provide oc-
view of Melanchthon, who held that the casional ritualized rites for breaking the in-
human will works with the divine grace, cest taboo with impunity. These are
though priority belongs to grace. This was in emotionally highly charged religious occa-
opposition to Luther's view, sometimes sions.
called "monergism," according to which it is Where taboos are strong they support the
God's working alone that effects salvation ethical system peculiar to the culture because
and good works in human life. of their built-in sanctions. Like any other
JOHN MACQUARRIE custom* a taboo may eventually lose its
force, be broken with impunity, or become a
Systems, Moral perfunctory relic to which lip service only is
see Moral Systems, The given. Shortly before the arrival of missionar-
ies in Hawaii, the people, led by the king and
Taboo an important priest, suddenly gave up an ex-
Taboo refers to prohibition such that super- tremely complex taboo system. The king
naturally caused danger will result from in- publicly broke the taboos by way of demon-
fringement of the prohibition. By extension it stration, and much of the population fol-
also refers to anything forbidden by general lowed. The system had become so onerous
cultural sanctions or mores (rather than legal that its repudiation was a great relief. More
ones). typically, however, taboos disintegrate under
The term "taboo" came into the English the impact of culture contact, urbanization,
language from Polynesian languages. The education, skepticism, etc., because people
concept is most fully developed and explicitly gradually cease to believe in some of the
elaborated in the cultures of the Pacific re- forms of danger and calamity ascribed to
gion. In this area it is always associated very them.
closely with the concept of mana, nonper- See Anthropology and Ethics; Primitive
sonal extraordinary power. Whatever has Ethics.
powerful mana is taboo to the person who is WILLIAM A. SMALLEY
not protected from that mana, or whose
mana is not itself stronger. Thus mana at Taoist Ethics
work in one person's garden makes it taboo This term is highly misleading in at least two
to another person, who therefore cannot steal respects. As a name for philosophical Taoism
from the garden because of the danger of (tao-chia) associated with the works Lao Tzu
calamity resulting from contact with mana (also called Tao-te Ching) and Chuang Tzu,
Technology 614
the term may mistakenly suggest that these principal argument points to the absence of
works embody a normative ethical system. consensual standards for resolving disputes.
For in these works, particularly in Chuang Every normative system, moreover, presup-
Tzu, one finds a radical critique of ethical poses values that are disparately at odds with
systems, particularly of Mohism and Confu- other systems. There is and can be no value-
cianism (see Confucian Ethics). Further- neutral standard for resolving ethical dis-
more, the term is apt to suggest a confusion agreements. Secondly, because of these value
of philosophical Taoism with Taoist religion presuppositions, each ethical system may be
(tao-chiao), which is a corruption of the basic viewed as a product of the obscuration of the
thought of Lao Tzu and preaches some form human mind, which inevitably fails to re-
of divination, astrology, faith healing, witch- spond to changing circumstances. The key
craft, etc., and the existence of living immor- point in resolving perplexities is to cultivate
tals. The term, however, with these qualifica- a clear mind, much like a clear mirror, that
tions, is a convenient way to refer to the can reflect and respond to things as they
ethical significance of the ideas in Lao Tzu come. This feature of Chuang Tzu has in-
and Chuang Tzu. It must be noted that in fluenced Hsiin Tzu and the Neo-Confucians
spite of the similarities in these works (which of the Sung and Ming dynasties, particularly
have been influential throughout the history Chu Hsi and Wang Yang-Ming. While Lao
of Chinese philosophy), there are important Tzu and Chuang Tzu are critical of conven-
differences. Lao Tzu, on the whole, tends to tional morality and ethical systems, they are
be this-worldly; Chuang Tzu, otherworldly. an important challenge to any ethical philos-
Moreover, some of the inchoate ideas in Lao opher concerned with the problems of ethical
Tzu are more explicit in Chuang Tzu, e.g., skepticism or relativism.
the ethical significance of the notion of tran-
scendence and the unity and harmony of op- Wing-tsit Chan, The Way of Lao Tzu, 1963;
posite^. Wing-tsit Chan (tr.), A Source Book in Chi-
Characteristic of Taoist ethics is its em- nese Philosophy, 1963; Chen Ku-ying, Lao
phasis on wu-wei, or taking no action. From Tzu: Text, Notes, and Comments, 1977; D. C.
the individual point of view, wu-wei has the Lau (tr.), Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching, 1963; T.
force of "letting things be." In Lao Tzu, there Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu, 1965; B.
is an exaltation of weakness and submissive- Watson (tr.), The Complete Works of Chuang
ness. The good human life is viewed as one Tzu, 1968; Kuang-ming Wu, Chuang Tzu:
that conforms to the natural order, alterna- World Philosopher at Play, 1982.
tively, a life of tao (Way), or heaven, where A. S. CUA
events occur spontaneously and yet with a
constancy, though tao is said to be unuttera- Technology
ble, nameless, and mysterious but amenable The relationship between Christian belief and
to "makeshift descriptions" such as "the practice and the development of technology
great." In Lao Tzu, one alsofindsa statement is complex. On the one hand, it may be ar-
on "three treasures" such as compassion, fru- gued that Christianity and the cultural world*
gality, and "not getting ahead in the world." it has influenced have done as much or more;
On the whole, the good life recommended is than any of the other major world religions !
one that follows nature, i.e., a life of nonass- or the civilizations associated with them to
ertiveness and adeptness in coping with un- sustain an ethos in which the purposive con?*
foreseen circumstances of human life. An trol of the natural environment for the attain-S
ideal society is depicted as one of content- ment of better health, greater comfort, inH
ment and tranquillity, with no knowledge of creased prosperity, additional mechanical
or concern for peoples of other societies, and power, and productive knowledge has been ;
a small state with a small population, considered an appropriate human activity.
equipped with defensive weapons but no oc- On the other hand, Christians have fre-
casion to use them. quently expressed negative concerns about
From the philosophical point of view, the the consequences that flow from the pursuit
Chuang Tzu is a work of greater significance. of technological agendas and even at times
First, we have here an explicit argumentative have tried to resist them.
critique of all ethical systems that purport to Western technology has developed in sev-
offer guidance to resolving perplexities. The eral patterns, each of which has been most
615 Technology
characteristic of a particular period of its his- today is a compulsion for speed, made feasi-
tory. The first pattern began in the ancient ble by the internal-combustion engine and
world and existed up through the fifth cen- the extraction of petroleum from the earth on
tury of the Christian era. During this long a massive scale. Occasional Christian voices
time span, technology took the form of man- appeared throughout this period to protest or
ual and artistic techniques that aided the to resist these trends, but such voices were
making of pottery, cloth, furniture, aque- but whimpers as the majority in the Western
ducts, paved highways, and masonry build- world poured psychic and material resources
ings. J. David Bolter calls this "the elegant into the development of a technology marked
technology of the hand rather than of the by escalating amounts of mechanical power.
machine," since mass production was not yet Warfare was transformed by these develop-
imagined. In the Greco-Roman world, tech- ments from contact battle to massive destruc-
nology was more akin to the contemporary tion by mechanical means, and architecture
crafting of artifacts than to the widespread came to depend more on steel than on ma-
manufacture of standardized goods. Military sonry for structural strength.
weaponry, consisting of the sword and spear, The advent of nuclear power is sometimes
basically extended the arm and fist of the looked upon as bringing a new age because it
individual warrior. provided the prospects of obtaining energy,
The medieval world, which saw the devel- not from the burning of fossil fuels, but by the
opment of the stirrup and moldboard plow, direct transformation of matter into energy.
made a great effort to harness first animal and This seemed at first to promise to overcome
then inanimate power for the doing of work. the limits inherent in a technology of power
The development of the weight-driven clock dependent upon nonrenewable resources.
made possible the invention of machines that This age was ushered in with a military ac-
would run mechanically and without the tion that was as stunning in the amount of
constant guidance of human operators. The power unleashed as it was troublesome in the
development of the clock also tremendously indiscriminate killing involved. While regret-
increased the importance of chronological ting the military action which announced
regularity in the ordering of human affairs. this age, most Western nations placed a great
Even the workings of the cosmos came to be initial hope in the peaceful use of the atom for
interpreted as a pattern of inflexible regular- the production of power, but the path to that
ity. end has proved to be both more expensive
The Industrial Revolution* was character- and more dangerous than anyone atfirstsup-
ized primarily by the effort to harness the posed it would be. The eventual possibilities
power of nature to do work on a hitherto of this technology are still matters of intense
unprecedented scale. First the steam engine debatenot least in ecumenical circles.
and later the internal-combustion engine Not only mechanical devices but also
(both impossible without accurate means of chemical processes have been part of the in-
timing) were developed and put to use in a dustrial age. Chemical engineering has fur-
variety of applications. These engines de- nished fertilizers and pesticides used in agri-
pended upon the transformation of heat into culture, the plastics that have significantly
mechanical motion and were driven by the replaced the use of metals, the medicines
consumption of fuels that could be burned used in the healing arts, and the explosives
but once. used mainly in warfare. Interestingly, chemi-
The technology of the Industrial Revolu- cal warfare, while it threatens at any time to
tion provided exhilaration with power, since crawl out of the bottle like a malignant genie,
the belief was widespread that harnessing has not as yet been used to a major extent.
large amounts of power for the creation of Some of the most severe ecological problems
material goods would be an unprecedented are associated with the chemical industry
boon to humankind. But industrialization which produces many toxic wastes.
subordinated many human sensibilities to the The discovery of means to use electricity to
achievement of growth and to the mastery of run motors and light lamps has made possi-
nature, and it posed thefirstversions of those ble many technological innovations of an in-
practices that later would lead to the ecologi- dustrial nature. Indeed, it is the medium of
cal crisis. One of the features of the later electricity for the transmission of power that
industrial age that remains with us even makes energy more widely useful than it
Technology 616
could be if used only at the source of its would put craftspeople out of work. Others
generation. Electricity, used in a different have complained that machines, the consum-
way, has made communication possible over mate exemplifies of chronological rigidity,
long distances, it has changed the habits of dehumanize individuals and seriously affect
the culture by providing illumination for the the cultural ethos in which all of us live. They
doing of work at night, andmore recently argue that as a result the Western way of life
it has made possible a whole new kind of has experienced an increasing disconnected-
technology. The computer*, which depends ness with nature that has cut the human spe-
upon highly reliable electrical service, ex- cies off from the authentic ground of its crea-
tends the working orbit of the human mind turely existence, has intensified a mind/body
rather than the power of human hands or dualism, and has made social and political
limbs. Perhaps we stand too close to this new life harsh, manipulative, and obsessed with
technology to know all its possible impacts, power and productivity to the detriment of
but it poses somewhat distinctive, if not ut- more humane values. Jacques Ellul, the
terly different, kinds of issues. If computers French lay lawyer-theologian, has expressed
were to be utilized only to control the ma- this charge in perhaps its most forceful and
chines of the industrial period, their implica- extensive contemporary form.
tions would be momentous enough. In that Another criticism of technology and its
application the computer makes possible au- impact has come from those, including many
tomated manufacturing, space flight, incredi- Christians, who have recognized that the in-
bly sophisticated diagnostic devices in medi- dustrialization of the West has brought about
cine, and new forms of conflict that enable tremendous damage to the environment.
military personnel to destroy others at great Those who are concerned for the care of the
distances. But electronic technology is mo- earth (or, in the case of nuclear weapons, for
mentous because it promises to channel and its very preservation) offer different sugges-
control information, not merely extend me- tions for guarding against the ecological
chanical power. This opens up entirely new consequences of technology. Some advocate
kinds of technological achievements and eth- a return to a less exploitative kind of life-style
ical issues, the scope and consequences of and a social system of greater decentralizat
which we are just beginning to explore. tion and slower growth. Others believe that
Over the years Christians have been con- serious cultivation of greater scientific
cerned about certain problems and issues knowledge will provide the know-how for :
insofar as the sensible objects of these senses ences to strong drink in the Bible, and it|
increase the pleasurable use of objects of capacity to make mischief if taken to exceg
touch (e.g., the smell and taste of food). The is the subject of stern warnings. Parents whfl
specific virtue of temperance is a cardinal vir- have a drunkard for a son "shall say to tjg
tue, according to Aquinas, because the ob- elders of the town, This son of ours . . is f
jects of the sense of touch are necessary for wastrel and a drunkard.' Then all the men ol
human life, the pleasures of touch are natu- the town shall stone him to death" (Deui
ral, and yet it is difficult to control desires for 21:20-21). Happily there are less brutal wajjfl
them. However, temperance is unique among of dealing with an intractable problem!
the cardinal virtues because it concerns only For some people the Christian obligatkfci
the agent. It is also the lowest of the cardinal of temperance in relation to the use of alcohflj!
virtues: "justice and fortitude are more excel- means moderation, for others total ab$t
lent virtues than temperance: while prudence nence. There is certainly no general prohib|
and the theological virtues are more excellent tion on the use of wine in the Bible and irfij
still." The virtues annexed to temperance deed it is described as a good gift of God. A&
lack any direct connection to the love of God ancient blessing was "God give you dew froijj
or neighbor, but the effects of departing from heaven . corn and new wine in plenty^
such virtues as sobriety and chastity* may (Gen. 27:28). There are references to ttflt
violate love. Hence, the Decalogue* identifies sects that practiced total abstinence, th
and prohibits "the effects of the vices op- Rechabites and the Nazirites, but their exam*
posed to the parts of temperance." pie is not enjoined on the rest. Jesus himsjgH
The general theme of temperance and was not a total abstainer. John the Baptist
moderation is also prominent in Protestant being a Nazirite, was an abstainer, but Jesu$
ethics. For example, John Calvin (see Calvin- significantly comments on the inconsistency
619 Temperance
of the Pharisees in condemning both John USA it included such factors as suspicion of
and himself: "For John came, neither eating industrial cities and immigrants.
nor drinking, and they say 'He is possessed.' The main debate in the temperance move-
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, ment was between those who believed that
and they say, 'Look at him! a glutton and a the only way to attack the drink evil was
drinker!' " (Matt. 11:18-19). through education or "moral suasion" and
There is, however, one place in the NT those who espoused the cause of legal prohi-
where total abstinence is commendedRo- bition. In 1846 Maine became the first state
mans 14. Paul is concerned mainly with the in the USA to introduce prohibition. The vis-
question of meat, and the background is the its of O. W. Kellogg and Harriet Beecher
fact that some are in danger of being enticed Stowe to Britain led to the founding in 1853
away from Christianity by having set before of the United Kingdom Alliance dedicated to
them meat which has been offered up sacrifi- the suppression by law of the drink trade. It
cially in heathen worship. Drink is brought differed significantly from "The Reform,"
in almost as an afterthought: "It is a fine founded twenty-one years earlier by Joseph
thing to abstain from eating meat or drinking Livesey and "the seven men of Preston": for
wine, or doing anything which causes your them moral suasion was primary and legisla-
brother's downfall" (Rom. 14:21). tive action secondary and contributory.
There is here the enunciation of an impor- Both aspects of the temperance movement
tant principle of Christian caring. In apply- have registered success and failure. The
ing it to the very different conditions of moral suasionists have not solved the drink
today, the Christian must weigh a number of problem, but they have saved many from the
factors. In Paul's time there was no problem catastrophe of overindulgence and have per-
caused by the association of drinking and meated public opinion with knowledge of al-
driving resulting in the slaughter of thou- cohol and its effects. The suppressionist
sands on the roads. There was no high-pow- movement's major triumph was the 18th
ered vested interest spending millions on Amendment to the US Constitution (ratified
drinking advertising*. The technique of dis- in 1919), which prohibited the manufacture,
tilling spirits had not been invented. The al- sale, and transportation of alcoholic bever-
cohol content of wine was not above 14 per- ages. However, this amendment was repealed
cent and its use was restricted by the in 1933 because of public opposition, prob-
comparative poverty of most people. lems of enforcement, and other social prob-
In this dramatically changed situation the lems. Ultimately, the suppressionist move-
question which many ask is, What would ment failed because intemperance cannot be
Paul, applying the same principle of Chris- eliminated by mere legal enactments, but
tian concern, be saying today? It is under- through its activities the public was alerted to
standable that considerable numbers have the need for legislative controls of alcohol.
concluded that total abstinence is a valuable Most legislation now concentrates on the reg-
witness and a positive contribution to the so- ulation of the use of alcohol, operating au-
lution of an increasingly serious problem. tomobiles while under the influence of alco-
There has also been debate among Christians hol, advertising*, etc.
about the use of wine in Communion. Temperance in the use of alcohol has de-
The temperance movement. The history of clined as a live political issue. Attempts to
the temperance movement and its many or- isolate the drink problem from other social
ganizations during the 19th century is full of questions have increasingly been seen as un-
interest. Among other things, the temperance profitable. Many temperance organizations
movement helped to channel religious ener- have now extended their brief, especially to
gies into party politics, particularly as several take account of the menace of other types of
Protestant groups such as the Methodists drug addiction*. For a discussion of the med-
and the Baptists opposed alcohol (see Non- ical factors, see Alcoholism.
conformist Conscience). The diverse organi- See also Health and Disease, Values in
zations included the Woman's Christian Defining; Morality, Legal Enforcement of;
Temperance Union, which was founded in Paternalism.
1874 in the USA and spread around the
world. The opposition to alcohol was not J. S. Blocker, Jr., Retreat from Reform: The
only religious and moral; for example, in the Prohibition Movement in the United States,
Temptation 620
7890-/9/3, 1976; H. Carter, The English mately from God (cf. Deut. 13:3). Abraham
Temperance Movement: A Study in Objec- and Job are outstanding examples of those
tives, 1933; J. Gusfield, Symbolic Crusade: whose temptations are interpreted in this
Status Politics and the American Temperance way, and trial of this kind can even be sought
Movement, 1963; B. Harrison, Drink and the after in Ps. 139:23-24. It should be noted that
Victorians, 1971. to the writer of Gen. 3 the serpent was simply
KENNETH G. GREET the serpent and not the devil of popular the-
ology, a much later conception. Even in the
Temptation book of Job, Satan is not a proper name, but
The situation where we are attracted to a the name of a functionary, the satan, who has
course of action incompatible with our his proper place in the heavenly court.
proper relation to God is well known to the In the NT the thought is rather that God
Bible. From Gen. 3, which describes the first does not himself bring about temptation
temptation of humans, to Rev. 3:10, which (James 1:13). His part consists in not letting
hints at a great final trial at the end of time, the temptation go too far (1 Cor. 10:13). The
the theme of temptation, coming in its varied temptation, if not from the person himself or
forms to a Jacob, a David, and a Peter, is herself (James 1:14) or from others (1 Cor.
worked out in detail. And it is clear not only 15:33), proceeds from Satan, conceived now
from the temptation narratives but from as an evil personal superhuman being (Mark
Luke 22:28 and Heb. 2:18 that the life of 1:13; Luke 22:31). This raises the question
Jesus was not exempt from temptation. In- whether the Christian view of temptation im-
deed the first lesson to be drawn from the plies belief in a more than human tempter.
Bible on the subject is that almost anything Such afigureappears in the teaching of Jesus
the ambition of a Jacob, the sexual desire and belief in him plays a leading part in the
of a David, the cowardice of a Peter, the religious life, for example, of Luther, though
sufferings of the writer of Ps. 42, the prosper- by the 18th century he is no longer taken so
ity of the rich fool of the parable (Luke 12: seriously (Burns, in his "Address to the
18), the rectitude of the Pharisees, and the Deil," thinks of him not without humor and
sense of divine mission of Jesus himselfcan compassion). It is interesting that the 20th
provide material for temptation. century, which in its third and fourth
Genesis 3 contains a penetrating study of decades saw something like an apocalypse of
temptation. By giving the woman the chance evil, shows little sign of revived belief in a
to put him right (Gen. 3:1) the serpent in- personal devil. This is perhaps in some mea-
duces in her that state of complacency which sure due to realization that in the history of
is so often a prelude to wrong action. By the church belief in evil spirits has played an
assuring the couple that they will be as gods unhappy part in witchcraft hunts and in thf
(3:5) the serpent appeals to the urge to escape cruel and improper treatment of mental ilj-
from the limitations offiniteexistence which ness. The rise of modern psychiatry coincides^
is a feature even of innocence* and which we with abandonment of belief in demonic pos-
have learned, since Kierkegaard, to call session. This does not mean that the concept
dread or Angst By stressing that to be as God of a devil is devoid of content. On the cof*
is the primal temptation, the Bible makes it trary, it is, so to speak, a limiting concept
clear that sin* is not, as the evolutionists bringing out the fact that humans need to h|
thought, a relic of the brute. For to be as God tempted before they sin, whereas the mythgf
is not a temptation primarily of those most at logical figure of the devil is that of a being
the mercy of their animal passions (though who, as it were, sins spontaneously. |j
they may seek in surrender to these a tempo- The only account we have of Jesus beiqfj
rary release from the uncertainties of human tempted is the scene in the wilderness, atp
existence). It is rather a temptation of the perhaps also that laid in the Garden til
competent and the well disciplined, the fol- Gethsemane. But Luke 22:28 speaks of temp*
lower of a good cause and the ecclesiastic. tation as a continuing feature in his life anj|
If the Bible is unambiguous about the Heb. 2:18 links it with his sufferings. A*
prevalence and diverse character of tempta- McLeod Campbell reminds us, not the lea$$
tion, it is less so about its origin. In the OT of these sufferings must have sprung from thtf
in particular there is found the thought that fact that loving both God and humanity witt|
temptation is really trial and comes ulti- a perfect love, he found the two estrange^
621 Terrorism
from each other. To love two parties at vari- to intervene with a miracle in his behalf. As
ance with one another inevitably involves proof that God would not permit the Mes-
suffering in proportion to the purity of the siah to be harmed, the devil cited the Sep-
love. Did the temptation then lie for Jesus in tuagint text of Ps. 90:11-12 (91:11-12 Eng.),
reducing the suffering by loving God or hu- interpreting the latter as a messianic predic-
manity with a love less perfect? It may not be tion. Not only would such a dramatic rescue
irreverent to find in the two words from the remove any lurking doubt which he might
cross, "Father into thy hands I commit my have concerning his own mission, but it
spirit" (Luke 23:46) and "Father, forgive would likewise cause the crowds to accept
them; for they know not what they do" (Luke him as the Messiah. But Jesus answered
23:34), the triumphal outcome of the su- Satan with the reply that humankind is for-
preme trial of Jesus' love of God and human- bidden to put God to such a test; human
ity. beings are summoned to trust God uncondi-
See Temptations of Jesus. tionally and to obey him without first de-
IAN HENDERSON manding proof of God's power and provi-
dence.
Temptations of Jesus Finally, again following the order in Mat-
The temptation narrative is found only in thew, Jesus was tempted in the third place to
Matt. 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, although be a political messiah. The devil, who was
Mark 1:12-13 also refers briefly to a period believed in rabbinic and early Christian cir-
of testing following Jesus' baptism. Except cles to have the kingdoms of this earth in his
for a reversal in the order of the second and power, promised to deliver them to Jesus if
third temptations, variations between the the latter would only bow down and worship
Matthean and Lucan accounts are minor. him. If Jesus would use his power and divine
While the details of the story represent the favor as the Messiah to overthrow the
work of early Christians, it seems probable Roman rule and restore Israel to national
that the narrative had its origin in Jesus' own independence and glory, he would quickly
account of an inward, spiritual struggle that gain a popular following. But Jesus rejected
he faced shortly after his baptism and reflects this temptation to seek an easy, popular way
in dramatic and symbolic language his wres- to fulfill his messiahship as a form of self-will
tling with the implications of his vocation. and idplatry. In his reply to Satan he singled
Whatever his own conception of his vocation out the central requirement of Judaism,
may have been at the beginning of his minis- namely, that humanity shall worship and
try, the early church acclaimed Jesus as the serve the God of Israel and him alone.
Messiah, and it interpreted his decision about E. CLINTON GARDNER
his vocation as essentially a decision concern-
ing the manner in which he should fulfill the Ten Commandments see Decalogue;
messianic role. Mosaic Law; Old Testament Ethics
The first temptation, according to both
Matthew and Luke, took place while Jesus Terrorism
was in a state of intense hunger, resulting While difficult to define, terrorism in practice
from a long period of fasting. Under such is often a smear word applied indiscrimi-
circumstances the devil urged him to use his nately to military opponents, especially non-
miraculous power to turn stones into bread, government ones. But three useful definitions
thus enabling him to satisfy his own immedi- of the word are possible: (1) Indiscriminate
ate need and also to gain a popular following military violence. This violates the principle
by giving the hungry masses bread. Jesus re- of noncombatant immunity (see Discrimina-
jected this prompting of the devil as a tempta- tion) and many theorists of just war* regard
tion to use his power selfishly and also to it as absolutely wrong. On this definition, the
confuse humanity's true good with the satis- British bombing campaign against German
faction of physical hunger alone. cities in World War II stands condemned as
According to Matthew, the second temp- an instance of terrorism. (2) Indiscriminate
tation consisted of the subtle suggestion that military violence by non-state organizations
Jesus demand a sign that he was indeed the such as resistance and revolutionary move-
Son of God by casting himself down from the ments (see Resistance; Revolution). This
pinnacle of the temple, thus compelling God definition is closer to normal practice in ex-
Theft 622
eluding by definition the possibility of state The definition requires that the owner be
terrorism. In this definition also, terrorism reasonably unwilling because moral theol-
offends against noncombatant immunity. ogy has traditionally recognized the right
The trouble is that it suggests one standard to take from an owner who ought in justice
for states and another for rebels, contrary to or piety to be willing to part with the prop-
the spirit of the just war idea, as applied to erty. Someone in extreme necessity might
resistance and revolution. (3) The use of ter- take enough for his or her immediate heeds
ror as a military /political instrument. This is or those of dependents from an owner who
rather wide, since all military operations rely had more than enough. This is because the
for at least part of their effect on instilling goods of the earth are given by God for the
fear in the opponent. But it is useful to have well-being of all his children, and the right
a word for the type of operations that seek to to own is subsidiary to this purpose. Simi-
avoid the arduous task of defeating the larly a wife might take what she needed
enemy's armed forces by demoralizing the from a husband who withheld it unreasona-
opponent instead. Some theorists of air bly. Persons who had been robbed or de-
power in the period between the two world frauded might compensate themselves oc-
wars thought that bombing could win a war cultly, though one should be cautious abouf
in this "indirect" way, especially the Italian recommending this.
Douhet, and at the level of guerrilla war Scripture refers both to occasional theft
there is often a strong incentive to seek anti- and to those who live by theft. Theft is cow
morale alternatives to taking on the full demned unconditionally in both Old and
strength of the organized military power ar- New Testaments (Ex. 20:15; Deut. 5:19). Iitj
rayed against one. Terrorism in this sense the OT it is listed with murder, adultery, and?
may be indiscriminate, as the terror bombing false witness as one of the chief sins. It may*;
of World War II was. But it need not be so. be of things, animals, or persons. It is a sin
For example, a resistance movement might against God and dishonors God even whe%
confine the application of terror to leading motivated by need (Prov. 30:9). In the NTi
representatives of the occupying power the thief is told to steal no more but rather tt*
against whom it is embattled. This might call work and earn enough to help those in neecjf
down atrocious reprisals upon compatriots, (Eph. 4:28). Romans 13:9-10 says theft yio^
and so offend against the principle of propor- lates the commandment to love. Theft dis-
tionality*, but this depends on the circum- rupts fellowship. In the new dispensation of;
stances. love, thieves are enabled and called to liv^j
In common parlance, "terrorism" is such usefully. yfi
a lazily deployed pejorative that one needs to The gravity of theft depends in part on
ask for a clear explanation of what is meant harm done to the victim, but larger theftj$
whenever the word is used. even from therichor big organizations, ha
society and are always grave faults. The mati
B. Paskins and M. Dockrill, The Ethics of ice of theft depends on the conscience of thi
War, 1978; P. Wilkinson, Political Terror- thief. Some thefts may be symptoms of psjd
ism, 1974. chological distress. Whoever steals is obligM
BARRIE PASKINS to make restitution to the owner insofar
that is possible.
Test-Tube Babies see Reproductive See Property.
Technologies
Art. "fc/epf," TDNT III, 1965, pp. 754-75^
Theft C. Peschke, Christian Ethics, 1978, vol. 2, pj*
Theft is the secret appropriation of another's 551-563.
property with the intention of using or dis- BRENDAN SOAM
posing of it and against the reasonable will of
the owner. When it is violent and open it is
called robbery. It includes other actions that Theocracy
have the same effect, such as fraud, nonpay- Domination of the civil power oy ine
ment of debts, and keeping what one finds. clesiastical.
Economic change occasions new types of See Church and State.
theft. JOHN MACQUARim
623 Thomistic Ethics
Theodicy See Business Ethics; Colonialism; Economic
Compounded of two Greek words theos Development; Hunger, World; Imperialism;
(God) and dike (justice), the term Liberation Theology.
"theodicy" denotes attempts to explain evil
or, more specifically, to vindicate God in the Thomistic Ethics
face of evil in the world, including both non- All Thomistic ethics (and moral theology) is
moral evil, such as pain, suffering, and based on the writings of Thomas Aquinas (c.
premature death not brought about or pre- 1225-1274), a Dominican friar who taught
ventable by human agency, and moral evil theology and commented on Aristotle's
inflicted by human beings, such as the Holo- works at the University of Paris and various
caust. In a Christian context special prob- study centers in Italy. His Commentary on
lems are created by two claims that are made the Nicomachean Ethics, along with the
about God: goodness and omnipotence. If moral sections of the Disputed Questions, the
God is both good and omnipotent, why evil? Commentary on Lombard's Sentences, the
The significance of various theodicies for eth- third book of the Summa Contra Gentiles,
ics was emphasized in Max Weber's classic and the second part of the Summa Theolo-
studies, particularly of the role of the doc- giae constitute the original ethical corpus.
trine of predestination in the contribution of Aquinas's moral views stem from a rethink-
the Protestant ethic to the spirit of capital- ing of biblical teachings (chiefly the Deca-
ism. logue and the two NT precepts of love) in the
See Evil; Fate and Fatalism; Free Will and light of the philosophy of Aristotle, Plato,
Determinism. and the Stoics.
In general, Thomistic ethics is teleological,
J. P. Gunnemann, The Moral Meaning of stressing the natural desire of human beings
Revolution, 1979; M. Weber, The Protestant for the perfect good (God) as their ultimate
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, ET 1930, end, to which all morally good acts must be
and Sociology of Religion, ET 1964. reasonably conformed (see Teleological Eth-
JAMES F. CHILDRESS ics). Since the human soul is immortal, the
attainment of a loving vision of God in a
Theological Ethics see Christian Eth- future life is the culmination of good moral
ics; Moral Theology; Morality and Reli- living on earth. A good life consists in the
gion, Relations of best possible use of one's rational powers (in-
tellect and will) and of one's lower capacities
Theological Virtues (sense cognition, sense appetites, and bodily
The three theological virtues are faith, hope, activities) under the control of right reason.
and love (or charity). These three are, of The guidelines for such lightness stem from
course, mentioned by Paul in 1 Cor. 13:13. the principles of natural law*, of which the
Strictly speaking, they are not virtues in the first (good should be sought after and done,
narrower sense, but may be thought of as evil avoided) is known through synderesis*
introducing a new dimension into the moral (an intellectual intuition of practical precepts
life with its natural virtuesthe dimension of of moral behavior).
grace*, based on God's action on human life. Aquinas organized his moral teaching
See Cardinal Virtues; Faith; Hope; Love; around a highly developed theory of many
Virtue. virtues. Skill in directing one's own life and
JOHN MACQUARRIE counseling others depends on good habits
(acquired by practice or instilled by God).
Third Use of the Law see Calvinist These virtuous habits of prudentia (right
Ethics; Law and Gospel practical reasoning), temperantia (modera-
tion of emotions), fortitudo (courageous fac-
Third World ing of troubles), and justitia (willing and
This term is commonly used for countries or doing good to other persons) are natural vir-
areas that have not developed either capital- tues complemented by the supernaturally in-
ist or socialist economic systems; the appro- fused virtues of faith, hope, and charity (see
priateness of the term is also widely disputed. Cardinal Virtues; Theological Virtues). Evils
Earlier these countries or areas were often to be avoided are treated in terms of numer-
referred to as underdeveloped or developing. ous bad habits (vices) opposed to the virtues.
Thomistic Ethics 624
This theory of moral habituation leading to fered an annual survey from 1965 to 1984; it
character excellence somewhat resembles is now being co-authored by McCormick and
later ethics of self-perfection, but the Tho- others.)
mistic stress on justice and charity (love ani- Traditionalists continue to study textual
mated by God) also emphasizes altruistic and historical problems and to adhere to ex-
duties. Moreover, Aquinas devoted much positions that are close to the views of Aqui-
thought to the inner activities of will, under- nas (M. Wittmann, A. B. Sertillanges, l. T.
standing, and emotions (passions of the soul) Eschmann, R. A. Gauthier, R. Mclnerny).
and gave great importance to practical judg- Teleologists stress the consideration of man's
ment, the intention of appropriate ends, the natural and supernatural ends and they in-
selection of right means, and reasonable vestigate the correspondence of proposed ac-
choice of external (commanded) actions. tions with a human being's rational nature
This view, that human activities derive and its ultimate end. A growing group of
their moral quality from the agent's thinking, consequentialists (P. Knauer, R. McCor-
feelings, and willing, somewhat anticipates mick) see many ethical problems as soluble in
later deontological ethics: our moral duties terms of the theory of double effect*, in,
are known through our best practical judg- which one result is good and the other bad.
ment on what is required for any particular For them much depends on the intention of
personal problem. This practical judgment is the agent facing such dubious choices. Still
called moral conscience: it is not a separate other Thomists (G. Grisez, J. Finnis, J.
power but an action of judging. Such judging Boyle) vigorously oppose all forms of onse-
is guided by rules of action known by careful quentialism* (particularly utilitarianism)
reasoning on one's life experiences. This and espouse certain basic goods or duties as
leads to certain general practical precepts the determinants of ethical action. Wher
(such as, be moderate and avoid extremes, traditional Thomists taught that certain gent
stand firm against adversities, do no harm to eral types of action are absolutely wrong
others) which are conclusions of natural (murder, fornication, theft, lying, etc.) but-
right reason. These precepts constitute what admitted that particular actions in these cate-
human beings can know naturally about gories may not appear immoral to the indi-
moral laws with their ordinary powers of ob- vidual conscience, a recent school argues tha
servation and reflection. Since natural law is such absolutes* are of little importance in
but a partial sharing in God's eternal law, practical living: each proposed action has to
humans may be more fully informed by di- be judged in its own peculiar circumstances
vine revelation about additional require- (J. Fuchs, C. Curran).
ments of good conduct as found in scripture Cultural differences have resulted in somj
and Christian tradition. Since love (divine diversity in recent Thomism. Spanish, Italj
charity) gives the highest moral quality to all ian, and Japanese thinkers stress natural lavi
inner thoughts and intentions, as well as to ethics. In the USA, John Dewey has hajj|
external actions, mercy and forgiveness are some impact. The result has ranged from
features of Aquinas's ethics unknown to his critical appraisals of pragmatic ethics (X
predecessors in classical Greek ethics (see Dougherty) to a partial adoption of |
also Medieval Ethics). modified empiricism (G. Klubertanz,
The seven centuries since Aquinas's death Punzo). British and Irish Thomists some**
have witnessed many different interpreta- times use analytic procedures in their studi^j
tions of his moral teachings. Latin commen- of natural law (J. Finnis), practical judgmei$|
tators up to the late Renaissance adapted (P. McGrath), and moral action (E. D'Arcyjj
Aquinas's views to the changed circum- Continental European Thomists often corgi
stances of their times. Antoninus of Florence bine phenomenological methods with the^
stressed social ethics; Francis Suarez and ethical thinking.
other Spanish Scholastics developed elabo- Since a teleological ethics is necessarily
rate theories of legal ethics. But in recent concerned with the sort of goods at whic|
times a larger number of "schools" of Tho- persons should aim, a controversy amorti
mistic ethics have appeared. (No up-to-date Thomists dating back to mid-century shouji
monograph covers recent Thomistic ethics be noted. Some ethicists (C. De Konincjy
adequately, but R. McCormick's "Notes on have argued that Thomism values the comp
Moral Theology" in Theological Studies of- mon good* more than the private goaf!
625 Tobacco, Use of
Other thinkers (J. Maritain) have stressed the good many Thomists now think that nuclear
opposite: the individual's good is more im- war* can never be justified.
portant than that of the community. The Problems in sexual ethics* and marriage*
problem is not resolved in more recent Tho- find most Thomists still conservative, oppos-
mism, for some (P. Knauer) focus on individ- ing adultery, fornication, artificial contracep-
ual choice in terms of private goods, where tion*, and abortion*. Divorce* in its perfect
others (P. S. Rossi) shift the ethical emphasis form is condemned, but there is some tend-
to the good of the community. This is not a ency toward a less strict handling of marriage
complete bifurcation: both sides admit to annulment. (J. E. Biechler, ed., Law for Lib-
some overlapping of common and private erty, 1967.) In legal ethics traditional Tho-
good. mism supported the use of capital punish-
In recent decades there has been some ment*, where needed to protect the common
challenge to the apparent absolutism of ear- good. But recent thinking has tended to re-
lier Thomism (C. Curran, ed., Absolutes in ject such killing, as opposed to the sacredness
Moral Theology? 1968). Most Thomists insist of human life, and as open to many abuses in
on the difference between universal ethical the application of such extreme and irrevers-
judgments and particular personal judgments ible punishment.
on doing or omitting this particular action See also Modern Roman Catholic Moral
(judgments of conscience). While many uni- Theology.
versal judgments are thought to impose abso-
lute obligations, it is usually held that judg- V. Bourke, Ethics in Crisis, 1966; W. Kluxen,
ments of conscience may differ in regard to Philosophische Ethik bei Thomas von Aquin,
much the same particular problems. In other 1964; R. Mclnemy, Ethica Thomistica: The
words, while I am obliged to follow my own Moral Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, 1982;
best judgment in governing my own action, J. Maritain, Moral Philosophy, ET 1964; T.
such judgments do not have the character of Miethe and V. Bourke, Thomistic Bibliogra-
absolute rules for others. (See E. D'Arcy, phy: 1940-1978, 1980; J. Pieper, The Four
Conscience and Its Right to Freedom, 1961.) Cardinal Virtues, ET 1966.
The 1979 publication of Karol Wojtyla's VERNON J. BOURKE
The Acting Person in English drew wide-
spread attention, partly because of his eleva- Tissue Transplant see Organ Trans-
tion to the papacy as John Paul II. His com- plantation
bination of Thomistic ethics with the
personalism* of European phenomenology* Tobacco, Use of
has directed attention to the importance of Tobacco, which was used by American Indi-
the moral agent and his development. There ans, became very important in the trade be-
have even been attempts to work out a com- tween Europe and the New World. At first
plete phenomenology of moral law (W. A. tobacco was valued primarily as a medicinal
Luijpen, Phenomenology of Natural Law, ET herb and occasionally as an ornamental
1967). plant. After Sir Walter Raleigh introduced
Distinctive positions have been taken re- smoking to England in the latter part of the
cently by Thomists on special ethical prob- 16th century, it soon became widely used for
lems. While the earlier tradition was never pleasure as well as for its alleged medicinal
entirely pacifist, today's world conditions value. A Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604), by
have moved many to question the propriety King James I, opposed "tobacco taking" as
of any present war. J. K. Ryan (Modern War "a custome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to
and Basic Ethics, 1940) was one of the first the Nose, harmfull to the braine, dangerous
to take this position. The older rules for justi- to the Lungs." Disputing the claim that "to-
fying going to war (declaration by legitimate bacco taking" had medicinal value, King
authority, for a just cause, and with a proper James opposed it mainly for medical and
intention) no longer seem adequate. One moral but also for religious and aesthetic rea-
must now also consider the character of the sons. Medical and moral arguments also sup-
weapons to be used, the distinction between ported the prohibition measures adopted by
combatants and noncombatants, and the pro- several European and other countries in the
portion between the good and bad features of 17th century, but the use of tobacco con-
the total results of any war (see Just War). A tinued to spread. His own arguments having
Tobacco, Use of 626
failed to deter tobacco use, King James I im- but also some Mennonites, Brethren, and
posed a stiff import tax on tobacco a year Quakers as well as the Salvation Army. How-
later. ever, most religious groups view smoking as
Although chewing tobacco and using snuff a matter of individual discretion, perhaps in
are not insignificant, most of the current con- deference to Jesus' principle that "not what
troversy focuses on smoking, particularly of goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what
cigarettes, which are more popular and more comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man"
dangerous than either cigars or pipes. When (Matt. 15:11). Nevertheless, there are
cigarettes became widely available in the grounds for urging people not to commit
19th century, they were associated with un- what has been called "slow-motion suicide,"
desirable social groups, and at the turn of the in part to fulfill their responsibilities to others
century their sale was banned by fourteen (e.g., parents to children). Peoplefindit easy
states on moral rather than health grounds: to discount the risks because smoking is so
Smoking cigarettes was corrupting and familiar and the harm occurs in the future
would lead to other immoral activities. This rather than immediately. It is unclear
restrictive legislation was overturned in the whether temperance* or moderation rather
1920s, and by the 1950s and 1960s smoking than abstinence* is acceptable because there
had acquired positive symbolic significance, is debate about whether there is a safe level
especially under the impact of massive adver- of consumption (see Risk).
tising campaigns. When concern about can- Several factors militate against vigorous
cer emerged in the early 1950s, the cigarette policies to reduce smoking. First, there are
companies responded with filter cigarettes. the vested interests of tobacco farmers (in the,
The US Surgeon General's report in 1964 USA tobacco is the sixth largest cash crop,
associated smoking with cancer of the lung with $2.5 billion in cash receipts in 1978 and
and larynx, and various studies in the USA, 600,000 families involved), of tobacco com-
the UK, and elsewhere have established that panies, and of the government in tax reve-
smokers are at increased risk for such dis- nues and balance of trade. The US govern?,
eases as coronary heart disease, chronic bron- ment policy is ambivalentthe federal
chitis, pulmonary emphysema, and peptic government maintains a price support system
ulcer, as well as various cancers, particularly that restricts the production of tobacco in an
lung cancer, the subject of primary concern. effort to maintain its price and the income of
It is estimated that 300,000-350,000 people tobacco farmers, and yet it prohibits some
in the USA and over 90,000 in the UK die advertising and promotes education of the
each year because of diseases brought on by public about the dangers of smoking. (It has
cigarette smoking. Of course, the incidence of been suggested that the removal of the price*
morbidity and disability is also tremendous. support program might actually lead to the
The evidence for therisksof cigarette smok- overproduction of tobacco, a decline in the
ing is substantial, despite attacks by the to- price of cigarettes, and an increase in con-,
bacco industry. Various private and govern- sumption.)
mental actions in the UK and in the USA Second, there are claims about personal j
for example, banning advertising of tobacco autonomy* and liberty* that resist various ]
on television and requiring health warnings paternalistic policies (see also Paternalism;;
on packs of cigaretteshave contributed to a Morality, Legal Enforcement of). Smoking';;
substantial decline in the last two decades in is clearly dangerous and addictive, butf
the percentage of adults who smoke. For ex- proponents of autonomy and liberty conten<jl,|
ample, in the USA this percentage has that government intervention should be lim^
dropped from 42 percent to 33 percent, with ited to education and warnings rather tha^t
a sharper decline occurring among male extended to the prohibition of production]
smokers. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to sale, or use, except for sale to minors. ,-s
describe smoking as a major health problem, In recent years, public concern about thel
even an epidemic, in both the UK and the rights and interests of nonsmokers has;
USA, as well as in many other parts of the greatly increased, in part because of the ris$.
world (e.g., China). in nonsmoker militancy. Many people find
Opposition to smoking has been strong cigarette smoke unpleasant and offensive and
among some religious groups, particularly assert their right not to be exposed to
the Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists, There is also mounting evidence of the hanfr
627 Torture
of so-called "passive smoking," exposure to religious considerations are important and
smoking by others. One possible compromise suggest the limitations, perhaps even the cal-
is the provision of "zones," for example, seg- lousness, of cost-benefit analysis. Neverthe-
regation of smokers and nonsmokers in less, if cost-benefit analysis is invoked for re-
transportation and many public facilities. stricting cigarette consumption, critics argue
More complicated is smoking in the work- that the full range of costs and benefits
place, but it might be argued that the right of should be considered.
nonsmokers not to be put at risk should out- Public policies must be examined for their
weigh the right of smokers to smoke. An- effectiveness and efficiency as well as for their
other difficult question concerns the pregnant consistency with principles of justice and au-
smoker's imposition ofriskson the fetus, in- tonomy. For example, increasing the tax on
cluding the risks of spontaneous abortion, cigarettes and thus raising their price might
neonatal death, malnutrition, and low birth reduce the number of cigarettes smoked
weight. while inducing smokers to smoke each ciga-
Finally, there is controversy about the eco- rette longer and farther down, thereby in-
nomic costs of smoking to nonsmokers and to creasing the health risks. Similarly, studies
the society. Prudence*, as suggested by King about the use of safer cigarettes, with lower
James I, might dictate a different allocation tar and nicotine, indicate that smokers may
of personal resources, but justice* also smoke more or smoke them differently in
becomes an issue when there are identifiable order to compensate for the decline in tar and
costs to nonsmokers, through increased nicotine.
premiums in health plans or increased taxes. See Behavior Control; Drug Addiction.
Opposition to paying for the avoidable afflic-
tions of others can be expected not only on H. Leichter, "Public Policy and the British
grounds of self-interest but also on grounds Experience," HCR 11, Oct. 1981, pp. 32-39;
of fairness* in the distribution of burdens. In H. M. Sapolsky, "The Political Obstacles to
some settings, it is possible to pass the addi- the Control of Cigarette Smoking in the
tional costs of health care on to smokers, for U.S.," Journal of Health Politics, Policy and
example, through increased premiums or in- Law 5, Summer 1980; R. J. Troyer and G. E.
creased taxes on cigarettes. However, it Markle, Cigarettes: The Battle OverSmoking,
would be difficult to defend the denial of 1983.
medical care to smokers or other risk-takers, JAMES F. CHILDRESS
in part because of the difficulty of determin-
ing, for example, whether a person's lung Tolerance, Toleration see Church and
cancer resulted from cigarette smoking, envi- State; Persecution and Toleration
ronmental pollution, work conditions, or he-
redity (see Health Care, Right to; Sick, Care Tora h see Jewish Ethics; Mosaic Law; Old
of the). In addition, the prospect of "health Testament Ethics; Paul, Ethical Teaching
police" violating privacy* and keeping de- of
tailed records of risky conduct is morally
offensive. Several studies indicate that the ci- Torture
garette smokers create additional and heavy Torture is one of the very few things that are
costs for the society, particularly in medical absolutely prohibited in international law,
care, but when a broad cost-benefit analysis* but in practice it is rampant and may well be
(including social security and retirement pro- on the increase. In many countries it is a
grams) is used, the argument for government standard way of intimidating opponents,
intervention may be weakened. Howard though no state admits to engaging in it, and
Leichter argues that "over the long run, some of the offenders can be shamed into
under public or private health and retirement curbing some excesses by the concerted
systems, one can expect an increase rather human rights* campaigning of such organi-
than decrease in social expenditures as a re- zations as Amnesty International. Liberation
sult of avoiding health risks." Risk-takers movements, too, make shamefaced use of tor-
may actually save the society money by dying ture, though some leading theorists of guer-
early and, even if they consume more health rilla warfare, e.g., Mao Tse-tung, argue that
care, they may relieve the system of other it is counterproductive. Why should torture
burdens later. Obviously, other moral and be absolutely prohibited? What about the
Total Depravity 628
textbook problem of the terrorist who can be same in Rom. 13. It should be noted also that
forced to reveal the whereabouts of a nuclear even when Jesus and Paul are emphasizing
bomb only by torture? In theory, one could the basic evil in life, they do not hold that it
apply something like just war* criteria to excludes manifestations of good (cf. Matt.
argue that torture would be licit in such a 7:11 and Rom. 7:18). Another reason for ac-
case, but in practice legalizing any exceptions ceptance of the doctrine has been the evan-
would be exploited to legitimize practices gelical emphasis that we are saved by the
going far beyond the hypothetical extreme grace of God and not by our own merits. But
case. to say that our good actions are irrelevant for
our salvation is not to say that we do not do
Amnesty International, Report on Torture, any good actions.
1975; E. Peters, Torture, 1985. See Original Sin; Sin(s).
BARRIE PASKINS IAN HENDERSON
guishing between different levels of moral competent judges, what is upon the whole for
thinking. At the everyday or intuitive level at the good of the world, there may be oth
which we operate most of the time, we need immediate ends appointed to us to pursue^
rules or principles that are at least general besides that of doing good, or producing haj*J
enough to be learnable (as Brandt says). Such piness. Though the good of the creation b* J
is the rule forbidding lying, or lying in cir- the only end of the Author of it, yet he ma;-|
cumstances which can be described without have laid us under particular obligations*!
going into too much detail. However, this which we may discern and feel ourselve|j
level is not self-sufficient. It yields no way of under, quite distinct from a perception thftjj^
telling which are the good general principles the observance or violation of them is for the;|
that ought to be our guides at this level; and happiness or misery of our fellow-creatures.*!^
when they conflict with one another in par- But since we have no direct and reliabtf
ticular cases, it has no means of telling which access to the divine intelligence, it may tjjMj
ought to override the other. For these two necessary, if our consciences give us unclear i
purposes we need a higher level of thinking or conflicting guidance, to do our best to df
that does not rely on the principles of the termine what such a perfect critical thinkr^
intuitive level, but subjects them to critical would say. This is so, not only in particular
scrutiny. A utilitarian will maintain that, al- "hard cases," but when we are trying to i
though the intuitive level of thinking may not cide in general what is the content of tl||
operate in a utilitarian way at all, the correct principles that a sound moral education]
643 Utopian Thought
would seek to inculcate. Conscience*, prop- Nakhnikian (eds.), Morality and the Lan-
erly understood, is not just the childlike ad- guage of Conduct, 1963; Joseph Butler, Fif-
herence to unquestioned traditional rules, but teen Sermons, 1726, sermon 12; J. P. Griffin,
the critical ability to assess such rules and "Modern Utilitarianism," Revue Interna-
adjudicate between them when they conflict. tionale de Philosophie 141, 1982; R. M. Hare,
The Spirit has to guide us, in different ways, at Moral Thinking, 1981; D. Lyons, Formsand
both these levels. At the intuitive level, his Limits of Utilitarianism, 1965; R. Niebuhr,
voice is that of the Ten Commandments, with An Interpretation of Christian Ethics, 1936;
their stringent insistence on obedience to very A. M. Quinton, Utilitarian Ethics, 1973; A.
general rules; at the critical level, it is that of Sen, "Utilitarianism and Welfarism," Jour-
the two commandments to love God, and our nal of Philosophy 76, 1979.
neighbor as ourself. All this is in accord with a R. M. HARE
properly understood utilitarianism.
Such a fully developed utilitarian doctrine Utopian Thought
can overcome fairly easily the objections Recent controversy regarding the role of Uto-
commonly made to earlier and cruder ver- pian thought in Christian ethics is largely an
sions. To the objection that its precepts con- ideological struggle over the relationship be-
flict with commonly received opinions, it can tween religious faith and radical politics. As
answer that received opinion is sometimes a strategic weapon in that struggle, as well
rightly discarded, and that when it is not, this as a hotly contested piece of theological turf,
is because it can be justified by critical think- the category of Utopian thought has been
ing, as is indeed the case with most of the used both to denounce and to defend the
hallowed moral principles. For example, if it methodological pragmatism of the so-called
be objected that common opinion bids us sat- "Christian realism" (see Realism) of Rein-
isfy not all desires impartially, but only good hold Niebuhr and his disciples, as well as the
ones, it can answer that this is true of the uncompromisingly prophetic demands for
principles for intuitive thinking that a sound various programs of revolutionary social
critical thinker would select; for the accept- change advocated by the disciples of the
ance-utility of principles bidding us restrain broad spectrum of political and liberation
evil desires in ourselves and others is high. If theologians. Contested in this struggle is the
it be objected that impartial benevolence political significance of that central symbol of
would require us to neglect our own children NT Christianity: the kingdom of God*. Must
if we could do more good to the children of it be read as an indictment of, or as an in-
strangers, it can answer that the principle ducement to, Utopian thought and the revo-
bidding us look after our own children first lutionary changes that it envisions?
has, in general, the best consequences if ac- No doubt this controversy is a far cry from
cepted, for there is more chance then that what one might expect from a familiarity
children will get looked after. But it can add with only the literary tradition of Utopian
that this principle is probably observed to thought, epitomized by that minor classic,
excess, and that a more universal benevo- Sir Thomas More's Utopia. The current par-
lence should have at least some say in our ticipants, by contrast, are arrayed along the
decisions. lines drawn long ago between political
To the objection that the impartial univer- Augustinians and the Franciscan spirituals
sal beneficence which utilitarianism enjoins is inspired by Joachim of Fiore. In a typically
an ideal impossible for humans to achieve, it modern fashion, these lines manage to unite
can answer that the same is true of agape both Protestants and Catholics on either side,
itself; this "impossible possibility" (Niebuhr, under the overarching presuppositions of the
1936, p. 129) is what we should be aiming at, sociology of knowledge.
but we are more likely to get as near it as our Intellectual history aside, the theological
natures allow if we submit ourselves to less issue is of central concern: How is religious
demanding, though still demanding, princi- transcendence*, or God's action in history,
ples. How demanding, may depend on our to be discerned and responded to in concrete
vocation*. political terms? While the partisans on nei-
ther side have a fully satisfactory answer to
R. B. Brandt, "Towards a Credible Form of this question, their attempts to address it in
Utilitarianism," in H.-N. Castaneda and G. terms of Utopian thought are illuminating.
Utopian Thought 644
Common to both is the assumption that Uto- Perhaps this impasse can be resolved by
pian thought functions hermeneutically in re- setting aside Mannheim's distinction be-
lation to the symbols of Christian es- tween ideology* and Utopia. If both forms of
chatology, especially the kingdom of God political thought are considered as part of a
(see Eschatological Ethics). Among Chris- cultural system, then it becomes a question of
tian realists Utopian thought serves to clarify how this polarity of legitimating and critical
what the eschatological promise is not: it is tendencies within a culture's collective repre-
not an imperative to institutionalize the vain sentations is to be related to the claims of
imaginings of Christian perfectionists who Christian faith, which itself is always already
expect to remodel society in the image of the part of the cultural system. In other words,
kingdom. Hence, Utopian thought stands how does Utopian thought help to interpret
repudiated as a false absolute, a demonic dis- the political meaning of the kingdom of God,
tortion of the meaning of eschatology. Chris- assuming that Utopian thought functionally
tian hope*, by contrast, renounces such false is an ideology, and that all ideologies contain
absolutes. Among political and liberation Utopian elements? If David Tracy is right
theologians, however, Utopian thought is em- about the limit-character of religious experi-
braced as an imaginative breakthrough that ence and language, it may be that both Chris-
enables the eschatological promise to become tian realists and political and liberation
incarnate in history. Without Utopian theologians have grasped an indispensable
thought eschatology remains inarticulate. dynamic of Utopian thought: The finite char-
Christian hope thus consists in continually acter of concrete Utopias inevitably testifies to
creating a synthesis of faith and social action the meaning of eschatology as symbolizing
bent on hastening the fulfillment of the king- the "limit-to" any historical promise and
dom. Utopian thought, in this view, is not a fulfillment; by the same token, the imagina-
false absolute, but a faithful response to the tive leap of finite transcendence involved in
enablingprecisely because absolutizing any attempt to envision a radical alternative
power of Christian hope. inevitably arouses a sense of ultimate possi-
As diverse as these perspectives may seem, bility symbolized by eschatological hope as a
both appeal to the sociology of knowledge for "limit-of" these same historical processes. In
vindication (see Sociology of Ethics). Karl short, Christian eschatology remains both
Mannheim's seminal work, Ideology and constraining ("limit-to") and liberating
Utopia, distinguished the two by their con- ("limit-of), and Utopian thought allows us
crete political tendencies. Ideologies defend to understand both dynamics better as they
the social status quo; Utopias envision a radi- pertain to the broad agenda of Christian so-
cal alternative. On the basis of this definition, cial action.
many political and liberation theologians If this is the case, then two conclusions
construct their positive correlation between may be drawn for Christian ethics: (1) Chris*
eschatology and Utopia and denounce Chris- tian realists are wrong to denounce utopfr
tian realism's negative view as ideological. thought as such as a distortion of Christiaft
Christian realists argue that Mannheim's in- eschatology. The problem of false absolutes is
tention was not to canonize Utopian thought real; but it is endemic to all forms of social
but to overcome both ideology and Utopia in thought that take transcendence seriously* '
a new kind of social science. His proposal, including Christian realism. (2) Neverthe- ^
however, does not go far enough: eschatolog- less, political and liberation theologians are
ical faith, and not the scientific pretensions of not thereby entitled to assume that Utopians
the intelligentsia, provides the transcendent thought effectively substitutes for specifically!
perspective necessary for a truly critical ap- ethical reflection. While Utopian thought has ^
proach to political thought and action. While a positive role to play in theological heri- '
Christian realists may have a more insightful meneutics, any concrete proposals for Chri&t ;
reading of Mannheim, they seem to have for- tian social action that stem from such a her*
gotten that even a negative formulation of the meneutic process still take us only to the V
meaning of eschatology, willy-nilly, must un- threshold of ethical reflection. Assuming tht |
fold in ideological and/or Utopian terms. The vision, we are still faced with difficult and |
sociology of knowledge, beset by problems of unforeseeable moral choices attendant upon 1
its own, grants a hermeneutic privilege to our struggle to embody it historically. J
neither eschatological perspective. See Eschatological Ethics; Hope; Inter- J
645 Values and Value Judgment
pretation; Kingdom of God; Liberation The- only by combining the generic meaning of
ology; Marxist Ethics; Perfectionism; Politi- value with the special features that define
cal Theology; Progress, Belief in; Realism; each context in which value figures. In eco-
Revolution; Transcendence. nomics, for example, we are interested in the
values of commodities in exchange, whereas
E. Bloch, Das Prinzip Hoffnung, 3 vols., in ethics we may be concerned instead for the
195459; U. Eco, The Name of the Rose, intrinsic worth of persons in a sense that
1983; C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cul- takes us entirely beyond the idea of an ex-
tures, 1973; K. Mannheim, Ideology and change value.
Utopia (1929), ET 1936; J. Miguez-Bonino, One of the central questions about the na-
Toward a Christian Political Ethics, 1983; T. ture of value has already been indicatedthe
More, Utopia, 1516; R. Niebuhr, Faith and issue about "subjectivity" and "objectivity"
History, 1949; J. L. Segundo, The Liberation and it concerns the status of value in exis-
of Theology, ET 1976; P. Tillich, Political Ex- tence. The topic is endlessly complex, involv-
pectation, 1971; D. Tracy, Blessed Rage for ing the subtle distinctions characteristic of
Order, 1975. contemporary "metaethics"*; only the main
DENNIS P. MCCANN positions can be marked out. The subjectivist
position asserts that "good" and any synony-
Values and Value Judgment mous value term means no more than the
"Value" is a modern term used to indicate human responseinterest, desire, or expres-
what traditionally has gone by the name of sion of approvalthat is made by a person
"good" or "the good." While for some the when confronted with the object or when
new term is taken to have a basically subjec- considering it for the purpose of evaluation
tive connotation because it is believed to or appraisal (see Subjectivism, Ethical). On
imply the identification of what is good with this view the value term is constituted by the
human interest and desire*, not all philoso- feelings aroused in the person. It is some-
phers hold this view. At one end of the spec- times said that the one making the judgment
trum there is the subjectivist view that asserts is expressing his or her feelingsthe most
an essential connection between value and extreme form of the so-called emotive theory
human interest, as in Ralph Barton Perry's of valuesbut generally it is claimed that the
thesis: "That which is an object of interest is individual is asserting the existence of the ap-
eo ipso invested with value. Any object, what- propriate feelings in relation to the object
ever it be, acquires value when any interest, when using a value term in referring to it. In
whatever it be, is taken in it." At the opposite either case value does not reside in the object
end of the spectrum stands the objectivist as something antecedent to the mind that
view, running through Western thought from judges, but depends instead on the subjective
Socrates and Plato to Nicolai Hartmann, ac- response.
cording to which value is an intrinsic part or The main criticism urged against this view
aspect of whatever has value; since value is by proponents of one or another of the vari-
taken to be independent of the observers it is ous objectivist positions is twofold: On the
their task to develop the necessary sensitivity one hand, it is held that while we may dis-
for perceiving the values presented to them. cover the value of something by attending to
Despite a long tradition that identified all it and responding, the value does not thereby
questions concerning the good for human- come into existence on this occasion. On the
kind as a goal, or individual goods involved other hand, it is claimed that many of the
in particular situations as "ethical" ques- things and actions that have attracted human
tions, the aim behind the development of a interest or called forth desire are not in fact
general theory of value is to characterize good but represent instead something bad or
value in its generic sense. This means that evil and hence something to be avoided. Over
moral value represents a special form of value against the attempts of subjectivists to show
with its own distinctive characteristics and is that value terms like "esteemed," "coveted,"
not coextensive with value as such. The way "admirable," etc., are one and all translatable
is then open for recognizing values in the into responses made by judging persons, ob-
religious, aesthetic, legal, economic, and po- jectivists are concerned to show that the
litical domains. In each case a proper under- value terms denote instead characteristics of
standing of the values involved is to be gained objects, either simple qualities or complex ra-
646 Values and Value Judgment
tiona) properties, that belong to the objects sire is for liquid; drinking sea water, however,
themselves and are discovered by the mind though it may be immediately satisfying, can
sensitive to their existence. Frequently the never be satisfactory because the constitution
objectivist appeal is to intuition or direct in- of the water itself is inadequate for meeting
sight as the appropriate means of apprehen- the demand that is put upon it. Our prizings
sion, and most intuitionists have laid down themselves must be appraised, and we must
the condition that only a trained mind, sensi- weed out short-run and immediate satisfac-
tive and sincerely attending to the relevant tions in favor of values "approved on reflec-
features of value situations, will be in a posi- tion," by which Dewey meant longer-range
tion to grasp the values presented (see Intui- satisfactions arrived at through a knowledge
tionism). of the natures of things and by considering
The objectivist approach is significantly the means required to obtain them.
represented by two Catholic interpreters of Value judgments have to be considered as
Christian ethics, Dietrich von Hildebrand special cases of the general function of judg-
and Bernard Hring. Both were influenced ment. Judgment of value embraces not only
by the thought of Max Scheler and, in- the basic assertion of values or goods as val-
directly, by the Platonic realism of the ethics ues, but also the application of the standards
of Nicolai Hartmann. Von Hildebrand devel- implied to individual situations, actions, and
oped a thoroughly objectivist conception of objects. Judgment presupposes standard or
value rooted in the immediate datum of "im- leading principle whether it is made fully ex*
portance" as manifested in the lives of saintly plicit or not. Even if we interpret judgment as
figures. Hring reinterpreted the substance of merely a report of individual preferences, the
Christian morality through the fundamental fact that a priority is established indicates
concept of the law of Christ. Both directed that some standard is involved. Explicitly ex-
their belief in the objectivity and universality pressed judgment belongs to the sphere of
of value and law against relativism* and situ- reflection. In actual deliberation*, or in the
ation ethics*. process of deciding what we are to do, we
The attempt to pass beyond the opposition may not be aware of making judgments of thft
of subjective and objective in value theory fully explicit sort that are to be found in
was made by the instrumentalists, whose books on ethics, but this does not alter th$<
major spokesman was John Dewey. For him fact that judgment is present. In the sphere of,
value considerations are relevant wherever moral judgment, "conscience"* is the nam^
there are alternative courses of action. Dis- for the judging activity. Dictates of coii~<,
tinguishing between "prizing" and "apprais- science are properly understood as judg*^
ing," Dewey held that while the basic materi- ments involving a comparison between an ac^
als of value must be acknowledged to be knowledged norm and some feature of
human desires and preferences, we cannot behavior, actual or contemplated. The judgr
remain content merely with the reports of mental character of conscience has ofte^
what people actually prize or find satisfying. been obscured by the metaphor of the
Instead we must appraise our immediate "voice" supposedly declaring immediate^ ;
desires, which means subjecting them to a and infallibly what is to be done or avoided* 4
test. Instead of taking such desires for final This conception is misleading, since c o i ^
values, we must use them as starting points science is not immediate but embraces,|
for ethical inquiry. To know that some object knowledgescientiaof ourselves, the siti|- Q
or situation has been deemed satisfying is to ation, the action in question, plus an appr^i
have but a subjective report; the next step is hension of the norm or standard to whiclM
to see whether the claim made on behalf of appeal is made. Accordingly, conscience can*^
the object can be sustained in a critical test. not be infallible but shares the limitations of |
The aim is to discover whether the objects in all human judgments. The peculiarity of thp. |
question really are satisfactory or have the judgment is that the one who makes it is alsp/Jj
capacity claimed for them. It is important to the one whom the judgment is about; ap* j
notice that whereas the starting point of this affective element thus enters in the form of, J
approach is in the desires and satisfactions of for example, the "bad" conscience or painful |
persons, the outcome of critical inquiry is sense of the gap existing between what was.
meant to refer to the capacities of objects. To done and what should have been done. |
the thirst-crazed person, the immediate de- In addition to the logical problems that. |
647 Vice
arise in connection with the interpretation of longer without a meat diet. Some point out
value judgments, there are also moral consid- that, according to the biblical account (Gen.
erations attached to judging in this sphere. 1:29), the original and thus ideal human diet
The ancient injunction "Judge not!" leads to was vegetarian. Moreover, since there is
a distinction between judgments passed by a some scientific evidence that a properly bal-
person on his or her own conduct and judg- anced vegetarian diet is the most healthful,
ment passed by another on that same con- people have a duty, insofar as possible, to
duct. The moral quality of a person is re- choose such a diet. The preservation of the
vealed not only through the conduct dictated best possible health is viewed both as a duty
by his or her own judgments, but also to oneself and as a means to maintaining the
through his or her understanding and for- capacity to serve others.
bearance in passing judgment on others. 3. The use of animalfleshfor food is harm-
ful to human character. The needless killing
B. Blanshard, Reason and Goodness, 1961; of animals undermines character by cheapen-
W. K. Frankena, Ethics, 1973; B. Hring,
2 ing life and making people insensitive to suf-
Christian Renewal in a Changing World, tr. fering. Further, it is sometimes argued that
M. Lucida Hring, 1964; D. von Hildebrand, eating animal flesh harms character directly
Christian Ethics, 1953; R. O. Johann (ed.), by fostering undesirable behavior.
Freedom and Value, 1976; A. Maclntyre, 4. Raising animals for their flesh is an
After Virtue, 1981; J. Macquarrie, Three Is- inefficient use of scarce resources. It is well-
sues in Ethics, 1970. established that the use of land and agricul-
JOHN E. SMITH tural products such as feed grains to produce
meat is extremely inefficient when compared
Vatican Council II see Modern Roman to the production of vegetable protein. At a
Catholic Moral Theology; Official Roman time when many people are starving, it is
Catholic Social Teaching argued, the change to a vegetarian diet is the
morally responsible choice.
Vegetarianism According to the biblical account, God's
Vegetarianism is the belief that people should permission to use animals for food was
refrain from eating thefleshof animals. Some granted only after the Flood (Gen. 9:1-4),
vegetarians (now sometimes called "vegans") perhaps as a concession to human sinfulness,
omit all animal products from their diets. but the legitimacy of the use of animals for
Others refuse only to eat the flesh of mam- food is usually assumed rather than argued
mals, or "red meat." Another common form for in Christian theology and ethics. For
is lacto-ovo-vegetarianism, which accepts for some of the arguments, see Animals.
food such animal products as milk and eggs See also Environmental Ethics.
but omits all animal flesh, including fish and
poultry. P. Singer, Animal Liberation, 1975.
The moral arguments in favor of vegetari- GERALD R. WINSLOW
anism can be grouped in four divisions:
1. Raising and killing animals for food is Venial Sins see Sin(s)
wrongful treatment of animals. All animal
life is considered, by some, to be sacred. Since Vice
it is known that human beings can live As the opposite of virtue*, vice is a settled
healthfully without eating animal flesh, the disposition to do what is wrong, bad, or sin-
needless killing of animals is morally wrong. ful. Vices are habits* acquired by repeated
Additionally, it is argued that animals are actions (sins). Often the term "sin"* refers to
sentient creatures who have interests and dispositions or habits along with acts, as in
rights because they can experience pain and the seven deadly, or capital, sins*, which are
pleasure. The process of killing animals for more accurately viewed as vices. Grace* is
.meat causes suffering that cannot be out- indispensable for overcoming vice and devel-
weighed by the pleasure humans may derive oping virtues, particularly the theological
from eating flesh. virtues*. Although Protestant theologians
2. Eating animal flesh is detrimental to use the language of "virtue" and "vice,"
human health. It is contended that most many of them have objected to Roman Cath-
human beings would be healthier and live olic moral theology's* concentration on vices
Virginity 648
and virtues, holding that it tends to empha- conventual communities of women are some-
size human actions, habits, and merit*, what older than those of men (cf. Athanasius,
rather than God's forgiveness*. Life of Anthony 3).
JAMES F. CHILDRESS Tertullian (On the Veiling of Virgins) dis-
cusses a rather amusing practical problem:
Violence see Aggression; Coercion; Should dedicated virgins assume the ma-
Crime; Harm; Homicide; Just War; Pac- tron's veil, as brides of Christ, or in token of
ifism; Power; Resistance; Terrorism; War innocence continue to go bareheaded, which
might imply that they were marriageable?
Virginity The former custom prevailed, and by the
Virginity, as a physical state, is innocence of mid-4th century Rome developed a cere-
physical intercourse, and may be predicated mony of the "veiling of virgins," along the
of either sex; hence the apostle John is often lines of an ordinationfirst referred to by
referred to by the fathers as John the Virgin. Ambrose with reference to the veiling of his
The Bible assumes virginity as the proper sister by Pope Liberius, c, 360. By the Middle
state of one about to be married (cf. Deut. Ages, however, dedicated virgins were nor-
22:13-21). Hence it may be used as a meta- mally members of monastic communities,
phor for the proper relation of Israel to God, and the liturgical velatio became obsolete,
or of the church to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). being succeeded by the taking of vows* and
Physically a woman is virgo intacta when the the blessing of abbesses. In the later Middle
hymen (or maidenhead) has not been broken, Ages the older institution reappears in the
whether by intercourse or accident. But as a form of the recluse, who lived in a cell at-
moral quality virginity is not lost by involun- tached to a church. The most famous is the
tary violationa point developed by Augus- mystical writer Dame Julian of Norwich, at
tine in connection with the Gothic sack of St. Julian's Church in the city c. 1380-1410.
Rome in 410 (City of God 1.15-17). See Celibacy; Monastic Ethics.
As a spiritual quality or virtue virginity is E. R. HARDY
no mere negative condition. It is the state of
one who has not wasted or misdirected his or Virtue
her deepest forces of body and soul, but ei- "Virtue" is the translation of the Greek arete,
ther reserves them for due fulfillment in mar- which simply means any kind of excellence.
riage or dedicates them in obedience to God Thus a knife's aret would be its sharpness,
according to God's call. The virgin state that of a horse its speed, and that of an athlete
dedicated to God was highly esteemed by the his or her skill. As these examples suggest*
early church, in accordance with the example virtue was also thought to enhance or bestow
of Christ and the counsel of Paul (1 Cor. power either by building on potential or by
7:8ff.)although the virgin martyrs who creating habits. Thus, as a moral category the
figure prominently in the accounts of the per- virtues are dispositions that form passions
secutions are often simply young girls, as are and/or create habits. As Aristotle suggested,
also the bridesmaids of Matt. 25:1-13. The virtues are a "kind of second nature" that
dedicated virgin became so by her own vow, dispose us not only to do the right thing ;
as noted by Hippolytus of Rome c. 200 rightly but also to gain pleasure from what|
(Apostolic Tradition 13), without separation we do (see Aristotelian Ethics). I
from society. But since there was little place In heroic societies a virtue was determined;!
in the ancient world for the unmarried adult by roles or functions. The virtue of the soldier^
womanthough there was some (for exam- is therefore not the same as the virtue of th$|
ple, the virgin who is said to have concealed statesman. Alasdair Maclntyre has arguo$|
Athanasius in her family vault was obviously that this is not just an oddity of heroic soct*|
an old maid)the protection of virgins be- eties, but any account of the virtues requires^
came the responsibility of the church in de- display by a society's tradition. Attempts taj
fault of family, and hence one of the prob- depict the virtues in the more general sensed
lems faced by the bishop (cf. Chrysostom, On as the means to, as well as the constituents o|
the Priesthood 3.17). A natural solution was the good, such as that of Plato and Aristotle!
to bring them together under the guidance of presuppose the importance of a society and|
older women such as the widows whom the tradition for the material content of the vir-|
church also supported. Hence monastic or tues. An account of the virtues therefore re--|
649 Virtue
quires a sense of the telos of human existence, because they were the mean between two ex-
of some good, to which the virtues contrib- tremes. He lists temperance, liberality, mag-
ute, that gains its intelligibility from a com- nificence, pride, good temper, and even an
munity's concrete life. unnamed virtue between boastfulness and
The particularity of the virtues is often self-depreciation. His use of the mean to de-
overlooked because virtue and the virtues are termine the ideal virtue has often been criti-
not distinguished. The former is sometimes, cized as arbitrary.
especially in modern society, used as a com- This lack of agreement about which vir-
mendation for someone being generally up- tues were essential is only confirmed by later
right. The virtues, however, are not equiva- developments. Thus with the advent of
lent to virtue even when virtue is understood Christianity a different set of virtues was em-
in the sense of strength of character. The phasized. Charity, patience, and humility*
virtues are specific dispositions determined were assumed to be as important as prudence
by the need to correct certain deficiencies and courage. Aquinas attempted to bridge
(Foot), for the formation of the passions the twa traditions, suggesting that the "natu-
(Thomas Aquinas), as skills internal to ac- ral" or "acquired" virtues needed to be
tivities or practices (Maclntyre), or as neces- formed by the supernatural or theological
sary for the performance of certain roles or virtues* of faith*, hope*, and charity*.
offices. Virtue, on the other hand, is the Hence his famous formula: "Charity is the
stance of the self that coordinates or em- form of all the virtues."
bodies the virtues in a manner that makes Yet Aquinas's analysis of how charity is
them virtues. the form of the virtues is a good deal more
The relation between virtue and the virtues complex than the formula itself suggests. For
is complex and differs from one account to it is not that charity simply supplements the
another. But the distinction is necessary in "natural" virtues, but rather that it must es-
order to make clear that it is not enough sentially transform the natural virtues to di-
simply to have a disposition to be coura- rect them to their proper end. Therefore
geous, but that such a disposition must be of Aquinas maintained that along with "infused
the kind not easily lost. Thus Aristotle in- supernatural virtues" come "infused natural
sisted that it is not sufficient to do what a just virtues," which are not the same as the natu-
person does; to be virtuous we must do it in ral virtues in themselves. While the idea of
the manner that the just person does it. For infused natural virtues may be puzzling, it at
Aristotle phronsis (practical wisdom) is that least denotes Aquinas's clear view that Chris-
virtue most needed for any individual virtue tian presuppositions about the telos of our
to be rightly formed (see Prudence). Yet the lives change not only the status but also the
issue is complex, for he also maintained that content of the virtues emphasized by the
practical wisdom cannot function rightly un- Greeks. At the very least the language of
less it is directed by the moral virtues. This "infusion" is an attempt to suggest that the
circularity is but a reminder that virtue as virtues are as much a gift as an achievement.
well as the virtues entails a teleological ac- How the virtues are individuated also in-
count of human existence (see also Teleologi- volves the question of their interrelation.
cal Ethics). Plato and Aristotle maintained that the vir-
It is one thing to recommend the virtues tues were unified; that is, if a person were
but it is quite another to know which virtues rightly formed by all the virtues in the right
should be recommended. Plato's account (see manner, there could be no possibility of a
Platonic Ethics) of the centrality of temper- conflict between the virtues. Correlative with
ance*, courage*, prudence*, and justice*, this view is the assumption that if a person is
which were later to be called the cardinal to be virtuous in one way, he or she must
virtues*, has been misleading in this respect. have all the virtues; for example, it is not
For his list makes it appear that there was enough to be temperate but we must be tem-
general agreement, even among the Greeks, perate as a person of courage or justice is
about which virtues were central. But in fact temperate. In the light of such a claim many
that was not the case. Aristotle gives quite have wondered if it is possible for anyone to
another account of the virtues, making no be virtuous. Such a view, moreover, seems to
attempt to determine a central list but instead deny the temporal character of moral devel-
naming the virtues that were so identified opment, for it appears that people become
Vocation 650
virtuous by developing one virtue at a time. cious of an emphasis on the virtues. Virtues
The question of the interrelation of the vir- seem to invite a subjective arbitrariness into
tues is connected with the issue of how virtue moral considerations that it has been the pur-
and the virtues are related. For it may be that pose of modem moral philosophy to avoid.
the assertion of the unity of the virtues is an Thus the virtues have largely been treated as
attempt to try to account for the virtue neces- morally secondary to an ethics of obligation
sary for the virtues to be rightly formed. Yet that emphasizes the centrality of rules and
Aristotle knew that virtue was not simply the principles. The latter, it is assumed, are more
result of the individual virtues added to one likely candidates to ensure widespread agree-
another. That he knew this may indicate his ment. Yet defenders of the stress on the vir-
intuitive grasp of the possibility of conflict tues argue that rules and principles in fact
between the virtues and the necessity of vir- involve the same kind of problems.
tue as the means to provide continuity to the There has been a renewed interest in the
self. In this respect Aquinas's claim that virtues in contemporary Christian ethics.
charity is the form of the virtues may perhaps Some claim that an emphasis on "What
be understood as his attempt to suggest the ought we to be?" is more amenable to the
kind of life necessary to coordinate the many display of how theological convictions work
virtues we need to live asfinitecreatures des- morally. Moreover, an emphasis on the vir-
tined for a life with God. tues is said to offer a constructive alternative
Various accounts of the moral life will em- to the situation ethics* debate which seemed
phasize some virtues as more primary than to require that we choose between situation-
others. It has been the characteristic of mod- alism and a rule-determined ethic. Most
em moral philosophy, insofar as it has used practitioners of Christian ethics, however,
the language of virtue and the virtues at all, feel it is as yet too early to assess the success
to stress the virtues of sincerity, conscien- of this development for theological ethics.
tiousness, and fairness* as primary. In the See Character; Habit; Cardinal Virtues;
past these virtues have been considered sec- Theological Virtues.
ondary to more substantive virtues of cour-
age, temperance, love, and, in particular, wis- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae; Aris-
dom. Thus a commander of a death camp totle, Nicomachean Ethics; P. Foot, Virtues
might be quite conscientious, but we resist and Vices, 1978; P. Geach, The Virtues,
calling such a person virtuous. Obviously 1977; J. Gustafson, Can Ethics Be Christian?
other virtues are needed to inform our under- 1975; S. Hauerwas, Truthfulness and Trag*
standing of what it means to be conscien- edy, 1977; A. Maclntyre, After Virtue,, 1981;
tious. J. Wallace, Virtues and Vices, 1978.
A further issue is whether some virtues STANLEY HAUERWAS
should be more prominent in certain stages of
life than in others. For example, we almost Virtues see Cardinal Virtues; Virtue
think it unseemly for children to be wise, but
think it important for them to be obedient. Of Virtues, Cardinal see Cardinal Virtues
course it can be objected that such obedience
is not a true virtue as children have not devel- Virtues, Infused see Thomistic Ethics;
oped the capacity for virtue. However it re- Virtue
mains the case that we do associate certain
virtues with stages and functions in life that Virtues, Theological see Theological!
make it difficult for any one account of the Virtues
virtues and their interrelation to be satisfac-
tory. Thus, Maclntyre argues that it is a mis- Vivisection see Animals
take to try, as Aquinas did, to provide an
exhaustive and consistent classification of the Vocation
virtues (see Thomistic Ethics). Too much of The AV uses "vocation" only at Eph. 4:1, t
our knowledge of the virtuesboth as to translate klsis. In the other nine places
their kind and interrelationis empirical to where this Greek word occurs the AV uses *
make such a scheme reasonable. "calling." The RSV is consistent in usin||
But it is just such "untidiness" that makes "calling" at Eph. 4:1 as well. Closely related!
many concerned with moral theory suspi- is kltos (called), which occurs ten time$ |
651 Voluntary Associations
Both primarily refer to the call of God Calvinist emphasis. Out of elements of Cal-
through Christ to be a member of the com- vinism have developed what is known as the
munity of his people and to show the quali- Protestant work ethic, an ethic of hard work
ties of Christian life that this implies, i.e., the and thrift, which fitted in well with the re-
call is to be a "saint," which is the NT term quirements of capitalism. Max Weber's clas-
for every Christian. But in 1 Cor. 7:20 Paul sic study The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit
also applies the term to the daily work of the of Capitalism, ET 1930, showed this. It has
Christian. The AV brings out this double use produced an immense discussion that has
by translating this verse, "Let every man tended to obscure the force of what Weber
abide in the same calling [i.e., job] wherein he actually said (see also Sociology of Ethics;
was called [i.e., when he became a Chris- Business Ethics). However, in advanced in-
tian]." This was to have momentous conse- dustrial societies the adequacy of the ethic is
quences at the Reformation. In the interven- being questioned; not that work should not
ing centuries the doctrine of the double be well done, as a Christian vocation, but
standard had grown up. According to this, whether contemplative elements from the
life in the world is a second best and follows Christian tradition are not also needed (see
the precepts that are binding on all; but a Contemplation).
minority are called to follow the counsels* of See Calvinist Ethics; Lutheran Ethics; Pu-
perfection (poverty, chastity, and obedience). ritan Ethics; Work, Doctrine of.
To them the term "religious" is given, and RONALD PRESTON
this remains a technical term for monks and
nuns in the Roman Catholic Church, though Voluntarism
since the Second Vatican Council the reli- In ethics and in theodicy*, voluntarism is a
gious life is not seen as a superior vocation, view closely (though not inseparably) as-
though still a vocation; and so celibacy is not sociated with the nominalist philosophy. In
a superior vocation to marriageboth are answer to the question whether a thing is
vocations. good because God wills it or whether God
Luther rebelled against the doctrine of the wills it because it is good, voluntarism
double standard, and developed on the basis chooses thefirstalternative. Voluntarist eth-
of 1 Cor. 7:20 a theology of the Christian's ics is thus based on revelation, an ethic of the
calling in the world (the German term is divine command rather than of natural law;
Beruf). The idea of vocation was brought and, similarly, God's dealings with humans
from the monastery to the marketplace. The are known in the mandates of his inscrutable
Christian's calling is to carry on the world's will (the divine decrees) rather than in the
work to the best of his or her ability. If one effects of the divine intelligence discerned in
is a cobbler, one's vocation is to cobble shoes the nature and purpose of things. From the
well and thus to be a Christ to one's neighbor; first Reformers (and especially Calvin) until
there can be no higher vocation than that (cf. today, voluntarism has been a recurrent
G. Wingren, The Christian's Calling: Luther strain in Protestant thought. In spite of the
on Vocation, 1957). crudities in which it has sometimes been ex-
Paul's view was static. He did not envisage pressed, the view has sought to safeguard the
the Christian changing jobs. "So, brethren, in sovereignty of God, and the personal nature
whatever state each was called, there let him of his dealings and his commands.
remain with God" (1 Cor. 7:24 RSV). The See Divine Command Morality; Morality
reason is the same as for the grudging permis- and Religion, Relations of.
sion he gave to an unmarried person to JAMES A. WHYTE
marry; he thought the time would be very
short before the Parousia (v. 29). Luther like- Voluntary Associations
wise had a static view, thinking it was far on Voluntary associations are generally said to
in the history of the world. The Catechism of be of two types. If the association is con-
the Church of England in the 1662 Prayer cerned with the immediate satisfactions of
Book, on which many children were brought leisure-time activities of the participants, it is
up until into this century, was more dynamic spoken of as an expressive association, e.g.,
where it refers to getting one's living "in that for the improvement of gardens or photogra-
state of life unto which it shall please God to phy, the enjoyment of literature and the arts,
call me." In this it reflects a more dynamic the cultivation of hobbies. If the association
652 Voluntary Associations
is concerned to affect nonmembers as well as Roman law the young churches were in prin-
members for public goals with satisfactions ciple outlawed.
immediate or deferred, it is called an instru- In the Middle Ages heretical groups were
mental association; usually, the intention is conspicuous dissenting associations. Taking
to engender or affect public opinion as a so- the primitive church as its model, the cove-
cial force, and thus to resist or promote social nanted "voluntary church" of left-wing Puri-
change. Neither kind of association exists for tanism had to struggle through exile for its
the making of monetary profits. Both kinds freedom of association, an important element
of association are voluntary in the sense that of "the Protestant ethic" (overlooked by
a member is free to join or to sever member- Weber). For Thomas Hobbes free associa-
ship. Although a church as a voluntary orga- tions were "worms in the entrails of the sov-
nization shares some of the characteristics of ereign," necessarily to be "wormed." The de-
these associations, its self-understanding is mand for freedom of religious association
different, especially because of its transcen- opened the way for the demand for freedom
dent orientation, its sense of being called of of other associations to be actively concerned
God. with public affairs. The demand for freedom
In federalist theory instrumental associa- of religious association brought about the
tions are to be understood in terms of a sepa- separation of church and state; the voluntary
ration of powers, separation in that these as- church, the church of believers, thus relied
sociations provide intermediary "spaces," upon voluntary financial support and not
middle structures, between the relatively in- upon coercive taxation at the hands of the
voluntary associations, the family* and the state. The collection plate almost became a
state*. These associations claim the constitu- sacrament. But more than independence was
tional right to freedom of association, a free- at stake. By the middle of the 18th century
dom that has had to be fought for, not with- sectarians like the Quakers had devised the
out dust and heat. They provide the major strategies of the modern pressure
opportunity for the dispersion of power, the group.
freedom of the individual or the group to Already, then, the modern "organizational
participate in the making of social decisions revolution" was taking place, manifest in the
affecting public policy. The voluntary and in- changing structure of the state, the separa-
voluntary associations interact with each tion of powers. With this revolution came
other in conflict or cooperation; when in con- also the antislavery movements, the organi-
flict the voluntary association amounts to the zation of dissenting minorities, ethnic groups
institutionalization of dissentin contrast to and women, neighborhood associations,
merely individual (relatively ineffective) dis- scientific and professional societies, mission-
sent*. The open society is not willing to say, ary societies, communitarian groups propos-
"L'tat c'est moil" The moi is larger. The ing models of an alternative society, socialists
voluntary association is not the creature of looking toward fundamental structural
the state; moreover, the state itself is the crea- change, the promotion of civil rights or civil
ture of the community, which in turn is lim- disobedience, or of liberation theology, pri-
ited by a bill of rights preventing the sover- vate academies, libraries, and so on.
eignty of the majority; democracy is not the Church members have formed or have par-
rule of the majority. ticipated in these groups, and thereby have
The separation of powers may be traced far entered into association with members of
back in history. Max Weber observed that other denominations and with nonchurch
the Hebrew prophets by reason of their inde- people. Vatican Council II promoted volun-
pendence anticipated the modern free press. tary associations for the lay apostolate. In
These prophets found sanction for dissent in this way new conceptions of social responsi-
numinous, charismatic authority. Likewise, bility, new types of leadership, new skills of
the primitive Christian churches were as- organization appear, expanding the concept
sociations independent of the establishment. of the consent of the governed.
The maxim "Render therefore to Caesar the The voluntary association has become the
things that are Caesar's, and to God the characteristic and indispensable institution
things that are God's" expresses this inde- of a democratic, pluralistic polityin con-
pendence. Alfred North Whitehead speaks of trast to an authoritarian or overintegrated
it as a new principle of social organization. In (totalitarian) polity. Inevitably, associations
653 Vows
compete with each other for support. More- nite undertaking whereby a person binds
over, racist and other "antisocial" or anti- himself or herself to do or not to do, or to give
democratic groups enter into the competi- something by a promise to God. A vow there-
tion. The availability of a variety of voluntary fore is not something to be undertaken lightly
associations makes it possible for an individ- or carelessly, but only after full deliberation*
ual to cooperate in concert with others of and recognition of all that is involved (see
similar mind on a particular issue, and yet to also Oaths).
participate also in other associations bringing Vows may be private or public. A public
together people quite unwilling to support vow is one that is accepted in the name of the
the particular concern of the former group. church by a legitimate ecclesiastical superior.
This is the organizational meaning of plural- A private vow is one made without seeking
ism*. Thus individuals do not need to agree such acceptance. There is a further distinc-
on everything in a differentiated society tion within public vows, between simple and
where they presuppose a basic principle of solemn vows. The distinction is not nowa-
freedom and order and at the same time agree days of much importance and concerns cer-
to disagree on penultimate issues. Here we tain juridical effects attaching to solemn
see the multiple relatedness of the individual vows. Simple and solemn vows, public and
in an open society. private vows all create the same obligation.
At times the citizenry can find itself in the Any person who has the full use of reason
situation where voluntary-association theory is competent to make a vow. For the vow to
becomes an ideology* for reducing the re- be valid, there must be (1) a clear intention
sponsibilities of the state in face of the de- to make a vow; (2) adequate deliberation,
prived. Voluntary associations often serve as that is, a person must understand what bur-
watchdogs exposing the government as a vio- den of obligation it is that he or she is under-
lator of the law (also as refusing to enforce taking; and (3) free choice, that is, the vow
the law). They also attempt to expose lobbies must not be taken as a result of fear. The
and coalitions of lobbies supported by ample object of a vow, or what is promised to God,
expense accounts from major economic "spe- must be (1) something that is possible; (2)
cial interests" and geographical groupings, something pleasing to Godyou cannot
cotton, dairy products, lumber, corn and make a vow to do something that you know
wheat, etc. Because of these coalitions the to be wrong, or make a vow about some trivi-
legislature has been called the "clearing- ality; and (3) something that effects an im-
house" for the lobbies. Of peculiar signifi- provement in the present moral or spiritual
cance in the present era of nuclear weaponry state of the one who makes the vow. For
is the opposition of increasingly international example, chastity is an improvement on un-
voluntary associations to the industrial-mili- chastity. A vow of chastity therefore is a
tary-university complex. valid vow.
See Democracy; Ecclesiology and Ethics; Every valid vow creates a moral and reli-
Freedom; Pluralism; Politics; Society; State; gious obligation. Unless the vow itself spe-
Totalitarian State. cifies a time at which it is to be discharged,
it should be discharged as soon as possible. A
J. L. Adams, "Mediating Structures and the negative vow, i.e., a vow not to do something,
Separation of Powers," Democracy and Me- becomes obligatory at once. Because a vow is
diating Structures: A Theological Inquiry, ed. a restriction on liberty, it is to be interpreted
M. Novak, 1980; F. I. Gamwell, Beyond strictly.
Preference: Liberal Theories of Independent A private vow ceases automatically to bind
Associations, 1985; D. B. Robertson (ed.), if there is such a radical change in the situa-
Voluntary Associations: A Study of Groups in tion of the person who made it or in the thing
Free Societies, 1966; C. Smith and A. Freed- vowed that had things been so at the time, the
man, Voluntary Associations, 1972. vow would not have been made. For exam-
JAMES LUTHER ADAMS ple, a rich man vows to give a large sum
annually to charity, but later loses his money
Vows and becomes poor. Or a person vows to build
A vow is a definite promise* made to God. It a church on a given site, but then cannot get
differs therefore from an aspiration* or an planning permission. Public vows cease by
intention*, or even a resolution. It is a defi- dispensation granted by the appropriate au-
Wages and Salaries 654
thority. For a valid dispensation a just and often quoted on a yearly basis (see Collective
sufficient cause is required. Such a cause is Bargaining). In economic terms labor is one
either the general good of the church or the of the basic factors of production, the other
private necessity or advantage of the person two being land and capital. Because in indus-
under the vow. A monk who is dismissed by trial society labor considered as a unit by
his community because of his scandalous itself is in a weak position, as compared with
conduct may be dispensed from his vows for the other two factors of production, there has
the good of the church. A monk who, con- been a tendency in Christian social ethics in
vinced that he has mistaken his vocation, is the last century to say that a "living wage"
finding it increasingly difficult to live in the must be the first charge on any enterprise,
spirit of his vows and is under constant grave whereas the pure theory of laissez-faire com-
temptation to break them mayrightlybe dis- petition would put the residual profit to the
pensed for the sake of his own good. Indeed, shareholders (owners of capital)first.The liv-
in the case of life vows, though a dispensation ing wage in Roman Catholic thinking, where
may often be delayed in order to give the this demand has been strong since the first
person who asks for it time for further reflec- modern papal social encyclical, Rerum Nova-
tion, it is seldom, if ever, finally refused. rum (1891), has meant sufficient to support
A vow may be commuted; that is, some- a family of unrestricted size at a standard of
thing else may be substituted in place of the life appropriate to the level of a particular
original vow. If the thing substituted is some- state. This thinking goes back to the concpt
thing better than or at least not worse than of the just wage (see Just Price and Just
the original vow, no just cause is required and Wage) in medieval society, which was rela-
it may be done by the person who made the tively stable; it was held to be that which
vow. If something less than the original vow would enable a family to maintain itself at
is to be substituted, there must be an ade- whatever status and economic level it had.
quate reason and also recourse to superior When this is applied to a dynamic economy
authority. there are many problems to be faced, not
The Reformers frowned on vows, both least how many essentials of a "reasonable"
public and private, and especially on the life standard of life should be provided collec-
vows of poverty*, chastity*, and obedience* tively and not by each family separately.
taken by the religious. Their main objection Even allowing for this there is the challenge
was that vows restrict future liberty of action, to see that disproportions of power do not
and changing circumstances may and often allow some to be employed as "sweated
do create altered duties. A vow may prevent labor" at wages and conditions which a hu-
or seem to excuse a person from discharging mane society should not tolerate, because of
these new duties. Yet vows are of value both the absence of collective provision. Also the
as affording strength and determination to difference between the highest and the lowest
the will, and as an expression of devotion and paid needs scrutiny; it is, for instance, much
obedience to the will of God. The objections less in Sweden than in the USA or the USSR.
are met if care is always taken to prevent rash See also Official Roman Catholic Social
and ill-considered vows, and if wise and char- Teaching; Unemployment.
itable use is made by those in authority of RONALD PRESTON
their dispensing and commuting powers.
War
Thomas Aquinas, ST II-II.88; J. Calvin, In- The term has the principal meaning of armed
stitutes 4.13. conflict between or among nations or groups
R. C. MORTIMER of people; by extension it also can refer to an
intense, protracted struggle not involving
Wage, Just see Just Price and Just arms. In this latter sense Christianity since
Wage; see also Wages and Salaries the early centuries has encouraged the idea of
the "soldier of Christ" (miles Christi) and the
Wages and Salaries "army of Christ" (militia Christi) engaged in
There is no clear distinction between wages spiritual combat with evil as an alternative
and salaries, though there is a tendency to calling to that of military service on behalf of
call weekly payments for labor wages and the state. Taking this seriously implies the
monthly ones salaries, and these latter are moral rejection of war as armed conflict
655 Wealth
among peoples. Yet the majority of Chris- classicus for the theological treatment of
tians over history have accepted such armed moral weakness, where it is seen as a conse-
conflict as characteristic of life in a yet un- quence of sin, but not as in itself paradoxical
redeemed world and have sought to define or philosophically puzzling.
the limits of their participation in it. A "cru- Many philosophers, however, follow Plato
sade" or "holy war" theme has recurred oc- and Aristotle in believing that there is some-
casionally: in such wars God has been repre- thing paradoxical about moral weakness that
sented as calling Christians to take up arms does need to be explained, and various differ-
and as fighting along with them. A more con- ent types of explanation have been proposed.
tinuous tradition has defined the idea of "just It has been suggested, for example, that
war," in which Christians may morally par- moral weakness occurs when our knowledge
ticipate according to the guidelines laid down of right and wrong is clouded by desire; or
in the tradition; by contrast, Christians must when our desire to do what is right is less
not take part in unjust wars. strong than some other, perhaps more imme-
In practice, Christian thought on war in diate, desire; or when, although we do in one
any age has focused on the problems posed by sense know why we ought not to act in a
war in that historical context. The attitudes certain manner, we do not properly attend to
of the early church were shaped in part by the this knowledge in deciding how to act. Alter-
character of imperial Roman military ser- natively, it has been suggested that, despite
vice, those of the Middle Ages by chivalric appearances, we never in fact act contrary to
warfare and by the threat of militant Islam. a moral principle to which we sincerely sub-
In the context of the 20th century, discussion scribe at the time of acting. This line of ap-
has focused chiefly on the destructiveness of proach, unlike the others, sees the issue as
contemporary warfare and the heavy eco- conceptual rather than psychological. No
nomic burden imposed by military spending. clear solution to the problem has won general
Most recently these two concerns have been acceptance.
raised more specifically in connection with
nuclear weaponry. A secondary contempo- G. W. Mortimore (ed.), Weakness of Will
rary issue has been argued sharply in some 1971.
quarters: how far "wars of liberation" may be GERARD J. HUGHES
just and how far a Christian can or must
participate in them. Wealth
See Aggression; Conscription; Crusade; Contrasting attitudes to wealth are to be
Deterrence; Just War; Militarism; Nuclear found in the Christian tradition. These range
Warfare; Pacifism; Peace; Resistance; Revo- from qualified approval to absolute rejection.
lution. Approval is found in stories about the pa-
JAMES TURNER JOHNSON triarchs in Genesis, and among those in all
ages who have emphasized the existing order
Weakness, Moral as divinely ordained. In this regard Paul has
The earliest extended discussions of moral often been misinterpreted and other central
weakness occur in Plato's Protagoras 352b- elements in the tradition ignored. That
356c and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics 7. wealth is a gift and a blessing, especially
2-3. Plato suggests that it is in some way when not sought, is part of the tradition (1
impossible for human beings knowingly to do Kings 3:13). Hard work and diligence are
wrong. Aristotle admits that we do fre- certainly commended (Prov. 10:4; 1 Thess.
quently speak of moral weakness as if it were 4:11). Whether the emphasis on this theme
a case of knowing what we ought to do and and the qualified permission of usury* at the
failing to do it, and he tries to explain how Reformation led to the rise of capitalism* is
this paradoxical state of affairs can possibly much debated. Inequalities were certainly
come about. The shortest way with the prob- seen as necessary to the functioning of the
lem of moral weakness is to assert roundly worldly kingdom by Luther, and the need for
that there is nothing here that requires expla- differentials has been emphasized in modern
nation. It is simply a fact about ourselves that times as a realistic way of encouraging the
we are able to act against our sincerely held development of skills of value to the whole
moral principles, with full knowledge and community (see Just Price and Just Wage).
full deliberateness. Romans 7 is the locus The dangers of riches are stressed in vari-
Wedge Argument, Slippery Slope Argument, etc. 656
ous ways. Religions, and especially Christi- a system in which there is wealth for the
anity, teach that the true wealth is spiritual. minority at the expense of poverty for the
Acquisitiveness, covetousness*, and the love majority (see Liberation llieology). This
of money are emphatically condemned echoes biblical passages such as Luke 1:53;
throughout the tradition (Ex. 20:17; Isa. 5:8; 6:20-26; 16:19ff. There is urgent need to cor-
1 Tim. 6:10) as is trust in wealth (Ps. 49:6; rect the injustice of gross maldistribution
Luke 12:19) (see also Mammon). These vices within and between societies while preserving
can render people insensitive to spiritual val- or indeed enhancing basic values such as free-
ues and callous about the harm done to oth- dom. Attempts at the solution of unre-
ers. Where fraud, injustice, or oppression are strained economic growth for all have
linked with wealth, the prophets offer the drained scarce resources and caused pollu-
sharpest condemnation (Micah 6:1 Off.) as tion. However, the careful proposals of the
does James 5:4. Luxury is condemned by Brandt Commission deserve attention. Also,
prophets (Isa. 3:18ff.), the fathers, medieval technically advanced and disproportionately
moralists, and the Reformers alike. Calvin affluent societies may still have something to
was critical of commercial cities such as Ven- learn from those traditional societies which
ice and Antwerp. achieve a balance between their members and
Generosity as a positive obligation is em- a balance with their environment.
phasized both in the Bible and in the subse- See also Poverty.
quent tradition. This has inspired the estab-
lishment of charitable foundations, and also G. W. Forell (ed.), Christian Social Teach-
campaigns to remedy grievous disadvan- ings, 1966; G. Gutirrez, The Power of the
tages, and to lessen the gulf between rich and Poor in History, ET 1983; D. L. Munby, God
poor societies (see Charity; Philanthropy). in the Rich Society, 1961; J. F. Sleeman, Eco-
Equality* is seen by some (e.g., D. L. Munby) nomic Crisis: A Christian Perspective, 1976; J.
as the only ultimate standard. This motif cer- V. Taylor, Enough Is Enough, 1975.
tainly is found at 2 Cor. 8:14, and in biblical DAVID L. MEALAND
passages critical of great inequalities. For
others community of goods is the goal. In Wedge Argument, Slippery
Acts 4 this latter is probably a literary ideal Slope Argument, etc.
used to describe and encourage a generous Often in disputes about such matters as abor-
system of mutual aid* in earliest Christian- tion or euthanasia, someone will object to an
ity. The outright renunciation of property act by saying that it is "the leading, entering,
and wealth is urged in many passages in the or thin edge of the wedge," "thefirststep on
Gospels. The story of the rich man's refusal the slippery slope," or "the camel's nose
in Mark 10 is only one instance of a wider under the tent." All of these metaphors ex-
motif in which discipleship was held to re- press the conviction that the act in question
quire renunciation of property* (Luke for example, abortion* or voluntary eu-
9:57ff; 14:33). Early Christian itinerants thanasia*will lead to other acts or prac-
traveled without resources (Mark 6:8), and tices that are recognized as morally objec-
life without care was commended. This was tionable and that, therefore, the act itself
a more significant feature of primitive Chris- should not be performed. Accepting the act
tianity than many will admit, but it was in question would cross a line that has al-
modified even within the NT period. Asceti- ready been drawn, and once that line has
cism*, however, was the hallmark of the her- been crossed, it will not be possible logically
mits and of the early monks and friars. Sim- or practically to draw it again to preclude
plicity of life survived as a virtue also among terrible acts or practices. What will follow
Quakers, early Methodists, and others. The from the first act is alleged to be inevitable,
ideals of equality and community have been perhaps irreversible, and certainly bad. For
upheld by monastic orders, in the Radical example, abortion may be held to lead to
Reformation, and by modern Christian social infanticide*, voluntary euthanasia may be
reformers in varying ways. held to lead to nonvoluntary or involuntary
Among liberation theologians Jos P. euthanasia, and letting terminally ill patients
Miranda condemns differentiating owner- die may be held to lead to killing such pa-
ship. Gustavo Gutirrez distinguishes libera- tients (see Life, Prolongation of).
tion from revolution but is highly critical of Although wedge arguments and similar ar-
657 Welfare State
guments frequently appear in moral disputes, as Y? The ideological use of such arguments
they are rarely analyzed and are usually dis- in many cases should not obscure their legiti-
missed out of hand. Such arguments are often macy in other cases.
more rhetorical than serious, and they are
often invoked in ideological defenses of the S. Bok, "The Leading Edge of the Wedge,"
status quo against proposed changes. Never- and P. Ramsey, "The Wedge: Not So Sim-
theless, it would be a mistake to conclude ple," HCR, Dec. 1971; P. Ramsey, Ethics at
that these arguments are always mistaken. the Edges of Life, 1978.
They may be quite defensible in some cases. JAMES F. CHILDRESS
It is essential to distinguish two major ver-
sions of wedge arguments and similar argu- Welfare State
ments. One version focuses on the logic of The term "welfare state" seems first to have
moral reasoning, noting that a justification of been used by Archbishop William Temple in
act X (e.g., abortion) implies a justification of his Citizen and Churchman (1941, p. 35). It
act Y (e.g., infanticide) if there are no mor- is a reaction against the laissez-faire* theory
ally relevant differences between the acts. of the state which goes with a belief in a free
This version of the wedge argument appeals market economy, not only as a convenient
to the principle of universalizability*, which mechanism by which many basic economic
commits us to making the same moral judg- problems of production and distribution can
ment about relevantly similar cases. This first be solved automatically without the com-
version of the wedge argument is sometimes plications of political decisions, but also as
used to support changes in moral practices; expressive of a philosophy of possessive in-
for example, a proponent of active euthanasia dividualism*. This holds that the best availa-
may argue that if a society accepts passive ble way of running society is to leave it to the
euthanasia, it ought to accept active eu- personal responsibility of self and family in-
thanasia because there are no morally rele- terest, the upshot being the maximum com-
vant differences between them. While the mon good. Adam Smith was the main in-
first version of the wedge argument focuses spirer of this view. Many held it to be a
on the logic of moral reasoningthe hammer powerful weapon against effete privilege, and
back of the wedgethe second version it was the inspiration of the enormous eco-
focuses on the actual historical, social, and nomic growth brought about by the Indus-
cultural setting of the actwhat the thin trial Revolution*. Along with it went the
edge of the wedge is driven into. According view that poverty* was probably one's own
to this second version, even if acts X and Y fault; where it was not, the appeal was if at
can be morally distinguished in principle, act all possible to private benevolence*, and to
X will practically lead to Y because of vari- the state only as a last resort. If state relief
ous social forces, such as scarcity of resources was involved, it should be under conditions
or racism*. For example, it might be argued stringent enough to induce the recipient to
that in a racist society, a policy of letting get out of it if at all possible. Accordingly the
some patients die because of their anticipated 19th century spent much time in discriminat-
quality of life will be applied to some races. ing between the "deserving" and "undeserv-
Obviously this second version of the wedge ing" poor.
argument hinges on an analysis, not of the The foundations of the welfare state were
logic of moral reasoning, but of various social laid in the UK by the minority report of a
forces, and on a judgment about the probabil- Royal Commission on the Poor Law in 1909.
ity of those forces leading to act Y if act X is It was written by Sidney and Beatrice Webb,
accepted. Frequently invoked in the wedge who were to devote their lives to social re-
argument, especially the second version, is search. (No one remembers the majority re-
the specter of Nazi Germany, particularly its port.) The view of the minority report under-
euthanasia program. An assessment of the lay many of the social reforms of the
second version of the wedge argument is in pre-1914 Liberal government, and the social
part empiricalwhat can be expected to hap- policies that followed the 1914-18 war. In
pen in the society if act X is accepted? But an the course of the 1939-45 war William Bev-
assessment of the first version depends eridge produced a report on social insurance
mainly on the logic of moral reasoning and allied services, in which he identified
what does act X imply about other acts such what he called the "five giants" of want, dis-
Wesleyan Ethics 658
ease, ignorance, squalor, and unemployment govern, and since the difficulties following
which government social policy should deal the OPEC price rises from 1973 there has
with. This in turn underlay the social policies been a reaction by a radical Right in some
of the Labour government from 1945, when countries against the welfare state, and
the welfare state can be said to have arrived. renewed arguments for a free market econ-
It carried a good deal of conservative agree- omy. They are not, however, new arguments,
ment, too, for there is a strong element and the public debate is repeating arguments
among conservatives which is not so enthusi- from the past. Collectivist economies are cen-
astic about laissez-faire, and feels a sense of tralized welfare states but lack the political
public responsibility by the privileged for the freedom of the Western ones.
underprivileged. Bismarck, for instance, ar- A welfare state may be said to translate
rived at many of the institutions of a welfare into public terms Paul's words to the church
state in Germany in the late 19th century. In in Gal. 6:2, "Bear one another's burdens, and
practice all advanced industrial societies so fulfil the law of Christ." Note that it re-
have many welfare features, whatever their quires an uncorrupt civil service and a lot of
philosophy. supplementary voluntary action by citizens if
A welfare state means that the community it is to work well.
makes corporate provisions for its citizens by See also Capitalism; Philanthropy; Social
guaranteeing them a minimum standard of Service of the Church; Socialism; State.
life as of right, below which they will not be RONALD PRESTON
allowed to fall. It is not a matter of merit or
desert. It is likely to include a guaranteed Wesleyan Ethics
subsistence in the case of unemployment*, as The life and thought of John Wesley (1703-
well as access to education and health care, 1791) provide the inspiration for and the
and some housing provision (see Health shape of Wesleyan ethics. Brought up in an
Care, Right to). It can be financed by ele- atmosphere of piety in a high-church Angli-
ments of compulsory weekly insurance con- can home, Wesley began to study at Oxford
tributions, direct and indirect taxation on in- such works as Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living
come, and wealth taxes. It is a recovery of a and Holy Dying, Thomas Kempis, The
more organic view of human society and of Imitation of Christ, and William Law, Chris-
the role of the state. The free market theory tian Perfection. These works instilled in him
dissolves social relationships into individual the conviction that one could not be "half a
contracts, and the view of the state that goes Christian," that "through grace" one must
with it stresses its duty to provide law and devote the whole of one's life to love of God
order, security against aggression, the main- and neighbor, and that discipline is crucial in
tenance of contracts, and little else. It is sus- cultivating such devotion. Wesley pursued
picious of any political or government activ- this discipline by making a commitment to
ity in the economic realm. the priestly ministry and later by participat-
Laissez-faire* never worked out in practice ing in a special group, which was gathered by
very close to the theory. At the height of its his brother Charles for the study of scripture
influence cholera undermined one key fea- and the church fathers, for common worship,
ture of it; the disease could not be confined to including frequent Communion, and for
the poor areas of cities but spread to the rich, doing good works*. Its detractors called this
and only public health measures could stop group the "Holy Club" or the "Methodists."
it. Also on the employers or management After several significant experiences, Wesley
side there has been continued recourse to devoted himself to the proclamation of the
trusts and cartels and pressures on govern- gospel in the streets and fields of England
ments for protective tariffs and quotas; while and to the administration of the Methodist
the individual worker has felt unprotected "societies" that arose in the wake of this
and has organized defensive trade unions*, proclamation. Although he did not produce
especially as Western economies have not de- a systematic work in Christian theology and
veloped smoothly, but in booms and slumps. ethics, an analysis of his sermons and other
The hardships the latter produced are be- occasional writings reveals a clear and or-
yond the bounds of the uncertainties of pri- ganic unity in his theological and ethical
vate benevolence to deal with. These modifi- thought.
cations have made Western societies hard to The proper foundation of Christian belief
659 Wesleyan Ethics
and behavior for Wesley, as for Martin Lu- that is willful or "deliberate." Wesley not
ther and John Calvin before him, is God's only spoke of Christian perfection in terms of
action in and through Jesus Christ to justify the privilege "not to commit sin," but he also
sinful human persons. Human beings cannot referred to itperhaps more characteris-
merit God's "gracious" action, which must ticallyas purity of, and perfection in, love
be accepted as a gift "by faith." God's grace* of God and neighbor. Wesley did not believe
is thus prevenient, i.e., it comes before all that he had attained such a state, but he in-
human action. Wesley parted company with sisted on such a possiblity in this life as one
the classical Reformation, especially with important way to affirm and to celebrate the
Calvin and his followers, the Puritans, in sovereignty of God's grace.
holding that God's saving grace is offered to Wesley was concerned about "social holi-
all, not only to the few who are the "elect." ness" as well as the salvation of individual
In addition, Wesley held that God's grace is souls: "The Gospel of Christ knows of no
"co-operant" rather than "irresistible": it religion, but social; no holiness, but social
works together with the free will* of the holiness." This conviction led to efforts to
human person for his or her salvation. These meet the needs and promote the welfare of
controversial theological moves were dic- those around hime.g., efforts to set up a
tated, Wesley believed, by scripture and by loan society, to found a school for poor chil-
the requirements of moral responsibility*. dren, to establish a free medical dispensary,
In contrast to Luther (see Lutheran Eth- and to oppose the practice of slavery.
ics), Wesley held that the fullness of faith* Wesley was a loyal Tory in politics, never
and the final aim of justification are achieved wavering in his support for the Crown and
only when Christians are made righteous, for the established church, and he instructed
that is, when righteousness* is imparted and his ministers not to preach on politics, except
not only imputed to them. This righteousness when they might express support for the gov-
actually transforms Christians so that they ernment. There were, however, seeds in Wes-
are able to bear the fruits of faith in the form ley's thought that could develop in other
of love* of God and neighbor. While the ways, especially his emphasis on the rational
transformation begins with the act of justifi- and responsible conduct of individual moral
cation itself, it must continue in the ongoing agents. The essence of Wesley's economic
and lifelong process of sanctification*, the message is contained in the sermon "On the
completion and crown of which is Christian Use of Money," which admonished "gain all
perfection (see Holiness; Perfectionism). De- you can," "save all you can," and "give all
veloped in response to such NT passages as you can," maxims that appeared to accord
Heb. 10:14 and Matt. 5:48 as well as to writ- closely with the philosophy of unlimited free
ings by the church fathers and by Taylor, enterprise. But since this message was in-
Law, and others, Wesley's conception of per- tended for the lower classes as well as for the
fection was distinctively Christian because wealthy entrepreneurs, its aim was to inspire
perfection, like faith, is finally a gift of God and encourage workers, many of whom made
in and through Christ. There is, however, their way into the ranks of the middle class.
nothing automatic about human progress to- In addition, Wesley sought to remind all per-
ward perfection: Sanctification* is accom- sons that they are stewards of their earthly
plished by the Holy Spirit but human disci- possessions, and thus should gain all they can
pline is also required for this growth. Here as and save all they can, so that they may give
elsewhere Wesley combined distinctively all they can.
Protestant and Catholic motifs. Perfection in There is debate among social historians
no way delivers one from ignorance*, mis- about the character of Wesleyan ethics in En-
taken judgment, bodily infirmity, or threat of gland in the late 18th and early 19th centu-
temptation*. And Wesley insisted that per- ries. Some have seen Methodism as a con-
fection does not obviate the need to " 'grow servative movement opposed to all change,
in grace' and daily to advance in the knowl- others as a liberal sect of almost revolution-
edge and love of God." Christians may be- ary power, still others as a moderate force to
come perfect, not in the sense that they are stabilize and then bring progressive reform to
not able to sin, but in the sense that they are society. Some have even claimed that the
privileged "not to commit sin." Wesley fur- Methodist movement saved England from
ther qualified this claim by limiting it to sin* the revolution that swept over France. It is
Whistle-blowing 660
plausible to argue that the movement's politi- 1750-1850, 1984; T. A. Langford, Practical
cal conservatism* served to check any revo- Divinity; Theology in the Wesleyan Tradition,
lutionary impulses that its participants might 1983; H. Lindstrom, Wesley and Sanctifica-
have had because of their social, economic, tion: A Study in the Doctrine of Salvation,
and political conditions. And the impact of 1950; W, Muelder, Methodism and Society in
Wesley's economic message along with the the Twentieth Century, 1961; A. C. Outler
galvanizing effect of his religious message (ed.), John Wesley, 1964; W. J. Warner, The
may have mitigated some of the social aliena- Wesleyan Movement in the Industrial Revolu-
tion* of the lower classes. Whether the net tion, 1967; J. Wesley, The Works of John
effect was beneficial or harmful is still Wesley, ed. F. Baker, 26 vols., 1974.
debated. WILLIAM H. BOLEY
The twofold objective of Methodism in the
USA as in England was "to reform the nation
.. and to spread scriptural holiness over the Whistle-blowing
land." Often, the emphasis in American A relatively new term for an old activity,
Methodism fell on only one side of this com- perhaps first appearing in print in the USA in
mitment. For instance, in the latter half of the early 1970s. Whistle-blowing refers to ac-
the 19th century, more attention was given to tions intended to sound an alarm about a
the gospel of individual salvation and less to serious problem that needs correction, such
"social holiness." The typical practitioner of as corruption on the police force, abuse of
Wesleyan ethics in this period was often governmental power, a physician's incompe-
more concerned about whether or not to tence, or the illegal or unethical practices of
smoke, drink, swear, gamble, or go to the a business. Whistle-blowing is a metaphor
theater than about what could and should be drawn from the policeman's use of the whis-
done to alleviate continuing racial tensions, tle to stop traffic and from the official's use of
social inequalities, or threats to civil liberties. the whistle to interrupt play in a game. While
This imbalance between personal and social the policeman and the official in a game have
ethics, between individual piety and "social institutional authority and sanction, whistle-
holiness," was redressed in part with the rise blowers in government, business, or health
of the social gospel* in the late 19th and early care generally go beyond established chan-
20th centuries. However, the social gospel nels. Whistle-blowing usually occurs when
did not always retain the concern for per- an insider, often a subordinate, dissents from
sonal sanctification that had earlier charac- policies and actions and, through the provi-
terized Wesleyan ethics. sion of information to the public, accuses his
One major direction of Methodist ethics in or her colleagues of wrongdoing. The whis-
the 20th century has come from the influen- tle-blower decides that silence or withdrawal
tial writings of the "Boston personalists," in- is not sufficient and seeks to direct public
cluding E. S. Brightman, A. Knudson, and attention to the problem in question, often
Walter Muelder, among others (see Person- incurring a charge of disloyalty to the institu-
alism). This movement is but one part of an tion and colleagues.
ongoing attempt to recapture all aspects of Whistle-blowing may be justified when se-
Wesley's ethical outlookhis emphasis on rious problems cannot be corrected through
grace* and good works*, on the God who is established channels; the whistle-blower
good enough to offer salvation to sinful should very carefully examine the facts,
human beings and who is great enough to weigh the seriousness of the matter, and con-
bring about a large measure of this salvation sider the effectiveness of alternative courses
here and now, and on personal sanctification of action as well as the side effects of whistle-
and "social holiness." blowing. As Sissela Bok notes, "the ideal case
See Enthusiasm; Holiness; Nonconformist of whistleblowingwhere the cause is a just
Conscience; Perfectionism; Sanctification; one, where all the less dramatic alternatives
Social Gospel. have been exhausted, where responsibility is
openly accepted, and the whistleblower is
R. M. Cameron, Methodism and Society in above reproach is rare. The motives may be
Historical Perspective, 1961; D. Hempton, partly self-serving, the method questionable,
Methodism and Politics in British Society, and still we may judge that the act was in the
661 Will
public interest." The moral issues are similar right to any part of his estate on death, and
to other modes of dissent*, such as civil the husband could, in fact, will the estate
disobedience*, but whistle-blowing is gener- away from his relict. This was further altered
ally not illegal and is sometimes protected by an act of 1938 which gave a wife certain
and even encouraged by the law. One major claims on the estate.
moral issue concerns the anonymity of some Most husbands left little or no property
whistle-blowing (e.g., "Deep Throat" in the and widows were cared for either by relatives
Watergate scandal). Public responsibility* is or by some form of public assistance. In most
morally preferable to anonymity, but in some cases the English Poor Law was more gener-
cases the risks to the identified whistle- ous to widows than to most other applicants
blower may be significant. While whistle- for relief, but at certain times even they were
blowing received favorable attention during forced to take institutional aid. England in-
and after the Watergate era in the USA, its troduced a system of widow's pensions in
dangers include mistaken or malicious ac- 1925. This lasted for the rest of the widow's
tions, irreversible damage to reputations, in- days. In the postwar recasting of social insur-
vasions of privacy*, and subversion of trust* ance the pension was substantially increased
among colleagues. These dangers must be but was receivable only while the children
balanced against its probable benefits in par- were at school and not earning. In the USA
ticular cases. While whistle-blowing is mor- since 1939 widows who have dependent chil-
ally right and even obligatory in some cases, dren or who are past retirement age and are
one major task is to develop institutional eligible for social security as widowed moth-
structures of accountability to reduce the ers or as older widows receive government
need for it. support. There is debate about whether the
See Secrecy. level of support is adequate for those who are
covered and about whether others should be
S. Bok, "Whistleblowing and Professional covered.
Responsibilities," in Ethics Teaching in See Aged, Care of the; Children; Family;
Higher Education, ed. D. Callahan and S. Poverty; Sex Discrimination; Social Service
Bok, 1980; M. Glazer, "Ten Whistleblowers of the Church; Welfare State; Women, Sta-
and How They Fared," HCR 13, Dec. 1983, tus of.
pp. 33-41; A. Westin (ed.), Whistle Blowing?
Loyalty and Dissent in the Corporation, 1981. H. P. Brehm (ed.), Widowhood, 1983; H. P.
JAMES F. CHILDRESS Brehm and H. Z. Lopata, Widowhood: From
Social Problem to Social Program, 1983; P.
Widows Morris, Widows and Their Families, 1958; H.
Widows are women whose husbands have Z. Lopata, Women as Widows: Support Sys-
died and who have not remarried. Among tems, 1979.
the Hebrews the practice known to an- BRIAN RODOERS
thropologists as the levirate was laid down in
Deut. 25:5ff., wherein a widow had a definite Will
claim to be treated as a wife by her husband's Both ethicists and psychologists seem reluc-
brother. There was, in fact, a reproach at- tant nowadays to talk about the will. Perhaps
tached to permanent widowhood (cf. Isa. 54: the word savors too much of the old faculty
4), based on the assumption that the brother psychology, as if the will were some kind of
would not have her. Nevertheless widows mental organ, or a department of the mind or
and orphans had a special call on the protec- personality. The will is not thinglike or de-
tion of God (Ex. 22:22). A widow, particu- partmental. Will is rather the whole person
larly one with young children, is in a position behaving in a certain way, namely, striving to
of great weakness, for the breadwinner and bring about some state of affairs. The will is
traditional protector of the family has gone. not a "ghost in the machine" behind our ac-
In English law this frailty was made more tions, but is inseparable from and manifested
acute by the fact that before the Married in those actions. Perhaps one might say that
Woman's Property Act of 1882 the property the will inaugurates the action, but it also
of a woman became the property of her hus- continues in the action. Sometimes too there
band on marriage and she had no prescribed may be an interval before an action, already
Wisdom Literature, Ethics in 662
willed and therefore inaugurated, manifests rupt, and he acknowledges the value of reli-
itself. gion to the extent that it educates and sup-
The word "will" has been used in very ports the will, but he has great difficulty with
different senses. When one speaks of the "will the idea that God might somehow supple-
to live," what is meant is something like an ment the strength of the will (see Weakness,
instinctive determination to survive; but Moral).
when one says, "I deliberately willed this," See also Free Will and Determinism.
one has in mind a kind of behavior in which
calculation and reason play a major role. J. N. Lapsley, The Concept of Willing, 1967;
These examples from common speech are re- F. Nietzsche, The Will to Power, 2 vols., ET
flected at the philosophical level. 1909; A. Schopenhauer, The World as Will
Schopenhauer and Nietzsche are examples and Idea, 3 vols., ET 1883.
of philosophers for whom the notion of will JOHN MACQUARRIE
was very important, but who understood it in
the first of the two senses, as an irrational Wisdom Literature, Ethics in
instinctive drive. For Schopenhauer there is Much of the wisdom literature of the Bible
a universal will that is blind and aimless. In offers moral guidance to the community's
human beings, this universal blind will has youth. This guidance can be for quite practi-
attained consciousness. Schopenhauer as- cal purposes: the training of governmental
sociates it with the bodily instincts. Human personnel, the education of youth generally,
life can never be happy when driven by this or the passing on of the wisdom heritage to
insatiable urge. So Schopenhauer was at- one's most gifted students. It can also be for
tracted by the Buddhist ethic* and its at- the edification and entertainment of the com-
tempt to eliminate desire*. Will cannot in- munity at large, as the sages practice their
deed be extinguished, but cultivation of the profession, just as priests and prophets prac-
mind and a life of contemplation* can help to tice theirs (see Jer. 18:18). In addition, the
diminish the tyranny of will. Nietzsche fol- wisdom tradition, with its orientation to life
lowed Schopenhauer in recognizing the fun- as actually experienced, often plumbs the
damental importance of will. He spoke of the depths of human experience, showing how
"will to power," a will that is in everything, elusive wisdom can be as the search for her
including the human being. But he differed proceeds (Baruch 3:8-4:4 and esp. Job 28),
from Schopenhauer's view that the will is to how questionable is the proposition that in
be subjected to reason. As against the Apol- wisdom God created, sustains, and directs
linian or rational ideal, Nietzsche sought to the universe (Job and Ecclesiastes), and yet
find a place for the Dionysian, symbolizing how challenging and rewarding is the search
will and ecstasy. The human being must real- for wisdom (see esp. Proverbs and the apoc-
ize himself or herself in the will to power and ryphal books of Sirach [Ecclesiasticus] and
create new moral values reflecting the will to the Wisdom of Solomon).
power. The goal is a new order in which Kinds of ethical emphasis. The ethics of the
human power will achieve absolute domi- wisdom traditions of the Bible are of several
nance over the world, replacing the illusory kinds. Best known is the pragmatic counsel
divine power. (Some commentators have offered by the proverb, the balanced, pithy
seen in this teaching the philosophical char- utterance, known to most cultures in world
ter of technology*.) Will to power and trans- history, by which a society passes on its expe-
valuation of values are thus closely related. rience in memorable, entertaining, and often
A quite different and perhaps ethically ironic sayings. The ethics of the proverb is
more orthodox understanding of will is found essentially prudential, hortatory, conserva-
in Kant (see Kantian Ethics). For him, will tive. It commends diligence and care in one's
is "nothing but practical reason*," and this labors, respect for elders and for those in
reason, in turn, is the ability to act in accord- authority, prudence in speech, sobriety, fru-
ance with laws. The essence of morality is the gality, and especially the diligent pursuit of
exercise of the "good will," the will that per- wisdom. But the proverb can also point to the
forms for their own sake the duties that rea- depth dimensions of experience, and to life's
son deduces from universal laws. Kant does essential mystery, thereby preserving this
in fact acknowledge that the human will is genre from banality. "The rich and the poor
sometimes weak and sometimes even cor- meet together; the LORD is the maker of them
663 Women, Status of
all" (Prov. 22:2). Such a proverb vividly re- side the Bible and within it includes elements
minds hearers that rich and poor alike stand of skepticism and agnosticism that hold
mute before the power and the mystery of the under criticism the flat assertions that the
divine creation. good life always is rewarded in this world by
Parables, fables, and extended personifica- divine blessing. Wisdom ethics thus provides
tions or self-representations also are promi- self-correction. Conversely, the skeptical wis-
nent in the wisdom tradition; their ethical dom carries its corrections as well: even Ec-
power is immense. Nathan's parable of the clesiastes includes much positive ethical
rich man who prepares a meal for his guest counsel, invites the joyous living of one's life,
by using the poor man's pet lamb (2 Sam. and perhaps insists that vanity tooif
12:1-6) is well known. So is Jotham's fable pushed too grimlywould be vanity (Eccl.
about the trees' decision to choose a king for 3:1-15).
themselves, which ends with the acceptance
of kingship only by the bramblebush (Judg. J. L. Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: An
9:7-15). Jesus' parables also derive from the Introduction, 1982; J. L. Crenshaw (ed.),
world of wisdom. Parables offer guidance for Studies in Ancient Israelite Wisdom, 1976; G.
ethics while they also give fundamental ori- von Rad, Wisdom in Israel ET 1972.
entation for life as such. And many of the WALTER HARRELSON
parables, like some proverbs, also challenge
existing ways of understanding and action, Wisdom, Practical see Prudence
beckoning the community to look more
deeply and to ponder conventional moral ac- Women, Status of
tion (see, among the many NT parables, that Discussion regarding the status of women in
of the unjust judge, Luke 18:1-8). society has become widespread in academic
Personifications are especially important settings only in the last decade. In earlier
for ethics because they give models of a com- periods only a few, chiefly women, pondered
pelling sort by which members of the commu- this question. As with all matters related inti-
nity should or should not shape their lives. mately to social changeand therefore to so-
The model wife of Prov. 31:10-31 and the cial conflictfactual or descriptive assess-
temptress of Prov. 7:5-27 are vivid examples ments of what the status of women in society
both, by the way, showing much indepen- is or has been, on the one hand, and morally
dence on the part of women in ancient Israel normative evaluations of what the status of
even if the conduct portrayed comes from women in society ought to be, on the other
the male-dominated viewpoint. The personifi- hand, are intimately interconnected.
cation of wisdom in Prov. 1:20-33 and 8:1-36 Those who favor traditional sex roles
also serves to encourage not only the pupils of that is, who believe that both women's and
the sages to devote themselves to learning; it men's status should remain as it has been
urges the whole community to recognize the also usually presume, at the descriptive level,
power, the truth, and the beauty of a life lived that women's lives have been characterized
in pursuit of conduct that is in harmony with by a constancy across cultures and through
the divine wisdom itself. time that is conditioned by the biological re-
Wisdom collections of special value for ality of women's capacity to bear children.
ethics are found in Job 29-31 (esp. ch. 31) Whether the division of labor between men
and Sirach 44-50. But the fact is that the and women in society is understood to be
ethics of wisdom pervades all parts of the dictated "by nature" or by "divine decree,"
Bible: narratives, prophecy, the Psalms, the the traditional view presumes that all
Gospels, the letters of the apostles, and the women's lives are relatively homogeneous,
apocalypses. repetitive with respect to social function, and
Dangers and Values. The wisdom tradition characterized by minimal change. Here the
can easily become tasteless and flat to sensi- assumption operates that men have been the
tive members of the community, as is evident active agents of historical change while
in Job and Ecclesiastes. It can also seem to be women provided the stability of cultural con-
denied by the very experience of life that it tinuity, chiefly within the domestic sphere or
purports to sum up (note the prosperity of household. Until recently, such views were
the wicked as portrayed in Ps. 73, a wisdom challenged infrequently at either the factual
psalm). Even so, the wisdom tradition out- or the moral level.
664 Women, Status of
Movements aimed at changing public pol- ther by "mythical" male dominance (San-
icy with respect to women's lives began to day) or by actual male dominance, some-
develop in the middle of the 19th century, but times viciously enforced. The latter is,
the social conditions for such pressure overall, the most frequent form of social gen-
greatly accelerated after World War II. As a der relation, and invariably characterizes
result of this social pressure, acknowledg- politically powerful and highly differentiated
ment that sex discrimination* exists has be- societies.
come widespread. Along with this moral As cross-cultural comparisons based upon
rvaluation has come a new factual interest this recognition of diversity accelerate, the
in the status of women historically and question more and more asked by social
through social-scientific inquiry aimed at scientists is: Why are some societies so much
contemporary understanding. A protocol for more disposed to male supremacy and role
historical scholarship is emerging that re- domination than others? We are far from
quires any characterization of the past to ad- having uncontroversial answers to this ques-
dress gender relations explicitly. More and tion. It appears that the frequency of natural
more, it is recognized that theories of gender disasters that threaten food supplies and war-
relations can be developed only in cross-cul- fare are variables closely related to male su-
tural perspective. Lively scientific, ethical, premacist systems, and that a centralized, in-
and religious debates have ensued. stitutionalized religion and priest-centered
On the descriptive level, rising skepticism cult is a major variable in sustaining male
about traditionalist assumptions regarding supremacist social systems over time. Fur-
the status of women has produced unprece- thermore, women's cross-cultural capacity
dented amounts of new historical research for reproducing the species no longer appears
and social-scientific investigation. While the to justify notions that homogeneous patterns
massive number of new studies has not re- of child care and child-raising prevail. Fear
sulted in simple consensus, historians and of women's reproductive power is recognized
other social scientists who investigate the as a major factor in men's control of women,
past, or work cross-culturally, have laid to but when examined cross-culturally, patterns
rest all assumptions about either the cross- of socialization of children differ widely. In
cultural uniformity or historical constancy of fact, the child-centered family or domestic
women's lives. Sex roles are reciprocally em- unit is by no means a cross-cultural constant,
bedded in the social structure and all mac- and patterns of domestic divisions of labqr
rosocial change impacts males and females also turn on one's location in the social
equally. The social roles of women as a group strata. Upper-class women in complex soci-
have varied widely from society to society. eties rarely nurture the children they bear,
Household arrangements, divisions of labor and women in slave or indentured and/or
between genders, child-raising patterns, etc., poverty groups often are forced to raise other
are far more diverse than traditionalists people's children but are prevented from nur-
imagine. Conflicting conclusions have been turing their own.
reached as to whether there have ever been What has become clear is that modern capf ]
female supremacist, or matriarchal, societies talist political economies (and perhaps, postal
in which both women's political power and capitalist ones as well) have dramatically al*|
their symbolic standing have been superior to tered and reshaped gender relations and the|
, men's. If matriarchies existed, they have been status of women. Most premodern societies!
both rare and ancient. Matrilineal and ma- with traditionalist political economies pattern^
trilocal societiesi.e., those that designate male and female gender roles in ways that!
kinship lines or residence rules through the publicly constitute and sustain gender roles as|
motherare not rare, and there are definite a social system. Both men and women a
examples of matrifocal societies, societies groups exercise important symbolic, produce
where primary solidarity relations are sus- tive, and consumptive functions in society^
tained by women. However, most societies however. Even in male-dominated societiel
have had one of three forms. Some premod- men's and women's collective social role
ern simple societies have exhibited relative were grounded in and sustained by discret^
equality between the male gender system as female or male cultures. Neither gender had 4
a whole and the female gender system as a monopoly on public impact because the col|
whole. Others were or are characterized ei- lective functions of production and reproduc^
665 Women, Status of
tion were interrelated so that all were neces- turity among religious ethicists and theolo-
sary to communal well-being. The develop- gians. We must ask, for example, about
ment of capitalist centralized production ac- whether religious systems that emphasize
celerated the splitting off of these productive male blood sacrifice and salvation from
functions from the household unit (see Capi- "earthly" sinful existence are not male su-
talism). This destroyed the social value of premacist religious legitimations developed
work in the household because the domicile to transcend the earthy "once-bornness" of
ceased to be the basic unit where income- women. It remains to be seen whether the
producing activity took place. This "privati- mainstream of so-called orthodox Christian-
zation" of the family* slowly but surely ity, and also Judaism, can deal candidly with
eroded the collective power of women within the mounting evidence of the connection be-
society. The modern perception of women is tween male supremacy and the salient char-
that their lives are to be lived out in this acteristics of Western religious , systems, as
privte sphere. The (fairly recent) advent of presented, for example, in the scriptures.
the nuclear, child-centered family and urban The normative moral debate regarding the
migration weakened traditional women's cul- status of women does not logically depend
tures. Women became more isolated from upon these factual disputes about what is the
their mothers, sisters, and women friends, case. These normative differences do not fol-
and the social value of their culture declined. low scientific debates precisely, because ide-
The personal and political disempowerment ology*, or one's contemporary political and/
of women was the consequence. Because or symbolic interests, provides an intervening
these structural changes are now pervasive variable that conditions the judgment as to
and touch the lives of women globally, move- the seriousness of sex discrimination*.
ments seeking justice for women have Nevertheless when moral and theological
emerged within and across various cultures. difference exists, it is because our disposition
One dramatic side effect of the deluge of toward truth claims and our religious vision
new historical and cross-cultural research on are intimately related. Whether, or to what
women's lives is methodological. It is recog- extent, one concedes the disadvantaged sta-
nized that previous social-scientific, includ- tus of women to be an urgent moral issue
ing historical, inquiry has deeply distorted depends upon how one assesses one's inter-
human self-understanding by rendering half ests in relation to the status quo, and upon
the species invisible. Acknowledging the bias one's conception of what sort of world is di-
against women's reality in established modes vinely intended or makes for human well-
of inquiry has also exposed other biases in being. Male supremacist visions of society are
historical and cross-cultural description. Pre- best sustained by images of the historical past
vailing views of "the history of mankind" in which women's role and place were at least
appear now as a "view from the top," an relatively fixed by nature or God. By con-
account of our social past rendered from the trast, those who believe change is morally
perspectives of social elites and their hired desirable will be drawn to pluralistic charac-
literati. To better grasp the status of women terizations of the past that incorporate
in the past, it has been necessary to reorient human diversity.
the focus of historical investigation from the At the descriptive level, it is clear that the
activities of political, economic, and intellec- material and emotional pressures on women
tual elites, to concentrate upon those socio- are dramatically on the increase. "The femin-
cultural relations of everyday life neglected ization of poverty*" is a recently coined
in dominant historiography. This "feminist" phrase to characterize the discovery that well
or "liberation" hermeneutic, or principle of over three fourths of the very poorest people
interpretation*, requires intense skepticism in the world are women and their dependent
about generalizations regarding the past children. The phrase also identifies a long-
drawn from data taken from the cultural term trend in the global political economy
repositories of social elites. Since there is an that ensures that women and their children
indisputable connection between dominant will make up an even larger proportion of the
moral and religious ideologies, on the one poor in the future. Hence, it is cetfain that
hand, and institutions and systems of male whatever the outcome of scholarly debates at
supremacy, on the other, this hermeneutic the scientific level, the status of women as a
also requires a new rigor and intellectual ma- normative moral question in social ethics re-
Work, Doctrine of 666
quires urgent attention in Christian ethics rupted in the Christian tradition to refer es-
now and in the future. pecially to the work of the ordained ministry
See Feminist Ethics; Liberation Theology; (not more than 1 percent of the church) or
Oppression; Sex Discrimination. paid church work; and to spill over from that
to work with a high personal content, such as
A. Y. Davis, Women, Race and Class, 1981; nursing, teaching, or social work, but not to
S. Dowell and L. Hurcombe, Dispossessed manufacture; so that a Christian in industry
Daughters of Eve, 1981; J. L. Flandarin, is more likely to regard personnel manage-
Families in Former Times, 1979; B. W. Har- ment as a vocation and not the job of works
rison, Making the Connections: Essays in manager. In particular semiskilled or un-
Feminist Social Ethics, 1985; N. C. M. Hart- skilled work has not been thought of within
sock, Money, Sex and Power: Toward a Femi- a doctrine of work. There has also been a bias
nist Historical Materialism, 1983; G. T. Hull, to think of work in agriculture as more of a
P. B. Scott, and B. Smith (eds.), But Some of vocation than work in industry, an indication
Us are Brave: Black Women's Studies, 1982; of the slowness with which Christians have
N. Jay, Throughout Your Generations come to terms with the new kind of society
Forever: A Sociology of Blood Sacrifice, Ph.D. produced by industrialism. However, agri-
dissertation, Brandeis University, 1981; J. culture is so mechanized in Western coun-
Kelly, Women, History and Theory, 1984; R. tries that it makes this attitude increasingly
P. Petchesky, Abortion and Woman's Choice: absurd.
The State, Sexuality and Reproductive Free- The Christian doctrine of work sees it as a
dom, 1984; P. R. Sanday, Female Power and means of loving God by serving human
Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual needs. Needs are interpreted in a broad sense,
Inequality, 1981; E. Schssler Fiorenza, In but not as broad as wants. There are some
Memory of Her: A Feminist Reconstruction of wants which it is hard to please God by sup-
Christian Origins, 1983; A. Swerdlow and H. plying, but in general we should not be too -
Lessinger (eds.), Class, Race, and Sex: The fastidious. If gambling, for instance, is within
Dynamics of Control, 1983; E. Zaretsky, Cap- bounds a legitimate activity, so is the supply*
italism, the Family and Personal Life, 1978. ing of facilities for it. The church has never
BEVERLY WILDUNG HARRISON excommunicated bookmakers. As to choice
of jobs, those who have the longest and most
Work, Doctrine of specialized training will expect to exercise it,
Work is a central reality of existence; and as but they usually have a fair choice where to I
soon as there is any division of labor (we do so, and what life-style they will adopt.
cannot imagine any society without it) work Those with the least differentiated skills will
is a basic social reality. It can be both a brute find it easiest to change jobs. However, while
necessity and drudgery and also a joy, either there may well be a "right to work" if one
because of the creativeness involved in some lives in a society that evaluates people by
jobs or because of the social significance work their work, there cannot be arightto a partic-
brings, or both. This double aspect of work as ular job if the needs of society change. At the
toil and a joy is brought out in the biblical same time the state should so arrange its eco- ^
"parables" of Creation and Fall in Genesis. nomic affairs that there is no long-term
The Bible has a realistic attitude to work and unemployment. A wise society moves
is not at all fastidious, unlike the Greeks. The younger rather than older men to new jobs, *J
educated Greek thought ordinary work de- and provides generous adjustment allow-
grading for a free man; it was for slaves; and ances and retraining facilities when a change
a touch of this attitude can be seen in Ec- of type of job requires this. i
clesiasticus 38, which comes significantly See Unemployment; Vocation.
from hellenized Judaism. The Bible may not RONALD PRESTON 1
do enough justice to creative art, but it cer-
tainly sees the vast bulk of the world's work World Council of Churches j
positively under God. The NT stresses the see Ecumenical Movement
need to work and not be idle, to work well
and cheerfully (cf. 1 and 2 Thess., passim; World Government |
Col. 3:23). Work is a vocation. A proposal to create a world authority within
The doctrine of vocation* has been cor- full powers of government over a limited
667 Worldliness
range of functions. These functions would terms of the dialectic which arises from this
include external affairs and control of mili- ambiguity. Sometimes the world-denying as-
tary forces, and perhaps also certain aspects cetic element has prevailed, as in the early
of trade, taxation, and international trans- monastic movement, sometimes the assertion
port and communications. Remaining func- of the world and its claims, as in Luther's
tions of government would be the responsibil- words to the German nobility: "The sphere
ity of a second tier of national governments, of faith's work is worldly society and its
and of any lower tiers. A world court would order." Yet even in the great periods of world
interpret the legal instrument setting out the denial, or the periods of greatest insight into
distribution of functions among different the necessity of world affirmation, there has
parts of the international authority or be- never been established a final resting point for
tween international and national authorities, Christian thought: no direct or simple solu-
and would adjudicate in disputes between tion, either simply in the world or simply out
different authorities. This arrangement of it, has been found. The tension which has
would be to elevate the federal idea from the consequently been maintained has been im-
national to the international level. Proposals mensely fruitful for all spheres of Christian
for world federal government enjoyed some thought and enterprise. In the realm of ethics
popularity in the West in the years immedi- there has thus been a long-drawn-out strug-
ately before and after the Second World War. gle with classic views, especially with the
In Western Europe, the movements for world Stoic view. At this point the recognition of
government tended to split in the 1960s be- the reality of the intramundane ethical de-
tween those advocating regional unity in part mand has worked powerfully to save Christi-
or all of Europe, as a step toward world gov- anity from simple denial of the world. Yet
ernment, and those who feared that regional even here the issue has not been resolved. For
unity or unification might prove an obstacle how may the Christian speak of harmony
to world government. Some proponents of with the rational order, in face of his or her
world government see the UN and its agen- belief in the revelatory reality both of evil and
cies as an embryonic world authority, while of suffering as historically focused in Christ?
others favor the establishment of a com- On the other hand, the Christian cannot take
pletely new international authority with lim- refuge in total resignation either. Worldli-
ited executive, legislative, and coercive pow- ness, even "holy worldliness," is often
ers. World government, like all federal thought of today (the terminology is usually
systems, confronts problems arising from di- influenced by the later thought of Dietrich
vided sovereignty, dual allegiance, and the Bonhoeffer) as the necessary form of Chris-
need for appropriate checks and balances. It tian life. But since this conception flows pri-
has been criticized as Utopian. marily from a specific though not always ar-
See International Order; International- ticulate Christology, it is not possible to
ism; National Sovereignty; State. identify it with any straightforward natural-
istic ethic. Christians, though recognizing
E. Culbertson, Summary of the World Feder- that they are entirely within this world, and
ation Plan, 1944; R. Hutchins et al., Prelimi- have their duties and claims alongside all
nary Draft of a World Constitution, 1948; S. people, are still not simply "of* this world.
H. Mendlovitz (ed.), On the Creation of a Their "worldliness" is thoroughly dialectical.
Just World Order: Preferred Worlds for the This dialectic arises out of their faith that the
1990s, 1975; C. K. Streit, Union Now, 1939, absolute demand upon them is simultane-
21949. ously the demand of a Demander: They ac-
SYDNEY D. BAILEY knowledge God as a personal will active in
history. This absolute will, acknowledged as
Worldliness concentrated in the historical person of Jesus
The ambiguity of the concept of the "world" Christ, asks for their total commitment in an
in Christian thought is present from the be- ultimate relation. At the same time, this ab-
ginning. In the NT the world is the world of solute claim upon them puts them back into
humans, in opposition to God, but it is also the world, where they must be engaged, in
the world which God loves and which he has the penultimate sphere, with the same prob-
reconciled to himself in Christ. lems and demands as everybody else. The
The history of Christianity may be seen in problem of a Christian secularism arises here,
Zeal 668
and the unfinished discussion on this and above, Goethe seems to indicate that the Zo-
related points is an indication of the continu- roastrian mind has no need for a revelation
ing vitality of Christian faith in relation to other than the daily performance of one's
the world. burdensome duties.
See Dialectic; Secularism; Secularization. In Goethe's day little precise knowledge of
Zoroastrianism had reached the Western
D. Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from world. In addition, Goethe's summary state-
Prison, ET 3rd ed., rev. and enl., 1971; W. G. ment gives as much an insight into his own
Maclagan, The Theological Frontier of Eth- mind as a reflection of Zoroastrian philoso-
ics, 1961; H. R. Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, phy. Yet, diligence in the performance of
1952; R. Gregor Smith, Secular Christianity, one's daily duties is truly one of the essential
1966; A. R. Vidier, "Holy Worldliness," Es- tenets of the Zoroastrian way of practical be-
says in Liberality, 1957. havior. As it is put by Zarathushtra himself,
R. GREGOR SMITH it is "dawn, noon, and evening that remind
the 'faithful' of his [daily] obligation[s]."
Wrong see Norms; Right and Wrong; In the 2,500 years that lie between the first
Sin(s) half of the 6th century B.C., the most likely
period of Zarathushtra's activities, and the
Zeal present-day Parsees (or Parsis) in India, who
Not a common word now, "zeal" in its posi- profess Zoroastrianism as their creed, impor-
tive sense has been replaced by "enthusi- tant changes, if not complete reversals, in
asm"* and in its negative sense by "fanati- ideology, beliefs, and practices have taken
cism." In the NT, praiseworthy zeal is place. Indeed, as Zaehner has pointedly ob-
distinguished from blameworthy zeal accord- served: "The history of [the Zoroastrian] reli-
ing to their goals and their effects. Christ's gion, even in its heyday, has been so check-
redemption was to purify a people who "are ered that a Parsee would have no difficulty in
zealous for good deeds" (Titus 2:14), and finding scriptural evidence to justify a total
Christians are exhorted to be zealous for monotheism, an uncompromising dualism,
"higher gifts" (1 Cor. 12:31). But zeal may or even a barely disguised polytheism." But
also be misguided; for example, before his perhaps the relative validity of statements
conversion Paul was "as to zeal a persecutor based on the nonhomogeneous materials con-
of the church" (Phil. 3:6). In Jesus' time the tained in the Avesta and in the Pahlavi
Zealots actively sought to overthrow Roman books, which date from Sassanian times (A.D.
occupation by violent means; one of Jesus' 250-650), is in no need of further emphasis.
disciples, Simon, had been a Zealot (Luke A case in point is the often-mentioned
6:5; Acts 1:13), and Jesus was probably practice of good thought(s) (humata), good
viewed by the authorities as a rebel even word(s)(/zw/c/ta), and good deed(s) (h varsh ta),
though he did not endorse the Zealots' use of which, according to Parsee and Western in-
violence or refusal of taxes (see Resistance). terpreters alike, is "the fundamental princi-
JAMES F. CHILDRESS ple of the Zoroastrian creed" (Masani) and
"the quintessence of the moral and ethical
Zoroastrian Ethics teachings of Zoroaster" (Jackson). A recom-
Schwerer Dienste tgliche Bewahrung, mendation of this practice as such, however,
Sonst bedarf es keiner Offenbarung, is not included in any one passage of the
Gths, those portions of the Avesta that are
In the years 1814 and 1815, Goethe gave supposed to be the true reflection of Zara-
expression to his deep interest in Eastern reli- thushtra's own thoughts. On the other hand,
gion, history, and literature in a cycle of the three terms occur frequently in other Zo-
poems to which he gave the title West- roastrian texts. For instance, they are part of
stlicher Divan. His study of the religion of a well-known prayer ("We are praisers of
Zoroaster (Zarathushtra), the prophet of an- good thoughts, good words, good deeds [that
cient Iran, and his desire to achieve a synthe- are being thought, spoken, and] done and
sis of Eastern and Western thought and phi- [have] been [thought, spoken, and] done
losophy resulted in a lengthy poem, written ."); they are used at several important
in 1815, to which he gave the title Vermcht- moments in the Zoroastrian liturgy and they
nis (Heritage). In the two pithy lines quoted symbolize the three steps by which the soul
669 Zoroastrian Ethics
of the true Zoroastrian approaches paradise for there are times when it is better to speak
after death. The Zoroastrian devotee makes a out and times when it is better to hold your
pledge to "well-thought thought, the well- peace""So far as you possibly can, do not
spoken word, the well-performed act"; the bore your fellowmen"). Still other passages
three coils of the girdle (kust) worn around provide bits of popular wisdom ("Put out of
the middle by the Parsees are thought to sym- your mind what is past and do not fret and
bolize the trifold ethic of thought, word, and worry about what has not yet come to pass"
act. "Do not make a new friend out of an old
Cases like this are not rare; in fact, they are enemy, for an old enemy is like a black snake
the rule rather than the exception. It is not which does not forget old injuries for a hun-
until later, particularly Sassanian, times that dred years"). In short, "Live a good and use-
a systematic code of Zoroastrian ethics was ful life, be considerate to others, fulfill your
developed. This code was in part derived religious duties, cultivate the land, rear a
from the original teachings contained in the family, and bring up your children to be liter-
ancient writings; other parts of it were based ate and educated," while keeping in mind
on more recent ingredients. The mainspring that "men are like a water skin full of air;
of this code lies in the Zoroastrian assump- when punctured nothing remains; men are
tion of the original and complete separation like suckling babies, creatures of habit who
of the principles of good and of evil. The cling to their habits."
triple injunction implied in the (Sassanian) Without going into the complex problem
terms humat, hukht, and huvarsht is the of the relationship between Zoroastrianism
practical conclusion drawn from this view. It and Plato's philosophy (see, e.g., J. Bidez,
is also part of the consequence of the well- Eos, ou Platon et l'Orient, 1945), it may be of
known Zoroastrian premise that man by his interest to quote the generally correct echo of
origin belongs to Ahura Mazda ("I belong to Zoroaster's way of thinking in Plato's view
Ohrmazd") and as such is in a position to (Alcibiades 1.121): "When a boy reaches
choose for the good on his own. fourteen years, he is entrusted to four royal
Statements on ethics abound in the Sas- tutors, the most wise, the most just, the most
sanian texts. The old virtues, already recom- temperate and the most brave [among men].
mended or suggested by Zarathushtra, of . . . The first of these teaches . . . the Magian
husbandry and agriculture ("Till the earth wisdom of Zoroaster..., that is, the worship
. . . for all men live and are nourished by the of the gods..., also what pertains to a king;
tilling o f . . . the land"); of truthful and righ- the most just. . . , to be truthful all his life;
teous behavior in accordance with the nature the most temperate . . . , not to be subject to
of Asha (truth) ("Speak the truth so that you even a single pleasure in order that one may
may be trusted"); and the obligation to keep be... a free man, not a slave; the most brave
earth, water, andfirefree from contact with . , to be fearless and bold."
impure matter, are repeatedly mentioned. These quotations show that on the basis of
Other passages refer to such virtues as gener- the old ideas of Zarathushtra a set of new
osity ("Be as generous with your property as values was developed. On the one hand, these
you can"); hospitality ("Make the traveler values reflect the polished standards of be-
welcome so that you yourself may receive a havior characteristic for Sassanian civiliza-
wanner welcome in this world and the next; tion; on the other, they are the outcome of
for he who gives, receives and [receives] more the acceptance, for theological as well as sec-
abundantly"); industry ("Rise before dawn ular purposes, of the doctrine of the avoid-
so that your work may prosper"); education ance of extremes. "Neither too much nor too
("Be zealous in the acquisition of education, little" has become the favorite theme of both
for education is the seed of knowledge and its theologians and the laity. In this connection,
fruit is wisdom"); moderation ("Show re- it is worth noticing that theological specula-
straint in your eating [and drinking] so that tion developed a list of vices to be avoided as
you may live long"); contentment with one's opposites of each virtue to be pursued. This
lot ("Do not be unduly glad when good for- systematization is, in part, the consequence
tune attends you, do not be unduly sad when of the basic Zoroastrian distinction between
misfortune befalls you"); tact ("All actions the separation of good and evil as symbolized
depend on the proper time and place" by Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd) and Angra
"Speak sharply only after much reflection, Manyu (Ahriman). Falsehood became the
Zoroastrian Ethics 670
standard opposite of truthfulness, stinginess cumstances , its industry and spirit of
of charity, greed of contentment, sloth of in- citizenship; and above all, its philanthropy."
dustry, bad manners of education, and so
forth. M. Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism, 2
The controversial matter of the next-of-kin vols., 1975, 1982; J. Duchesne-Guillemin, La
or consanguineous marriage can only be religion de l'Iran ancien, 1962; Symbolik des
mentioned. Its occurrence is actually attested Parsismus, 1962; A. V. Williams Jackson,
in Achaemenian and Sassanian times, it is Zoroastrian Studies, 1928; F. M. Kotwal and
critically mentioned by Syriac authors and J. W. Boyd (eds.), A Guide to the Zoroastrian
not infrequently recommended in Sassanian Religion, 1982; R. Masani, The Religion of
texts. The evidence has been contested by the Good Life: Zoroastrianism, 1938; J. J.
modern Parsee authorities, and Western in- Modi, The Religious Ceremonies and Cus-
terpreters have looked upon the custom as toms of the Parsees, \931; M. Mol, Culte,
2
being of foreign (Median) origin (Zaehner). mythe et cosmologie dans l'Iran ancien, 1963;
Since the arrival of Zoroastrianism in J. M. Unvala, "Die religisen und sozialen
India in about the 8th century, the Parsee Sitten und Gebruche der Parsen," Wrter
community in Bombay and other places in und Sachen 17, 1936, pp. 174-192; and vol.
northwestern India has striven to live up to 18, 1937, pp. 145-163; G. Widengren, Iran-
the ancient ethical values in its religious and ische Geisteswelt, 1961; and Die Religionen
social behavior. In the words of one of its Irans, 1965; R. C. Zaehner, The Teachings of
distinguished members: "Some of the sterling the Magi, 1956; and The Dawn and Twilight
qualities of the Parsi community are its of Zoroastrianism, 1961.
vitality ., its adaptability to changing cir- MARK J. DRESDEN
INDEX OF NAMES
Abelard, Peter, 376 264, 276, 291, 302, 315, 329, 364,
Abraham, 49, 136, 218, 277, 402, 437, 366, 368, 373, 375, 377, 413, 418,
620 464, 476, 479, 480, 483, 495, 496,
Abrecht, Paul, 180, 183, 184 514, 524, 533, 546, 572, 581, 589,
Adams, James Luther, 172, 173, 386 603, 618, 623, 634, 639, 648, 649,
Adams, Robert M., 160 650, 655
Adler, Alfred, 16, 515 Athanasius of Alexandria, 456, 648
Adorno, Theodor W., 482 Augustine, 2, 10, 36, 42, 46-49, 59,
Afer, C. Marius Victorinus, 419 65, 71, 77, 79, 83, 87, 88, 95, 102,
Akhenaton, 186 123, 124, 125, 139, 153, 197, 225,
Albert the Great, 376 232, 251, 253, 284, 286, 296, 328,
Alcibiades, 600 355, 356, 357, 360, 363, 364, 365,
Alexander VIII, Pope, 134, 633 367, 375, 376, 381, 383, 386, 394,
Allport, Gordon W., 185, 408, 523 398, 402, 413, 419, 443, 444, 447,
Alves, Rubem, 59 456, 457, 465, 478, 496, 512, 514,
Ambrose, 47, 77, 79, 328, 417, 447, 515, 528, 534, 541, 562, 571, 572,
456, 648 578, 585, 589, 610, 633, 634, 648
Ames, William, 23, 520, 521 Auln, Gustaf, 333
Arnos, 508, 509, 510 Austin, John L., 555
Anscombe, Elizabeth, 122 Averros, 375
Anselm of Canterbury, 375, 376 Avicenna, 375
Anthony, 393 Ayer, Alfred J., 252, 487
Aquinas, Thomas, 2, 14, 23, 26, 28,
29, 30, 41, 42, 48, 77, 95, 99, 102, Bacon, Francis, 66, 197
116, 123, 124, 125, 133, 135, 137, Bacon, Roger, 376
162, 190, 197, 198, 199, 213, 233, Bainton, Roland, 139, 239, 446
249, 251, 253, 261, 266, 270, 273, Barth, Karl, 14, 30-31, 74, 87, 89,
275, 276, 284, 291, 316, 328, 329, 120, 125, 155, 158, 194, 243, 255,
330, 338, 355, 357, 364, 365, 373, 273, 332, 336, 338, 339, 346, 356,
375, 376, 377, 381, 383, 392, 398, 357, 384, 385, 469, 547, 560, 562,
413, 430, 447, 465, 466, 507, 512, 587, 596, 628
513, 514, 515, 524, 546, 554, 577, Basil the Great, 4, 157, 197, 277, 393,
581, 590, 608, 610, 611, 618, 456
623-625, 634, 635, 649, 650 Baxter, Richard, 23, 24, 80
Ardrey, Robert, 591 Beauvoir, Simone de, 218
Arendt, Hannah, 20, 96, 586 Bellah, Robert, 569, 598
Aristotle, 2, 39-42, 77, 82, 114, 127, Bellarmine, Robert, 133
135, 137, 190, 199, 240, 245, 253, Benedict, 6, 44, 84, 277, 394, 405, 488
Index of Names 672
Bennett, John C, 172, 173, 350, 386, 444, 465, 489, 490, 499, 582, 599,
527 603, 610, 611, 618, 635, 651, 656,
Bentham, Jeremy, 30, 102, 131, 151, 659
297, 347, 368, 462, 517, 637, 638, Campbell, McLeod, 620
641 Camus, Albert, 96
Berdyaev, Nicolas, 218, 283 Caramuel, John, 134
Berger, Peter, 141, 275, 569 Carey, William, 212
Bergson, Henri, 188, 216, 312 Carneades, 588
Berkeley, George, 288 Carnegie, Andrew, 297
Bernstein, Eduard, 371 Carney, Frederick, 388
Bertocci, Peter, 469, 470 Cassian, 158
Beveridge, William, 348, 658 Caussade, Jean-Pierre de, 1
Blanshard, Brand, 252, 469 Celsus (physician, 1st cent. A.D.), 219
Blumhardt, Christoph, 384 Celsus (philosopher, 2nd cent. A.D.),
Bloch, Ernst, 266, 276, 372, 482, 596 446
Bodin, Jean, 411 Channing, William Henry, 420
Boethius, 375, 470 Charles I, 519, 521
Bok, Sissela, 566, 660 Charles II, 521
Bonaventure, 376 Childress, James F., 94, 426, 450
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 111, 118, 122, Chrysostom, John, 197, 251, 277, 364,
204, 255, 338, 384, 385, 452, 548, 456, 457, 648
568, 569, 572, 605, 635, 667 Cicero, 77, 79, 144, 240, 533, 588,
Bosanquet, Bernard, 289, 462 606, 607, 634
Bowne, Borden Parker, 469 Clement of Alexandria, 2, 44, 79, 199,
Bradley, Francis H., 289, 351, 462, 251, 453, 454, 456, 478, 488, 581
545 Cobb, John B., Jr., 197, 482, 483
Brandt, Richard B., 107, 641, 642 Comte, Auguste, 282, 487
Brightman, E. S., 469, 470, 660 Cone, James, 12, 59, 387
Broad, C. D., 119, 408, 617 Confucius, 113-115, 251
Browne, Robert, 414 Constantine, 44, 92, 446, 457, 603, 610
Browne, Thomas, 402 Cooley, Charles Horton, 387, 639
Brownson, Orestes A., 420 Cudworth, Ralph, 479
Brunner, Emil, 10, 52, 118, 125, 191, Culverwel, Nathanael, 402
192, 243, 292, 316, 336, 338, 367, Curran, Charles E., 605, 624, 625
384, 385, 386, 410, 440, 469 Cyprian, 251
Buber, Martin, 316, 548
Buddha, Gautama, 66-68, 229, 365 Damascene, John, 375
Bullinger, Henry, 409 Dante Alighieri, 65, 86, 554
Bultmann, Rudolf, 202, 203, 384, 422, D'Arcy, Eric, 407, 624
481, 586 Darwin, Charles, 30, 190, 245, 517
Burke, Edmund, 123, 351 David, 117, 136, 511, 602, 620, 637
Butler, Joseph, 24, 192, 383, 413, 514, Day, Dorothy, 447
572, 642 Demant, V. A., 27
Derr, T., 183, 197
Calvin, John, 3, 9, 22, 29, 43, 69, Descartes, Ren, 28, 160, 187, 188,
71-73, 124, 125, 137, 197, 238, 252, 194, 197, 297 j
261, 274, 275, 279, 381, 411, 414, Devlin, Patrick, 138, 403 |
673 Index of Names
Dewar, Lindsay, 26 Flew, Antony, 160, 192
Dewey, John, 492, 493, 624, 646 Foot, Philippa, 41, 649
Diderot, Denis, 369 Fourier, Charles, 596
Dillistone, F. W., 172 Fox, George, 522, 523
Diogenes, 487 Francis of Assisi, 28, 45, 197, 293,
Diogenes Laertius, 143, 144, 199, 251, 394, 467, 488
277, 606 Francke, August Hermann, 475
Dionysius the Areopagite, Pseudo-, Frankena, William, 388, 518
375, 419, 478 Freire, Paulo, 120
Dodd, C. H., 202, 203, 339 Freud, Sigmund, 16, 36-37, 96, 107,
Donagan, Alan, 337, 541-545 118, 131, 132, 185, 190, 287, 288,
Donne, John, 451 303, 379, 396, 408, 461, 472, 515,
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 56 516, 576, 592, 611, 628, 635
Douglas, Mary, 34, 558 Fromm, Erich, 149, 281, 515
Douglass, Frederick, 12 Fuchs, Josef, 389, 624
Du Bois, W. E. B., 12 Fuller, Margaret, 420
Duns Scotus, John, 77, 160, 376
Drkheim, Emile, 33, 34, 107, 596, Galton, Francis, 209, 245
598, 639 Gandhi, Mohandas K 12, 94, 268,
540
Edwards, Jonathan, 88, 158 Garvey, Marcus, 12
Eliot, T. S., 116, 408 Gilleman, Gerard, 389
Ellul, Jacques, 60, 96, 332, 387, 616 Gilligan, Carol, 391, 397
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 240, 297, 420 Gilson, E., 469
Engels, Friedrich, 100, 103, 104, 107, Gladden, Washington, 593
368, 596, 598 Gladstone, William, 347, 348
Epictetus, 143, 277, 533, 606, 607 Gogarten, Friedrich, 255, 316, 568
Epicurus, 199, 240, 296 Goodman, Christopher, 414
Erasmus, 45, 447, 534 Gore, Charles, 26, 27
Erigena, John Scotus, 375 Gouge, William, 520, 521
Erikson, Erik, 391, 397, 515 Gratian, 125, 328
Eusebius of Caesarea, 205, 405, 447, Grebel, Conrad, 20
488 Green, Thomas Hill, 289, 348, 464
Ezekiel, 296, 434, 511 Gregory XVI, Pope, 364
Gregory of Nyssa, 375, 419, 456, 562
Falwell, Jerry, 213, 241 Gregory the Great, 42, 571, 577
Farrer, Austin M., 238, 367 Grosseteste, Robert, 375
Feinberg, Joel, 197, 280, 547 Grotius, Hugo, 414, 415, 534
Fnelon, 571 Gustafson, James M., 158, 243, 248,
Feuerbach, Ludwig, 18, 316, 369 270, 282, 336, 387, 599, 630
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 289, 560 Gutirrez, Gustavo, 59, 120, 204, 349,
Fierro, Alfredo, 482 604, 656
Filmer, Robert, 160
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schssler, 59,60,204 Hall, Joseph, 23, 399
Fletcher, Joseph, 28, 61, 80, 122, 145, Hammurabi, 54, 97
191, 192, 285, 387, 408, 426, 471, Hring, Bernard, 145, 243, 247, 389,
517, 537, 584, 586, 587, 606, 632 548, 605, 646
Index of Names 674
Harnack, Adolf von, 384, 559 Jesus, 6, 10, 21, 22, 29, 43, 44, 62, 75,
Harrod, Howard, 387, 474 76, 77, 79, 84, 101, 109, 117, 125,
Hart, H. L. A., 138, 222, 280, 403, 137, 142, 161, 162, 171, 195, 201,
547 202, 203, 204, 235, 249, 250, 252,
Hartmann, Heinz, 131, 185, 515 261, 269, 275, 277, 285, 287, 293,
Hartmann, Nicolai, 547, 645, 646 294, 296, 316-320, 326, 339, 354,
Hartshorne, Charles, 351, 469 355, 357, 363, 365, 377, 409, 446,
Harvey, Van A., 292, 585 447, 453, 454, 455, 457, 458, 460,
Hauerwas, Stanley, 41, 259, 387, 397, 461, 487, 488, 489, 506, 507, 511,
447, 630 515, 528, 529, 534, 539, 556, 571,
Hegel, G. W. F., 18, 155, 264-266, 575-577, 580, 583, 584, 589, 593,
289, 290, 368, 369, 452, 462, 464, 594, 608, 610, 618, 620, 621, 626,
479, 549, 560, 630 628, 638, 663, 668
Heidegger, Martin, 1, 218, 297, 474 John the Baptist, 44, 249, 618
Henri, comte de Saint-Simon, 487 John the Evangelist, 293, 326, 355,
Hennas, 453 461, 648
Herodotus, 94, 251 John XXIII, Pope, 102, 126, 429, 430,
Herrmann, Wilhelm, 559 431, 432, 604, 608
Hippolytus of Rome, 648 John Paul II, Pope, 429, 431, 502,
Hitler, Adolf, 116, 226, 227, 240, 362, 604, 625
385, 444, 452, 523, 606, 635 Josephus, 44, 205, 278
Hobbes, Thomas, 297, 411, 413, 415, Julian of Norwich, 410, 648
439, 514, 591, 652 Jung, Carl G., 266, 471, 472, 515, 574,
Hobhouse, L. T., 107, 216, 348 635
Hooker, Richard,-23, 92 Justin Martyr, 610
Hosea, 354, 508, 509
Hume, David, 190, 194, 206, 297, 369, Kant, Immanuel, 5, 52, 53, 80, 151,
413, 492, 495, 514, 518, 546, 641 155, 165, 166, 191, 194, 195, 206,
Husserl, Edmund, 188, 473, 474 207, 237, 238, 255, 264, 265, 267,
Hutcheson, Francis, 514 288, 289, 309, 312, 324, 334-337,
Huxley, Julian, 215, 252, 564 338, 339, 351, 363, 368, 369, 383,
Huxley, Thomas, 215, 286, 564 409, 413, 462, 471, 491, 514, 518,
541-545, 546, 549, 559, 560, 630,
Ignatius of Antioch, 278, 405, 453 637, 638, 642, 662
Ignatius of Loyola, 158 Kempis, Thomas , 394, 405, 658
Innocent III, Pope, 394 Keynes, John M., 348, 596
Innocent XI, Pope, 134 Kierkegaard, S0ren, 5, 36, 37, 49, 155,
Isaiah, 437, 508-511 218, 255, 265, 266, 297, 302, 303,
316, 337-339, 356, 357, 402, 444,
James, Epistle of, 101, 251, 333, 454, 470, 506, 568, 571, 601, 620
633 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 12, 13, 94,
James I, 160, 519, 625, 626, 627 95, 385, 386, 452, 470, 540, 557
James, William, 190, 258, 377, 439, Kingsley, Charles, 26, 74, 386, 596
492, 493, 546 Kirk, Kenneth E., 25, 80, 284, 386,
Jeremiah, 296, 434, 460, 508, 511 399, 562
Jerome, 2, 47, 363, 394 Knauer, Peter, S.J., 163, 624, 625
675 Index of Names
Knudson, Albert C, 385, 469, 660 Malinowski, B., 16, 34, 598
Koestler, Arthur, 105, 191 Malthus, Thomas R., 444
Kohlberg, Lawrence, 391, 396-397 Mani, 365
Mannheim, Karl, 644
Lactantius, 75, 588 Mao Tse-tung, 104, 105, 370, 371, 627
Law, William, 45, 495, 590, 658 Marcel, Gabriel, 188, 189, 232, 276,
Lehmann, Paul, 88, 138, 173, 282, 294
338, 387, 471, 587 Marcion, 453
Leibniz, Gottfried W., 194, 195, 288, Marcus Aurelius, 278
438 Marcuse, Herbert, 484, 597
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, 103, 104, 341, Maritain, Jacques, 102, 173, 469, 604,
368, 371, 491 625
Leo XIII, Pope, 41, 429, 430, 431, Marx, Karl, 18, 74, 100, 102-105, 107,
432, 433, 604 155, 265, 290, 299, 368-372, 550,
Lewis, C. S., 266, 462, 506 551, 596, 598, 628, 631
Liguori, Alphonsus, 79, 134, 135, 200, Maslow, Abraham H., 16, 132, 472
388 Matthew, 250, 317-320, 437, 575-577
Little, David, 107, 108, 282, 521, 599 Maurice, F. D., 26, 74, 340, 386, 479,
Locke, John, 99, 121, 160, 280, 297, 596
312, 347, 351, 411, 415, 492, 598 Mead, George H., 387, 493
Lombard, Peter, 46, 197, 376 Medina, Bartolomeo, 499
Lonergan, Bernard, 390, 391 Meister Eckhart, 410
Long, Edward L., 80 Melanchthon, Philipp, 3, 9, 613
Lorenz, Konrad, 16, 303 Menno Simons, 377
Ludlow, J. M., 26, 596 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 188, 218
Luther, Martin, 3, 29, 35, 45, 71, 87, Merton, Robert K., 138, 502
110, 125, 223, 236, 277, 293, 296, Methodius of Olympus, 44
333, 344, 345, 356, 357, 360-363, Metz, J. B., 387, 482
384, 386, 405, 440, 441, 447, 489, Micah, 234, 235, 509
490, 534, 582, 586, 599, 603, 610, Midgley, Mary, 28, 216, 518
611, 613, 620, 633, 634, 651, 655, Miguez-Bonino, Jos, 350, 387
659, 667 Mill, John Stuart, 53, 81, 131, 297,
347, 348, 383, 403, 404, 405, 450,
McCormick, Richard, S J., 122, 221, 451, 467, 492, 517, 546, 573, 637,
536, 537, 538, 624 641
McDonagh, Edna, 562 Milton, John, 81, 365, 519, 520, 635
Machiavelli, Niccolo, 528, 534 Miranda, Jos P., 60, 656
Macintosh, Douglas C, 385 Moberly, Elizabeth R., 463, 632
Maclntyre, Alasdair, 41, 337, 630, Moberly, Sir Walter, 463
648, 649, 650 Moltmann, Jrgen, 204, 276, 387, 482,
Maclagan, W. G., 255, 542 483, 631
MacLeod, George, 177 Montaigne, Michel de, 240
Macmurray, J., 469, 470 Montesquieu, Charles de, 347
Macquarrie, John, 27, 386, 631 Moore, G. E., 206, 252, 260, 382, 413,
Maimonides, Moses, 97, 375 415, 416, 479, 564
Malcolm X, 12 More, Sir Thomas, 45, 534, 643
Index of Names 676
Mortimer, R. C., 26 249, 251, 252, 254, 256, 272, 274,
Moses, 146, 205, 321, 346, 405, 406, 293, 316, 317, 333, 355, 361, 362,
407, 508, 509, 510 377, 414, 423, 424, 439, 444, 446,
Muelder, Walter G., 172, 173, 283, 453, 457-460, 461, 465, 487, 489,
386, 660 490, 495, 539, 563, 571, 580, 581,
Muhammad, 314, 315 589, 610, 618, 619, 623, 628, 651,
Mnzer, Thomas, 490 655, 658
Murray, John Courtney, S.J., 173, 465, Paul VI, Pope, 126, 163, 180, 228,
466 392, 429, 431, 486, 604
Mussolini, Benito, 226, 628 Paul, Vincent de, 45, 395
Myrdal, Gunnar, 523, 590 Peirce, Charles Sanders, 492
Pelagius, 255, 456, 534
Nathan the prophet, 117, 602, 637, Penn, William, 522
663 Pericles, 600, 602
Newman, John Henry, 158 Perkins, William, 23, 80, 519, 520,
Niebuhr, H. Richard, 48, 59, 87, 88, 521
158, 316, 338, 359, 360, 387, 440, Peter, 423, 602, 620
548, 549, 587 Philo, 44, 205, 251, 278
Niebuhr, Reinhold, 19, 68, 74, 100, Pius IX, Pope, 28, 364
101, 106, 122, 135, 151, 173, 186, Pius XI, Pope, 35, 125, 163, 330, 429,
204, 243, 255, 287, 316, 329, 331, 430, 432, 608
339, 384, 385, 386, 410, 417, 440, Pius XII, Pope, 145, 163, 228, 432,
445, 447, 452, 469, 471, 524, 527, 485, 586
528, 540, 541, 560, 594, 604, 643 Plato, 39, 40, 53, 76, 99, 102, 123,
Nielsen, Kai, 160, 281 135, 144, 155, 160, 189, 195, 209,
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 18, 107, 198, 213, 217, 240, 245, 253, 296, 312,
217, 297, 425, 450, 568, 662 315, 355, 401, 413, 418, 464, 469,
Nowell-Smith, P. H., 107, 160, 252 476-479, 489, 524, 533, 595, 600,
Nozick, Robert, 74, 156, 286, 351 601, 602, 617, 623, 634, 645, 648,
Nygren, Anders, 47, 84, 355, 356, 357, 649, 655, 669
571 Plotinus, 46, 250, 418, 419, 477
Plutarch, 195, 278, 418
Ockham, William of, 160, 252, 376 Preston, Ronald H., 341
Ogletree, Thomas, 204, 387 Prichard, H. A., 312
Oldham, J. H , 382 Proclus, 311, 419
Origen, 44, 158, 197, 405, 446, 454, Protagoras, 601
455, 456, 478, 488, 554 Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph, 22, 409
Ortega y Gasset, Jos, 348, 574
Outka, Gene H 28, 262, 337, 451 Quine, W. V., 57
Owen, Robert, 299, 596
Rahner, Karl, 158, 390, 481, 631
Paley, William, 160 Ramsey, Paul, 28, 61, 87, 88, 122,
Parsons, Talcott, 504, 569, 594 145, 173, 181, 218, 221, 232, 243,
Pascal, Blaise, 79, 134, 187, 189, 247, 329, 359, 360, 386, 428, 439,
283 471, 536, 537, 538, 541, 584, 587,
Paul, 9, 43, 44, 73, 75, 79, 117, 118, 632
159, 198, 213, 218, 228, 239, 244, Rashdall, Hastings, 24, 383
677 Index of Names
Rauschenbusch, Walter, 59, 88, 241, Spencer, Herbert, 215, 297, 439, 505
559, 564, 593 Spener, Philipp Jakob, 475
Rawls, John, 95, 151, 198, 222, 286, Spinoza, Benedict de, 187, 188, 264,
331, 332, 337, 409, 425, 480, 506, 347
583, 591, 592, 637 Stadler, Ulrich, 1
Regan, Tom, 28, 33, 197 Stalin, Joseph, 104, 105, 240, 341, 596,
Rescher, Nicholas, 197, 557 628
Ritschl, Albrecht, 559 Suarez, Francis, 133, 377, 624
Robinson, John A. T., 28, 387 Szasz, Thomas, 132, 380
Rodriguez, Alfonso, 42
Rogers, Carl, 131, 132, 471 Tawney, R. H., 69, 200, 521
Ross, Sir W. D., 8, 112, 151, 156, 425 Taylor, A. E., 24, 600
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 347, 591, 596 Taylor, Jeremy, 23, 80, 240, 399, 658
Royce, Josiah, 232, 289, 359, 360, 469 Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, 410
Rutherford, Samuel, 72 Temple, William, 27, 386, 657
Ryan, John K., 625 Tennant, F. R., 302, 444
Ryle, Gilbert, 57 Teresa of Avila, 410
Tertullian, 2, 44, 364, 454, 455, 581,
Sailer, John Michael, 388 648
Saint-Simon, Henri de, 596 Thielicke, Helmut, 118, 156, 204, 243,
Sales, Francis de, 45 332, 605
Sanderson, Robert, 23, 80, 399 Thoreau, Henry David, 94, 297,
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 18, 157, 217, 218, 420
266, 282, 297, 573 Thrasymachus, 601
Scheler, Max, 188, 389, 646 Thucydides, 296, 601
Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 9, 88, 475, Tillich, Paul, 18, 30, 36, 53, 74, 106,
560, 567, 573 173, 218, 243, 255, 269, 282, 373,
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 109, 473, 386, 410, 439, 471, 473, 474, 586,
662 596
Schller, Bruno, S.J., 163 Tillman, Fritz, 388
Schutz, Alfred, 473 Titmuss, Richard, 443
Schweitzer, Albert, 197, 201, 202, 307, Tocqueville, Alexis de, 351, 474, 550
421, 612 Tolstoy, Leo, 447
Segundo, Juan Luis, 60 Tnnies, Ferdinand, 105, 597, 639
Seneca, 199, 278, 606 Toynbee, Arnold, 197, 198, 300,
Sextus Empiricus, 144, 588, 589 452
Shakespeare, William, 66, 612 Tracy, David, 630, 644
Shinn, Roger, 248, 388 Troeltsch, Ernst, 45, 90, 91, 106, 107,
Singer, Peter, 28, 33, 197, 518 140, 172, 173, 567
Sittler, Joseph, 197, 387 Trotsky, Leon, 341
Skinner, B. F., 57, 545 Twiss, Sumner B., 107, 108, 599
Smith, Adam, 50, 69, 297, 598, 657
Smyth, Newman, 385 Ulpian, 581
Socrates, 53, 86, 207, 278, 296, 476,
600, 601, 645 Veatch, Henry, 41
Soelle, Dorothee, 387, 482 Veatch, Robert, 197, 259
Sorley, W. R., 24 Victoria, Franciscus de, 133, 329
Index of Names 67
Vio, Thomas de (Cardinal Cajetan), Wilberforce, William, 24, 212
133 Wilder, Amos, 202, 203, 422
Voltaire, 141, 195 Wilson, Bryan, 140, 567
Wilson, E. O., 16, 517
Waddams, H. M., 26 Wilson, Woodrow, 295, 491
Walzer, Michael, 287, 530, 550, 612 Wingren, G., 440, 651
Watson, John B., 47, 258 Winstanley, Gerrard, 100
Weber, Max, 69, 72, 73, 74, 90, 91, Wojtyla, K., 390. See also John Paul
100, 107, 122, 172, 527, 548, 567, II, Pope
569, 597, 598, 599, 623, 639, 651, Woolman, John, 522
652
Weiss, Johannes, 201, 559 Yoder, John H., 59, 378, 387, 447
Wesley, Charles, 658
Wesley, John, 212, 405, 464, 658-660
Whewell, William, 25 Zinzendorf, Count Nicholas, 475
Whitehead, Alfred North, 351, 377, Zoroaster (Zarathushtra), 365, 668,
469, 478, 652 669