Christian moral principles - is the bible the best moral guide essay plan
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Course
G575 - AS Developments in Christian Theology
Institution
OCR
Book
OCR Religious Studies A Level Year 2
these notes, essay plans and essays have been created for the new exam series starting in the summer of 2018 and focus on the christian theology side of the course.
‘The Bible is all that Is needed as a moral guide for Christian behaviour’ discuss.
Line of argument-
Biblical teaching, reason and church tradition need to be combined in order to reach a moral
decision.
For-
- Propositional approach- the bible is the direct word of God and the Bible should be
understood literally. The bible is an infallible guide to life and its commandments apply at all
time- gives a clear outline of how your life should be lived.
- Modern thinkers such as Alasdair McIntyre and Hayes argue that reason is not objective or
neutral but operate according to our culture and biases and therefore reason is no beter
than considering the Bible as the direct word of God and using it as moral guidance.
- Reason can also lead people to diferent interpretations which aren’t always deemed
morally acceptable by everyone and can cause confict. e.g. some might consider war just.
- The task of interpreting the bible, and the church is the only authority which is able to give
an authentic interpretation of scripture.
- The council of the Vatican II formally declared that sacred tradition and the bible are linked
in such a way that one cannot stand without the other.
Against-
- The Bible being the direct word of God is restrictive and therefore does not allow you to
utilise your free will and so without freely choosing to be moral how can you claim you are
truly a moral being.
- Hays notes that the Bible is shaped by the churches interpretation and so are we to accept
their authority and their ability to tell us what is moral and what is not.
- In moral decision-making Christians need to fnd a route that uses their reason alongside
biblical principles and church traditions because reason is a process of refection on
experiences and applies theory to practice.
- Agape should be used alongside the bible when making moral decisions.
- Jesus’ summary of the law was that people should love their neighbours as much as they
love themselves.
- Tillich- three ethical principles- justice, love and wisdom. Ultimately authority should be the
Christians own decision, and traditions should be considered but need to be interpreted
with love for the actual people involved in the moral situation.
- The bible is no longer relevant to modern society.
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