Essay
‘The Bible is the only authority for Christian ethics’ Discuss
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this essay was writtin in year 12, achieving an A+ grade and discussing whether the bible is the only authority within christian ethics
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‘The Bible is the only authority for Christian ethics’ Discuss [30 marks]There are a multitude of differing opinions as to what acts as the most important source for Christian
ethics, with arguments of the Bible, the Church, agape love, reason, or simply put, God. When
evaluating this statement, and authorities within Christian ethics, there are ultimately three different
approaches to be taken, being a heteronomous, autonomous or theonomous view. This essay, however,
will demonstrate that there is not in fact one sole authority within Christian ethics, but it is rather the
collective heteronomous approach that would work more effectively. A heteronomous approach,
means, by definition ethics that are governed by several sources of authority or law, thus including the
Bible, but also the Church, reason as well as God himself. Moreover this line of argument will include
the scholars Hans Kung, James Robinson, John Calvin, Friedrich Schleiemacher, Karl Barth, and
Stanley Hauerwas.
The first reason as to why it could be argued that the Bible is the only authority for Christian ethics
can be seen through two scholars of Saint Paul as well as Augustine. Both scholars argued that as a
result of the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3, human beings are not alone, able to judge how to live
their lives. This is due to the fact humans inherited original sin from being descents of Adam and Eve.
For Christians therefore, the only way to live a good and proper life, must be revealed from God. To
most people within the Christian faith, the most direct and accurate source of God’s word is found in
the Bible. The view that this therefore should act as the only authority in Christian ethics, therefore
poses some strengths. Moreover, several people follow this biblicist approach because the Bible is
said to be infallible, a further strength to using this approach as the only authority. The bible contains
everything a person needs to know in order to live a morally good life. What is shown here, is a
propositional revelation, the idea that God reveals himself through ‘truth statements’ and the Bible is
therefore a series of these truth statements which should be followed directly. This can be
corroborated by when in Timothy 3:16 it states ‘All scripture is divinely inspired and useful for
teaching’, thus showing that because God is the ‘author’ of the Bible as such, the Bible acts as the
only true source of advice. This point therefore corroborates the claim of the Bible acting as the only
authority within Christian ethics, and taking the more theonomous approach is the only verifiable
approach. It is therefore through the Arguments of both Saint Augustine and Paul that pose some
initial strengths when using a theonomous, biblical approach to Christian ethics. This approach does,
however, need to be evaluated further as ultimately there are several core weaknesses.
Contrary to the previous point, some Chrstians believe that the Bible is not dictated by God, but
divinely inspired by him, as previously aforementioned in Timothy, and therefore still can be
considered to be an accurate source. The reason for this claim, is because the Bible consists of many
different styles and types of text which need to be understood and interpreted in different ways, thus
suggesting there was some human influence. The fact there was human influence can therefore
counter argue the point made surrounding the Bible being infallible. Biblicism is ultimately the main
weakness when using the Bible as the sole authoritative source and thus needs to be evaluated further
to see whether it can act as the only source within Christian ethics. A scholar who posits an argument
against the use of biblicism, and thus the entire theonomous approach is Karl Barth. The scholar
convincingly said that this approach to the Bible falsely gives it a divine status. He reminded
Christians that the Bible is a witness to the word, not the word itself. Barth then furthers his argument
to state that a limited understanding of Bible interpretation, can be a dangerous approach to Christian
ethics. Moreover another scholar who would support the argument of Karl Barth and thus is against
the Bible acting as the sole source within Christian ethics, and a theonomous approach is Friedrich
Schleiemacher. This scholar states ‘The vocabulary and the history of the era of an author relate as the
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