Five Methods of Using Scripture in Ethics

Scripture as Call to Liberation

Two main hermeneutical (interpretive) challenges:

Interpreters must acknowledge their own “social location” and be prepared to admit their own allegiances of class, gender, race, nationality, etc.

“When a particular perspective controls the reading of the biblical text, will it allow Scripture to challenge it, or will it be reduced to providing support

for agendas reached on purely secular grounds?”

Originates from work of Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian Catholic.

James Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation

Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza

Scripture as Call to Discipleship

Scripture as Moral Reminder

Scripture as Call to Liberation

“Jesus does not proclaim a new morality but restores the values that God intended from the beginning” – using divorce as an example (Matt 19).

“The figure of Jesus in this typology is not the sign or contradiction which he is for many Reformed theologians… He is the prototype of humanity rather than an alien figure.”

Christ’s teaching read through creation and incarnation, rather than crucifixion.

Exhortations to measure up to the moral standards of their pagan neighbors

1 Cor 10:32; 1 Thess 4;12; Col 4:5; 1 Pet 2:12, 15; 3:1, 16

Lists of virtues and vices borrowed from the surrounding culture and philosophical systems

1 Cor 6:9-11; Rom 1:29-31, Gal 5:23; 2 Pet 1:3-8

Thomas Aquinas, some Roman Catholic teaching

Exodus narrative, the book of Job, the minor prophets, the Sermon on the Mount

Luke 4 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…”

Jesus the Liberator, the Reign of God, and the Poor

Limitations include a lack of guidance on concrete actions,

and a lack of thought about what the moral life should look like.

“If Scripture as moral reminder is an ethic in search of a theology,

then liberation theology is a theology in search of an ethic.”

Two main biblical forms

Narrative – Stanley Hauerwas

“The distinctive story of Jesus is the pattern for Christian character

and the collective identity of the Christian community”

“Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29) becomes “Who do you say that you are?”

Parable – “The Gospel in cameo”, the intersection

between universal truths and particular stories

Sallie McFague (Speaking in Parables) –

“Metaphor works on the imagination to spark insight.”

“The Pearl of Great Price” (Matt 13:45-46): “It leads to a commitment

by exposing my lack of commitment.”

That is, “the parable interprets the interpreter.”

Scripture as Call to Liberation

Scripture as Moral Reminder

Scripture as Call to Discipleship

“What ought I to do?” “Act to liberate the oppressed because God is committed to them.”

“Scripture reveals the true God only to those who read it from the standpoint of those to whom the word of God is primarily addressed, namely the oppressed.”

No single “theology of liberation” because each arises out of a specific social and economic context.

Scripture does not dictate a political program or specific actions, since these must arise from each particular context.

Starting points differ based on the type of oppression – poverty, race, gender, nationality.

Scripture as Moral Reminder

Different Branches of the Ethical Use

of Scripture

Limitations include:

Culture can become so familiar it is “second nature” to us; therefore, it can be difficult to distinguish between the natural and the merely cultural.

Can overlook or minimize the real and devastating effects of the Fall, placing too much confidence in our humanity, however redeemed.

“What difference does Christian faith make in living morally?”

Scripture as Call to Discipleship

Limitations:

Parables “presuppose New Testament morality, rather than constituting that morality itself”; therefore, they need to be supplemented with symbols, commands, doctrine, and other biblical and theological resources.

Narrative will not answer every moral question we find,

and often lacks the specific guidance needed for certain issues.

It can also miss those moments when specific action is required.

“What ought I to do?” “Be human, as God created you to be and as Christ has empowered you to be.”

Different theological model than command of God

Not God v. nature, ethics v. revelation; instead, “Grace restores human nature to what God intended it to be.”

‘Scripture reminds us what it means to be human and calls us to live an integral human life that our egotism would ignore.”

Scripture provides motivation for moral living,

but not content.

“What ought I to do?” “Act as would a disciple of Jesus Christ.”

“Christian discipleship approaches the moral life with the conviction that the most appropriate path is the one already blazed by Jesus,

and that the Christian must creatively embody that way of life

in all situations.”

Not a moral compass which anyone can use, but a tuning fork “which helps someone with a well-trained ear to bring a piano into tune.”

“The community of faith is where this training gradually takes place through personal example and practices of worship, service, and reconciliation.”

Sermon on the Mount, Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 4:1-2

Scripture as Command of God

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The cost of discipleship”

The cross of Christ as the moral standard

Bonhoeffer’s life is the best example of his theology.

Karl Barth: Scripture as the Command of God

God as the Sovereign Divine Commander

“God deals directly with humans

and calls them to very specific actions.”

Scripture as Basis for Responding Love

“What ought I to do?”

“You should listen to God’s command

and obey it without question or reservation.”

“Neo-orthodox” movement after WWI sought to undo Protestantism’s compromise with culture and restore a biblical foundation of faith, based in sola Scriptura.

"God reveals the divine reality as the paradigm for the Christian’s relation to God.”

Israel's history pivots around commands: Noah, Abram, Samuel, Moses, Nehemiah, Jeremiah

The story of the Church does as well: Mary, Jesus, disciples, Paul, John

Scripture as Basis for Responding Love

Goes beyond imitation to participation

as a union of life and mission.

“I give you a new commandment: Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Washing the disciples’ feet

The Eucharistic meal

“The wise and loving action comes from the moral agent

who is in the process of becoming wise and loving.”

Scripture as Command of God

“What am I to do?” “Love others as God has loved you

in Jesus Christ.”

The Christian moral life is response “because God’s love comes to us first and our actions correspond to the character of that love.”

The love that is the central norm for the Christian life is not an abstract principle but an experience with a definite shape or pattern,

which is specified in the story of Jesus and other biblical symbols.

Scripture is the means through which we discern

how God loves us now in Christ Jesus.

“This is perhaps the most comprehensive statement

of New Testament Ethics.”

Limitations include:

The moral agent seems “curiously underdeveloped”,

and the moral life is “a sporadic affair.”

Key question: “Is the sovereign God diminished by admitting that humans develop virtues, moral character, and critical capacities for analyzing their situations and making reflective decisions even when they are not inspired?”

The Heart of the Matter

“The task of interpreting Scripture is complicated and morally challenging since it demands virtues of honesty, self-critical awareness, and sensitivity to contemporary issues. The task of responding to Scripture -- to the One revealed in Scripture --

calls forth a more extensive range of virtues, from compassion, to justice, to the forgiveness that enables one to remain part of an actual community of faith, to the courage to endure what inevitably comes to those who live as if the Reign of God were coming into their world.”

Five Models of Using Scripture in Christian Ethics

(What are They Saying about Scripture and Ethics?)

Command of God

Scripture as Moral Reminder

Call to Liberation

Call to Discipleship

Basis for Responding Love