Evaluation
OCR A-Level Religious Studies H573
Philosophy of Religion
Topic overviewPlato: the Forms and the analogy of the caveAristotle: the four causes and the Prime MoverSoul, mind and bodyThe teleological argumentThe cosmological argumentAnselm and the ontological argumentKant's criticisms of the ontological argumentReligious experienceThe problem of evilOmnipotence, omniscience and benevolenceEternity, foreknowledge and free willReligious language: via negativa, analogy and symbolVerification and falsificationLanguage games and non-cognitive approaches
Religion and Ethics
Topic overviewAquinas and the precepts of natural lawApplying and evaluating natural lawFletcher's propositions and working principlesApplying and evaluating situation ethicsThe categorical imperativeDuty, the summum bonum and evaluationUtilitarianismEuthanasiaBusiness ethicsEthical language and meta-ethicsConscienceSexual ethics
Developments in Christian ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewAugustine on human natureDeath and the afterlifeKnowledge of God's existenceThe person of Jesus ChristChristian moral principlesChristian moral action: Dietrich BonhoefferReligious pluralism and theologyReligious pluralism and societyGender and societyGender and theology: Ruether and DalyThe challenge of secularismLiberation theology and Marx
Developments in Islamic ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewProphecy and revelation in IslamHadith, Sira and the formation of Sunni and Shi'a IslamThe oneness of God (tawhid)Human destiny, the afterlife and divine willThe Shari'a and Islamic law in practiceSufism and Islamic spiritualityIslam, science and philosophyGender in Islam: equality, law and feminismTolerance, religious freedom and apostasyJustice, jihad and liberationIslam and the stateIslam in Europe
Developments in Jewish ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewJewish oral and written lawCovenant in the TorahMaimonides and the Thirteen PrinciplesDebate over the Principles and Jewish beliefSuffering and messianic hopeKashrut and the dietary lawsBusiness ethics and sexual ethics in halakhahConversion to JudaismThe Haskalah and Jewish emancipationZionismThe land of Israel and the modern stateJewish feminism: Plaskow and AdlerResponses to the HolocaustThe Holocaust and the problem of evilChagall: art as resistance
Developments in Buddhist ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewThe Buddha: Siddhartha's life and intellectual contextTaking refuge: the Three JewelsSamsara, kamma and rebirthThe three marks of existenceThe Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold PathBuddhist meditationThe development of Mahayana BuddhismMadhyamaka and the perfection of wisdomZen and Pure Land BuddhismBuddhism in the WestEngaged Buddhism and social activismBuddhism and gender
Developments in Hindu ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewOrigins and diversity in HinduismHindu scriptures and holy personsBrahman, atman and mokshaSamsara, karma and liberationDharma and adharmaVarnashramadharma and Hindu virtuesVedanta and its schoolsIs Hinduism a single religion?Hinduism and IndiaHinduism and the WestCaste, gender and discriminationHindu social reform movements
Developments in Christian Thought
Christian moral principles
- 2 things to know
- Component 3
Overview
Recall questions on why a single Christian ethic is hard to state, the Bible as the only authority, the Bible, Church and reason together, love as the only principle and agape, the criticisms of each approach, whether Christian ethics is distinctive, personal or communal, and grace and moral failure.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Evaluation
To what extent is the principle of love on its own enough to guide a good life?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Why is it difficult to talk about a single Christian ethic?
Model answer
Because Christians disagree about where moral authority lies. Some hold that scripture alone settles moral questions; others that scripture must be read alongside the teaching of the Church and the conclusions of human reason; and others that Jesus reduced morality to one command to love, leaving the working out to circumstance and judgement. These are not three ways of saying the same thing: they can deliver different verdicts on the same case.
- 2
Explain the view that the Bible is the only authority for Christian ethics.
Model answer
On this view scripture is God's own communication of his will, so a command found there is binding because God has issued it, and no human institution or argument may overrule it. Its attraction is consistency and independence from fashion: the standard does not shift with the culture. It is associated with Reformation insistence on scripture alone and with conservative evangelical Christianity, and it treats moral knowledge as something received rather than worked out.
- 3
What criticisms are made of treating scripture as the sole moral authority?
Model answer
That scripture does not address many modern questions, so silence has to be filled by interpretation anyway; that some commands in it are ones almost no Christian now applies, which means a principle of selection is already in use; that reading always involves judgement about genre, context and audience; and that different readers derive opposing positions from the same texts. Defenders answer that these are difficulties in interpretation, not reasons to add rival authorities alongside God's word.
- 4
Explain the view that Christian ethics draws on the Bible, the Church and human reason together.
Model answer
On this view God's guidance reaches Christians through more than one channel: scripture as the foundational witness, the Church's accumulated teaching and reflection as the community's reading of it over time, and reason as the God-given capacity to work out what love and justice require in new circumstances. Catholic moral theology combines scripture and tradition with natural law, and the Anglican tradition speaks of scripture, tradition and reason together. Supporters argue it prevents both biblical literalism and unanchored personal opinion.
- 5
What objections are raised against combining scripture, the Church's teaching and human reason as authorities for Christian ethics?
Model answer
That it leaves the ranking unclear when the three conflict, so the real authority is whoever adjudicates; that giving the Church a voice has historically entrenched the interests of the institution; and, from the Protestant side, that placing anything alongside scripture inevitably ends with scripture being overruled. Supporters reply that the three are not rivals but a single process of understanding, and that everyone uses reason in reading scripture whether or not they admit it.
- 6
Explain the view that love is the only Christian ethical principle.
Model answer
On this view Jesus reduced the whole law to love of God and neighbour, so a Christian has one obligation and no fixed code; what love requires in a given case is worked out by reason, weighing the actual people and consequences involved. Rules become guidance distilled from experience rather than absolutes, and any rule may be set aside when keeping it would harm the person it was meant to protect. The love in question is agape, meaning practical goodwill towards others regardless of their attractiveness or deserving, not affection.
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