Watson A. Bowes, Jr.

The word “ethics,” from the Greek ēthikos, was first used by the philosopher, Aristotle, and refers to the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.

On Sunday evening, October 5, a cross section of the parish—young adults, senior citizens, and a wide variety in between—gathered in the chapel to hear the first presentation on Christian Ethics, a four-part series organized by the Adult Education Committee. Each session, which lasted 1½ hours including time for questions, was presented by a current or former faculty member of the Duke Divinity School. The series included four subjects:

• The Faith Premise & Norms: Dr. William H. Willimon, Dean of Duke Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry
• Old Testament Perspective: Dr. Stephen Chapman, Assistant Professor of Old Testament
• New Testament Perspective: Dr. Richard Hays, George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament.
• The Ethical and Moral Teachings of the Book of Common Prayer: Dr. Harmon L. Smith, Emeritus Professor of Ethics and currently Vicar of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Roxboro, NC.

A working definition of ethics, according to Dr. Willimon, is quite simply being engaged by the question, “What ought I to do?” or “Who would I like to be?” These questions cannot be answered without first establishing a theological foundation from which the answers will evolve. He drew attention to the fact that the Ten Commandments, the quintessential statement of ethics in the Old Testatment, does not appear in the book of Exodus until the 20^th chapter. Ethical guidelines were not given to the Israelites until their relationship with God was clearly established. In short, ethics evolves from theology; theology does not evolve from ethical guidelines.

The Eucharist is a sacramental statement about Christian ethics in that we come to the altar with empty hands held forth to receive the body and blood of Christ. We are empty handed, without spiritual resources, in need of the Lord's grace. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, ethical teaching and moral behavior grow out of understanding our relationship with God, both personally and as community (the church).

During the second session on October 6, Dr. Chapman emphasized the importance of interpreting ethical guidelines that we read in the Old Testament in the context in which they occurred in the history of the Jews. This means paying close attention to the narrative (the stories in the Old Testament) in which a commandment or rule exists and understanding the world view of the Hebrews. The monotheism of the Hebrews was a striking contrast to the polytheism of the pagan cultures that preceded and surrounded their society. It was from this unique relationship of the Hebrew people to a single God, from which came their remarkable ethics. Their ethics stressed the sanctity of human life, rejection of social domination, and the central worth of human kind. A theme that is reiterated throughout the Old Testament is

the importance of conforming one's life to the ethical norms of scripture rather than reinterpreting scripture to reflect contemporary values.

Dr. Hays, at the third session on October 13, remarked on the endless diversity in interpreting scripture, especially as it relates to ethical issues. Witness to this is the appeal to scripture as authority by those taking various and contradictory positions in the current controversy about homosexuality in the Episcopal Church.

Our task as Christians is to develop within the faith community a scripture-based framework for a coherent moral vision. One aspect of this task is to bridge the cultural gap between our society and that of the New Testament world. A difficulty in doing this is that the New Testament has contradictory statements about important moral and ethical issues, such as slavery, the status of women, the status of the ruling authority, etc. The New Testament is not a document of dogmatic theology. Rather it is a collection of documents that comment on the unified “story” of the New Testament - the essence of which is that the God of Israel, the creator of the world, has acted (astoundingly) to rescue a lost and broken world through the death and resurrection of Jesus; the full scope of that rescue is not yet apparent; but God has created a community of witnesses to this good news, the Church. While awaiting the grand conclusion of the story, the Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is called to reenact the loving obedience of Jesus Christ and thus to serve as “a sign of God's redemptive purpose for the world.”

According to Dr. Hays, there are three key images that various canonical tellings of the story share: community, the cross, and the new creation. The Church from the beginning was a counterculture community. Throughout the stories, God relates primarily to the community and not primarily to the individual. Action involves corporate action of the body of Christ, the Church. The cross reflects the fact that Christians are a fellowship of suffering. Suffering is the job description of the Church, and the call to the bearing of the cross is central to Christian ethics. It is a call to renounce domination and power. The new creation is the Church in a yet redeemed world. The final task of New Testament ethics is the pragmatic task: embodying Scripture's imperatives in the life of the Christian community. One example given by Dr. Hays of the Christian ethic represented in the New Testament is the commitment to non-violence.

In the fourth meeting on October 27, Dr. Smith described the development of The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) from its first publication in 1549 and how it presents Christian ethics in the Anglican tradition. The prayer book was founded amidst what is known as Caroline theology in the 16^th century Anglican Church. Representatives of this theological tradition include Richard Hooker and Jeremy Taylor among many others. The heart of Anglicanism as represented by these theologians and as expressed in the BCP stressed four points: 1) individual conscience formed by ecclesiastical catechesis (instruction within the church), 2) right reason rooted in shared ecclesial commitments, 3) practice of holy living derived from a life of prayer, and 4) all of which are directed to the perfection of wayfaring pilgrims. There have been nine revisions of the prayer book since the 16^th century, but throughout there has been a consistent moral theology. There is, however, no monolithic Anglican morality in theory or practice in the BCP. Thus Anglican moral theology is more pastoral than juridical. Specific modes of conduct are not addressed, but much attention is given to Christian virtues. The BCP is not a book of proscriptive behavior. It is not concerned so much about what you do, but why you do it. The BCP emphasizes a life shaped by corporate prayer as opposed to the solitary life of prayer. That is why the liturgy is central to Anglican worship. The BCP teaches that conduct derives from character and emphasizes beliefs (ethics) and character rather than behavior or conduct (morals). Thus, the Decalogue appears in the BCP only twice. The strength of the BCP lies in its nourishment of making moral decisions; and its weakness is that it does not give us enough specific direction.

Each of the sessions was followed by a lively discussion with the audience, in which the speakers were frequently questioned about how Christian ethics, as they portrayed it, related to various ethical issues in our current society, the war in Iraq being one of the most common issues discussed. Space does not allow an adequate summary of each of these topics and the speakers' responses.