Christianity and Ethics | Page 3

(3) Evangelisation of
Mankind. 3. The Church and the Social Problem-- (1) Christ's Teaching
as to Industry and Wealth. (2) Attitude of Early Church to Society. (3)
Of Roman and Reformed Churches. 4. Duty of Christianity to the
World-- The Missionary Imperative and Opportunity.

CHAPTER XIV
CONCLUSION--THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIAN
ETHICS . . . . . . . 245
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

{1}
CHRISTIANITY AND ETHICS
INTRODUCTION
A PLEA FOR THE STUDY OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS
If, as Matthew Arnold says, conduct is three-fourths of life, then a
careful inquiry into the laws of conduct is indispensable to the proper
interpretation of the meaning and purpose of life. Conduct of itself,
however, is merely the outward expression of character; and character
again has its roots in personality; so that if we are to form a just
conception of life we have to examine the forces which shape human
personality and raise it to its highest power and efficiency. In
estimating the value of man all the facts of consciousness and
experience must be considered. Hence no adequate account of the end
of life can be given without regard to that which, if it is true, must be
the most stupendous fact of history--the fact of Christ.
If the Christian is a man to whom no incident of experience is secular
and no duty insignificant, because all things belong to God and all life
is dominated by the spirit of Christ, then Christian Ethics must be the
application of Christianity to conduct; and its theme must be the
systematic study of the ideals and forces which are alone adequate to
shape character and fit man for the highest conceivable
destiny--fellowship with, and likeness to, the Divine Being in whose
image he has been made. This, of course, may be said to be the aim of

all theology. The theologian must not be content to discuss merely
speculative problems about God and man. He must seek above {2} all
things to bring the truths of revelation to bear upon human practice. All
knowledge has its practical implicate. The dogma which cannot be
translated into duty is apt to be a vague abstraction.
In all ages there has been a tendency to separate truth and duty. But
knowledge has two sides; it is at once a revelation and a challenge.
There is no truth which has not its corresponding obligation, and no
obligation which has not its corresponding truth. And not until every
truth is rounded into its duty, and every duty is referred back into its
truth shall we attain to that clearness of vision and consistency of moral
life, to promote which is the primary task of Christian Ethics.
It is this practical element which gives to the study of morals its
justification and makes it specially important for the Christian teacher.
In this sense Ethics is really the crown of theology and ought to be the
end of all previous study.
As a separate branch of study Christian Ethics dates only from the
Reformation. It was natural, and perhaps inevitable that the first efforts
of the Church should be occupied with the formation and elaboration of
dogma. With a few notable exceptions, among whom may be
mentioned Basil, Clement, Alquin and Thomas Aquinas, the Church
fathers and schoolmen paid but scanty attention to the ethical side of
religion. It was only after the Reformation that theology, Roman and
Protestant alike, was divided into different branches. The Roman
Catholic name for what we style Ethics is 'moral philosophy,' which,
however, consists mainly of directions for father confessors in their
dealing with perplexed souls. Christian Ethics appears for the first time
as the name of a treatise by a French theologian of the Calvinistic
persuasion--Danaeus, whose work, however, is confined to an
exposition of the Decalogue. The first recorded work of the Lutheran
church is the Theologia Moralis, written in 1634, by George Calixtus.
But the modern study of the subject really dates from {3}
Schleiermacher (1768-1834), who divides theology into two sections,
Dogmatics and Ethics, giving to the latter an independent treatment.

Since his time Ethics has been regarded as a separate discipline, and
within the last few decades increasing attention has been devoted to it.
This strong ethical tendency is one of the most noticeable features of
the present age. Everywhere to-day the personal human interest is in
evidence. We see it in the literature of the age and especially in the best
poetry, beginning already with Coleridge and Wordsworth, and