ST 2420 S6: Ethics 1: Introduction to Christian Ethics
Second Half Spring Term 2005
Time: Thursday: 1:10-4:00 p.m.
Room: Northwestern Hall 100
Professor:
Office: 210 G Northwestern Hall, ext. (641-3)523
Office hours: Tuesday & Thursday 10:40-12:00 only
Course Description
The course is an examination of various ways that Christians make moral arguments and decisions. We shall look at how biblical, doctrinal, confessional and historical materials are used in dialogue with philosophy and other disciplines in social and human sciences to generate such ethical reflection, action and theorizing. The primary objective is to develop competence in moral reasoning in order to inform the church’s creative and responsible engagement with the world and the public domain.
Course Objectives
1. To enable the students to identify, recognize and use idioms and vocabularies appropriate to the discipline of Christian and Philosophical Ethics.
2. To be able to identify and differentiate key theories and methods in Christian and Philosophical Ethics.
3. To be fully aware of the contribution by disciplines other than Christian Theology, to the development of Theological and Christian Ethics.
4. To appreciate the socio-political, historical and other contexts which have an impact on the different ethical approaches.
5. To be methodologically clear on the practice of ethical reflection, in the context of societal and human issues. And to look at how Christians go about making such ethical choices as well as being able to state with clarity why a particular choice is made.
6. To be sensitive to the complexity and ambiguity that leads to authentic disagreements in Christian and Philosophical Ethics.
7. To be able to see the role of Christian life in broader global and religious contexts.
Expectations,
Assignments and Grading
1. Students are expected to attend lectures and discussion groups regularly; keep up with the reading assignments and participate actively in discussions; and be a full and active part of the group to which they belong, both through attendance and discussion, and in the creation of the consensus summary and the agreed upon common question.
This will count for 25% of the grades.
2. Each student will be part of a group of ten students who will produce a 100 word consensus summary of the assigned reading, and one consensus group question which will set the agenda for the opening discussion in the class every afternoon. These will be read publicly for the whole group and will begin from week three. Thus, each group will produce three consensus summaries and three consensus questions over the duration of the course. Each student is expected to produce one individual 100 word summary which should be handed over along with the group summary during the last month of the course. Each of these typed papers must clearly indicate
· the name of the student;
· the group number to which the student belongs;
· the date of the assignment; and
· the pages (and the name of the text) covered on that particular day.
The lack of any of this information will be treated as non-fulfillment
of the assignment and marked as such.
The idea behind the joint production of the consensus summary for the group and the single question is to develop the skills and abilities required to work in a collective group, protecting one’s own rights while respecting those of the others, to undertake a common project where this plurality and respect is recognized.
The individual summaries and the collective summaries should first reflect the problem(s) (or problematique) that a particular issue contains and how the authors struggle with them, and then how the authors go about dealing with these problems. Then the ideas and concepts presented by the authors should be articulated as honestly as possible. Once these two tasks are achieved then and only then should a critical evaluation of the work be undertaken both in terms of its own internal logic and then from your own theological and philosophical perspective.
This part of the requirement constitutes 35% of the course.
3. There will be a final paper of 8-10 (maximum) double spaced pages which may deal with any of the issues we have covered during this course and developed further from other readings and through your own personal theological and ethical perspective.
These papers are due on May 18 latest.
The final presentation will have to be for 20 minutes in a setting like an adult forum. It should be written up for evaluation. List of issues to be addressed by student groups and specifically as they have impact on the life of the parishioners:
· What are the issues related to war, especially in a faith community, in terms of “just war theory” and “pacifist traditions” in the church?
· What environmental and ecological concerns should be raised theologically in a faith community while dealing with the recent debates on energy exploration?
· What issues need to be addressed by the faith community vis-ŕ-vis the health care reforms debates?
· What issues need to be addressed by the faith community vis-ŕ-vis the Social Security reforms debates?
· What issues need to be addressed by the faith community vis-ŕ-vis immigration and the labor reforms debate?
· What issues need to be addressed by the faith community vis-ŕ-vis homosexuality in the larger society and in the church?
This part of the requirement constitutes 40% of the course.
Required Texts:
Bruce C. Birch & Larry L. Rasmussen, Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life. Revised & Expanded Edition (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1989)
Course Outline:
Week 1: Introduction
April 7: Course syllabus introductions, initial assessment of the ethical questions
Week 2: Theology, Doctrine & Ethics:
Sources for Christian Ethics.
April 14: Course
syllabus introductions, etc., continued.
Week 3: Tradition, Command, and Reason in
Christian Ethics
April 21: Birch & Rasmussen (pp. 9-84)
Week 4: Reason & Revelation; Scripture & Natural Law
April 28: Birch & Rasmussen (pp. 85-140)
Week 5: Virtue, Character & Conscience; and Freedom & Vocation
May 5: Birch & Rasmussen (pp. 141-202)
May 12: