III. Christian Ethics: Christian Flourishing

Helen Oppenheimer

doi:10.1017/S0034412500004182

III. Christian Ethics

Christian Flourishing

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008

Helen Oppenheimer

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I have been asked to consider two questions: How Christian ‘oughts’ are related to Christian ‘is-es’, and, What does Christianity take flourishing to be? The background to these questions is that Christian ethics have traditionally been taken, both by supporters and opponents, as au ethic of creature-hood, sometimes quite crudely conceived. It is a sketch, but by no means a caricature, of a great deal of standard Christian thinking, to depict it as answering the two questions as follows: (1) God is your Creator: therefore you ought to obey him. (2) The end of man (his true flourishing) is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.

Type: Section I: Christian Philosophy and Ethics
Information: Religious Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , December 1969 , pp. 163 - 171

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500004182 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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^{page 164 note 1} Chapter VIII.

^{page 164 note 2} I have gone into this more fully elsewhere (The Character of Christian Morality, Chapter III).

^{page 164 note 3} p. 21; and see whole chapter.

^{page 165 note 1} The Character of Christian Morality, Chapter IV.

^{page 165 note 2} e.g., Philippians 2:5–10; Acts 2:37–8; Colossians 3; I Peter passim; John 13:14, 35; Romans 11:33–12; I: Hebrews 12:2–3; I John 3:1–3, 4:11, 19.

^{page 166 note 1} See above, p. 165, note 2. The ‘response’ theme is very much easier to illustrate from St Paul and St John than from the Synoptics, where contrary examples appear to predominate.

^{page 166 note 2} Unabridged edition, pp. 140–46.Google Scholar

^{page 166 note 3} p. 140. He gives numerous examples on the next page.

^{page 166 note 4} p. 142.

^{page 166 note 5} p. 143.

^{page 166 note 6} p. 145.

^{page 167 note 1} I am grateful to Father Martin Thornton for pointing this out in a review of The Character of Christian Morality, (Focus 1966).Google Scholar

^{page 167 note 2} Psalm 65.

^{page 168 note 1} The Lord's Prayer, p. 55.Google Scholar

^{page 168 note 2} Psalm 1.

^{page 168 note 3} Psalm 34.

^{page 168 note 4} Psalm 25.

^{page 169 note 1} Psalm 37.

^{page 169 note 2} Psalm 10.

^{page 169 note 3} Psalm 44.

^{page 169 note 4} Psalm 37.

^{page 169 note 5} Esp. Isaiah 53. It sorts well too with Psalm 22 read in the light of the Passion.

^{page 170 note 1} Philosophy 1958, ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’.Google Scholar

^{page 170 note 2} Romans VIII, 18.

^{page 170 note 3} An illustration of the inadequacy of the descriptive/evaluative distinction.

^{page 170 note 4} cf. the famous passage from City of God XXII xxx ‘We shall rest and see…’; and much in the Confessions.

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III. Christian Ethics

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