Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
You could make a case that humanity’s greatest problem is fear. We do not follow Jesus, because we are afraid to let go of what we mistakenly think gives us security. Our authorities, even the best, work to keep us in fear, because if we are afraid, they can pretty much do anything they please. […]
Bob, Rita, and Derek all observed we do not base our lives entirely on what Jesus said in the Gospels, because we are sinners and live in a sinful world. From the very beginning, Christians understood this. They struggled with what Jesus’ words meant in this interim period between Jesus’ lifetime and the establishment of […]
The simplest Christian ethic is based on what Jesus said and did. It begins by believing Jesus said exactly what he meant. It discerns that he lived by what he said. And it assumes if we are to follow him, we are to do the same. Other New Testament writers and the early Church pretty […]
The rest of the course will focus on Christian ethics. In a sense, it will try to answer the question Derek advanced last week, “How do Christians participate in a society that not only does not accept its values, but often opposes them?” Many argue Christians should confine themselves to their own small groups at […]
Sandel ends his book championing a new politics of the common good, and suggests four possible themes that would support it. Citizenship, sacrifice, and service. He writes “If a just society requires a strong sense of community, it must find a way to cultivate in citizens a concern for the whole, a dedication to the […]
If I asked you who you are, chances are you would describe yourself with a list of the groups to which you belong: your family, neighborhood, ethnic group, town, and nation, as well other social affiliations. Sandel claims these communities shape our ethics as much, if not more, than abstract rational reasoning or voluntary choices. […]
Aristotle believed humans are political creatures by nature. He thinks this is apparent when we see how our speech enables us to relate to one another quite differently than beasts or gods. Politics not only gathers us into communities for defense against foreign powers, but also for using rational speech rather than physical violence to […]
Rawls acknowledges after we establish a fair situation, it immediately is lost as factors such as birth, education, talent, skill, and situation come into play. The question becomes whether we simply accept this or seek some compensation for the weak. For example, are affirmative action programs a form of justice? Is promoting equality by giving […]
We’re looking at how we find the moral principles to determine what is right, just, and good. Kant believed we could this with human reason alone. Theoretically, every rational individual will come up with duties natural to all people. John Rawls, probably the most distinguished writer on justice in recent time, sees the same limitations […]
If the first question in ethics is whether there is justice or right written into all things out there, the second is how do we know what that is. So far Sandel has tried to show utilitarianism, libertarianism, and the free market are helpful as guidelines, but their advocates ultimately rely on other principles and […]
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