A Proposal for Understanding the Place of Reason in Christian Ethics

Abstract

The purpose of ethical theory is to assist us to make concrete and specific moral decisions. This is the sense of G. E. Moore's sentence, Casuistry is the goal of ethical investigation. 1 The final test of every theory of ethics, whether theological or philosophical, is the pragmatic one of how well it prepares us for casuistry, for deciding what is right or wrong, good or bad. Critical reason-analyzing the data and conceptualizations and background of religious experience, moral experience and moral judgments-can formulate ethical theories that approximately fulfill this fundamental purpose. And precisely because reason has this capacity, some of the central (though in our century most neglected) questions in theological ethics are about the place of reason in the moral decisions made by religious people. For instance: (I) How can a knowledge of theological ethics assist one in making rational moral decisions ? (2) What constitutes rational deliberation in Christian ethics? (3) What theological assumptions must one make for a rational Christian ethics to be possible ? (4) How is the place of reason in theological ethics like and unlike the place of reason in philosophical ethics?