Christian Moral Realism

Abstract

This book describes the shape of a Christian ethic that arises from a conversation between contemporary accounts of natural law theory, narrative, and virtue ethics; and an insistence that any Christian ethic begin with a distinctively Christian description of reality. The key partners in this conversation are the leading Christian ethicists, Germain Grisez, Stanley Hauerwas, and Oliver O'Donovan. The ethic that emerges from this conversation seeks to resolve the tensions in Christian ethics between creation and eschatology, narrative and natural law, objectivity and relativity, the cultivation of virtue, and a focus on the resolution of moral dilemmas. In defence of its philosophical foundations, this book argues that a thoroughly realist ethic can respect the logical claim that no ‘ought’ can be derived from ‘is’. The book moves from this analytic foundation to conclude that worship lies at the heart of a theologically grounded ethic whose central concern is the flourishing of the whole human person in community with both one another and God.