Ethics

Abstract

Karl Barth’s theological ethics is a version of divine command ethics. Its distinctiveness is rooted in its identification of the command of God with the Word of God. The same Word of God that declares to us what God does for us in Jesus Christ (Gospel) also claims us as those for whom God acts, summoning, directing, and empowering us to confirm in our conduct what we are by virtue of God’s conduct towards us (Law). This chapter examines the relationship between theological ethics and other kinds of ethics, what is involved in the claim that the Word of God is also the command of God, how the command of God claims us (general ethics) and what specifically it requires of us (special ethics), and how it exhibits continuity despite its character as an event. Brief comparisons of Barth’s ethics with contemporary eudaemonistic ethics and ethics of witness are made throughout the chapter.