God, Reason, and Ethics: Love and the Good Samaritan

[FireDragon76]

http://zimmer.fresnostate.edu/~afiala/documents/FialaGoodSam.pdf

I like what the author has to say, that Jesus' ethics are essentially humanistic, a jab at divine command theory of morality, even.

One thing I would add, though, is that Lutherans don't base salvation on doing good works. In fact the Lutheran tradition is fairly clear that good works are done for the sake of our neighbor. God's commands only condemn us and reveal us to be sinners. I don't think its coincidental that Lutherans tend to reject moralism and legalism as a sufficient basis for Christian ethics.

 

[FireDragon76]

I have thought more about Andrew Fiala's paper and I think I have a few objections.

1) He sees the view of human nature implied by many divine command theorists as cynical... but what if this is an accurate image of human nature as deeply compromised and self-centered? Suppose it's not merely good enough to say "love your neighbor" and expect people to realize that in their lives? There are no shortage of idealistic moralists in this world, but they are largely ignored by the masses who have more realistic, concrete concerns. What if, after all, human beings are fundamentally religious, and atheism is the outlier? What if atonement is a fundamental human need?

2) At times he seems unduly moralistic when evaluating the Christian tradition, particularly Augustine's realistic appraisal of the ethics of killing in warfare.

3) He seems to assume that Christians are fundamentally rationalistic and that we cannot recognize the need for dialectic and paradox (no room for Bonhoeffer's "before God and with God we live without God in a godless world"). This may be true of Christian fundamentalism, but that is a relatively new historic phenomenon that is hardly universal.