Theological ethics

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The theological ethics , and Christian ethics called, is one of the basic disciplines of theology . It deals with the reflection of the morally good and of alternative courses of action in the context of Christian theology or belief in a Christ. According to an older definition, Christian ethics is "the science of the Christian rules of life, through the observance of which man is redeemed from sin and perfected in the image of God".

Subdivision of the discipline

The theological ethics in the core subjects of the Christian theology of systematic theology assigned - together with dogmatic , religious philosophy and fundamental theology . The traditional subject of Christian Social Studies (CGL) is taken up at some faculties as a sub-area of ​​theological ethics, partly according to a technical understanding which the CGL contrasts as social ethics and applied ethics with a fundamental ethics primarily conceived in terms of individual ethics. Sometimes the CGL is narrowed down to a hermeneutics of Christian social teaching .

Theological ethics includes both the reflection of the moral good from the standpoint of the individual - the so-called individual ethics - as well as the criteria of a just society - the so-called social ethics. The term “theological ethics” was originally used - in the second half of the 19th century - mainly by Protestant theologians. In Catholic theology, on the other hand, for a long time " moral theology " was the name given to the entire field of theological moral reflection. Since the end of the 19th century, additional chairs for "Christian social teaching" have been established in many places. Hence the division of labor between individual ethics and social ethics that still prevails. The term “moral theology” is sometimes used further for the total of both perspectives, but often also for individual ethics alone. Both disciplines together, on the other hand, are often referred to with the term “theological ethics”, which above all implies a demarcation from philosophical ethics and also indicates that the earlier counterposition to Protestant ethics is no longer represented. Both major disciplines of theological ethics can be further subdivided into numerous sub-disciplines and are often pursued in two different chairs. As far as their cause is concerned, it is often argued that these are not separate subject areas, but two differently accentuated terms (individuals versus structures).

The epistemological foundation of theological ethics, in which, among other things, the principles and methods of substantiating concrete moral judgments and moral validity claims in general are dealt with, is often referred to as fundamental ethics or fundamental morality , sometimes also as moral theology or as part of it together with individual ethics overlaps in the subject area with moral philosophy . The philosophical-theological treatise of theological anthropology (especially with regard to the theory of action and freedom) and the doctrine of conscience are often subordinated to or attached to it. Corresponding to the variety of methods in theological ethics today, fundamental ethics in many current conceptions is no longer just part of an individual ethics or a “moral theology” closely related to it.

Partly at right angles to the distinction between the individual (conscience) and society (justice, institutions, structures), the subject area is subdivided into subject areas - often called "areas of life" from an anthropological perspective - whose respective specific responsibilities are also known as "area ethics" including: (each: theological) bioethics, medical ethics, business ethics, cultural ethics, sports ethics, media ethics, educational ethics, sexual ethics, political ethics, institutional ethics, etc.

method

Whether and how the prerequisites of divine revelation find their way into the methodical implementation, like many other questions about the fine-tuning of method and subject matter, is assessed differently by various specialist representatives.

Following controversies that have been going on since the 1960s, a distinction is made between religious ethical and autonomous approaches to justifying morality. The former - the term moral theology is occasionally used for this, too, with specific emphasis - assume that a full concept of reason and the good is only possible in the horizon of Christian self-understanding and understanding of the world. The latter emphasize that an autonomous, universally justifiable argumentation is necessary to justify the good, but that its results must be integrated into the context of Christian ideas, whereby criticism from both sides remains possible.

Belief ethicists include Bernhard Stoeckle , Joseph Ratzinger , Heinz Schürmann , Robert Spaemann and Hans Urs von Balthasar . Here there is often a strong continuity to traditional positions, which are based on a natural given of the moral (see also natural law ).

Franz Böckle and Alfons Auer , among others, are considered to be the first representatives of a decidedly autonomous moral justification . Religious contexts have the status of an expanding horizon of motivation and meaning, but are not an argumentative prerequisite for moral judgment. In fact, only a few theological ethicists today pursue the program of strict ethics of faith.

In accordance with the broad field of modern approaches to justifying what is morally right, divergent research programs are also pursued in today's theological ethics. In fact, metaethics predominantly or exclusively defends realistic and cognitivist positions, which are at best weakened to the extent that reservations about general regulations of concrete conflict situations are met and moderate relational options are defended.

With regard to the orientation of normative ethics, deontological (duty-oriented) theoretical approaches were traditionally preferred, often supplemented by teleological (goal-oriented) perspectives, often on the basis of strong ontological requirements and embedded in ideas of natural law . Today, with the exception of amoralistic positions, almost all contemporary moral-philosophical approaches are received by individual professional representatives , including deontological , contract-theoretical , discourse-theoretical , transcendental-pragmatic , narrative and model- ethical and virtue-ethical , very rarely also more recent utilitarian methodological and reasoning approaches , as well as, for example, ideas from critical theory and other schools - often by means of specific modifications - tried to integrate.

Werner Schöllgen , Hermann Ringeling , Wolfgang Huber , Wilhelm Korff have proposed an integrative methodology of theological ethics . What is meant is not just an interdisciplinary, case-by-case integration of information, but a “universal action-guiding integration theory”. Dietmar Mieth assumes somewhat weaker general assumptions in his program of "Ethics in the Sciences", but proposes a "conductive method" with a similar intention, which begins with a "hermeneutics of prior understanding" and "knowledge of the relevant facts", This is followed by an “examination of the ethically relevant sense orientations and the corresponding value assessment judgments” and, after a “rationalization of the alternatives”, leads to a “weighing up of the priorities for the constitution of the correct moral judgments”.

History of the discipline

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Antiquity

According to both the earliest Jewish and Christian conceptions, there is a connection between faith and morality which allows a distinction to be made between specific moral concepts for a religion. The fine-tuning is understood differently.

Many ancient Christian theologians base their ethical statements on a doctrine of virtues that integrates ancient philosophical ideas. The four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, bravery, measure) are taken up, which go back to Plato , are centralized by Cicero , named as such by Ambrosius and already mentioned in Weish 8.7  EU .

Augustine subsumes the ancient virtue ethics of caritas and defines virtue as including everything that is to be done. For him the cardinal virtues - unlike what the Stoics teach - have nothing to do with bliss. This corresponds to his distinction, which was so characteristic of many medieval authors, of God as the highest good and striving goal: he gives all other goods and is loved for his own sake, the other finite goods are only used.

middle Ages

Already in the course of the development of an independent scientific discipline in theology, some distinguish moral theology as an independent field. Alanus ab Insulis differentiates (around 1160), for example, between theologia rationalis vel moralis. Petrus Cantor Parisiensis († 1197) differentiates in his Summa Abel as areas of theologia (supernatural) knowledge of God versus (earthly) moral teaching. (In Arabic philosophy and theology , for example, Alfarabi had also made a distinction between dogmatics and ethics.)

Many ancient and medieval Christian theologians represent a virtue ethic and doctrine of virtues , which sees good human behavior shaped by habitual faculties . In addition to the Platonic tradition, Boethius (virtue as a habitus of the well-ordered mind) and Macrobius (political, purifying, contemplative, exemplary virtues) are also characteristic of medieval doctrines of virtue . In the conceptual formulation and functional use of the concept of virtue , unlike in axiology , it is often linked to Aristotle .

Petrus Abelardus already combined Platonic and Aristotelian concepts of virtue. He also emphasizes ethical perspectives and understands the moral good as consent (consensus) to the objective good. A prerequisite for virtues is a humble attitude of mind in obedience to God, which corresponds to prudence as the center of virtues.

In the 13th century Robert Grosseteste made the Aristotelian Nicomachean Ethics accessible in the Latin West and commented on it by Albertus Magnus 1250–52. The independence of moral philosophy also emerges from the doctrine of God and metaphysics. He relates the Aristotelian “intellectual” virtues to the goal, the “moral virtues” to the wearer and sees reason as the source of virtuous actions and assumes a germinal, form-determined natural ability to act virtuously.

Thomas Aquinas also integrated Aristotelian ideas, for example with regard to the concept of justice , which he reinterprets as the medium of virtues. He considers the four cardinal virtues to be exclusive, but places them, like Albertus Magnus , for example , the “ theological virtues ” (faith, hope, love) ( 1 Thess 1,3  EU ). For him, virtue completes man's natural drive and does not have to correct it from the ground up; the will is naturally directed towards the good, so that there is a certain continuity between the forecourt (praeambula) and the gift of grace. Thomas calls the subject area "scientia moralis".

In Bonaventure the theocentrism of the doctrine of virtues is particularly clear: God is the exemplar cause of virtues, and without true faith they are useless.

Modern times

The expression “theologia moralis” and its equivalents are already used in high medieval texts. However, its subject matter falls under the doctrine of God, for example, has also been dealt with in independent monographic presentations since patristicism, and "was harmoniously embedded in the whole of theology". This only changes broadly in the manual studies of the 16th century and after the development of the theological subjects in the post-Tridentine study reform. In this new sense, works such as the “Summa theologiae moralis” by H. Henriquez, published 1591–93, have the new discipline in their title. A casuistic method prevails, the practical function of which is often clear. Moral theology, similar to the penitential books, whose material content was "systematically captured" by Thomas, for example, is closely related to a safeguarding of the Council's provisions and a "representation of the positive Catholic ideal of life" in "Ascetics and Mysticism". Jansenism , among other things, breaks through this narrowing .

A scientific deepening can be observed in the 18th and 19th centuries, for example with Johann Michael Sailer († 1832), Johann Baptist Hirscher († 1865), Franz Xaver Linsenmann († 1898), Martin Deutinger († 1864), Joseph Mausbach ( † 1931), Fritz Tillmann († 1953). Werner Elert presented a fundamental piece of work with Das christliche Ethos. Basic lines of Lutheran ethics (1949). In Catholic theology, “moral theology” predominates as a discipline designation, in Protestant theology, also and later, primarily or exclusively “Christian ethics” ( throughout Calvinism ) or “theological ethics” is used, for example in Richard Rothe . As in general in systematic theology, numerous theologians try to react to the theoretical challenges that arise with the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant and other new designs, including in German idealism . In contrast, towards the end of the 19th century, a large part of Catholic moral theology - like dogmatics and fundamental theology in parallel - withdrew to neo-Homist positions by the middle of the 20th century , albeit with a few exceptions. Since a clarification of the “philosophical prerequisites” was missed on the whole, “in the course of Catholic centralism, case-oriented moral theology also regained dominance in Germany”.

Since the middle of the 20th century, on the other hand, the spectrum of methodological research programs, as indicated in the above description, has become strongly pluralized.

literature

History of the subject
Systematic presentations, introductions and general overview works
  • Alfons Auer : Autonomous Morality and Christian Faith  : with an addendum on the reception of the concept of autonomy in Catholic theological ethics. 2nd edition, unchanged. Reprinted in Düsseldorf: Patmos-Verlag 1989.
  • Klaus Arntz : Salt of the Earth - Light of the World . On the profile of theological ethics in a pluralistic society, in: Klaus Arntz / Johann Ev. Hafner / Thomas Hausmanninger (eds.), Right in the middle instead of just being there. Christianity in Plural Society, Regensburg 2003, 47–69
  • Franz Böckle : Fundamental Morality . 4th edition Munich: Kösel 1985.
  • Philipp Theodor Culmann: The Christian ethics. (Speier 1863) 4th edition (anastatic reprint). Publishing house of the Evangelical Association for the Palatinate, Kaiserslautern 1926.
  • Klaus Demmer : Interpretation and Action: Basics and Basic Questions of Fundamental Morality . Friborg, Switzerland: Universitätsverl. 1985.
  • Klaus Demmer: Moral theological methodology. Freiburg 1989.
  • Klaus Demmer: Art. Moral theology. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 23, pp. 297-302.
  • Klaus Demmer: Fundamental theology of the ethical (= studies on theological ethics 82). Freiburg i. Ue. 1999
  • Gerhard Ebeling : The evidence of the ethical and the task of theology . In: ders .: Word and Faith II. Contributions to fundamental theology and to the doctrine of God. Tübingen 1969, pp. 1-41.
  • Gerhard Ebeling : On the relationship between dogmatics and ethics. In: Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik 26, 1982, pp. 10-18.
  • Johannes Fischer: Theological Ethics . Basic knowledge and orientation, Stuttgart 2002.
  • Johannes Fischer: Basic course in ethics . Basic concepts of philosophical and theological ethics. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2nd A. 2008.
  • James Gustafson : Ethics from a Theocentric Perspective. 2 volumes. 1983/84.
  • Hille Haker : Theological Ethics. In: Beate-Irene Hämel, Thomas Schreijäck (ed.): Basic knowledge of culture and religion. 101 basic terms for teaching, studying and work. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2007
  • Stanley Hauerwas : Blessed are the peaceful. A draft of Christian ethics. Neukirchen-Vluyn 1995.
  • Christian Herrmann (ed.): Living for the glory of God. Topic volume on Christian ethics Vol. 2: Concretions . SCM, Witten 2012.
  • Martin Honecker : Introduction to Theological Ethics. Basics and basic concepts. Berlin / New York 1990.
  • Martin Honecker: Outline of social ethics. Berlin / New York 1995 [lit.!].
  • Ulrich HJ Körtner : Protestant social ethics. Basics and subject areas. 3rd edition Göttingen 2012 (lit.!).
  • Ulrich HJ Körtner: Freedom and Responsibility. Studies on the foundation of theological ethics. Freiburg i.Ue./Freiburg i. B. 2001.
  • Dietmar Mieth : Morality and Experience. Volume 1: Basics of a theological-ethical hermeneutics. 4. revised and supplementary new edition 1999 / Volume 2: Development of a theological-ethical hermeneutics. 1998
  • Wolfhart Pannenberg : The crisis of the ethical and the theology. In: ders .: ethics and ecclesiology. Collected Essays. Göttingen 1977, pp. 41-54.
  • Joseph Ratzinger : Principles of Christian Morality . With the collaboration of Heinz Schürmann and Hans Urs von Balthasar . Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 1975.
  • Johannes Reiter :  Moral Theology, Catholic . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 4th edition. Volume 5, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, Sp. 1495-1497.
  • Trutz Rendtorff : Ethics. Basic elements, methodology and concretions of an ethical theology , 2 volumes. Stuttgart u. a. 2nd edition 1990.
  • Bruno Schüller : The justification of moral judgments. Types of ethical reasoning in moral theology . Düsseldorf 1973.
  • Rudolf Smend , Wolfgang Schrage , Eric Osborn , Johannes Gründel, Trutz Rendtorff :  Ethics, III. – VII . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 10, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1982, ISBN 3-11-008575-5 , pp. 423-517.
  • Thomas Schirrmacher : Ethics , 6 volumes. 4. corr. Edition 2009, Verlag f. Theology & Religious Studies, Reformatorischer Verlag Beese.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Kleffmann: Outline of the systematic theology . Mohr Siebeck, 2013, p. 220-228 .
  2. ^ Philipp Theodor Culmann: The Christian ethics. (Speier 1863) 4th edition (anastatic reprint). Verlag des Evangelischen Verein fd Pfalz, Kaiserslautern 1926, pp. 1-4 ( concept of Christian ethics ).
  3. ↑ See e.g. B. Wolfgang Kluxen : Philosophical ethics with Thomas von Aquin , Hamburg: Meiner 3. A. 1998, ISBN 3-7873-1379-6 , p. Xxii: “… today's moral theology, which can now be better called“ theological ethics ” ... ". Konrad Hilpert : Art. Moraltheologie , in: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche , 3rd A., Vol. 7, 462–467, here 466 formulated that “Moral theology” has been widely used as a special term in the specialist discussion for several decades reserved for the trad [itional] paradigm and replaced as a discipline designation by 'theological ethics' […]. This change in designation also proved to be sensible because it was suitable for both the denominational peculiarity of the designation that had become conscious in the meantime and the assumption of a completely different methodology compared to the as an independent discipline Theol [ogie] to correct outsourced social ethics. "
  4. ↑ See e.g. B. Herbert Schlögel : Church and theological ethics : more than teaching post and moral theology, in: Wilhelm Guggenberger / Gertraud Ladner (eds.): Christian faith, theology and ethics, Münster 2002, 175–186, here 175, et passim. Andreas Lienkamp : Systematic introduction to Christian social ethics , in: Franz Furger, Karl-Wilhelm Dahm, Andreas Lienkamp (eds.): Introduction to social ethics , LIT Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg Münster 1996, ISBN 3-8258-2267-2 , 29–88, here 44 et passim. There “personal-interpersonal ethics”, “individual ethics” and “fundamental morality” of “moral theology” are subsumed and these are separated from “social ethics”. Also listed below is the extended use of “moral theology” as a generic term synonymous with “theological ethics”, which social ethics can then be subsumed as a “special moral theology”, which is rare and suggested by Franz Furger . Similar to Lienkamp z. B. Arno Anzenbacher : Christian Social Ethics , Munich-Vienna-Zurich 1998, 17-19 and Marianne Heimbach-Steins : Differentiation of Spirits - Structural Moments of Christian Social Ethics, Münster-Hamburg 1994, 10-12. All three (Anzenbacher, Lienkamp and Heimbach-Steins) include z. B. explicitly to: Christoph Giersch: Between social justice and economic efficiency , LIT Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg-Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6684-X , 11: "Moral theology deals with personal-interpersonal and individual-ethical questions, Christian social ethics, on the other hand, with the ethical analysis of society in its institutional and structural constitution. "
  5. ↑ Lienkamp, ​​44
  6. ↑ Dietmar Mieth , among others, represents a projecting of fundamental morality based on classical distinctions, both in terms of individual ethics and social ethics .
  7. ↑ Cf. u. a. Ratzinger, J. (Ed.): Principles of Christian Moral , Einsiedeln 1975, 41–66
  8. ↑ Cf. The question of the binding nature of the New Testament evaluations and instructions , in: Ratzinger 1975, 173–193
  9. ↑ Cf. What is moral theology about? , in: Katholische Zeitschrift 6 (1977), 289-311
  10. ↑ Cf. nine sentences on Christian ethics , in: Ratzinger 1975, 67–93
  11. ↑ He does not use the word "integration science", but outlines its methodology, etc. a. in: The sociological problems of Catholic moral theory , Düsseldorf 1953.
  12. ^ Ethics as integration science, in: Ders. (Ed.): Ethics before the question of meaning, Gütersloh 1980, 113–128
  13. ↑ Claim and nature of theological ethics as an integrative science, in: Anselm Hertz, Wilhelm Korff , Trutz Rendtorff , Hermann Ringeling (eds.): Handbuch der christlichen Ethik, Vol. 1, Freiburg-Basel-Wien 2nd A. 1993, 391-406 .
  14. ^ So Wilhelm Korff : ways of empirical argumentation , in: Hertz / Korff et al., Lc, 83-107, here 97.
  15. ↑ See norm and experience . The relevance of experience for ethical theory and moral practice, in: ZEE 37 (1993), 33–45; Morals and Experience, lc, vol. 2, 24
  16. ↑ De civitate Dei 4, 21: omnia quippe agenda complectitur virtus
  17. ↑ More precisely, a discipline superior sive caelestis, which deals with the divinorum notitia (articuli fides versus haereses), from a discipline inferior sive subcaelestis, which deals with the morum informatio (virtutes sive vitia). See e.g. BM Grabmann: History of the Scholastic Method, Vol. 2, Berlin 1988, 483.
  18. ↑ These are subdivisions of both law and doctrine ( Kalam ) as the two parts of theology; see. De scientiis, ed. A. Gonzalez Palencia, Madrid 2. A. 1953, 72-74
  19. ↑ See Schönberger, lc, 1549
  20. ↑ Cf. Rolf Schönberger : Art. Tugend , II., In: HWPh , Bd. 10, 1548–1554, here 1549
  21. ↑ See Schönberger, lc, 1550
  22. ↑ Schönberger, lc
  23. ↑ See Schönberger, 1550f
  24. ↑ Summa theologiae I, 84 and II – II, prologus
  25. ↑ See Schönberger, lc, 1549
  26. ↑ Cf. on the above, e.g. B. Konrad Hilpert: Art. Moraltheologie , in: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche , 3rd A., Vol. 7, 462–467, here 467
  27. ↑ Klaus Demmer , Art. Moraltheologie , in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 23, 295–302
  28. ↑ See Demmer, 295
  29. ↑ See next to Demmer, lcz BR Hauser: Art. Moraltheologie , in: HWPh , Bd. 6, 199f, here 199.
  30. ^ So J. Klein: Art. Moraltheologie, catholic , in: RGG 3. A., Bd. 4., 1129–1132, here 1131
  31. ↑ Klein, lc
  32. ↑ Cf. - also on the following - Hauser, lc
  33. ↑ exemplarily Philipp Theodor Culmann: The Christian Ethics. (Speier 1863) 4th edition (anastatic reprint). Publishing house of the Evangelical Association for the Palatinate, Kaiserslautern 1926.
  34. ↑ Theological Ethics, 3rd vol., Wittenberg 1st A. 1845-48, 2nd A. 1867-71.
  35. ↑ Klein, lc, 1132