Behaving in Public

How to Do Christian Ethics

Bibliographic Data

ID5707754
AuthorsJonathan Malesic (King's College - Pennsylvania, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume53
Issue4
Pages664-666
Publication date2011-12-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Church and State (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-969X • E-ISSN: 2040-4867
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jcs/csr095
OpenAlexW1975242013
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Why can't you behave? To some Christian ethicists, this is what the exasperated, paternalistic secular state asks unruly Christians when they use theological language in public discussion. Hence theology's supposed forced option: if it doesn't actively confront “the World,” then it retreats into liberalism and irrelevance. In his book, Nigal Biggar presents a way between the church militant and the church redundant. To him, behaving in public demands considerable virtue from Christian ethicists, including docility in listening, “tolerance-as-care, charity-as-respect and charity-as-optimal-construal” of another's position, patience, and “critical candor” when facing views that must be opposed (p. 75). Such virtues—save critical candor, rarely seen in the academy and politics—can greatly serve the church and the public, should Christians exhibit them when engaging secular arguments. Before engaging, though, Christians must be clear about what they have to say. Biggar insists on defining this positively, not by contrast with a supposedly hostile world. The goal of Christians in self-articulation is not distinctiveness so much as integrity—“tak[ing] care to work out their ethics in terms of their creed” (p. 7). Distinctiveness may follow, but if Christians find others on their moral page, then so much the better. The prophetic speech Biggar sees Richard Hays emphasize is but one mode of Christian discourse and not always optimal, if the aim is to make convincing arguments with theological integrity.

Christian ethics · Environmental ethics · Liberalism · Optimal distinctiveness theory · Paternalism · Political science · Politics · Public morality · Sociology · Theology · Toleration · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Christian Theology and Mission · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Religious studies · Social Psychology

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