Moral Actions Flashcards
1
Q
Utopia
A
An ideal state where everything is perfect; often used to describe unrealistic views of the world
2
Q
Secular pacifism
A
A false non-religious belief that society can achieve a state of non-violence
3
Q
Tyrannicide
A
The diliberate killing of a tyrant for the common good
4
Q
Consequential ethics
A
Any form of ethical system which judges whether an action is right or worng by its outcomes - ends justofy the means
5
Q
Liberal societies
A
Societies which develop laws based on the principle that humans flourish when given maximum freedoms and minimum control by government
6
Q
The western void
A
The state of western secular society with christinaity, filled with all kinds of dangerous ideas and beliefs
7
Q
Costly grace
A
This cost God the life of his son, Jesus and is the cost for the true christina as it may cost his life
8
Q
Discipleship
A
To be a follower of Jesus, learning to live like Jesus and to put his teaching into practice
9
Q
Civil disobedience
A
A refusal to obey certain laws/ rules of the government
10
Q
Barmen Declaration
A
Set out the basic beliefs of the confessing church in opposition of the Nazi influenced german christian movement (Karl Barth)
11
Q
Religionless christianity
A
Christinaity without the baggage of the past and the contamination of ideological belifes of the present
12
Q
Theology of crisis
A
The crisis of huamns sinfulness can only be overcome by God’s judgement and faith in his redemption through Jesus Christ
13
Q
Post Christian society
A
A society which uses chirstian moral values as part of its culture but does not practice or believe in Christinity as a belief system
14
Q
Moral relativism
A
The belief that there are no moral absolutes; moral values are relative to general human values such as love or happiness
15
Q
World come of age
A
Western culture has grown up and embraced a rational view of the world, discarding teh superstitious views of religion
16
Q
Bonhoeffer background
A
- lived in Nazi Germany when many groups where being oppressed
- German christians adopted national socialist ideology (was rejected by Bonhoeffer)
- Bonhoeffer became part of the confessing church, where they rejected Nazi teachings
- he trained pastors in an illegal seminary in Finkenwalde
- he believed that due to society stepping away from christianity left a western void
- humanity needed a religionless christianity that followed the example of Jesus by stepping away from the constraints and outdated doctrine of the church
17
Q
Bonhoeffer’s view on obedience
A
- being a christian was responding to the call of Jesus
- you need to submit yourself to Jesus way and therefore to Jesus leadership
- religion is not a list of things you have to believe but is something that needs to be done
18
Q
Bonhoeffer’s view on civil disobedience
A
- following Jesus leads to the view that duty to God is going to be more important than duty to the state (this is what being a disciple is)
- Bonhoeffer was disobedient to to the nazis as he said that not doing anything is as bad as doing the wrong thing (you are guilty by not doing good)
- he realised that all humans are fallen and so there is never any guarantee that something is absolutely right or wrong
19
Q
The church as community and spiritual discipline
A
- Bonhoeffer saw the church as the salt and light of the community and as spiritual nourishment
- had a particular view of what the church should be like due to the disillusion with the lack of action against hitler
20
Q
view of what the church in the community is for those outside of the church
A
- the church should exist for others just as Jesus was a ‘man for others’
- the church should be outward looking
21
Q
view of what the church in the community is for christians
A
- the church should be supportive and challenging the community
- Finkenwalds encouraged members to live a disciplined physical and spiritual life
- the community of believers were accountable to each other, this works with the will of God
22
Q
The cost of discipleship
A
- the true cost is rejecting the cheap grace
- you must accept the living redemption message, requiring obedience to God
- costly grace means giving up other comforts and obeying God’s call with actions
- Bonhoeffer saw that suffering, sacrifice and the cost as inevitable
- being a disciple meant bearing the cross with Jesus
- it is not about being religious but being for others
23
Q
Strengths of bonhoeffer
A
- Aquinas would have agreed that we must focus out prayer and christian focus on the will of God in order to understand his duty for us
- calling christians to seek costly grace could benefit society and ensure that christians are working towards a better world for all people
- focuses on the community and church role which is beneficial for society
- ensures the rights and protection of minority groups
- Bonhoeffer understands that all humans are equally made in God’s image and deserve the same treatment
24
Q
Weaknesses of bonhoeffer
A
- civil disobedience is not effective at changing the ruling authorities
- he failed to get either the state or church to change their views
- it is impossible to know and understand Gods will
- we live in a more secular and multi faith society and focusing in role of church and state could be seen as outdated
- unrealistic expectations of suffering as he ignores Jesus’ sacrifice
25
Bonhoeffer on Gods will
- it is only clear in the moment of action what God’s will is
- through living a christian life you are able to align your will with God’s by putting aside you human priorities
- a good life is one with the by and the example of Jesus being centralised
26
Bonhoeffer’s view on leadership
- call to follow the leadership of Jesus through action first and foremost
- a true christian leader remembers that they are first and foremost a fellow follower of Jesus who keeps the bible at the heart of what they do
- they should live close to their people
- authority ultimately comes from God and they are accountable to God for their actions
27
Centrality of Jesus
- the ultimate leader is shown in Jesus
- Jesus is the sole mediator in the world
- if we want to achieve anything this needs to be done through prayer to God through Jesus
- the Barmen Declaration states that Jesus is the way to God and any other leader you follow is a thief
28
The confessing church
- was from a group of pastor who disagreed with the Nazi’s want for all church leaders to be of aryan descent
- the deceleration maintained Jesus as the main focus of the church and as their sole leader,not state
29
Bonhoeffer’s view on the confessing church
- he didn’t fully agree with their narrow view
- he didn’t think that they had done enough to overcome hitler
- his thinking came from his view of religionless christianity
- christianity would only function properly is it moved away from the trappings of the past
- christianity needs to leave the trappings of the past
- the confessing church hasn’t gone far enough to rid itself of the rusty sword
30
Bonhoeffer on costly grace
- grace was given freely to all by God, but the meaning of this was lost
- Bonhoeffer condemned christians who undervalued grace and called this as cheap grace
- costly grace is understanding that grace cost Jesus life and secondly it needs to cost a person whatever it takes
- christians need to be prepared to give up their lives and accept the consequences of receiving God’s grace
31
Bonhoeffer on sacrifice and suffering
- christians must sacrifice their own desire for material things through discipline and being prepared to suffer
- it is about putting aside the demands of the world and living a life with a noticeable difference to non-christians
32
Bonhoeffer on solidarity
- the church being full of rusty swords was that it was not giving priority to those in need and it was not living alongside them
- a true understanding of solidarity is not just about empathy but walking alongside them
- the church needed to stand up against the injustices
33
Bonhoeffer is relevant today
- christians undergo persecution so will need help and can use bonhoeffer’s teaching to help
- as society gets more materialistic his teaching on religionless Christianity and costly grace is more relevant
- spiritual discipline is timeless and important today
- the church needs to have a role in challenging politicians
- Jesus should be the central starting point for all expressions of christianity
- the church is challenged regularly to be modernised and fit in today, Bonhoeffer counters this
34
Bonhoeffer is not relevant
- emphasis on the bible is not as relevant, the bible is not as authoritative today
- his circumstances were more extreme then than they are today
- globalisation means that the world is different so borderless Christianity is less relevant
- his ideas acting in the moment cannot help in a world that is losing its ethical value
- there are too many pressures on modern people and os they cannot engage in the level of spiritual discipline the Bonhoeffer requires
- following God’s will is important but not possible without the church
35
Bonhoeffer puts too much emphasis on suffering
- he lived in a unique time which is not relevant to christianity today
- Jesus’ own suffering was said to be once and for all so why do we have to emphasis extra suffering
- emphasis on suffering ignores that Jesus rose from the dead
- Bonhoeffer did not actively seek suffering and so we should not read to much into his emphasis
36
Bonhoeffer does not put too much emphasis on suffering
- he theology emerged from his understanding of the oppressed in society
- different people are oppressed in society today so there is still relevance
- suffering comes out of solidarity which is Jesus approach
- costly grace could be said that his emphasis on suffering is a correct understanding of the true cost of discipleship
- Jesus called all people to follow after him and his suffering
37
Bonhoeffer presents a realistic view of chirstianity
- it makes sense to suggest that christian life should be centred on the leadership of God
- bible provides a realistic focus for this view as revelation from God
- it makes sense that a well formed conscience through prayer and study will allow christians to act appropriately
38
Bonhoeffer did not present a realistic view of Christians life
- finkenwalde might be said to have been ideal for those training for ministry but not for others
- different christians express their faith in different ways, one is not superior to the other
- christianity is a personal commitment not a community commitment
- not realistic that most christians should understand the bible to the extent of theologians
39
Christians can know God’s wil
- the moment of action is where is is possible to know God’s will
- through following our conscience you can make the right decisions (this is God given)
- if christians approach life as a community then ethics becomes a communal action meaning you can know God’s will more accurately
- we can know God’s will through our sense of reason
40
Christians cannot know the will of God
- humanity has fallen short so we cannot fully understand God or his will because of the broken relationship between heaven and earth
- God has given us free will and so we need to use this to resolve situations ourselves
- it is not necessary to know God’s will for an individual situation
- Bonhoeffer’s view came from his interpretation of the bible but others might have different interpretations
41
Duty to God is more important
- doing nothing to combat injustices is just as bad as doing evil
- the ‘bottom up’ approach should always put God’s protection of the oppressed above the state
- where fundamental christian principles are challenged the duty to God is more important
42
Duty to the state is more important
- in the Gospels Jesus does not encourage disobedience
- the bible teaches that leadership on earth comes from God
- if humans are fallen then human authorities could be a way in which good order is placed on disordered people
- even if a christian disagrees with something in society christians should be above any disobedience and should take the higher ground
- his extreme circumstances make it hard to know if duty to the state is more important
