CONTENTS

Christian Ethics:

A Historical and Systematic Analysis of Its Dominant Ideas

Isma’il R. al-Faruqi

Malaysian Edition

1420 / 1999

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

COMPARATIVE RELIGION ...   1           

The need for ‘disengagement’ …   1

The search for ‘higher principles’ …   3

Five theoretical principles … 4

Internal coherence …   4

External coherence … 6

The principle of unity … 6

Coherence with reality …  7

The principle of right purpose …   7

The need for principles of value … 7

Stephen Neill … 8

Hendrik Kraemer … 10

Albert Schweitzer … 11

Six principles of value … 14

First principle … 14

Second principle … 14

Third principle … 15

Fourth principle … 16

Fifth principle … 17

Sixth principle             … 18

THE AIMS OF THIS STUDY … 19

Islamic ethos of this study … 20

A basis for dialogue … 21

NOTES AND REFERENCES  … 22

Part 1 The ethic of Jesus

I THE JEWISH BACKGROUND

THE JEWISH ETHIC

The concept of a ‘race apart’ … 23

Hebrew Scripture and the ‘race apart … 25

Apologies for ‘racial apartness` … 26

THE CULT OF THE LAW  … 30

Return from Exile  … 30

Rebuilding the Temple … 31

Rebuilding the Law … 32

‘Legalism` of the Pharisees … 33

(p.iii)

The Pharisee-Sadducee conflict … 33

NOTES AND REFERENCES  … 36

II JESUS’ BREAKTHROUGH

SELF-TRANSFORMATION … 43

The context of revelation … 43

Jesus’ indictment of legalism … 44

The universality of the new ‘law’ … 46

The ethic of intent  … 46

The priority of intentions … 46

The self before God … 48

THE FIRST COMMANDMIENT  … 48

Its ethical aspect … 48

Its religious aspect … 51

The meaning of ‘firstness’ … 53

NOTES AND REFERENCES ... 55

III THE NEW ETHIC

REJECTION OF ‘APARTNESS’ … 57

The Messiah of the Jews … 57

Rejection of family ties … 58

THE NEW VALUES … 59

The political … 60

The social … 61

‘Love thy neighbor’ … 61

The family … 65

The law on divorce … 66

Jesus on divorce … 68

The family: parents and children … 69

The personal  … 70

The love of God … 70

The love of the Law … 71

Jesus’ teaching of the ethic … 72

The Kingdom of God … 75

The Jewish concept of the Kingdom … 75

Jesus’ concept of the Kingdom … 76

CHRISTIAN LEGALISM             … 77

NOTES AND REFERENCES  … 81

IV JESUS AND ISLAMIC MYSTICISM

THE SUFI PARALLEL  … 91

The disciplines of Sufism  … 91

Love only God … 91

The Sufi ‘path’ … 92

Sufi ‘love’ and the ‘first commandment’ … 94

Seeking ‘union’ and ‘unity’ … 96

Explanations for the parallel  … 97

Non-historical explanations for the parallel … 98

A historical explanation … 101

NOTES AND RFERERENCES  … 102

(p.iv)

Part 2: The ethic of Christianity

V WHAT IS MAN?

THE IMAGE OF GOD … 110 

Humanism: Hellenic Christianity … 110

Humanism rejected Augustine … 113

Humanism rejected: the Reformation … 115

Modem times: irrationalist confusion … 117

NOTES AND REFERENCES  … 128

VI WHAT OUGHT MAN T0 BE?

SIN AND SALVATION … 137

The necessity of sin … 137

The concept of the Fall … 140

The Jewish background … 140

Transvaluation of the Jewish idea of the fall … 142  

The concept of sin in the Gospel … 143

-in the teaching of Paul … 144

-in the teaching ofthe Apostolic Fathers … 146

-prior to the teaching of Augustine … 147

-in the teaching of Augustine … 148

-in the Reformation  … 152

-in modern Christian thought  … 153

The concept of redemption  … 157

Christianity is the religion of redemption … 157

The nature of Christian salvation … 161

NOTES AND REFERENCES  … 167

VII WHAT OUGHT MAN T0 BE?

CHURCH AND SOCIETY … 178

Societism and personalism … 179

The personalist ethic … 179

The societist ethic … 180

The quest for a societist ethic … 182

The Kingdom of God is the Church, not society … 183

The Church as Kingdom of God  … 183

The Kingdom of God is both Church and society … 186

The relativism of William Temple … 186                              

Karl Barth: the denial of societism … 189

The Kingdom of God is o fthis world … 199 

The call to worldliness  … 202

The a-societism of Reinhold Niebuhr… 206

Conclusion  … 210

NOTES AND REFERENCES  … 212

EPILOGUE  … 218

INDEX OF BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS … 222

INDEX OF SUBJECTS … 224

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES … 234