Christian Ethics:
A Historical and
Systematic Analysis of Its Dominant Ideas
Isma’il R. al-Faruqi
Sunday, 22 November 2015
INTRODUCTION: COMPARATIVE RELIGION
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
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
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
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 TO 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 TO 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 AND INDEXES
EPILOGUE … 218
INDEX OF BIBLICAL
QUOTATIONS … 222
INDEX OF SUBJECTS … 224
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES
… 234
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