Identify the different sources of Christian approaches to ethics and the broad ethical theories to which they relate.

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Identify the different sources of Christian approaches to ethics and the broad ethical theories to which they relate.

There are a number of ethical systems adopted by Christians today on deciding what is right or wrong? Which principles to follow in ethical dilemmas? etc. The bible remains the key source of guidance for these Christian groups, primarily the Ten Commandments, however some Christian ethical systems don’t hold as stern views on the Ten Commandments as others.

The Roman Catholic Church is the only part of the church to lay down precise teachings. They have a deontological, objective stance to most dilemmas, for instance in relation to abortion the Church maintains life begins as early as when the woman’s egg is fertilized by the male sperm, so abortion is always wrong no matter what. They withhold the ‘divine command theory’ in which the ‘the word of God’ is a moral absolute and unchanging in any circumstances, so suicide is always wrong because its goes against ‘the word of God’ demonstrated in the Old Testament “Thou Shalt not Kill” (Exodus 20:13) They hold actions to be intrinsically wrong, this Catholic approach is often linked to Natural Moral Law theory.

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Like Catholic laws Aquinas’s Natural Law theory is absolutist and deontological. It underpins catholic beliefs in that it is based on a moral code existing within the purpose of nature, created by God ‘…nothing else than an ordination of reason for the common good promulgated by the one who is in charge of the community’, like Roman Catholicism it values actions intrinsically, it evaluates both what I do and why I do it. The ‘word of God’ (the bible) is held as an absolute in the form of the primary precepts. Aquinas follows the ‘divine command theory’ (the view that God ...

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