Year 11 Studies of Religion Religious Tradition Studies : CHRISTIANITY

1. Year 11 Studies of Religion Religious Tradition Studies : CHRISTIANITY

2. Core Ethical Teachings Students learn about: The Ten Commandments New Testament Ethics : The Beatitudes; Jesus’ commandment of love

3. Core Ethical Teachings Students learn to: Outline the principal ethical teachings in: The Ten Commandments The Beatitudes Jesus’ Commandment of love Describe the importance of ethical teachings in the life of adherents

4. What is ethics? • The systematic, rational reflection on what we are to do and who we are to become.

6. ethic of happiness • The Church’s moral teaching is about much more than ‘right and wrong’ • It is a about making choices that are truly good for us – that fulfill us and make us happy. • …an ethic of happiness, not an ethic of obligation.

8. The human person Made in the image and likeness of God Rational Free Relational Embodied Spiritual We aspire for truth and goodness.

9. Christian ethics is founded in • Reason and faith • Philosophy and theology • Natural law and revealed law.

10. Natural law

11. Philosophy and Reason

12. Natural law • ‘Given’ (by God) • Discovered by human reason • Concerns what makes us good at being human.

13. Natural law • When you think about your own happiness/ how to live/ what to do, your mind encounters the basic principle: • That the good is to be done and evil avoided 2. There are some things that you cannot help being inclined towards (natural inclinations). 3. To work out what good is to be done you need to identify the objects of these inclinations (= basic human goods) 4. You then need to work out principles for pursuing these human goods in reasonable ways (=ethics)

14. Basic human goods/ values • What are the things that we can’t help be inclined towards? • What are the ultimate goals of human action? • What are the basic ingredients of a good life?

15. Basic human goods/values • life & health • knowledge • experience of beauty • work • play • friendship/ love • integrity • experience of the transcendent • family

16. Which Basic Human Good is the most important?

17. Life & health Knowledge Experience of beauty Play Work Friendship Family Integrity Experience of the transcendent Goods appropriate to all living bodily beings Goods appropriate to us as thinking and feeling beings Goods appropriate to us as social beings. Goods appropriate to us as spiritual beings Basic human goods correspond to aspects of our being

18. The effect of basic human ‘goods’… • When we protect or pursue these goods we fulfill our human nature: we promote the flourishing of other persons • When we attack or completely exclude one of these goods: we cause damage to ourselves or other persons

20. Not all ways & means of participation in a human good are reasonable and therefore ethical. • Don’t directly attack/ destroy a BHG in order to pursue another. • As Paul explains in the Letter to the Romans, (Rom 3:7-8), we cannot do evil so that good may come of it.

21. Not all ways & means of participation in a human good are reasonable and therefore ethical. • Remember that instances of a human good are equally valuable whether they are mine, yours or someone else’s. • Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Tobit 4:15, Mt 7:12, Lk 6:31

22. Natural law ethics is the foundation of human rights

23. What are human rights? • People have certain entitlements as human beings • ‘Human rights’ come with having a ‘human nature’ • Founded upon the dignity of the human person and the natural moral law

24. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

25. Natural Law & Human Rights positive norms (orient us towards BHGs) + negative norms (protect BHGs) = basic common morality Which can be expressed in the language of ‘rights’

26. Natural Law & Human Rights The natural law, present in the heart of every person and established by reason, is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all persons. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for the person’s fundamental rights and duties. CCC 1956.

27. life/ health • Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person • Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family • No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

28. knowledge • Everyone has the right to education • Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing • Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression…and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media…

29. friendship • No one shall be held in slavery or servitude • All are equal before the law/ entitled to protection against unjust discrimination • No one shall be subject to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile • Everyone has duties to the community • Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association • Everyone has the right to own property

30. family • Men and women of full age, without limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and found a family • The family is the natural and fundamental unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State

31. work • Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions or work… • …to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. • …to the protection of any moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

32. integrity Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion

33. experience of the transcendent • Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (and) • …to manifest their religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

34. experience of beauty Everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific achievement and its benefits

35. play Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

36. Revealedlaw

37. The Commandments

38. Commandments and the Natural Law The commandments of which Jesus reminds the young man are meant to safeguard the good of the person, the image of God, by protecting his or her goods. VS 13

39. Have no other Gods beside me Do not take the name of the God in vain Keep holy the Lord’s day Do not kill Do not commit adultery Do not steal Do not bear false witness against your neighbour Do not covet your neighbour’s wife Do not covet your neighbour’s goods Experience of the transcendent Life; Friendship Family Friendship Knowledge/truth; Friendship Family Friendship

40. Commandments & human rights …the Ten Commandments are part of God’s Revelation. At the same time, they teach us the person’s true humanity. They shed light on the essential duties, and so indirectly on the fundamental rights, inherent in the nature of the human person. CCC 2070

41. The natural law is not dependent upon faith …but it has been confirmed by faith. There is no contradiction between reason and revelation

42. But… …if the Law (the 10 Commandments) is essentially the same as the natural law which every human person is capable of knowing and accepting does REVELATION/ FAITH really make a difference?

43. Does faith make a difference? While it is true that reason could lead to the knowledge of what leads to human flourishing, for most of us this is extremely difficult. The principles of natural law are not perceived by everyone clearly and immediately. In the present situation sinful man needs grace and revelation so moral and religious truths may be known ‘by everyone with facility, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error.’ (CCC 1960)

44. Does faith make a difference? Christian ethics • acknowledges the existence and value of a common morality discovered by reason + a distinctively Christian contribution. • is grounded in OPTIMISM and REALISM about the human person • recognizes the importance of both reason and faith; the natural law and the revealed law.

45. The sources of Christian Ethics • Scripture • Tradition • Natural Law • Different Christian traditions give different weight to these sources. • For Catholics, faith and reason help each other to shed light on the human good. …and all sources are integrated within or under the authoritative teaching of the Church.

46. Christian ethics is distinctive • Christian faith confirms, clarifies and purifies our understanding of the natural law. • Man is able to recognize good and evil thanks to that discernment of good and evil which he himself carries out by his reason, in particular by his reason enlightened by Divine Revelation and by faith, through the law which God gave the Chosen People, beginning with the commandments on Sinai. (VS 44)

47. Christian ethics is distinctive 2. Adds a dimension of revealed moral truths not otherwise evident Adds a few extra norms poverty & riches/ mercy & forgiveness/ power & violence Enriches and elevates our understanding of the law by placing it in relation to the person and life of Jesus.

48. The BeatitudesJesus’ Commandmentof Love

49. A love which knows no measure: Having loved those who were in the world, he loved them to the end.’ Jn 13:1

50. Christian ethics is distinctive 3. And faith radically affects our ability to live a moral life Christian morality “…is not a matter only of disposing oneself to hear a teaching and obediently accepting a commandment. More radically, it involves holding fast to the very person of Jesus, partaking of his life and his destiny, sharing in his free and loving obedience to the will of the Father.” VS 19