Christian Ethics in 'The Peaceable Kingdom' and 'Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins' - Free Report

Question 1

The book The Peaceable Kingdom portrays Hauerwas' central contention by describing every aspect of discipleship and the Christian life. The first chapter, mentions and exemplifies Christian versus social ethics (Hauerwas 1991). The book can be understood as striving to acknowledge the narrative of the people of God alongside their history. It enforces the need to have a qualifier for every ethic, especially if Christian ethics are involved.

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Hauerwas raises the idea against the existence and backdrop of a systemic view of a broader 'universal ethic.' He puts the concept and background of the systemic view to be where everyone derives their complete moral code (Hauerwas 1991). Even though this latter view possesses some challenges, it is clear how Hauerwas describes the lack of methods to develop an ethical standpoint. However, in the book, he endorses several ways of creating an ethical perspective for Christians. He describes that through narrative, Biblical history must be connected and tied up to the qualifier 'Christian' (Hauerwas 1991).

The message presented by Stanley Hauerwas is based on the method and themes that distinguish how he perceives and envisions Christian ethics. His message is oriented to emphasizing how Jesus' life should be significant in helping current Christians to shape their moral life. The message of The Peaceable Kingdom entails the narrative character concerned with moral rationality (Hauerwas 1991). It also stresses the importance of virtue and character as components and elements of spirituality and decision-making. Additionally, it speaks about nonviolence being among the critical ways of understanding and shaping Christian ethics.

What do you find most valuable?

Even though the book is a bit confusing at the start, it portrays valuable information concerning ethics. It is valuable since Hauerwas shows the Bultmannian viewpoint that both the New Testament and the early church's reflection emphasized the death and resurrection of Jesus. Without the latter, we cannot know about Jesus and who he is; the book reflects the New Testament and the early church's perceptions.

Also, I find the book to be valuable for highlighting my social ethics. It emphasizes that the church should not strive to adopt a social ethic; rather, it should be a social ethic of and in itself. Through that, it assists in defining the church by stating that the church should be a social ethic of its own. It is the primary role.

What do you find most challenging?

The book is quite 'dense' in the first chapters. Even though it is not very long, it possesses technical sections that are tightly argued. There are sections I did not comprehend, like when Hauerwas talked about living in a world of fragments. However, he tries a lot to detail his arguments using general expressions. While reading the book, I found the challenge of getting lost from the discussions. Maybe, I found the challenge since I have not studied moral philosophy.

Also, I found a challenge concerning the confusion drawn by Hauerwas at times when he conflated or instead used the terms' ethics' and 'morals' interchangeably. In my perceptive, I found the former as the foundation (the bricks) and the latter as the house (what is constituted by ethics). In the first chapters, at the opening parts of the book, Hauerwas does not emphasize theology, but rather moral philosophy. The section drew confusion me and posed challenges to understanding after describing that ethics are not independent; they have to be associated with the paradigm of Christian ethics. The discussion on the nature of 'agency' alongside 'qualified ethic' is challenging to follow.

How has this book helped you understand Christian ethics?

The book has helped me to understand Christian ethics since Hauerwas gives both his perception of Christian ethics together with the overview of different and multiple areas of Christian ethics. The book incorporates a limited number of voices. The most heard voices are those of the Niebuhr brothers and John Howard Yoder. I have understood Christian ethics through how the book addresses provocative situations in nonviolent reactions. He helped me to understand Christian ethics after explaining his perception concerning ethics.

He states that Christian ethics is not the case of finding options when things do not go as planned; instead, they are a set of beings that guides our daily mundaneness alongside the experiences of every edge of human life. The author also proposes different kinds of pacifism, like solving violence in nonviolent ways. Christian ethics also entails seeking justice for the victims of injustice through nonviolence. Christian ethics calls for patience while recognizing God as the one who administers divine justice.

Question 2

Summary of the First Chapter

The first chapter, "Christian ethics in a fragmented and violent world," describes how our world is fragmented. The chapter handles modernism and postmodernism as the critical aspects of the fragmentation and violence of the world. In this chapter, Hauerwas explains how postmodernism poses a threat to the status quo of stalwart certainty alongside its modernism. The aspect describes how society has found diverse and varied ways to make offerings.

The author describes how society has eliminated MacIntyre's story of the Christian tradition. The story has become obscure. The chapter also describes how ignorance in God's ministry has dominated both the language and context of the Bible. Sadly, ministers participate in twisting the latter over and over again. Due to that, Christians end up acknowledging the language portrayed in the scripture incorrectly or to a small degree.

Why did you choose this chapter?

I chose this chapter because Hauerwas explains that the fragmentation of the world penetrates right into our souls. The fragmentation does not exist 'out there.' The chapter explores the personal and moral identity of Christians. I chose the chapter since it enables me to determine how it is to maintain our moral identity upright amid fragments and violence. It helped me to perceive how the fragments make us feel that we are drawn in various directions by our ill convictions and roles. The chapter explains how this causes us to be divided and easily attracted to violence since we become unsure of what we need; instead, we become vulnerable to simple challenges.

In what ways is it valuable?

The chapter is valuable since it explains how modernism integrates with post-modernism fragmentation. The surety of modernism leaves us uncertain about matters we already know or those we are sure about. The chapter is valuable since it provides bombarding, multivalent voices oriented to challenge our beliefs and traditions. It results in a feeling of uneasiness that links to a combative attitude. Thus, it explains why Christians seek to defend the developed paradigms that define how they live.

In what ways is it challenging?

It is challenging since it leads to questions oriented to the existence of absolutes. Answering the question negatively, with a 'no,' gives the questioners the go-ahead to accept those ethics have stopped existing. The questioners might understand the term "absolute" to be referring to the rules, values, or convictions (Hauerwas 1991). Thus, they could associate Christian practices and beliefs with the aspect. Hence, it becomes challenging. The chapter does not define why there exists a hunger for absolutes, despite the questioners acknowledging that absolute norms are independent of history. However, Hauerwas explains how the idea of ethics and fundamental norms is misconceived.

Are there claims Hauerwas makes that you find wrong, and if so, why?

Hauerwas claims that we rely on a fragmented history, which leads to the witnessed violence. However, I find this claim wrong since our decisions do not depend on the fragmented voices. It means that our bedrock of modernism's confidence is not challenged (Hauerwas 1991). Only our paradigm and not the findings are contested. The result is the development of insecurities and a sense of chaos. Through that, it becomes living in a fragmented world.

What is the relationship between theology and ethics evident in this chapter?

The relationship between theology and ethics exists in the chapter since it reflects ethics relative to a specific place and time. The chapter addresses that ethical challenges change over time. However, the structure and nature of ethics remain independent. Due to particularities involving convictions and the history of a community, the form remains constant (Hauerwas 1991). Just like theology teachings being constant over history, the nature and structure of ethics remain unchanged based on this perceptive. Ethics, an identifiable discipline, is an activity connected to particular places, times, and communities.

Even though such aspects lead to the significance of ethics being ignored, it is critical to understand the claim that ethics is free from arbitrariness and historical relativity. Both theology and ethics relate since they deal with morality, matters that encompass sacrifices to others and ourselves. Since such concerns are justified by the presence of a permanent basis, it leads to a similarity between theology and ethics. Both of them have unchanging principles.

Both ethics and theology relate to their primary tasks. The task is to show how unchangeable principles, together with convictions, lead morality to be firmly grounded. The best way of indicating how both theology and ethics remain unchanged is by claiming that they are expected and sanctioned by God (Hauerwas 1991). Through that, both the principles of ethics and theology remain intact.

Making our principles look like they rely on God acts as a breakthrough for everyone in the Christian community. It serves their best wishes; they hey participate in proving that God exists. In most cases, theology and ethics incorporate God in the absoluteness of the Christian moral system to make both believers and unbelievers reason on matters concerning stealing, murder lying, among others. Without this relationship, our moral system would fail to identify most wrongs.

Question 3

The hermeneutical circle presented by Miguel de La Torres in Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins fits the first chapter of The Peaceable Kingdom and the entire book. It shows ideologies of politically charged moments. According to Miguel de La Torre, it is challenging to acknowledge a Christian faithfulness revolves around or looks like. Just like in Hauerwas's book, Christians claimed by the gospel wish to solve issues of injustices such as stealing, murder, or lying through nonviolent ways (Miguel 2014). In Miguel de La Torres' book, those grounded in Christ promote nonviolence by opposing aspects such as immigration, poverty, ethics at the end of life, and the use of force.

The first chapter in Hauerwas's book integrates with that of Miguel de La Torres since it enforces the message of salvation and living a life of faithfulness through Christ towards individuals who are marginalized per the Christian understanding. Both authors center their ideas on the poor to advocate for liberation and social transformation (Miguel 2014). Nonviolence and nonviolent ways of settling disputes are achieved through Christian liberal ethics.

These ethics partake in how the methods associated with the cause of death or the dehumanizing life of an individual are dismantled. Employing the hermeneutical circle of case study, prayer, reflection, and observation, the author encourages Christians to exemplify the lives of Jesus (Miguel 2014).