Responsible Conduct

by Douma, Jochem

• ISBN13: 9780875525723
• ISBN10: 0875525725
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Presbyterian & Reformed Pub Co

Summary

Corporate scandals, cloning, and debates about war are recent reminders of the importance of ethics. Whether the topic is civil liberties, business ethics, medical technologies, or sexuality, we all have our opinions. But what do we mean when we use terms like rights, responsibilities, negligence, good, bad, should, and ought? What basis is there for the ethical judgments we make? What role does Scripture play, or law, love, conscience, spirtuality, or adiaphora? J. Douma, an internationally known ethicist, guides us through these and other foundational issues in this thoughtful, balanced, informed discussion rooted in a Reformed confessional worldview. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Tenth Dutch Edition	ix
Morality and Ethics	1	(12)
Everybody Deals with Them
Terminology
Relevance
Subdivisions Within Ethics
Metaethics
The Definition of Christian Ethics	13	(20)
The Purpose of This Chapter
Human Conduct
Normative Conduct
In Terms of the Aspect of Good and Evil
Properly Motivated Conduct
Emotion-Laden Conduct
Virtuous Conduct
Purposeful Conduct
Utilitarian or Deontological Ethics?
Christian Ethics
Biblical or Christian Ethics?
The Scope of Christian Ethics	33	(22)
Why a Different Definition?
Does It Include the Environment?
Does It Include the Acting Subject?
Dogmatics and Ethics
Christian and Philosophical Ethics
With Universal and With Christian Arguments
The Use of Holy Scripture	55	(34)
Difficulties
Hermeneutics
Biblicism
Transition Within Scripture
Responsible Appeal to Scripture
Using Our Understanding
Be Careful for Motifs
Maturity and Discernment
The Ten Commandments	89	(24)
Core Commandments
Is the Church Still at Sinai?
The Law: Not a Way of Salvation, but a Norm for Living
The Depth of the Commandments
Threefold Function
Christian Morality	113	(14)
Once More: Ethics and Morality
We Do Many Things the Same
A Different Interior
A Different Exterior
Christian Lifestyle
Love	127	(18)
Love and Situation Ethics
Yeast and Dough
What You Wish Others to Do to You...
Self-love
Three Forms of Love
Conscience	145	(12)
An Ancient Distinction
What Is the Conscience?
A Good Conscience
Dealing with Appeals to Conscience
Are There Adiaphora?	157	(18)
The Issue
A Term from the Stoics
Two Disputes About Adiaphora
No Adiaphora
Freedom from and Freedom For
Don't Restrict It to Leisure
The Permissible
Once More: Discerning What Really Matters
Is There a Conflict of Duties?	175	(12)
What Is the Issue?
Not All Commandments Are Absolute Tragedy
Mendacium Officiosum
The Other Examples
Carefulness
Compromise	187	(10)
Accepting Less Than We Would Like
Some Examples
Characteristics of Genuine Ethical Compromise Limits
Does Compromise Render One Guilty?
Casuistry	197	(10)
From the General to the Specific
Casuistry's Bad Name
Protestant Casuistry
Once More: The Objections
Moral Counsel
Spirituality	207	(8)
Spirituality and Ethics
An Ancient Subject: Ascetics
Why Did It Fall into Disuse?
Spirituality: The Indispensable Context
Bibliography	215	(2)
Index of Scripture	217	(4)
Index of Subjects and Names	221