Christian ethics
Christian ethics is the study and practice of moral judgment grounded in Christian scripture, tradition, and beliefs about God and human life.
Sermon on the Mount: A collection of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew’s Gospel, including the Beatitudes and commands concerning enemies, prayer, and possessions. Its teachings on enemies, truthfulness, and generosity shape Christian moral ideals.
Divine command theory: The view that moral obligations depend on commands issued by God. It raises the question of how divine authority relates to moral reasons and human judgment.
Christian social teaching: Christian principles and teachings concerning social, economic, and political life. It applies Christian moral claims to institutions, work, poverty, and the common good.
Hebrew Bible: The collection of ancient Israelite scriptures that forms the first major part of the Christian Bible. Its laws, wisdom literature, and prophetic calls to justice are foundational sources for Christian morality.
Abolitionism: A movement to end slavery, especially the organized campaigns that expanded across the Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Christian arguments about human dignity and liberation motivated some abolitionists, while other Christians defended slavery.
Imago Dei: The theological idea that human beings are created in the image of God. It grounds accounts of human dignity and the moral worth of every person.
Situation ethics: An ethical approach that treats love as the governing principle for decisions in particular circumstances rather than applying fixed rules. It contrasts with Christian approaches that give stable rules or natural law greater authority.
Christian environmental ethics: Christian moral reflection on human responsibilities toward animals, ecosystems, and the natural world. It asks how creation, stewardship, and human dominion should shape environmental duties.
New Testament: The collection of Christian writings about Jesus, the early church, and Christian belief and practice. Its accounts of Jesus and apostolic teaching supply central sources for Christian moral reasoning.
Civil rights movement: A movement to secure equal rights and end racial segregation and discrimination, especially in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Christian churches and leaders supplied organizing networks and moral language for campaigns against racial injustice.