Faculty of Theology
Department of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The focus of this research project is on the prospects of a Christian ethics of responsibility as an intermediary in the dialogue between church and theology on the one hand, and so-called autonomous social spheres such as politics and economy on the other hand.
The researcher found that there are great disparities between the views of the different proponents of a Christian ethics of responsibility. Some proponents view such an ethics as one that has responsibility as fundamental normative principle (thus as a particular normative ethical theory), while others regard the name "ethics of responsibility" as just a synonym for the depiction "duty ethics" (thus indicating a whole class of normative ethical theories).
The researcher found not one of the conceptions of a Christian ethics of responsibility put forward by its proponents completely satisfactory. Based on his findings, he recommended that either the attempt to develop an adequate Christian ethics of responsibility be dropped or that a completely new approach in the development thereof is adopted.
In an attempt to find a solution, he studied Max Weber’s original conceptualisation of an ethics of responsibility with special emphasis on the historical and philosophical background, the different interpretations and the legacy of his famous distinction between an ethics of conviction and an ethics of responsibility.
He found that Weber, in working out his proposal for an ethics of responsibility, has convincingly demonstrated that ethics – including Christian ethics – is not a simple matter of mechanically applying absolute moral principles without taking the concrete situation and possible consequences into account - as is the case in the ethics of conviction.
Ethical deliberation is a much more complicated matter in which a particular person or group of person have to take responsibility for thoroughly analysing the concrete situation and deliberating the possible consequences of different options for action, but also for weighing up different value systems that are in play, before taking a decision on the right action.
The researcher found that Weber’s ethics of responsibility does not depict a distinctive normative ethical theory that grounds ethics in a material principle of responsibility, but rather a particular procedural approach to ethical deliberation that tries to do justice to irreversible modernisation processes.
This approach cannot only be followed by ethicists with different normative ethical stances, but should also be incorporated by them if they want their ethics to be an adequate contemporary one.
This also applies to Christian ethics. A Christian ethics of responsibility would not only consider moral values based on the Bible in ethical decision making, but would also take into account the functional values that are valid in the different social systems - for example efficiency and productivity in the economy - and the cultural values of a particular ethnic group.
Prof DE de Villiers
Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics
+27 (0) 12 420 2885
etienne.devilliers@up.ac.za
The focus of this research project was the identity and confessionality of the Church. The researcher found that through the ages the history of Christianity seems to have yielded two process of religious transfer that is unilateral. These are intellectualism and legalism. This means that religious believes were often reduced to either knowledge or the law.
However, research has proven that this destructive dialectic was put to bed during the Reformation of the 16th century and replaced with a doctrine about the clarity of the Word in which the concept of faith was developed that comprised a combination of knowledge, experienced and obedience. This concept can be developed in such a way that faith can be seen as a balanced combination of rationality, spirituality and morality. This approach to religious faith can be seen as a distinctive contribution by the Reformed tradition to ecumenical Christianity.
Prof CJ Wethmar
Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics
+27 (0) 12 420 3397
conrad.wethmar@up.ac.za
The findings of a research project on human cloning and stem cell research raises the challenge of a new understanding of humanity as well as an ethic that takes creation in its entirety seriously. The researcher found that the traditional understanding that a human being is created the moment when the sperm meets the ovum becomes untenable in the light of bio-ethical insights. It is therefore doubted whether a zygote or an embryo in a Petri dish can be regarded as a human person. Based on his findings, the research argues that the cloning of a human person is therefore impossible. He concludes by advocating for the development of a new ethical framework based on the standpoint that man can’t be understood atomiscally, but has to be evaluated in terms of his ecological niche.
Prof Johan Buitendag
Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics
+27 (0) 12 420 3157
johan.buitendag@up.ac.za
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