Help us out

March 3rd, 2009 by Rory Shiner Posted in Uncategorized

Last week I asked for your help with the title for the Mid Year Conference on Ethics. Thanks for your contributions. I think we’re going to go with “Free to Love: Understanding Biblical Ethics”.

Now for your help with the talks. I have two approaches I’m thinking of.

First would be to give 5 talks based on the Ten Commandments:
1. “I am the LORD your God”
- A talk about ethics and God. The God of creation as the grounds of ethics and the God of salvation (“who brought you out of Egypt”) as the motivation and enabler of ethical life.
2. “You shall have no other gods before me”
- A talk on sin and the fall. Understanding sin as idolatry (ala Romans 1).
3. “Honour your father and mother/Do not commit adultery”
A talk on personal relationships as the context for ethics. Sexual ethics considered.
4. “You shall not murder/You shall not steal”
- A talk on social ethics. Murder and war, Poverty and theft.
5. “You shall not covet”
- A talk on virtue and the Holy Spirit. How do we change from the inside out? How do we become the people God wants us to be?
6. Wrap up talk.

The other option is a Trintarian approach:

1. God the Father
- Ethics and God. The doctrine of creation.
2. God the Son
- Ethics and Salvation. The ethics of the kingdom.
3. God the Holy Spirit
- Ethics and Virtue. How God changes us.
4. Test case # 1: Sexual ethics.
5. Test case # 2: Social ethics
6. Wrap up.

Thoughts?

  1. 9 Responses to “Help us out”

  2. By Tim Adeney on Mar 3, 2009

    Hi Rory,

    Thrilled that you are going to be doing this.

    I like the second suggestion more.

    Also you might find you can put in some of your case studies into the framework, so “Marriage etc” fits in neatly with creation, and ‘mission’ with kingdom, and so on.

    Tim

  3. By Brian John Snell on Mar 4, 2009

    Very biblical. Have you thought of doing something low brow like taking a survey, finding out the top five areas of ethical issue that christian students have and giving talks on them? Hard to work into a whole structure of a week of talks, workshops and small groups. Maybe you could do a case study in every talk?

  4. By dave elsing on Mar 5, 2009

    go with the firt one mate – more convincing becuase i think that is how God revealed his ethics to his people – the law. NOt through explaining the trinity to them.

    what you reckon.

  5. By Jon Rumble on Mar 6, 2009

    @Dave

    or do you think Christian ethics arise more from who God is and what he is like?

  6. By tiff chin on Mar 7, 2009

    i like the second outline:

    - it flows on well from last year’s topic (trinity)
    - it encourages us to start with God’s nature and our relationship with him when thinking how we ought to live as his people
    - was easier to grasp when reading it

    excited to hear your talks either way!

  7. By Sam Rae on Mar 7, 2009

    I like some aspects of the second option because it looks at the whole of God’s revelation of himself and his plan for salvation. You could do that without the trinity structure if you wanted, though.

    I reckon you’re heaps better off going with a relational approach rather than working from the Law outwards. You want people realising that ethics comes from the reality of who God is and what he has done, not that he made some arbitrary laws. You could dismantle the myth that the 10 Commandments are arbitrary either way, but easier with the second.

    And thinking about what friends might ask afterwards, I think you want the conversation to end up something like this:
    “Hey, you went to that conference thing didn’t you?”
    “Yeah, it was on ethics.”
    “Oh, so the ten commandments and stuff.”
    “No, actually—we looked at the whole of the Bible to see who God is and what he’s done, and what that means for us living in his world with him as king.”

  8. By Josh J on Mar 10, 2009

    Hey Rory i remember you reviewing at the MYC on Resurrection (maybe only informally) a book on how christ’s/our resurrection shapes our ethics. Remember what it was called?

  9. By dave elsing on Mar 10, 2009

    yeah – sounds good either way. I hadn’t thought about in those ways guys. Thanks.

  10. By Jon Rumble on Mar 11, 2009

    @Josh

    I’m pretty sure that was Resurrection and Moral Order, by Oliver O’Donovan, still on my to read list so if you track it down I’ll nick it off you :)

Post a Comment