SYLLABUS

Introduction to Christian Ethics

(Master of Divinity- 2)

Course Objectives:
The following are the major objectives of this course:
1. To develop a personal value system which is consistently and thoroughly Biblical.
This course will cover personal, family and social ethics.
2. To gain awareness and a sense of responsibility regarding contemporary needs and
problems
3. To learn how to think critically through particular ethical problem and arrive at moral
decisions
4. To be equipped with adequate knowledge and practical skills to prepare and
motivate others in their ethical dimensions
5. To learn fundamental methodological tools and practical skills to engage in critical
ethical reflection and action
6. To know the importance of the sources in doing Christian ethics
7. To engage in critical ethical reflections and praxis in the Church and society informed
by the context specific, Biblical, theological and theoretical mediations
8. To understand the inter-relationship between ethics and Bible, ethics and theology
and other social sciences.
9. To challenge the students to enter into a deeper engagement with the contemporary
realities with a commitment to interpret and to change those realities through
ethical reflections and praxis basing on the Bible.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course, all the students are expected to become (or be trained as) socially
engaged Biblical, theological and ethical scholars. They should become agents of social
change and transformation in the family, church and society, basing primarily on the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ.

Pedagogical Methods:
The course is divided into two parts. The first part deals with theoretical reflections
consisting of the modes of ethical discourses or methodology, sources of doing Christian
ethics, and the relationship between ethics and theology, ethics and Bible, ethics and
philosophy and other social sciences. The students are expected to be thorough with select
Christian Ethicists and theologians.

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 1. The second part deals with selected ethical issues with special attention to ethical
concerns in our Indian society. The instructors are expected to identify ethical issues
for the second part in consultation with the students and suggest reading materials
for each ethical issue. The instructor will give lectures on at least two to three ethical
issues, and the pattern will be adopted by the students for their group presentations.
Each issue will be presented and analysed in the class through group seminar
presentations.
The students are expected to be innovative in their seminar paper presentations. They are
encouraged to give power point presentations with appropriate video clippings to high light
the pertaining issue or the reality. They may use their creativity to enact their papers in a
classroom or in the open air. They will also be exposed to empirical studies or field trips
through engagements with different life situations of the effected.

Course Requirements:
1. The instructor will give lectures on the first part of the syllabus. The students are
required to read relevant and prescribed books for every lecture. They should
maintain class notes on every lecture given. They are required to give two reading
reports from the first part of the syllabus, for which relevant books will be
prescribed.
2. Group seminar presentations will be from the second part of the syllabus which
consists of ethical issues. The selected ethical issues will be critically evaluated from
the perspective of the theories lectured (Part 1).
3. Two class tests will be taken after the lectures- Part 1 and Part 11 of the syllabus.
4. All students who need help or having doubts or any clarifications can communicate
with the instructor.

Reading Report from Part 1 10%

Class tests from Part 1 10%
Group seminars from Part 11
20%
Final examination
60%

PART I

UNIT I: Ethics and Christian Ethics

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 1. Etymological meaning of ethics and Christian ethics
2. Secular ethics and Christian ethics
3. Significance of Christian ethics
4. Etymological meaning of Morality and Ethics

UNIT II: Relationship of Christian Ethics with other Social Sciences

1. Philosophy
2. Psychology
3. Sociology
4. Other Religions

Required Readings
Alasdair, Mac Intyre, A short history of Ethics. A history of moral philosophy from the
Homeric Age to the Twentith century ,(London: Rutledge & Keegan Paul, 1967).
Alistere E. MC. Grath ed., The Christian Theology Reader, (USA: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
1995).
Archibald B.D Alexander, Christianity and Ethics. A Handbook of Christian Ethics (London:
Duck Worth and co. 1914).
Carl F. H. Henry, Bakers Dictionary of ethics, (USA: Bakers book house company, 1973).
Edward Le Roy Long, A survey of Christian ethics, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982).
Henlee H. Barnette, Introducing Christian Ethics, (Nashville, Tennesse: Boardman Press,
1961).
James Luther Adams, “Ethics”, A Handbook of Christian Theology, ed., Marvin & Arthur A.
Cohen (New York: Meridian Books, Inc. 1958).
James M. Childress and John Macquarie eds., The Westminster Dictionary of Christian ethics,
(Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1967).
John Macquarrie, A Dictionary of Christian ethics, (London: SCM Press, 19657).
Hunter P. Maby, ”What is Christian Ethics? ” in Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader,
edited by Hunter P. Mabry (Serampore: ITL,1987), 45-71.
R E O White, The Changing Continuity of Christian ethics, Vol 2, The Inside of History,
(Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1981).
Robin Gill ed., A Textbook of Christian Ethics, (Edinburgh: T and T Clark, 1985).
---------------ed., The Cambridge companion to Christian ethics, ((Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000).
Richard G. Jones, Ground work of Christian ethics, (Westminster, London: Epworth press,
1984).
Russell Chandran, Christrian Ethics, (Delhi: ISPCK, 1997).
W T Stace, A critical history of Greek philosophy, (London: Macmillan & co. Ltd, 1941).

UNIT II: Christian Ethical Discourses

1. Significance of methodology
2. Different modes of ethical discourses
a. Deontological ethics
b. Teleological ethics
c. Contextual ethics
d. Situation ethics

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 e. Responsibility- relationality ethics
f. Feminists ethics

Required Readings
Emmanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics, trans. Louis Infield, (New York: Harper & Row, 1963).

------------------, Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals, (New Rork: Harper & Row, 1785).

Enrique Dussel, Ethics and community (Marykonoll: Orbis Books, 1989).

Gabriele Dietrich and Bas Wielenga, Towards Understanding Indian Society (Turuvalla: CSS Book,
2003), 252-272.
Judith L. Weidman, Christian Feminism: Visions of a New Humanity. (San Francisco: Harper and Row
Publishers, 1984).
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, ed., Oskar Piest, (New York, 1957).
Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, (Oxford: The Clarendon
Press, 1907)K.C. Abraham, “Christian Ethics: “Methodology Issues,” in Transforming Vision:
Theological- Methodological Paradigm Shifts, K.C. Abraham (Tiruvalla: CSS Books, 2006), 72-82.
K.C. Abraham, Christian Ethics: Methodological Issues (in) Hunter P. Mabry ed., Doing Christian
Ethics: Context and Perspective, (Bangalore: BTESSC, 1996).
Paul. L. Lehman, Ethics in Christian Context, (London: SCM Press, 1963).
Paul Ramsay, Deeds and Rules in Christian Ethics, (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1965).
Russell J. Chandran, Christian Ethics (Delhi: ISPCK, 1998), 1-18, 126.
Somen Das, “Fundamental Modes of Moral Discourse, “In Christian Ethics and Indian Ethos. Somen
Das (Delhi : ISPCK, 1994), 5-11.
Somen Das, “Relating Christian Ethics to the India Religio-Cultural Ethos, “in Doing Christian Ethics:
Context and perspective, edited by Hunter P. Mabry (Bangalore: BTESSC, 1996), 155-167.
Larry Rasmussen, The Ethics of Responsible action, (in) John W. de Gruchy., Bonhoffer, Letters and
Papers from the Prison, (New York: Macmillan, 1972).
Letty M. Russell, Human Liberation from a Feminist Perspective- A Theology, (Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1974).
Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation, trans. and ed., Caridad
Inda and John Eagleston, (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1973).
M.M. Thomas, Salvation and Humanization: Some Crucial issues of Theology of Mission in
Contemporary India, (Madras: CLS, 1971).
Susan Frank Parsons, Feminism and Christian ethics, (London: Cambridge University, 1996).
Trutz Rendborff, Ethics: Basic elements and methodology in an Ethical Theology, trans., Keith Crims,
Vol. 1, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986).

UNIT III: Sources of Doing Christian Social Ethics

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Required Readings
Hunter P. Maby, ”What is Christian Ethics? ” in Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader, Edited by
Hunter P. Mabry (Serampore: ITL,1987).

K.C. Abraham, “Christian Ethics: “Methodology Issues,” in Transforming Vision: Theological-

Methodological Paradigm Shifts, K.C. Abraham (Tiruvalla: CSS Books, 2006).

Somen Das, “Fundamental Modes of Moral Discourse, “In Christian Ethics and Indian Ethos. Somen
Das (Delhi: ISPCK, 1994).
Somen Das, “Relating Christian Ethics to the India Religio-Cultural Ethos, “in Doing Christian Ethics:
Context and perspective, edited by Hunter P. Mabry (Bangalore: BTESSC, 1996).
Wayne G. Boulton, Thomas D. Kennedy, and Allen Verhey, From Christ to the World. Introductory
Readings in Christian Ethics, (Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994).
H. Richard Niebuhr, “Introduction to Biblical Ethics”, (in) Waldo Beach and H. Richard Niebuhr eds.,
Christian Ethics, (New York: Ronald Press, 1955).

UNIT IV: Select Christian Ethicists

In this section, the students will engage in the ethical teachings of selected ethicists and
theologians. The approaches taken by the ethicists will help the students to understand the
theological and ethical concerns around them.
1. Howard Yoder
2. H. Richard Niebuhr
3. Paul Lehman
4. Stanley Haverwas
5. Beverly Harrison
6. Enrique Dussel
7. K.C. Abraham
8. Carol Gilligan
9. Lisa Sowle Cahill
10. Karl Barth
11. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
12. Susan Frank Parson
13. Joseph Fletcher

Required Readings
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics, ed., by Eberhard Bethge, (New York, 1961).

Reinhold Niebuhr, Interpretation of Christian ethics. (New York: Meridian Books, 1960).

H. Richard Neibuhr, The Responsible Self. An Essay in Christian Moral Philosophy, (New York: Harper
& Row, 1963).

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--------------, Christ and Culture, (New York: Harper & Row, 1951).

Joseph Fletcher, Moral Responsibility: Situation ethics at work, (London: SCM Press, 1967).

------------, Situation Ethics: The New Morality, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966.

Margaret A. Farley, “Feminists ethics” (in) James F. Childress & John Maquarrie eds., The
Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics.

Paul Lehman, Ethics in a Christian Context, (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1963).

Stanley Hauerwas, A community of character: Toward a constructive Christian social ethics, (Notre
Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981).

---------------, A Community of character, (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981).

Susan Frank Parson, Feminism and Christian ethics, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Wolf hart Pannenberg, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1981).

Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Rhetoric and Ethic: The Politics of Biblical studies, (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1999).

Lisa Sowle Cahill, Between the Sexes: Foundations for a Christian Ethics of Sexuality, (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1985).

UNIT V: The use of Bible in doing Christian Ethics

1. Old Testament ethics

- Decalogue
- Ethical teachings of the prophets
2. New Testament ethics
- The ethical teachings of Jesus
- Jesus and the Kingdom of God
- The ethical teachings of Paul

Required Readings
Emmanuel E. James, Ethics- A Biblical Perspective, (Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 2001).
Somen Das, Christian ethics and Indian ethos, (Delhi: ISPCK, 1994).
Bruce Birch and Larry Rasumussen , Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life ( Minneapolis:
Augsburg,1989).
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Rhetoric and Ethics: The Politics of Biblical Studies, (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1999), 1-30,195-198.
Russell J. Chandran, Christian Ethics (Delhi: ISPCK, 1998).
Ernest Scott F. The ethical teaching of Jesus, (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1925).
Waldo Beach and H. Richars Niebuhr, “Introduction to Christian Ethics, “(in) Christian Ethics: An
Introductory Reader.
Thomas Ogletree, The Use of Bible in Christian Ethics, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983).

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UNIT VI: Importance of theology in doing Christian Ethics
1. Relationship between theology and ethics
2. Significance of Theological ethics
3. Importance of Theological themes

Required Readings
Enrique Dussel, Ethics and Community (New York: Orbis Books, 1989), 7-17.
Hunter P. Mabry, ed., Doing Christian Ethics: Context and Perspective) Bangalore: BTESSC, 1996).
James M. Gustafson,” Theology and Ethics, “in Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader edited by
Hunter P. Mabry (Serampore: ITL.1987), 231-252.
Jurgen Moltman, Theology of Hope, (New York: Harper & Row, 1967).
Larry I. Rasmussen, Moral Fragments and Moral Community: A Proposal for Church in Society
(Minneapolis: Fortress press,1993), 136-170.
Robin Gill, ed., A Test Book of Christian Ethics (Edinburgh: T &T Clark, 1985)
Robin Gill, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2000).
Russell J. Chandran, Christian Ethics (Delhi: 1998), 73-83.
Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (Notre Dame: University of
Notre Dame Press,1983), 50-115.
James M. Gustafson, Ethics from a Theocentric Perspective. Vol-1. Theology and Ethics, (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1981).

PART II

UNIT VI: ISSUES for Ethical Reflection

The issues for ethical reflection will cover personal, family, sexual, political, economic,
religious, social-cultural, bio-ethics and environmental ethics. The students should apply
appropriate methodology or ethical discourses (which they learned in the first part of the
syllabus) in their critical analysis. The students will be divided into groups, with three to four
members in a group for the group presentations. The group work should focus on the
critical analyses of the assigned problem, application of the ethical discourse, and finally the
Christian ethical responses. The Christian ethical response should include the ethical
methodology, Biblical, Theological and practical response (for individuals, church, and the
society).
1. Personal ethics: Drinking alcohol, Drug addiction, Pornography, Suicide, Gambling.

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2. Sexual ethics: Divorce, Homosexuality, Rape, live-in relationships, sex-tourism, Family
planning/contraception/Sterilization.
3. Economic ethics: Poverty, Globalization, Development, Capitalism, Child labour.
4. Social ethics: Patriarchy, Sexual violence, Gender discrimination, Casteism, Racism,
Tribalism, Ethnic Crises, Dowry system.
5. Political ethics: Corruption, Democracy, War, Terrorism, totalitarian government.
6. Religious ethics: Religious Fundamentalism, Religious Communalism, Honour killing.
7. Bio-ethics: Abortion, Euthanasia, Genetic Engineering/Manipulation, Human
Reproductive technologies.
8. Ecological ethics: Ecological crises.
9. Digital ethics: Digital addiction.

Required Readings

Gabriele Dietrich and Bas Wielenga, Towards Understanding Indian Society, (Tiruvalla: CSS
Books, 2003).

M. Stephen, Christian Ethics: Issues and Insights, (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Co. 2007).

------------, Contextual Issues, (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Co., 2011).

Ram Sharma, Indian Social Problems, (Bombay: Media Promoters, 1982).

Journal on Christian Ethics

Journal on Religion and Society

Journal on Economic and Political Weekly

Newspapers and any book on issues with relevant Datas