A shorter version of this article appeared in: 'Ethics.' In Dictionary
of Mission Theology: Evangelical Foundations. Ed. John Corrie. Leicester, UK: InterVarsity
Press, 2007.
Ethics
has to do with how we understand, develop and practice the good life. Different approaches to ethics arise as the
'good life' is defined with reference to one or more of the following:
(1)
a person's
(or community's) character, motivation and empowering;
(2)
obligations
that clarify one's duty to act in certain ways;
(3)
the goal or outcome of actions;
(4)
the specific context (time, place, culture).
Somewhat
related to these foci, different ethical arguments arise from different uses of
Scripture:
(1)
to describe
the moral world in which we live (our moral vision);
(2)
to specify
(through rules, norms, practices) obligations and right actions;
(3)
to warrant
(by principles, values, virtues) right actions and goals;
(4)
to witness
to (with concrete narratives and
examples) the good life.
Ethical
arguments also differ depending on the authoritative status one gives to
Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.
Such
considerations lead to different views on moral guidance, acceptable means,
moral motivation, empowerment, and the content of an ethic. Roman Catholic ethics has traditionally
determined moral obligations and goals from natural law--what is true for all
as creatures created by God. For
Immanuel Kant, any moral action should be that which all are obliged to do
regardless of context (his 'categorical imperative,' e.g., never lie or treat
people as means). Utilitarians (Jeremy
Bentham, John Stuart Mill) argue that one should pursue the goal of 'the
greatest good for the greatest number of people'. But such universal approaches to ethics have
come under attack in the last fifty years.
Situation ethics is contextual and opposes universal ethics, but it remains
modernistic in its emphasis on the individual
making decisions in quandary situations. It is also reductionistic, being based on a single principle, such as 'do the
loving thing'.
Over
the past thirty years, universal ethics has been challenged by philosophers
such as MacIntyre, postliberal theologians such as Lindbeck, Biblical scholars
such as Hays, and Christian ethicists such as Yoder, McClendon, Hauerwas,
Stassen and Gushee. For them, different
traditions are shaped by different narratives that give rise to different moral
visions of the good life, and so the definition of virtuous character will also
differ. Interest in contextualisation in
mission studies is likely to favour non-universal ethics. African Catholic
ethicist Bujo emphasises context and community in ethical decision-making.
Anabaptists have always insisted on the uniqueness of Christian ethics: the
Sermon on the Mount is an ethic for disciples.
Mission
and ethics overlap in various ways and form a potentially fascinating area of
study. Both missiology and ethics have
contextual, applicatory, and ministerial concerns. Both relate to some of the same disciplines
(Biblical studies, theology, and Church history). Some mission scholars use moral terms for
Christian mission paradigms ('liberation'; 'reconciliation,'
'transformation'). And the same key
Biblical stories (creation, Israel, Jesus, the Church) shape our moral vision
and mission theology. The
interconnections between mission and ethics may be explored within topics like
the following.
Ethics and Mission Practice. Mission practice involves moral issues such
as ministry and profit, leadership, the cost of missions, bribery, and
partnership/dependency. If mission is
seen as a kind of professional practice, like business, medicine or law, then
it will focus on obligations and develop a moral code. Concern for the conduct of missionaries was
already a subject in New Testament times (cf. Mt. 10; 1 Cor. 9; 2 Cor. 10-12; 1
Th. 2; Didache 11-13), but ministry
is not a profession. Business leadership
models for 'Christian ministry', e.g., cannot be plastered onto a theology of
the incarnation, God's sovereignty, the cross, and Jesus' future coming, which
deconstruct the use of power in service such that even 'servant leadership'
becomes suspect.
An
alternative approach might be to identify mission practices (prayer,
evangelism, repentance, forgiveness, simple lifestyles, community formation,
care for those in need, peacemaking, a call for justice) and explore these with
respect to the Bible, Church history, theology, Christian community and ethics.
What counts for a good performance of such practices? What virtues are needed for them and how
might they be developed in our communities?
'Practices' in this sense is a technical notion applicable to both
ethics and missions.
Ethics
and mission practice also address the means for bringing about social
change. One's community context often
determines how one views the options.
Will the Gospel be practised institutionally (government, agencies,
denominations), operationally (addressing the issue non-formally: prayer,
evangelism, emergency aid), and/or communally (forming an intentional
community, e.g., the Jerusalem church in Acts living out a vision of Kingdom
community)? The Fundamentalists'
peculiar choice of a Gospel of word not deed was partly a rejection of the
social gospel movement's emphasis on institutional means. The other two means were more readily
embraced.
An
important question to ask is, 'How does the Gospel of Jesus determine not only
the content but also the possible means of its proclamation?' Thus, for Paul, ethics and mission in
imitation of Jesus remembers his meekness and gentleness (2 Cor. 10.1), puts
others first (Phl. 2.1-11; 1 Cor. 10.33-11.1), is gracious (2 Cor. 8.9),
welcomes and serves all (Rom. 15.7-9), works in human weakness (not coercively)
and by the Spirit's power (1 Cor. 2.1-5), etc.
Ethics, Mission and Contextual
Theology. Discussion of
contextualising in mission theology typically leads in a different direction
from the discussion of embodying the Christian message in ethics. ‘Accommodation', 'indiginisation',
'enculturation', 'contextualisation' or 'translation' in mission theology might
be taken to mean (1) exegetically, canonically, and theologically separating
out the essential from the peripheral in Scripture or Christian theology (as
when 'liberation' is affirmed and 'hierarchy' is discarded); (2) hermeneutically
moving from the original contextual expression of theology and ethics in
Scripture to a new cultural context; (3) contextually determining the right
application and practice of essential convictions and practices in new
contexts. This whole rationalising
process is open to sinful manipulation by those with their own agendas and
totalising '-isms'.
Alternatively,
embodiment of Scripture and Christian life (as we learn from narrative,
character, and communitarian ethicists) seeks to (1) recover the peripheral by
understanding how the concrete ethic of a people relates to their moral vision;
(2) bring this moral vision into sharper focus by seeing how Jesus embodied it;
(3) imaginatively place oneself and one's community within this embodied moral
vision by letting it shape our loyalties, trusts, interests, passions, way of
seeing, basic convictions, and way of reasoning (Stassen and Gushee); and (4)
by analogy (rather than abstraction), embody this Biblical tradition in our
life today. Abstract principles such as
'liberation,' 'justice,' and 'love' mean very different things within different
narratives and so are easily co-opted for one's own agenda. But seeing how such principles are embodied
in a community's practices, web of beliefs, etc. will make such co-opting
difficult. It will require entering the
cultural-linguistic world of the Scriptures just as much as mission scholars
speak of entering the cultural-linguistic world of a people.
Ethics, Missions and Inter-Cultural
Studies. Adeney’s Strange Virtues combines inter-cultural
studies with a narrative, virtue, and communitarian approach to ethics. He
explores how individual, social and cosmic values, priorities, virtues and
vices are variously construed in different cultures. For example, regarding family structure and
authority, an egalitarian culture will value equality, independence and
self-determination, will see individual rights and personal freedom as
priorities, will understand independence and competitiveness as virtues but
fragmentation and selfishness as vices.
A hierarchical culture will value honour and loyalty, see duty, security
and harmony as priorities, understand respect for the other, obedience,
self-control, and loyalty as virtues but oppression as a vice. Here ethics and etiquette overlap. One
culture's bribe is another culture's gift (Adeney). The same vice might be construed differently:
Westerners see adultery as falsehood; Africans see it as theft (Bujo).
Recognising the cultural context takes one a long way towards an appreciative
dialogue with the different ethics of a foreign culture or non-Christian
religion. What assists Christians in
this dialogue is that, no matter how much the cultural differences, the same Biblical
narratives give rise to a shared (for Christians) moral vision.
Ethics, Mission and the Church in the
World. Niebuhr's Christ and Culture offered five options
for the Church's relation to the world.
'Christ transforming culture' was Niebuhr's preferred option, and
subsequently 'transformation' has become an important word in missions (Bosch,
e.g.). Mission journals regularly
publish articles exploring ways in which the Church might transform culture
regarding corruption, environment, HIV/AIDS, nationalism, racism, violence,
social, economic, and political injustice, etc.
A 'Church transforming society' paradigm often approaches such issues in
terms of how the Church participates with society in tackling social ills.
Yet
Niebuhr failed to see how a focus on the Church as counter-community may entail
a prophetic and winsome witness to the world.
Hauerwas has argued that the Church does not have but is a social
ethic. Yoder wrote of the need for a
hermeneutic of 'peoplehood', a mission of incarnation as the Church views
itself not from a position of power ('Christendom') but as a minority active in
service. The character of a Kingdom
community becomes its primary mission.
This thinking alone can lead to an inward focus for the Church. But the
Church's outward focus in its mission also shapes a uniquely Christian
ethic. The world mission and community
ethic of God's people are both present in the Great Commission (Mt.
28.16-20). The work of discerning the
Church's mission ethic should emphasise Biblical interpretation: Scripture's
narratives, community convictions and practices entail both a mission and moral
way of being in the world. Wright,
Stassen and Gushee, and Bauckham provide excellent beginnings towards this
project.
Ethics, Missions and Development Work. Development ethics is concerned with topics
such as poverty, the marginalised, justice, human rights, aid, globalisation,
the environment, nation building, corruption, and peacemaking. Pragmatic considerations in development work
suggest a need for middle axioms (achievable goals falling short of the ideal)
and utilitarian ethics. 'Development' is
itself a positivist and universal programme (Dower), uneasy in a postmodern
age. Yet Myers offers a narrative and Biblical ethics approach that involves
'spiritual transformation,' exemplary witness, a people rather than growth
centred approach, and a transformative community engaged in social
transformation.
Ethics, Missions and Church History. Historians of mission studies and of
Christian ethics share an interest in many issues, such as colonialism or the
social dimension of the ‘Gospel’. On
this latter topic, the division (in America since the 1870's) between the
social Gospel and a message of salvation has in large part been overcome (cf.
the 1974 Lausanne Covenant, sections
5, 6, 13). Perhaps during this 100 years
evangelical mission societies proved better than Western evangelical churches
in offering a holistic Gospel. Yet the question remains, 'To what extent does a
holistic Gospel involve the Church in social transformation?' Are 'nation building' or 'human rights' on
the Church's agenda, especially if this means adopting a particular economic or
ideological position, a diminished ecclesial role, or a universal ethics
argument?
Ethics, Missions and Postmodernity. Bosch argued that Church history has
witnessed various mission paradigms and is now on the verge of a new,
postmodern 'paradigm'. Postmodernity in
general emphasises the contextual over the universal, the local over the
global, the cultural over the transcultural, practice over theory and systems,
relationships over ideas, the marginalised over the magisterium, and so forth.
Yet
two very different kinds of postmodernity have emerged. One variety feeds off of modernity,
deconstructing it, pressing its scientific method of doubt and proof into sheer
scepticism, retrieving fragments discarded by totalising systems, and
fragmenting metanarratives and foundationalist thinking. This kind of postmodernity is often 'most
modern,' an intensification of the forces of modernity and reducing them to
their absurd but readily embraced conclusions (see further in Kirk;
Hiebert). Mission ethics in this mode
will follow liberation themes.
The
other form of a postmodern perspective has its roots in the pre-modern
period. Its ground is not some fragile
foundation based on 'pure reason' or scientific proof but a rich tradition that
reasons not from but towards first principles
(MacIntyre). It is belief seeking
understanding. Thus the focus of much of
its inquiry involves interpreting its sacred texts, embodying its narratives in
community, and evaluating the tradition's good and bad performances through
history. This shifts the emphasis from
epistemology to hermeneutics (as with deconstructive postmodernity), but a
tradition both lives by its own narrative and makes claims about reality and
truth beyond itself. A 'tradition inquiry' in mission ethics will be more
narrative than anthropological, more communal than contextual, more interested
in Biblical mission narratives than a single theological theme (liberation,
reconciliation), more concerned with interpreting
the Bible than reflecting upon it
after praxis, more interested in exploring mission and ethics in the
community's historical vision, convictions, and practices, and more interested
in developing churches of moral and mission discourse and practice. A 'tradition' inquiry will identify different
versions of Christian mission and ethics, evaluate ideal and actual
performances within those traditions, and engage in a critical discussion
between the various Christian traditions (Anabaptist, Holiness, Reformed,
Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, etc.).
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