The Distinction between Theology and Ethics: A Critical History.

This article sketches an intellectual history of the distinction between Christian theology and Christian ethics. The twists and turns of that history have been obscured by a recent tendency to deny the distinction's usefulness, as part of a wider strategy for reasserting theology's relevance to mod...

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Published in:Journal of Religious Ethics Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 209 - 231
Main Author: Lau, Sean
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Jun2024
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        au: Lau, Sean
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        Theology
        Religious ethics
        Christianity
        Christian life
        Ethics
        Doctrinal theology
        Christian ethics
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          Theology
          Religious ethics
          Christianity
          Christian life
          Ethics
          Doctrinal theology
          Christian ethics
      keyword:
        doctrine
        dogmatics
        ethics
        moral theology
        practice
        praxis
        religious ethics
        systematic theology
        theology
        theory
      ab: This article sketches an intellectual history of the distinction between Christian theology and Christian ethics. The twists and turns of that history have been obscured by a recent tendency to deny the distinction's usefulness, as part of a wider strategy for reasserting theology's relevance to modern social problems. By contrast, earlier theologians assumed the value of the theology/ethics divide, interpreting it through Aristotelian, neo‐Kantian, and finally Marxist categories. The distinction fell into disrepute because theologians struggled to maintain the distinction consistently and disagreed on the concerns implicated by it, variously using it to affirm the moral subject's agency, the divine/human difference, or the complexity of real people's circumstances. Nonetheless, the distinction has persisted as a useful shorthand for recognizing the limitations of Christian theology, qua a conceptual discourse, in fully apprehending its subject matter of the Christian life.
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    language: English
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      custom: Copyright of Journal of Religious Ethics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
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