(3) To Christian Theology, or revealed religion. As this is the fullest
disclosure of the duty of man, in all his relations, to God, to his
fellow-men, and to his own end, it is not surprising that for so many
centuries, the treatment of morals was made simply a part of general
theology, and merely distinguished as Moral Theology. In the modern
separation of ethics from theology and treatment of it as a science, it
is not meant to deny the close affinity between the two investigations
or the rich illumination that duty receives from supernatural
revelation, but only to trace out more distinctly and fully, in
independent and scientific form, the deep and immovable foundations of
the principles of duty in the very constitution of man and the world.
This exhibition of the natural basis of ethical law and obligation
becomes an independent and generic enforcement of the principles of
righteousness. It gives a philosophic vindication of one of the first
assumptions of Christianity--the supremacy of the law of rectitude for
human life. And Christianity is vindicated and exalted when it comes
recognizing and confirming all the principles and duties discoverable
in our moral nature, and adding a supernatural disclosure of the way in
which righteousness may be established in our lives, and men may attain
their right character and destiny.
Christianity, while much more than this, appears as a divine
re-publication of the ethical truth which from the first has been
incorporated in the organization of humanity. In it the light of
conscience is supplemented and made clear. The ethics of human reason
and those of revelation thus cover, to a great extent, the same ground.
When correctly read they are never in conflict, but in harmony. Both
show man to be under moral law--and under broken law, that is, under
sin. But the light of the Scriptures is broader and fuller. For in
addition to their confirmation of a natural ethic for man, they
disclose a scheme of redemption, with otherwise undiscoverable moral
relations and obligations, introducing new and vital elements into the
science of ethics. The inclusion of these elements and truths turns
pagan or natural ethics into Christian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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