[68], There are a variety of Christian views on poverty and wealth. Later the term was applied to particular (and narrower) moral codes or value systems. The Catholic Church prohibits divorce, but permits annulment (a finding that the marriage was never valid) under a narrow set of circumstances. By attributing a divine origin to morality, the priesthood became its interpreter and guardian and thereby secured for itself a power that it would not readily relinquish. In the first one thousand years of Christianity, there was no discipline of Christian ethics as such. The Bible is the book of Christianity, but it does not contain Christian ethics as such. At the other end is a view which casts prosperity and well-being as a blessing from God. Thirteen volumes of the series Readings in Moral Theology (New York, 1979–2003), originally edited by Charles E. Curran and Richard A. McCormick, indicate the contemporary developments and discussions within Catholic moral theology. Encyclopedia of Religion. African-American Protestants are much more strongly anti-abortion than white Protestants.
Exhortation to perseverance in the face of martyrdom, the avoidance of any type of idolatry, and the need for prayer, fasting, almsgiving, chastity, patience, and justice were stressed. No longer is there a monolithic Catholic moral theology based on a Thomistic natural law; instead, many different philosophical approaches are used. The sacraments are discussed, but almost exclusively from the viewpoint of moral and legal obligations. In the realm of creation, which involves the social life of human beings, there are true vocations for Christians, but the content of these vocations and what one does are not affected by Jesus, faith, or grace.
The vast majority of Christian ethicists would agree that theological ethics is truly a form of ethics, that it asks the same questions and has the same formal structure as philosophical ethics. The important moral issues facing the world in the political, economic, technological, biomedical, and personal areas are the same for all Christians. [28] The Didache, a Christian writing usually dated to sometime in the mid to late 1st century, prohibits abortion in Ch 2.
Eric Fuchs's La morale selon Calvin (Paris, 1986) takes a similar perspective with regard to John Calvin. A sharper line of separation between philosophy and theology, and in particular between ethics and moral theology, is first met within the works of the great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, especially of Albertus Magnus (1193–1280), Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), Bonaventure (1221–1274), and Duns Scotus (1274–1308). [41] Paul concurred but added an exception for abandonment by an unbelieving spouse. 5:22–24, Col. 3:18, 1 Tim. Notable Christian pacifists include Martin Luther King Jr., Leo Tolstoy,[59] and Ammon Hennacy. (New York, 1979), include helpful chapters dealing with Christian ethics.