• Processionism
  • Deut. 19:15
  • Context - text = con
  • Hedonism: what is pleasurable is morally right
    • antibiblical
    • self-destructive
  • utilitarianism: whatever benefits the majority is morally right
  • generalism
  • situationism: whatever is loving is morally right
  • unqualified absolutism: lying is always wrong
  • conflicting absolutism: lying is okay if it’s the lesser evil, but it’s never right
  • graded absolutism: lying is right if it’s the lesser law being broken
  • deontological: duty-bound
    • rule determines the result
    • rule-centered
    • rule is good, regardless of the result
    • result is always calculated w/i the rules
    • doesn’t make room for grace and mercy
  • teleological: goal-bound
    • result determines the rule
    • result is the basis for act
    • rule is good because of the result
    • result sometimes used to break the rules
  • Joseph Fletcher (1905–1991), the father of situational ethics
  • Situational ethics
    • right between antinomianism and legalism
    • the only law is love
    • very pragmatic
    • everything is relative and based on personal feelings
    • only people are valuable
  • Pre-modernity
    • truth = from high authority
    • authority = God
    • man conforms to the way things are
  • Modernity
    • truth = from science and rationale
    • authority = science
    • man conforms to his own will
  • Postmodernity
    • truth = relative and personal
    • authority = no one
    • man brings himself in harmony with the way things are
    • there is no absolute truth
  • postmodernism
    • knowledge isn’t necessarily good
      • it is an end
      • makes people arrogant
    • no meta-narratives
    • huge environment identity aspect
      • “Mother earth”
      • humanity is a blight
    • relativism community
      • absolute values are acceptable only in community
      • acceptable to evangelize individuals, but not people groups
    • truth is relative
      • it’s irrelevant that the variety of truths contradict each other
    • importance of image and story
      • more important than fact or word
      • cyberverse
      • metaverse
    • anti-authoritarian
      • suspicious of all authorities
      • growing suspicion of those who want to be in authority
      • encourages the anti-hero
      • man sees himself as passing judgement on God
  • generalism, or utilitarianism
    • utilitarianism
    • some binding ethical laws
    • each person determines the what’s “probably” best for the majority
    • there are no universally binding ethical laws
    • actions are judged by the results
    • have absolute ends but no absolute norms
    • generally tend to sound antinomian