Situation Ethics
Examine the key ideas of Situation Ethics (21 marks)
Situation ethics is the idea that people should base moral decisions on what is the most loving thing to do. It emerged as an alternative approach to Christian ethics in the 1960s, although its Christian ethos is vital for understanding the theory.
It is most commonly associated with Joseph Fletcher and Robinson and it surfaced at a time when society and the Church were facing drastic and permanent change. Women occupied an increasingly prominent place in the work force, subsequently due to the absence of men during the Second World War. The sexual revolution of the 1960s began as the post-war generation threw off the shackles of paternalism and authority due to freely available contraception allowed them to express their new individualism and liberty in the form of non-marital sex.
Fletcher and Robinson used New Testament dialogues between Jesus and the Pharisees as an illustration of old versus new morality. Jesus declared that the Sabbath was made for the man, not man made for the Sabbath. The stories of how he helped and saved people demonstrates his love, compassion and integrity, but shows the weakness of using absolute laws as a means of judging individual moral cases.
Fletcher identified three approaches to morality. Legalism requires a strict adherence to the rules irrespective of the outcome and is purely based on laws that are right or wrong. Antinomianism means against the law. An individual does not need to comply with religious rules or an established ethical system in order to gain salvation; it is ‘unprincipled, purely ad hoc and casual’. Situationism is a balance between the two. It enters a dilemma with the ethics, rules and principles of their community or tradition.
The middle way always lays in the application of agapé, the unconditional love for humanity that Jesus commanded. The ultimate duty is to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ – Matthew 22:39.
Furthermore, Fletcher
Situation ethics is the idea that people should base moral decisions on what is the most loving thing to do. It emerged as an alternative approach to Christian ethics in the 1960s, although its Christian ethos is vital for understanding the theory.
It is most commonly associated with Joseph Fletcher and Robinson and it surfaced at a time when society and the Church were facing drastic and permanent change. Women occupied an increasingly prominent place in the work force, subsequently due to the absence of men during the Second World War. The sexual revolution of the 1960s began as the post-war generation threw off the shackles of paternalism and authority due to freely available contraception allowed them to express their new individualism and liberty in the form of non-marital sex.
Fletcher and Robinson used New Testament dialogues between Jesus and the Pharisees as an illustration of old versus new morality. Jesus declared that the Sabbath was made for the man, not man made for the Sabbath. The stories of how he helped and saved people demonstrates his love, compassion and integrity, but shows the weakness of using absolute laws as a means of judging individual moral cases.
Fletcher identified three approaches to morality. Legalism requires a strict adherence to the rules irrespective of the outcome and is purely based on laws that are right or wrong. Antinomianism means against the law. An individual does not need to comply with religious rules or an established ethical system in order to gain salvation; it is ‘unprincipled, purely ad hoc and casual’. Situationism is a balance between the two. It enters a dilemma with the ethics, rules and principles of their community or tradition.
The middle way always lays in the application of agapé, the unconditional love for humanity that Jesus commanded. The ultimate duty is to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ – Matthew 22:39.
Furthermore, Fletcher