Undergraduate Course: Christian Ethics 3/4 (THET10007)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course is designed to enable students to acquire skills in Christian moral reasoning, and successfully to mobilise such skills in relation to contemporary moral controversies such as the patenting of life or the moral status of animals. |
| Course description |
Academic Description:
Students will study key texts and themes in Christian theological ethics. The course is based on reading classic and contemporary texts in theological ethics from primarily Protestant sources in North America and the UK, with a smaller number of Catholic and Continental European readings. The context for the course is the two thousand years of Christian moral teaching whose sources include the Old Testament, the life and teachings of Christ, the writings of St Paul, the fathers of the church, Thomas Aquinas, and the Reformers. Moses, the Hebrew Prophets, Aristotle and Plato were also major influences on the tradition of Christian ethics as were Enlightenment philosophers such as Mill and Kant. The influence of these sources on contemporary thinkers is a major orienting frame for the course. So too is the context of modernity which has seen the gradual secularisation of ethics in European societies and the rise of a range of new ethical dilemmas, such as those posed by modern technologies and the ecological crisis.
Syllabus/Outline Content:
The course is organised around key thinkers in and approaches in theological ethics. Key approaches in Christian Ethics include personalism (deontology), command ethics, virtue ethics, communitarianism, emotivism, and consequentialism. Set texts and additional reading to be studied in the course will be selected from key shapers of the tradition of theological ethics including: Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, Karl Barth, Hans urs Von Balthasar, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Stanley Hauerwas, Martin Luther, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Milbank, Reinhold Niebuhr, Oliver OżDonovan and John Howard Yoder.
Student Learning Experience Information:
The course is taught through the following: private study of set extracts of primary texts; on line blogging on weekly set texts at the course web site on Learn; weekly one hour tutorial group discussion of set texts; weekly one hour lectures on set texts; essay writing on set texts and themes arising from them. Students will write a mid-semester essay and a longer final paper due towards the end of the exam period. For the purposes of blog discussion of texts, and face to face discussion of texts, the class will be divided into groups of around 12. The course manager expects students to devote one third (11 hours) of their available degree study hours (35) per week to this course. Reading and writing tasks for this course will require commitment and hard work but the rewards in new understanding and learning will be commensurately high.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Divinity/Religious Studies courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical conceptual understanding of the sources of theological ethics.
- Articulate and critically compare key alternative approaches to Christian ethics among contemporary theologians.
- Apply Christian ethical approaches to contemporary moral dilemmas.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Michael Northcott
Tel: (0131 6)50 8947
Email: M.Northcott@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Katrina Munro
Tel: (0131 6)50 8900
Email: Kate.Munro@ed.ac.uk |
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