Ethics After Easter
By (author) Stephen Holmgren
Not available to order
Publication date:
25 January 2000Length of book:
193 pagesPublisher
Cowley PublicationsISBN-13: 9781461660576
In this volume of The New Church's Teaching Series, Stephen Holmgren introduces us to the world of Anglican ethics and moral theology. He focuses on questions all people of faith must ask: How will I keep my baptismal promises? How am I meant to live “after Easter?”
In developing a distinctively Anglican approach to ethics, with its emphasis on holiness, sanctification, and the need for spiritual disciplines, Holmgren identifies clear axioms for Anglican moral theology and the ethos required for moral decision-making on the part of individuals and church bodies. He explains why ethical reflection is not the same as church governance, and why the institution cannot “make” its moral theology.
Holmgren also discusses the role of conscience and reason, the work of moral discernment, the difference between moral knowledge and saving knowledge, the meaning of natural law, and the high value Anglicans place on consensus. The final chapter provides a methodology for building a moral case in Christian ethics, specifically on Christian involvement with war and violence.
As with each book in The New Church's Teaching Series, recommended resources for further reading and questions for discussion are included.
In developing a distinctively Anglican approach to ethics, with its emphasis on holiness, sanctification, and the need for spiritual disciplines, Holmgren identifies clear axioms for Anglican moral theology and the ethos required for moral decision-making on the part of individuals and church bodies. He explains why ethical reflection is not the same as church governance, and why the institution cannot “make” its moral theology.
Holmgren also discusses the role of conscience and reason, the work of moral discernment, the difference between moral knowledge and saving knowledge, the meaning of natural law, and the high value Anglicans place on consensus. The final chapter provides a methodology for building a moral case in Christian ethics, specifically on Christian involvement with war and violence.
As with each book in The New Church's Teaching Series, recommended resources for further reading and questions for discussion are included.
Amid the thicket of ethical distinctions and opposing opinions, and with helpful summaries and study questions, Holmgren has written a book that is never polemical and often irenic, especially when he draws upon the Church's rich and commonly held liturgical resources. I think it is fair to say that his general approach is moderately conservative, but there is more often than not enough leeway for engagement and debate within the wide range of moral discourse that presently marks the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion.