Christian Moral Realism

by Rufus Black

"Christian Moral Realism describes the shape of a Christian ethic that arises from a conversation between contemporary accounts of natural law theory; narrative and virtue ethics; and an insistence that any Christian ethic begin with a distinctively Christian description of reality. The key partners in this conversation are the leading Christian ethicists, German Grisez, Stanley Hauerwas, and Oliver O'Donovan. The ethic that emerges from this conversation seeks to resolve the tensions in Christian ethics between creation and eschatology, narrative and natural law, objectivity and relativity, the cultivation of virtue, and a focus on the resolution of moral dilemmas. In defence of its philosophical foundations, this book argues that a thoroughly realist ethic can respect the logical claim that no 'ought' can be derived from an 'is'. Dr. Black moves from this analytic foundation to conclude that worship lies at the heart of a theologically-grounded ethic whose central concern is the flou