Professor Beth Newman
Saint Mary's
College
Religious Studies 458
"Theological Ethics"
"Ethics" is the study of morals, while "morals" refers to the actual
conduct of people viewed with concern for good and evil, virtue and vice,
right and wrong. The study of ethics thus examines theories of morality.
This course will particularly attend to theological theories of
morality, where theology is understood (most broadly) as the discovery,
understanding and transformation of convictions, those deep commitments
that form who we are. How does theology shape our ethics and vice
versa?
More specifically, what difference does or ought it make to describe
ethics as "Christian"? We will study significant ethicists in order to
pose possible answers to these questions. My hope is that the student
will leave the course with a deeper understanding of how theology does and
ought to inform the way we live.