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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume 4
Fall 2005
Ethical Christianity: A Reformation of the Protestant Church - Page 9
By Jeffrey C. Moon
Works Cited
McDonald, Ian. "Does Morality Change?" Studies in World Christianity . Vol. 1, 1997.
Ruse, Michael. "Can a Darwinian be a Christian?" Zygon . Vol. 35. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, Jun. 2000.
Russel, Robert John. "Bridging Science and Religion: Why it Must be Done." Journal of the Graduate Theological University . Berkeley , CA , 2002.
Spong, John Shelby. Why Christianity Must Change or Die . San Francisco , CA : HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.
Tillich, Paul. The Eternal Now . New York : Scribner, 1963.
Commentary
Douglas M. Piccinnini
In "Ethical Christianity: A Reformation of the Protestant Church," Jeffery C. Moon calls not only for a reevaluation of Christianity, but a possible schism, which would further partition the already heavily-fractured sects of Christianity. However, Moon asserts that the result of this new reformation would not be "a Lutheran schism," but rather, only "similar in some respects." Perhaps any change in the existing dogma of Christianity might threaten the stability of the long-standing institution that is the Protestant Church . The idealized hope for the accretion of a new system of ethical teaching in Christianity may inevitably result in the further fragmentation of Christian belief and practice. A possible division, and the concerns of such a division, can most likely be attributed to more fundamental and conservative ideological values held by Christians, which essentially remain fixed in order to maintain the "status quo" of their faith. This inflexibility does not allow for progress and therefore does not jeopardize a foreseeable path to salvation with a possible deviation from established tradition, or conventional "paths" to salvation through accepted ways of practicing one's faith.
Yet Moon's Ethical Christianity is not asking for a new way to believe. Instead he asks for a new way to live through the pre-existing dogma of Christianity. Such a movement, as Moon suggests would not be un-Christian: "To review the Christian beliefs, texts, and practices of days gone by for the purpose of making them meaningful in today's world would be to act like Jesus, and therefore wholly Christian." For Moon, to update and therefore re-envision the ethical concerns of the Bible in a "meaningful" way, which respond to contemporary values, would be to do as Jesus did and therefore be "wholly Christian" in nature. But will contemporary practitioners of this type of hermeneutical reconstruction be faced with similar opposition to that of Jesus? During Jesus' life-time, the primary text from which he taught was about three-thousand years old, and as Moon asserts, "Jesus knew that one's understanding of God grows and develops, so he [Jesus] made the Jewish religion he grew up with evocative of his time, which now is about two thousand years ago." Now, removed about five thousand years from the original context, what Moon requires from his audience is to uphold the teacher-like tradition of Jesus, which is perhaps lost in a more Pauline approach to Christianity which focuses on Jesus the savior, the sacrifice - not Jesus the teacher.
Paul's Kerygma, the doctrine that emphasizes "salvation through Jesus' sacrifice," greatly marginalizes the more humanitarian approach to religious practice, which was the root of Jesus' teachings, and as Moon suggests should be the core of Ethical Christianity. In this sense, Moon's argument for a possible reformation in Christianity is sound, as he calls for Ethical Christians to act as Jesus did in interpreting the Bible. However, the ostensible myopic effect of such a reformation remains exclusive to a particular group of people. In a broader sense, perhaps in an increasingly globalized world, a system of ethics needs to be established which applies to all humans, regardless of race, creed, gender. To deal with ethics and their connection to a higher moral order in this matter, is in a sense thinking globally and acting locally, for Moon recognizes a need for an ubiquitous system of ethics, but localizes its effect within Christianity.