Christian Ethics

This was required reading for my Master's course in Christian Ethics. I found the author to be fair-minded and thorough. He did an excellent job of presenting the alternative viewpoints on each topic: abortion, war, capital punishment, etc. But he also introduced me to new concepts such as graded absolutism and situationism (one-norm absolutism). Not being well versed in this subject before hand, this book was easy to read and study. Highly recommended for anyone wishing to gain an appreciation for the opinions of others in the Christian community.

The book exudes Geisler at his best straight to the point and unapologetic on his thoughts.

Geisler writes clearly and logically to:1) Defend Christian ethics against non-Christian ones e.g. might makes right, good = pleasure. This includes showing that Christian ethics is deontological (duty-centred) rather than teleological (end-centred), e.g. utilitarianism. In particular, it is based on God's revelation. He rightly points out that even unbelievers have a law written on their hearts (Rom. 2:14-15), so they have no excuse for neglecting this general revelation. But one weakness is that Geisler insufficiently stresses that Scripture must be the guide for interpreting general revelation and for determining whether one's conscience is right.2) Present a good defence that the Christian position is "graded absolutism", where moral absolutes exist, but a higher absolute exempts one from following a lower absolute. His gives the ethical dilemma of not telling the truth to save lives, describes how six different views deal with this, presents both pluses and minuses, then analyses them in detail in terms of Scripture to draw his conclusion.3) Analyses hot topics such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, homosexuality and "biomedical issues". He presents both sides' arguments, usually from science and Scripture, then effectively critiques the view he disagrees with. The arguments seem so effective that there's little I would change even though the book is now 12 years old. So the book is an excellent handbook for all Christians who want to argue effectively about moral issues.

This book is the most current of Geisler's books on ethics and incorporates many of the points of previous works such as Ethics: Alternatives & Issues, Options in Contemporary Christian Ethics, and The Christian Ethic of Love. The book is, as the title suggests, a presentation of CHRISTIAN ethics, so the Bible is taken as the standard text for discussing certain issues such as homosexuality, abortion, war/civil disobedience, and other similar ethical issues. But scientific and rational arguments are also used in addition to Biblical exposition to reach conclusions. The first part of the book is concerned mainly with approaches to Ethics in general and Christian Ethics in particular. After perusing the field and debunking moral relativism, Geisler concludes that the best ethical position is what he calls "Graded Absolutism." This basically means that certain situations require one to decide which of two conflicting absolutes to obey. Geisler is sure to clarify that this is different than Situation Ethics (by Joseph Fletcher and others) which states that the situation determines the rule. On the contrary, the graded nature of absolutes determines which rule to apply in a given situation. Overall, a good read which still has me thinking and referring back to the book.