Abstract

Christian ethics cannot be reduced to one normative philosophical framework. Instead, given its unique motive and end, Christian ethics appropriates a variety of methods in its implementation. Turning to Augustine and Reformed Augustinianisms, I offer a constructive interpretation that argues the root of Christian ethics lies in a relationship founded in Christ. A brief look at figures such as Augustine, Calvin, Edwards, and Barth locates the centrality of Christology in their respective ethics. Here the Christian moral life is one of reception and action or union with the Divine while loving the neighbor in ways that entail virtue, obligation, and sometimes consequentialist reasoning. The construal I propose is relational in structure and thus also involves feminist components.