The Limitations of Morals and How Faith Creates the Need for Critical Ethics

Abstract

This chapter addresses the problem of the limitations of morals and how faith creates the need for critical ethics. For either we seek ethical progress by teaching morals, or we seek ethical progress by teaching ethical analysis and evaluation (i.e., critical ethics). But, we cannot hope for ethical progress by teaching morals. For the believer is caught between a rock and hard place whenever belief or faith is circumscribed to a fundamentalist interpretation of God's word—requiring mere trust and obedience in the Divine Commands as the best (or only) way to teach morals. Thus, we must seek ethical progress by teaching ethical analysis and reasoning. In contrast, a believer need not grow up in a tradition that steadfastly submits to the dictates of the Bible to be complicit in some of the harmful behavior of partisan politicians when dealing with the problem of (im)migration.