Christian Moral Principles

• Sola Scriptura - The bible as the only source of guidance for Christians, only scripture
• Propositional Knowledge - knowing what is right and wrong and accepting it as it is
• Propositional Faith and revelation - faith as an acceptance of truth revealed by God
• Non propositional Knowledge - knowledge gained that does not have a true/false value, such as experience
• Non propositional Faith and revelation - gaining knowledge of god through experience
• "The bible is the only source of knowledge a Christian needs" - Richard Mouw
• Richard Hays worried about sola scriptura and said that people must ask

  1. How accurate is the interpretation?
  2. What range of texts are used?
  3. Is a particular section used repeatedly?
  4. Contradictions?
  5. Are particular focal images used?
• Barth believed that the Bible was inspired by God but he did not believe that every word was literally true or historically accurate.
• Richard Hays problems with sola scriptura: subjectivity, irregular writing styles and contradiction
• "The slogan of 'Sola Scriptura' is conceptually and practically untenable" Richard Hays
• "Love your enemies, do good to them"
• "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love"
• Reinhold Niebuhr - "The Ultimate law of life is love", believed that traditional Christians were "denying the relevance of love" and supporting the "conformity of tradition"
• "The challenge of Christian moral behaviour is to move beyond laws and judgements to forgiveness based on love. The statement 'God is love' does not express and idea, a notion, but rather it has a wholly concrete content" - Rudolf Bultman