In his brief but potent Christian Ethics: A Very Short Introduction, theologian Stephen Long makes the following observation after briefly describing the rise of utilitarian ethics under John Stuart Mill and deontological ethics under Immanuel Kant:
What is interesting about the development of these modern ethics is how the social ethics for the pursuit of the good changed. Plato and Aristotle’s virtue tradition assumed the context was the city. Augustine and Aquinas assumed it was the Church. For Mill, the context has shifted to that of the market; he worked for one of the first transnational corporations, the British East India Company. Kant’s ethics can best be understood within the dual context of the modern nation-state and an emerging internationalism or ‘cosmopolitanism’. It comes as no surprise, then, that Mill offers a utilitarian ethic and Kant a deontological one, for both of these ethics fill well within such social contexts.
Oxford: Oxford University Press (2010), p. 81
I suspect Long’s insight is a basic one for many students of moral theology and modern philosophy, but it was new to me. Of course, there are overlaps in these categories. Most apparently, contemporary virtue ethicists like MacIntyre and Hauerwas (Long’s teacher) have imported Greek virtue ethics into their ecclesial ethics, following Aquinas and many others. But the point stands.
This is significant because the contemporary church is so riven by ethical questions. This begs the question, then, in all of our interminable debates: for what context are we designing our ethics? Is it possible for a church’s ethics to both be directed at the community of faith and yet be open to scrutiny in a cosmopolitan world? What does an ecclesial ethic look like in Protestant communities that have largely lost a sense of church discipline? How do churches desperate for approval in a postmodern, multicultural world create a specifically Christian ethic?
There are no easy answers here, but I find Long’s basic insight fruitful.
When disciplines of Jesus envision the good life, among whom do we picture it taking place?