The Need for Protestant Ethicists: A Response to Carl Trueman

There are alot of quotes in this article that got me thinking....

Seminary degrees often do not include a required course in Christian ethics and when they do the requirement is singular. One course; that’s it. One course is better than none, I suppose, but having taught multiple sections of introduction to Christian ethics for 10+ years, a single course is nowhere near enough for ministry students. A semester is scarcely enough time to introduce moral vocabulary, much less familiarize students with moral theory or contemporary issues. No Christian ethicist—none—will say a semester of Christian ethics is enough to introduce it. Plus the design of the degree itself suggests to students that this is all the ethics a ministry student really needs to know.

I'd be interested to know how many Bible College and Seminary trained folks on SI took a Christian Ethics class and was it required?

I don’t have the data in front of me, but I’d wager most protestant seminaries do not have a formally trained ethicist on faculty.

To go with the first question, how many of these institutions have a professor trained in Ethics who is capable of teaching it well?

It is anecdotal, but I think this is a decent example of why protestants will not listen to what their ethicists have to say: They often simply reject overtly Christian ethics in favor of personal preferences or prevailing conventions. I needn’t even go into the ridiculous claims offered as justification. It happens with other topics, too: warfare, poverty, assisted suicide, the list goes on and on. I’m essentially convinced at this point that the protestant moral imagination is more secular than Christian, which helps explain the lack of moral differentiation between Christians and society that Trueman highlights.

I’m unconvinced American protestantism has ever really been familiar with Christian ethics as a theological discipline.

Is this a broad-brush or is there truth to this statement? And if Bible Colleges and Seminaries aren't requiring Christian Ethics in their training of pastors and Christian leaders, could this be a reason why in Carl Trueman's preceding article, he bemoaned the fact that protestant Christianity is "ill-equipped" to address the moral challenges that todays Christians face even though "churches now need to teach Christian ethics more explicitly and more thoroughly, because that is where the wider culture will challenge Christian discipleship most powerfully? https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2024/09/we-need-good-protestant-ethicists

My experience is old now, but I went to a Christian liberal arts college (got a math degree), and unfortunately, we did not have to take a class in Christian ethics, not even a basic one. We did have a number of survey Bible courses (typical OT, NT, Christian growth, Bible study) before delving into doctrines and deeper Bible topics in upper class years, but having courses on both biblical ethics and biblical worldview would have been much more useful in hindsight. I don’t remember even the Bible majors when I was in college (81-85) having to take biblical ethics either.

Of course, at the time, when I was concentrating on major and minor classes, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to sign up for extra classes that would have required more of my study time, but if biblical ethics classes had been a requirement, I might not have appreciated it then, but I sure would now.

He taught a course on Ethics at BJU. I took it either my Junior or Senior year. It was great!

I did not take an ethics class either as an undergrad (at PCC) or in seminary (BBS Clarks Summit). I did, however, take a business ethics class during my MBA at the University of Dayton (a Catholic school). That was right after Enron imploded.

Seminaries can't teach on every important topic or the degree would be 150 credit hours or more. Many seminaries aren't even teaching the original languages any more in their MDiv program so that people can graduate sooner.

If a pastor wants to learn about Christian ethics and worldview, they need to be readers once they graduate from seminary. Kind of like continuing education.

Andy, I must have missed that one, and I didn’t know anyone who mentioned that they took it. I wish it had been one of the required classes. As I said, I was too focused on my major at the time, and was too stupid to recognize how great some of those other classes would have been.

What books would Christian ethicists recommend that a pastor read to help them grow in this area? If the answer is academic journal articles, then that's part of the problem. There needs to be books written for pastors that address these issues.

One book I've found helpful that addresses some of the ethical issues involved in family planning is God, Family, and Marriage by Andreas J. Köstenberger.

Trueman is not qualified to complain about ethics since he believes Christians can drink bourbon and other liquors. His beliefs are part of the problem, and he doesn't realize it.

Dave, Bible majors were required to take 6 hours of philosophy with Ethics being one option. I didn’t take it (though my wife did). I took Introduction to Philosophy and Modern Philosophy from the great teacher, George Mulfinger. I entered those classes as a philosophy sceptic, but the the subject and the teacher won me over. Among the most memorable classes from my undergraduate years

Don, some non-Bible majors had the option of philosophy vs. taking psychology, but my major, at least at the time, required the latter. I wish I could have substituted philosophy instead, but it wasn’t an option. It’s not that psychology was a complete waste, but I think I would have appreciated philosophy more.

Again, though, I have only myself to blame, as I could have taken philosophy as an elective, but I was unwilling to add more elective hours than I already had, particularly since my extra time was taken up with choirs, ensembles (and even the opera chorus) rather than more classes, and I don’t regret that time spent with the fine arts.

Thanks for the info on the available ethics course(s). I missed out, but obviously, we can continue to read and learn our whole lives, and I have more appreciation for it now.

I did not take an ethics class either as an undergrad (at PCC) or in seminary (BBS Clarks Summit). I did, however, take a business ethics class during my MBA at the University of Dayton (a Catholic school). That was right after Enron imploded.

Seminaries can't teach on every important topic or the degree would be 150 credit hours or more. Many seminaries aren't even teaching the original languages any more in their MDiv program so that people can graduate sooner.

If a pastor wants to learn about Christian ethics and worldview, they need to be readers once they graduate from seminary. Kind of like continuing education.

I agree with you that Seminaries can't teach on every important topic. And it would be ideal if pastors would make Christian Ethics and Worldview a priority in their continuing education. The question is, Do they?

There are a few seminaries that include a Christian ethics class and/or worldview class in their required curriculum that don't sacrifice the original languages. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, for example. And I'm guessing Christian Worldview is covered in that class as well as I didn't see any Christian Worldview classes offered. Southern has had a number of noted ethics scholars/teachers over the past few decades, including Dr. Russell Moore and current teacher/scholar Dr. Andrew T. Walker.

Grand Rapids Theological Seminary (now named Cornerstone Theological Seminary) has a strong emphasis on Christian Worldview, which included some cross-over into the field of Christian Ethics. It had a class that all MDiv students were required to take called, Moral Issues in Christian Life and Ministry that functioned (to a certain degree) as a Christian Ethics class.

The late Dr. James T. Grier's (the seminary's academic dean for about 3 decades) scholarship was in moral philosophy so Christian Worldview and Ethics was emphasized during his tenure. Although my MA was in Intercultural Studies, my Christian Worldview class, a Theology of Culture class that I took from him and the Christian ethics class that I audited from him were the classes from Seminary that have been most pertinent to the work I do. Radio Bible Class has their Our Daily Bread University with Dr. Grier's Christian Worldview Class and Christian Ethics Class that people can take. I highly recommend both. https://odbu.org/professors/dr-james-grier/

As for books on Christian Ethics, I'd recommend Scott Rae's "Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics." 4th Edition. Its not perfect, but It covers the whole gamut on Christian Ethics along with past and current moral issues/dilemmas that Christians face. It is very practical with many different case studies and stories that relate to these moral issues/dilemmas. Christian Ethics is such a multi-disciplinary study where the author needs to be knowledgeable on a whole range of topics and Rae is. I wish he had emphasized the creation ordinances more as foundational to Christian Ethics, but that's some of my Grier influence coming through. Grier earned his ThM at Westminister Seminary and was taught by Cornelius Van Til along with John Murray, who wrote a gem in 1957 called "Principles of Conduct: Aspect of Biblical Ethics."

I am not a fan of Wayne Grudem's "Christian ethics: an introduction to biblical moral reasoning" which comes across more as a political lecture than a book on Christian Ethics. While Grudem is also practical, its hardly scholarly and I question the depth of his knowledge on some (not all) of the moral issues/dilemmas that he addresses.

As someone who never attended a Christian college, I'm not in the direct "line of fire" for Joel's comment, but it does strike me that a lot of the work I have seen in Christian ethics is coming from not seminaries or universities, but rather parachurch groups, and a lot of that is headed (James Dobson, Doug Phillips, Michael Farris, etc..) by people who came from secular universities. That would include Trueman, I believe.

One of the pitfalls for many, especially within the fundamental orbit, is that sometimes "ethics" is mis-interpreted as "honoring our own cultural habits." It takes an open mind to get past that point.

I'd be interested to know how many Bible College and Seminary trained folks on SI took a Christian Ethics class and was it required?

I took an Ethics class at Pillsbury College in 1983, but I don't remember if it was required for my pastorology major or if it was an elective.