Characteristics of Christianity

1128 Words5 Pages
Outline the main ethical teachings of Christianity and assess their role in guiding the lives of adherents The main ethical teachings of Christianity can be found in the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31), the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-7 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21) and the Beatitudes. The voluminous mass of Christian ethics can be distilled into the covenantal requirement to love God, and to love your neighbour, which is expressed in terms of a new commandment in the Gospel of John. In essence, this requirement of love can be further simplified as the Golden Rule. These main ethical teachings are of critical importance in guiding the response of adherents to ethical dilemmas by offering a general model for Christian life that is founded on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. These general ethical principles arose out of the context of Jesus' advocacy for the vulnerable and core values from his ministry such as love and forgiveness. There is little difference in the understanding of these fundamental ethical teachings across the spectrum of Christian denominations. Differences arise, however, regarding the specific application of these general principles because of the different emphasis placed on the teaching authority of the Church in illuminating the specific meaning of these ethical principles. All followers of the Christian religion can be expected to place considerable value on the ethical teachings of Christianity in guiding them to make informed moral choices. The application of the key ethical principles varies across the denominations in terms of what sort of specific ethical guidance it provides. Catholic and Orthodox denominations place a greater emphasis on the guidance of Church authorities in the area of ethics. This is because they believe that the revelation of God comes through
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