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Systematic theologyWhat does it teach as a whole?

Theological ethics and moral theology

What is theological ethics and moral theology?

Theological ethics is the systematic, critical study of the moral life in the light of Christian faith. Catholic usage calls it moral theology, Protestant and ecumenical usage Christian ethics. It is a branch of theology answerable to revelation and the Church, and a branch of ethics in conversation with philosophy, the social sciences and other religious traditions.

  • 128Sources
  • 15Traditions
  • 16Dated entries
  • 13Minutes

Study v1.3, 13 October 2026

Theological ethics and moral theology

At a glance

Why it matters for reading Scripture

How belief shapes conduct, and what the text means for those who read it.

How the traditions compare

  • Roman Catholic

    Frames ethics as moral theology and Catholic social teaching, from the manuals through the renewal that followed the Second Vatican Council's call for a moral theology nourished on Scripture, and emphasizes natural law, the magisterium, virtue and the common good.

    Catholic social teaching, beginning with Rerum Novarum in 1891, is systematized by the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) under the principles of the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, participation and solidarity. Its representative scholars include Häring, Fuchs, Curran, Keenan, Cahill and Porter.

    Sources1–3

  • Eastern Orthodox

    Frames the moral life soteriologically, as growth into theosis, and treats worship, the sacraments, the Fathers, the canons and the lives of the saints as sources alongside Scripture, with emphasis on ascetic struggle.

    Eastern Orthodoxy did not develop a separate discipline of ethics on the Western pattern, and academic Orthodox ethics in English is largely a late twentieth-century achievement. Aristotle Papanikolaou argues that an Orthodox political theology grounded in theosis should support liberal democracy and human rights. Its representative scholars include Stanley Harakas, Christos Yannaras, H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr., Papanikolaou and Perry T. Hamalis.

    Sources4–8

  • Oriental Orthodox

    Does ethics on a liturgical basis, with emphasis on worship, community and the Syriac and Armenian heritage.

    It is far less documented than Western moral theology; Geevarghese Kaithavana writes on it from the Indian Syriac context. Its representative scholars include Vigen Guroian and Paulos Mar Gregorios.

    Sources9–11

  • Lutheran

    Frames ethics by law and gospel, the two governments and vocation, and emphasizes freedom in response to the promise.

    Luther reshaped ethics around justification by faith: the Christian is free from the law as a means of salvation and serves the neighbor out of gratitude, and vocation within household, state and church turned ethics toward ordinary stations of life. Its representative scholars include Bonhoeffer, Thielicke, Bayer and Rendtorff.

    Sources12–15

  • Reformed

    Frames ethics by the third use of the law, God's command and sphere sovereignty, with emphasis on covenant, the orders of creation and rights grounded in God's love.

    Reformed ethics long took the form of expounding the Decalogue, and Karl Barth placed ethics inside the Church Dogmatics as the doctrine of God's command. Its representative scholars include Barth, Brunner, Kuyper and Wolterstorff.

    Sources16–20

  • Anglican

    Frames ethics as moral theology, from the seventeenth-century casuists to Kenneth Kirk, and by the created order, with emphasis on conscience, the vision of God and the moral order vindicated by the resurrection.

    Kirk, Bishop of Oxford from 1937, revived Anglican moral theology. Its representative scholars include Kirk and Oliver O'Donovan.

    Sources21–22

  • Methodist and Wesleyan

    Frames ethics by the quadrilateral, holiness of heart and life and social holiness, with emphasis on denominational social principles.

    In the quadrilateral as Wesleyan bodies teach it, Scripture is primary and tradition, reason and experience serve its interpretation: it is not a square of four equal sides. Its representative scholars include Richard B. Hays and Stanley Hauerwas.

    Sources23–26

  • Anabaptist and Mennonite

    Frames ethics as discipleship and nonviolence, with the church as a contrast community, and holds the life and teaching of Jesus normative for social ethics.

    The Schleitheim Articles of 1527 set out an ethic of believers' baptism, separation from the world and refusal of the sword and the oath. Its representative scholar is John Howard Yoder; whether and how his theology can be taught, since his abuse is documented, is itself a current debate.

    Sources27–28

  • Evangelical

    Frames ethics by revealed divine command and the authority of Scripture, with emphasis on personal ethics, biblical method and applied issues.

    Its representative scholars include Carl F. H. Henry, John Frame, Scott B. Rae, John Stott and David P. Gushee.

    Sources29–33

  • Pentecostal

    A young academic field, it frames ethics as Spirit-empowered transformation and social engagement, with emphasis on life in community and the social ethics of the church.

    Its representative scholars include Murray W. Dempster and Daniela C. Augustine.

    Sources34–35

  • Black church and womanist

    Draws on the moral wisdom of Black churches and of Black women, with emphasis on survival, resistance and community.

    Katie Geneva Cannon's Black Womanist Ethics (1988) is a founding text of womanist ethics, a field that grew through several streams and generations of work. Its representative scholars include Peter J. Paris, Cannon, Emilie M. Townes and Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas.

    Sources36–39

  • Latin American liberation

    Does ethics from the standpoint of the poor and of victims, with emphasis on praxis, structural sin and the option for the poor, and treats theology as critical reflection on praxis in the light of the Word.

    Gustavo Gutiérrez's A Theology of Liberation (1971) turned ethics toward structural sin and the preferential option for the poor. Its representative scholars include Gutiérrez and Enrique Dussel.

    Sources40–42

  • African

    Frames ethics as communal and life-centered, with the palaver, and emphasizes abundant life, community and inculturation.

    Bénézet Bujo's Foundations of an African Ethic (English 2001) argued for a communitarian, palaver-based ethic; it is one influential account, not the ethic of all African churches, languages and traditions. Samuel Waje Kunhiyop's African Christian Ethics (2008) argues for an ethics that is African, biblical and Christian. Its representative scholars include Bujo, Laurenti Magesa, Mercy Amba Oduyoye and Kunhiyop.

    Sources43–47

  • Asian

    Draws on story, minjung and Dalit theologies and on public theology, with emphasis on suffering people, justice and plural religious contexts.

    Kim Yong-bock pioneered minjung theology, and Dalit theology emerged in the 1980s with Arvind P. Nirmal as its major proponent. Its representative scholars include C. S. Song, Kim Yong-bock and Nirmal.

    Sources48–51

  • Public theology

    Speaks theologically in public debate in terms open to all, with emphasis on globalization, democracy and public policy.

    Its representative scholars include Max L. Stackhouse and Duncan B. Forrester.

    Sources52–53

How the field developed

  1. Early church
    Late 1st century

    The Didache, dated variously, sets out "The Two Ways", moral catechesis given before baptism.54

  2. Late antiquity
    c. 390

    Ambrose of Milan's De officiis is the first Christian work modeled on a classical ethical treatise, with Cicero as its model.55

  3. Medieval
    7th century

    Penitential books, lists of sins and penances, tie moral reflection to private confession; the Councils of Chalon and Paris (829) received them unfavorably, and they were later adopted and mitigated. After the Fourth Lateran Council required annual confession in 1215, systematic summae for confessors replaced them.5655

  4. Medieval
    1265 to 1274

    Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, Second Part, organizes ethics by the final end, virtues, law and grace inside one theology, with natural law as the rational creature's share in the eternal law. Jennifer Herdt notes that this natural law and virtue framework became the norm for Catholics and Protestants alike through the seventeenth century.575859

  5. Reformation
    1520 and 1523

    Luther's The Freedom of a Christian and Temporal Authority set out justification, the two governments and vocation.12

  6. Reformation
    1577

    Bartolomé de Medina formulates probabilism, which allows a probable opinion in favor of liberty when the law is doubtful, and Lambert Daneau's Ethica Christiana appears at Geneva as the first fairly complete Reformed system.6016

  7. Reformation
    1600

    The first volume of Juan Azor's Institutiones morales appears at Rome, the conventional landmark of moral theology as a discipline separate from dogmatics; the change itself was gradual.61

  8. Modern
    1656 to 1679

    Pascal's Provincial Letters and the papal condemnations of laxist propositions, by Alexander VII in 1665 and 1666 and by Innocent XI in 1679, mark the casuistry and probabilism controversies.626063

  9. Modern
    1907

    Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis makes social ethics a theological discipline in America.64

  10. Modern
    1932

    Reinhold Niebuhr, at Union Theological Seminary from 1928, launches Christian realism with Moral Man and Immoral Society.65

  11. Modern
    1954

    Bernhard Häring's Das Gesetz Christi offers a biblical and Christ-centered alternative to the manuals; it was translated into more than a dozen languages.6667

  12. Modern
    28 October 1965

    The Second Vatican Council's decree Optatam Totius §16 asks that special care be given to the perfecting of moral theology, its scientific exposition nourished more on the teaching of the Bible.1

  13. Modern
    25 July 1968

    Paul VI's Humanae Vitae teaches that each marital act must retain its relationship to the procreation of life; public dissent by theologians and a long debate over method follow.68

  14. Modern
    1981

    Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue argues that modern moral discourse is a fragment of a lost tradition of virtues embodied in communities, and opens the virtue revival.69

  15. Modern
    6 August 1993

    John Paul II's Veritatis Splendor, the first encyclical devoted to fundamental moral theology, answers proportionalism and the trends around it. According to William E. May's analysis, it judges these theories not faithful to the Church's teaching.7071

  16. Modern
    2015 to 2026

    Laudato si' (2015), Amoris Laetitia (2016), Fratelli tutti (2020), Antiqua et Nova (2025) and Magnifica Humanitas, Leo XIV's first encyclical, signed on 15 May 2026, put ecology, family, fraternity and artificial intelligence on the agenda.7273747576

How to study theological ethics and moral theology

The questions it asks

  • What is the good and evil of human acts, and how do the origin and end of moral action lie in God?70
  • How are Scripture, tradition, reason and experience weighed as sources of moral knowledge?23
  • Are some acts wrong by their object whatever the circumstances, or are acts judged by weighing premoral goods and evils for a proportionate reason?71
  • Can natural law ground moral obligation without divine command?5977
  • Does the church speak to society in public terms, or witness as a community apart?78
  • How does one Christian ethic relate to plural cultural ethics?4346
  • Where machines act, what becomes of responsibility, dignity and labor?7976

Its method

Start

  1. Begin from the sources of moral knowledge: Scripture, tradition, reason and experience, which each tradition weights differently23.

  2. Ask how Scripture functions: as moral law, as a source of moral ideals, as a source of analogies with biblical events, or as one source among many, the four ways James Gustafson distinguished80.

  3. Work through the New Testament in the four tasks Richard B. Hays proposed: descriptive exegesis, a synthesis across the canon governed by the focal images of community, cross and new creation, a hermeneutical act relating the text to the present, and a pragmatic task of living it out in the community81.

  4. Weigh the teaching of the Church: in Catholic moral theology the teaching office interprets revealed and natural law, and in Orthodox ethics the liturgy, the Fathers, the canons and the saints are sources7014.

  5. Reason within a framework, such as natural law, divine command, virtue, responsibility or narrative597782.

  6. Reason from cases: casuistry moves from clear paradigm cases to hard ones8362.

  7. Where the law is doubtful, the manual tradition applies a rule for doubt, such as probabilism, which allows a probable opinion in favor of liberty60.

  8. In liberation ethics, follow see-judge-act: review the situation, judge it by principles, and decide what to do842.

What to read

Its primary witnesses

  • Scripture, the primary norm for all traditions, given decisive priority in the Reformation traditions2380.
  • The Didache and the Fathers, among them Ambrose's De officiis, Augustine and Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job and Pastoral Rule545558.
  • The penitential books and the summae for confessors5655.
  • Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, Second Part57.
  • Luther's The Freedom of a Christian and Temporal Authority, and the Schleitheim Articles of 15271228.
  • The confessors' manuals after Trent, from Juan Azor's Institutiones morales (1600)6185.
  • The core documents of Catholic social teaching, from Rerum Novarum (15 May 1891) to Magnifica Humanitas (15 May 2026)8687.
  • Gaudium et Spes (7 December 1965), Optatam Totius (28 October 1965), Humanae Vitae (25 July 1968) and Veritatis Splendor (6 August 1993)8816870.
  • The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), Part Three, "Life in Christ"8990.
  • The ecumenical social documents: Life and Work at Stockholm 1925 and Oxford 1937, the responsible society at Amsterdam 1948, and the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Call to Just Peace (2011)919293.

Standard reference works

  • Gilbert Meilaender and William Werpehowski (eds), Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics (2005; online 2007)9495.
  • Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells (eds), Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, second edition (2011)96.
  • Robin Gill (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics, second edition (2012)97.
  • Wells, Quash and Eklund, Introducing Christian Ethics, second edition (2017), an introductory textbook98.
  • David P. Gushee and Glen H. Stassen, Kingdom Ethics, second edition (2016), a graduate textbook33.
  • J. Philip Wogaman, Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction (1993)99.
  • James F. Keenan, A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century (2010)100.
  • The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004)3.
  • Theological Studies (since 1940), which long carried an annual survey of moral theology101.
  • Studia Moralia (since 1963), from the Alphonsian Academy102.
  • Journal of Religious Ethics (since 1973), Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics (since 1981 as the Annual) and Studies in Christian Ethics (since 1988)103104105.

Scholarship referenced in this study

The works below shaped the field and are cited in this study, from the earliest to the most recent. Hover over a book, or select it, to see its author and the sources behind it.

  • 1920Some Principles of Moral TheologyKenneth E. KirkSome Principles of Moral Theology (1920)Kenneth E. Kirk (1886 to 1954)Sources21106
  • 1932Moral Man and Immoral SocietyReinhold NiebuhrMoral Man and Immoral Society (1932)Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 to 1971)Sources65107–108
  • 1949EthicsDietrich BonhoefferEthics (1949)Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 to 1945)Sources109–110
  • 1954Das Gesetz ChristiBernhard HäringDas Gesetz Christi (1954)Bernhard Häring (1912 to 1998)Sources67
  • 1971A Theology of LiberationGustavo GutiérrezA Theology of Liberation (1971)Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928 to 2024)Sources4042111
  • 1981After VirtueAlasdair MacIntyreAfter Virtue (1981)Alasdair MacIntyre (1929 to 2025)Sources69
  • 1983The Peaceable KingdomStanley HauerwasThe Peaceable Kingdom (1983)Stanley HauerwasSources112
  • 1984The Freedom of MoralityChristos YannarasThe Freedom of Morality (1984)Christos Yannaras (1935 to 2024)Sources113–114
  • 1988Black Womanist EthicsKatie Geneva CannonBlack Womanist Ethics (1988)Katie Geneva Cannon (1950 to 2018)Sources37115
  • 1996The Moral Vision of the New TestamentRichard B. HaysThe Moral Vision of the New Testament (1996)Richard B. Hays (1948 to 2025)Sources116–119
  • 2001Foundations of an African EthicBénézet BujoFoundations of an African Ethic (2001)Bénézet Bujo (1940 to 2023)Sources43120–121
  • 2012The Mystical as PoliticalAristotle PapanikolaouThe Mystical as Political (2012)Aristotle PapanikolaouSources122

Listed because this study draws on their published work; no association with or endorsement of Numa Verse is implied. Suggest a correction.

Key terms

The words that carry the most weight in this field, each defined from the sources of this study. Turn a card over to read its definition.

The historic Catholic name for the discipline; as the name of a distinct subject it dates from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, when Jesuit authors wrote Institutiones morales for the training of confessors61.

The usual Protestant and ecumenical name; Reformation-era Latin titles used both ethica christiana and theologia moralis16.

The branch concerned with society, politics and economics; in the German-speaking Catholic world it is a separate discipline with its own chairs123.

The rational creature's share in the eternal law; its precepts bind all and are knowable by all, and some negative precepts hold always59.

Case-based reasoning from clear paradigm cases to hard ones6283.

A method for acting when the law is doubtful, formulated by Bartolomé de Medina in 1577, that allows a probable opinion in favor of liberty60.

The view that acts are judged by weighing their premoral goods and evils for a proportionate reason; Veritatis Splendor rejected it71.

A term coined by the Methodist historian Albert Outler for how John Wesley reasoned from Scripture, tradition, reason and experience, with Scripture primary2325.

In Quadragesimo Anno §79, the principle that it is an injustice and a grave evil to assign to a greater association what lesser bodies can do124.

Growth into the likeness of God, within worship, sacraments and ascetic struggle; in Orthodox ethics the goal of the moral life4.

Where it sits

Builds on

Theological ethics and moral theology

Leads to

Questions people ask

Chiefly the name. Catholic usage keeps moral theology; Protestant and ecumenical usage prefers Christian ethics; theological ethics has spread across both since the Second Vatican Council; and social ethics names the branch that studies society, politics and economics112585123. The names follow confessional history and national university structure more than any difference of subject61121.

It depends on the setting. In Catholic faculties moral theology has stood as its own discipline beside dogmatics since the early seventeenth century, while in Protestant faculties ethics usually sits inside systematic theology61126. Karl Barth denied that ethics should be a separate discipline at all and placed it inside dogmatics itself17. In North American universities it is often a free-standing field with its own doctorates and its own society125.

In several ways. James Gustafson distinguished Scripture as moral law, as a source of moral ideals, as a source of analogies with biblical events, and as one source among many, and leaned to the last, holding that Scripture alone is never the final court of appeal80. Bruce Birch and Larry Rasmussen treat the Bible as the formative text of a community whose character it shapes127, and Richard B. Hays proposed four tasks, from descriptive exegesis to living the text out in the community81.

Over method: over natural law, over moral absolutes and proportionate reason, and over whether the church speaks to the world or as a community apart7178. In the Catholic dispute over proportionalism, Veritatis Splendor, as William E. May's analysis reports, held that some objects of the human act are by their nature incapable of being ordered to God71. In the dispute between Chicago and Yale, James Gustafson argued that Stanley Hauerwas joins a sectarian ecclesiology to an ethic leading to withdrawal from public life78.

Yes. The newest documents shaping its agenda deal with it: Antiqua et Nova (28 January 2025) and Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, signed on 15 May 2026 and released on 25 May 2026 on social teaching in the age of artificial intelligence7576. The Rome Call for AI Ethics (2020) is also among its key texts128.

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  1. 1Optatam Totius, Decree on Priestly Training (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651028_optatam-totius_en.html (opens in a new tab)
  2. 2Mater et Magistra adopts the see-judge-act (Joseph Cardijn: Vatican II Journey)https://vatican2journey.josephcardijn.com/mater-et-magistra-adopts-see-judge-act/ (opens in a new tab)
  3. 3Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html (opens in a new tab)
  4. 4Ethics (OrthodoxWiki)https://en.orthodoxwiki.org/Ethics (opens in a new tab)
  5. 5Obituary notice for Fr Stanley Harakas (OrthoChristian.com)https://orthochristian.com/132134.html (opens in a new tab)
  6. 6Papanikolaou, The Mystical as Political (Ingram Academic)https://ingramacademic.com/products/the-mystical-as-political-9780268038960 (opens in a new tab)
  7. 7Fallen Asleep: Fr. Stanley Harakas (Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta)https://atlmetropolis.org/blog/fallen-asleep-fr-stanley-harakas (opens in a new tab)
  8. 8Perry Hamalis (Berkley Center, Georgetown University)https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/people/perry-hamalis (opens in a new tab)
  9. 9Geevarghese Kaithavana, Doing Ethics in Eastern Churches (Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church)https://catholicethics.com/forum/ethics-in-eastern-churches/ (opens in a new tab)
  10. 10Review of Vigen Guroian, Incarnate Love (Scottish Journal of Theology, Cambridge University Press)https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/scottish-journal-of-theology/article/incarnate-love-essays-in-orthodox-ethics-by-vigen-guroian-notre-dame-indiana-notre-dame-university-press-1987-pp-xii-212-2495/4A1115B86FBE10839F7A0A9BD4900CFF (opens in a new tab)
  11. 11Paulos Mar Gregorios (Religion Online)https://www.religion-online.org/?p=5143 (opens in a new tab)
  12. 12Martin Luther, Volker Leppin (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/luther/ (opens in a new tab)
  13. 13Oswald Bayer, Freedom in Response (Bookshare)https://bookshare.org/browse/book/277926 (opens in a new tab)
  14. 14Helmut Thielicke (Deutsche Biographie)https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118621947.html (opens in a new tab)
  15. 15Trutz Rendtorff has passed away (evangelisch.de)https://www.evangelisch.de/inhalte/141043/27-12-2016/evangelischer-theologe-rendtorff-gestorben (opens in a new tab)
  16. 16Ethics, history of Protestant ethics (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, CCEL)https://ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc04/htm/0205=189.htm (opens in a new tab)
  17. 17J. H. van Wyk, Theological reflections on aspects of the ethics of Karl Barth (HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies)https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/download/254/187 (opens in a new tab)
  18. 18Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism (Monergism)https://www.monergism.com/lectures-calvinism (opens in a new tab)
  19. 19Emil Brunner, The Divine Imperative (The Lutterworth Press)https://www.lutterworth.com/product/divine-imperative-the-a-study-in-christian-ethics/ (opens in a new tab)
  20. 20Review of Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs (Theos)https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2009/05/18/justice-by-nicholas-wolterstorff (opens in a new tab)
  21. 21Kirk, Kenneth Escott (An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, The Episcopal Church)https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/kirk-kenneth-escott/ (opens in a new tab)
  22. 22O'Donovan, Resurrection and Moral Order, catalogue record (Trinity Theological College / TRC library)https://cms.trccloud.hk/opac/archives/15272 (opens in a new tab)
  23. 23The Wesleyan Quadrilateral (Methodist Evangelicals Together)https://www.metrevive.uk/Articles/523338/The_Wesleyan_Quadrilateral.aspx?redirected=1 (opens in a new tab)
  24. 24United Methodist Social Principles (ResourceUMC, The United Methodist Church)https://www.resourceumc.org/en/content/united-methodist-social-principles-as-adopted-by-general-conference (opens in a new tab)
  25. 25The Wesleyan Quadrilateral (The Wesleyan Church)https://www.wesleyan.org/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral (opens in a new tab)
  26. 26The Wesleyan Quadrilateral (Methodist Evangelicals Together, methodistevangelicals.org.uk)https://methodistevangelicals.org.uk/resources/wesleyan-quadrilateral (opens in a new tab)
  27. 27Introduction extract on John Howard Yoder (The Lutterworth Press)https://www.lutterworth.com/wp-content/uploads/extracts/john-howard-yoder-intro.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  28. 28An Anabaptist Confession of Faith: The Schleitheim Articles (1527) (German History in Documents and Images, German Historical Institute)https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/from-the-reformations-to-the-thirty-years-war-1500-1648/an-anabaptist-confession-of-faith-the-schleitheim-articles-1527 (opens in a new tab)
  29. 29Carl F. H. Henry: Life, Worldview, and Ethical Theory (Logos)https://www.logos.com/grow/carl-f-h-henry/ (opens in a new tab)
  30. 30Poythress, Multiperspectivalism and the Reformed Faith (Frame-Poythress.org)https://frame-poythress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/AMultiperspectivalism.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  31. 31Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices (Zondervan Academic)https://zondervanacademic.com/products/moral-choices1 (opens in a new tab)
  32. 32John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today (AbeBooks)https://www.abebooks.com/9780551011724/Issues-Facing-Christians-Today-John-0551011726/plp (opens in a new tab)
  33. 33Review of Gushee and Stassen, Kingdom Ethics (Reading Religion, American Academy of Religion)https://readingreligion.org/9780802874214 (opens in a new tab)
  34. 34Celebrating Life in Community: Essays in Honour of Murray W. Dempster (Fortress Press)https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9798889833154/Celebrating-Life-in-Community (opens in a new tab)
  35. 35Dr Daniela C Augustine (University of Birmingham)https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/tr/augustine-daniela (opens in a new tab)
  36. 36Peter J. Paris, The Social Teaching of the Black Churches (Fortress Press)https://fortresspress.com/store/product/9780800618056/The-Social-Teaching-of-the-Black-Churches (opens in a new tab)
  37. 37Cannon, Katie Geneva (1950 to 2018) (BlackPast)https://blackpast.org/aah/cannon-katie-geneva-rev-dr-1950-2018 (opens in a new tab)
  38. 38Emilie M. Townes, Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil (Palgrave Macmillan)https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781403972729 (opens in a new tab)
  39. 39Stacey Floyd-Thomas (Graduate Department of Religion, Vanderbilt University)https://www.vanderbilt.edu/gdr/people/bio/stacey-floyd-thomas (opens in a new tab)
  40. 40Obituary of Gustavo Gutiérrez (America magazine)https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2024/10/23/obituary-gustavo-gutierrez-lee-249092 (opens in a new tab)
  41. 41Enrique Dussel, Ethics of Liberation (Duke University Press)https://www.dukeupress.edu/Ethics-of-Liberation/ (opens in a new tab)
  42. 42Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez O.P., 8 June 1928 to 22 October 2024 (Blackfriars, University of Oxford)https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/news/fr-gustavo-gutierrez-o-p-8-june-1928-22-october-2024/ (opens in a new tab)
  43. 43Remembering Bénézet Bujo (National Catholic Reporter)https://ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/remembering-b-n-zet-bujo-who-offered-vision-african-theological-imagination (opens in a new tab)
  44. 44Magesa, Laurenti (Dictionary of African Christian Biography)https://dacb.org/stories/tanzania/magesa-laurenti (opens in a new tab)
  45. 45Mercy Amba Oduyoye and her Circle (The Christian Century)https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/mercy-amba-oduyoye-and-her-circle (opens in a new tab)
  46. 46Living on the Seam of History: African Christianity Part 5 (Zondervan Academic)https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/living-on-the-2 (opens in a new tab)
  47. 47Bujo, Foundations of an African Ethic, catalogue record (Strathmore University Library)https://library.strathmore.edu/Record/159181 (opens in a new tab)
  48. 48Choan-Seng Song (Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology, Boston University)https://people.bu.edu/wwildman/bce/song.htm (opens in a new tab)
  49. 49Tribute to Kim Yong-Bok (World Communion of Reformed Churches)https://wcrc.ch/?p=19795 (opens in a new tab)
  50. 50George Oommen, The Emerging Dalit Theology (Religion Online)https://www.religion-online.org/?p=7258 (opens in a new tab)
  51. 51South Korea: Doyen of Asian ecumenism dies at 84 (Radio Veritas Asia)https://www.rvasia.org/church-asia/south-korea-doyen-asian-ecumenism-dies-84 (opens in a new tab)
  52. 52Max Stackhouse dies at 80 (The Christian Century)https://christiancentury.org/article/2016-02/max-stackhouse-influential-theologian-and-ethicist-dies-80 (opens in a new tab)
  53. 53Centre for Theology and Public Issues, About (University of Edinburgh)https://divinity.ed.ac.uk/ctpi/about-us (opens in a new tab)
  54. 54Didache (World History Encyclopedia)https://www.worldhistory.org/Didache/ (opens in a new tab)
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  59. 59The Natural Law Tradition in Ethics, Mark Murphy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-law-ethics/ (opens in a new tab)
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  65. 65Niebuhr, Reinhold (Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University)https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/niebuhr-reinhold (opens in a new tab)
  66. 6650 Jahre "Das Gesetz Christi" (Seminar für Moraltheologie, University of Münster)https://www.uni-muenster.de/FB2/moraltheologie/publikationen/beiheft14.html (opens in a new tab)
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  69. 69Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025) (Daily Nous)https://dailynous.com/2025/05/22/alasdair-macintyre-1929-2025/ (opens in a new tab)
  70. 70Veritatis Splendor (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor.html (opens in a new tab)
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  73. 73Amoris Laetitia (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia.html (opens in a new tab)
  74. 74Fratelli tutti (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html (opens in a new tab)
  75. 75New Vatican document examines potential and risks of AI (Vatican News)https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2025-01/new-vatican-document-examines-potential-and-risks-of-ai.html (opens in a new tab)
  76. 76Full Text of Magnifica Humanitas (National Catholic Register, CNA)https://www.ncregister.com/cna/full-text-magnifica-humanitas (opens in a new tab)
  77. 77Theological Voluntarism, Mark Murphy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voluntarism-theological/ (opens in a new tab)
  78. 78James M. Gustafson, The Sectarian Temptation (CTSA Proceedings, Boston College eJournals)https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ctsa/article/viewFile/3298/2911 (opens in a new tab)
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  80. 80James M. Gustafson, The Place of Scripture in Christian Ethics (Yale Summer Study)https://summerstudy.yale.edu/sites/default/files/place_of_scripture_christian_ethics.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  81. 81Trevin Wax, 4 Steps to Understanding New Testament Ethics (The Gospel Coalition)https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/4-steps-to-understanding-new-testament-ethics/ (opens in a new tab)
  82. 82H. Richard Niebuhr, The Responsible Self, record and abstract (PhilPapers)https://philpapers.org/rec/MTRS (opens in a new tab)
  83. 83Jonsen and Toulmin, The Abuse of Casuistry (University of California Press)https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-abuse-of-casuistry/paper (opens in a new tab)
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  88. 88Gaudium et spes (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html (opens in a new tab)
  89. 89Fidei Depositum (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19921011_fidei-depositum.html (opens in a new tab)
  90. 90Catechism of the Catholic Church, index (Holy See)https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM (opens in a new tab)
  91. 91Life and Work (An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, The Episcopal Church)https://www.episcopalchurch.org/?p=170509 (opens in a new tab)
  92. 92WCC@70: Amsterdam 1948, the responsible society (World Council of Churches)https://oikoumene.org/news/wcc70-amsterdam-1948-4-covenanting-in-study-communism-capitalism-and-the-responsible-society (opens in a new tab)
  93. 93An Ecumenical Call to Just Peace (World Council of Churches)https://oikoumene.org/resources/documents/ecumenical-call-to-just-peace (opens in a new tab)
  94. 94The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics (Oxford Academic, Oxford University Press)https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/38655 (opens in a new tab)
  95. 95Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics, catalogue record (bibliotekils.johannelund.nu)https://bibliotekils.johannelund.nu/bib/141067 (opens in a new tab)
  96. 96The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell)https://gov.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1444331345.html (opens in a new tab)
  97. 97Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics, 2nd ed., front matter (Cambridge University Press)https://assets.cambridge.org/97811070/00070/frontmatter/9781107000070_frontmatter.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  98. 98Wells, Quash and Eklund, Introducing Christian Ethics, catalogue record (bibliotekils.johannelund.nu)https://bibliotekils.johannelund.nu/bib/129089 (opens in a new tab)
  99. 99Wogaman, Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction, catalogue record (Protestant Theological Institute, proteo.hu)https://proteo.hu/hu/node/3087 (opens in a new tab)
  100. 100Keenan, A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century, catalogue record (TUM library)https://search.ub.tum.de/vufind/Record/DE-604.BV035975476 (opens in a new tab)
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  103. 103Timeline (Society of Christian Ethics)https://scethics.org/timeline (opens in a new tab)
  104. 104Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics (Philosophy Documentation Center)https://www.pdcnet.org/jsce (opens in a new tab)
  105. 105Studies in Christian Ethics (SAGE)https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sce (opens in a new tab)
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  109. 109Dietrich Bonhoeffer (LeMO, Deutsches Historisches Museum)https://www.dhm.de/lemo/biografie/dietrich-bonhoeffer (opens in a new tab)
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  114. 114Christos Yannaras has passed away (St Philaret's Institute)https://sfi.ru/en/sfi-today/news/skonchalsia-khristos-iannaras.html (opens in a new tab)
  115. 115WCRC mourns passing of Rev. Dr Katie Geneva Cannon (World Communion of Reformed Churches)https://wcrc.eu/wcrc-mourns-passing-of-rev-dr-katie-geneva-cannon/ (opens in a new tab)
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  120. 120Prof. em. Bénézet Bujo (Université de Fribourg)https://www.unifr.ch/te/de/lehrstuehle/emeriti/bujo.html (opens in a new tab)
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Page record

Reviewed and approved by Duane Herholdt, BA (Theology), Chief Executive Officer, Numa Verse

Study version: v1.3, 13 October 2026 (theology map v1.27)

Last reviewed: 9 November 2026

How these pages are made

  • 9 November 2026: First draft from the approved assessment v1.3.