Introduction to Ethics
Professor Derek Concord
Keymark Theological School

The goal of the course is to introduce students to the tools of ethical reasoning from a religious perspective. We will focus on day-to-day situations and larger questions of ethical import. The course will emphasize the importance of learning from other people and from the wisdom of the ages, with particular attention to biblical and historically-Christian sources.

The class meets twice a week for ninety minutes. Attendance is mandatory. Absences will hurt your grade. Each week there will lectures, discussions, readings, reflections and a case study. Students will spend a significant time outside of class researching particular issues. The purpose of this research is to give practice in the skills required for ethical thinking.

The course is divided into three parts.
For the first five weeks, we will discuss together the rudiments of ethical thinking. This first period of learning will emphasize traditional learning activities such as lectures and readings. A short paper called an "ethical commentary" will be due at the end of the five weeks.
The second section will run for eight weeks. We will cover, in this period, four particularly important ethical issues. Every two weeks, each student will be a part of a group that develops a "project presentation" focused on the issue. Each member of the group will have an assignment and all will participate in the on-line discussions. The four ethical issues are: Euthanasia, Environmental Ethics, Economics & Poverty, and Self-Development & Community. The project presentations will take place during class alternate weeks. They should review the relevant research (presented on Tuesdays) and come to a conclusion supported by the research (presented on Thursdays). You may want to discuss how the lessons we covered in the first five weeks of class led you to draw specific conclusions on this topic.
For the final two weeks, students (or student teams) will create a final project focused on one of the four ethical issues highlighted in the class. The final projects should include a sermon, a series of reflective articles, a PowerPoint presentation, and a web site interpreting the issue from a Christian perspective. We will gather the web sites into a class site that will posted to the World Wide Web in order to contribute to other people's learning.

During each issue-based unit, students will be assigned to groups of four. Each member of the group will have a different responsibility for that unit. Then the groups will be re-arranged for the next unit, with each student having a new assignment. There are a total of four assignments and four units. So each student will fill each role once. The assignments are as follows. Each group will have a person responsible for:

Scriptural research: This person will locate passages and concepts from the Bible that pertain to the ethical question. This mandate should be considered quite broad, including most commentators through Christian history. So, for example, if St. Augustine wrote about euthanasia (or suicide, or human life, or...) or John Calvin discussed the environment in his commentary on Genesis, these would be appropriate resources for student research.

Nexis/Lexis research: This person will research newspaper articles on the issue using the Nexis/Lexis database in the library. Letters to the editorial, feature stories, and editorials are all potential sources for your commentary. Remember that sacred and secular resources often point to different interpretations of an issue. It will be important to discuss how you will manage this disparity.

Web research: This person will search the World Wide Web for resources that might help the group understand the issue in question. These web sources might include unpublished papers, news stories (e.g. at www.cnn.com), or on-line articles from religious sources (e.g. www.religion-online.org or www.christianityonline.com).

On-line discussion: This person will represent the group in an on-line discussion with a collection of local pastors. The discussion will focus on a case study. For example, one week the group will discuss the Dax Cowart Case, a CD-ROM interview with a man named Dax Cowart who was so badly burned in an automobile accident that he wants the right to die.Other case studies include a report from the television show 20/20, series of reports from National Public Radio (NPR), and an investigative report originally published in The Atlantic Monthly. The project presentation should include specific responses to the case study and should take into account what was learned from the on-line discussion.

Office hours are Mondays from 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon. If you cannot make that time, we can arrange an appointment. My office is in Susan Alki Hall, Room 214. My email address is dconcord@kts.edu. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996)
Rebekah L. Miles, The Pastor as Moral Guide (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999)
Laura L. Nash, Good Intentions Aside: A Manager's Guide to Resolving Ethical Problems (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1990, 1993)
Larry Rasmussen, Earth Community, Earth Ethics (Orbis, 1998)
Miroslav Volf, Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991)

Week 1: Introduction and Overview

Week 2: New Testament Ethics (Read Hays, Moral Vision of the New Testament, pp. 1-7; 112-137; 187-309; and either Chapter 14, 15, 16, 17, or 18)

Week 3: Moral Leadership (Read Miles, The Pastor as Moral Leader, pp. 1-126)

Week 4: Ethical Consequences (Read Nash, Good Intentions Aside, Chapters 1,2, 3 and 10)

Week 5: Ethical Models (Read through either Volf, Spirit of Work or Rasmussen, Earth Community, Earth Ethics)

Weeks 6, 7: Euthanasia

Weeks 8, 9: Environmental Ethics

Weeks 10, 11: Economics & Poverty

Weeks 12, 13: Self-Development & Community

Weeks 14, 15: Project Preparation