Ethics and moral conduct

The authority of the Bible, the authority of the Church, ecumenism, and the role of conscience.

Because the guide's own ethics list includes questions no biblical writer could have anticipated — embryo research, genetic engineering, ethical banking — so principles must be applied rather than quoted.

As binding — a person is obliged to follow their conscience — and as needing to be formed by scripture, by the Church's teaching and by reflection.

Roman Catholic teaching develops through encyclicals; Orthodoxy through synods within a continuous tradition; Anglican churches weigh scripture, tradition and reason; Free churches decide congregationally.

Because the churches have issued common statements on poverty, peace and the environment more readily than they have resolved doctrine — so Christian ethics is less fragmented than Christian doctrine.

How core teachings are applied to a contemporary issue. It is hard because the guide's list includes embryo research and genetic engineering, which no scriptural text addresses directly.

By reporting what each church teaches and the reasoning it gives, attributed by name. The syllabus asks for the positions and the reasoning, not for a verdict.

The Ten Commandments, the two great commandments, Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes, and the other teachings of Jesus.

Pacifism and "just war" theory — both developed from the same Gospels.

It restricts. Its conditions — just cause, proper authority, last resort, proportionality, protection of non-combatants — limit when war is permitted and how it is conducted.

Christianity has pacifism and just war; Sikhism has dharam yudh, developed to limit war; Judaism regards war as legitimate because the commandment forbids murder; Buddhism has no doctrine of righteous war.

Euthanasia, embryo research, genetic engineering and abortion.

That creation is entrusted rather than owned, so caring for it is owed to God. The guide lists it under both religious experience and environmental ethics.

That Genesis has been read as granting humanity dominion over the earth, and that this reading encouraged exploitation. Christians answer that dominion means trusteeship, answerable to the owner.

Crime and punishment; focus on poverty; ethical banking and business practice; homosexuals in ministry and homosexual marriages; family law; church and state; and blasphemy laws.

Because they weight the four sources of ethical authority differently, and because a church deciding centrally binds everyone at once while a church deciding congregationally will contain a range of positions.

On poverty, peace and stewardship of the environment, where common ecumenical statements exist — more readily than they agree on doctrine.