The guide's Theme 5 heading, in full: The authority of the Bible, the authority of the Church, ecumenism, the role of conscience. Four items, and Christians weight them differently.
No single answer: Which is why there is rarely a single Christian answer to an ethical question — and why saying so is the start of a good essay, not an evasion.
Christian ethical authority. Four sources, weighted differently — which is why Christians differ.
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Conscience, precisely: Christian teaching does not treat conscience as private preference. Roman Catholic teaching holds that a person is obliged to follow their conscience and that conscience must be formed — by scripture, by the Church's teaching and by reflection.
Both halves. A candidate who gives only the first has made Christian ethics sound like individualism, which it is not.
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How the four sources are weighted. Every column begins with scripture; what differs is what stands beside it.
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The sentence that frames any Theme 5 essay: "All the churches begin from scripture; they differ over what stands beside it — a teaching office, tradition, reason, or the conscience of the believer."
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The Theme 5 key question: "How are the core teachings applied to a contemporary issue?"
The guide's own ethics list contains questions no biblical writer could have anticipated — embryo research, genetic engineering, ethical banking — so this is not a hypothetical difficulty.
Find the principle, not the verse
The two great commandments and the Beatitudes are principles. Christians applying them to genetic engineering are reasoning from love of neighbour and from the sanctity of life, not searching for a text about genes.
Ask which source leads
A Roman Catholic answer will look to encyclicals; an Anglican answer to scripture, tradition and reason; a Free church answer to the congregation's reading of scripture. Naming the machinery explains why the answers differ.
Say what is agreed
On poverty, on peace, and on care of the environment the churches have issued common statements. Ecumenism, listed here by the guide, means the shared ground should be reported before the differences.
Attribute every position
"The Roman Catholic Church teaches that…" and "many Anglican and Free churches hold that…" are the forms that earn marks. An unattributed "Christians believe" is both inaccurate and unmarkable.
On the contested questions in the guide's list: The list includes euthanasia, abortion, and homosexuals in ministry and homosexual marriages. Christians hold strongly opposed views on all of them, and people in any classroom have a personal stake.
The task: Report what each church teaches and the reasoning it gives, attributed by name. The syllabus does not ask which position is right, and an answer that supplies a verdict has answered a question nobody set.
How this is tested. Theme 5 asks what the sources of ethical guidance are and who has the authority to interpret them.
Examine the sources of ethical authority in Christianity.
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