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Course 19 · Lesson 6.3

Critiques of Christian morality and how Christians reply

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 19 outline

Module 1: The Secular Age: Humanism and Naturalism

  1. What secular, secularism and secularization mean
  2. Secular humanism: its claims and its moral vision
  3. Philosophical naturalism and its alternatives
  4. Christian responses to naturalism and humanism

Module 2: Science, Evolution and Faith

  1. Models of science and religion: conflict, independence, dialogue, integration
  2. What the theory of evolution claims and what it does not
  3. Christian positions on creation and evolution
  4. The history of the conflict story and its critics

Module 3: Criticism of the Bible

  1. The rise of historical and literary criticism
  2. What critics claim about authorship, sources and development
  3. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant responses to criticism

Module 4: Truth, Relativism and Postmodernism

  1. What postmodernism is, and why the term is hard to define
  2. Truth, language and interpretation
  3. Moral relativism: descriptive, cultural and philosophical forms
  4. Christian responses to relativism and postmodern thought

Module 5: The Masters of Suspicion

  1. Marx on religion, ideology and economic life
  2. Nietzsche on Christianity, morality and the death of God
  3. Freud on religion as illusion
  4. The genetic fallacy, and when explaining the origin of a belief matters

Module 6: Power, Corruption and Morality

  1. Church, state and political power in history
  2. Institutional failure and abuse
  3. Critiques of Christian morality and how Christians reply
  4. Judging a faith by its failures: what follows and what does not

Module 7: Mind, Meaning and Nihilism

  1. Consciousness and the limits of materialism
  2. Meaning and purpose in secular and Christian thought
  3. Nihilism, despair and Christian hope

Module 8: Writing a Response

  1. Stating a challenge in its strongest form
  2. Building a structured response
  3. Conceding what is true in the critic’s case

All courses

Program / Course 19: Modern Challenges / Lesson 6.3

What you will learn

  • State the main modern objections to Christian morality: that it is repressive, that it demeans the body, that it is intolerant, and that its picture of God is cruel.
  • Give each objection in a form that its holders would accept.
  • Identify what in each is a fair complaint about the practice of Christians.
  • Describe how Christian thinkers reply and where they disagree among themselves.

The big idea

Modern critics accuse Christian morality of several faults. They say it is repressive of sexuality and desire, that it makes people feel guilty without reason, that it has justified intolerance and violence toward those who differ, and that it teaches a God of cruel judgment. Some of these complaints describe real harm done in the name of Christianity. Others misread what the traditions teach. A fair student takes up each, concedes what is true and states the Christian reply, noting that Christians themselves disagree on some points.

Key terms

Repression
The suppression of natural desires, which critics such as Freud said leads to unhealthy guilt and neurosis.
Asceticism
A discipline of self-denial in food, sleep, possessions or sex, for the sake of spiritual freedom. Nietzsche attacked it. Christians defend it when it is practiced rightly.
Sexual ethics
Teaching about right and wrong in sexual conduct. Christian traditions hold that sex belongs within marriage between a man and a woman, though they differ on details such as divorce and contraception.
Theodicy
An attempt to justify God’s goodness in the face of evil and suffering.
Hell
In Christian teaching, the state of final separation from God. Traditions differ on its nature and on who is there.
Intolerance
Refusing to allow others to hold or practice their beliefs. It is sometimes confused with disagreement.
Conscience
A person’s sense of right and wrong, which the traditions say must be informed and followed.

Background

The criticisms of Christian morality are not new. Pagan critics in the early centuries, such as Celsus, said that the church was for the weak. In the Enlightenment, writers such as Voltaire attacked what he called the infamous thing, meaning religious fanaticism and cruelty. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Nietzsche and Freud made a claim about repression and guilt, and the sexual revolution of the 1960s rejected traditional teaching on sex outright.

In recent decades the strongest moral criticisms have come from the treatment of women, of children and of sexual minorities by some churches, and the use of Scripture to defend slavery and segregation. These complaints often come from within the churches as well as from outside them. They are better treated one by one than as a single issue.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Repression and guilt

The critic says that Christian teaching sets standards that human nature cannot meet and then makes people feel guilty for failing. Many people recall a childhood of fear of sin and shame about the body. Freud argued that such repression produces neurosis, and some therapists hold that scrupulosity, an obsessive fear of sin, is a real harm.

The Christian reply starts by admitting that unhealthy guilt exists and has been taught, and that the tradition itself criticizes it. Jesus attacked leaders who laid heavy burdens on others (Matthew 23:4). Catholic and Orthodox spiritual directors have long warned against scrupulosity. The reply also says that guilt is not always false: a person who has done wrong has real guilt, and the gospel offers forgiveness. A culture with no way of speaking of guilt may leave people with their burden and no relief.

Step 2: The body and sexuality

The critic says that Christianity despises the body and sexuality. Some Christians have, under the influence of Greek ideas that matter is lower than spirit. Augustine’s views on sexual desire, and some strict teachings, are cited. The charge is partly fair about parts of the tradition.

The reply says that the central Christian doctrines are about the body. God made matter and called it good. The Word became flesh. The body is raised, and Paul calls it a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). The Song of Songs celebrates love. Christian teaching on sex rests on the claim that it is a gift for a covenant of marriage and that it has meaning beyond pleasure. Critics deny this, and many Christians disagree among themselves about what follows for cohabitation, contraception, divorce and same sex relations. The churches have not spoken with one voice, and the student should state each position on its own terms.

Step 3: Intolerance and violence

The critic says that Christians have persecuted Jews, heretics, witches and unbelievers, and that the doctrine of exclusive truth breeds contempt. These things happened, and some Christian leaders taught them. The persecution of Jews, in particular, was supported by teachings that the church has since condemned, as the Catholic Church did in Nostra Aetate (1965) and many Protestant churches did in their own statements.

The reply notes that Christians also taught religious liberty, such as Tertullian in the third century, Roger Williams in colonial America and Vatican II’s declaration on religious freedom in 1965. It also notes that disagreement is not intolerance: to think someone mistaken is compatible with respecting his freedom and dignity. The fair test is whether a Christian treats his opponent as a neighbor, as the parable of the Samaritan requires (Luke 10).

Step 4: The God of judgment

The critic says that a God who sends people to eternal torment for finite sins is a monster. Some Christian preachers have described hell in cruel terms, and the Old Testament includes passages of violence that trouble many readers. The charge is serious, and it was made by some Christians, such as the eighteenth century Universalists.

Christian replies differ. Some hold the traditional view that hell is the final result of a free rejection of God, and argue that God does not compel love. Others, in the Orthodox tradition, speak of God’s love as a fire that is experienced as pain by those who reject it. Others hold that it is permitted to hope that all will be saved, as Hans Urs von Balthasar and others have argued. Some, such as John Stott, favor conditional immortality. The traditions agree that God is love and that judgment is real, and differ on its nature.

  1. Which specific teaching is being criticized, and where does it come from?
  2. Is the harm done by the teaching itself or by how it was applied?
  3. Did the critic read the best version of the teaching or the worst?
  4. What does the tradition itself say against the abuse?
  5. Where do Christians disagree with each other about this issue?
  6. What would I say if the person I am speaking to has been hurt by this teaching?

Examples

Scrupulosity

A teenager is told that every impure thought is mortal sin, and he lies awake in fear. Later he meets a priest who tells him that God is not waiting to catch him out, and teaches him how to examine his conscience calmly. The tradition both produced the fear and supplied the cure. (A constructed example.)

Disagreement without contempt

Two neighbors, a Christian and an atheist, disagree on the morality of an issue. The Christian says plainly what he believes and why, and also defends his neighbor’s right to his own view and helps him when he is ill. The atheist says that he does not feel judged. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

Critics

Many critics say that Christian sexual ethics has caused misery, especially for women and for gay and lesbian people, and that the claim to moral authority has harmed those who did not fit. They ask Christians to listen to the people affected before defending the teaching. Others say that rules about sex are mere taboos with no rational ground.

Catholic

The Catholic Church teaches that the body and sexuality are good and that the moral law is a guide to flourishing and not a burden. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body defends the meaning of sex as self-gift. The Church holds its teachings on marriage and sexuality to be binding, and also teaches that persons must be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Many Catholics dissent on some points.

Orthodox

Orthodox teaching holds that marriage is a sacrament and that sexual union belongs to it, and honors celibacy and monasticism as a different path. The Orthodox Church allows remarriage after divorce with penitence, unlike the Catholic position. Orthodox writers such as Schmemann argue that the Christian view of the world as a gift implies reverence for the body.

Protestant

Protestants range from conservative bodies that hold traditional teaching on sex and gender to liberal bodies that have revised it. All the Reformers rejected compulsory clerical celibacy and honored marriage. Some, such as Luther, strongly criticized the burdens placed on consciences by medieval penance, a point that bears on the charge of repression.

Why it matters

Moral objections are often the real reason that people do not take Christianity seriously, even when they say they disagree about God. A student who understands them can listen first. The goal is not to win a debate but to give a truthful account of what Christians teach and why, and to admit what was done wrong.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Christianity teaches that the body and sex are evil.

Correction: Mainstream Christian doctrine holds that creation is good and that the body is raised. Some thinkers were influenced by dualism, and the tradition has also corrected them.

Misunderstanding: All Christians agree on sexual ethics.

Correction: There is broad agreement among Catholic, Orthodox and traditional Protestant teaching, but there are also large differences on divorce, contraception and same sex relations, and some churches have revised their positions.

Misunderstanding: Believing that others are wrong means being intolerant.

Correction: Intolerance means denying others their freedom or dignity. Disagreement alone is not intolerance.

Misunderstanding: Christians all believe in a God who delights in eternal torment.

Correction: Christian traditions hold that God is love, and they differ on the nature of hell. Some hope that all may be saved.

Knowledge check

How does the Christian tradition itself respond to the charge of unhealthy guilt?

It admits that scrupulosity and shame have been taught and that they harm people. Jesus condemned leaders who laid heavy burdens on others, and spiritual directors have long warned against obsessive fear of sin. The tradition also holds that real guilt exists and that forgiveness is offered, so it answers false guilt with truth and real guilt with mercy.

Why do Christians say that their faith honors the body?

Because they teach that God made the material world and called it good, that the Word became flesh in Christ, and that the body will be raised. Paul calls the body a temple of the Holy Spirit. These doctrines are central. Critics reply that practice has often contradicted them, and the tradition admits that some thinkers were influenced by dualism.

What is the difference between disagreement and intolerance?

Disagreement means holding that another’s belief is mistaken, and saying so. Intolerance means denying a person his freedom, dignity or place in society because of his belief. A Christian can disagree sincerely and still defend his neighbor’s right to differ. History includes serious cases of Christian intolerance, which the churches have condemned.

Name two Christian views of hell.

The traditional Western view holds that hell is the final state of those who freely reject God. The Orthodox tradition often describes God’s love as experienced as torment by those who reject it. Others, such as some who follow von Balthasar, hope that all will be saved, and some Protestants hold conditional immortality. The traditions agree that God is love and that judgment is real.

Think it through

  1. Which of these objections have you heard most often, and from whom?
  2. Has any teaching harmed you or someone you know? What was the harm?
  3. What does it mean to hold a moral view with conviction and gentleness?
  4. Which Christian reply do you find weakest, and why?

Independent assignment

Listening first

In your notebook, choose one objection from this lesson. Write 300 words in the voice of a person who has been hurt by it, without arguing. Then write 300 to 400 words giving the Christian reply from one tradition, and say which part of the objection the reply does not meet. Do not send it.

Further study