Religion and Morality
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The purpose of this research is to discuss religion and morality. Religion has always been concerned with morality. Indeed, the Ten Commandments are moral commandments. Much of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ are concerned with the stand-ards of conduct by which men ought to live. At the very core of religion is the message that man must live according to the moral standards of God in order to achieve ultimate salvation. Many of the classical Greek tragedies had a religious and moral signific-ance in that they portrayed to the audience what happens if man transgresses against the laws of the gods, however incompre-hensible those laws might be to human understanding. Thus, Oedipus is doomed to expiate some unknown sin, even before his birth. Early philosophers--Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle among them--were concerned with religion and morality. The earliest dramas of medieval Europe and England were miracle and morality plays. Biblical pageants intended to instruct and guide the people. These medieval drama morality plays were first performed inside the church but soon moved into the towns during religious festivals for the edification of the people. Perhaps the most famous of the moral plays in English is Everyman, a simple allegory in which Everyman is called to account for his life by God. In the beginning of Everyman God says: And now I see the people do clean forsake me: They use the seven deadly sins damnable, As pride covetise, wrath, and lechery
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and do, who shapes the style of life which characterizes Christian existence" (Gilkey 225). Theologians, such as Hamilton, feel that such a radical theology is necessary because the church, with its traditional concepts of God, have not provided the moral leadership necessary in such a complex and confusing age as our own.
Cox writes:
A secular interpretation of the Gospel must be ethical, and in our corporately organized world this means it must be political, and worldly. When Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the church must never be general in its preaching but must always be specific, must support this program and oppose this war, he was really asking for a secular interpretation of the Gospel. Later, when he suggested just before his death that we must search for a "nonreligious interpretation" of the Gospel, he probably had this political secular interpretation in mind (Gilkey 18).
Pope John XIII realized that the Roman Catholic Church was in need of reform when he called the Second Vatican Council The Vatican Council was the church's attempt to bring the church into a closer relationship with the people. But the Vatican Council left many moral issues; unresolved--birth control, abortion, racism, and so on. Still, the Vat
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Approximate Word count = 2154
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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