Author/editor(s): Willy Rordorf
Creation: 21 Nov. 1968 (The date of original creation or publication, if known)
Event: ARCCM: Scripture and the nature of nullity, Haywards Heath, England, 9-13 April 1973
Protocol: ARCCM 15

Persistent link: https://iarccum.org/doc/?d=1274 (Please use this permanent URL in your publications and bookmarks to link to this document. The files linked below may be modified, but this record will remain at this location.)

Special lecture in Theology, delivered at University of London, Kings College on 21 November 1968. Translation by Rev. H. O. Old. Pages 193-201 were distributed to the ARCCM in preparation for the meeting at Haywards Heath, 9 to 13 April 1973.

Abstract: Christian ethics is not a matter of fixed and unchangeable laws. If we are to study its history we must follow a story of development and trace the evidence of an evolution. This is not something that should shock us as though its development were something that puts in question its changeless value. On the contrary, its value is confirmed by its evolution, because Christian ethics is essentially dynamic. From this intrinsic dynamism we are constantly pushed forward. As Christians we live under one commandment, the commandment of love given by Jesus himself which is the centre of the dynamism. If Christian ethics becomes static, it contradicts its very nature. Far from being a tradition that is to be upheld from age to age, Christian ethics is the means of criticising the traditions of every age and a means of searching lines of development for the future.