Christian News and Commentary

There are typically three different philosophies about ethics: virtue ethics, duty ethics (deontology), and pragmatic ethics (consequentialism). Pragmatic ethics is the idea that the ethical validity of a position or action is based on the outcome of such an action. The maxim that most captures this idea is, “the end justifies the means.” This ethical system is largely a modernist conception and has little grounding in theistic approaches to ethics so it will not be considered here. Virtue ethics and duty ethics, on the other hand, both have long histories and can be consistent with a theistic approach. Virtue