Recent discussions of religious, cultural, and/or moral diversity raise questions relevant to the descriptive and normative aims of students of religious ethics. In conversation with several illustrative works, the author takes up issues of terminology, explanations or classifications of types and origins of plurality and pluralism, the relations between pluralism as a normative theory and the aims of a liberal state, and the import of an emphasis on plurality or pluralism for the comparative study of religious ethics.

In 2001 the leading American newsweekly, Time magazine, ran a series featuring the people who were considered to be the most influential in their fields of leadership. The religious thinker who was given the title “America’s Best Theologian” was Stanley Hauerwas, who teaches ethics at Duke University. There is an element of irony in the fact that one of the leading arbiters of cultural popularity would choose to honor Hauerwas in this manner. While Hauerwas is officially a Methodist, he identifies (...) closely with the Anabaptist tradition of ethical thought, often citing the late Mennonite theological ethicist John Howard Yoder as the primary influence on the development of his ethical thought. The Anabaptists, as we all know, make much of the need to form communities of radical disciples of Jesus who stand over against the dominant cultural patterns, and Hauerwas, like his mentor Yoder, is not shy about calling for this over-against-ness. (shrink)

The recent resurgence of evangelical social action has been accompanied by some serious attention to issues in ethical thought. Evangelical scholars have been engaged in a search for ethical ''roots," for traditions of theological-ethical discourse that can give shape to twentieth century ethical explorations. Of special interest to many in this regard are the long-standing tensions between Anabaptist and Reformed thought. In this essay we argue against the "received wisdom" that there is a strict polarity between these two perspectives. The (...) ethical differences between the Reformed and Anabaptist communities are in fact "intra-family" ones that emerge out of some important commonalities. The exploration of these commonalities, we suggest, is crucial for the development of a healthier evangelical ethical perspective. (shrink)

In his impressive account of the development of the modern conception of selfhood, Alasdair MacIntyre argues that the Protestant Reformers played an important role in paving the way for secular ethics. This essay challenges MacIntyre 's historical narrative on this point. His treatment of the views of Luther and Calvin is critically examined, and it is argued that the Reformational view-point offers an alternative to both the classical-medievalist perspective, which Maclntyre endorses, and the modern conception, which he rejects. The Reformers' (...) insistence that the human self stands inescapably before God, and must assess all other role-options from that standpoint, is commended as being worthy of contemporary consideration. (shrink)