Abstract
After a terminological introduction (1), this paper explores several ways in which obedience and love compete with each other as well as support each other in Biblical ethics. (2) Love is famously commanded in the Bible, but if I do something for you because God commanded it, how can I be doing it because I care about you? (3) Does it help to think of obeying ‘Love your neighbor’ commands as responding to an invitation to enter into friendship with God by sharing God’s love for other people? (4) There are reasons why we sometimes need to let respect for each other’s decision-making hold us apart. Can we nonetheless see such respect as rooted in a desire to have genuinely good relations with each other? (5) The essay concludes with reflections on the idea of vocation, understood as having one’s own task in the universe, not derived just by applying general moral laws to one’s individual situation. Can we understand such a vocation in terms of goods that God has given the individual to love?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, Robert M. 1980. Pure Love. The Journal of Religious Ethics VIII: 83–99.
———. 1986. The Problem of Total Devotion. In Rationality, Religious Belief, and Moral Commitment, ed. Robart Audi and William J. Wainwright, 161–194. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Augustine, Aurelius. 1958. On Christian Doctrine. New York: Liberal Arts Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 1996. Metaphysics of Morals, translated by Mary J. Gregor in the Practical Philosophy volume of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant.
Kierkegaard, Søren. 1980. The Sickness Unto Death. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adams, R.M. (2022). Obedience and Love in Christian Ethics. In: DuJardin, T., Eckel, M.D. (eds) Faith, Hope, and Love. Boston Studies in Philosophy, Religion and Public Life, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95062-0_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95062-0_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-95061-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-95062-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)