How do ethical theories challenge, support and reshape the moral teaching of a studied religion?
The dialogue between ethical studies and the studied religion, including how ethical theories relate to and challenge religious moral teaching and practice.
An AQA A-Level Religious Studies answer to the dialogue between ethical studies and the studied religion, showing how normative theories, meta-ethics and the free-will debate relate to and challenge Christian moral teaching.
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What this dot point is asking
AQA wants you to bring ethical studies into dialogue with the studied religion (Christianity): to show how normative theories, meta-ethics, the free-will debate and conscience challenge, support and reshape Christian moral teaching and practice, and to evaluate how the two illuminate each other.
How ethics challenges religion
The free-will debate, including religious predestination, also challenges whether humans are genuinely morally responsible: if God's grace and election determine who is saved (Augustine, Calvin), it is hard to see how God can justly hold people responsible, and the same problem in secular form (determinism) presses on any ethics that assumes free choice.
The Euthyphro dilemma is the sharpest single challenge. Its two horns each threaten divine command theory, the view that the morally good simply is what God commands. If acts are good because God commands them, then morality looks arbitrary, since God could in principle have commanded cruelty; the command of God in scripture to slaughter the Canaanites (Deuteronomy) is often cited here. If instead God commands acts because they are already good, then goodness is a standard independent of God, so God is not the author of morality and ethics could proceed without religion at all. The dilemma therefore questions whether Christianity needs God to be the foundation of morality.
Meta-ethics adds a further challenge. If emotivism or prescriptivism is correct, then "stealing is wrong" expresses a feeling or issues a prescription rather than stating a fact, which undercuts the Christian claim that there are objective, God-given moral truths. Utilitarianism, by judging acts only by outcomes, can directly contradict absolute Christian rules (for example, on the sanctity of life), pressing the believer to defend why some acts are wrong regardless of consequences.
How ethics supports and reshapes religion
Several ethical theories are rooted in Christian thought: natural moral law (Aquinas) and situation ethics (Fletcher) are religious ethical systems, while virtue ethics resonates with the Christian emphasis on character, the cardinal and theological virtues, and growth towards the good. Christianity provides motivation (the love of God and neighbour), community (the Church as a context for moral formation) and a vision of the good life and ultimate purpose that secular ethical theory alone may lack. Christianity can also answer the ethical challenges and so be strengthened by the dialogue: against the Euthyphro dilemma it can argue that goodness is grounded in God's own unchanging nature, so morality is neither arbitrary (it flows from what God is) nor independent of God (God does not consult an external standard). Against meta-ethical critique it can argue that moral facts are real because they are anchored in the created order and God's character.
Evaluating the dialogue
The strongest answers weigh both directions and reach a judgement. Do the ethical objections succeed, or can Christianity answer them, for example by grounding the good in God's nature rather than in arbitrary command? Does religion add something that ethics needs (motivation, community, ultimate purpose, an account of why we should be moral at all), or does autonomous, rational ethics make religious morality redundant? A nuanced conclusion might be that ethics sharpens and tests Christian morality (forcing it to justify itself) while Christianity supplies the motivation and framework that a purely theoretical ethics can lack, so the relationship is genuinely mutual rather than a one-sided attack.
Try this
Q1. Explain the Euthyphro dilemma as a challenge to religious ethics. [4 marks]
- Cue. Is the good commanded because it is good (then morality is independent of God) or good because commanded (then it seems arbitrary)?
Q2. Explain one way Christianity might support an ethical theory. [3 marks]
- Cue. Natural law and situation ethics are rooted in Christian thought; faith can also supply motivation and a vision of the good life.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 20195 marksExplain the Euthyphro dilemma as a challenge to religious ethics.Show worked answer →
A 5-mark Paper 2 (dialogues) AO1 question. Markers want both horns of the dilemma stated and its force for divine command theory made clear.
The dilemma (from Plato's Euthyphro) asks: is something good because God commands it, or does God command it because it is good? On the first horn, morality is whatever God commands, which makes it arbitrary (God could have commanded cruelty and it would be right). On the second horn, the good is independent of God, so God consults a standard of goodness beyond himself, which makes God unnecessary to ethics and not the source of morality. Either way divine command theory is in trouble. Strong answers note the standard reply that goodness is grounded in God's own unchanging nature, which aims to escape between the horns.
AQA 202120 marks'Ethical theory does more to challenge Christian moral teaching than to support it.' Assess this view.Show worked answer →
A 20-mark Paper 2 essay, mainly AO2. Reward a genuine two-way treatment of the dialogue reaching a justified judgement.
Set out how ethics challenges Christianity: the Euthyphro dilemma against divine command theory, meta-ethical critique of whether moral claims are factual, utilitarian clashes with absolute rules, and the free-will and predestination problem. Then show how ethics supports and is supported by Christianity: natural law and situation ethics are themselves Christian ethical systems, virtue ethics resonates with Christian character, and faith supplies motivation and a vision of the good. Evaluate: do the challenges succeed, or can Christianity reply (grounding the good in God's nature, answering meta-ethics)? Judge, for example, that ethics both challenges and enriches Christianity, so the dialogue is genuinely two-way rather than one-directional. Top-band work treats it as a conversation, not a list of attacks.
Related dot points
- The dialogue between philosophy of religion and the studied religion, including how philosophical arguments about God, evil and the afterlife relate to and challenge religious belief.
An AQA A-Level Religious Studies answer to the dialogue between philosophy of religion and the studied religion, showing how arguments about God's existence, evil and the afterlife both challenge and support Christian belief.
- The three main normative ethical theories: natural moral law (Aquinas), situation ethics (Fletcher) and virtue ethics (Aristotle), including their key principles and applications.
An AQA A-Level Religious Studies answer to the three normative ethical theories, covering Aquinas's natural moral law, Fletcher's situation ethics and Aristotle's virtue ethics, with their key principles, strengths and weaknesses.
- Utilitarianism (Bentham and Mill) and Kantian deontological ethics, including the hedonic calculus, higher and lower pleasures, the categorical imperative and the good will.
An AQA A-Level Religious Studies answer to Bentham, Mill and Kant, covering act and rule utilitarianism, the hedonic calculus, higher and lower pleasures, Kant's good will, duty and the categorical imperative, with strengths and criticisms.
- The nature and role of conscience, including the religious views of Aquinas and Newman and the psychological views of Freud, and whether conscience is innate or learned.
An AQA A-Level Religious Studies answer to conscience, covering Aquinas's synderesis and conscientia, Newman's voice of God, Freud's psychological account of the super-ego, and whether conscience is innate or learned.
- The relationship between Christianity and society, including responses to secularisation, gender and feminism, religious pluralism, and the challenges of a multi-faith and scientific age.
An AQA A-Level Religious Studies answer to Christianity and society, covering secularisation, gender and feminist theology, religious pluralism (exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism) and the relationship between Christianity and science.
Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level Religious Studies (7062) specification — AQA (2016)