Original Research - Special Collection: Morality in history

The Reformed conceptualisation of morality

Robert Vosloo
Verbum et Ecclesia | Vol 44, No 1 | a2980 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v44i1.2980 | © 2023 Robert Vosloo | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 31 August 2023 | Published: 18 December 2023

About the author(s)

Robert Vosloo, Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

This article distinguishes, on the one hand, between the characteristic features of Reformed ethics and Reformed conceptualisations of morality on the other. With this distinction in mind, the article first highlights – by drawing on the work of some contemporary Reformed theologians and their interpretation of some key figures and texts from this tradition – the centrality of categories such as belonging, gratitude, the law and holiness for a Reformed understanding of ethics. This discussion opens a window onto some features related to the conceptualisation (or conceptualisations) of morality in the Reformed tradition.

Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article emphasises four aspects in this regard, namely that Reformed ethics is grounded in faith and doctrine, that ethics and the practical Christian life belong at the heart of the Reformed faith, that Reformed ethics is an ethics of freedom and that the theological logic of the Reformed tradition implies a deeply historical and contextual vision.


Keywords

Reformed ethics; conceptualisations of morality; Calvin; Philip Ziegler; Dirkie Smit

Sustainable Development Goal

Goal 3: Good health and well-being

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