The Harm Principle and Christian Belief

Abstract

The article addresses the question why Christians often fail to achieve even the minimum standard of secular morality. It isolates from a long list of failures the undermining and maltreatment of women and sexual minorities. It describes four types of violence – gender, epistemic, symbolic, and hermeneutic – they are made to endure. It then undertakes a theological and philosophical analysis of some of the causes of failure, locating them in i) the moral hazards of “divine command ethics”; ii) the promulgation of immoral doctrines; iii) the perils of “costly discipleship”; iv) the quest for certainty; and v) adherence to the scripture principle or sola scriptura.

Keywords

• discipleship
• euthyphro dilemma
• gender violence
• hermeneutics
• sexual ethics
• sola scriptura