CHET 60013 Introduction to Contemporary Theological Ethics
3 semester hours, Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, Spring 2020
Tuesday, 1:00-3:30, Moore 309

Instructor: Charles Bellinger c.bellinger@tcu.edu 817-257-7668

LINKS PAGE

Schedule
		reading assignments
Week 1	Jan. 14	Girard, “The First Stone” https://lib.tcu.edu//staff/bellinger/60013/Girard_First_Stone.pdf Alasdair MacIntyre, excerpt from After Virtue https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/MacIntyre.pdf David Bentley Hart, excerpts from Atheist Delusions https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Hart-Delusions.pdf
Week 2	Jan. 21	vocabulary quiz http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/vocab_quiz.pdf Excerpts from Kierkegaard http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/65013/Kierkegaard-excerpts.pdf https://www.ccel.org/ccel/kierkegaard/untruth/files/untruth.html Bellinger, The Trinitarian Self: 14-26 W-Q-E, ch. 1 [God]
Week 3	Jan. 28	W-Q-E, ch. 2 [Church] Frei comment: https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Frei-on-Barth.pdf Karl Barth: “Barmen Declaration” http://www.ucc.org/beliefs_barmen-declaration “The Way of Theological Ethics” http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-sec/Barth-Way-Ethics.pdf excerpt from The Christian Life http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-sec/Barth-Xian-Life.pdf read from p. 131 “There is one point …” to p. 133 “… subjectively by man.” Bonhoeffer: Ethics, 1-10, 25-30, 38-47 http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Ethics_A.pdf
Week 4	Feb. 4	W-Q-E, ch. 8 [Good Order] Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Discipleship http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Bonhoeffer_Discipleship.pdf Reinhold Niebuhr: “Why the Christian Church Is Not Pacifist” http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/Niebuhr-not-pacifist.pdf “The Bombing of Germany” http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/Niebuhr-bombing.pdf John Ford: “The Morality of Obliteration Bombing” excerpt http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/Ford-bombing.pdf read from p. 158 “As to obliteration …” to p. 162 “… gravely immoral.” Karl Barth: “On War [from Church Dogmatics III/4]” http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Barth_War.pdf John Howard Yoder: The Politics of Jesus http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Yoder_Pol_Jesus.pdf Rachel Waltner Goossen: “Failure to Bind and Loose” https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Goossen-failure-to-bind-and-loose.htm
Week 5	Feb. 11	W-Q-E, ch. 3-4 [Ethics and Christian Ethics]  King: “Loving Your Enemies” http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/MLK-enemies.pdf King: “A Time to Break Silence” http://www.crmvet.org/info/mlk_viet.pdf King: “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/MLK-Letter.pdf Jean Bethke Elshtain: “Is the War Against Terrorism Just?” https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Just_War_Against_Terror_Elshtain-4.pdf Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Bethke Elshtain https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/10/war-peace-jean-bethke-elshtain
Week 6	Feb. 18	Ministers Week, no class
Week 7	Feb. 25	James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, xiii-92 Reinhold Niebuhr excerpts: https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Niebuhr-race.pdf W-Q-E, ch. 5 [Universal Ethics]
Week 8	Mar. 3	James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, 93-166 Francis Wayland reading https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Wayland.pdf "The Gospel of Mary Brown" by W.E.B. DuBois https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/60013/Mary_Brown.pdf W-Q-E, ch. 6 [Subversive Ethics]
Week 9	Mar. 10	Spring Break
Week 10	Mar. 17	W-Q-E, ch. 7 [Ecclesial Ethics] Wallis, America’s Original Sin, xiii-72
Week 11	Mar. 24	W-Q-E, ch. 9 [Good Life] Wallis, America’s Original Sin, 73-154
Week 12	Mar. 31	W-Q-E, ch. 10 [Good Relationships] Wallis, America’s Original Sin, 155-226
Week 13	Apr. 7	Bellinger: ix-13, 27-82 King: “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life” http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/Vol06Scans/28Feb1960TheThreeDimensionsofaCompleteLife.pdf excerpts from Susan Parsons, Feminism and Christian Ethics
Week 14	Apr. 14	Bellinger: 83-156 George W. Bush, Speech given on Sept. 20, 2001, http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/bush_speech_sept20.htm Brian McLaren, "The Speech That Was Never Given" http://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/McLaren.pdf
Week 15	Apr. 21	W-Q-E, ch. 11 [Good Beginnings and Endings] Brooks, Love Your Enemies, 1-107
Week 16	Apr. 28	W-Q-E, ch. 12 [Good Earth] Brooks, Love Your Enemies, 109-214
Week 17	May 5