Notes from the Inaugural Lecture by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks as Professor
of Law, Ethics and the Bible at King’s College, London, on The
Relevance of the Bible for Law and Ethics in Society Today
The historian Niall Ferguson quotes the verdict of a member
of the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences, tasked with finding an
explanation for why the West overtook China in the sixteenth century and went
on to industrial and scientific greatness. At first, he said, we thought it was
because you had better guns than we had. Then we thought it was your political
system. Next we thought it was your economic system. But for the past twenty
years we have had no doubt: it was your religion.
What was it about the Judeo-Christian ethic that led the West to develop market economics, democratic politics, human rights and the free society? The lecture will look at seven aspects of biblical ethics, each of which played a part in this development: human dignity, freedom and responsibility; an ethic of guilt rather than shame; the family as the matrix of virtue, love as the basis of ethics and covenant as the basis of society. It will argue that all seven are currently under threat, and that the Bible remains an important voice in the public conversation about ethics and law.
Seven key distinctive of the Judeo-Christian tradition
- the dignity of all human persons (not just royalty being in the image of God)
- the emphasis on human freedom and choice (and responsibility)
- the sanctity of human life
- (observed by American anthropologist Ruth Benedict) a culture of righteousness and guilt (linked with hearing) more than a culture of honour and shame (related to seeing): distinction between sinner and sin -- what is wrong is the act, not the person; hence the possibility of repentance and forgiveness
- the significance of marriage as the matrix for society: fundamental connection between monotheism and monogamy, fidelity to spouse and religious fidelity
- the covenantal basis of society: first, we are collectively responsible; secondly, a free society is a moral not just political achievement, thirdly, fate of society is dependent on how it treats its most vulnerable members
- all human power, all political authority, is subject to the transcending authority of the Divine: there are moral limits to power, right is sovereign over might
"Those are the seven features that I think
make Biblical ethics different from any other ethical system. It is the only
ethical system in which love and forgiveness are at the heart of the moral
life. It seems to me that all seven of those beliefs are currently at risk."
‘Those
are the seven features that I think make Biblical ethics different from
any other ethical system. It is the only ethical system in which love
and forgiveness are at the heart of the moral life. It seems to me that
all seven of those beliefs are currently at risk.’ - See more at:
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/how_the_bible_has_shaped_the_west#sthash.vEvrMDpF.dpuf
now at risk in our society
- evolutionary biologists argue that there is nothing distinctive about humanity
- scientific accounts cannot make space for freedom
- already lost in abortion, and will see it again lost in assisted dying
- we have already moved to shame culture: trial by public shaming (“thou shalt not be found out”). "It is very difficult to create space for confession, repentance, forgiveness, rehabilitation. Once you have been shamed, that is the end of you."
- half of children born outside marriage, half of all marriages end in divorce; effects already evident, e.g. child poverty
- hard to sustain, now: society as a hotel where each can do what they like in their own room as long as they pay (taxes) and don’t disturb the neighbours
- all too easy today to move from saying "I have a right to do x" to "I am right to do x": whatever is not forbidden by law is morally permissible and therefore morally reasonable
