The ethical outlook of Christianity arises directly from the origins or order of the world based off of “a complex of moral ideals, dispositions, principles, and practices based dominantly, if not solely, on the acceptance of a sacred authority” (Livingston, 260). Christianity’s is the following of Jesus and they use his life for their teachings.
Deontological, virtue, and cardinal ethics all played a role in the teachings of Christianity. The authority of command is in the Bible and Jesus where the origins of ethics arise from. Deontological ethics are more about following the commands of the scriptures or using them as a guideline based out of the Old and New Testament in the Bible. Virtue of ethics is action based and more focused on the
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“Natural law theory holds that human moral action is grounded in the essential structure of reality itself” (Livingston, 263). Earlier Christian writers believed that they know naturally what God wants them to do in their minds and hearts and has a sense of what’s right and wrong. St. Thomas Aquinas believed that God designed natural law so that humans can partake in God’s eternal law. He spread the word among the Catholic faith and has held a place among Catholic moral theologians. He believes that everything in nature was created and had an order by God and that human beings must have a natural reason to discover what is best for us in order to achieve the end. People started to become involved with eternal law and natural law of God to distinguish what was good and evil. “These would include precepts of natural law having to do with such things as self-preservation, the procreation and care of offspring, and so on” (Livingston, 266). He started moving away from the general principals and moral guidance and started teaching about how suicide is wrong and how churches should condemn contraceptives because it’s an interruption of human fertility. To this day the Catholic churches still follow Thomas Aquinas teachings