Michelle Nailon Csb

Is Christian Morality Unique? Part Two Michelle Nailon Csb

Is Christian Morality Unique Part Two, Time and Place World Views in Tension, is the second half of an "informal" thesis. Part One shows how St Paul (writing in the 50's CE) re-presented the commandments of "Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal" to include the perspective of Greek philosophy. The gospels of Mark around 70CE, Matthew and Luke around 85CE, John around 100 CE show the readiness of Jesus to accept the stripping away of material benefits, relationships and power in order to follow God's will. However, despite the "uniqueness" of this approach to money, power and relationship, these three morality frameworks are so basic to other world religions that a question remains about the uniqueness of Christian morality. Part Two of Is Christian Morality Unique answers this question in a quite different way. By using a semiotic analysis of the gospels it shows how Christianity combines the social structures of Judaism and Hellenism. Thus a new, hybrid society is formed. This is both based upon, but is still aiming for. a morality balance between law and order and time and place. "Time and place" in this context may appear speculative. However many of Mark's paragraphs are set out in concentric circles with the "hooks" of place. Most of Matthew's paragraphs start with a statement of time made or implied. Much of Luke's gospel is structured around place. So also is the gospel of John. So, obviously they saw time and place as being basic to their gospel structure. Implicitly they also saw time and place as basic to the society that they were setting up. Part Two presents the semiotic analysis of the gospels found in Five Pivotal Texts. It also contains a lengthy discussion of the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer and his stress on time. Workshops on both Parts are available cf. www.realitysearch.com.au