Situation Ethics The New Morality by Joseph Fletcher
Origins of agape in the New Testament and its religious development in the writing of Fletcher
Two examples of agape in the New Testament:
1. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus replies “To love the Lord with all
your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.”
2. Jesus broke the sabbath by healing a crippled man and thus doing the most loving thing.
“The sabbath was made for man. Man was not made for the sabbath.” This shows that a
loving approach to morality is better than a legalist approach.
Situation ethics is consistent with the representation of Jesus in the Gospels.
Agape love is non-preferential and non-reciprocal.
The six propositions:
1. Love is the only thing that is intrinsically good
- Love being good is universally accepted
- Love has no fixed definition. Actions can be seen as the most loving option but not
intrinsically good e.g killing a crying baby to prevent a whole family from being
discovered.
2. Love is the ruling norm in ethical decision making and replaces all laws
- Jesus stated in Mathew 22 that to “love your neighbour” is the most important law. He
is the perfect moral exemplar. Bultmann believed that Jesus had no ethics apart from
“love your neighbour.” This view formed the basis of Fletcher’s situation ethics.
- God gave us divine revelation in the form of the Bible’s many rules like the 10
commandments. These should not be ignored or dismissed.
3. Love and justice are the same thing - justice is love distributed.
- A key aspect of justice is fairness, and Agape love is fair because it is non-preferential.
- Punishment and retribution are considered Justice, but are not loving.
4. Love wills the neighbour’s good regardless of whether the neighbour is liked or not
- Jesus said to love your enemies. A system of ethics must transcend friendships and
personal preferences.
- Some people may find it impossible to love another person e.g if they killed your child.
5. Love is the goal or end of the act and that justifies any means to achieve that goal
- We never truly know the outcomes of our actions. People have different ideas of love
and could use love to justify anything.
6. Love decides on each situation as it arises without a set of laws to guide it
- Every situation is different and requires new thinking to determine the most loving
outcome. The same action may be more or less loving depending on the situation.
- People might come to different conclusions and do the wrong thing.
Is love an intention, a rule, an action or an outcome? These principles suggest different definitions.
What would an agapeic calculus even look to measure?
The big problem is that Fletcher tells us very little about what Agape love actually is but instead
mostly highlights what it is not.
Scholars such as C.S Lewis have argued that we do not need to be able to articulate what it means to
act lovingly.
Origins of agape in the New Testament and its religious development in the writing of Fletcher
Two examples of agape in the New Testament:
1. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus replies “To love the Lord with all
your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.”
2. Jesus broke the sabbath by healing a crippled man and thus doing the most loving thing.
“The sabbath was made for man. Man was not made for the sabbath.” This shows that a
loving approach to morality is better than a legalist approach.
Situation ethics is consistent with the representation of Jesus in the Gospels.
Agape love is non-preferential and non-reciprocal.
The six propositions:
1. Love is the only thing that is intrinsically good
- Love being good is universally accepted
- Love has no fixed definition. Actions can be seen as the most loving option but not
intrinsically good e.g killing a crying baby to prevent a whole family from being
discovered.
2. Love is the ruling norm in ethical decision making and replaces all laws
- Jesus stated in Mathew 22 that to “love your neighbour” is the most important law. He
is the perfect moral exemplar. Bultmann believed that Jesus had no ethics apart from
“love your neighbour.” This view formed the basis of Fletcher’s situation ethics.
- God gave us divine revelation in the form of the Bible’s many rules like the 10
commandments. These should not be ignored or dismissed.
3. Love and justice are the same thing - justice is love distributed.
- A key aspect of justice is fairness, and Agape love is fair because it is non-preferential.
- Punishment and retribution are considered Justice, but are not loving.
4. Love wills the neighbour’s good regardless of whether the neighbour is liked or not
- Jesus said to love your enemies. A system of ethics must transcend friendships and
personal preferences.
- Some people may find it impossible to love another person e.g if they killed your child.
5. Love is the goal or end of the act and that justifies any means to achieve that goal
- We never truly know the outcomes of our actions. People have different ideas of love
and could use love to justify anything.
6. Love decides on each situation as it arises without a set of laws to guide it
- Every situation is different and requires new thinking to determine the most loving
outcome. The same action may be more or less loving depending on the situation.
- People might come to different conclusions and do the wrong thing.
Is love an intention, a rule, an action or an outcome? These principles suggest different definitions.
What would an agapeic calculus even look to measure?
The big problem is that Fletcher tells us very little about what Agape love actually is but instead
mostly highlights what it is not.
Scholars such as C.S Lewis have argued that we do not need to be able to articulate what it means to
act lovingly.
