Lewis: ethics

Wednesday, January 3, 2018
    Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970
Meditation:
    Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
    —Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Men say, “How are we to act, what are we to teach our children, now that we are no longer Christians?” You see, gentlemen, how I would answer that question. You are deceived in thinking that the morality of your father was based on Christianity. On the contrary, Christianity presupposed it. That morality stands exactly where it did; its basis has not been withdrawn for, in a sense, it never had a basis. The ultimate ethical injunctions have always been premises, never conclusions. Kant was perfectly right on that point at least, the imperative is categorical. Unless the ethical is assumed from the outset, no argument will bring you to it.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), “On Ethics”, in Christian Reflections, ed. Walter Hooper, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1967, p. 55-56 (see the book)
    See also Deut. 6:1-7; 11:18-19; Ps. 71:18; 78:4-6; Pr. 22:6; Eph. 6:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone know what is good. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth