Formed by Love

The driving question: How do Episcopalians decide the right thing to do?

In volume five, Scott Bader-Saye, Academic Dean and Professor of Christian Ethics and Moral Theology at Seminary of the Southwest, examines the moral life through the lens of the Episcopal Church and its traditions. Beginning with an introduction to ethics in a changing world, Bader-Saye helps the reader move past the idea that we either accept cultural change as a whole or reject it whole, suggesting that we need to make discriminating judgments about where to affirm change and where to resist it.

Part I looks at distinctive aspects of the Episcopal ethos, noting that “ethics” comes from “ethos,” and so has to do with habits and enculturation of a particular people. Topics include creation, incarnation, holiness, sacrament, scripture, and “via media.” Part II looks at big moral questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What are good and evil? What are right and wrong? Part III examines how an Episcopal approach might shape a typical day by examining Morning Prayer and Compline as moral formation, in between discussing work, eating, and playing. Each part begins by analyzing cultural assumptions, asking what should be affirmed and what resisted about contemporary context, setting the stage for discussion in subsequent chapters.