Ethics
"Paul looked intently at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have conducted myself with a perfectly clear conscience before God to this day."" Acts 23:1

The question of ethics is the question of how we treat other people and how we treat ourselves. Perhaps the most well known scriptural reference to the question of how we treat others is Matthew 25:31-46. This passage is considered a foundational passage for Catholic Social Teaching.

This should not be a surprise. In Christian thought Ethics and Social Justice are basically one field. Infoplease.com defines ethics as "the body of moral principles or values governing or distinctive of a particular culture or group" (http://dictionary.infoplease.com/ethic).

Ethics and Social Justice are not the same thing. Catholic Social Teaching could be considered as a subset of Catholic Ethics. So, if you want to understand Christian Ethics please be sure and visit our section on Catholic Social Teaching.

Here in our section on Ethics we will be adding some reflections from the field of philosophy on ethics. The first one discusses the issue of medical ethics.

Another question we must ask ourselves is the question of conscience. What does it mean to have a conscience and to follow it. It is not a simple question of right and wrong. Our individual conscience does not determine right and wrong. God determines what is right and wrong. Rather, our conscience is the mechanism we use to determine how we will act in a particular situation. Click here to explore the question of conscience.

This page last updated on December 25, 2009