Sunday, December 8, 2013

What is a reflection on William A. Banner's Fundamentals of Christian Social Order?

Dr. William Augustus Banner (1915–2013) was a theologian who spent much of his lengthy career as the professor of Christian History and Thought at Howard University. He held a a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale University Divinity School and a PhD in philosophy from Harvard University.
Dr. Banner was a prolific scholar as well as a teacher. Among his publications were Moral Norms and Moral Order: The Philosophy of Human Affairs, Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy, and The Path of St. Augustine.
In his works, Dr. Banner surveyed the thinking of Christian moral philosophers from the time of St. Augustine to twentieth-century existentialists. His method was to give voice to the great religious and ethical thinkers of Christianity and allow them to speak within the contexts of their own historical eras. He did not demand a uniformity from them and presented their oftentimes divergent views so as to allow the reader the space needed to form their own opinions.
Dr. Banner examined Christian moral beliefs in the context of good and evil as basic precepts to be applied to human behavior, both personally and in the social realm. The moral order, which encompasses living with honesty, clarity, kindness, love, and social justice, lays down the guidelines for an ethical Christian social order. For example, in The Path of St. Augustine, Dr. Banner explains that to Augustine, morality is based on the mind knowing that God, as the ground of being, is Truth and Goodness, in all ways and at all times. It therefore follows that love for all humankind brings happiness and is manifested in charity and justice toward all. In considering these precepts, the reader may find application to modern life.

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