Taking the quandary out of Christian ethics

"What Would Jesus Do?" might well go down in history as the defining catch phrase for a generation of young Christian believers. It is not unique, however, in its act-centred, problem-solving approach. Indeed, this kind of "quandary ethics" has for some time been the defining approach of Christian ethics. In this paper the authors contend that this approach reflects a modernist naturalism more than it reflects authentic biblical Christianity. The argument is made through an analysis of the distinctives of ancient and modern approaches to ethics, and an exposition of a sample biblical text, 1 Corinthians 8.