Situation Ethics: The New Morality

by John Warwick Montgomery and Joseph F. Fletcher

Book Overview

Dr. Fletcher describes the new Christian ethic based upon individual freedom and responsibility.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664246915
• ISBN13: 9780664246914
• Release Date: January 1966
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.9" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Awesome

The book was in good shape. Nothing was written in it and the book looks pretty new. The description matched how the book really was. It beat waiting in line and paying for more. It took 3 days to get to me but just in time for all my classes to start.

Great!

This book was delivered on time and in perfect condition. Would def. use seller again.

Great book to use to JUSTIFY SIN!

Hey...if I ever wanted to justify my sinful urges to have extramarital SEX I would read this book and live by Fletcher's maxim's! LOVE is the justification for all kinds of self gratifying SIN. What a great concept from a trusted source at that. Here is a guy that started out as an Episcopal Priest and died as an anti-christian atheist! Now that's a trustworthy source for ethical standards of righteousness and moral purity!

The normal state of mind

This is a good book in a way that shows that life quickly becomes too complicated for a few simple rules to work everything out effectively. The intellectual part played by the author seems to be like the "no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts" in the song, "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" by Bob Dylan, the longest song on the "Blood on the Tracks" album, which has been extremely popular for years. Situations are as different as the verses of that song, and Rosemary is not unusual when "she was with Big Jim but she was leaning toward the Jack of Hearts." Lily "had come away from a broken home with lots of strange affairs with men in every walk of life which took her everywhere, but she never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts." The song is more tragic than this book. The book is religious enough to adopt love as its ultimate standard. Love can be a great motivator on a personal level, but the situations that it leads to in sex and warfare can be quite striking, like American troops breaking down doors in the middle of the night because they are trying to find people and weapons that are more dangerous than Hosea's wife. I liked this book because it illustrated that sex might be considered useful in a lot of situations, which was not what I was experiencing in real life at the time. Our society is due for some attitude adjustment on sex and love, and this book clearly thinks love is more important, but people who read it are more likely to be interested in the sex. After you read it, you might know what Bob Dylan meant when he sang, "I know I've seen that face somewhere, Big Jim was thinking to himself."

Montgomery 1, Fletcher 0

This transcribed debate is between John Warwick Montgomery, Lutheran theologian, and Joseph Fletcher, situation ethicist. Fletcher actually founded the particular school of thought of situation ethics, which argues that anything evil a person can do is morally acceptable provided it is done for the "right" reasons and because of love. Obviously, Fletcher does not characterize these acts as evil, but some people who can see that the emperor has no clothes will readily pick up on the subterfuge. Montgomery, on the other hand, is a man who says he was "dragged kicking and screaming to the foot of the cross." As a young adult and an atheist, Montgomery set out to disprove Christianity and ended up being a believer. A brilliant man, he hold eight earned degrees, five of them on the doctoral level. He has also written at least 50 books, many of them very scholarly, is an accomplished French chef and connoisseur of French wines, and speaks French fluently. He has taught at the Sorbonne and more recently, he has been the dean of the Simon Greenleaf School of Law.With grace, wit, and good humor, Montgomery tears Fletcher's philosophy to smithereens. He shows how ethically bankrupt Fletcher's philosophy is, and the consequences of its acceptance. Its impact on our society has been very destructive; this book couldn't be more timely. Even if you agree with Fletcher, read this book to enjoy a good intellectual dissection. Yet, this book is accessible to the average reader. Too many lives have been destroyed by the likes of Fletcher, and it is a pleasure to meet someone who can show the foolishness of this point of view. Make no mistake: those who support situation ethics will disagree with me and take comfort in what Fletcher has to say. But for those of us with discernment, it will be a pleasure to read Montgomery's treatment. This book needs to be widely circulated and read.