Sm,—In the letter which appeared in your issue of August
6th Mr. Kiely seems to assume that Christianity is primarily if not entirely an ethical or moral system. I do not think that any accredited teacher of it would agree with him. Briefly, it is a conscious relationship of a particular kind with a particular Person, who was dead and is alive for evermore. Christian ethics are an attempt to draw out the impli- cations of the Life, Death and Resurrection of that Person (by which the Character of God has been revealed) as they affect individual and social conduct, and to embody them in a code for practical daily use.
In Christianity the relation between ethics and religion may be compared with the relation between a system of jurisprudence and the ideas of Justice and Freedom, which it tries to embody and make effective. The last word has not been said yet in either process.—I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
Previous page
