Pastoral Ethics

At the heart of the academic field of ethics is a question about the good. There are many ways of approaching this question: philosophical, biblical, traditional, to name a few. While this course will touch on these three and others, it is designed around the role of “pastor.” Therefore, our guiding question will be, What makes a pastor good? All of our explorations of ethical questions will be seen through the lens of the pastoral role. We will begin with a discussion of the calling or vocation of being a pastor, and then turn our gaze inward to ask “Who am I as a pastor?” We will then gain an overview of prominent philosophical and Christian models for ethics before turning to the various roles/practices/functions of pastoring in the 21st century.