The principles and assessing morality

• Agape was the boss principle meaning the most important principle 
• biblical and theological teachings make it clear in the bible:
• Old Testament: the Greek word agape has it origins in the Old Testament from the hebrew word 'aheb'
• new testament: jesus argued (matthew 22) the greatest commandment were: love god and your neighbour as yourself 
• st Augustine: he developed the term agap by stating love was the ultimate virtue "Augustine was right to make love (agape)... the hinge principle upon which all other 'virtues' hang"

1. Love is the only good = love is the only 'intrinsic good' 

2. Love is the ruling norm of Christianity = religious moral rules have been given false high status in christian ethics. He points to jesus who broke several religious laws in his lifetime 

3. Love equals justice = true justice is just love at work in society, so supporting justice is just showing selfless love on a practical community scale 

4. Love for all = moral agents should act in a loving way to everyone; even their enemies 

5. Loving ends justify the means = we should judge the outcome 

6. Love decides situationally = there should be no rules about what we should and should not done in a particular situation 

These principles are designed to help apply th boss principle in a practical way 

1. Pragmatism = the moral decisions must work in practice 

2. Relativism = the belief that no action is right or wrong in itself, situation ethics is relativist because there are no right or wrongs 

3. Positivism = this is being based on faith and not reason 

4. Personalism = people are more important than religious rules 

"situation ethics puts people at the centre of concern"

Many theologians deny situation ethics can call itself a christian ethic, for example pope pius  condemned the principles that became situation ethics.

however, fletcher defends the theory by claiming the two most important people in the NT support it:

Jesus = he said the most fundamental commands are to love god with all your heart and "love your neighbour as yourself" 

St Paul = in his letter to the church in Corinth he emphasised the importance of love