Abstract

This contribution to a colloquy of Roman-catholic moral theologians and Protestant teachers of ethics challenges the simple juxtaposition of reasonable and biblical foundation of norms and moral systems. The hypothesis of this paper however, presupposes, that >foundation< implies more than a simple deduction from a general point of view or a formal Iegitimation of single norms by the principle of universalizability, but it includes transeendental considerations- concerning the problern of human freedom- and the regulating idea of a communion by consensus, integrated into basic perspectives ofconduct oflife. Biblical points ofview regulating ethical systems presuppose such perspectives. Appeals to reason in Protestant ethics transport questions and ideas of the natural-law-tradition even in systems which are deeply linked with a theology of revelation. If this analysis indicates correctly the present situation of Protestant ethics at least in Germany, the often assumed antagonism of a humanist and reason-oriented ethics on the one hand and a heteronomaus ethics relying on revelation on the other tends to be delusive.