Previous chapters have illustrated how speech, communication, embodiment and relation to others, as well as autonomy, rights and interests have been integral aspects of personhood in more than one period of history. Persons are not solitary individuals, but persons in relation to others. This is also true from a Christian perspective. In examining the implications of personhood for Christian ethics, therefore, it is appropriate to make use of insights drawn from theology and social theory, as well as from philosophical ethics about the nature of ethical discourse. In this and the next chapter, we consider what is involved in developing a communicative Christian ethic and seeing the church as a community of ethical difference.

Despite the secularisation of intellectual disciplines since the Enlightenment and the privatisation of many aspects of religious life, religion and theology still make a strong contribution to public and private values. The religious pluralism of modern societies has made it more difficult to link such values with a single religious tradition, but all the major religions with their several million adherents have a particular interest in the ethical dimension. The interaction of religious and secular interpretations of morality is of critical importance in the modern world.

’Community’ is sometimes contrasted with ‘society’.1 ‘Society’ may refer to a fairly loosely connected set of individuals and groups for whom belonging to the same society means little more than adherence to the same laws.