Ministerial Ethics: Moral Formation for Church Leaders 2d ED
Book Reviewed
by Tarris D. Rosell
Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Practice of Ministry
Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, KS
Ministerial Ethics: Moral Formation for Church Leaders 2d Ed
Joe E. Trull and James E. Carter, Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2004, $20.
A decade after Ministerial Ethics first appeared as a publication of Broadman & Holman, Baker Academic has rendered this second and revised edition of Trull and Carter’s popular text.
First edition readers will note the addition of a whole new chapter devoted to a thorough discussion of clergy sexual abuse. This is a sensitive response to recent revelations of an endemic problem within the Church. The authors “hope this addition will help counteract the disturbing incidences of ministers crossing into the ‘forbidden zone’, as well as guide churches in prevention and response strategies.”
Updated anecdotal and illustrative material reflects current or recent events, such as the Enron debacle and other scandals in 2003 involving high profile preachers’ plagiarism. Statistics too have been updated via reference to newer studies from the Alban Institute and other research entities. The newest versions of various codes of ethics for ministers are included here in a significantly expanded collection of appendices, which already in the 1993 edition was an extensive and helpful resource.
The current emphasis on seminary education as “formation” for ministry is reflected in the second edition of Ministerial Ethics, which also incorporates this language in a new subtitle: Moral Formation for Church Leaders (previously subtitled, Being a Good Minister in a Not-So-Good World). For good reasons, I have adopted this revision as a required textbook for my new seminary course in pastoral ministry ethics.
Chapters 3-6 frame ministerial ethics contextually, i.e., within relevant contexts of life: personal, congregational, collegial, and communal. This structure is mirrored also in a very practical Ministerial Code of Ethics Worksheet, which my students will utilize in one course assignment. While I will have seminarians reading Trull and Carter, it will be an exercise that is both appreciative and critical. The co-authors strive for ecumenism, yet I fear their Southern Baptist cultural roots remain a bit too evident to suit some readers. The stories regaled, the institutions and church leaders referenced, and the nomenclature utilized may appear provincial to Northern non-initiates. As was evident in the first edition of Ministerial Ethics, I do appreciate the ongoing effort to be ethnic and gender inclusive in this second edition, with only a few inconsistencies in that regard.
A downside is one seen, unfortunately, in many monographs intended for clergy audiences. These authors likewise tend to leave in the manuscript too many “good quotes” derived from a thorough review of relevant literature. (The latter quality is much appreciated, of course.) More analysis and synthesis of quoted material, along with less quoting generally, would be a qualitative improvement. Some quotations, such as that of Tim LaHaye regarding “forces that can lead to sexual sin,” beg critique if used at all.
This is a ministerial ethics grounded in biblical ethics, which I commend and other readers surely will also. Granted, the authors’ use of scripture in some instances may exasperate biblical hermeneuts who take up this text and read. For example, the “argument from silence” fallacy is evident in Carter’s buttressing of a moral integrity proposition via reference to Joh. 4:27. From that retrospective account of Jesus speaking to a Samaritan woman at the village well, a claim is made regarding the disciples’ unquestioning acceptance of Jesus’ moral integrity: “The disciples had such trust in Jesus, such confidence in his personal integrity, that no one questioned his relationship with the woman.” On these grounds (the disciples’ interrogative silence), I have heard other interpreters draw exactly the opposite conclusion as well.
There are just two explicit references to homosexuality. In one, “homosexual liaisons” are listed alongside voyeurism, exhibitionism, incest, child molestation, and rape as examples of sexual misconduct. The only other mention of homosexuality is in regard to an alleged case of child molestation (“homosexual advances”) by a young male minister. This apparent inattention to one of the major sexual ethics issues facing the Church will irk conservatives, while more liberal Christians will be put off both by the presumptive association of homosexuality with sexual abuse and an insufficient acknowledgment of diverse beliefs among Christians on matters of sexual behavior. Given bitter contention within the Church regarding sexual difference, it is understandable that the topic would be minimized here; yet, that is perhaps also why we ought not to avoid it in an ethics text for ministers.
Besides (most of) the new chapter on clergy sexual abuse, that which is most appealing to me and appears most ethically compelling is chapter 2. This is Trull’s work, primarily, and is intended as a theoretical basis for the practical material that follows. Here, one finds both analysis and synthesis of numerous moral theories. Too many ethics texts ride one theoretical bandwagon or another (character, virtue, or narrative ethics; principlism, absolutism, consequentialism, etc.). Ministerial Ethics avoids a tendency that becomes the myopic advocate’s shortcoming for whatever inevitably gets left out.
Two other pitfalls averted here are temptations to synthesize all theories into an incoherent mishmash or to summarize without establishing any clear theoretical grounding for particular ethics situations depicted later. Sufficiently clear connections have not always been made to those subsequent case situations, yet the theoretical preliminaries are not at fault. The framework needed for practical pastoral ethics builds on the work of several predecessors.
Trull’s creative synthesis is rather reminiscent of H. Richard Niebuhr’s cathekontic ethics in The Responsible Self. Niebuhr acknowledged every moral agent’s utilization of both deontological and teleological sources for making more or less “fitting” responses. Likewise, Trull’s construct takes into account both moral character/virtues and moral conduct/values. Niebuhr perceived the “triadic form” of moral life; and Trull too notes a third dimension added to the two traditional moral types. This triad is completed by moral integrity/vision, what Niebuhr might have termed moral discernment (or Aristotle’s phronesis/prudence). It is the capacity to see what is ethically fitting in any given situation, with reference typically both to deontological and teleological sources for deciding and acting.
The triadic theoretical construct of chapter 2 lends itself to graphic illustration, which unfortunately is missing. Given all that is not missing, however, Ministerial Ethics in its revised edition promises to be a usable seminary textbook and a useful reference tool for ministers.
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