Emotion-Shaped Ethics

About a decade ago I read Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind. A more precise term than “read” was read and skimmed and looked for summaries. In that book I encountered a theory that argued ethics are rooted in feelings and emotions. I don’t recall Haidt distinguished the two, though many today do distinguish our feelings that are turned into rational expression in an emotion.

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash

Throughout Western civilization ethics have been far more often entirely detached from emotions — think of Aristotle’s mean — and turned into rational judgments. But this is being overturned as the best approach to articulating ethics.

It is not hard to recognize that at times “disgust” or even “yuck” gave rise to some of the biblical commandments. Like those commands prohibiting incest, bestiality, idolatries. Some behaviors are loathsome. Not to make light of it, but I experienced this loathing with turkey dressing as a kid; it made me gag. I’ve learned to tolerate it.

Emotional conditions shape what we believe is right and wrong. Those who study evolutionary theory and ethics agree with the feeling-emotion shaping of ethics.

We see this in the Bible quite often. I have been reading the Swedish scholar, Thomas Kazen, of late. His book Moral Infringement and Repair in Antiquity. 1: Emotions and Hierarchies discusses emotions and ethics. Emotions are often divided into four groups:

1.     other-condemning emotions protect the moral order of life (contempt, anger, disgust),

2.     other-praising emotions affirm what is good (awe, elevation, gratitude),

3.     other-suffering emotions (empathy, sympathy, compassion) give rise to altruism and prosocial behaviors,

4.     and self-conscious emotions shape and constrain one’s behaviors (shame, embarrassment, guilt, pride).

Laws flow from an ethical judgment that, for instance, gratitude expresses an other-praising emotion that makes for a good culture and society. Kazen discussed some examples that are worth our consideration, and I only ask that you ponder and even toy with the emotion at work in a given text. Here are some:

Disgust in the word “devoted to destruction”

Ex. 22:20        “Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD alone shall be devoted to destruction.

Empathy and pity and anger figure large in biblical ethics:

Ex. 22:21        “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  22 You shall not abuse any widow or orphan.  23 If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry;  24 my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.

Ex. 22:26 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as guarantee, you shall restore it before the sun goes down,  27 for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as a cover. In what else shall that person sleep? And when your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.

Ex. 23:9          “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Deut. 10:22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.

Deut. 24:15 You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the LORD against you, and you would incur guilt.

Lev. 19:10 You shall not strip your vineyard bare or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God.

Love of an in-family ethic based on self-consciousness of self-love:

Lev. 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Empathy and love expands from in-family to outsiders, to immigrants. This kind of love for others is rooted in God’s own emotional love for others:

Lev. 19:34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Jonah 4:11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals?”

Shame, too, which is on a continuum from shyness to embarrassment to shame to guilt, is a major emotion-shaping ethic. Shame has a social consciousness not often found in highly individualized ethics.

Ezek. 16:52 Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have brought about for your sisters a more favorable judgment; because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

Ezek. 16:63 in order that you may remember and be confounded and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I forgive you all that you have done, says the Lord GOD.

Ezek. 36:31 Then you shall remember your evil ways and your dealings that were not good, and you shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominable deeds.  32 It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and dismayed for your ways, O house of Israel.

And Sirach has a string of “be ashamed of” and “be not ashamed of”:

Sir. 41:17         Be ashamed of sexual immorality before your father or mother and of a lie before a prince or a ruler, 18 of a crime before a judge or magistrate and of a breach of the law before the congregation and the people, of unjust dealing before your partner or your friend 19 and of theft in the place where you live. Be ashamed of breaking an oath or agreement and of leaning on your elbow at meals, of surliness in receiving or giving 20 and of silence before those who greet you, of looking at a prostitute 21 and of rejecting the appeal of a relative, of taking away someone’s portion or gift and of gazing at another man’s wife, 22 of meddling with his female servant— and do not approach her bed; of abusive words, before friends— and do not be insulting after making a gift. 42:1 Be ashamed of repeating what you hear and of betraying secrets. Then you will show proper shame and will find favor with everyone.

Of the following things do not be ashamed, and do not sin by showing partiality: 2 Do not be ashamed of the law of the Most High and his covenant and of rendering judgment to acquit the ungodly; 3 of keeping accounts with a partner or with traveling companions and of dividing the inheritance of friends; 4 of accuracy with scales and weights and of acquiring much or little; 5 of profit from dealing with merchants and of frequent disciplining of children and of drawing blood from the back of a wicked slave. 6 Where there is an untrustworthy wife, a seal is a good thing, and where there are many hands, lock things up. 7 When you make a deposit, be sure it is counted and weighed, and when you give or receive, put it all in writing. 8 Do not be ashamed to correct the stupid or foolish or the aged who are guilty of sexual immorality. Then you will show your sound training and will be approved by all.

Take this to the Gospels:

Luke 16:3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

Mark 8:38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

One more:

1John 2:28       And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.