The root source of a modern Christian morality, says Roman Catholic Bishop Francis Simons of Indore, India, is not so much the Bible or natural law as the consensus of what constitutes "the good or welfare of man, in society and individually." In the current issue of the U.S. theological quarterly Cross Currents, Dutch-born Bishop Simons uses his consensus theory to propose a radical revision of ethics that would make certain violations of generally accepted moral principles reasonable exceptions to the rule rather than sinful inconsistencies.
Simons rejects Bible-based morality on the grounds that Jesus himself imposed no detailed...