When Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, he finished the story with the admonition "Go and do likewise". William Spohn makes that command the title of his book (Go and Do Likewise: Jesus and Ethics), in which he probes the implications for contemporary Christian obedience to that command. What does it mean for us to follow Jesus' command to "go and do likewise" today?Spohn, asks and answers that question as a matter of Christian ethics, and when asked the question "what does Jesus have to do with Christian ethics" some Christian ethicists say "everything" and others "very little". (Spoiler alert: I'm in the "everything" camp.) Spohn agrees with the Christians that claim "everything" but his appropriation of the "everything" sees Christ-the-norm very differently. Indeed, Christ is the normative paradigm for the Christian moral life (page 10). But Spohn does not relate Jesus to daily moral living on a one-to-one basis, that is, he does not advocate that we try and mimick Jesus' first-century behavior in the face of twenty-first century life. But we make use of what Spohn calls "analogical imagination" to draw from the gospel narratives spiritual practices to shape our moral perception, our disposition on our world, and form in us the identity of twenty-first century Christ followers. This is an interdisciplinary task. Spohn draws on historical Jesus work, virtue ethics, Christian spirituality, and even psychology to form his theoethical method. From the historical Jesus movement, Spohn gathers the insight into the cultural and historical context of Jesus and his followers, while eschewing the detached attempted objectivity of the Jesus scholars (page 22). From there, Spohn argues that scripture is best described in the language of virtue ethics for three reasons:
- It fits the narrative form of the New Testament and can explain how the particular story of Jesus shapes the moral character of individuals and communities.
- It attends to the deeper levels of moral existence which the teaching of Jesus addressed: the heart, the personal center of convictions, emotions, and commitments.
- It fits the dominant mode of moral discourse in the New Testament, namely, paradigms that establish certain patterns of disposition and action that guide action. (page 28)
And finally, Christian spirituality provides the link between the New Testament and virtue ethics (page 37). Spiritual practices form virtues by "activities that make up a way of life, including the Christian way. The ritual of baptism, sharing life in community, solidarity with the poor, meditating on scripture, and mutual forgiveness are some of the concrete practices that make up a Christian way of life" (page 45).
But, the analogical imagination provides the link between Jesus' historical context and our own; it is the hermeneutical guide that connects us with the way of Jesus for our world. The result is transformation for a Christlike interaction with our world as we are made capable of identifying with Christ and his followers today. The process of analogical imagination is not without its safeguards that deflect bad intentions as Spohn describes "analogical imagination judges certain action to be appropriate based on the compatibility between the proposed course of action, the facts of the situation, and certain paradigmatic frameworks. The entire process also depends on the level of moral sensitivity and virtue of those who are discerning what to do. The images of the Gospel will easily become evil imaginations of the heart to those whose hearts are unwittingly dominated by self serving and evil dispositions" (page 70). By shaping our moral perceptions, moral disposition, and our Christian identity, analogical imagination enables us to "go and do likewise".