The driving question: How do Episcopalians decide the right thing to do? In volume five, Scott Bader-Saye, Academic Dean and Professor of Christian Ethics and Moral Theology at Seminary of the Southwest, examines the moral life through the lens of the Episcopal Church and its traditions. Beginning with an introduction to ethics in a changing world, Bader-Saye helps the reader move past the idea that we either accept cultural change as a whole or reject it whole, suggesting that we need to make discriminating judgments about where to affirm change and where to resist it. Part I looks at distinctive aspects of the Episcopal ethos, noting that “ethics” comes from “ethos,” and so has to do with habits and enculturation of a particular people. Topics include creation, incarnation, holiness, sacrament, scripture, and “via media.” Part II looks at big moral questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What are good and evil? What are right and wrong? Part III examines how an Episcopal approach might shape a typical day by examining Morning Prayer and Compline as moral formation, in between discussing work, eating, and playing. Each part begins by analyzing cultural assumptions, asking what should be affirmed and what resisted about contemporary context, setting the stage for discussion in subsequent chapters. Scott Bader-Saye serves as Academic Dean and holds the Helen and Everett H. Jones Chair in Christian Ethics and Moral Theology at Seminary of the Southwest. His teaching and research interests include virtue ethics, economy, ecology, political theology, and Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue. His publications include Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear and Church and Israel After Christendom, as well as contributions to The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics and The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels. He helped found and lead Peacemeal, a missional Episcopal community in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and is active as a teacher and parishioner at St. Julian of Norwich Episcopal Church, a mission in northwest Austin. He lives in Austin, Texas. Formed by Love VOLUME 5 in the Church's Teachings for a Changing World series By Scott Bader-Saye Church Publishing Incorporated Copyright © 2017 Scott Bader-Saye All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8192-3307-3 Contents Preface: Formed by Love, Part I: Episcopal Ethics in a Changing World, Chapter 1: When All Bets Are Off, Chapter 2: An Episcopal Ethos, Part II: Big Questions, Chapter 3: How to Be Happy (and Good), Chapter 4: How to Do What You Want, Chapter 5: How Not to Follow the Rules, Chapter 6: How to Love Like Jesus, Chapter 7: How to Keep Justice Just, Chapter 8: How to Find the Good in Others, Part III: Daily Practice, Chapter 9: Morning Prayer, Chapter 10: Working, Chapter 11: Eating, Chapter 12: Playing, Chapter 13: Compline, Notes, CHAPTER 1 When All Bets Are Off The sign said "no smoking" and "no selfie sticks" but no one seemed to care. I was deep into three days at the Austin City Limits music festival when it dawned on me that the posted rules meant very little to the party-minded crowd pressed against the stage. To be honest, the smoking did not bother me nearly as much as the selfie sticks. It's hard enough to see the band with a bank of phones blocking your view; add selfie sticks and all bets are off. Apparently, even performers are fed up with staring at the backs of phones. In recent years Beyoncé, the Lumineers, the Eagles, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have all asked fans to pocket their devices. Of course, the idea that one can get a pure and undistracted experience of music in a park full of 75,000 people, most of whom have been drinking, is a bit naive. Yet every now and then, even in a setting short on rules and long on self-expression, there arises an implicit expectation that people will behave in a certain way. I watched one concertgoer complain about people cutting in line to enter the venue — not to the people cutting but with pure passive-aggressive bliss to someone else on the other end of their cell phone — "Hey, I'm gonna be a little late meeting you, because some jerks are cutting in line." Navigating a crowd of people busy doing their own thing is a small problem, but it opens onto larger ones: How do we decide what can be expected of one another? Do we owe each other something and, if so, what? Are there rules that apply to us all? Can we agree on what it means to be a good person, or are we moving into a world in which that very notion is quaint and archaic? If we want to do right by ourselves and others, how do we even know what that looks like? This is the problem of ethics in a changing world. Many things that earlier generations took for granted as prohibited — gay and lesbian relationships, for instance — are today not only legal but blessed in the Episcopal Church. Other things that earlier generations fought for — like civil rights and a social safety net — appear threatened by sanctione