Moral Development and Christians Actions in Emperor Neros Era - Essay Example

Kohlberg's moral stages are applicable in different spheres of life. In explaining the situation facing Christians, the six stages in all three levels are used. According to Kohlberg (1984), the first level, known as Preconventional or the premortal is concerned with an individual’s level of responsiveness to both rules and their evaluative labels. It views them in terms of either the pleasant or unpleasant consequences of the action. Characteristics of the first stage include obedience and punishment orientation, which major concern is on the objectiveness of the responsibility. With reference to this stage, the Christians disobeyed the law and were therefore liable for punishment. The second stage, which Kohlberg described as naively egoistic orientation defines the right action as a person’s means through which they can personally satisfy their needs as well as that of others. With personal satisfaction being essential in this stage, the actions taken by the Christians were justified.

The second level is defined by conventional or role conformity. At this level, it points out that moral values guide a person in performing the right role in maintaining the conventional order as well as accomplishing the desire of other people while still maintaining his own right. In this level, the third stage defines the good boy or the good girl orientation, geared towards pleasing other people (Nisha, 2006).  There was no need for the intentions of the Christians in pleasing Nero and this meant that they were not wrong in their actions. Evaluation of the action taken by an individual is in terms of personal orientation. The fourth stage, authority, and social-order-maintaining orientation mean that the orientation of showing any form of respect to the people as a duty and maintaining any form of social order did not justify the actions of these Christians in any way, and thus were supposed to be punished.

The third level, the post-conventional or self-accepted moral principles, defines morality in terms of how people conform to their shared rights in addition to sharing the standards and duties of the supreme authority. The fifth stage, contractual or legalistic orientation, is characterized by norms of right and wrong on the face of the law. It gives directives in the event that a conflict arises between an individual and the law, and points out that the law prevails. Thus, in the case of the Christians, they were wrong legally and deserved punishment.  The final step defines the morality of individual principles of conscience pointing out that action is controlled by internal ideologies that generally put pressure on a person to take the most viable option without reference to the people in the environment (Gibbs, 2003). This justifies the Christians’ actions, and thus cannot be regarded as wrong.