* Main paper presented on 26 July, 1989 at the 44th General Meeting of SNTS in Dublin. This paper is the last part of the Frederick Neumann Lecture which I read at Princeton Theological Seminary, November 7, 1988. In the first part, I try to show that the Golden Rule may be rightly held as the basic rule of morality. I do this in connection with Kan's categorical imperative. In the second part, I explain what I mean by religious perspective by introducing the concepts kof gift and economy of gift as the supra-ethical referent of the ‘religious’ as such.

¹ On the exegetical plane the controversy has taken technical turns. How is Lk 6.31 to be read? As a positive assessment of the Golden Rule or as a mere quotation submitted to further refutation? Some exegetes notice that the first part of the sentence uses an indicative mood: ‘And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.’ But what aboutthe imperative mood of the second half? Some have suspected a corrupted text and join 6.31 with 6.32–5 by reading: ‘And if, as you wish that men would do to you, and do so to them (31) and if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. (32)’ See Merkelbach, Reinhold, ‘Über eine Stelle im Evangelium des Lukas’, Grazer Beiträge 1 (1970) 171–5Google Scholar. But then a wide gulf separates Luke from Matthew, who quot s the Golden Rule with apparent approval. In order to narrow this gap, the sentence in Mt 7.12, we are told, should not be held as a central element of Jesus' preaching, but should be ascribed to an earlier common tradition (ibid.). The difficulties pertaining to these interconnected attempts would be eliminated if we assumed a more positive assessment of th Golden Rule, as I will suggest later.

² I owe this remark to Wolbert, Werner, ‘Die Goldene Regel und das jus talionis’, TT 7 (1986) 169–81.Google Scholar