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Religious Identity : A Christian 's Responsibility Essay

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It is questionable whether an obligation arises only when an identity requires the rejection of a maxim. Is it not the case that an identity can also require that one endorses a maxim? It seems that one can be obligated both to perform and abstain from performing actions in virtue of the identities they possess. If there are only duties to not perform actions, then there can only be reasons for performing actions and we are never obligated to do anything. To return to the example of religious identity, surely the Christian faith both prohibits some actions and demands others. For instance, a Christian has an obligation to attend church services regularly and to read the scripture. It may be that plenty of self-identified Christians fail to perform these tasks, but it would be inaccurate to say that a Christian merely has a reason to go to church or to read the Bible. If a Christian fails to perform these actions, he has to an extent failed to act consistently with his Christian identity. *Typically, when a person ignores an obligation they do not at the same time relinquish the identity the obligation is derived from. Korsgaard 's view is that one 's identity is only under threat if one constantly fails to fulfil the obligations associated with that identity. However, it seems possible that a person could fail to fulfil nearly all of the obligations that an identity creates for them and yet still retain that identity. It could be argued that they are wrong about having

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