Harking back to Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish Christian thinker of the nineteenth century, Christian theologians have embraced existentialist thought. A world of rapid social change, of technological development and scientific discovery makes us more and more aware of the complexity of the factors entering into moral decisions. It is difficult to fit all the novelty and complexity into neat patterns subject to moral prescriptions or ready made rules. There is a tax on discernment, a call for originality and responsible freedom. All moral decisions are determined by the situation guided by consideration of persons rather than laws and motivated by love alone.
Persons are ends and as such are more important than things.
Laws are but things and means and must give way to persons. Because love is a debased word in common parlance, situation ethics is commonly misunderstood as allowing sexual licence in particular and general irresponsible freedom. For this reason situationists in emphasising love as the ultimate criterion in making moral decisions explain that by love is meant love as it is presented in the New Testament. However, what love demands in any specific instance depends upon the situation. Formal obedience has to do with conformity to external rules.