Hope and Christian Ethics


Book Description

The theological virtue of hope has long been neglected in Christian ethics. However, as social, civic and global anxieties mount, the need to overcome despair has become urgent. This book proposes the theological virtue of hope as a promising source of rejuvenation. Theological hope sustains us from the sloth, presumption and despair that threaten amid injustice, tragedy and dying; it provides an ultimate meaning and transcendent purpose to our lives; and it rejoices and refreshes us 'on the way' with the prospect of eternal beatitude. Rather than degrading this life and world, hope ordains earthly goods to our eschatological end, forming us to pursue social justice with a resilience and vitality that transcend the cynicism and disillusionment so widespread at present. Drawing on Thomas Aquinas and virtue ethics, the book shows how the virtue of hope contributes to human happiness in this life and not just the next.




Ethics of Hope


Book Description

For a time of peril, world-renowned theologian Jürgen Moltmann offers an ethical framework for the future. Moltmann has shown how hope in the future decisively reconfigures the present and shapes our understanding of central Christian convictions, from creation to New Creation.




Christian Ethics (Revised Edition)


Book Description

What Does the Bible Teach about How to Live in Today's World? How should Christians live when the surrounding culture is increasingly hostile to Christian moral values? Granted, the Bible is our guide—but how can we know if we are interpreting it rightly with regard to ethical questions about wealth and poverty, marriage and divorce, birth control, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, ethical business practices, environmental stewardship, and dozens of other issues? And on a very practical level, how can we know God's will in the ordinary decisions of life? To address questions like these, Wayne Grudem, author of the bestselling book Systematic Theology, draws on 40 years of teaching classes in ethics to write this wide-ranging introduction to biblical moral reasoning, organized according to the structure of the Ten Commandments. He issues a challenging call for Christians to live lives of personal holiness and offers a vision of the Christian life that is full of joy and blessing through living each day in a way that is pleasing to God. Written by Wayne Grudem: Bestselling author of Systematic Theology and the What the Bible Says About series Biblical and Applicable: Teaches readers how to protect 7 central tenets of God's law: God's honor, human authority, life, marriage, property, truth, and purity of heart Accessible: An ideal textbook for Christian college and seminary ethics classes, with straightforward language and a bibliography for the topic at the end of each chapter Replaces ISBN 978-1-4335-4965-6




Christian Ethics


Book Description

Christian Ethics provides a biblical, historical, philosophical and theological guide to the field of Christian ethics. Prominent theologian David S. Cunningham explores the tradition of ‘virtue ethics’ in this creative and lively text, which includes literary and musical references as well as key contemporary theological texts and figures. Three parts examine: the nature of human action and the people of God as the ‘interpretative community’ within which ethical discourse arises the development of a ‘virtue ethics’ approach, and places this in its Christian context significant issues in contemporary Christian ethics, including the ethics of business and economics, politics, the environment, medicine and sex. This is the essential text for students of all ethics courses in theology, religious studies and philosophy.




Embracing Hopelessness


Book Description

This book will attempt to explore faith-based responses to unending injustices by embracing the reality of hopelessness. It rejects the pontifications of some salvation history that move the faithful toward an eschatological promise that, when looking back at history, makes sense of all Christian-led brutalities, mayhem, and carnage. To embrace hopelessness moves away from a middle-class privilege that assumes all is going to work out in the end. By upsetting the norm, an opportunity might arise that can lead us to a more just situation, although such acts of defiance usually lead to crucifixion. Hopelessness is what leads to radical liberative praxis.




Global Justice, Christology and Christian Ethics


Book Description

Global realities of human inequality, poverty, violence and ecological destruction call for a twenty-first-century Christian response which links cross-cultural and interreligious cooperation for change to the Gospel. This book demonstrates why just action is necessarily a criterion of authentic Christian theology, and gives grounds for Christian hope that change in violent structures is really possible. Lisa Sowle Cahill argues that theology and biblical interpretation are already embedded in and indebted to ethical-political practices and choices. Within this ecumenical study, she explores the use of the historical Jesus in constructive theology; the merits of Word and Spirit Christologies; the importance of liberation and feminist theologies as well as theologies from the global south; and also the possibility of qualified moral universalism. The book will be of great interest to all students of theology, religious ethics and politics, and biblical studies.




Though the Fig Tree Does Not Blossom


Book Description

This book charts a course through the equally inadequate options of despair and optimism to a responsible understanding and practice of Christian hope.




Patience, Compassion, Hope, and the Christian Art of Dying Well


Book Description

By mining the rich tradition of virtue ethics, Christopher Vogt uses the virtues of patience, compassion, and hope as a framework for specifying the shape of a good death, and for naming the practices Christians should develop to live well and die well. Bringing together historical, biblical, and contemporary sources in Christian ethics, Vogt provides a long-overdue theological analysis of the ars moriendi or "art of dying" literature of four centuries ago. Through a careful analysis of Luke's passion narrative, Vogt uses Jesus as the primary model for being patient in the face of death and for dying well.




Expectant Creativity


Book Description




Introduction to Christian Ethics


Book Description

All Christians read the Bible differently, pray differently, value their traditions differently, and give different weight to individual and corporate judgment. These differences are the basis of conflict. The question Christian ethics must answer, then, is, "What does the good life look like in the context of conflict?" In this new introductory text, Ellen Ott Marshall uses the inevitable reality of difference to center and organize her exploration of the system of Christian morality. What can we learn from Jesus' creative use of conflict in situations that were especially attuned to questions of power? What does the image of God look like when we are trying to recognize the divine image within those with whom we are in conflict? How can we better explore and understand the complicated work of reconciliation and justice? This innovative approach to Christian ethics will benefit a new generation of students who wish to engage the perennial questions of what constitutes a faithful Christian life and a just society.