Catholic and Franciscan Ethics: The Essentials gives students a concise synopsis of the Catholic and Franciscan ethical traditions. The chapters examine the two separately, yet also show how they are historically entangled and related and how together they create a rich, multi-dimensional ethical framework. The early chapters focus specifically on the Catholic ethical tradition. In the later chapters students become familiar with the Franciscan tradition and learn how it grew out of, and contributes back to, Catholic ethics. The book includes diagrams, end-of-chapter summaries of key concepts, review and discussion questions, and "call outs", all of which energize the text and support comprehension and retention. The appendices include a glossary, additional concept summaries, and recommendations for additional reading. Catholic and Franciscan Ethics: The Essentials is intended to serve as a supplemental text in courses on ethics at Catholic colleges and universities. It is also suitable for classes in moral theology and upper division applied ethics courses.

The "Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics" continues to be an essential resource for students and faculty pursuing the latest developments in Christian and religious ethics, publishing refereed scholarly articles on a variety of topics. The Journal also contains book reviews of the latest scholarship in the field.

A leading biblical scholar places charity back at the heart of the Judeo-Christian tradition, arguing for its biblical roots It has long been acknowledged that Jews and Christians distinguished themselves through charity to the poor. Though ancient Greeks and Romans were also generous, they funded theaters and baths rather than poorhouses and orphanages. How might we explain this difference? In this significant reappraisal of charity in the biblical tradition, Gary Anderson argues that the poor constituted the privileged place where Jews and Christians met God. Though concerns for social justice were not unknown to early Jews and Christians, the poor achieved the importance they did primarily because they were thought to be "living altars," a place to make a sacrifice, a loan to God that he, as the ultimate guarantor, could be trusted to repay in turn. Contrary to the assertions of Reformation and modern critiques, belief in a heavenly treasury was not just about self-interest. Sifting through biblical and postbiblical texts, Anderson shows how charity affirms the goodness of the created order; the world was created through charity and therefore rewards it.

What is to be done about the damaging impact of economic activity on the environment? In recent years, there has been growing debate over this question. This book, by an economist, urges Christians to support strong governmental and intergovernmental action to improve the workings of existing global economic systems so as to provide adequate environmental protection. As such, it draws on the tradition of mainstream environmental economics and on recent developments in "ecological economics." But it acknowledges that environmental policy raises important ethical and theological issues often briefly or inadequately covered within economic literature: ethically responsible attitudes to uncertainty, inequality within and between generations, the rights of traditional communities, and the obligation to respect nonhuman elements within creation. This book tries to develop sound ethical foundations for environmental policy, while providing concrete perspective on economic realities.

This book argues that Christian nonviolence is both formed by and forms ecclesial life, creating an inextricable relationship between church commitment and resistance to war. Examining the work of John Howard Yoder, Dorothy Day, William Stringfellow, and Robert McAfee Brown, this book explores how each thinker's advocacy for nonviolent resistance depends deeply upon the ecclesiology out of which it comes. These forms comprise four strands of a comprehensive Christian approach to a nonviolent witness rooted in ecclesial life. Because each of these figures' ecclesiology implicates a different mode of resistance to war and a different relation between ecclesiology and resistance to war, the volume argues that any account of an ecclesially-informed resistance to war must be open to a multitude of approaches, not as pragmatic concessions, but as a foretaste of ecumenical unity. Insofar as the pursuit of peace in the world can be seen as a church bearing out the work of the Spirit, the approach of other ecclesial traditions can be seen not as competitors but as common works of the Spirit, which other traditions may learn from and be challenged by.

This book examines one of the most pressing cultural concerns that surfaced in the last decade - the question of the place and significance of the animal. This collection of essays represents the outcome of various conversations regarding animal studies and shows multidisciplinarity at its very best, namely, a rigorous approach within one discipline in conversation with others around a common theme. The contributors discuss the most relevant disciplines regarding this conversation, namely: philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, theology, history of religions, archaeology and cultural studies. The first section, Thinking about Animals, explores philosophical, anthropological and religious perspectives, raising general questions about the human perception of animals and its crucial cultural significance. The second section explores the intriguing topic of the way animals have been used historically as religious symbols and in religious rituals. The third section re-examines some Christian theological and biblical approaches to animals in the light of current concerns. The final section extends the implications of traditional views about other animals to more specific ethical theories and practices.

Preservation and Protest proposes a novel taxonomy of four paradigms of nonhuman theological ethics by exploring the intersection of tensions between value terms and teleological terms. These tensions arise out of the theological loci of cosmology, anthropology, and eschatology. The individual paradigms of the taxonomy are critically elucidated through the work of Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Berry, Dumitru St Niloae, and Jurgen Moltmann and Andrew Linzey. McLaughlin systematically develops the paradigm of cosmocentric transfiguration, arguing that the entire cosmos-including all instantiations of life therein-shares in the eschatological hope of a harmonious participation in God's triune life, a participation that entails the end of suffering, predation, and death. This paradigm yields an ethics based upon a tension between preservation and protest. With this paradigm, McLaughlin offers an alternative to anthropocentric and conservationist paradigms within the Christian tradition, an alternative that affirms both scientific claims about natural history and the theological hope for eschatological redemption.

Description: In the Fray collects David Gushee's most significant essays over twenty years as a Christian intellectual. Most of the essays were written in situations of ethical conflict on the highly contested ground of Christian public ethics. Topics addressed include torture, climate change, marriage and divorce, the treatment of gays and lesbians in the church, war, genocide, nuclear weapons, race, global poverty, faith and politics, Israel/Palestine, and even whether Christian ethics is a real academic discipline. Quite visible in the collection is Gushee's deep research interest in the Nazi era in Germany and how the churches fared in resisting Nazi intimidations and seductions and, finally, the Holocaust. All essays reflect the desire for a church that has learned the lessons of that period--a church with resistance to racism, militarism, nationalism, and other social-ideological toxins, and with the discernment and courage to resist these in favor of a courageous allegiance to the lordship of Christ at the time of testing. Considerable attention is directed to contesting some of the public ethics found in the author's own US evangelical Christian community. Concluding reflections on Gushee's ethical vision are offered in an illuminating essay by senior Christian ethicist Glen Harold Stassen.

Kathryn B. Alexander argues that natural beauty is a source of religious insight into the need and way of salvation, and this project develops a theological aesthetics of nature and beauty with an aim toward cultivating a theological and ethical framework for redeemed life as participation in ecological community. With interdisciplinary verve, engaging systematic, philosophical, and art theory systems of aesthetics, the volume fosters the cultivation of the sense of beauty through creative, religious, and sacramental experience. All three types, in fact, are critically necessary, as the author argues, in eliciting hope for ecological redemption. This volume makes a vital contribution to the systematic and philosophical framework for ecological theology, aesthetics, and theological ethics.

For the living, death has a moral dimension. When we confront death and dying in our own lives and in the lives of others, we ask questions about the good, right, and fitting as they relate to our experiences of human mortality. When others die, the living are left with moral questions - questions that often generate personal inquiry as to whether a particular death was "good" or whether it was tragic, terrifying, or peaceful. In The Ethics of Death, the authors, one a philosopher and one a religious studies scholar, undertake an examination of the deaths that we experience as members of a larger moral community. Their respectful and engaging dialogue highlights the complex and challenging issues that surround many deaths in our modern world and helps readers frame thoughtful responses. Unafraid of difficult topics, Steffen and Cooley fully engage suicide, physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion, and war as areas of life where death poses moral challenges.

Over the last several decades, perceptive observers of Western civilization have documented what virtually everyone has perceived: as the old foundations of society have toppled, morality and personal character have been set adrift and often vanished altogether. How can character be cultivated when it seems no one is willing or able to provide a definitive description of character to which humans should aspire? Equipped with explicit texts and a rich heritage detailing the content of human character, it would seem that Christianity is ideally positioned to address this problem. Yet even the church has often been complicit in undermining and eviscerating a rich, meaningful account of character. While the reasons for this are many and complicated, one of the more potent singular factors is actually theological. Contemporary Lutheranism, in particular, has struggled with the appropriate place of morality and character formation, as these pursuits often have been perceived as at odds with the central Christian doctrine of justification. A Case for Character explores this problem and argues that Christian doctrine, specifically as articulated within a Lutheran framework, is altogether capable of encouraging a robust pursuit of character formation while maintaining a faithful expression of justification by grace alone through faith alone.

Robin Gill's A Textbook of Christian Ethics continues to be popular with students and lecturers - it is difficult to find another textbook in the field that combines primary texts with extensive analysis and commentary. This 4th edition has been extensively revised and it incorporates up-to-date developments in the field of Christian ethics. Gill retains all the popular features of the previous editions, including its layout and structure. This new edition focuses more strongly throughout on current debates, which are expanded on a variety of topics, such as global Christianity, global economics, euthanasia and global justice or the environment. Gill uses modern texts by William Schweiker, Mark Allman, and Rowan Williams, alongside the classical texts from Augustine, Aquinas and Luther. Gill analyses these texts in a systematic and balanced way, examining differing ethical positions and arguments together with the social and historical factors which shaped them.

As demonstrated in any conflict, war is violent and causes grave harms to innocent persons, even when fought in compliance with just war criteria. In this book, Rosemary Kellison presents a feminist critique of just war reasoning, with particular focus on the issue of responsibility for harm to noncombatants. Contemporary just war reasoning denies the violence of war by suggesting that many of the harms caused by war are necessary, though regrettable, injuries for which inflicting agents bear no responsibility. She challenges this narrow understanding of responsibility through a feminist ethical approach that emphasizes the relationality of humans and the resulting asymmetries in their relative power and vulnerability. According to this approach, the powerful individual and collective agents who inflict harm during war are responsible for recognizing and responding to the vulnerable persons they harm, and thereby reducing the likelihood of future violence. Kellison's volume goes beyond abstract theoretical work to consider the real implications of an important ethical problem.

Rebecca Todd Peters argues for an ethic of solidarity as a new model for how people of faith in the first world can live with integrity in the midst of global injustice and how we can shape our lives in ways that move us toward a more just future. Solidarity Ethics seeks to address concretely the economic and social structures that undergird the globalized context of the contemporary era and the problems brought to light within those 'vanishing' boundaries. Seeing religious communities as the primary source for moral and social education, Peters argues for a concrete ethics rooted in the Christian tradition of justice and transformation generative of deep patterns of solidarity and relationality. Utilizing these theologically rich resources, a substantive ethics of relational reflection, action, and construction is provided as an avenue for building viable strategies for social transformation.

An abridged edition to include: The Problem - Religious Affiliation & Social Stratification - The Spirit of Capitalism - Luther's Conception of the Calling - Task of the Investigation - The Practical Ethics of the Ascetic Branches of Protestantism - The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism - Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism - Endnotes

Much current commentary on climate change, both secular and theological, focuses on the duties of individual citizens to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels. In A Political Theology of Climate Change, however, Michael Northcott discusses nations as key agents in the climate crisis. Against the anti-national trend of contemporary political theology, Northcott renarrates the origins of the nations in the divine ordering of history. In dialogue with Giambattista Vico, Carl Schmitt, Alasdair MacIntyre, and other writers, he argues that nations have legal and moral responsibilities to rule over limited terrains and to guard a just and fair distribution of the fruits of the earth within the ecological limits of those terrains. As part of his study, Northcott brilliantly reveals how the prevalent nature-culture divide in Western culture, including its notion of nature as -private property, - has contributed to the global ecological crisis. While addressing real difficulties and global controversies surrounding climate change, Northcott presents substantial and persuasive fare in his Political Theology of Climate Change.

Twenty-first century's nightly news can't pass by without running another story on religious conflict or clashes. While these modern-day battles play out for the world to see, the issues that act as a catalyst for them are deeply embedded in ancient texts that claim to contain absolute certainties. An eye-opening and vitally-important new book has burst upon the literary scene called Allah, Jesus, and Yahweh: The Gods That Failed. The author, Gordon Harrison, conducts a definitive expose of the ravages caused by religion and breaks new ground in the world of investigative literature. In this riveting history of three of the world's major religions-Islam, Christianity, and Judaism-this book explores the relationship between belief and the suspension of logic with its consequential suffering. Beginning with the September 480 BCE Battle of Marathon, the author traces the spread of Eastern belief systems (and the three major religions in particular) from the Middle East into Europe and the rest of the world. Citing examples of how fanatic elements of each faith have caused war, bloodshed, confusion and suffering, Harrison makes his case for reason and freethinking. As the author notes the parlance in vogue for this present invasion is a clash of civilizations-East versus West But this is not entirely the case. There is a clash, but we have confused the combatants. Many in the West do not intend to fight for the preservation of Christianity; some in the East feel the same about Islam. What we will defend is freedom, democracy, and the values of the Enlightenment versus submission, dictatorship, and the buzz of the hive mind. A colossal clash of ideals is underway between the Enlightenment and the Army of the Night-those who "know" they have absolute certainty without evidence. Religion is certainty without proof; science is proof without certainty. From religion to science, it has been a long night's journey into light. Harrison asks the reader to hold his hand, walk with him through these pages, and see the glory and the horror we have created. Since its release, the book has garnered a consistent string of rave reviews-here are three: This is an extremely impressive book, one that should enlighten any open-minded reader, theist and non-theist alike. Harrison transports the reader from the ancient battle at Marathon across two millennia, following the march of civilization to the present day. He shows in a clear and engaging manner the moral corruption that is inherent in the ancient texts that continue to serve as the scriptural foundations of modern religions. His compelling mixture of philosophy, theology, astronomy, psychology and physics, presented always in a very accessible and entertaining style, persuasively demonstrates how science illuminates and promotes understanding while religion ossifies thinking patterns and all too often produces intergroup conflict. I highly recommend this book to all. By James Alcock, Professor of Psychology at York University, Toronto Something that worked really well for me was the author's use of personal anecdotes to illustrate some of his arguments. The one that really stood out was the story about Mother Courage. The author re-creates his experience with the bear and her cubs very vividly for the reader. I found it not only very germane to his point about the presence of morality in nature, but also very moving. This book deserves a wide readership. By Dirk Verhulst, English Teacher. Hilarious and powerful Equal to anything written by Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins, and Dennett, the Four Horsemen of the Anti-Apocalypse. Allah, Jesus, and Yahweh takes a deeper view of time and a more humorous Mark Twain narrative approach than those authors do. By Bill Walker, Freethinker"

This broadly adopted textbook weds literary and historical approaches to focus on the New Testament's structure and meaning. Anatomy of the New Testament is systematic, critical, and reliable in its scope and content.This seventh edition has been revised throughout, to take account of current trends in scholarship and to discuss important interpretative issues, such as the Gospel of Thomas. Each chapter includes two new features, Have You Learned It? offering questions for analysis and synthesis What Do They Mean? presenting definitions of key terms to enhance student comprehension and critical thinking. The text is augmented by numerous sidebars to stimulate discussion of matters "Behind," "Within," and "Beyond the New Testament."

Description: From intellectual inquiry to spiritual practice to social reform, Pietism has exerted an enormous influence on various forms of Christianity and on Western culture more generally. However, this contribution remains largely unacknowledged or misunderstood in Anglo-American contexts because negative stereotypes--some undeserved, others deserved--tend to cast Pietism as a quietistic and sectarian form of religion interested in a narrow set of individualistic and spiritual concerns. In this volume, scholars from a variety of disciplines offer a corrective to this misunderstanding, highlighting the profound theological, cultural, and spiritual contribution of Pietism and what they term the ""pietist impulse."" The essays in this volume demonstrate that Pietism was a movement of great depth and originality that was not merely concerned with the ""pious soul and its God."" Rather, Pietists were from the beginning concerned with issues of social and ecclesial reform, the nature of history and historical inquiry, the shape and purpose of theology and theological education, the missional task of the church, and social justice and political engagement. In addition, the essays collected here fruitfully raise the question of the ongoing relevance of Pietism and the ""pietist impulse"" for contemporary problems and questions across disciplines and in the church at large. Endorsements: ""Understanding Pietism is critical for grasping the modern manifestations of Protestantism in Europe and North America. This impressive volume illustrates both the diversity and range of American research on Pietism and its promise for scholars on both sides of the Atlantic."" --Hartmut Lehmann Max-Planck-Institut fur Geschichte, Gottingen ""The editors of The Pietist Impulse have assembled a deep and far-ranging collection on an important theme in the history and practice of Christianity. Leading scholars from a variety of fields investigate a unifying theme in a refreshing number of methodological, chronological, and geographic permutations. These works demonstrate the vitality, the centrality, and the many possibilities of Pietist studies today."" --Katherine Carte Engel Texas A&M University About the Contributor(s): Christian T. Collins Winn is Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is author of ""Jesus is Victor "" The Significance of the Blumhardts for the Theology of Karl Barth (2008) and Series Editor for the Blumhardt Series (Cascade Books). Christopher Gehrz is Associate Professor of History and coordinator of the Christianity and Western Culture program at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. G. William Carlson is Professor of History and Political Science at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of numerous articles on Baptist General Conference history, Swedish Pietism, religion in the Soviet Union, and comparative evangelical political thought. Eric Holst is a graduate of Bethel Seminary, with an interest in contextual theology and theories of Christian education.