This updated survey of Christian ethics addresses major thinkers, movements, and issues from the early church to the present. A broad range of topics is discussed, including the biblical and philosophical legacies of Christian ethics and ethics through the early, medieval, Reformation, Enlightenment, and modern eras. This new edition contains more extensive discussions of ethics in the twentieth century, including Vatican II, ecumenical social ethics, and Orthodox Christian ethics. A new section, "Toward the Third Millennium," looks at the issues we will face in the coming decades, including medical, scientific, and political dilemmas, and issues of terrorism, war, and peace.

Little known historical background and compelling humor combine to make this an unusual look at the role the Ten Commandments should play in the life of today's Christian. Reflection questions make it perfect for study groups and classes.

Drawing on decades of teaching and reflection, Princeton theologian Sang Lee probes what it means for Asian Americans to live as the followers of Christ in the "liminal space" between Asia and America and at the periphery of American society. As one moves away from the societal center, either intentionally or by virtue of marginalization, one often finds oppression and dehumanization. Yet, Lee argues, one can also sometimes find liminality--a creative and edgy space with openness to the new, the emergence of community, and the ability to take a prophetic stance over against the status quo. For Lee, the liminal is key to the authentic calling and future of Asian Americans, other ethnic-racial groups and minorities, persons with mixed identities, and indeed all Christians. From this insight, Lee unfolds a systematic theology. Searching the Gospels, one discovers that God became incarnate as a liminal and marginalized Galilean. Jesus the Galilean in his life and ministry widened the meaning of liminal creativity and exercised that creativity in embodying the boundary-breaking love of the Father. On the cross, he entered the ultimate space of liminality in which sinful humanity can experience communion with Christ. United in loving communion with God in Christ, Asian American Christians and all other believers are transformed into a new existence in which they are emboldened to struggle for justice and reconciliation. Asian American Christians, like the Galilean followers of Jesus, have the particular vocation to exercise the creative potentials of their liminal predicament and thereby to participate in God's own project of repeating in time and space the beauty of God's inter-Trinitarian communion.

Before he became the 28th President of the United States (1913-21), the 34th Governor of New Jersey (1911-13), or even the 13th President of Princeton University (1902-10), Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was a scholar and professor. In 1885, he received his Ph.D. in history and political science from Johns Hopkins University, and in 1897, he was granted tenure at Princeton University.

As an educator, and a person of deep faith (his father was a Presbyterian reverend), Woodrow Wilson believed firmly in the importance of the humanities to human flourishing and freedom. In "On Being Human," Wilson sets out his vision for the good life, and offers insight into the foundations of his later political policies. "On Being Human" is among the most personal of Wilson's public writings, revealing an enthusiastic nature at odds with his later staid persona. While the essay makes little direct reference to faith, it does reveal Wilson's view of the good life, which is both hopeful and historical, and draws on both Aristotle's notion of "the golden mean" and Augustine's view of the "ordo amorum" (the order of the loves)-specifically, that the good life consists largely in a well-balanced, harmonious ordering of one's passions and priorities. Wilson's ideal is "the truly human man: a man in whom there is a just balance of faculties, a catholic sympathy—no brawler, no fanatic, no Pharisee, not too credulous in hope, not too desperate in purpose, warm, but not hasty, ardent, and full of definite power, but not running about to be pleased and deceived by every new thing."

"When a Man Comes to Himself," written just a few years later, reveals the wholesome and regenerating change which a man undergoes when he "comes to himself." It is not only after periods of recklessness or infatuation, when he has played the spendthrift or the fool, that a man comes to himself. He comes to himself after experiences of which he alone may be aware.

Socrates famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. In keeping with this dictum, taking ethics seriously means engaging with the real world where the human sense of right and wrong is daily tested. At their best, all faith traditions are challenged by such testing; and if faith-inspired ethics are thought to goven the whole of life, their guiding values need constantly to be interpreted by the believer to achieve a practical result. In the Muslim tradition, this is what the Qur'an really amounts to: a call to strive for belief with a social conscience. For fourteen centuries Muslim scholars have grappled with the implications of that call in matters of law, social practice and theology. And in our own time, the quests for civil society and the rule of law have much to do with the response given to these ethical questions. 'A Companion to Muslim Ethics' explores Islam's core conception of the good, shared with other great traditions. Leading experts examine issues such as gender equality, nonviolence, dispute resolution, the environment, health and finance. The volume will appeal to all those interested in how reason, faith and circumstance shape difficult moral choices in an increasingly globalised world.

Nature around us and indeed, our own human nature are constantly changing. The question before us then is not if there will be change, but rather whether we will be conscious and conscientious about the course of that change. In Changing Human Nature, James Peterson helps us to think through what our part should be from a Christian perspective.

The Call to Care: Charity in Ancient Christianity asks and answers pointed questions about charity, using ancient Christian literature immediately after the New Testament until the early 4th century. How important is charity to the Christian faith? What are the limits to Christian charity? Should poor Christians be treated differently than poor unbelievers? How should wealthy Christians view themselves, and how should they be viewed by others? These questions were popular in the ancient world, and the ancient Christian church voiced a unified answer to each. In the end, the reader will find those answers to be just as relevant today as they were centuries ago.

A thought-provoking collection of essays on Buddhist ethics by some of the leading thinkers in the field. The reader is provided with engaging explorations of central issues in Buddhist ethics, insightful analyses of the ways Buddhist ethical principles are being applied today in both Asian and Western countries, and groundbreaking proposals about how Buddhist perspectives might inform debates on some of the core ethical issues of the modern world, including consumerism, globalization, environmental problems, war, ethnic conflict, and inter-religious tensions. The leading figure in identifying the field of Buddhist ethics and articulating some of its core issues is Professor Damien Keown of the University of London. This book brings together a group of eminent scholars who have all been influenced by Keown's work, and who are also friends and close colleagues. The result is a wonderful volume for those who are struggling with practical issues of ethical concern. This will be a valuable resource in the study of ethics for years to come.

Description: What is the moral criterion for those who hold power positions and authority in governments, corporations, and institutions? Ahn answers this question by presenting the concept of the positional imperative. The positional imperative is an executive moral norm for those who hold power positions in political and economic organizations. By critically integrating the Neo-Kantian reconstructionism of Jurgen Habermas with the Neo-Augustinian reconstructionism of Reinhold Niebuhr, through the method of ""co-reconstruction,"" Ahn identifies the positional imperative as an executive moral norm embedded in all power positions: ""Act in such a way not only to abide by laws, but also to come by the approvals of those affected by your positional actions."" By uncovering this executive moral norm, Ahn argues that a position holder is not just a professional working for the system, but a moral executive who is willing to take the responsibility of his or her positional actions. Endorsements: ""How should Christians and non-Christians live moral lives in the tightly defined roles characteristic of modern corporate and bureaucratic societies? This is a seldom-asked question in our age that celebrates spontaneity and flexibility. But this fine book both asks this difficult question and answers it with the resources of Christian ethics and political philosophy. It is an important study that creatively investigates new territory in social ethics."" --Don Browning Alexander Campbell Emeritus Professor of Religious Ethics and the Social Sciences, University of Chicago ""In this compelling book, Ilsup Ahn addresses a burning contemporary issue: are there moral criteria for those in corporate, governmental, or institutional positions of power? Engaging the philosopher Jurgen Habermas and the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Ahn identifies a 'positional imperative.' In light of this norm, power holders are moral executives who bear responsibility for their actions. In our time when moral responsibility has been denied or ignored in financial institutions and governments, Ahn makes a singular contribution to thought. I highly commended this work for anyone interested in current political and moral questions."" --William Schweiker Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics University of Chicago About the Contributor(s): Ilsup Ahn is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at North Park University, where he teaches philosophical, religious, and social ethics.

Asserting what most Americans already suspect -- that corporate-based managed care places profits over patient care -- theologian Abigail Rian Evans points out that medical experts have reduced health care to medical treatment under arrangements with health insurance plans and HMOs. Her reasoned, practical alternative engages Christian theology, proposing a much broader concept of health care. An important contribution to a critical discussion.

For centuries women, youth and the poor have been seen as objects of Christian ministry, but rarely as those who do ministry themselves. This is so much the case that in some quarters today ministry and mission are bad words, reeking of older and paternalistic models of Christian "service." In this challenging book, Cheryl Sanders demonstrates how mission can be updated. Far from being regressive or irrelevant in a multicultural, nonpatriarchal world, Christian mission can come alive when it is not just ministry to but ministry by marginalized groups seeking justice. Ministry at the Margins is an important Christian ethicist's rousing call to "find grace to articulate a theology of inclusion and to establish inclusive practices and multicultural perspectives that harmonize with the gospel we preach and honor the Christ we proclaim." Essential reading for pastors, church leaders, students, urban missionaries and campus ministers.

Do we meet Jesus in a church or in a soup kitchen? In a Bible camp or in a housing project?

Such distinctions are false, says Arthur Paul Boers. We cannot experience God in heaven without loving the needy on earth. Nor can we truly love the needy on earth if not empowered by God in heaven.

Description: From its very beginning, Christian faith has been engaged with religious violence. The first Christians were persecuted by their co-religionists and then by imperial Rome. Jesus taught them, in such circumstances, not to retaliate, but to be peacemakers, to love their enemies, and to pray for their persecutors. Jesus's response to religious violence of the first century was often ignored, but it was never forgotten. Even during those centuries when the church herself persecuted Christian heretics, Jews, and Muslims, some Christians still struggled to bear witness to the peace mandate of their Lord. In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas wrote a theology to help his Dominican brothers persuade Cathar Christians to return to their Catholic faith peacefully. Ramon Lull, a Christian student of Arabic and the Qur'an, sought to help his fellow Christians recognize the elements of belief they shared in common with the Muslims in their midst. In the fifteenth century, Nicholas of Cusa, a Church Cardinal and theologian, expanded Lull's project to include the newly discovered religions of Asia. In the seventeenth century, Lord Herbert, an English diplomat and lay Christian, began to identify the political union of church and government as a causal factor in the religious warfare of post-Reformation Christendom. One and a half centuries later, Thomas Jefferson, a lay theologian of considerable political stature, won a political struggle in the American colonies to disestablish religion first in his home colony of Virginia and then in the new nation he helped to found. All five of these theologians reclaimed the peace mandate of Jesus in their response to the religious violence of their own eras. All of which points us to some intriguing Christian responses to religious violence in our own century as recounted in the epilogue. Endorsements: ""Peacemaking and Religious Violence brings careful scholarship and a refreshing clarity of expression to a burning contemporary concern: the way that religions either foster violence or defuse it. In a series of marvelously lucid historical vignettes, Johnson illuminates crucial moments in Christianity's response to religious difference. He demonstrates that there is more to this story than is commonly assumed. Alongside the all-too-real exclusivist claims and crusading zeal, he lifts up a series of thinkers in different periods who sketched an alternative history, a path not taken by the majority church, but one urgently in need of appropriation today. Peacemaking and Religious Violence is an extraordinary work: mature, balanced, original. Its unpretentious clarity will commend it to general readers. Its ability to throw striking new light on major gures and topics in Christian theology and history will impress academics. Anyone interested in questions of religious pluralism and social con ict will be enriched and instructed by this study."" --S. Mark Heim Samuel Abbot Professor of Christian Theology, Andover Newton Theological School ""Roger Johnson utilizes in this volume his formidable historical and theological knowledge to appraise two contemporary tides in our culture: a growing Christian peace witness and a growing public concern about religious violence . . . This welcome study enriches our awareness of historical figures some of whom are less well-known and it connects them all in instructive ways. It brings the Constantinian and the contemporary eras into comparative focus, something too rarely done. This is a deeply illuminating and carefully researched text that deserves to be widely read and taken to heart."" --Gene Outka Dwight Professor of Philosophy and Christian Ethics, Yale University ""Sad to say, the peace ethic of Jesus long ago became a minor (some said heretical) part of Christian witness. Yet it has persisted. Today, when we are faced with growing inter-religious violence, Roger Johnson does us a huge service by shining the light of his research on fi

This is the first republication of Volume 3 of a rare three volume set of books favoring polygamy. In 1781, when this book was first published, the Reverend Martin Madan was the most famous clergyman in all the world. His Chapel at the Lock Hospital was renowned for its Sunday night concerts and his hymnal was full of majestic songs of worship. He was the most prolific living composer of sacred music and had long been the standard bearer for the Evangelicals. Madan's pen had always been free of mercenary interests since he'd been blessed with a great inheritance and yet this rich man had spent the last thirty-five years of his life ministering to the least beloved of society, the disease ridden prostitutes of the Lock Hospital. The front cover features a portrait of Lock Hospital as it appeared in the 18th century. It was built with funds raised by Martin Madan. Madan was godfather to the famed hymn writer, Charles Wesley and was himself the most prolific hymn composer of his day. This is Volume 3 - In Print Again for the First Time in over 228 years.