Love and justice have long been prominent themes in the moral culture of the West, yet they are often considered to be almost hopelessly at odds with each other. In this book acclaimed Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff shows that justice and love are perfectly compatible at heart, and he argues that the commonly perceived tension between them reveals something faulty in our understanding of each. This paperback publication adds a new preface and Scripture index to the original hardcover edition. Building upon Wolterstorff's expansive discussion of justice in his earlier Justice: Rights and Wrongs and charitably engaging alternate views, this book focuses in profound ways on the complex yet ultimately harmonious relation between justice and love.

The letter to the Galatians is a key source for Pauline theology as it presents Paul's understanding of justification, the gospel, and many topics of keen contemporary interest. In this volume, some of the world's top Christian scholars offer cutting-edge scholarship on how Galatians relates to theology and ethics.
The stellar list of contributors includes John Barclay, Beverly Gaventa, Richard Hays, Bruce McCormack, and Oliver O'Donovan. As they emphasize the contribution of Galatians to Christian theology and ethics, the contributors explore how exegesis and theology meet, critique, and inform each other.

The acclaimed "Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics" ("DSE"), written to respond to the movement among biblical scholars and ethicists to recover the Bible for moral formation, offered needed orientation and perspective on the vital relationship between Scripture and ethics. This book-by-book survey of the Old Testament features key articles from the "DSE," bringing together a stellar list of contributors to introduce students to the use of the Old Testament for moral formation. It will serve as an excellent supplementary text. The stellar list of contributors includes Bruce Birch, Mark Boda, William Brown, Stephen Chapman, Daniel Harrington, and Dennis Olson.

The Future of Ethics interprets the big questions of sustainability and social justice through the practical problems arising from humanity's increasing power over basic systems of life. What does climate change mean for our obligations to future generations? How can the sciences work with pluralist cultures in ways that will help societies learn from ecological change? Traditional religious ethics examines texts and traditions and highlights principles and virtuous behaviors that can apply to particular issues. Willis Jenkins develops lines of practical inquiry through "prophetic pragmatism," an approach to ethics that begins with concrete problems and adapts to changing circumstances. This brand of pragmatism takes its cues from liberationist theology, with its emphasis on how individuals and communities actually cope with overwhelming problems. Can religious communities make a difference when dealing with these issues? By integrating environmental sciences and theological ethics into problem-based engagements with philosophy, economics, and other disciplines, Jenkins illustrates the wide understanding and moral creativity needed to live well in the new conditions of human power. He shows the significance of religious thought to the development of interdisciplinary responses to sustainability issues and how this calls for a new style of religious ethics.

The choice of whether or not to consume animals is more than merely a dietary one. It frequently reflects deep ethical commitments or religious convictions that serve as the bedrock of an entire lifestyle. Proponents of vegetarianism frequently infuriate nonvegetarians, who feel that they're being morally condemned because of what they choose to eat. Vegetarians are frequently infuriated by what they consider to be the nonvegetarians' disregard for the environment and animal-suffering.
Vegetarianism: A Guide for the Perplexed offers a much needed survey of the different arguments offered by ethical vegetarians and their critics. In a rigorous but accessible manner, the author scrutinizes the strengths and weaknesses of arguments in defense of vegetarianism based on compassion, rights, interests, eco-feminism, environmentalism, anthrocentrism, and religion. Authors examined include Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Carol J. Adams, and Kathryn Paxton George.
As the global climate crisis worsens, population increases, and fossil fuels disappear, ethical and public policy questions about the ethics of diet will become ever more urgent. This book is a useful resource for thinking through the questions.

..". aspirations to perfection awaken us to our actual
imperfection." It is in the space between these aspirations and
our inability to achieve them that Grant reflects upon imperfection.
Grant argues that an awareness of imperfection, defined as both
suffering and the need for justice, drive us to an unrelenting search
for perfection, freedom, and self-determination. The twenty-one brief
chapters of Imperfection develop this governing idea as it
relates to the present situation of the God debate, modern ethnic
conflicts, and the pursuit of freedom in relation to the uncertainties
of personal identity and the quest for self-determination.

Known for his exploration of the relationship between Buddhism and
violent ethnic conflict in modern Sri Lanka, as well as his
contribution to the study of Northern Ireland and the complex
relationships among religion, literature, and ethnicity, Grant provides
the reader with an analysis of the widespread rise of religious
extremism across the globe. Referencing Plato, Van Gogh, Jesus, and the
Buddha, he enlightens the reader with both succinct and original
insights into human society. Imperfection is the result of an important
Canadian public intellectual at work.

A mature scholar and established literary critic, Patrick
Grant is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Victoria. He is the author of several books, including Buddhism and
Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka;Literature, Rhetoric, and
Violence in Northern Irelands; and Personalism and the
Politics of Culture.

This title explores challenges to religious belief raised by evil and suffering in the world as well as responses to them from both theistic and non-theistic perspectives. One of the most perplexing problems facing believers in God is the problem of evil. The words of Epicurus put the point concisely: 'Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world'? This is a difficult problem to unpick and it remains an issue that continues to concern people and inspire debate. The problem has taken a variety of forms over the centuries; in fact, there are numerous 'problems' of evil - problems for theists but, perhaps surprisingly, problems for non-theists as well. "Evil: A Guide for the Perplexed" explores, in a rigorous but engaging way, central challenges to religious belief raised by evil and suffering in the world as well as significant responses to them from both theistic and non-theistic perspectives. "Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.

Ethics is a core subject of any theological syllabus. Anyone studying theology, whether for ministry or in a university context, has to take a course in ethics, exploring the issues, concepts and approaches of moral decision making and appropriate living. The SCM Core Text Theological Ethics is intended for those studying Christian ethics at upper undergraduate level. The book offers a discussion of Christian moral thought in a variety of key areas. Many discussions of ethics start by considering particular issues. By contrast, this book gives a presentation of the patterns and traditions of thought that lie behind some of these discussions, in the hope that this will enable particular issues to be fully understood. The book begins by asking 'What is Theological Ethics?' and proceeds to introducing different approaches to Ethics, Ethics in the Catholic and Protestant traditions and subjects such as Sin, Grace and Free Will (Augustine), Natural Law and the Human Good (Thomas Aquinas), Virtue, Conscience and Love.

Featuring updates, revisions, and new essays from various scholars within the Christian tradition, The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethic s, Second Edition reveals how Christian worship is the force that shapes the moral life of Christians. Features new essays on class, race, disability, gender, peace, and the virtues Includes a number of revised essays and a range of new authors The innovative and influential approach organizes ethical themes around the shape of Christian worship The original edition is the most successful to-date in the Companions to Religion series

In this novel exploration of Reformed spirituality, Belden C. Lane uncovers a "green theology" that celebrates a community of jubilant creatures of all languages and species. Lane reveals an ecologically sensitive Calvin who spoke of himself as ''ravished'' by the earth's beauty. He speaks of Puritans who fostered a ''lusty'' spirituality in which Christ figured as a lover who encouraged meditation on the wonders of creation. He presents a Jonathan Edwards who urged a sensuous ''enjoyment'' of God's beauty as the only real way of knowing God.
Lane argues for the ''double irony'' of Reformed spirituality, showing that Calvinists who often seem prudish and proper are in fact a people of passionate desire. Similarly, Reformed Christians who appear totally focused on divine transcendence turn out at times to be closet nature mystics, exulting in God's glory everywhere. Lane also demonstrates, however, that a spirituality of desire can be derailed, ending in sexual excess and pantheism. Ecologically, holy longing can be redirected from a contemplation of God's splendor in the earth's beauty to a craving for land itself, resulting in disastrous misuse of its resources.
Between the major chapters of the book are engaging personal essays drawn from the author's own love of nature as a Reformed Christian, and providing a thoughtful discussion of contemporary issues of species diversity and the honoring of an earth community.

Ambrose of Milan (340-397) was the first Christian bishop to write a systematic account of Christian ethics, in the treatise De Officiis, variously translated as "on duties" or "on responsibilities." But Ambrose also dealt with the moral life in other works, notably his sermons on the patriarchs and his addresses to catechumens and newly baptized. There is a vast modern literature on Ambrose, but only in recent decades has he begun to be taken seriously as a thinker, not just as a working bishop and ecclesiastical politician. Because Ambrose was one of the few Latin Christian writers in antiquity who knew Greek, another major area of Ambrose scholarship has been the study of his sources, notably the Jewish philosopher Philo, and Christian writers such as Origen of Alexandria. In this book, Warren Smith examines the neglected biblical, liturgical and theological foundations of Ambrose's thought on ethics. Earlier studies have found little that was distinctively Christian in Ambrose's image of the virtuous person. Smith shows that though, like the pagans, Ambrose emphasized moderation, courage, justice, and prudence, for him these characteristics were shaped by the church's beliefs about God's salvific economy. The courage of a Christian facing persecution, for example, was an expression of faith in Christ's resurrection and the church's eschatological hope. Eschatology, for Ambrose, was not pagan wisdom clothed in pious language, but the very logic upon which virtue rests.

In "Rethinking Poverty," James P. Bailey argues that most contemporary policies aimed at reducing poverty in the United States are flawed because they focus solely on insufficient income. Bailey argues that traditional policies such as minimum wage laws, food stamps, housing subsidies, earned income tax credits, and other forms of cash and non-cash income supports need to be complemented by efforts that enable the poor to save and accumulate assets. Drawing on Michael Sherraden's work on asset building and scholarship by Melvin Oliver, Thomas Shapiro, and Dalton Conley on asset discrimination, Bailey presents us with a novel and promising way forward to combat persistent and morally unacceptable poverty in the United States and around the world.

"Rethinking Poverty "makes use of a significant body of Catholic social teachings in its argument for an asset development strategy to reduce poverty. These Catholic teachings include, among others, principles of human dignity, the social nature of the person, the common good, and the preferential option for the poor. These principles and the related social analyses have not yet been brought to bear on the idea of asset-building for the poor by those working within the Catholic social justice tradition. This book redresses this shortcoming, and further, claims that a Catholic moral argument for asset-building for the poor can be complemented and enriched by Martha Nussbaum's "capabilities approach." This book will affect current debates and practical ways to reduce poverty, as well as the future direction of Catholic social teaching.

"This book supplies the connections between prophetic but general calls for economic justice and participation, and the concrete policies and practices necessary to advance those ideals as reality. Bailey directly critiques discriminatory economic institutions in the U.S. but also implicitly critiques prior Catholic voices that have fallen far short of inspiring effective reform because they do not identify and attack underlying assumptions behind the 'personal responsibility' models of prosperity." --Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College

"Bailey combines his deep understanding of the Catholic social justice tradition, his firm grasp of contemporary moral philosophy, and his perceptive analysis of U.S. poverty debates and policies to forge something new and exciting for each. Bailey's most significant contribution is his compelling case for the Church to establish, or reestablish, asset and property ownership at the heart of its mission to reduce poverty, enhance human dignity, and achieve a more just society." --Ray Boshara, Vice President and Senior Research Fellow, New America Foundation

"Poverty may be with us always; but seldom do we have such a wise and timely book. Drawing upon Catholic social teaching and Martha Nussbaum's capability theory, Bailey underscores the role of asset formation in understanding and alleviating poverty. Erudite, but never arid, "Rethinking Poverty" is indispensable reading for students and scholars who would make the 'option for the poor' their own today." --William O'Neill, S. J., Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University

"God, Sex, Science, Gender: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Christian Ethics" is a timely, wide-ranging attempt to rescue dialogues on human sexuality, sexual diversity, and gender from insular exchanges based primarily on biblical scholarship and denominational ideology. Too often, dialogues on sexuality and gender devolve into the repetition of party lines and defensive postures, without considering the interdisciplinary body of scholarly research on this complex subject. This volume expands beyond the usual parameters, opening the discussion to scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences to foster the development of Christian sexual ethics for contemporary times.

Essays by prominent and emerging scholars in the fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, literary studies, theology, and ethics reveal how faith and reason can illuminate our understanding of human sexual and gender diversity. Focusing on the intersection of theology and science and incorporating feminist theory, "God, Science, Sex, Gender" is a much-needed call for Christian ethicists to map the origins and full range of human sexual experience and gender identity. Essays delve into why human sexuality and gender can be so controversial in Christian contexts, investigate the complexity of sexuality in humans and other species, and reveal the implications of diversity for Christian moral theology.

Contributors are Joel Brown, James Calcagno, Francis J. Catania, Pamela L. Caughie, Robin Colburn, Robert Di Vito, Terry Grande, Frank Fennell, Anne E. Figert, Patricia Beattie Jung, Fred Kniss, John McCarthy, Jon Nilson, Stephen J. Pope, Susan A. Ross, Joan Roughgarden, and Aana Marie Vigen.

Mark Ellingsen dares you to go ahead and sin bravely In this refreshing and unique book, he challenges the religious legalism pervasive throughout American evangelicalism today and encourages a new understanding of what it means to be both a Christian and a human being. Equipped with the joyful, rebellious vision of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant reformation, and the latest in neuroscientific research, Ellingsen offers a new approach for healthy living - one opposed to the duty-oriented, selfish and stifling conception of faith that has gained such a strong foothold in contemporary American culture. It is an approach that fully embraces the active role that God's grace plays in each person's life and the fun and freedom one gains from it.

Beginning with the first theological analysis of Rick Warren's brand of Christianity, this book exposes the burdens and narcissism that purpose-driven and duty-bound living encourages, and includes the purveyors of the Prosperity Gospel, taught by such influential preachers like Joel Osteen, in his critique. Ellingsen writes that brave sinners, aware of God's grace in their lives, instead say "no" to narcissism and "yes" to healthy risk-taking that gets beyond selfish desires to the desire to help one another. When people sin bravely, acknowledging that everything done is done in sin with God's saving grace acting upon them, people can learn to recognize God. This awareness leads to freedom and joy, since the pressure is now removed to do and be good. In addition, total dependence on God entails a self-forgetfulness that leads to happiness. The more boldly someone acknowledges their sin, in failing to take credit for the good they have done, the more focused on God the individual becomes. Correspondingly, this self-forgetful lifestyle is a promising counter-cultural alternative to the cultural narcissism, which so dominate in many segments of contemporary American society. This book demonstrates both how and why brave sinning leads to joy, and in so doing offers readers practical advice on living this way.

Ellingsen also cites recent neurobiological findings showing that when people forget themselves in order to focus on bigger projects, the pleasure centers of the brain are stimulated and people become happier and more content. It is this joyous risk-taking that he suggests brings people closer together, closer to God, and closer to a better understanding of themselves. Sin Bravely dares to be that joyful alternative to the purpose driven life.

This final interpretive volume of the "God and Globalization" series argues for a view of Christian theology that, in critical dialogue with other world religions and philosophies, is able to engage the new world situation, play a critical role in reforming the 'powers' that are becoming more diverse and autonomous, and generate a social ethic for the 21st century. This is the fourth volume in the series "God and Globalization", sponsored by the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, N.J. The 3 previous volumes were multi-authored. This volume is authored solely by Max Stackhouse, the general editor of the series, with a Foreword by the distinguished church historian Justo Gonzales. This final interpretive volume argues for a view of Christian theology that, in critical dialogue with other world religions and philosophies, is able to engage the new world situation, play a critical role in reforming the 'powers' that are becoming more diverse and autonomous, and generate a social ethic for the 21st century.

Insatisfecha? Quieres una mejor vida?

Finalmente, un libro para mujeres solteras que, insatisfechas con vivir un estilo de vida mundano, quieren dar a sus vidas una direccion nueva y devota. La autora Dawn Eden, una periodista de rock, judia de nacimiento que se convirtio en la reina mordaz del blog cristiano, usando sus propias experiencias en la selva de solteros de la ciudad de Nueva York, muestra a las mujeres como ellas tambien pueden pasar de la inseguridad a la pureza, de la tristeza al nuevo nacimiento. Ella les dice a las mujeres que se las saben todas como encontrar su camino a casa.

La aventura de la castidad no es un libro para doncellas delicadas con vestidos blancos de encaje que estan esperando pacientemente a su apuesto principe. Esto es para mujeres reales que necesitan mensajes fuertes, motivacionales y profundamente morales para contrarrestar los que reciben de un mundo superficial obsesionado con el sexo.

The subject of poverty is rich in meanings and associations, among them hunger, stench, disease, disfigurement, shame, revulsion, and loss. It is a topic that has preoccupied the mind and hearts of the faithful since the inception of Christianity.
In this insightful volume, Susan R. Holman blends personal memoir and scholarly research into ancient writings to illuminate the age-old issues of need, poverty, and social justice in the history of the Christian tradition. Holman weaves together stories from late antiquity with three conceptual paradigms that can bridge the gap between historical story and modern action: sensing need, sharing the world, and embodying sacred kingdom. In the first four chapters, the author explores how personal need influences the way that we look at the world and the needs of others. Beginning with the story of her own encounters with need and her discovery of the world of early Christian texts on poverty and religious response, the author re-tells these historical narratives in new ways, and traces their influence on post-Reformation history. The second half of the book uses a complex amalgam of images and stories to consider several recurrent themes in any religious responses to poverty and need: poverty and gender, the dilemma of justice in material distribution, ascetic models of social activism and contemplation, the language of human rights and the "common good," challenges of hospitality, and the role of liturgy in constructing a vision for restorative righteousness.
Tying these historical texts to modern responses to need, Holman begins with her own encounters with need and describes her discovery of the existence of never-before-translated early Christian texts on responses to poverty, hunger, and disease. Holman's embrace of the historical perspective will prove useful in interdenominational and ecumenical dialogue on religious responses to social welfare needs. Through their sensitive exploration of nuances and tensions, these essays invite reflection, conversation, and response for scholars and students as well as concerned laypeople across a range of Christian faith communities.

As a religion concerned with universal liberation, Zen grew out of a Buddhist worldview very different from the currently prevalent scientific materialism. Indeed, says Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing. In this book, Leighton explicates that worldview through the writings of the Zen master Eihei D?gen (1200-1253), considered the founder of the Japanese S?t? Zen tradition, which currently enjoys increasing popularity in the West.
The Lotus Sutra, arguably the most important Buddhist scripture in East Asia, contains a famous story about bodhisattvas (enlightening beings) who emerge from under the earth to preserve and expound the Lotus teaching in the distant future. The story reveals that the Buddha only appears to pass away, but actually has been practicing, and will continue to do so, over an inconceivably long life span.
Leighton traces commentaries on the Lotus Sutra from a range of key East Asian Buddhist thinkers, including Daosheng, Zhiyi, Zhanran, Saigyo, My?e, Nichiren, Hakuin, and Ry?kan. But his main focus is Eihei D?gen, the 13th century Japanese S?t? Zen founder who imported Zen from China, and whose profuse, provocative, and poetic writings are important to the modern expansion of Buddhism to the West.
D?gen's use of this sutra expresses the critical role of Mahayana vision and imagination as the context of Zen teaching, and his interpretations of this story furthermore reveal his dynamic worldview of the earth, space, and time themselves as vital agents of spiritual awakening.
Leighton argues that D?gen uses the images and metaphors in this story to express his own religious worldview, in which earth, space, and time are lively agents in the bodhisattva project. Broader awareness of D?gen's worldview and its implications, says Leighton, can illuminate the possibilities for contemporary approaches to primary Mahayana concepts and practices.

Two principles capture the essence of the official Catholic position on the morality of sexuality: first, that any human genital act must occur within the framework of heterosexual marriage; second, each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life. In this comprehensive overview of Catholicism and sexuality, theologians Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler examine and challenge these principles. Remaining firmly within the Catholic tradition, they contend that the church is being inconsistent in its teaching by adopting a dynamic, historically conscious anthropology and worldview on social ethics and the interpretation of scripture while adopting a static, classicist anthropology and worldview on sexual ethics.While some documents from Vatican II, like "Gaudium et spes" ('the marital act promotes self-giving by which spouses enrich each other'), gave hope for a renewed understanding of sexuality, the church has not carried out the full implications of this approach. In short, say Salzman and Lawler: emphasize relationships, not acts, and recognize Christianity's historically and culturally conditioned understanding of human sexuality. "The Sexual Person" draws historically, methodologically, and anthropologically from the best of Catholic tradition and provides a context for current theological debates between traditionalists and revisionists, regarding marriage, cohabitation, homosexuality, reproductive technologies, and what it means to be human. This daring and potentially revolutionary book will be sure to provoke constructive dialogue among theologians, and between theologians and the Magisterium.

This book investigates the signs of the church in the theology of Hans Kung as de scribed in his The Church (1967). As Kung does not go beyond the traditional signs of the church, the author makes a thorough analysis of the unity, catholicity, holiness and apostolicity of the church with plentiful references to other contemporary theologians such as Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Edward Schillebeeckx, Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, and even Joseph Ratzinger. The relevance of the book consists in its approach to classical theological issues which lay the foundation for a contemporary reassessment of the church. The author is concerned not to defend particular doctrines but to see how Kung's theology of the signs of the church fits within the context of his time.

In Honesty, Morality, and Conscience, Navigator author Jerry White takes a hard look at some of lifea (TM)s gray areas.
Examining the origin and depth of our conscience, our moral compass, and truthful living, he explains how God has given us everything we need to face the ethical questions of today in all areas of our lives.
Explore issues of identity, integrity, and accountability as you look at your sources for discernment and wisdom.
This great leadership and character-building tool includes discussion questions.

The Internet, high-tech calculators, and other technological advances have made student cheating easier and more common than ever before. This book helps you put a stop to high-tech and more traditional low-tech forms of cheating and plagiarism. Learn to recognize the danger signs for cheating and how to identify material that has been copied. Sample policies for developing academic integrity, reproducible lessons for students and faculty, and lists of helpful online and print resources are just some of the features of this important guide. A must read for concerned educators, administrators, and parents.

With Hablando con Su Angel de la Guarda, Barbara Mark and Trudy Griswold provided the tools to help people get in touch with their angels. They have convinced thousands that interaction with angels is possible and have provided a step-by-step list for doing it. Now leading spiritualists Mark and Griswold delve even deeper into the application of angel communication with El Devocionario de Su Angel de la Guarda, teaching readers to use prayer and healing wishes to fulfill their dreams and relieve their most serious physical ailments.

Like its predecessor, El Devocionario de Su Angel de la Guarda is a handsomely illustrated book sure to appeal to all Mark and Griswold fans and to the legions who believe there is an angel looking out for them.