Historical-critical approaches to Scripture rule out some readings and commend others, but they rarely offer much help to either theological reflection or the preaching of the Word. They do not point the church forward in the life of discipleship. These commentaries have learned from tradition, but they are most importantly commentaries for today. The authors share the conviction that their work will be more contemporary, more faithful, and more radical, to the extent that it is more biblical, honestly wrestling with the texts of the Scriptures.--from the series introduction The volumes in Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible from Westminster John Knox Press offer a fresh and invigorating approach to all the books of the Bible. Building on a wide range of sources from biblical studies, the history of theology, the church's liturgical and musical traditions, contemporary culture, and the Christian tradition, noted scholars focus less on traditional historical and literary angles in favor of a theologically focused commentary that considers the contemporary relevance of the texts. This series is an invaluable resource for those who want to probe beyond the backgrounds and words of biblical texts to their deep theological and ethical meanings for the church today.

This collection of essays looks back at the contributions of theology to medical ethics in the past and sets an agenda for theological reflection on medical ethics in the future.

Description: In the decade after 9/11, Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale did what preachers were doing all across America--he entered the pulpit and tried to claim Jesus Christ as the risen one who is ushering in a renewed and restored kingdom, even as it seemed that so many nations and special interest groups were claiming power and authority. Over the course of a decade many of the sermons directly addressed the great issues through reflection on the biblical narrative. Sometimes that interaction resulted in the congregation being moved by faith to enter the fray and to address issues such as war, natural disasters, sexual orientation, economic disparity, immigration reform, interfaith matters, and ecological disaster. In short, when the Bible met the big issues in congregational space and time, the church was transformed in Spirit and made ready for real action. In thirty-four sermons that go from pre-emptive war to the Arab Spring, Seth insists that nothing that happens in real history lies outside the realm of theological reflection, and that there is nothing a congregation cannot delve into once it has seen why the particular kingdom message of Jesus Christ is stronger than any other power.

It is true and troubling that we humans are able to control and manipulate nature in many ways, and this ability seems to be growing exponentially. In this book Allen Verhey addresses this reality and seeks to show the importance of bringing a Christian voice into the debate.
Verhey identifies the various narratives under which people view the term nature and then questions these narratives or myths at work in our culture. He presents the biblical narrative as an alternative story capable of providing a different understanding of nature and altering it. Finally Verhey shows the relevance of the Christian story to many forms of discourse in our society, including contemporary ecological wisdom and analytical and political discourse.
Nature and Altering It is Verheys effort to nurture minds formed and informed by the Christian story that are capable of challenging the minds that shape our cultures attitudes toward nature and our use of it.

A Christian ethicist?'s personal search for a better way of dying.
Everyone dies. Not everyone dies well. Modern medicine has reconceived death as something to be defeated and forestalled at any cost yet too often this leads only to sterile, lingering death, in which the sick and aged approach eternity surrounded by technology and experts rather than family and friends, by people more attentive to the latest lab reports than to the task of dying well and faithfully. In The Christian Art of Dying Allen Verhey a renowned ethicist who himself faced death during a recent life-threatening illness sets out to help the church recapture dying from the medical world. Searching for a better way of dying, Verhey revisits the fifteenth-century Ars Moriendi a spiritual self-help manual on the art of dying. Finding much wisdom in the illustrated little book but rejecting its stoic and Platonic worldview, Verhey turns finally to the accounts of Jesus death on the cross, in which he discovers a truly useful paradigm for faithful dying a contemporary Christian ars moriendi.

In the wake of the -What Would Jesus Do?- movement, Allen Verhey's Remembering Jesus takes a serious look at what Jesus really did and what he might do in the strange world of contemporary ethics. Verhey asserts that following Jesus requires remembering him, and this entails immersing ourselves in Scripture and Christian community, where the memory of Jesus is found. This book, which promises to be Verhy's magnum opus, explores how Christians can practice medical, sexual, economic, and political ethics with integrity. An ideal text for courses in Christian ethics, Remembering Jesus is also a valuable resource for pastors and general readers in search of readable, biblically based guidance for living in today's complex world.

Author of such major books as "Remembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life, Allen Verhey has become one of today's most trusted Christian voices in contemporary ethics, including the moral challenges that new medical technologies pose to Christian faith and decision-making.

With this new book Verhey brings the biblical tradition to bear on contemporary bioethical concerns. Drawing on an unmatched depth of insight in these two realms, Verhey explores how the Bible can illuminate and guide medical ethics. He argues that churches are called to think and speak clearly about bioethical concerns, and he lays out here the scriptural tools for them to do so. After firmly grounding Christian ethical discourse in Scripture, Verhey shows how the Bible can be applied to such pressing questions as suffering, genetic intervention, abortion, reproductive technologies, end-of-life care, physician-assisted suicide, and more.

Filled with faith-based wisdom and apt illustrations of the moral dilemmas discussed, this book is a must-read for Christians grappling with the ethical dimensions of medicine today.

This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. There is no denying, writes Allen Verhey, that churches today are called to discern the shape and style of life "worth of the gospel of Christ" in the twentieth century. Even in the face of changing situations and new moral problems to address, the contemporary church stands self-consciously in a tradition of which the New testament is a normative part. In this major new study of New Testament ethics, Verhey examines first of all the ethic of Jesus, for it is there that the tradition begins. He then analyzes the different forms in which the early church handed down the memory of Jesus' words and deeds in the development of a moral tradition. Next he deals with that tradition as it came to canonical expression in the New Testament writings. In the last part of the book Verhey focuses on the use of the New Testament in the continuing moral tradition of the church, surveying proposals for the use of Scripture, identifying the critical methodological questions, and defending a "modest proposal" for the use of Scripture.

In print for more than two decades, On Moral Medicine remains the definitive anthology for Christian theological reflection on medical ethics. This third edition updates and expands the earlier awardwinning volumes, providing classrooms and individuals alike with one of the finest available resources for ethics-engaged modern medicine.