Why have some Christians, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, been able to speak truth to power at great personal cost, while others readily capitulate to injustice? In this magnum opus, Christian ethicist Glen Stassen argues that such robust Christianity stems from believing in a "thicker" Jesus, who is Lord over the whole of life and not just one part of it. Belief in this thicker Jesus results in "incarnational discipleship" and can help Christians deal with seven...
Bioethical issues are rarely out of view in Western societies. New developments in areas such as human embryology continually raise new ethical questions, while more familiar issues frequently reappear in public debate. These are issues of central concern for Christians and for a wider public, because they raise questions about the value of life, the meaning of suffering and death and humanityÆs place in the natural world.
Having sex can be a loving and delightful experience, but it can also be emotionally, physically, and spiritually devastating. Many singles struggle to sort out how to make their own sexual experiences physically and emotionally healthy ones. This book can help. Duffy offers a thoughtful guide to sexual decision-making for single twenty-somethings, exploring ten issues readers should consider when deciding whether and when to have sex. Appropriate for non-Christians and Christians ...
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, formation, 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...
In 1910 Protestant missionaries from around the world gathered to explore the role of Christian missions in the twentieth century. In this collection, leading missiologists use the one hundred year anniversary of the Edinburgh conference as an occasion to reflect on the practice of Christian mission in today's context: a context marked by globalization, migration, ecological crisis, and religiously motivated violence. The contributors explore the meaning of Christian mission, the c...
Warren Copeland draws from his experience of more than two decades in city politics and addresses head on the issue of Christian ethics in public service. Throughout, he animates the discussion with numerous anecdotes from his tenure in City Hall, combining examples of specific ethical issues in American cities with theological and ethical reflection. Then he takes it a step further by including specific suggestions for addressing social injustice in a manner that is true to Chris...
How can we make decisions that are consistent with our basic values? We must first, J. Philip Wogaman says, identify basic moral presumptions that can guide our thought as we face moral dilemmas. These basic moral presumptions include equality, grace, the value of human life, the unity of humankind, preferential claims for the poor and marginalized, and the goodness of creation. The burden of proof, he argues, must be borne by decisions that are contrary to such presumptions. He pul...
Process theology has been a major theological innovation of the last hundred years, and its influence on American theology has been pervasive. But process thought is far from being simply an American phenomenon. Throughout the last few decades, some of the most exciting work in process theology has been undertaken in Asia and Europe. Now that process theology is a truly international movement, all theologians need to reconsider this school of thought. In this book, world-recognized ...
Convinced that several crucial historical trends are moving in the wrong direction, John Cobb Jr. and his coauthors urge Christians to live in countercultural ways--as individuals and as communities. Consumerism, inequality, imperialism, and global warming, they contend, are of such magnitude that the only real response for progressive Christians is to actively resist them. This book explores how the word of God calls Christians to resist the world's dominant forces and reflect on h...
Encouraging Christians to call for public policies that benefit those most vulnerable in our nation, To Do Justice offers tools for studying complex domestic social problems such as Social Security, immigration, the environment, and public education, and serves as a guidebook to becoming involved in social action. Rooted in Christian tradition, each essay analyzes a contemporary problem from social, biblical, and theological perspectives before providing directions for public p...
Today's complex social and economic problems leave many people in the affluent world feeling either overwhelmed or ambivalent. Even the small percentage of us who have examined the ethics behind our financial decisions and overcome the often-deterring factors of self-interest rarely know what to do to make any difference. By providing tools for examination and concrete actions for individuals, communities, and society at large, Justice in a Global Economy guides its readers thr...
Lament, so prominent in the Christian canon, is neglected in the public worship and witness of most North American congregations. These essays by Princeton Theological Seminary faculty attest to the diverse ways in which lament is understood and practiced, and invite their recovery in all elements of the church's ministry.
Thomas Ogletree has devoted much of his career to exploring the significance of Ernst Troeltsch's seminal work, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. The articles in The World Calling use a Troeltschian lens to explore fundamental issues underlying any Christian social witness in the context of American democratic institutions.
This book explores the path of recovery. James Nelson writes, as he lives, with a very special blend of insight, wisdom, humor, and humility. Sobriety sustainers and spirituality seekers will be encouraged and enlightened by his work.
In this classic reissue, scholar, pastor, and author J. Philip Wogaman addresses "people who wonder whether Christian Faith makes sense in light of the sweeping changes of our age," changes that have created at the same time a pluralistic world, a technologically sophisticated world, a dangerous world, a world of great prosperity, and yet great suffering. What are we to make of this time we live in? Can the Christian faith really provide a stable foundation? Wogaman wrestles with th...
In this timely, brief, and judicious reflection, Edward Long, a senior scholar in Christian ethics, surveys the political, religious, and moral dimensions of terrorism. Written accessibly and going far beyond the dominant war versus pacifism discussion, Facing Terrorism guides Christians through the many questions and controversies surrounding this horrific phenomenon. From defining terrorism and analyzing its causes to exploring the risks of eroding civil liberties in protecting ag...
Distinctively coauthored by a Christian scholar and a Jewish scholar, this monumental, interdisciplinary study explores the various ways in which the Holocaust has been studied and assesses its continuing significance. The authors develop an analysis of the Holocaust's historical roots, its shattering impact on human civilization, and its decisive importance in determining the fate of the world. This revised edition takes into account developments in Holocaust studies since the firs...
Success, as it is currently defined, usually depends on winning--beating the competition--which often places incredible pressures on business professionals. With engaging writing and a lack of jargon, this book navigates executives, managers, and supervisors through the ethical decisions they must make every day. Street-Smart Ethics is divided into three sections: a primer on ethics, a collection of Proverbs-based guidelines for staying out of trouble, and a self-test that contains ...
In this earnest discussion, revolutionary theologian John Cobb Jr. implores Christian churches to take a more active role in the solution of contemporary issues such as food security and the ever-expanding world population, the welfare system, civil and human rights, the war on drugs, abortion, immigration, and the destruction of ecosystems.
Professionals today wield an enormous public power. Collectively, their decisions affect the patient's plight, the client's fate, the student's future, the city's scape, the Earth's sustainability, the worker's fair treatment, and the durability of institution's great and small. Yet professionals do not perceive themselves as power wielders. They feel beleaguered, marginal, insufficiently appreciated, often under siege. Thus they tend to obscure for themselves their obligation to th...
This collection explores how the theological tradition of the social gospel, born within the social and cultural dislocations of late nineteenth-century America, relates to the dislocations--post-modern, denominational, social, and cultural--of the current American scene. Mindful of the difficulty of reconciling the need for change with the imperative to preserve theological integrity, the contributors argue that America's only indigenous theological tradition remains powerfully rel...
In this book, William May considers the images that shape the convictions and daily practice of the physician--images that can order experience and present the practitioner with imperatives by which to live. This updated edition will once again challenge physicians, students, and teachers of medical ethics to reach a deeper understanding of the physician's place in society.
What is the status of the American family? How is it changing? Are these changes making anything better? What is the future of the family? Does religion offer a positive answer? Not since Habits of the Heart has one book confronted these important issues with such personal and societal impact. This groundbreaking study argues for the creation of a new family ethic that must be central to the agendas of both contemporary society and the church.The Family, Culture, and Religion series...
The complexities of healthcare situations often include the religious commitments of patients. They should include those of healthcare professionals as well. In this fresh approach to problems in medical ethics, contributors provide case studies, interviews, and personal narratives that help ethicists listen more attentively and offer wiser critiques of the moral issues involved.
In this revised and expanded edition of Christian Perspectives on Politics, J. Philip Wogaman updates his comprehensive discussions on the interaction of Christian ethics and American politics. Wogaman clearly and fairly analyzes the long-standing debate about Christianity and politics and then constructs his own approach, all the while addressing the perennial political issues that continue to be of importance today.
