All too often, argues Ben Witherington, the theology of the New Testament has been divorced from its ethics, leaving as isolated abstractions what are fully integrated, dynamic elements within the New Testament itself. As Witherington stresses, "behavior affects and reinforces or undoes belief." Previously published as The Indelible Image, Volume 1, Witherington offers the first of a two-volume set on the theological and ethical thought world of the New Testament. The first volume looks at the individual witnesses, while the second examines the collective witness. The New Testament, says Ben Witherington, is "like a smallish choir. All are singing the same cantata, but each has an individual voice and is singing its own parts and notes. If we fail to pay attention to all the voices in the choir, we do not get the entire effect. . . . If this first volume is about closely analyzing the sheet music left to us by which each musician's part is delineated, the second volume will attempt to re-create what it might have sounded like had they ever gotten together and performed their scores to produce a single masterful cantata." What the New Testament authors have in mind, Witherington contends, is that all believers should be conformed in thought, word and deed to the image of Jesus Christ―the indelible image.

This book presents a wide-ranging study of Pauline ethics, examining how Paul's moral discourse envisages and constructs communities in which there is a strong sense of solidarity but also legitimate difference in various aspects of ethical practice. Unlike many books on New Testament ethics, this work reads New Testament texts with an explicit awareness of contemporary ethical theory, and attempts to assess Paul's contribution as a moral thinker in the context of modern debate.The contents include a survey of the variety of approaches to understanding Pauline ethics and of the contemporary liberal-communitarian debate. Using a framework indebted to the social sciences, as well as to contemporary ethical theory, various chapters go on to examine the construction of community in Paul's letters, the notions of purity, boundaries and identity, Paul's attempts to deal with diversity in his churches, the role of imitating Christ in Paul's ethics, and the ethic Paul develops for interaction with 'outsiders'. Finally, the pattern of Paul's moral thinking is considered in relation to the liberal-communitarian debate, with explicit consideration given to the central moral norms of Pauline thought, and the prospects for, and problems with, appropriating these in the contemporary world. It is argued that, while Paul's ethics raise problems which prevent their easy application today, by thinking with, beyond, and sometimes against Paul, we can find in his letters valuable resources for the pressing moral tasks that confront us.

Product Description: On the one hand, Ephesians 4.17-5.21 has been interpreted as drawing a social or ethical contrast between the addressees and the outside world, and even as encouraging or legitimating social withdrawal or separation from outsiders...read more

Product Description: The notion of personal responsibility sounds so obvious that for generations it was self-understood. It was associated with maturity, reasoned decision making, acceptance of consequences for one s actions, admissions of guilt and wrongdoing when appropriate, thrift and decency, concern for others and for society at large...read more

Product Description: What should we do or not do? What attitudes, behavior and qualities are good? Can we be good without God? What is the highest good, the purpose of human existence? These are the questions the study of ethics seeks to answer. Unlike many approaches to ethics, this book foundationally turns to Scripture, going only as far as Scripture itself goes...read more

Product Description: What ways of distinguishing right and wrong are encouraged within biblical writings? How did various bibical authors offer different yet complementary motivations for promoting ethical action and discouraging unethical behavior? The Ethical Vision of the Bible equips readers with an interest in deepening their understanding of biblical ethics to listen carefully to the variety of ethical emphases found within the Bible itself...read more

Product Description: Among the different understandings of the Spirit in the New Testament, Paul's Spirit language stands out for being at once dynamic and sometimes impersonal—inviting comparison with the Stoic notion of spirit (pneuma) as a substance...read more

Product Description: This textbook utilizes material from the acclaimed Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics to introduce students to the use of the Old Testament for moral formation.

Product Description: What have the Psalms to do with ethics? Readers prize the Psalter for its richly theological prayers, but into these prayers are woven a variety of ethical issues. This book explores the ethics of the Psalter by examining the four portraits of the righteous person that punctuate Book I...read more

Product Description: Michal's Moral Dilemma proposes that attention should be paid to the moral goods that feature in the text, before arguing that the family, a central feature of Old Testament morality, should be understood as a set of practices rather than an institution...read more

Product Description: new unread but some fading and shelf wear

Product Description: A Short History of Jewish Ethics traces the development of Jewish moral concepts and ethical reflection from its Biblical roots to the present day.  Offers an engaging and thoughtful account of Jewish ethics Brings together and discusses a broad range of historical sources covering two millennia of writings and conversations Combines current scholarship with original insights Written by a major internationally recognized scholar of Jewish philosophy and ethics...read more

Product Description: Unlock the powerful truths that shattered ancient beliefs and paved the way for the new and revolutionary religion that became Judaism.This is a unique look at the Torah―the foundation of Jewish existence―and the revolutionary teachings of Moses embedded within it that gave birth to Judaism and influenced the world...read more

Product Description: What can we learn today about human relationships from reading the Hebrew Bible, filled with such ancient stories as that of a father who raised a knife to slaughter his beloved son? Contemporary Christian ethical discussions tend to treat the Hebrew Bible in a limited, distanced, and even dismissive way...read more

Product Description: The book examines the relationship between cult and ethics in the book of Isaiah. Part I challenges the common assumption that the prophets were anti-cult by suggesting that the principles supporting both priestly and prophetic teaching about ritual and social justice were essentially the same...read more