Methodology 1: A Method for Moral Theology and Mission Practice

Methodology 1: A Method for Moral Theology and Mission Practice

Rollin G. Grams

Students who wish to address issues in Christian ethics and to do so by engaging Scripture may consider the following method helpful.  The following outline should help to flush out issues for consideration—it does not give much direction about how to handle the issues (although I do express some of my assumptions here).  This outline may also function as a ‘map’ for more detailed discussion at a later point.

I.                   Clarify Your Moral Vision

A.    Why Clarifying our moral vision comes first.

This step takes one well beyond writing an essay on a given topic, and it is in fact an ongoing procedure for those involved in mission practice.  But it is a step that should shape your thinking about the moral life and ministry.

By making this the first step in a method for moral theology and mission practice, I am emphasising that our moral identity derives from our worldview and communities and will determine how we see issues and how we think about them.  For instance, discussing 'War and Peace' in a western, democratic country in which Christians live without much persecution, if any, will be very different from a discussion where they are a much persecuted minority.  More importantly, I would argue, discussing this issue as Christians as opposed to citizens of any given country should make a profound difference.

B.     Issues to Consider in Clarifying Your Ministry Context and Mission Practice

Use the chart in Appendix I: Ethical Issues and Methodologies for the two following descriptions, since it tries to encapsulate various issues and methods of doing ethics.  When using this chart, try to show the linkages between the following topics and where the emphases lie for both your context of ministry and your mission practice:

Moral Identity, Moral Community, Moral Virtues, Moral Values, Moral Rules and Principles, Moral Actions, Moral Outcomes of these Actions

In addition, certain textbooks on Christian ethics should prove helpful (see the bibliography).  I particularly recommend:

Grenz, Stanley J.  The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997.

1.      Ministry Context: describe the Moral Understanding of the Community with which you work (the urban poor in Nairobi; children at risk in India; East European prostitutes in Western Europe; youth in a church in England; women with AIDS in Swaziland; etc.)
For the social and cultural dimensions of this description, you may wish to use:

Adeney, Bernard T.  Strange Virtues: Ethics in a Multicultural World.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995.

2.      Mission Practice: describe the Moral Dimensions of Your Mission Practice.
a.       In doing this, also try to describe your mission practice as a 'moral craft,' with reference to the four page document, 'Mission Practice as Moral Craft' (Appendix II)
b.      This may be a theoretical exercise, if you are proposing what mission practice needs to be initiated.

II.                Clarify You Understanding of Moral Authority

Moral authority is often the issue in Christian ethics.  The main issues are the role of Scripture as a moral authority for Christians and the use of Scripture by Christians for ethics.

A.    The Role of Scripture as a Moral Authority

In Christian theology and ethics, authority is often discussed in terms of Scripture, Church teaching, reason, and experience.  Be aware not only of your own assumptions about these authorities but also about the assumptions—explicitly stated or not—of authors writing in Christian ethics.  Orthodox Christians assume that Scripture is the final authority for moral enquiry, and therefore much of Christian ethics has to do with the interpretation of Scripture (exegesis and hermeneutics).  This is true even in traditions that highly value ecclesiastical authority.  Many debates in Christian ethics come down to whether Scripture will be taken as authoritative or not.

B.     The Use of Scripture by Christians for Ethics

Simply stating that Scripture is authoritative does not always resolve ethical issues.  Hermeneutics—how we interpret Scripture—plays a role as well.  Our view of the unity and diversity of Scripture (Biblical theology) also plays a role.  What, for example, are Christians to make of Old Testament laws?

1.      Discussion of the use of Scripture by Christians is often presented in terms of possibilities from very particular to very general, or very concrete to very abstract levels of use.  Richard Hays offers four approaches to the use of Scripture (of course, a scholar could use all four and/or emphasise one approach in particular).
a.       The Moral Rule approach to Scripture.
b.      The Moral Principle approach to Scripture.
c.       The Moral Paradigm approach to Scripture.
d.      The Moral Universe or Symbolic World approach to Scripture.
See Hays' discussion of these four approaches to the use of Scripture, as well as his assessment of five ethicists on their use of Scripture in ethics (The Moral Vision of the New Testament).


III.             Describe the Issue Under Consideration

In light of the ministry context, describe the issue under consideration, being careful to bring to light any relevant moral matters.  Again, Appendix I: Ethical Issues and Methodologies should be helpful thinking through how to describe the issue under consideration.

A.    Case Method for Descriptive Purposes:

An effective way to describe the issue is to offer one or more actual cases in which the moral issue arises.  Case approaches to ethics keep the discussion authentic and practical: they emphasise the cultural and contextual issues involved in ethics and the very practical concerns for acting in given situations.  For example, cohabitation of couples before marriage takes a very different form in different contexts.  One may believe that no Christian should ever cohabit before marriage, but a specific situation in a given culture will still involve different moral considerations.  In the Seychelles, cohabitation is the norm due in large part to a history of slavery.  Birth control, women in the workplace, more highly educated couples marrying at later dates, and so forth have contributed to the practice of cohabitation in our times.  The moral issues around cohabitation per se vary from one situation and context to another.  A case study approach can capture the contextual issues without (as some have mistakenly argued) affirming a situation ethics approach, in which the context determines the moral response rather than some clear authority (such as Scripture and the Church’s teaching).

B.     Clarify the Moral Dimensions in this Issue and for Mission Practice

The moral dimensions of an issue go way beyond helping someone make a decision in a quandary situation.  This is often what we think needs to be our focus in ethics, but in fact this may well be a minor concern.  A couple being asked to pay doctors and nurses extra money on the side in order to receive urgent care may face the moral dilemma of whether or not to pay a bribe.  One could focus on the moral issue of making a decision in such a case.  But one could also focus the study on the larger issue of shaping virtues in health care through the Christian tradition over the centuries and what we might do now in mission practice to help reform crumbling medical systems.

C.     Clarify what needs to be understood about the topic.

A clear understanding of the topic is required in order to discuss it intelligently.  To discuss moral issues in genetic ethics, one needs a clear understanding of the technology and its consequences at this time.  This step should involve important research in other fields of study—without turning science into a moral authority.

This step sometimes forms the bulk of books in ethics applied to certain issues.  The danger here is to let the description of technology, medicine, economics, politics, and so forth 'take over' the discussion of ethics.  Two way in which this often happens in applied ethics is when we unconsciously value 'effectiveness' over 'faithfulness' and when we forget that ethics is not something we simply apply to a topic which we have first researched in some other way.  Our moral vision helps us see the topic from the beginning in one way instead of another (hermeneutics).  I will view concerns about immigration in the UK differently if I see all people as created by God, ones for whom Christ died, and ones to whom the risen Lord has sent his disciples with the Gospel.  Alternatively, a purely cultural purity or economic perspective may lead me to address immigration in a very different manner.

IV.             Gain a Scriptural Understanding Pertinent to this Issue and Your Mission Practice

The methodological points made here appear in Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1996).  Hays identifies four tasks in for Christian ethics: the descriptive, synthetic, hermeneutical, and pragmatic.  He suggests that there are four uses of Scripture (see below).

A.    The Interpretation of Texts (Descriptive Task)

1.      What texts speak directly or indirectly to the issue you are considering?
2.      Research the meaning of these texts in the field of Biblical Studies.

a.       Exegetical Method:
To do this, two helpful books on exegetical method for pastors may be of use.  These books seem intimidating to someone not trained in Biblical studies, but they lay out the issues to be aware of in Biblical interpretation and offer helpful guidance, including bibliographies, to the student learning how to exegete Biblical texts.  They may be useful to students who do not know Greek or Hebrew.

                                                Fee, Gordon.  NT Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors.  Philadelphia:                                                Westminster Press, 2002.
Stuart, Douglas. OT Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors.  3rd Edition.  Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 2002.

b.      Commentaries:
Commentaries are being published all the time, and there is in general a steady improvement of commentaries.  Here are some tips for using commentaries.
1.      Always use several commentaries to get several scholars' opinions.
2.      Be sure to look at some recently published commentaries.
3.      Be aware of and seek out different traditions and purposes in commentary series.  Understand that commentary series are published for different reasons (scholarly interpretation, preaching, etc.) and often within a certain tradition (e.g., Evangelical, Roman Catholic, etc.).  See Appendix III: Building A Basic Library For New Testament Study: Pastors and Laity for a list of commentary series, as well as other useful books for Biblical studies.
4.      Gain an overall perspective--how the specific discussion of a specific Biblical passage in a commentary fits into the commentator's overall understanding of the whole book.  Check the introduction, particularly the discussion of themes, structure, and purpose of the book.  Look up the discussion on related passages.

B.     Gaining a Biblical Theological and Ethical Understanding (Synthetic Task)

1.      Biblical theology and ethics have to do with more than interpreting specific texts.  They also have to do with more than trying to figure out how this collection of texts on a specific topic fit together.  Biblical theology and ethics have to do with how to understand the unity and diversity of the Bible and in what ways this material can be synthesised.  How does one go about this task?

a.       Themes and Centres: In much of the twentieth century, the approach to Biblical theology entailed trying to find the unifying 'centre' of the various themes in Scripture (covenant, God, salvation, Kingdom of God, Jubilee, etc.).  Look for books on Biblical Theology, Old Testament Theology, and New Testament Theology, as well as books covering portions of Scripture from a theological perspective (e.g., Pauline Theology).
b.      Focal Images: Richard Hays (The Moral Vision of the New Testament) suggests using three focal images for New Testament Ethics: the cross, the community (Church), and the New Creation perspectives.  He rejects liberation and love as focal images for Christian ethics.
c.       Narratives and Metanarratives: Very recently, scholars have suggested a narrative approach to a synthesis of Scripture.  This can overlap with other approaches to the synthetic task (Hays is also a major name in the narrative approach to the New Testament, e.g.).  Thus key Biblical narratives rather than theological doctrines or even themes might be the way to draw the Biblical writings together: creation, the Exodus, Israel (including the Exile and Return from Exile), Jesus, and the Church.  This raises the further question: is there a primary narrative (such as that of the Gospel as a narrative about Jesus) or a metanarrative (a narrative into which the various narratives fit) for interpreting the Bible (such as the narrative of God and His people)?

2.      Read Biblical Theology and Ethics: Given this very scholarly discussion of Biblical theology and ethics, the student faces the daunting task of how to sort through all this while pursuing another purpose.  On the one hand, this does emphasise the importance of Biblical scholars being part of mission practice--nobody can be an expert in everything!  Yet it also emphasises that ethics is not an applied field of study which merely adds moral questions to the academic field of Biblical studies.  Nor is it some kind of reflection on texts that have been interpreted by some other methodology.  Instead, Biblical interpretation is itself a moral task for the Christian.  On the other hand, there are some excellent theologies of the Bible and of the Old or New Testament which are not inaccessible to those outside the field of Biblical Studies.  But perhaps the easiest way in for the outsider is through the Biblical theological and ethical dictionaries available, since they offer short articles with brief bibliographies to introduce one to a wide variety of material.  See my Tools for Biblical Interpretation.

Also see my  Bibliography for Ethics in Development Practice for ethics dictionaries.

3.      Read Christian ethicists on your topic to see how they use Scripture in moral argument.  For this, see the Bibliography for Ethics in Development Practice.  The bibliography is meant to orient the student to various topics in Applied Ethics of relevance to students in mission practice, that is, people trying to work out an ethic for a specific area of practice and life, such as medical ethics, development ethics, ethics and communication practice, environmental ethics, etc.

C.     Critically interact with other approaches to ethics (hermeneutical task)

This step requires reading in the field of ethics (particularly Christian ethics).
2.      When reading in this area, the student needs to understand the actual argument a given scholar is presenting on the relevant topic.
3.      The student must also try to analyse the approach to arguing that the scholar is taking (discourse analysis).  What are the scholar's assumptions and guiding themes?  Which kind of authority figures in the argument (Scripture, tradition, reason, or experience?)?
Texts on ethical method, the history of Christian ethical interpretation, and introductory texts to ethics can be helpful to prepare the student for this sort of analysis.  Some recommended texts (to get students started) include:

                                    Clark, David K. and Rakestraw, Robert V., eds. Vol. 2: Issues and
Applications.  Readings in Christian Ethics.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996.
Clark, David K. and Robert V. Rakestraw, Vol. 1: Theory and Method.  Readings in Christian Ethics.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1994.
Crook, Roger H.  An Introduction to Christian Ethics.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Gill, Robin.  A Textbook of Christian Ethics.  2nd Ed.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1995.
Grenz, Stanley J.  The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997.
Stassen, Glen and David Gushee.  Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context.  Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2003.
White, R.E.O.  Christian Ethics: The Historical Development.  Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981.
Wogaman, J. Philip.  Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction. 
Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993.
                Wogaman, J. Philip and Douglas M. Strong, Eds.  Readings in Christian Ethics: A Historical Sourcebook.  Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1996.

However, a daunting list of books can be scaled down by reading relevant articles in dictionaries of theology and/or ethics.  Also, Appendix I is designed to raise issues from various approaches to ethics, particularly the character, deontological, and teleological approaches (note columns 2,3, and 4).

4.      Of particular importance for Christian ethics is how the scholar uses Scripture (discussed above).

D.    Apply theory to practice (Pragmatic Task)

Just how would such an ethic look in practice, or how does it actually look in real communities that practice it?  Taking theory to practice actually raises further ethical issues, such as when one decides that growing poppies for drugs needs to stop immediately but poor farmers will be devastated by the loss of this income.  What needs to happen in a local church's support of marriages if divorce is ruled out for couples?

1.      One crucial area of consideration here is the moral means available or permissible in pursuing moral ends.  According to Edward LeRoy Long, Jr., there are three general moral means to consider: institutional, operational, and intentional means:

Long, Edward L.  A Survey of Recent Christian Ethics.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

An interesting discussion (in part 2) of various means to bring about social change can be found in:

Mott, Stephen Charles.  Biblical Ethics and Social Change.  Oxford University Press, 1982.

Over against Mott's interest in using power to bring about social change, the writings of Stanley Hauerwas and John Howard Yoder have focused ethics on intentional communities living faithfully to the Gospel, communities that can be salt and light to the larger society (see Bibliography).

Long and Mott might be combined and slightly expanded to offer the following consideration of three moral means for social change:

Institutional Means: Moral ends are pursued through institutions that
might effect change in society

A. Government: Bringing about social change through the established government and legal procedures of society, including such governing structures as denominations.  "Let us put our energy into getting the legislature to pass anti-abortion bills."  "Let us see if we can get the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade."  Biblical Examples: David replaces Saul on the throne of Israel; Paul appeals to Caesar; Paul recognizes the authority of the High Priest (Acts 23.1-5).
 B. Traditions: In some societies, the distinction between tradition and law is blurred, and tradition is institutionalized.  In such instances, tradition may become a means to moral change.  The Roman Catholic tradition has become a part of the culture in Ireland.  Laws may or may not be significant for the issue; tradition may be sufficiently strong to direct people's moral paths.  Biblical Example: "So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you, and never to defile yourselves by them: I am the Lord your God" (Lev 18.30).
 C. Agencies: One may establish various agencies to inform people about and perform moral ends.  Focus on the Family, orphanages, and crisis pregnancy offices are examples of institutional means which may address the issue of abortion.  Biblical Example: The order of widows (1 Tim. 5--the order of widows).

                                 Operational Means: The means of power (peer pressure, law,
        police/army) is confronted directly

A. Strategic Non-Cooperation: Societies may or may not protect persons who refuse to co-operate with immoral behaviour within society.  The child who opts to go against peer pressure from other children in not watching a pornographic movie is not opposing a legal ordinance; the person who participates in a non-violent protest of abortion clinics (Operation Rescue) may find him/herself breaking the law of the land.  This moral means does not act violently but is planned resistance to some power deemed to be acting immorally.  Biblical Example: "But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5.29).
 B. Violence: Individuals or groups may act violently against what is the power source of the immoral action.  Examples: killing a doctor performing abortions, bombing an abortion clinic, physically restraining persons from having abortions.  Biblical Example: the judges of Israel (e.g., Ehud kills Eglon, the source of Moabite power subjecting Israel--Jdg. 3).
                                         C. Communication: misinformation to destabilise a regime during war; truth-telling as a
                                             means to reconciliation; reporting news as a check upon those who hold power; etc.
                                         D. Prayer: Understanding prayer as powerful, prayer may be an effective way to bring
              about change within society.  Biblical Example: prayer of the Jerusalem church for Peter's release from prison results in the Lord delivering Peter from prison and death (Acts 12).
              E. Embargoes

       Intentional Means: Moral means are accomplished not by addressing
        structures or power but by transforming the character of individuals and the Christian community
     
 A. Evangelism: Focusing on the transformation of individuals--conversion, sanctification of their minds--will bring about a redemption of the person's will (intentions) and actions.  Biblical Example: Paul's persecution of the church came to an end with his conversion.
 B. Church Community: Focusing on the creation of an intentional society of Christ which will have a transforming effect on society to some degree, but without that transformation being the major moral end of the community.  Biblical Example: Matthew 5.13-16 (salt and light) may be read as a corporate, not individualistic, charge: you (pl. in the Greek) as Kingdom community must, through good works, have a witnessing effect on society such that those outside come to glorify God.

(The use of Scripture in these examples is only by way of example.  We should not use Scriptural examples as warrants for our own actions (consider Ehud!)

2.      Another important area of concern in the pragmatic task is agency.  Who plays what roles?  What should be done?

An interesting discussion of what a church needs from its members to be a community of moral discernment and action can be found in:

                                Birch, Bruce C. and Larry L. Rasmussen.  Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life.  Rev. and
                                Expanded Ed.  Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1989.

                        At some points, the following book is also helpful on this topic:

                                Verhey, Allen. Remembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life.  Grand
                                Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

V.                Consider Other Issues of Moral Guidance

Appendix I raises various issues and approaches to moral guidance.  Of particular importance is how one constructs an argument for the moral life and moral action from issues to do with character, actions, and goals in ethics.

A.    Character Ethics:

Character or Virtue Ethics are coming back into vogue.  This approach predominated in Christian ethics until the Enlightenment in the West.  Scholars like Alasdair MacIntyre (philosophy) and James McClendon and Stanley Hauerwas (theology and ethics) have brought emphases such as community, narrative, character, practices, virtues and so forth back into Christian ethics.
Appendix I does incorporate this perspective by placing moral identity and character before other issues in ethics.

A discussion of the virtues begins with the ancient Greeks, especially Aristotle (Nichomachian Ethics).  Augustine wrote works on virtues (e.g., On Constancy).  But the major figure in Christian circles is Thomas Aquinas (see his Summa Theologica II.2).  One of the challenges for Evangelicals today is to relate this tradition to Scripture.

B.     Actions:

While contemporary ethical theory has, sadly, downplayed a normative use of Scripture for moral rules prescribing or proscribing certain actions, the Bible is full of laws, rules, sin lists, proverbs and advice about specific actions.  Assessing the importance of this for Christian ethics is complicated.  (1) One of the storms in New Testament studies in the past thirty or so years has been reassessing the place of the Law in early Christianity and Judaism.  (2) Liberal Theology tended to oppose the use of rules in ethics with emphases on principles (love in situation ethics, justice, liberation, preference for the marginalised, etc.) and diverse contexts.  (3) The newer emphasis on narrative and virtue has not usually accommodated rules for specific actions.  But some scholars have emphasised (communal) practices (Stassen and Gushee, Verhey, Yoder).

Evangelicals have, on the other hand, emphasised the authority of Scripture in such a way that its rules, laws, actions, and so forth cannot be dismissed.  Thus Evangelicals need to identify hermeneutical rules that help them to see which of these are transculturally normative and which are contextually relative.

A virtue ethic is also interested in how practices relate to virtues, and in this way actions are important for virtue ethicists.  The development of virtue, moreover, entails forming habits through repeated actions.

C. Goals

The classic emphasis on moral ends is Utilitarianism, with its guiding principle of doing the greatest good to the greatest number of people.  The classic response to this approach to ethics focuses on the fact that this approach begs the question of what is good.  But in another sense, moral goals fit any ethic and need to be considered.  Aristotle spoke of the end which all humans seek as 'pleasure' or 'happiness' (in the sense of what constitutes the ‘good’ life rather than what makes me feel good right now).  This end then guided his understanding of the virtues, since virtues are the qualities required to lead to the purpose of life (the good life).


VI.             Moral Motivation (What motivates us to be good, to do what we ought?)

Motivations may be considered from various angles, such as:

A.    Motivation out of Obedience: rewards and punishments, to please someone, in fear of someone or ones
B.     Motivation by Affections (values: E.g., holiness, freedom, happiness, effectiveness, faithfulness)
C.     Social Motivation: affirmation, acceptance, honour/dishonour, ostracism, social conditioning (often unconscious), playing of accepted roles in society
D.    Moral Vision Motivation: we walk according to what we see and what destination we set, according to the overarching stories making sense of our lives and giving rise to values and virtues in our communities.

VII.          Moral Empowering (How do we overcome obstacles to do what we ought?)

A.    What is the tragic flaw in us and the world which keeps us from the moral life?
            A useful discussion of various views on the 'tragic flaw' is:

Bloesch, Donald.  Freedom for Obedience: Evangelical Ethics in Contemporary Times.   San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987.

B. How do we overcome this tragic flaw?
1. Spiritual Empowerment (the thrust of Paul’s theology and ethics)
2. External Helps (J. Calvin, Book four of Institutes: church, councils and creeds, sacraments/ordinances, government)
3. Education: teaching, imitating, participating in, embodying the moral narrative, vision, values, virtues, obligations, rules, right actions, and moral outcomes in the Church
4. Forming Habits and the Right Affections: development of the virtuous life in the church and in the individual’s life.
            An interesting source for discussing 'affections' of the heart in ethics is Jonathan Edwards, the American Puritan.
Appendix I: Ethical Issues and Methodologies
Rollin Grams

The Four Tasks of Theological Interpretation
Descriptive Task: Exegesis
Synthetic Task: Biblical Theology
Dogmatic Task
Pragmatic Task

Establishing the 'Text' (the focus of study and its authority)
Biblical Text: Textual Criticism, Source, Form, Tradition, Redaction Criticisms, Translation
Canon: Authority, Limits
Theological Authority:
1.         Scripture, reason, tradition, experience
2.         Nature of doctrine
Contextual Authority:
1.         Normativity and Relativity of the Text
2.         Scripture, Community and Context
3.         Cultural Context

Using the Text
Defining what there is:
1.         Behind-the-text
2.         In-the-text
3.         In-front-of-the-text
Synthesising Scripture:
1.         Place of historical reconstruction for Biblical theology
2.         Unity and Diversity of Scripture
3.         The role of the reader in synthesising the literature
Theologising with Scripture:
Three Distinct Types of Theological Enquiry:
1.         Modern Scientific
2.         Postmodern Deconstructive
3.         Tradition
Christian Life  (missions, ethics, worship, education, counselling):
1.         Focusing moral vision: God's character, humanity, mission, etc.
2.         Specifying behaviour (norms, practices)
3.         Warranting behaviour (principles, values, virtues)
4.         Witnessing to tradition (paradigms, narratives, performances)

Interpreting the Text


Interpretation with respect to:

1.        Context (Historical, Cultural focus)

2.        Cotext (Text focus)

3.        Communication and Construction of Meaning  (authors, texts,  and readers)
1.         Historical-Cultural Context: Introductory Issues in Biblical Study

2.         Language and Text:
Interpretation focused on the text itself: Linguistic and Grammatical Study; Literary Critical studies

3.         Author’s Speech-Acts or traces of meaning:
Locution, Illocution, Perlocution, Interlocution
1.         Canonical Context: Diachronic and contextual study of Biblical authors and texts;  development in canon

2.         Synchronic study of Biblical language and imagery (a ‘centre’, focal images,[1] narrative unity,[2] canon[3])

3.         Synthesising Communication of authors, canonical texts, and readers: Theology of a book or author of the Bible; OT Theology, NT Theology, Biblical Theology
1.         Church History: History, historical theology, Christian traditions

2.         Tradition and Community:  Language, convictions, practices of Christian traditions/ communities

3.         Communication and Construction of Theology and Ethics: foundational, anti-foundational, or post-foundational theology
1.         Community’s Context: Contemporary Context; Local community

2.         Theology as  Tradition (a Community's  'Craft'):
Missions, Church, Ethics in context; Discourse, Rhetoric, and Communication[4]

3.         Communication and Construction Within Our Context:
Theological application, theological reflection on practice, communal interpretation; liturgical, homiletical, ethical, etc. uses of Scripture
Determining the Meaning of the Biblical Text (Types of 'Meaning' According to Focus in Interpretation)
What does the author mean in this text?  Text as object of action and as instrument of communicative action

Focus: Original context; Biblical text as document to be interpreted.
What does the text imply?
Text as canonical instrument of action.

Focus: Biblical text as Canon
What is the significance of the text?  Texts as Christians' instrument of action.

Focus: Readers’ tradition and context; Biblical text as authority within believing community
What applications of the text in our day and context may be made?  Or, how do we live the text in our context?

Focus: Readers’ context and application; biblical text as analogous, contextual narrative for today's people of God.



Appendix II:
Mission Practice As Moral Craft

Rollin Grams ©OCMS, August 2002

Following Aristotle (Nichomachian Ethics), ethics might be thought of in terms of a craft (te,cnh) practised by a guild.  This introduction to ethics will follow this analogy, with additional reference to the now popular notion of ethics as 'narrative'.

1. Ends.  We need ends or goals (te,loj) to guide our actions.  (Craftsmen who are cheese makers need to remember that they are making cheese, not yoghurt.)  The end or goal in ethics is the ‘highest good,’ for it must give meaning to all other ends.  Aristotle spoke of this highest good in ethics as 'pleasure'; the Westminster Catechism spoke of it as the goal 'to glorify God and enjoy Him forever'.  A narrative ethic might phrase the chief end in terms of 'faithful living within the narrative by which we live' (as opposed to effectiveness, e.g.).  Jesus' answer to this question was in terms of 'love of God and neighbour' (Mt. 22.37-40).  One way of expanding the idea of 'end' in ethics is to speak of 'moral vision'--the way we see the world through our unique community and tradition.
*If development work has the end of 'caring', or 'self-empowerment to meet basic needs', how will this relate to an ethic for development work?  Will a 'highest end' (to glorify God?) guide these ends?
*What assumed moral ends operate in development work?  (Often Western development work assumes these are human rights, freedom.)

2. Virtues.  A craft involves certain virtues.  'avreth,' (virtue) means 'that quality of a thing which helps it accomplish its purpose (end) well.'  If we are making knives, the virtues of the knife might be: sharpness, a good weight, good grip, the right blade for the right task (serrated or not), price.  Aristotle defines a virtue as the mean between two extremes (deficiency and excess, which are vices).  These virtues define a thing's character (h;qoj).  The practice of the craft also involves certain virtues: virtues associated with a business ethic and work ethic.
*What 'common virtues' apply to all involved in a certain practice?  (E.g., Communication practice: Accuracy, truthfulness, clarity, conciseness, balance, relevance, interesting, etc.)  What about Development practices?
*What 'specific virtues' apply to Christian mission practice?  Development work?
*How will ethics understood as development of character within a given tradition and community be different from ethics understood in terms of making decisions?  (Decisionism: Deontological, Teleological/ Consequentialist, Situationist ethics)
*What individual virtues apply to Christians?  Paul speaks of 'gifts' rather than virtues, implying (a) human fallenness requires God's grace and (b) human virtue requires God's grace.
            *How should we rank the virtues (which are primary and which secondary)?

3. Tradition.  Different crafts have different ends, values, virtues, obligations, rules, actions.  There are even secrets kept by craftsmen for how they make their craft (hence the title 'mister' for a craftsman).  Similarly, many ethicists argue, ethics is not universal but from within a certain tradition (cf. Alisdair MacIntyre).  Ethics is not first a question of what we should do but of who we should be.  This different way of doing ethics opens up new ways to speak about the use of Biblical authority for Christian tradition: emphasis is placed not simply on rules for what we should do but on how Scripture defines our tradition and community (uses of Scripture: rules, principles, paradigms and narratives, and worldview).
a.       Aquinas and Natural Law theory.
b.      Immanuel Kant's 'categorical imperative': wanted to universalise ethics.
c.       Narrative ethics emphasises the relation between the tradition and the ethic that derives from within that tradition.  E.g., 'abortion' under discussion in America (women's rights), Russia (worker, community), and China (over population).
Communication practised in the Christian Tradition:
* Reporting is not only reporting news; it is uncovering a tradition's assumed narrative and understanding how its virtues operate within that narrative and tradition.  Christian reporting will uncover the assumed tradition of society and challenge this with Christian tradition.
*How will being a member of a Christian community guide one to pursue certain stories/information and not others?  Tradition establishes agenda for inquiry.
*How will being a member of a Christian community guide one to communicate material a certain way?
What about Development practice?

4. Community. Even the same craft might be practised differently by different guilds.  'This is how we do things here.'  Ethics involves being shaped by and for a given community.  Aristotle's ethics (cf. Plato's Republic) prepares people to live within the Greek city state; his virtues are those befitting such a society.
*What does it mean to practice Christian development work within a Christian community, and how does development work with its virtues play a role in larger society?
*What does it mean to practice development work as a member of a Christian community but living in larger society?  H. Richard Niebuhr spoke of five models for the relation of Church and State: Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ and culture in paradox, Christ over culture, and Christ transforming culture.  What socio-political and theological factors come into play to direct our Christian involvement in society?
*What does it mean to practice one's craft within a guild/community?  Paul speaks of different gifts within the community, and seeking the good of the church community in practising one's gifts (1 Cor. 12-14).  Stanley Hauerwas says that the Church does not have a social ethic, it is a social ethic.  Many Christian ethicists like to speak of Kingdom ethics to capture the socio-political nature of Christian ethics (over against simply a personal ethic).

5. Friendship.  Aristotle discusses ethics primarily in terms of 'virtues' (books 2 - 7) and 'friendship' (books 8 - 9).  (Friendship is another aspect of life in community, and so it is mentioned here.  As an approach to ethics, it overlaps with a virtue ethic.)  Aristotle discusses three types of friendship: friendship for utility, pleasure, and of good people.  Virtue and friendship are related in the last instance of friendship: 'complete friendship is the friendship of good people similar in virtue' (NE, 9.35).  Aristotle also discusses friendship in families (cf. the NT's household codes).  Obligation derives from the friendships (relationships) we have.
Components of friendship (Aristotle): (1) doing things for the other's good (goodwill, concord, active and unselfish benevolence, self-love [loving a friend who is most a friend, a basis for making costly sacrifices for others]; (2) wishing the friend to be and live for his/her own sake; (3) spending time together; (4) making the same choices; (5) sharing in each other's distress and enjoyment (NE, 11.11).  Cf. Rom. 12.1-18.
*Some cultures emphasise friendship as a basis for relationships of all sorts: political leaders are 'benefactors' and parent figures; contracts are more oral than written and friendship is the basis of the relationship more than legal documents; tipping and bribery are aspects of relationships rather than legality.
*How does mission practice relate to 'friendship' and 'community' with respect to the church and society as a whole?

6. Apprenticeship.  Those being initiated into a craft undergo an apprenticeship.  There is a need for a teacher or mentor.  Apprentices need models of good craftsmen and crafstmenship.  There is much to learn, although knowledge counts for little in ethics (it counts for much in crafts).  Rather, ethics has more to do with desiring and deciding to do the virtuous thing and with shaping one's character (h;qoj).  Character is shaped by a certain collection and hierarchy of virtues, and virtues are gained through habits ((e;qoj), which are gained through repeated action (Aristotle, NE, 2.1).  In addition, there is also an artistic feel, gained over time, for a given trade.  Virtues of character are acquired through early habituation of one's desires, feelings, pleasures and pains (NE, 1104b11, 1179b24).  To a large extent, ethics is like a craft in requiring these features of an apprenticeship.
The NT barely uses the word 'virtue'.  Paul speaks of 'righteousness' or 'fruit of the Spirit'.  Perhaps 'virtues' that one gains by oneself take too much emphasis off of what God accomplishes by his grace in us through Christ and the Spirit.  Jonathan Edwards spoke of this work of God in terms of an 'awakening'.  And yet 'righteousness' is not immediate: there is an 'already/not yet' aspect to Christian living between the first and second coming of Christ (cf. Phl. 3.12ff).  So, how do Christians 'train in godliness' (1 Tim. 4.7--here: teaching, example, Scripture reading, use of a gift for the church; cf. the 'theological virtues' of faith, love, and hope--e.g., 1 Th. 5.8)?  How do they develop 'holy or religious affections' (Jonathan Edwards: 'If we take the Scriptures for our rule, then the greater and higher our exercises of love to God, delight and complacency in him, desires and longings after him, delight in his children, love to mankind, brokenness of heart, abhorrence of sin, and self-abhorrence for it; the more we have of the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and joy in the Holy Ghost, unspeakable and full of glory; the higher our admiring thoughts of God, exulting and glorying in him; so much the higher is Christ’s religion, or that virtue which he and his apostles taught, raised in the soul' (Thoughts on the Revival I.II.I))?
Narrative ethics emphasises the importance of living in community to be able to visualise the embodiment of that narrative.  Role morality notes the importance of taking on a role within a community in order to learn, improve, and be shaped by the community's expectations and needs from one in that role.  Paul struggles with how to define his apostolic role, preferring to understand this not in terms of 'leadership' but 'service', because the model for his ethic is Jesus Christ.
            *What sort of apprenticeship is required for mission practice?
*What sort of education in virtue is needed for our children?  (Take faith, hope and love as the virtues for discussion.)  What action steps will we need to take to train children and youth in Christian virtues?
*How do we learn to practice (as in craftsmanship) love, forgiveness, reconciliation?  How does mission practice place us in the role of apprenticeship in these virtues (or put us at odds with them!)?

7. Practices.  Craftsmanship is about practice of a trade, with the understanding that there is an art to each trade.  When speaking of a Christian interest in 'reconciliation,' e.g., we may be concerned about troubled spots on the globe or broken marriages and relationships.  Yet there is more than an interest in the same product at stake in ethics: much of ethics is about the way in which this people practices what occupies them.  Narrative ethicists such as Stanley Hauerwas are concerned to describe the practices of those in the peaceable kingdom of God.  As Christians concern themselves with reconciliation, how will Christian practice of this differ from what others mean by the same term?  One example, whether lauded or derided today, is that of the medieval Catholic penitentials laying out a way to practice reconciliation to God and the church.  This involved sorrow and repentance, acts of contrition, forgiveness, absolution, restoration--more than just saying 'sorry.'  A Pauline understanding of reconciliation involves one's relationship with God: he did not expect those outside Christ to practice it (e.g., Tit. 3.3-7; Eph. 2.1-10).  Ethics has to do with understanding not only how a community's narrative outlines a unique virtue ethic but also how a community's practices help develop and demonstrate these virtues (e.g., love and the practice of forgiveness, reconciliation, hospitality, humility).
*Mission practice is an ethic: what sort of people are we becoming in the practice of our mission?  How does this practice relate to the narrative and virtues of our Christian community?
Brief Bibliography
For This Essay

Aquinas, Thomas.  Summa Theologica.
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics.
Birch, Bruce and Larry Rasmussen.  Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life. Rev. ed.
Grenz, Stanley, J.  The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian
Social Ethic.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics.
Hays, Richard.  The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary
Introduction to New Testament Ethics.
Holmes, Arthur F.  Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions.  Contours of Christian
Philosophy.
Kant, Immanuel.  Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals.
MacIntyre, Alisdair.  Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry.
Mill, John Stuart.  Utilitarianism, Liberty and Representative Government.
Mott, Stephen Charles.  Biblical Ethics and Social Change.
Wilson, Jonathan R. Wilson.  Gospel Virtues: Practicing Faith, Hope and Love in
 Uncertain Times.
Wogaman, J. Philip.  Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction.
Yoder, John Howard.  Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community before the Watching
World.
Building A Basic Library For New Testament Study:
Pastors and Laity

Dr. Rollin G. Grams (the purpose of this list is to help students work with the categories relevant for [English] Bible study in general.  The works that could be cited keep changing)

The place to start is with overview books, e.g.:
Carson, Donald, Douglas Moo, and Leon Morris.  An Introduction to the New Testament.  Eerdmans.
Fee, Gordon D. and Douglas Stuart.   How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth.  Rev. ed.  Westminster Press.
Fee, Gordon D.  How to Read the Bible Book by Book.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.

  A. Translations and Study Bibles
New International Study Bible.  Zondervan Press.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible.  New Revised Standard Version.  Oxford Univ. Press.
The Cambridge Study Bible.  Cambridge Univ. Press.

  B. Bible Atlas
Aharoni, Yohanan and Michael Avi-Yonah.  The Macmillan Bible Atlas.  Rev. 3rd ed.   NY: Macmillan Pub.
May, Herbert and John Day, eds.  Oxford Bible Atlas.  3rd ed.  Oxford Press.

  C. Bible Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Freedman, David Noel, ed.  Anchor Bible Dictionary.  6 Volumes.  Anchor Press.
Baker's Bible Dictionary.  Baker Publishing House.
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible.  Vols. 1-2.  Baker Publishing House.
Douglas, J. D., ed..  New Bible Dictionary.  Inter-Varsity Press.
Metzger, Bruce and M. Coogan, eds..  The Oxford Companion to the Bible.  Oxford Press.

  D. Historical Context Studies
Barrett, Charles Kingsley.  The New Testament Background: Selected Documents.  NY: Harper and Bros..  (Primary source anthology.)
Black, David and David Dockery, eds.  New Testament Criticism and Interpretation.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991.
Library of Early Christianity.  9 vols.  Westminster Press.
Wright, N. T.  The New Testament and the People of God, Vol. 1.  London: SPCK, 1992.

  E. Concordances
Kohlenberger, J. R. III.  The NRSV Concordance Unabridged: Including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991.
Morrison, C.  An Analytical Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament.  Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979.
The NIV Exhaustive Concordance.  John R. Hohlenberger, III and Edward Goodrick, eds. (Zondervan).
The New Revised Standard Version Concordance.  Bruce Metzger, ed.
Strong's Concordance.  Hendrickson Press.  Or New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.  Rev.  Nelson Pub.  (For King James Version and for references to Hebrew and Greek for students who do not know these languages.)

  F. Theological Words--Dictionaries
Balz, H. and G. Schneider, eds.  Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament.  3 Vols.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990-93.
Archer, Gleason and Bruce Waltke.  Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament.  2 vols.
Botterweck, G. Johannes and H. Ringgren.  Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament.  Eerdmans.  Assumes Hebrew.
Brown, Colin, ed. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 3 vols. Eerdmans Press.
Kittel, W. et al, ed.  Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.  10 vols. Eerdmans.  Assumes Greek.

  G. Reading Scripture in Context of Scripture
Barth, Christoph.  God With Us: A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament.  Eerdmans.
Fuller, Daniel.  The Unity of the Bible: Unfolding God's Plan for Humanity.  Zondervan.
Throckmorton, Burton H., Gospel Parallels.  Rev. ed.  Thomas Nelson Pub.  (Uses New Revised Standard Version).

  H. Understanding Your Own Christian Context
Erickson, Millard J.  Christian Theology.  Baker Book House.
Latourrette, Kenneth Scott.  A History of Christianity.  Vols. 1 and 2.  Harper and Row.
McGrath, Alister.  Christian Theology: An Introduction.  Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1993.

 I. Gospels
Green, Joel B., Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall, Eds.  Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992.
Smith, D. Moody.  The Theology of the Gospel of John.  New Testament Theology.  Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995.
Stein, Robert.  The Method and Message of Jesus' Teaching.  2nd edition.  John Knox/ Westminster Press, 1995.
Wright, N. T.  Jesus and the Victory of God.  Vol. 2.  Fortress.
                                                                                                   
 J. Paul
Barrett, Charles Kingsley.  Paul: An Introduction to His Thought.  Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994.
Fee, Gordon D.  Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God.  Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.
Hawthorne, G., R. Martin, and D. Reid, Eds.  Dictionary of Paul and His Letters.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 1993.
O'Brien, P. T.  Gospel and Mission in the Writings of Paul: An Exegetical and Theological Analysis.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995.
Roetzel, Calvin J.  The Letters of Paul: Conversations in Context.  2nd ed.  Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982.
Ziesler, John.  Pauline Christianity.  Rev. Ed.  Oxford University Press, 1990.

 K. Hebrews - Revelation
Martin, Ralph P. and Davids, Peter H., Eds.  Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997.
Spivey, Robert A. and D. Moody Smith.  Anatomy of the New Testament.  5th ed.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-
Hall, 1995.

For Revelation:
Bauckham, Richard J.  The Theology of the Book of Revelation.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Metzger, Bruce.  Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993.
Wainwright, A. W.  Mysterious Apocalypse: Interpreting the Book of Revelation.  Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press,
1993.      

 L. New Testament Theology and Ethics
Hays, Richard.  The Moral Vision of the New Testament.  San Francisco: Harper, 1996.
Ladd, George Eldon.  New Testament Theology.  Rev. by Donald Hagner.  Eerdmans, 1993.
Wright, Christopher, J. H.  Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992.

 M. Bibliographies
Danker, F. W.  Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study.  Rev. ed.  Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993.
Martin, R. P.  New Testament Books for Pastor and Teacher.  Philadelphia: Westminster, 1984.
Scholer, David M.  A Basic Bibliographic Guide for New Testament Exegesis, 3rd ed.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1995.

A List of Various Bible Commentary Series

The Anchor Bible Commentary.  Roman Catholic, scholarly
Barclay's Daily Study Bible (New Testament).  Popular, lay level commentaries by a scholar (dated).
Black's New Testament Commentary.  British, scholarly.
Expositor's Bible Commentary.  At the educated lay level, evangelical.
Hermeneia Commentary.  Scholarly, international.  No application to Christian faith.  Not evangelical.
Interpretation Commentary.  Scholarly.  Lay and scholarly level.  Not in evangelical tradition.
The New American Commentary--NIV.  Evangelical, lay level.  Volumes being published.
New International Commentary on the New Testament.  Evangelical, useful at lay level.  Some dated volumes are being replaced.
New International Commentary on the Old Testament.  Evangelical.  Scholarly, useful at lay level.
New Testament Commentary.  Evangelical, Pentecostal.
Tyndale New Testament Commentary.  Evangelical, lay level.
Westminster Daily Study Bible (Old Testament).  Recent, lay level.
Westminster Old Testament Library.  OT commentaries, partly dated.
Word Biblical Commentary.  Evangelical, scholarly.

A List of Journals With Often Non-Technical and New Testament Related Articles

Evangelical Quarterly
The Expository Times
Interpretation
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Pulpit Digest
Tyndale Bulletin
Ethics and Development Practice:
Indicative Bibliography

Compiled by Rollin G. Grams (this is not up to date and is only indicative of types of materials available, although certainly some still helpful works will be found in the bibliography)

Christian Ethics:
Atkinson, David J. and David F. Field, Eds.  New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology.  Downers
                Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Birch, Bruce C. and Rasmussen, Larry L.  Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life.  Rev. ed.  Minneapolis:
Augsburg, 1989.
Bloesch, Donald.  Freedom for Obedience: Evangelical Ethics in Contemporary Times.   San Francisco:
Harper and Row, 1987.
Childress, James F.  And John Macquarrie.  The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics.  Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1986.
Clark, David K. and Rakestraw, Robert V., eds. Vol. 2: Issues and Applications.  Readings in Christian
Ethics.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996.  [Vol. 2 covers: the beginning and ending of life, human sexuality, class relations, stewardship of creation, law and government]
Crook, Roger H.  An Introduction to Christian Ethics.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Cook, David, The Moral Maze: A Way of Exploring Christian Ethics.  London: SPCK, 1988.
Davis, John Jefferson.  Evangelical Ethics.
Fowl, Stephen and L. Gregory Jones.  Reading in Communion: Scripture and Ethics in Christian Life. 
                Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991.
Grams, Rollin.  ‘From Being to Doing: The Identity of God’s People as the Ground for Building a Christian
                Social Ethic.’  Transformation 18.3 (July, 2001): 155-171.
Grenz, Stanley J.  The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
                Press, 1997.
Hauerwas, Stanley, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics.  University of Notre Dame
Press, 1983.
Keeling, Michael.  The Foundations of Christian Ethics.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1990.
Long, Edward L.  A Survey of Christian Ethics.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.
Long, Edward L.  A Survey of Recent Christian Ethics.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
McClendon, James Wm., Jr.  Systematic Theology: Vol. 1: Ethics.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1986.
Mott, Stephen C.  Biblical Ethics and Social Change.  Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.
Mouw, Richard J.  The God Who Commands.  Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 1990.
Musser, Donald W. and Joseph L. Price, eds.  A New Handbook of Christian Theology.  Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1992.
Niebuhr, R.  Moral Man and Immoral Society.  New York: Charles Scribner, 1932.
O'Donovan, Oliver.  Resurrection and Moral Order: An Outline for Evangelical Ethics.  Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1986.
Spohn, William.  What Are They Saying About Christian Ethics?  Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1984.
Verhey, Allen.  Remembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life.  Grand Rapids,
                MI: Eerdmans, 2002.
White, R.E.O.  Christian Ethics: The Historical Development.  Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981.
Wilson, Jonathan R.  Gospel Virtues: Practicing Faith, Hope and Love in Uncertain Times.  Downers
                Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998.
Wogaman, J. Philip.  Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction.  Louisville: Westminster/John Knox
Press, 1993.
               

Readings in Christian Ethics:

Beach, Waldo and H. Richard Niebuhr.  Christian Ethics: Sources of the Living Tradition.  New York: Ronald Press Co., 1955.
Boulton, Wayne G. Thomas D. Kennedy, and Allen Verhey.  From Christ to the World: Introductory
                Readings in Christian Ethics.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994.
Clark, David K. and Robert V. Rakestraw, Vol. 1: Theory and Method.  Readings in Christian Ethics. 
                Grand Rapids, MI: Baker,       1994.  [Issues covered: Beginning and Ending of Life; Reproductive Technologies and Genetics; Euthanasia; Sexuality, Marriage, and Singleness; Homosexuality; Divorce and Remarriage; Race Relations; Gender Issues; Wealth and Economics; Care for the Environment; Civil Disobedience; Capital Punishment; Peace and War.]
Gill, Robin.  A Textbook of Christian Ethics.  2nd Ed.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1995.  [Issues Covered:
Methodology; Politics and Social Justice; War and Peace; Human Life and Interpresonal Relationships--suicide, euthanasia, abortion, sexuality, birth control, race, marriage, feminist theology and ecology.]
Wogaman, J. Philip and Douglas M. Strong, Eds.  Readings in Christian Ethics: A Historical Sourcebook.  Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1996.

Philosophical Ethics:
Becker, L. C. and Beker, C. B., eds.  Encyclopaedia of Ethics.  Chicago, IL: St. James Press, 1992.
Frankena, W. K.  Ethics.  2nd ed.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973.
Holmes, Arthur F.  Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions.  Contours of Christian Philosophy.  Leicester:
InterVarsity Press, 1984.
MacIntyre, Alasdair.  A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to
the Twentieth Century.  NY: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1966.
MacIntyre, Alasdair.  Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy, and Tradition.  
Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.
Mahoney, John.  The Making of Moral Theology: A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition.  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.

Natural Ethics/Law:
Hall, Pamela.  Narrative and the Natural Law: An Interpretation of Thomistic Ethics.  Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1999.
Finnis, J.  Natural Law and Natural Rights.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
O'Donovan, Joan.  'Rights, Law and Political Community: A Theological and Historical Perspective.'  Transformation 20.1 (January, 2003): 30-38.
O’Donovan, Oliver.  ‘The Natural Ethic.’  In Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics.  Ed. David F. Wright.  Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978.  Pp. 19-38.
Pope, Stephen J.  ‘Natural Law and Christian Ethics,’ in The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics. 
Ed. Robin Gill.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 77-95.

Biblical Ethics:
Bauckham, Richard.  The Bible in Politics: How to Read the Bible Politically.  Louisville, KY:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989.
Cahill, Lisa S.  ‘The New Testament and Ethics: Communities of Social Change.’  Interpretation 44 (Oct.
1990): 383-395.
Grams, Rollin G.  'The Use of Biblical Norms in Christian Ethics.'  Forthcoming in Journal of European
Baptist Studies.
Gustafson, James.  ‘The Place of Scripture in Christian Ethics: A Methodological Study,’ Interpretation 24
                (1970): 430-55.
Hays, Richard B.  The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics.  San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996.
Longenecker, Richard N., ed.  Patterns of Discipleship in the New Testament.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
                1996.
Ogletree, Thomas W.  The Use of the Bible in Christian Ethics.  Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.
Schrage, Wolfgang The Ethics of the New Testament.  Trans. David Green.  Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1988.
Verhey, Allen.  The Great Reversal: Ethics and the New Testament.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1984.

Ethics in Christian History:
White, R.E.O.  Christian Ethics: The Historical Development.  Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981.
Wogaman, J. Philip.  Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction.  Louisville, KY: Westminster/ John Knox
Press, 1994.

Ethics and Development--General:
Aman, K., ed.  Ethical Principles for Development: Needs, Capacities and Rights.  Upper Montclair, NJ:
Institute for Critical Thinking, Montclair State University, 1991.
Attfield, R. A. and Wilkins, B., eds.  International Justice and the Third World.  London: Routledge, 1992.
Beitz, C. R., et. al., eds.  International Ethics.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Boulding, E.  Building a Global Civic Culture--Education for an Interdependent World.  Syracuse, NY:
Syracuse University Press, 1990.
Cohen, J.  The Principles of World Citizenship.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1954.
Crocker, D. A.  'Towards Development Ethics.'  World Development, Vol. 19.5 (1991).
Dower, Nigel.  What is Development? A Philosopher's Answer.  Glasgow: Centre for Development Studies,
University of Glasgow, 1988.
Dower, Nigel.  World Ethics: The New Agenda.  Edinburgh Studies in World Ethics.  Edinburgh:
Edingurgh University Press, 1998.
Elfstrom, D.  Ethics in a Shrinking World.  London: Macmillan, 1990.
Engel, J. R. and Engel, J. B., eds.  Ethics of Environment and Development: Global Challenges and
International Responsibilities.  London: Belhaven Press, 1990.
Glover, J.  Causing Death and Saving Lives.  Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977.
Goulet, Denis.  The Cruel Choice--a New Concept in the Theory of Development.  Lanham: University
Press of America, 1985.
Goulet, Denis.  Development Ethics: A Guide to Theory and Practice.  London: Zed Books, Ltd./ New
York: The Apex Press, 1995.
Hancock, Graham.  Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid
Business.  New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  A Better Hope: Resources for a Church Confronting Capitalism, Postmodernity, and
America.  Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2000.
Hauerwas, Stanley. Truthfulness and Tragedy: Further Investigations into Christian Ethics.  [Topics
include: narrative ethics, suicide and euthanasia, population control, politics of charity, care for the retarded, neonatal intensive ethics, medical profession]
Küng, Hans.  Global Responsibility--In Search of a New World Ethic.  London: SCM Press, 1990.
Küng, Hans and Kuschel, J.-J.  A Global Ethic: The Declaration of th eParliament of the World's Religions. 
London: SCM Press, 1993.
Maxwell, M.  Morality among Nations--An Evolutionary View.  Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1990.
Miller, Darrow.  The Development Ethic:  Hope for a Culture of Poverty.  1988.
Myers, Bryant. Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 1999.
Nardin, T. and Mapel, D., eds.  Traditions of International Ethics.  Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1992.
Nussbaum, M. and Glover, J., eds.  Women, Community and Development.  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
O’Connor, Alice.  Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth-Century
U.S. History.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
O'Niell, O.  Faces of Hunger--An Essay on Poverty, Justice and Development.  London: Allen & Unwin,
1989.
Pettman, R.  Moral Claims in World Affairs.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979.
Rawls, J.  A Theory of Justice.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Rawls, J.  Political Liberalism.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Riddell, R.  Foreign Aid Reconsidered.  London: James Currey, 1987.
Robertson, R.  Globalisation: Social Theory and Global Culture.  London: Sage, 1992.
Sachs, W., ed.  The Development Dictionary.  London: Zed Books, 1992.
Sen, A.  On Ethics and Economics.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1987.
Sen, A.  Inequality Re-examined.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Shiva, V.  Staying Alive--Women, Ecology and Development.  London: Zed Books, 1989.
Simon, J.  The State of Humanity.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.
Slim, Hugo.  ‘Doing the Right Thing: Relief Agencies, Moral Dilemma, and Moral Responsibility in
Political Emergencies and War.’  In Studies on Emergencies and Disaster Relief.  Report no. 6.  Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1997.
Thompson, J.  Justice and World Order.  London: Routledge, 1992.
Toulmin, S.  Cosmopolis--The Hidden Agenda of Modernity.  New York: Free Press, 1992.
Yamamori, Tetsunao, and Bryant L. Myers, Kwame Bediako and Larry Reed, eds.  Serving with the Poor
in Africa: Cases in Holistic Ministry.  Monrovia, CA: MARC Pub., 1996.
Yamamori, Tetsunao, and Bryant L. Myers, Kenneth L. Luscombe, eds.  Serving with the Urban Poor:
Cases in Holistic Ministry.  Monrovia, CA: MARC Pub., 1998.
Zolo, D.  Cosmopolis--Prospects for World Government.  Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997.

Corruption:
Adeney, B.  Strange Virtues – Ethics in Multicultural World. Leicester: Apollos, 1995.
Agere S.  Promoting Good Governance – Principles, Practices, Perspectives. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2000.
Alatas, Syed Hussein.  Corruption:  Its Nature, Causes and Functions.  Aldershot, England:  Avebury, 1990.
Andvig, Jens Christopher.  “International Corruption.”  In Corruption in Contemporary Politics.  Eds. Bull, Martin J. and Newell, James L.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Bhargava V, Bolongaita E.  Challenging Corruption in Asia, The World Bank: Washington DC, 2004.
Bull, Martin J. and Newell, James L., eds.  Corruption in Contemporary Politics.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Caiden, Gerald E., Dwivedi, O.P. and Jabbra, Joseph, eds.  Where Corruption Lives.  Bloomfield, Conneticut: Kumerian Press, 2001.
Coady, C.A.J.  'Politics and the Problem of Dirty Hands.'  In A Companion to Ethics.  Ed. Peter Singer.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.
Commonwealth Secretariat.  Fighting Corruption, Promoting Good Governance. Commonwealth
Secretariat: UK, 2000.
Covey S.  Principle Centred Leadership. Simon-Schuster: London, 1991.
Elegido J.  Fundamentals of Business Ethics – A Developing Country Perspective. Spectrum Books:
Ibadan, 1996.
Forrester, Duncan B.  Beliefs, Values and Policies:  Conviction Politics in a Secular Age.  Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1989.
Fukuyama F.  Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: Freepress Paperbacks,
1996.
Greenleaf, R. K.  Servant Leadership. Paulist Press: New Jersey, 1977.
Hancock, Graham.  Lords of Poverty:  The Free-wheeling Lifestyles, Power, Prestige and
Corruption of the Multi-Billion Dollar Aid Business.  London:  Macmillan, 1989.
Hope R. H., Snr. and C. C. Chikulo.  Corruption and Development in Africa. Basingstoke: MacMillan
Press Ltd., 2000.
Klitgaard R., R. Maclean-Abaroa R, H. L. Parris H. L.  Corrupt Cities – A Practical Guide to Cure &
                Prevention. ICS/World Bank: USA, 2000.
Kolade, Christopher.  'Corruption in Africa:  Causes, Effects and Counter-Measures.  In Faith in Development.  Eds. Deryke Belshaw, Robert Calderisi, and Chris Sugden,.  Oxford: Regnum, 2001.
Lambsdorff, Johann Graf.  2002 Corruption Perceptions Index.'  Transparency International, 2002.
Marshall, P.  'Politics, Not Ethics:  A Christian Perspective on the State.'  In Confessing Christ in Doing Politics.  Eds. Bennie Van der Walt and Rita Swanepoel.  Potchefstroom, South Africa: Institute for Reformation Studies, 1995.

Ofusu-Amaah W. P., R. Soopramanien, and K. Uprety.  Combating Corruption. The World Bank:
                Washington. 1999.
Quah, Jon S. T.  'Controlling Corruption.'  In Handbook on Development Policy and Management.  Eds. Colin Kirkpatrick, Ron Clarke, and Charles Polidano.  Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 2002.
Schein, H. E.  Organisational Culture and Leadership.  2nd ed.  Jossey-Bach Publishers: San Francisco,
                1992.
Stapenhurst, Rick.  'The Media’s Role in Curbing Corruption.'  World Bank Institute. http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/pdf/media.pdf
Stapenhurst R, Kpundeh S J eds.  Curbing Corruption – Toward a Model for Building National Integrity.
EDI (World Bank) Studies: Washington DC, 1999.


Social Evil:
Daniélou, Jean.  The Angels and Their Mission.  Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1953.
Mott, Stephen C.  Biblical Ethics and Social Change.  Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.
Myers, Bryant.  Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 1999.
Wink, Walter.  Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination.  Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.
                Wink, Walter.  Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament.  Philadelphia: Fortress
                                Press, 1984.
                Wink, Walter.  Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Forces That Determine Human Existence. 
                                Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986.

Moral Issues:
Gill, Robin, ed. A Textbook of Christian Ethics.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1985.
John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today: A Major Appraisal of Contemporary Social and Moral
Questions.  Basingstoke, Herts: Marshalls, 1984.

Community Ethics:
Birch, Bruce C., and Larry L. Rasmussen, Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life, rev. and expanded edition
Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989.
Brown, William, ed.  Character & Scripture: Moral Formation, Community, and
Biblical Interpretation.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002.
Crosby, Michael H.  House of Disciples: Church, Economics, and Justice in Matthew.  Maryknoll, NY:
                Orbis Books, 1988.
Finley, Moses I.  The Ancient Economy (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973.
Gill, Robin.  Churchgoing and Christian Ethics, New Studies in Christian Ethics 15.  Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Grams, Rollin G. From Being to Doing: The Identity of God's People as the Ground for Building a
Christian Social Ethic..’ Transformation 18.3 (July, 2001): 155-171.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  ‘Abortion Theologically Understood.’ In Virtues and Practices in the Christian
Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 221-238.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic.  Notre Dame,
IL: Notre Dame Univ. Press, 1981.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  In Good Company: The Church as Polis.  Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1995.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics.  Notre Dame: University of
Notre Dame, 1983.
Horsley, Richard A.  Jesus and the Spiral of Violence: Popular Resistance in Roman Palestine.  San
Francisco: Harper & Row Pub., 1987.
Horsley, Richard.  The Liberation of Christmas: The Infancy Narratives in Social Context.  New York: The
Crossroad Publishing Co., 1989.
Horsley, Richard.  Sociology and the Jesus Movement.  New York: The Crossroad Publishing Co., 1989.
Jeschke, Marlin. Discipling in the Church: Recovering a Ministry of the Gospel.  3rd ed.  Scottdale, PA:
Herald Press, 1988.
Jones, L. Gregory.  ‘The Craft of Forgiveness.’  Theology Today 50 (October 1993): 345-257.
Jones, L. Gregory.  Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.
Longenecker, Richard N., ed.  Patterns of Discipleship in the New Testament.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1996.
McClendon, James, Jr.  ‘The Practice of Community Formation.’ In Virtues and Practices in
the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 85-110.
Meeks, Wayne A.  ‘A Hermeneutics of Social Embodiment.’  HThR 79 (1986): ?.
Moxnes, Halvor.  The Economy of the Kingdom: Social Conflict and Economic Relations in Luke’s Gospel
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988.
Myers, Ched.  Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus.  Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 1988.
Nation, Mark Thiessen.  ‘Feminism, Political Philosophy, and the Narrative Ethics of Jean Bethke
Elshtain.’ In Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 289-305.
Niebuhr, H. Richard.  Christ and Culture.  NY: Harper, 1951.
Oden, Thomas C.  Corrective Love: The Power of Communion Discipline.  St. Louise: Concordia
Publishing House, 1995.
Ogletree, Thomas W.  Hospitality to the Stranger: Dimensions of Moral Understanding (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1985.
Stassen, Glen H., D. M. Yeager, and John Howard Yoder.  Authentic Transformation: A New Vision of
Christ and Culture.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.
Verhey, Allen.  Remembering Jesus.
White, John and Ken Blue.  Healing the Wounded: The Costly Love of Church Discipline.  Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985.
Yoder, John Howard.  Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community before the Watching
World.  Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 1992.
Yoder, John Howard.  ‘Practicing the Rule of Christ.’ In Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition:
Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 132-160.
Yoder, John Howard.  The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel.  Notre Dame: Univeristy of Notre
Dame, 1984.

Character or Virtue Ethics:
Adeney, Bernard T.  Strange Virtues: Ethics in a Multicultural World.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 1995.
Brown, William P., ed.  Character and Scripture: Moral Formation, Community, and Biblical
                Interpretation.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002.
Charles, J. Daryl.  The Unformed Conscience of Evangelicalism: Recovering the Church’s Moral Vision. 
Grand Rapids, MI: InterVarsity Press, 2002.
Colwell, John E.  Living the Christian Story.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2001.
Farley, Benjamin W.  In Praise of Virtue: An Exploration of the Virtues in a Christian Context.  Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.
Foot, Philippa.  Natural Goodness.  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.
Foot, Philippa.  Moral Dilemmas and other topics in moral philosophy.  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002. Foot, Philippa.  Virtues and Vices and other essays in moral philosophy.  2nd ed.  Oxford: Clarendon Press,
2002.
Glancy, Jennifer A.  Slavery in Early Christianity.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Hare, John.  Why Bother Being Good?  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, ?
Hauerwas, Stanley.  Vision and Virtue: Essays in Christian Ethical Reflection.  Notre Dame: Fides
Publishers, Inc., 1974.
Hauerwas, Stanley and Charltes Pinches.  C hristians Among the Virtues: Theological Conversations with
Ancient and Modern Virtues.  Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.
Jones, L. Gregory.  Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.
Kotva, Joseph J., Jr.  The Christian Case for Virtue Ethics.  Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University
Press, 1996.
Meilaender, Gilbert.  The Theory and Practice of Virtue.  Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press,
1984.
Milbank, John.  The World Made Strange: Theology, Language, Culture.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1997.
Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation, eds.  Virtues and Practices in the
Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.
Porter, Jean.  ‘Virtue Ethics.’ In The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics.  Ed. Robin Gill. 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 96-111.
Sherman, Nancy.  The Fabric of Character: Aristotle's Theory of Virtue.  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
Verhey, Allen.  Remembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life.  Grand Rapids,
MI: Eerdmans, 2002.
Wilson, Johnathan R.  Gospel Virtues: Practicing Faith, Hope & Love in Uncertain Times.  Leicester, UK:
InterVarsity Press, 1998.
Wilson, Jonathan R.  Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World: Lessons for the Church from MacIntyre's
'After Virtue'.  Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press, ?.

Business Ethics

Donaldson, T.  The Ethics of International Business.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Goldberg, Michael.  ‘Business Ethics: Kindred Spirit or Idolatry?’ In Virtues and Practices in
the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 306-323.
Stackhouse, Max L., Dennis P. McCann, Shirley J. Roels, with Preston N. Williams, eds.  On Moral
Business: Classical and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995.  [Includes articles on OT ethics, NT ethics, philosophical ethics, Catholic tradition, early Protestant traditions, modern debates, contemporary developments]

Economics:
Aiken, W. and LaFollette, H., eds.  World Hunger and Moral Obligation.  2nd ed.  Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, 1996.
Anderson, Mary B.  Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace--or War. Boulder, Co: Lynne Rienner,
1999.
Armerding, Carl.  ‘Borrowing and Lending,’ Transformation (July, 2001): 146-154.
Berry, Wendell.  ‘Economy and Pleasure.’  In What Are People For?  NY: North Point Press, 1990.  Pp.
129-144.
Berry, Wendell.  Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community.  NY: Pantheon Books, 1993.
Crook, Roger H.  ‘Chapter Fourteen: Work, Property, and Community.’  An Introduction to Christian
Ethics.  Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Elliot, Charles.  Comfortable Compassion?  Poverty, Power and the Church.  London: Hodder and
Stoughton, 1987.
Forrester, Duncan B.  ‘Social Justice and Welfare.’  In The Cambridge Companion to Christian
Ethics.  Ed. Robin Gill.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 195-208.
Gnuse, Robert.  You Shall Not Steal: Community and Property in the Biblical Tradition.  Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 1985.
Gonzalez, Justo.  Faith and Wealth: A History of Early Christian Ideas on the Origin, Significance, and
Use of Money.  San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990.
Hay, Donald A. and Alan Kreider, eds.  Christianity and the Culture of Economics.  Religion, Culture &
Society.  Cardiff: Univ. of Wales, 2001.
Hengel, Martin.  Property and Riches in the Early Church.  Trans. John Bowden.  Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1974.
Iliffe, John.  The African Poor: A History.  African Studies.  Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987.
Johnson, Luke T.  The Literary Function of Possessions in Luke-Acts.  Society of Biblical Literature
Dissertation Series 39.  Missoula, MT: Scholar’s Press, 1977.
Johnson, Luke T.  Sharing Possessions: Mandate and Symbol of Faith.  Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981.
Johnson, Peter and Chris Sugden, eds., Markets, Fair Trade and the Kingdom of God
Kim, Kyoung-Jin.  Stewardship and Almsgiving in Luke’s Theology.  JSNTS 155.  Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 1998.
Long, D. Stephen.  ‘Christian Economy.’ In Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian
Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 343-360.
Long, D. Stephen.  Theology and Economics: Values, Protests, Virtues. Routledge, 2000.
Martin, Mike W.  Virtuous Giving: Philanthropy, Voluntary Service, and Caring. Bloominton: Indiana
University Press, 1994.
Mullin, Redmond.  The Wealth of Christians.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.
Mott, Stephen and Ronald J. Sider.  ‘Economic Justice: A Biblical Paradigm.’ Transformation 17.2
(April/June, 2000): 50-63.
O’Connor, Alice.  Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth-Century
U.S. History.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.Pilgrim, Walter E.  Good News to the Poor: Wealth and Poverty in Luke-Acts.  Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1981.
Owensby, Walter L.  Economics for Prophets: A Primer on Concepts, Realities, and Values in our
Economic System.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988.
Pilgrim, Walter E.  Good News to the Poor: Wealth and Poverty in Luke-Acts.  Minneapolis: Augsburg,
1981.
Schottroff, Luise and Wolfgang Stegemann, Jesus and the Hope of the Poor.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1986;
German 1978.
Sloan, Robert.  The Favorable Year of the Lord (Austin: Schola Press, 1977.  He argues that the Jubilee
motif in Luke was both cultic and socio-economic, and therefore Jesus’ literal call for the Jubilee Year might be interpreted as not only future, when justice would be established on the earth, but also present, when the Church practices forgiveness and mercy (note p. 177).
Stackhouse, Max L.  ‘Business, Economics and Christian Ethics.’ ’  In The Cambridge Companion to
Christian Ethics.  Ed. Robin Gill.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 228-242.
Stackhouse, Max L. et al, eds.  On Moral Business: Classical and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in
Economic Life.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.
Stott, John.  Issues Facing the Church Today, ch. 7: North-South Economic Inequity; ch. 9: Work and Unemployment, and ch. 10: Industrial Relations
Verhey, Allen.  ‘Part 4: Remembering Jesus in the World of Adam Smith: A Continuing Tradition of Justice and Generosity.’ In Rembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Wheeler, Sondra Ely.  Wealth as Peril and Obligation: The New Testament on Possessions.  Grand Rapids,
MI: Eerdmans, 1995.
Wright, Christopher J. H.  God’s People in God’s Land: Family, Land and Property in the Old Testament. 
                Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1990.

Liberation Theology, Oppression, Poverty

Bauckham, Richard.  How To Read The Bible Politically.  Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1989. 
['Chapter 3: Wisdom for the Powerful: Proverbs 31.1-9.'  Pp. 41-52. 'Chapter 4: Songs for the Oppressed: Psalms 10 and 126.'  Pp. 53-72.  'Chapter 5: Taxing Questions: Jesus on Taxation.'  Pp. 53-72.  'Chapter 6: The Fallen City: Revelation 18.'  Pp. 85-102.    'Chapter 7: Exodus and Service: Freedom in the Bible.'  Pp. 103-117.]
Belo, F.   A Materialist Reading of the Gospel of Mark.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981.
Boff, Clodovis.  Theology and Praxis: Epistemological Foundations.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1987.
Cardenal, E.  The Gospel in Solentiname.  4 Vols.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1977-84.
Clevenot, M.  Materialist Approaches to the Bible.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985.
Comblin, José, Being Human: A Christian Anthropology.  Liberation and Theology 8.  Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 1990.
Gorringe, Tim. ‘Liberation Ethics.’  In The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics.  Ed. Robin Gill. 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 125-137.
Gottwald, Norman.  The Bible and Liberation: Political and Social Hermeneutics.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis
Books, 1984.
Gottwald, Norman.  The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel 1250-1050
BCE.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979.
Gudorf, C. E.  ‘Liberation Theology’s Use of Scripture: A Response to First World Critics,’ Interpretation
41 (1987): 5-18.
Gutierrez, Gustavo.  A Theology of Liberation.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1973.
Gutierrez, Gustavo.  Theology as Liberation.  London: SCM, 1974; 2nd ed. 1988.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  ‘Some Theological Reflections on Gutiérrez’s Use of ‘Liberation’ as a Theological
Concept.’  In Reading in Modern Theology: Britain and America.  Ed. R. Gill.  London: SPCK, 1995.  Pp. 317-328.
Hennelly, Alfred T. ‘The Biblical Hermeneutics of Juan Luis Segundo,’ Readings in Moral Theology No. 4: The Use of Scripture in Moral Theology, ed. Charles E. Curran and Richard A. McCormick, S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 303-320.
Kirk, J. A.  Liberation Theology: An Evangelical View from the Third World.  Atlanta: John Knox, 1979. 
Pp. 45-194.
McGovern, A. F.  Liberation Theology and Its Critics: Toward an Assessment (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,
1989.     Pp. 62-82 (for exegetical method).
Miranda, Jose.  Marx and the Bible: A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression.  London: SCM Press,
1977.
Nessan, A. L., Orthopraxis or Heresy: The North American Theological Response to Latin American
Liberation Theology.  Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989.  Pp. 283-91, 377-81 (on exegetical method).
Pixley, J. V.  God’s Kingdom: A Guide for Biblical Study.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981. 
Rowland, Christopher and Mark Corner.  Liberating Exegesis: The Challenge of Liberation Theology to
Biblical Studies.  Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1989.
Scharper, P. and S., eds.  The Gospel in Art by the Peasants of Solentiname.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
1984.
Schottroff, W. and W. Stegemann, eds.  God of the Lowly: Socio-Historical Interpretation of the Bible. 
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.
Siker, Jeffrey S.  ‘Uses of the Bible in the Theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez: Liberating Scriptures of the
Poor, Biblical Interpretation 4 (1996): 40-71.
S`lle, Dorothee.  Political Theology: A Conversation with Rudolf Bultmann.  Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1974.
Sugirtharajah, R. S., ed.  Voices From the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World. London:
SPCK, 1991.
Tambasco, Anthony J.  ‘A Critical Appraisal of Segundo’s Biblical Hermeneutics,’ Readings in Moral Theology No. 4: The Use of Scripture in Moral Theology, ed. Charles E. Curran and Richard A. McCormick, S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 321-336.
Tambasco, Anthony J.  ‘First and Third World Ethics.’  In Christian Biblical Ethics: From Biblical
Revelation to Contemporary Christian Praxis: Method and Content.  Ed. R. J. Daly, S.J.  NY: Paulist, 1984.  Pp. 139-155.
Theissen, Gerd.  The Shadow of the Galilean.  London: SCM Press, 1987.

West, Gerald.  ‘Difference and Dialogue: Reading the Joseph Story With Poor and Marginalized

Communities in South Africa.’  Biblical Interpretation 2 (1994): 152-170.

Wink, Walter.  The Bible in Human Transformation: Toward a New Paradigm for Biblical Study. 

Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973.  Ch. 1.

Wink, Walter.  Transforming Bible Study.  London: SCM Press, 1981.  Ch. 7.
Yoder, John Howard.  ‘Exodus and Exile: The Two Faces of Liberation.’  Readings in Moral Theology No. 4: The Use of Scripture in Moral Theology.  Ed. Charles E. Curran and Richard A. McCormick, S.J.  New York: Paulist Press, 1984.  Pp. 337-353.           
                               

Sexuality

Bailey, D. S.  Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition.  London: Longmans, Green, 1955.
Bailey, D. S. and Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Mollenkott.  Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?  New York:
Harper and Row, 1978.
Barton, Stephen C.  Life Together: Family, Sexuality and Community in the New Testament and Today. 
                Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2001.
Boswell, John.  Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from
the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Comstock, Gary D.  Unrepentant, Self-Affirming, Practicing: Lesbian/Bisexual/Gay People with Organized
Religion.  NY: Continuum, 1996.
Crook, Roger H. ‘Chapter Seven: Human Sexuality and the Marriage Relationship.’  An Introduction to
Christian Ethics.  Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Furnish, Victor Paul.  The Moral Teaching of Paul: Selected Issues.  Nashville: Abingdon, 1986.
Gagnon, Robert.  The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics.  Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2001.
Grams, Rollin G.  'The Use of Biblical Norms in Christian Ethics.'  Journal of European Baptist Studies 4.1 (September, 2003): 4-19.
Greenberg, David F.  The Construction of Homosexuality.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Hays, Richard.  ‘Awaiting the Redemption of Our Bodies.’ In Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 206-214.
Horner, Tom.  Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Bible Times.  Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978.
Kotva, Joseph J., Jr.  ‘Scripture, Ethics, and the Local Church: Homosexuality as a Case Study.’  Conrad Grebel Review 7 (Winter 1989): 41-61.
Martin, Dale.  ‘Heterosexism and the Interpretation of Romans 1.18-32.’  Biblical Interpretation 3 (1995): 1-14.
McNeill, John J.  The Church and the Homosexual.  Kansas City: Sheed Andres and McMeel, 1976.
Johnson, Luke Timothy.  ‘Debate and Discernment, Scripture and the Spirit.’  In Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 215-220.
Schmidt, Thomas E.  Straight and Narrow?  Compassion and Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995.

Schneiders, Sandra M.  ‘Feminist Hermeneutics,’ in Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for

Interpretation.  Ed. Joel Green.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans/Carlisle: Paternoster, 1995.

Scroggs, Robin.  The New Testament and Homosexuality: Contextual Background for Contemporary Debate.  Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983.
Sikes, Jeffrey S., ed.  Homosexuality in the Church: Both Sides of the Debate.  Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.
Taylor, J. Glen.  ‘The Bible and Homosexuality,’ in Solid Gold: 25 Years of Evangelical Theology.  Ed. C. Trueman, Tony Gray, and C. Blomberg.  Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000.  Pp. 270-287.
Webb, William J.  Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis.  Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001.
Wenham, Gordon.  ‘The Old Testament Attitude to Homosexuality.’  Expository Times 102 (1990-91).

Contextual, Global, Ethnic Theology and Ethics, and Racism

Bauckham, Richard.  'Chapter 8: The Book of Esther and the Jewish Holocaust.'  In How To Read the Bible
Politically.  Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1989.  Pp. 118-130.
Crook, Roger H.  ‘Chapter Nine: Ethnic Minorities.’  An Introduction to Christian Ethics.  Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Garrow, David J.  Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference.  NY: William Morrow, 1986.
Hays, Richard.  ‘Chapter 17: Anti-Judaism and Ethnic Conflict.’  The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation.  New York: HarperCollins, 1996.  Pp. 407-443.

Levison, John R. and Priscilla Pope-Levison, ‘Global Perspectives on New Testament Interpretation,’ in

Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation, ed. Joel Green (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans/Carlisle: Paternoster, 1995): 329-348.

Pope-Levison, Priscilla and John R Levison.  Jesus in Global Contexts.  Philadelphia: Westminster John
Knox Press, 1992.
Pope-Levison, Priscilla and John R Levison.  Return to Babel: Global Perspectives on the Bible. 
Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999.
Segovia, Fernando F.  Decolonizing Biblical Studies: A View From the Margins.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,
2000.

Segovia, Fernando F.  ‘The Emerging Project of Asian Biblical Hermeneutics: Reading Asian Readers.’ 

Biblical Interpretation 2 (1994): 371-3.

Sugirtharajah, R. S.  ‘Introduction and Some Thoughts on Asian Biblical Hermeneutics.’  Biblical

Interpretation 2 (1994): 251-263.

Sugirtharajah, R. S., ed.  Voices From the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World.  London:
SPCK, 1991.

West, Gerald.  ‘Reading the Bible Differently: Giving Shape to the Discourses of the Dominated.’ Semeia

73 (1996): 21-41.

Williams, Tammy.  ‘After Racism.’ In Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics
after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 262-288.

Wire, Antoinette.  ‘Chinese Biblical Interpretation Since Mid-Century.’  Biblical Interpretation, Vol. 4

(1996): 101-123.


Liberation from Ideology

Fowl, Stephen.  ‘Texts Don’t Have Ideologies.’  Biblical Interpretation 3 (1995): 15-34.
Miguez-Bonino, JosJ.  ‘Marxist Critical Tools: Are They Helpful in Breaking the Stranglehold of Idealist
Hermeneutics?’  In Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World.  Ed. R. S. Sugirtharajah.  London: SPCK, 1991.  Pp. 71-82.

Feminist Theology and Hermeneutics

Bach, Alice, ed.  The Pleasure of Her Text.  Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990.
Bach, Alice, ed.  Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader.  London: Routledge, 1999.
Bauckham, Richard.  Is the Bible Male?  The Book of Ruth and Biblical Narrative.  Cambridge: Grove
Books, 1996.
Bauckham, Richard.  'The Book of Ruth and th ePossibility of a Feminist Canonical Hermeneutic.'  Biblical
Interpretation V.1 (1997): 29-45.
Bird, P.  Missing Persons and Mistaken Identities: Women & Gender in Ancient Israel.  Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1997.
Brenner, A., ed.  A Feminist Companion to Exodus to Deuteronomy.  Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
1994.
Cahill, Lisa  Sowle.  ‘Gender and Christian Ethics.’ ’  In The Cambridge Companion to Christian
Ethics.  Ed. Robin Gill.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 112-124.
Collins, Adele Yarbro, ed.  Feminist Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship.  Atlanta:
Scholars' Press, 1985.
Crook, Roger H.  ‘Chapter Ten: The Status of Women.’  An Introduction to Christian Ethics. 
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Exum, C.  '"You Shall Let Every Daughter Live": A Study of Ex. 1.8-2.10.'  Semeia
28 (1983): 63-82.
Farley, M. and S. Jones, eds.  Liberating Eschatology: Essays in Honour of Letty
Russell.  Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1999.
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schhssler.  ‘Toward a Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics: Biblical Interpretation and Liberation Theology,’ Readings in Moral Theology No. 4: The Use of Scripture in Moral Theology, ed. Charles E. Curran and Richard A. McCormick, S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 354-382.
Fulkerson, Mary McClintock.  Changing the Subject: Women’s Discourses and Feminist Theology. 
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994.
Gray, Mary.  Redeeming the Dream: Feminism, Redemption and the Christian Tradition.  London: SPCK,
1989.
Hays, Richard.  ‘Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza: A Feminist Critical Hermeneutic of Liberation.’  The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation.  New York: HarperCollins, 1996.  Pp. 266-290.
Jahnaw, H. et al., eds.  Feministische Hermeneutik und Erstes Testament.  Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer,
1994.
Jeansonne, S. P.  The Women of Genesis: From Sarah to Potiphar's Wife.  Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990.
Kroeger, Catherine and Mary Evans, eds.  Women's Bible Commentary.  Leicester, UK: IVP.
Laffey, A. L.  An Introduction to th eOld Testament: A Feminist Perspective.  Minneapolis: Fortress, 1988.
Martin, Francis.  The Feminist Question: Feminist Theology in the Light of Christian Tradition.  Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
Myers, Carol.  Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context.  Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1988.
Parry, Robin.  'Feminist Hermeneutics and Evangelical Concerns: The Rape of Dinah as a Case Study.' 
Tyndale Bulletin 53.1 (2002): 1-28.
Rashkow, I.  The Phallacy of Genesis: A Feminist-Psychoanalytic Approach.  Louisville: Westminster/John
Knox Press, 1993.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford.  Sexism and God-Talk: Towards a Feminist Theology.  London: SCM, 1983.
Russell, Letty M. and J. Shannon Clarkson, eds..  Dictionary of Feminist Theologies.
Russell, Letty M., ed.  Feminist Interpretation of the Bible.  Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985.
Sakenfeld, K. D.  'Feminist Perspectives on the Bible and Theology: An Introduction to Selected Issues and
Literature.'  Interpretation 42 (1988): 5-18.
Thiselton, Anthony.  New Horizons in Hermeneutics: The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical
Reading.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992.  Note pp. 430-462 on Feminist Hermeneutics.
Trible, Phyllis.  God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality.  London: SCM, 1978.
Van, Leeuwen, ed.  After Eden: Facing the Challenge of Gender Reconciliation.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1993.
Verhey, Allen.  ‘Part 3: Remembering Jesus in Gilead: A Continuing Tradition of Liberation and Chastity.’
In Remembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

 

Government and Politics

Briggs, John.  ‘From Christendom to Pluralism.’ In Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics.  Ed. David F.
Wright.  Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978.  Pp. 59-84.
Crook, Roger H.  ‘Chapter Eleven: Citizenship in a Democracy.’  An Introduction to Christian Ethics. 
                Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Friedman, John.  Empowerment: The Politics of Alternative Development.  Cambridge, MA: Blackwell,
1992.
Hinze, Christine Firer.  Comprehending Power in Christian Social Ethics.  Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1995.
Lyon, David.  ‘The Challenge of Marxism.’ In Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics.  Ed. David F. Wright. 
Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978.  Pp. 105-130.
Miller, L. H.  Global Order: Values and Power in International Politics.  London: Westview Press, 1990.
Mothersson, K.  From Hiroshima to The Hague: A Guide to the World Court Project.  Gneva: International
Peace Bureau, 1992.
O’Donovan, Olider and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan, eds.  From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in
Christian Political Thought.  Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 1999.
O’Donovan, Oliver and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan.  Bonds of Imperfection: Christian Politics, Past and
Present.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.
Sen, Amartya, Development as Freedom.
Verhey, Allen.  ‘Part 5: Remembering Jesus in the Strange World of Politics: Revisiting Theocracy—A
Continuing Tradition of Justice. In Rembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Villa-Vicencio, Charles.  A Theology of Reconstruction: Nation-Building and Human Rights.  Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Willmer, Haddon.  ‘Towards a Theology of the State.’  In Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics.  Ed. David
F. Wright.  Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978.  Pp. 85-104.
Wogaman, J. Philip.  Christian Perspectives on Politics.  Rev. and expanded.  Louisville: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2000.
Yoder, John Howard.  The Christian Witness to the State.  Institute of Mennonite Studies Series Number 3.  Newton, KS: Faith and Life Press, 1964.

Human Rights

Gladwin, John.  ‘Human Rights.’ In Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics.  Ed. David F. Wright.  Exeter:
Paternoster Press, 1978.  Pp. 157-178.

Animal Rights
Peter Singer
Tom Regan
James Rachels, Created from Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism (Oxford University Press,
1990).
Mary Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter.
Mary Midgley, Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (NY: Routledge, 1978; rev. 1995).

Church and Society

Cook, E. David.  ‘Man in Society.’ In Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics.  Ed. David F. Wright.  Exeter:
Paternoster Press, 1978.  Pp. 131-176.
H. Richard Niebuhr.  Christ and Culture.

Punishment

Crook, Roger H.   ‘Chapter Twelve: Punishment for Crime.’  An Introduction to Christian Ethics. 
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.

Ecology

Berry, R. J., ed.  The Care of Creation: Focusing Concern and Action.  Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Boff, Leonardo.  Ecology & Liberation: A New Paradigm.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 1995.
Bouma-Prediger, Steven.  For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care.  Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001.
Bouma-Prediger, Steven.  The Greening of Theology: The Ecological Models of Rosemary Radford
Ruether, Joseph Sittler, and Jürgen Moltmann.  Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995
Cooper, Tim.  Green Christianity: Caring for the Whole Creation.  London: Spire, 1990.
Edwards, Denis, Ed.  Earth Revealing, Earth Healing: Ecology and Christian Theology.  Collegeville, MN:
                Liturgical Press, 2001.
Fox, Warwick.  Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: Developing New Foundations for Environmentalism
Boston: Shambhala, 1990.
Habel, Norman C. and Shirley Wurst, eds.  The Earth Story in Genesis.  The Earth Bible 2.  Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 2001.
Hallman, David G., ed.  Ecotheology: Voices from South and North.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books and
Geneva: WCC Pub., 1994. [Articles by various contributors on the following topics: Biblical Witness, Theological Challenges, Eco-Feminism, Indigenous Peoples, Ethical Implications.]
Hill, Brennan R.  Christian Faith and the Environment: Making Vital Connections.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis
Press, 1998.
Icke, David.  It Doesn’t Have to be Like This: Green Politics Explained.  London:
Green Print, 1990.
Khng, Hans and Karl-Josef Kuschel, eds.  A Global Ethic: The Declaration of the Parliament of the
World’s Religions.  New York: Continuum, 1993.
McFague, Sallie.  The Body of God: An Ecological Theology.  London: SCM Press, 1993.
Meyer, Art and Jocele.  Earth-Keepers: Environmental Perspectives on Hunger, Poverty, & Injustice. 
Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1991.
Northcott, Michael S.  ‘Ecology and Christian Ethics.’ ’  In The Cambridge Companion to Christian
Ethics.  Ed. Robin Gill.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 209-227.
Osborn, Lawrence.  Guardians of Creation: Nature in Theology and the Christian Life.  Leicester: Apollos,
1993.
Primavesi, Anne.  From Apocalypse to Genesis: Ecology, Feminism and Christianity.  Tunbridge Wells,
Kent: Burns & Oates Ltd., 1991.
Rasmussen, Larry L.  Earth Community Earth Ethics.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 2000.
Redekop, Calvin, ed.  Creation & the Environment: An Anabaptist Perspective on a Sustainable World. 
Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
Rutledge, David W.  Humans and the Earth: Toward a Personal Ecology.  Rockwell Lecture Series.  New
York: Peter Lang, 1993.
*Santmire, Paul.  The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology
Smith, Pamela.  Environmental Ethics?  New York: Paulist Press, 1997.
Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John A. Grim, eds.  Worldviews and Ecology: Religion, Philosophy, and the
Environment.  Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1994.
Wilkinson, Loren, ed.  Earthkeeping in the Nineties: Stewardship of Creation.  Rev. ed.  Grand Rapids:
                Eerdmans, 1991.

Family

Barton, Stephen C., ed.  The Family in Theological Perspective.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1996.
Blankenhorn, David.  Fatherless America.  New York: Basic, 1995.
Browning, Don.  ‘Biology, Ethics, and Narrative in Christian Family Theory.’  In Promises to Keep. 
Ed. David Popenoe, Jean Bethke Elshtain and David Blankenhorn.  New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996.  Pp. 119-156.
Browning, Don.  ‘World Family Trends.’ ’  In The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics.  Ed.
Robin Gill.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 243-260.
Carr, Anne and Mary Stewart van Leeuwen, eds.  Religion, Feminism, and the Family.  Louisville, KY:
Westminster/John Knox, 1996.
Charry, Ellen T.  ‘Raising Christian Children in a Pagan Culture.’  Christian Century 111 (16 February
1994): 166-168.
Clapp, Rodney.  Families at the Crossroads: Beyond Traditional and Modern Options.  Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Clapp, Rodney.  ‘From Family Values to Family Virtues.’  In Virtues and Practices in the Christian
Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 185-201.
Eerdman, Christ William.  Beyond Chaos: Living the Christian Family in a World like Ours.  Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  ‘The Family: Theological and Ethical Reflection’ and ‘The Moral Value of the
Family.’  In A Community of Character.  Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981.  Pp. 167-174 and 155-166.
Hewlett, Barry, ed.  Father-Child Relations: Cultural and Biosocial Context.  New York: de Gruyter,
1992.
Meilaender, Gilbert.  ‘A Christian View of the Family.’  In Rebuilding the Nest: A New Commitment to the
American Family.  Ed. David B. Blankenhorn, Steven Bayme, and Jean Bethke Elshtain.  Milwaukee: Family Service American, 1990.  Pp. 133-148.
Morgan, Patricia.  Farewell to the Family?  London: IEA Health and Welfare Unit, 1995.
Moxnes, Harlvor, ed.  Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social Reality and Metaphor. 
London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
Stackhouse, Max.  Covenant and Commitment: Faith, Family, and the Economic Life.  Louisville, KY:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 1997.
Van Leeuwen, Mary Stewart.  Gender and Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World. 
Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1990.

Biblical Interpretation (Summer, 2003)--issue devoted to 'family'.

Violence, Pacifism, Just War

Bainton, Roland H.  Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1960.
Bauckham, Richard.  'Chapter 9: The Genesis Flood and the Nuclear Holocaust.'  The Bible in Politics: How to Read the Bible Politically.  Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1989.  Pp. 131-141.
Buttry, Daniel L.  Christian Peacemaking: From Heritage to Hope.  Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1994.
Cahill, Lisa Sowle.  Love Your Enemies: Discipleship, Pacifism, and Just War Theory.  Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1994.
Clark and Robert Rakestraw, eds., Readings in Christian Ethics, Vol. 2, ch. 13: Peace and War.
Clouse, Robert G., ed., with Herman Hoyt, Myron Augsburger, Arthur Homes, and Harold O. J. Brown. 
War: Four Christian Views.  New ed.
Crook, Roger H.  ‘Chapter Thirteen: War and the Quest for Peace.’  An Introduction to Christian
                Ethics.  Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Davis, Grady Scott.  ‘Pacifism as a Vocation.’ In Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition:
Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 239-261.
Dekar, Paul R.  For the Healing of the Nations: Baptist Peacemakers.  Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys
Publ., 1993.
Elford, R. John.  ‘Christianity and War.’ ’  In The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics.  Ed.
Robin Gill.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 171-182.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  Against the Nations: War and Survival in a Liberal Society.  Notre Dame: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1992.
Hays, Richard.  ‘Chapter 14: Violence in Defense of Justice.’  The Moral Vision of the New Testament:
Community, Cross, New Creation.  New York: HarperCollins, 1996.  Pp. 317-342.
Holmes, Arthur F., ed.  War and Christian Ethics: Classic Readings on the Morality of War.  Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker, 1975.
Lewy, Guenter.  Peace & Revolution: The Moral Crisis of American Pacifism.  Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1988.
O’Donovan, Oliver.  Peace and Certainty: A Theological Essay on Deterrence.  Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1989.
Sider, Ronald J.  Non-Violence: The Invincible Weapon?  London: Word Pub., 1989.
Stassen, Glen, ed.  Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War.  Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press,
1998.
Stott, John.  Issues Facing the Church Today, ch. 6: The Nuclear Threat
Thompson, J. Milburn.  Justice & Peace: A Christian Primer.  Maryknoll: Orbis, 1998.
Yoder, John Howard.  The Politics of Jesus.  2nd ed.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
Yoder, Perry B. and Willard M. Swartley, eds.  The Meaning of Peace: Biblical Studies.  2nd ed.  Elkhart,
IN: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2001.

Medical Ethics

Childress, James F.  ‘Christian Ethics, Medicine and Genetics.’ ’  In The Cambridge Companion to
Christian Ethics.  Ed. Robin Gill.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.  Pp. 261-276.
Crook, Roger H.  ‘Chapter Eight: Life and Death: Issues in Biomedical Ethics.’  An Introduction to
Christian Ethics.  Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  God, Medicine, and the Problem of Suffering.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  Suffering Presence: Theological Reflections on Medicine, the Mentally Handicapped,
and the Church.  Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.
May, William F.  ‘Images of the Healer.’ In Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian
Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 324-342.
May, William F.  The Physician’s Covenant: Images of the Healer in Medical Ethics.  Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1983.
Meilaender, Gilbert.  Bioethics: A Primer for Christians.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996.
Peterson, James C.  Genetic Turning Points: The Ethics of Human Genetic Intervention.  Grand Rapids,
MI/Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2001.
Verhey, Allen.  ‘Part 2: Remembering Jesus in the Strange World of Sickness: A Continuing Tradition of
Care for the Suffering.’  In Remembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Verhey, Allen and Stephen E. Lammers, eds.  Theological Voices in Medical Ethics.  Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1993.

Theological Education

Dykstra, Craig.  ‘Reconceiving Practice in Theological Inquiry and Education.’  In Virtues and Practices in
the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre.  Eds. Murphy, Nancey, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Mark Thiessen Nation.  Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.  Pp. 161-182.
Hauerwas, Stanley.  ‘Clerical Character.’  In Christian Existence Today.  Durham, NC: Labyrinth Press,
1988.     Pp. 133-148.
Henry, Douglas V. and Bob R. Agee.  Faithful Learning and the Christian Scholarly Vocation.  Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.
Kelsey, David H.  To Understand God Truly: What’s Theological about a Theological School.  Louisville:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992.
Kelsey, David H.  Between Athens and Berlin: The Theological Education Debate.  Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1993.
Simon, Caroline J., with Laura Bloxham, Denise Doyle, Mel Hailey, Jane Hokanson Hawks, Kathleen
Light, Dominic P. Scibilia, and Ernest Simmons.  Mentoring for Mission: Nurturing New Faculty at Church-Related Colleges.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003?
Willimon, William H.  ‘Clergy Ethics: Getting Our Story Straight.’  In Against the Grain: New Approaches
to Professional Ethics.  Ed. Michael Goldberg.  Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1993.  Pp. 161-184.
Wood, Charles M.  Vision and Discernment: An Orientation in Theological Study.  Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1985.
Wood, Charles M.  An Invitation to Theological Study.  Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International,
1994.
 Some Relevant Journals for Ethics and Development Practice

Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics

Ethics
Published quarterly.  Vol. 114 in 2003.
An international journal of social political and legal philosophy.
Ethics, Place and Environment
3 issues per year.  Vol. 6 in 2003. 
International journal on geographical and environmental ethics.
Health and Human Rights
Quarterly publication.  Vol. 7 in 2003.
An International Journal.
Human Studies
Vol. 16 in 2003.
International Journal of Environmental Studies
Vol. 41 in 2003.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Quarterly publication.  Vol. 42 in 2003.
Looks at social sciences and religion with respect to religious institutions and experience.
Journal of Church and State
Quarterly publication.  Vol. 45 in 2003.
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
Semiannual publication.  Vol. 19 in 2003.
Journal of Religious Ethics
3 issues per year.  Vol. 31 in 2003.
Praxis International
Vol. 23 in 2003.
Religious Studies Review
Vol. 19 in 2003.
Review of Religious Research
Semiannual publication.  Vol. 45 in 2003.
Official journal of the Religious Research Association, Inc.

Signs
Quarterly publication.  Vol. 29 in 2003.
Journal of Women in Culture and Society.
Studies in Christian Ethics
Semiannual publication.  Vol. 16 in 2003.
Each issue concentrates on a theme. E.g., Vol. 15.2 is on Global Capitalism and the Gospel of Justice.

Theology Today
Quarterly publication.  Vol. 60 in 2003.
Includes ethics and contemporary theological issues and scholarship.

Transformation
Quarterly.  Vol. 20 in 2003.
An International Journal on Mission in Ethics published by the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies.

Vision
Semiannual publication.  Vol. 4 in 2003.
Mennonite journal.

Women’s Studies International Forum
Vol. 16 in 2003.



[1] Richard Hays has suggested three key focal images for New Testament ethics: the cross, the community (church), and the new creation (The Moral Vision of the New Testament).  ‘Focal images’ or ‘lenses’ are now in vogue, as opposed to ‘centres,’ particularly dogmatic centres for interpretation.  The move away from a 'centre' fits well with the narrative emphasis in Biblical theology, but 'focal images' eclipses this narrative perspective.
[2] See a good discussion of this in Carey C. Newman, ‘The Mystery of Paul’s Theologizing: A Postmodern Experiment,’ in The Challenge of Postmodernism: An Evangelical Engagement, ed. David S. Dockery (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), pp. 173-189.
[3] The various suggestions for canon criticism would fit here.  Cf. the work of Brevard Childs in particular, beginning with his early proposals in Biblical Theology in Crisis (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970).
[4] I have in mind studies in various but related disciplines: anthropology, missiology, ethics, discourse analysis, rhetoric and communication theory, critical linguistics, pastoral studies, etc.  Critical linguistics brings together some of the sociological (contextual) and linguistic theories, and a helpful discussion of how this relates to theology might be found in the theoretical chapter of Edward Adams’ Constructing the World: A Study in Paul’s Cosmological Language (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2000).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Homosexuality: May Christians Attend a Homosexual 'Wedding'

          [...also posted on www.bibleandmission.blogspot.com] Introduction The Christian who agrees that homosexual unions are sinful still faces the question of how he or she is to relate to homosexuals, and this comes to a head when the invitation to his or her wedding arrives.  The challenge is particularly acute when the person inviting one to celebrate such a marriage is a close relative.  Is there any advice from Scripture on such an issue?  Very much. Holiness for God’s People In the Old Testament, God’s missional purpose is to form a righteous people.  This is stated clearly when Israel is formed as God’s people at Mt. Sinai: Exodus 19:5-6 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine,  6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites." This calling requires Israel, and
Read more

Methodology 2: The Use of the Bible in Christian Ethics

Methodology 2:  The Use of the Bible in Christian Ethics Introduction: This post offers seven proposals for the use of the Bible in Christian Ethics, beginning with James Gustafson in 1974 and concluding with my own proposal.  These proposals are more descriptive than prescriptive, and a statement about the authority of Scripture would be needed alongside any one of them.  Such proposals are helpful to clarify what those engaging or using Scripture are doing in their work as Christian ethicists.  1. James Gustafson, ‘The Place of Scripture in Christian Ethics: A Methodological Study,’ Interpretation 24 (1970), 430-55, reprinted in his Theology and Christian Ethics (Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press, 1974). I. Theological Use of Scripture for Christian Ethics : we learn who God is from Scripture, and this guides our response to him.  Scripture is used to show us our ‘responsibilities’ in life. A. My examples : God is gracious towards us, and we obey him out of gratitude;
Read more