Author: David Instone-Brewer
Publisher: Lexham Press
ISBN: 1683592964
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 142
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Book Description
Are all the moral commands of the Bible meant to be obeyed exactly for all time, or are there some that need to be adapted for our modern world? Scripture contains lots of guidance on ethical issues, including statements about polygamy, slavery, divorce, sex, and other things that sound strange to our modern ears. Even Christians, who believe the Bible is God's word, disagree on whether women should wear head coverings, whether Christians can ever lie, whether women should preach, and whether Christians should drink alcohol. How can we resolve these issues and figure out how to apply the Bible to our lives? David Instone-Brewer helps answer this question by showing how the Bible's moral commands were understood in their ancient cultural context. The more we understand what God and the biblical authors intended to communicate to the original audience, the better we will be able to make sense of how to apply those commands today. In brief chapters that address a wide variety of moral issues, Instone-Brewer equips Bible readers with a paradigm they can use to discern matters for themselves: Is a biblical command timeless or time-bound? If the command itself is time-bound, what is the timeless purpose behind it? And how do we remain faithful to the Bible's commands today even when handling subjects the Bible does not address? The Scripture in Context series is driven by the conviction that there is nothing as exciting, direct, provocative, and spiritually enlightening as the Bible when we read it as it was meant to be read. Each book in the series dives into the ancient cultural context behind Bible passages, examining the effect this context had on what the Bible writers were saying and how we should understand their words today. When we read the Bible in light of its context, it is anything but boring. Instead, God's word can speak to us as powerfully as it did to those who first read it. Chapters are short and informal, so it's easy to read one chapter at a time or the whole book straight through.
Author: Paul Copan
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441214542
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments? In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including: God is arrogant and jealous God punishes people too harshly God is guilty of ethnic cleansing God oppresses women God endorses slavery Christianity causes violence and more Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, seeing an unchanging, righteous, and loving God in both.
Author: Heath A. Thomas
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 083083995X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 353
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Book Description
The first of its kind, this collection offers a constructive response to the question of holy war and Christian morality from an interdisciplinary perspective. By combining biblical, ethical, philosophical and theological insights, the contributors offer a composite image of divine redemption that promises to take the discussion to another level.
Author: Dr. Brad E. Kelle
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1501876295
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 279
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Book Description
The Bible and Moral Injury offers an exploration (with case studies) of the interpretation of biblical texts, especially war-related narratives and ritual descriptions from the Old Testament, in conversation with research on the emerging notion of moral injury within psychology, military studies, philosophy, and ethics. This book explores two questions simultaneously: What happens when we read biblical texts, especially biblical stories of war and violence, in light of emerging research on moral injury?, and What does the study of biblical texts and their interpretation contribute to the emerging work on moral injury among other fields and with veterans, chaplains, and other practitioners? The book begins by explaining the concept of moral injury as it has developed within psychology, military studies, chaplaincy, and moral philosophy, especially through work with veterans of the U.S. military’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A major part of this work has been the attempt to identify means of healing, recovery, and repair for those morally injured by their experiences in combat or in similar situations. A key element for the book is that one feature of work on moral injury has been the appeal by psychologists and others to ancient texts and cultures for models of both the articulation of moral injury and possible means of prevention and healing. These appeals have, at times, referenced Old Testament texts that describe war-related rituals, practices, and experiences (e.g., Numbers 31). Additionally, work on moral injury within other fields has used ancient texts in another way—namely, as a means to offer creative re-readings of ancient literary characters as exemplars of warriors and experiences related to moral injury. For example, scholars have re-read the tales of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad and The Odyssey in dialogue with the experiences of American veterans of the Vietnam war and the moral struggles of combat and homecoming. Alongside these trends, consideration of moral injury has increasingly made its way into works on pastoral theology, Christian chaplaincy, and moral theology and ethics. These initial interpretive moves suggest a need for an extended and full-orbed examination of the interpretation of biblical texts in dialogue with the emerging formulation and practices of moral injury and recovery. This book will not simply be an effort to interpret various biblical texts through the lens of moral injury. It also seeks to explore and suggest what critical interpretation of the biblical texts can contribute to the work on moral injury going on not only among chaplains and pastoral theologians but also among psychologists, veterans’ psychiatrists, and moral philosophers. In the end, The Bible and Moral Injury suggests that current formulations of moral injury provide a helpful lens for re-reading the Bible’s texts related to war and violence but also that biblical texts and their interpretation offer resources for those working to understand and express the realities of moral injury and its possible means of healing and repair.
Author: Wayne Grudem
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433590867
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1648
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Book Description
What Does the Bible Teach about How to Live in Today's World? How should Christians live when the surrounding culture is increasingly hostile to Christian moral values? Granted, the Bible is our guide—but how can we know if we are interpreting it rightly with regard to ethical questions about wealth and poverty, marriage and divorce, birth control, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, ethical business practices, environmental stewardship, and dozens of other issues? And on a very practical level, how can we know God's will in the ordinary decisions of life? To address questions like these, Wayne Grudem, author of the bestselling book Systematic Theology, draws on 40 years of teaching classes in ethics to write this wide-ranging introduction to biblical moral reasoning, organized according to the structure of the Ten Commandments. He issues a challenging call for Christians to live lives of personal holiness and offers a vision of the Christian life that is full of joy and blessing through living each day in a way that is pleasing to God. Written by Wayne Grudem: Bestselling author of Systematic Theology and the What the Bible Says About series Biblical and Applicable: Teaches readers how to protect 7 central tenets of God's law: God's honor, human authority, life, marriage, property, truth, and purity of heart Accessible: An ideal textbook for Christian college and seminary ethics classes, with straightforward language and a bibliography for the topic at the end of each chapter Replaces ISBN 978-1-4335-4965-6
Author: M. Daniel Carroll R.
Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corp
ISBN: 0664229360
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 282
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Book Description
Throughout the Old Testament, the stories, laws, and songs not only teach a way of life that requires individuals to be moral, but they demonstrate how. In biblical studies, character ethics has been one of the fastest-growing areas of interest. Whereas ethics usually studies rules of behavior, character ethics focuses on how people are formed to be moral agents in the world. This book presents the most up-to-date academic work in Old Testament character ethics, covering topics throughout the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, in addition to the use of the Bible in the modern world. In addition to Carroll and Lapsley, contributors are Denise M. Ackermann, Cheryl B. Anderson, Samuel E. Balentine, William P. Brown, Walter Brueggemann, Thomas B. Dozeman, Bob Ekblad, Jose Rafael Escobar R., Theodore Hiebert, Kathleen O'Connor, Dennis T. Olson, J. David Pleins, Luis R. Rivera Rodriguez, J. J. M. Roberts, and Daniel L. Smith-Christopher.
Author: Christopher J.H. Wright
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830864946
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 524
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Book Description
Nothing confuses Christian ethics quite like the Old Testament. Christopher Wright examines a theological, social, and economic framework for Old Testament ethics, exploring themes in relation to contemporary issues: economics, the land and the poor, politics and a world of nations, law and justice, society and culture, and the way of the individual.
Author: Catholic Church. Pontificia Commissio Biblica
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788820980849
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Book Description
For Christians, Holy Scripture is not only a source of revelation on which to ground one's faith, it is also an indispensable reference point for morality. They are convinced that in the Bible they can find indications and norms of right behaviour to attain fullness of life. This use of Scripture is not of course without its problems caused by the different times and circumstances in which people find themselves today compared with biblical times. In 2002, the Pontifical Biblical Commission, at the behest of the then-President Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, set about to examine the problem of the relationship between the Bible and morality by posing itself the question: what is the value and the significance of the inspired text for today's morality? This document seeks then to explain the context for norms of morality encountered in Scripture, and shows also that, while there remain moral questions which cannot be fully answered from Scripture, nevertheless Scripture does offer criteria which are helpful in finding solutions.
Author: Gregory A. Boyd
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506455638
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 214
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Book Description
In Inspired Imperfection, Gregory A. Boyd adds another counterintuitive and provocative thesis to his corpus. While conservative scholars and pastors have struggled for years to show that the Bible is without errors, Boyd considers this a fool's errand. Instead, he says, we should embrace the mistakes and contradictions in Scripture, for they show that God chose to use fallible humans to communicate timeless truths. Just as God ultimately came to save humanity in the form of a human, God chose to impart truth through the imperfect medium of human writing. Instead of the Bible's imperfections being a reason to attack its veracity, these "problems" actually support the trustworthiness of Christian Scripture. Inspired Imperfection is required reading for anyone who's questioned the Bible because of its contradictions.
Author: Jonathan Morrow
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802490697
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246
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Book Description
The Bible is the most influential book in human history. But what are we supposed to do with it in the 21st century? And even more importantly, can it still be trusted as the Word of God? Confusion and doubt about the Bible are becoming as common inside the church as they are outside. Questions come from all sides: Is the Bible anti-intellectual? Has the biblical text been corrupted over the centuries? Who really chose the books of the Bible and why? Which interpretation of the Bible is correct? Are the gospels full of contradictions? There are an unprecedented number of sophisticated attacks on the origin, credibility, and reliability of the Bible today. Secularism has tried to undercut even the possibility of spiritual or moral knowledge. Skepticism toward institutional religion is at an all-time high. Yet, the Bible claims that truth is knowable and God is actively involved in our world. What are we to do? Pray for wisdom. Think clearly. Pick up your Bible. Read through the 11 major challenges presented in these pages. And be ready.
