Exploring Christian Ethics

Talking about ethics tends to involve talking about what we should or, more often, shouldn't do. We talk about setting limits on actions that, for whatever reason, we think are either wrong or somehow harmful to ourselves or others. The aim of this book, however, is to explore Christian ethics within a wider, more positive framework - one that that views Christianity's moral resources as part of the good news that it proclaims to all creation. Ethics, says Hovey, need not be characterized primarily by negative prohibitions, limits, and tiresome hand-wringing. Rather, it's about a joyful and worshipful way of living, which flows naturally out of the abundant goodness God's life and character, as revealed in Jesus.

In this refreshing and at times exhilarating exploration, Craig Hovey portrays Christian ethics as the discovery of what is made possible because Christ is born, has died, is risen and will come again. In doing so, he dismantles the popular perception of Christianity as a catalogue of prohibitions and opens out a vista of promise, purpose and potential., A succinct and thoughtful account of Christian belief and practice, demonstrating their integral relationship to each other and showing how some of the key ethical dilemmas troubling contemporary society may be seen in their light., Craig Hovey draws on a wider variety of sources, texts and traditions, and delves into more intricacies of history, philosophy and doctrine, than most introductory ethics books would dare attempt, yet he does so in a way that is unfailingly accessible and clear. The dexterity with which he draws the reader into complexity without obscurity is a gift to students and teachers alike.

Craig Hovey is Associate Professor of Religion and Director of the Ashland Center for Nonviolence at Ashland University Ohio. He is the author of What Makes Us Moral? (SPCK, 2012) and Bearing True Witness: Truthfulness in Christian Practice (Eerdmans, 2011), and is co-editor of An Eerdmans Reader in Contemporary Political Theology (Eerdmans, 2008).