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Old Testament Ethics for the People of God
Paperback
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- Length: 520 pages
- Dimensions: 6 × 9 in
- Published: October 04, 2011
- Imprint: IVP Academic
- ISBN: 9780830839612
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Nothing confuses Christian ethics quite like the Old Testament. Some faithful readers struggle through its pages and conclude that they must obey its moral laws but may disregard its ceremonial and civil laws. Others abandon its teaching altogether in favor of a strictly New Testament ethic. Neither option, argues Chris Wright, gives the Old Testament its due.In this innovative approach to Old Testament ethics--fully revised, updated and expanded since its first appearance in 1983 as Living as the People of God (An Eye for an Eye in North America) and including material from Walking in the Ways of the Lord--Wright examines a theological, social and economic framework for Old Testament ethics. Then he explores avariety of 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.This fresh, illuminating study provides a clear basis for abiblical ethic that is faithful to the God of both Testaments.
CONTENTS
Preface to Living as the People of God
Preface
Introduction
PART ONE: A STRUCTURE FOR OLD TESTAMENT ETHICS
1. The theological angle
God's identity
God's action
God's words
God's purpose
God's way
God's goodness
Further reading
2. The social angle
The social dimension of redemption
The distinctiveness of Israel
Israel as God's paradigm
Further reading
3. The economic angle
Theland in Israel's story
The land as divine gift
The land under divine ownership
The land as covenantal measuring gauge
Further reading
PART TWO: THEMES IN OLD TESTAMENT ETHICS
4. Ecology and the earth
God'searth: divine ownership
Our earth: divine gift and human responsibility
Cursed earth: human sin and ecological destruction
New creation: ecology and eschatology
Further reading
5. Economics and the poor
Economic ethicsin creation perspective
Economics in a fallen world
Economic dimensions to Israel's story of redemption
Creation values restored in Israel's economic system
Responding to poverty
Further reading
6. The land and Christianethics
Paradigmatic interpretation
Eschatological interpretation
Typological interpretation
The jubilee: a case study
Further reading
7. Politics and the nations
Perspectives from creation and the fall
God's people and the state: perspectives from Israel's history
God and the nations: Israel's universal vision
Further reading
8. Justice and righteousness
Justice as God displays it
Justice as God demands it
Justice as God willdeliver it
Further reading
9. Law and the legal system
The main legal blocks
The different kinds of law
The administration of justice
Israel's scale of values
Theological reflections
Further reading
10. Culture and family
Rejection and prohibition
Qualified toleration
Critical affirmation: the family in the Old Testament
Christians and culture
Christians and the family
Further reading
11. The way of the individual
The individual in community
Personal responsibility
Models of morals
Failure and forgiveness
Further reading
PART THREE: STUDYING OLD TESTAMENT ETHICS
12. A survey of historical approaches
The earlychurch
The reformation era
Some contemporary confessional approaches
Further reading
13. Contemporary scholarship: A bibliographical essay
14. Hermeneutics and authority in Old Testament ethics
Getting there from here: methodological problems
Getting back here from there: ideological problems
The question of authority
Conclusion
Further reading
Appendix: What about the Canaanites?
Bibliography
Index of Scripture References
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
