Biblical Ethics In The 21st Century Developments Emerging Consensus And Future Directions

Reviews and critiques the major attempts at biblical ethics over the past twenty years by both biblical theologians and theological ethicists, focusing on New Testament ethics as an illustration.

This book comprises essays honoring the life and work of Yiu Sing Lúcás Chan, S.J., who died unexpectedly on May 19, 2015, at the end of his first year as a member of the faculty in the Department of Theology at Marquette University. The editors intend to commemorate Chan’s brief but productive career by furthering the critical conversations he started. The essays included thus touch on aspects of the brilliant young Jesuit’s wide-ranging work in the fields of scriptural research, moral theology, and systematic theology. Each essay either engages Chan’s scholarship directly or seeks to advance his design to bridge the disciplinary gaps between scriptural research and constructive theology. This book includes contributions by noted Roman Catholic theologians James F. Keenan, S.J., Bryan N. Massingale, and John R. Donohue, S.J., as well as two original poems by his Marquette colleagues dedicated to Lúcás.

Introduction: Trends in Post-Vatican II Scholarship on Scripture and Moral Theology William C. Mattison III On Pilgrimage with Abraham: How a Patriarch Leads Us in Formation in Faith Jana M. Bennett Joseph the Just and Matthew’s Matrix of Mercy: The Redefinition of Righteousness Jonathan T. Pennington “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!ˮ (Mt 3:1 and 4:17): Conversion in the Gospel and the Christian Life Anton ten Klooster “Those He Predestined He Also Calledˮ (Romans 8:30): Aquinas on the Liberating Grace of Conversion Daria Spezzano Almsgiving as an Integral Practice of Repentance for Christian Discipleship: The Gospel of Luke and Daniel 4:24 James W. Stroud A Defense of the Command/Counsel Distinction Based on Matthew 19 and 1 Corinthians 7 John Meinert Newness of Life and Grace Enabled Recovery from Addiction: Walking the Road to Recovery with Romans 7 Andrew Kim

"Most foundational texts on theological ethics address the person or the society; the point of departure determines, inevitably, fairly different trajectories. By starting with the experience of grief, this book posits the human as ineluctably social: grief is an epiphany that reveals how the human is inseparable from the collective. Indeed, grief inevitably summons us to grieve socially. Nothing discloses the human more rawly than grief that "it is not good for the human to be alone." Keenan then develops an ethics of vulnerability, following Judith Butler, understanding it not primarily as a compromised state of being but rather as that which establishes the human as capacious for recognizing and responding to others. Mutual recognition, a theme that can be found from Georg Hegel and Sigmund Freud to Axel Honneth, Nancy Frasier and Jessica Benjamin, emerges as the first moral act of the vulnerable human. In light of vulnerability and recognition, Keenan shows how we can now understand conscience as guiding the activity of one who has first vulnerably recognized others. The second half of the book works out a Christian ethics of vulnerability, starting with discipleship, then grace and sin, then the virtues, and finally the communion of saints, the works of mercy, and the beatitudes"--

Moving into the Ecumenical Future identifies some necessary “foundations” of any paradigm for Ecumenical Ethics. It emphasizes the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the teaching and example of Jesus, biblical foundations, and pastoral relationships in developing paradigms for Ecumenical Ethics. The book suggests that virtue ethics is an important paradigm that includes these elements. The text explores how the Faith and Order “Tool,” Receptive Ecumenism, Differentiated Consensus, Internal Polarities, and Spiritual Discernment can be used to move toward moral consensus. The author calls for a national or international task force to explore these foundations in greater depth.

This Companion will assist the reader in apprehending a coherent and synthetic interpretation of the teaching of Vatican II.

The essays gathered here provide a panoramic view of current thinking on biblical texts that play important roles in contemporary struggles for social justice – either as inspiration or impediment. Here, from the hands of an ecumenical array of leading biblical scholars, are fresh and compelling resources for thinking biblically about what justice is and what it demands. Individual essays treat key debates, themes, and texts, locating each within its historical and cultural settings while also linking them to the most pressing justice concerns of the twenty-first century. The volume aims to challenge academic and ecclesiastical complacency and highlight key avenues for future scholarship and action.