Knowing truth, doing good : engaging New Testament ethics / Russell Pregeant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pregeant, Russell.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics in the Bible.

Bible. New Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible.

Bible. New Testament.

Christian ethics.

Physical Description:

xi, 388 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis, MN : Fortress Press, [2008]

Summary:

As we face new, complex, and often controversial ethical issues, turning to the New Testament for guidance can be a bewildering experience. One reason, Russell Pregeant explains, is that those writings belong to a distant and very different cultural world, where many of our questions simply weren't imagined. We must approach each of these texts with care, sensitivity to that distance, and alertness to our own responsibilities in this complex task. Too often, however, books on "New Testament ethics" speak simply of "the New Testament viewpoint."

Pregeant offers a unique postmodern alternative. Recognizing the open-ended character of language and the possibility-and desirability-of "multiple, sometimes competing strands of meaning" in the New Testament, he attends to the literary character of each of the canonical writings, and to the sociopolitical environment of the Jesus movement as well, asking what knowing the truth and doing the good look like in each. At last he offers a social ethic grounded in concern for the common good.

Contents:

Madness in the methods? on learning to treat the text as subject

Wending our way in the postmodern maze

Making meaning in the mists of Babylon

The ethics of the Jesus movement

The context of the Jesus movement

The ethics of the canonical writings

The Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Mark

Luke-Acts

The Gospel and letters of John

The undisputed letters of Paul

The post-Pauline letters

The revelation to John

Engaging New Testament ethics

Knowing truth, doing good : the New Testament and contemporary Christian ethics.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 372-383) and index.

ISBN:

9780800638467

0800638468

OCLC:

174134058