The Gospel and epistles of John are commonly overlooked in discussions of New Testament ethics, often seen as of only limited value. Here, prominent scholars present varying perspectives on the surprising relevance and importance of the explicit imperatives and implicit moral perspective of the Johannine literature. The introduction sets out four major approaches to Johannine ethics today; a concluding essay takes stock of the wide-ranging discussion and suggest prospects for future study.
In Ethics in the Gospel of John Sookgoo Shin seeks to challenge the dominant scholarly view of John’s ethics as an ineffective and unhelpful companion for moral formation. In order to demonstrate the relevance of John’s ethics, Shin argues that the development of discipleship in John’s Gospel should be understood as moral progress, which was a well-known moral concept in the ancient Mediterranean world. Having drawn an ethical model from the writings of Plutarch, this study aims to identify the undergirding ethical dynamic that shapes John’s moral structure by bringing out the implicit ethical elements that are embedded throughout John’s narratives, and thus suggests a way to read the whole Gospel ethically and appreciatively of its literary characteristics.
After a century of neglect, Johannine ethics has enjoyed a recent surge in interest inspired by new theoretical insights in analysing ethical data in John's Gospel. By closely re-reading the text on the basis of this fresh research, Jan G. van der Watt's aim in the present volume is to reveal ethical data within its structural interrelatedness. The result is a comprehensive overview of basic questions related to ethics, such as what the basis or source of ethics actually is, whether identity plays a role in ethical decision making, how values and ethical requirements are to be recognised, what is expected of an ethical agent, and what ethical behaviour looks like. As a coherent guide to getting deeds done ethically, this first volume on the grammar of the apostle's ethics focuses on his Gospel, while a second is set to concentrate on his letters.
"In the face of the present reality where there is a disparity between once claim of faith and conduct of life, the book analyzes and describes the inalienable relationship between ethics and Christology. Jesus is understood as the actual and perfect manifestation of the moral likeness of God, the Father. Every ethical imploration is directed and revolved around the person, role, authority and mission of Jesus. The book propounds that the thrust of the ethical injunction in John's Gospel is to escort people to believe in Jesus, who is introduced as the logos incarnated in the person of Jesus (Jn. 1:14) for a reason to make the world and its inhabitants to understand and accept him as the Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man who grants life eternal, the highest and ultimate goal according to the Gospel of John (3:16; 20:31). A response to the call to believe in Jesus results in living in the light, doing good, aligning one's purpose of life in the will of God. Discipleship is considered as the immediate moral context. Ethics in John's Gospel is the ethics of faith and love combined which results from believing and keeping the commandments of Jesus and resulting to "doing the works of God." Johannine ethics stems from the moral world of God, revealed in and through the life and ministry of Jesus, received by faith by community of believers and in the physical absence of Jesus the Spirit-Paraclete takes over to guide and enable the community of believers in all the truth to live its faith in action."
By casting the identity of Christ as the One-Who-Is-Present, Holmes concentrates on how Christ ministers his power, truth, and love in the Spirit for the sake of the transformation of human life. As present, Christ's work is both finished and unfinished, complete and open-ended; as endlessly contemporary, it is constitutive of reality and so (re-)shapes the ethical landscape and the moral life. In revisiting the doctrine of Christ's contemporaneity with its ethical implications firmly in view, Holmes's work fills a lacuna in the contemporary literature on Christian ethics. In conversation with John's Gospel, the priority of Christology comes to drive the very shape of moral questions for today. Here the compelling task of ethics is a matter ofbecoming aligned with and transparent to Christ's own presence and so to Christ's work of making all things new.
The acclaimed Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (DSE), written to respond to the movement among biblical scholars and ethicists to recover the Bible for moral formation, offered needed orientation and perspective on the vital relationship between Scripture and ethics. This book-by-book survey of the Old Testament features key articles from the DSE, bringing together a stellar list of contributors to introduce students to the use of the Old Testament for moral formation. It will serve as an excellent supplementary text. The stellar list of contributors includes Bruce Birch, Mark Boda, William Brown, Stephen Chapman, Daniel Harrington, and Dennis Olson.
This book is an introduction to the field of theological ethics with a Trinitarian perspective that guides pastors, ministry leaders, and students about how to think in a gospel way about the moral formation of persons and communities, about ethical inquiry and action, and about the tone and content of engagement in the public square.
For centuries Christians have referred to the New Testament for guidance on moral conduct. But did the writers of the New Testament themselves agree on such questions as divorce, political obedience, wealth and the toleration of other religions? And have their often inconsistent views any relevance today? In Ethics and the New Testament, the author applies strict critical standards to the Gospels, epistles and other writings, which he examines in historical perspective. His explanation of contemporary attitudes-including gnosticism-helps to clarify the striking moral differences between Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James and Paul. He attempts to discern the ethical standards and teachings of Jesus which are sometimes hidden in the present Biblical texts. And finally, he relates the moral injunctions of Christianity's central text to the modern age.
