No single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole world domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: “Mine!” Abraham Kuyper

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Further reading suggestions

The Extension Studies grading scheme for tutors states that the following is expected for A grades:

Work of the quality not expected at first year undergraduate level. Work at this level involves the use of reading beyond that required in the course, and often involves an element of creativity, flair and originality. It uses creative judgment, and is expressed carefully and structured clearly.

In order to aid ‘reading beyond that required in the course’ I have the following suggestions:

Christian worldview


There is no substitute in ethics or theology for developing a distinctly Christian worldview. To that end, two books are indispensable:

Brian J Walsh and J Richard Middleton The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1984)

Albert M Wolters Creation Regained: A Transforming View of the World (Leicester: IVP, 1986)

and two others are highly recommended

John Peck and Charles Strohmer Uncommon Wisdom (London: SPCK, 2001)

Nancy Pearcey Total Truth (Wheaton, IL: 2004)

General

Introductory texts

Arthur F. Holmes Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions (Leicester: IVP, 1984)

Mel Thompson Ethical Theory (Access to Philosophy) (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999) An A-level background reader.

Colin Brown Crash Course on Christian Ethics (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1998) A useful introductory book; it also has the advantage of being very readable.

Steve Wilkens Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics: An Introduction to Theories of Right and Wrong (Downers Grove: IVP, 1995). An excellent and readable introduction to the major ethical theories; including: cultural relativism, utilitarianism, situation ethics and divine command theory.

Less introductory general texts

Stanley J. Grenz The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics (Leicester: IVP, 1997); a very good general introduction. Contains useful summaries of the approaches of Augustine, Aquinas, Niebuhr, Barth, Bonhoffer etc.

Richard B. Hays The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997); this is expensive but well worth getting from a library. The first part looks at the ethics of the NT; the second a synthesis of the NT view; the third a look at how to use the NT in ethics and the final several case studies (including homosexuality, abortion and divorce)

Harry Gensler Ethics (London: Routledge, 1998); a useful summary of several ethical positions. Develops the ‘Golden Rule’ idea.

Lawrence M. Hinman Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory (2nd edn) (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1998)

An excellent, albeit expensive, resource. Each chapter provides a very good summary and critique of various ethical positions, including relativism, divine command theories, egoism, utilitarianism, Kantianism, right theories and virtue ethics. Each chapter has a series of discussion questions and a bibliographic essay.

Glenn H. Stassen and David P. Gushee Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context IVP, Downers grove, 2003)

The first third of the book develops the concept of kingdom ethics. The remainder examines contemporary ethical issues in the light of the kingdom.


Anthologies

Peter Singer (ed.) A Companion to Ethics (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991)

Contains 47 original articles dealing with everything from the roots of ethics, the history of ethics, the application and nature of ethics to the critiques of ethics. Includes short chapters on: Christian ethics, consequentialism, crime and punishment and how could ethics depend on religion. (Singer is a contemporary advocate of a form of utilitarianism.)

Robin Gill (ed.) Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001)

A useful collection of original articles on different aspects of Christian ethics. Includes articles by Rowan Williams on ‘Making moral decisions’, Stephen Barton on ‘The epistles and Christian ethics’ as well as articles on gender and ethics, liberation ethics, the arms trade, ecology and family.

Wayne Boulton, Thomas Kennedy and Allen Verhey (editors) From Christ to the World: Introductory readings in Christian ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994)


No comments: