Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context

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Summary: From the WESTERN RECORDER
Review: "The church confesses that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah...God incarnate...the Savior...Lord of the Church and of the world...center not only of the Christian faith, but also...of the universe itself... Here is the problem. Christian churches across the theological and confessional spectrum...are often guilty of evading Jesus, the cornerstone and center of the Christian faith."
With those words, Glen Stassen, professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, and David Gushee, professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University challenge us to reflect on and reform the way we live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Kingdom Ethics is not a light, how-to approach to making moral decisions. It is a serious look at how the church in general, and Christians specifically, have ignored significant parts of the Gospel in our leap from Jesus' birth to his death and resurrection. Beyond diagnosis of that problem, Stassen and Gushee invite us to reflect on the way we make and discuss moral decisions and to examine a pattern that follows Jesus' moral discourse.
The first third of the book deals with a method and approach to Christian ethics based within Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom of God. More specifically, they ask us to focus on the Sermon on the Mount for both content and pattern of Christian moral reflection. The last two-thirds of the book applies this method to contemporary issues.
I found their critique of contemporary Christian moral reasoning insightful and sadly true. Yet, Stassen and Gushee not only show us how we got to a place where we ignore our primary source for living, but they offer us a way out. Kingdom Ethics is not an easy read; not because the authors have written badly, but because they challenge us to use our minds and do the hard work of Biblical and contextual interpretation. Nevertheless, no one who takes seriously the task of Christian spiritual formation should bypass this book.

From: "The Faithful Reader" -- A book review column in the WESTERN RECORDER, statewide newspublication of The Kentucky Baptist Convention

Rating:
Summary: delightfully challenging
Review: Anyone who is interested in how Jesus might have responded to contemporary ethical crises will want to read this truly great book. . . and anyone who thinks they already KNOW how He would have responded should definitely read it!! This deeply intellectual but highly readable work is a delightfully challenging "new" way (actually perhaps the originally intended way) to interpret the teachings of Christ. According to the authors, for example, we should read the Sermon on the Mount in terms of a triadic structure, which would then, instead of an idealistic, impossible standard of behavior, suggest practical, grace-based ways to actively participate in the Kingdom. This volume is one of those "live on my lifetime -favorites-shelf" books.

Rating:
Summary: Kingdom Ethics
Review: I was highly anticipating this book but when I received it I became disappointed. Based on reviews and recommendations, I was hoping to find an exposition of Christ's teachings, i.e. the Sermon on the Mount, with the Older Testament scriptures as a back drop and context for His words. Unfortunately, what I found was an antithesis rather than continuity between Christ and the New Testament Scriptures over against the Older Testament Scriptures. One example of this is where the authors are [basically] saying that Christ and the New Testament abolished the penalty for capital crimes, i.e., the death penalty for murder. The book states that Genesis 9:6 is more than likely a proverb. They state that the New Testament only refers to the death penalty in a negative way, i.e., its abuse and misuse and therefore has been abolished. Since when did man's abuse of any portion of God's law make that portion of the law null and void? It is my understanding that only God has the authority to make void any portion of His law. I don't understand how the authors reasoned from scripture to come up with such a conclusion and I would disagree strongly with it. I admit I did not read the entire book but after sampling just a small portion and finding what I consider a poor hermeneutic and exegesis on such an important ethical issue that is clearly taught in the scripture to be continual and binding on all people and nations, I lost confidence and interest and sent it back for a refund from the seller. It is too bad so many writers, readers, etc. pit the first 39 books of the Bible against the last 27 resulting in neo-nomianism (at best) to anti-nomianism (at worst). I would recommend Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.'s book: God's Law in the Modern World. It honors God's law and teaches God's law is for modern man and continually binding unless otherwise clearly nullfied by God himself through additional revelation. After all, it is His Law and Word and is not to be added to or taken away.

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Summary: Unbelievable, simply unbelievable
Review: Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. This book is incredible. Words can't describe the greatness of this work of art. Gushee and Stassen really come together on this one. Please, go out now and buy it.