Most Christians believe that their views on social and political issues are biblically based. But are they really? Sometimes, Pregeant suggests, an exclusive emphasis on Jesus' death and resurrection crowds out the role of Jesus as teacher and example. This obscures the way in which authentic Christian faith cuts against the grain of many of our contemporary cultural values. The result is that some Christians unknowingly allow those secular values to undermine the potential of the gospel to challenge the injustices in our economic system and other aspects of our lives together. The author therefore invites the reader to an in-depth encounter with Jesus' ethical teachings and related biblical materials as a way of recovering that dimension of Christian discipleship. And the irony is this: some readers might find that even though they think of themselves as countercultural, they are in some ways quite captive to values that are actually counterbiblical. There is, however, a remedy for this--conversion of Christians to the Jesus ethic!

"One of the primary aims of Christian ethics is to discover how we can convert our work toward God's purposes so that God can make our work holy. In this book, Gaines illuminates this topic as something the people of God can use to reorient our lives toward the way of Jesus and the mission of God in the world. Christians are called to action in God's created world, which is why reasoning engages practice in the chapters of this book so that Wesleyan readers can think and act morally in ways that are faithfully Christian and holy in response to the leading of God"--

"Rosaria, by the standards of many, was living a very good life. She had a tenured position at a large university in a field for which she cared deeply. She owned two homes with her partner, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world. In the community, Rosaria was involved in volunteer work. At the university, she was a respected advisor of students and her department's curriculum. And then, in her late 30s, Rosaria encountered something that turned her world upside down -- the idea that Christianity, a religion that she had regarded as problematic and sometimes downright damaging, might be right about who God was. That idea seemed to fly in the face of the people and causes that she most loved. What follows is a story of what she describes as a train wreck at the hand of the supernatural. These are her secret thoughts about those events, written as only a reflective English professor could."--Back cover.

What does Jesus have to do with ethics? There are two brief answers given by believers: "everything" and "not much." While evangelical or fundamentalist Christians would find authoritative guidance in the words and commands of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament, many mainstream Christian ethicists would say that Jesus is too concrete or narrowly particular to have any direct import for ethics.In this book, Williams Spohn takes a middle way, showing how Jesus is the "concrete universal" of Christian ethics. By forming a bridge from the lives of contemporary Christians to the words and deeds of Jesus, Jesus' story as a whole exemplifies moral perception, motivation and Christian identity.In addition, Spohn shows how the practices of Christian spirituality--specifically prayer, service, and community--train the imagination and reorient emotions to produce a character and a way of life consonant with Christian New Testament moral teaching.

What does it take to follow and not merely admire Jesus? How do religious affections reshape the practice of Christian values like love, peace, justice, and compassion? How can they possess both universal truth and local meaning? What role can they play in public life? In Fidelity of Heart Gilman answers these questions, while showing, in an innovative and provocative approach, how Christians can practice these values in ways continuous with the life of Jesus.

Reflections on the universal principles taught by Jesus for the contemporary world. The focus of the ethics of Jesus is the transformation of human beings to conquer the transcendental values of the spirit, through the unforgettable lessons of the carpenter of Nazareth. A cutting-edge view of the teachings of Jesus is proposed. The unique character of the Master shows us the best way, revealing how current is the ethical presented almost 2000 years ago. The 90 subjects arranged in 10 chapters are the fruit of the reflections proposed by GEET (Group of ethical studies). Punctuated with elucidations of anonymous benefactors and very practical way bring the Gospel in the light of spiritism for a modern world. Every page, an unforgettable lesson, a new point of view, always in order to make us reflect, understand and grasp the essence of the teachings that Jesus came to bring to the universe.