In recent sociological approaches to the Old Testament, Christians have been finding unexpected resources for their ethical reflection and action relative to the modern world's pressing social and economic dilemmas. This unique survey by Christopher Wright examines life in Old Testament Israel from an ethical perspective by considering how the economic facts of Israel's social structure were related to the people's religious beliefs. Observing the centrality of the family in social, economic and religious spheres of Israelite life, Wright analyzes Israel's theology of land, the rights and responsibilities of property owners, and the socioeconomic and legal status of dependent persons in ancient Israel - wives, children, and slaves - showing the mutual interaction between such laws, institutions, and customs and the nation's covenant relationship with God. While primarily exegetical, God's People in God's Land contains many useful insights for Christian social ethics: Wright suggests how the ethical application of his findings might proceed as Christians with different theological perspectives and cultural contexts seek to work out the relevance of the Old Testament for today.

Biblical property law was concerned less with the efficient use and transfer of commercial assets than with protecting the rights of the family to the sources of their economic survival. This important collection of essays explores the legal link between property and family in the Bible, whether through the general law of inheritance or through special institutions such as redemption, the levirate and the sabbatical and jubilee years. It brings together the author's existing contributions, previously published in disparate law journals, to which have been added several unpublished studies and a general introduction.

A team of scholars offers keen insights into family customs and culture in the Bible, providing a vision for family life today.

Many pastors, counselors, and theologians consider this book the most helpful on the issue of marriage and divorce.

A team of scholars offers keen insights into family customs and culture in the Bible, providing a vision for family life today.

To attempt to study Scripture without studying its law is to deny it. To attempt to understand Western civilization apart from the impact of Biblical law within it and upon it is to seek a fictitious history and to reject twenty centuries and their progress. The Institutes of Biblical Law has as its purpose a reversal of the present trend. it is called "Institutes" in the older meaning of the that word, i.e., fundamental principles, here of law, because it is intended as a beginning, as an instituting consideration of that law which must govern society, and which shall govern society under God. To understand Biblical law, it is necessary to understand also certain basic characteristics of that law. In it, certain broad premises or principles are declared. These are declarations of basic law. The Ten Commandments give us such declarations. A second characteristics of Biblical law, is that the major portion of the law is case law, i.e., the illustration of the basic principle in terms of specific cases. These specific cases are often illustrations of the extent of the application of the law; that is, by citing a minimal type of case, the necessary jurisdictions of the law are revealed. The law, then, asserts principles and cites cases to develop the implications of those principles, with is purpose and direction the restitution of God's order.

We can win the fight against global poverty. Combining penetrating economic analysis with insightful theological reflection, this book sketches a comprehensive plan for increasing wealth and protecting stability at a national level.