The Most
Influential Christian Ethics Book I Have Read - A Symposium
"Of the many books which
have shaped my thinking, few would rival Richard Niebuhr's Christ
and Culture. This old standby has kept me starkly aware of the
cultural moorings of the faith, the faith moorings of the culture, and the
inevitable tension between the two. I have never been able to read this
book enough times to exhaust the thinking it stimulates." Dr. David
Sapp, Pastor, Second Ponce De Leon Baptist, Atlanta
[Note: See George
Marsden's article in this issue for
an appraisal of this book]
"These
Rebellious Powers by Albert van den
Heuvel impacted my life because it clearly revealed to me how the Bible
deals in a specific way with social structures. Van den Heuval
communicates with clarity that political and economic systems ought to be
listed as among the 'principalities and powers' which St. Paul refers to
in his epistles. The reading of this book provided a call for me to
struggle against the principalities and powers and rulers of this age
(Eph. 6:12) so that they might be brought into conformity with the Will of
God. As a sociologist and a social activist, I became convinced upon
reading this book that there was a mandate for those of us in the church
to work for the structural changes in society that would insure justice
for the oppressed and deliverance for the impoverished." Tony Campolo,
Eastern College, St. Davids, Pennsylvania
"Like many graduates of
Southwestern Seminary in the 1940s and 1950s, the answer to this question
is simply to say---T. B. Maston! As a young embryonic preacher, Maston's
basic course in Christian Ethics was one of the most important exposures
to new and fundamental truth I have ever experienced. This exposure led to
taking a number of other courses Maston taught, as well as a lifelong
interest in his writings. Some of his volumes which I treasure are: Christianity
and World Issues and Biblical Ethics. After seminary I
ministered in a time of racial warfare, social unrest, war and peace, and
theological conflict. I cannot find words strong enough to express
gratitude to the influence of T. B. Maston, who combined a humble
Christian spirit with massive Christian teachings in the area of Christian
ethics.
Darold Morgan, President
Emeritus of the SBC Annuity Board, Richardson, Texas
"And
the Poor Get Welfare: The Ethics of Poverty in the United States
by Warren R. Copeland caused me to revise my understanding of who poor
Americans are and of ways in which we as a society can assist them to
escape poverty. The book is a wise and readable mix of Christian ethics,
social theory, and statistics. If I were setting out to be of assistance
to poor people in this country, I would want to know the things that are
in this book. Copeland makes it clear that a number of ideas that are
frequently labeled 'politically correct' would be better labeled
'prophetically true'."
Fisher Humphreys, Beeson
Divinity School, Birmingham, Alabama
Note: Readers are invited to
submit their own paragraph statement of "The Most Influential
Christian Ethics Book I Have Read." Let us hear from you.
Updated Thursday, December 14, 2000
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