CHRISTIAN ETHICS HB

What does the Bible teach about how to live in today's world?

Best-selling author and professor Wayne Grudem distills over forty years of teaching experience into a single volume aimed at helping readers apply a biblical worldview to difficult ethical issues, including wealth and poverty, marriage and divorce, birth control, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, business practices, environmental stewardship, telling the truth, knowing God's will, understanding Old Testament laws, and more.

Review from the GLO General Director, Stephen McQuoid:

Christian Ethics by Wayne Grudem. At 1,296 pages this is clearly intended to be a major textbook on the subject. It appears to be modelled on Wayne’s Systematic Theology textbook, in that it is clearly written, divided into numerous chapters, each of which finish with a bibliography and also practical questions. Personally, I don’t think this book will be nearly as well used as Grudem’s theology work, but it is still quite useful.

Grudem is open in admitting that this is an ethics text based on Scripture, with little to no attempt made to wrestle with philosophy or other disciplines. This is both the book's strength and weakness. It is certainly a positive that he deals so extensively with Scripture and that he produces lots of biblical grounding for his ethical positions. However, as one reads through the book, he comes across, at times, as philosophically light and perhaps even naive. An example of this is chapter 7 where he argues in a fairly unconvincing way that Christians will never find themselves in a position where they will be forced to choose lesser sins. Reading a professional philosopher, like Geisler, on the issue is more satisfying.

Grudem works systematically through several major sections such as God’s honour, human authority, human life, marriage, property, and protecting the heart. His sections are clearly laid out and he writes with characteristic clarity. I particularly enjoyed the way in which Grudem overlays these various themes with the Ten Commandments, and there are some very helpful expositions of the individual commandments and how to apply then today.

There are some negatives that are worth nothing. At times, for example, Grudem’s North American background becomes very evident. We see this in his reasonable, but culturally slanted, advocacy of home schooling and Christian schools. We also see it in his suggestion that democracy is the most biblical form of government and in his inclusion of the US Declaration of Independence in his argument (ch. 16). These drawbacks aside, this is a resource textbook that is well worth having.

Product details:

Hardcover: 1296 pages
Publisher: Crossway Books (31 July 2018)
ISBN-13: 978-1433549656
Product Dimensions: 18.7 x 5.3 x 23.5 cm