General editor's preface

Abstract

This book is the twelfth in the series New Studies in Christian Ethics. Like the previous book in the series, Stanley Rudman's Concepts of Persons and Christian Ethics , as well as the very first book, Kieran Cronin's well received Rights and Christian Ethics , this present book provides a reliable guide for Christian ethics through a complex area of philosophical discussion. All three books exemplify the two key aims of this series – firstly to engage centrally with the secular moral debate at the highest possible intellectual level and, secondly, to demonstrate that Christian ethics can make a distinctive contribution to this debate, either in moral substance or in terms of underlying moral justifications. Using the philosopher A. C. Ewing's moral dilemma about whether to spend money on a son going to university or instead on the needs of many people threatened with famine, Hallett seeks to explore a classic dilemma in both Christian and secular morality. Which is finally to be preferred, the nearest in the form of the son or the neediest in the form of the starving strangers? He explores this dilemma with style and obvious commitment and is, indeed, exploring an issue which is of real interest within and beyond Christian ethics. Working from an admittedly narrow basis, he is able to show that important broad questions about our responsibilities towards our families, neighbours and fellow nationals are raised by this moral dilemma. The questions raised by Priorities and Christian Ethics turn out to be amongst some of the most crucial for moral and, indeed, Christian living.