Ethics Of Jesus Research Articles

Matthean Jesus and peacebuilding in Zimbabwe 2018–2019

This article is an assessment of the applicability of the Matthean Jesus’ ethics in the context of peacebuilding in Zimbabwe (2018–2019). The article explores the factors which led to the removal of former President Mugabe from the office, and the events which took place from 2018 to 2019. It is alleged that torture, brutality and political killings of people continue to resurface even during the leadership of the new President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Faced with the above challenges associated with violence, socio-political, economic and religious conflicts, civil unrest and polarisation of the Zimbabwean society, the article gives an analysis of the relevance and applicability of Jesus’ ethics as presented by Matthew in a bid to bring national healing, peace and reconciliation in Zimbabwe. The ethics of Jesus are meant to transform society for the better; therefore, the article also assesses the lessons which can be drawn from these ethics amid challenges posed by a lack of confession, truth telling and transformative justice in the face of gross political intimidation and torture in Zimbabwe. The article concludes that the Matthean Jesus ethics are applicable in the Zimbabwean context. However, the implementation of these ethics faces serious impediments, which need special attention, especially the need of all citizens, government, political leaders, church leaders and civil society leaders to join hands together with the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission in bringing national healing in Zimbabwe. Contribution: This article is part of the special collection ‘Africa Platform for NT Scholars’. It focuses on the assessment of the applicability of the Matthean Jesus’ ethics in the context of peacebuilding in Zimbabwe (2018–2019).The ethics of Jesus are meant to transform society for the better, therefore, it is within the scope of this theological journal that issues associated with violence, socio-political, economic and religious conflicts, civil unrest and polarization should be addressed, hence the article fits well within this scope.

『그리스도륜리표준』에 나타난 인간 본분과 실천윤리

『그리스도륜리표준』에 나타난 인간 본분과 실천윤리

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Anglican Church by Luke Savin Herrick Wright

Luke Savin Herrick Wright. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Anglican Church. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010. Pp. viii+296. $35. Writing in the summer of 1818, Byron expresses his exasperation with Coleridge's turn from writing poetry to the abstruser musings of philosophy and theology: And Coleridge too has lately taken wing / ... / Explaining metaphysics to the nation. / I wish he would explain his explanation. For Byron, this shift in genre coincides with Coleridge's betrayal of the older poet's earlier political sympathies. Coleridge insisted that the apparent reversal of his allegiances obscured an underlying consistency in principle, a principle that demanded adjustments in perspective as it continued to unfold. In Coleridge and the Anglican Church, Luke Savin Herrick Wright argues that Coleridge's self-justification has some basis. The professed consistency arises not, as has sometimes been proposed, from his interest in continental idealist philosophy, but rather from his ongoing engagement with an Anglican tradition. Wright charts this engagement carefully, suggesting that it spans a broader stretch of Coleridge's life and thought than is often assumed, exploring both its initial motivations and its extended consequences for Victorian theorists of the relationship between church and state. No single thread, no matter how lengthy and sturdy, could tie together the sheer range of Coleridge's ambitions and commitments. Yet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Anglican Church helpfully illuminates the extensive--if not comprehensive--significance of Coleridge's commitment to High Church Anglicanism. At its best, Wright's study grants Byron's jocularly jaundiced wish: it explains the explanations that Coleridge offered repeatedly and length over the last decade of his life. Wright begins with the assertion that Coleridge's religious views led him to articulate a sustained opposition to the dominant vision of church-state relations throughout his career, even if the terms of this opposition changed, sometimes profoundly, over time. Wright identifies William Warburton's The Alliance between Church and State (1736) as providing the primary theological justification for the status quo Coleridge sought to contest. This prevailing consensus sees the relationship between church and state in terms of contract theory: at its most basic, Warburtonian theory can be summarized as a belief that church and state cooperate because each recognizes a mutual benefit in such a relationship--Warburton was, broadly speaking, a utilitarian (17). For Coleridge, among others, conceiving the intersection of theology and politics in this way sacrifices spiritual integrity to expediency. The alternative vision that he eventually develops conforms to a traditionally Anglican model of organic union in which church and state are virtually identical; to be a member of one of these corporate bodies is inevitably to be a member of the other (26). Coleridge's theological views led him by the culmination of his career to a traditionally Tory politics as well, serving as a bridge figure between the old-fashioned High Churchmen and the Tractarians ... [and as] a part of the gathering forces of Toryism that would emerge as the Conservative party a generation later (30). It would have been difficult to predict Coleridge playing this transitional role on the basis of his stated positions in the 1790s, a point Wright partially concedes. While Coleridge's earlier politics were conspicuously radical, however, Wright contends that his religious convictions were more conventional than is often assumed. His avowed Unitarianism, for example, can be seen as a relatively conservative form of dissent that did not fix itself on ontological conceits but was rather a strictly biblically based interpretation of Christianity that saw the true emphasis of religion as the teaching and ethics of Jesus (44-45). Similarly, Coleridge's Lectures on Revealed Religion of 1795 preached a 'social gospel' based on the Old Testament law of Jubilee rather than embarkfing] upon an elaborate discussion of the Trinity (60). …

The myth of American religious freedom

INTRODUCTION: THE AMERICAN MYTHS OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PART I: MORAL LAW 1. Contested Liberties and Religious Establishment 2. The Irrelevant First Amendment 3. The Moral Establishment PART II: SONS OF HAM 4. The Moral Purpose of Slavery 5. The Moral Purpose of Abolition 6. Morality and Segregation PART III: FAMILY VALUES 7. Moral Reproduction and the Family 8. Woman's rights, Woman's Individuality, and the Bible PART IV: GOD'S COUNTRY 9. The Separation of Church and State? 10. Religion, Morals, and Common Sense PART V: SOWING AND REAPING 11. The Ethics of Jesus and the Gospel of Wealth 12. Liberal and Conservative Moral Visions PART VI: A MORAL MAJORITY? 13. The Decline of the Moral Establishment 14. The Religious Right and the Challenge of Moral Pluralism

The Trouble with the Inclusive Jesus

AbstractIn the long-standing debate between universalist and particularist interpretations of Jesus, recent years have witnessed the relentless rise of the idea that his was a socially radical and subversive gospel ahead of its time, fully in keeping with contemporary cultural agendas of “inclusion” or “inclusiveness”. The present study attempts to contextualize this “inclusive Jesus” within New Testament studies by means of three angles of approach: (1) recent work on the “inclusive”ethics of Jesus, (2) Jacob Neusner’s critique of New Testament scholarship on Jewish particularism and Christian universalism, and (3) the reception in current debate of Joachim Jeremias’ interpretation of Jesus’ view of Gentiles. In view of the overwhelming evidence that Jesus was “inclusive” as well as “exclusive” in both theology and praxis, Concluding Observations stress the location of this problem within a wider understanding of the biblical view of Election, and identify the Israelite particularity of Jesus as essential to his mission on behalf of Israel as well as the nations.

An economic ethics of Jesus as kong(公) in the synoptic Gospels

An economic ethics of Jesus as kong(公) in the synoptic Gospels

AN APOLOGIA FOR THE THEOLOGICAL EXERCISE OF POWER IN CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AS PASTORAL CASE STUDY

“If we are going to be triumphant over fear, we must have an assurance of triumph over death. The clue, then, to the triumph of faith of the early Christian lies in the power of the resurrection. They did not go everywhere preaching the ethics of Jesus. They went everywhere preaching that this Jesus whom you slew, God has raised him from the dead. Death had lost its sting, the grave had lost its victory. Fear no longer was overactive in them, and they would go everywhere, saying, ‘We must obey God rather than men. Kill this old body if you will. Let good and kindred go, this mortal life also.’”1

The kingdom of god in the ethics of Jesus

L'A. n'est pas d'accord avec la position qui consiste a dire que le message ethique de Jesus peut etre decrit comme une ethique du royaume de Dieu. La basileiva tou' qeou' ne fait pas reference au regne de Dieu et implique un fort aspect ethique. Il s'agit d'une expression concrete du don du salut, du lieu et du moment du salut. Lorsque Jesus parle du contenu de son ethique, il ne fait pas reference au royaume de Dieu. En premiere instance, il se dirige vers la Loi et les prophetes. Pour l'A., l'ethique des Evangiles synoptiques ne peut etre decrite comme la realisation de la regle de Dieu

Die etiek van Jesus in die lig van Q: Eskatologies of wysheidsteologies begrond?

The ethics of Jesus in the light Q: Rooted in eschatology or sapiental theology? Traditionally the sayings of Jesus with an ethical content were seen within the dialectics of ethics-eschatology. The imminent end, coupled with the unavoidable judgment, provides the grounds for the ethical call. The ethics of Jesus were regarded as a direct consequence of his eschatological message regarding the imminent kingdom of God This paper poses the question of whether this previous uncritical standpoint can be regarded as still valid today in the light of recent research on the hypothetical document Q. It has come to light that no sign of eschatological thinking can be found in the oldest and, therefore, most original layer of Q - indicating that Jesus probably did not think in an eschatological way. The question should be asked if another hypothesis is not to be sought - such as to regard Jesus radical ethical demands as a continuation of the Jewish sapiental tradition, but with the explicit intent to postulate an inclusive ethics. This paper’s aim is to hint in the direction of the latter, rather than to advocate it fully.

Book Reviews : Old Fashioned Ethics of Jesus

Book Reviews : Old Fashioned Ethics of Jesus

‘Quaestie Oort’ of ‘Quaestie Tai’?

Henricus Oort was an internationally respected Hebrew and Biblical scholar, as well as a liberal and enlightened Christian. In 1880 a popular publication on the Talmud led him into a fierce controversy with the Amsterdam rabbi Tobias Tal. The case got much publicity and Tal became famous by his resolute attack on a respected member of the intellectual establishment. Today, however, not the Jewish side of the argument, but rather the complicated position taken by Oort is the one that needs comment. Oort was a critical and competent scholar. His knowledge of rabbinics was limited, but sufficient for the purposes of his research and certainly far above the average level in his circles. He was in no way liable to feelings of antisemitism or to unreasonable attitudes towards his Jewish fellow-men. Yet his research of rabbinic literature was mainly devoted to a scholarly revision of the old Christian anti-Jewish arguments against early Jewish spirituality, and bent upon belittling the moral value of the Talmud and related writings. Why? Oort’s deepest convictions as a Christian were based on the ethics of Jesus’ teachings and on the revolutionary morality of the Gospels. Critical study of the Bible – his own contributions included – had shown the intimate relationship between the NT and its Jewish environment. In order to maintain the superiority of NT teaching, he was forced to describe contemporary Judaism as standing in the shadows of the great light which had shone in Jesus of Nazareth. It is sad irony that this open-minded and sincere Christian failed to understand not only the motives and feelings of his Jewish colleagues, but the essence of early Judaism, to which he devoted so much energy, as well.

The Ethics of Jesus, Christ-Centered Ethics and Lonergan's Method

The Ethics of Jesus, Christ-Centered Ethics and Lonergan's Method

Jesus and Ethics by Richard H. Hiers

210 BOOK REVIEWS From the detailed exegesis and interpretation of Paul's use of flesh the author is lead to the conclusion that he does not put forward a " systematic anthropology, nor does he offer a psychology of man as such, of his constituent parts, his nature, his functions." (p. ~16) Rather the author concludes that Paul treats of man in various ways, and even when using the central idea of flesh he does not restrict himself to a single meaning. He does, however, always treat of the whole man and in the context of a redemptive-history theology. The third section provides the background against which the author determines Paul's debt to the thought of the Old Testament and Judaism for his use of flesh, as well as the area in which his meaning diverges. In regard to the latter-flesh as a term for man in slavery to sin and at enmity with God-he insists upon the importance of Paul's Christology and teaching on the Spirit for a proper interpretation of meaning. In summary, the dissertation is an impressive and imposing piece of work on an important topic. However, certain reservations might be entertained about methodology. The method used by the author is basically the so-called Begriffsforschung-the investigation of the theology contained in a word or group of words. Since .James Barr's resounding criticism of this method in Semantics of Biblical Language, one wonders whether the on-going discussion might not relegate such an approach as the author's to a school of the recent past. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. C. JusTIN CuNNINGHAM, 0. P. Jesus and Ethics. By RICHARD H. HIERS. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1968. Pp. ~08. $6.50. This book studies the thought of four scholars, Harnack, Schweitzer, Bultmann and Dodd on the relation between the eschatology and ethics of Jesus. By eschatology Hiers means mostly the specific teaching of Jesus that the kingdom of God would be coming visibly, dramatically, and very soon, at which time human history would end. Harnack argues that, although the teaching is in the New Testament, Jesus never took it very seriously and certainly did not make it part of the essence of his doctrine. Schweitzer asserts that Jesus took the teaching very seriously and called for an " interim " ethics until the time would come. Bultmann agrees with Schweitzer that Jesus took the teaching seriously, taught it, and was mistaken about it. The exegete now must demythologize to find an ethical teaching for today. Dodd holds that Jesus preached that the kingdom of God had already come. BOOK REVIEWS 211 Thus, if each man were asked what the relation between the eschatology and the ethics of Jesus is, Harnack would say that there is no relation; Schweitzer that the ethics is a direct result of the eschatology; Bultmann that, since the eschatology is myth, one must go behind it to find the real meaning of existence, namely, radical obedience to the Word of Jesus expressing itself in love of neighbor; Dodd that the ethics flows naturally from a realized eschatology. Hiers accepts something from all these men but follows the exegesis of Schweitzer and Bultmann mostly. He thinks Dodd is guilty of introducing Platonism into his exegesis by claiming that Jesus was consciously symbolizing in his eschatological teaching an eternal order beyond space and time. Hiers holds that Jesus was simply mistaken about his teaching and taught nothing of the eternal order created by Dodd's platonism. This, of course, opens up the bag of worms about the identity of Jesus. Hiers skirts the question but seems to give us his own idea about it when he says that God " was incarnate both in the men of faith in ancient Israel and in Jesus of Nazareth." (p. 154) In other words, Hiers would not accept the divinity of Jesus in any unique sense. His criticism of Dodd's position, then, does not allow the possibility that that doctrine, not platonism, gave Dodd his basic insight into the preaching of Jesus. Even if one cannot accept all of Hier's conclusions, the book is a useful summary of the positions of four...

The Ethics of Jesus

The Ethics of Jesus

The Ethics of Jesus from Strauss to Barth

The Ethics of Jesus from Strauss to Barth

Book Review: The Ethics of Jesus and Social Progress

Book Review: The Ethics of Jesus and Social Progress

Did Jesus Teach Christian Socialism?

Two currents are just now to be seen in the general course of discussion over the ethics of Jesus. The one finds in his words essential principles of morality practically unconditioned by the messianic expectations of his contemporaries. The other current of interpretation regards Jesus as committed to the belief in the speedy end of the world. From this point of view his ethics would be intended only for the brief age that elapsed before the great catastrophe, or, to use the technical expression, "ad interim." The bearing of the first conception upon social theory has been very generally developed in America, as for example in Professor Peabody's volume Jesus Christ and the Social Question. The "ad interim" theory has never been thoroughly worked out. This article by Professor Arbuthnot is almost the first discussion of the bearing of this important change of estimate. It can hardly be expected that all of our readers will agree with its position. We expect to publish further articles in the field of the social teaching of Jesus during the course of the year. In the meantime we should be very glad to receive comments from our readers upon the general position taken in the following discussion. In order to give point to such communications we should be glad to have them answer such questions as: "Would a more thoroughgoing criticism of the gospels distinguish more precisely than has Professor Arbuthnot between the teaching of Jesus and the conceptions of the evangelists?" "If it should be admitted that Jesus expected the speedy end of the world, would the principles of an 'ad interim' ethics be applicable to an indefinitely long social evolution?" "Would an unprejudiced criticism of the Synoptic Gospels lead us to the conclusion that Jesus expected the end of the world to come in the lifetime of his generation?" The present article has special value in that it seems to distinguish sharply between the moral attitude that should result from sympathy with Jesus and some particular economic theory as to how this attitude can best find expression.

Socialism and the Ethics of Jesus, by Henry C. Vedder

Socialism and the Ethics of Jesus, <i>by Henry C. Vedder</i>

Socialism and the Ethics of Jesus. Henry C. Vedder

<i>Socialism and the Ethics of Jesus</i>. Henry C. Vedder

Book Review: I. Practical Theology: Socialism and the Ethics of Jesus

Book Review: I. Practical Theology: Socialism and the Ethics of Jesus