Character Ethics and the Old Testament: Moral Dimensions of Scripture

by M. Daniel Carroll Rodas (Editor), Jacqueline E. Lapsley

Throughout the Old Testament, the stories, laws, and songs not only teach a way of life that requires individuals to be moral, but they demonstrate how. In biblical studies, character ethics has been one of the fastest-growing areas of interest. Whereas ethics usually studies rules of behavior, character ethics focuses on how people are formed to be moral agents in the world. This book presents the most up-to-date academic work in Old Testament character ethics, covering topics throughout the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, in addition to the use of the Bible in the modern world.

In addition to Carroll and Lapsley, contributors are Denise M. Ackermann, Cheryl B. Anderson, Samuel E. Balentine, William P. Brown, Walter Brueggemann, Thomas B. Dozeman, Bob Ekblad, Jose Rafael Escobar R., Theodore Hiebert, Kathleen O'Connor, Dennis T. Olson, J. David Pleins, Luis R. Rivera Rodriguez, J. J. M. Roberts, and Daniel L. Smith-Christopher.

280 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2007

About the author

Daniel Carroll Rodas (PhD, University of Sheffield) is distinguished professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado, where he founded IDEAL, a Spanish language training program. He is also an adjunct professor at El Seminario Teológico Centroamericano in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He is the author or editor of several books, including Amos--The Prophet and His Oracles: Research on the Book of Amos and Theory and Practice in Old Testament Ethics, and is a contributing editor to Prism.