Introducing Christian Ethics: Core Convictions for Christians Today

by David P. Gushee, Rubén Rosario Rodríguez (Foreword)

"A comprehensive one-stop manual on what it means to live Christianly." Peter Enns, author of The Bible Tells Me So
What does it mean to be a Christian in today's turbulent world? After every disillusionment and debate, what convictions survive? Dr. David P. Gushee is an influential voice in American religious life as an ethicist, pastor, and activist. He's advocated on issues ranging from torture and climate change to truth in politics and LGBTQ inclusion. He co-authored the pivotal Kingdom Ethics , a Jesus-based ethics textbook, and has written numerous books and hundreds of opinion pieces on what Christianity has to say about how we should live. Now, in this ambitious new book, Gushee sums up his many years of teaching and experience to provide a definitive, comprehensive vision of the Christian moral life. With twenty-five easy-to-digest chapters, plus audio and video versions that readers can access from links in each chapter, Introducing Christian Ethics offers readers a way to understand how to situate moral reasoning not only in scripture, but also in tradition and human reasoning. It offers a focus on Jesus and the disinherited, and a nuanced rethinking of the kingdom of God and its meaning for Christian ethics. Drawing on Gushee's own work and life story but also a richly diverse set of sources, it covers general principles like virtues, truthfulness, love, and justice. And it discusses issues like creation, patriarchy, white supremacy, abortion, sexuality, marriage, politics, crime, and more. This new book is groundbreaking in its breadth. Written for seminary students, educators, pastors, small groups, and Christians everywhere, this is the first time in his long publishing career that Gushee has offered both audio and video versions along with each copy of the book. The multimedia elements were recorded at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, where Gushee is the Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics. The book also includes a complete discussion guide with questions conveniently organized by chapter. Early reviewers around the world are describing Introducing Christian Ethics as an inspiring guide to finding core Christian convictions in a post-evangelical world. "Gushee has distilled a lifetime of learning, thinking, and teaching Christian ethics in universities, seminaries, churches, and other settings into a comprehensive yet very readable book," writes Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, Professor of Systematic Theology at Saint Louis University, in the book's Foreword. "Drawing on his own extraordinary journey as a practicing Christian and professional ethicist who has engaged all the major moral dilemmas confronting the Christian faith in the postmodern world, Introducing Christian Ethics serves as both a practical manual for how one ought to live the Christian life and an encyclopedic introduction to the academic discipline of Christian ethics. Throughout the text Gushee's considerable genius manages to interject a pastoral focus without sacrificing intellectual rigor, explore contemporary challenges to Christian faith without disregarding the vast resources of the Christian tradition, and give preference to marginalized and silenced voices ... without losing sight of the fact that Jesus's good news of liberation extends to both the oppressed and their oppressors."

368 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2022

About the author

Rev. Prof. Dr. David P. Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, Chair of Christian Social Ethics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Study Centre. He is also the elected past-president of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics. Dr. Gushee is the author, co-author, or editor of 28 books, including the bestsellers Kingdom Ethics and Changing Our Mind. His other most notable works are After Evangelicalism, Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, Introducing Christian Ethics, and The Sacredness of Human Life. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading Christian moral thinkers. Gushee and his wife, Jeanie, live in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reviews

[Derek DeMars · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic primer for responsible Christian thinking about urgent contemporary ethical issues. The wisdom Gushee offers here is informed by nearly three decades of teaching on ethics in higher education, and yet he writes with a refreshing candor and humility. He rightly affirms that moral decisions are rarely black-and-white, and the Christian moral life is a never-ending journey of learning to better follow Jesus’ teachings. As such, each chapter of the present book is written in an easy-to-digest, almost conversational style meant to promote the reader’s own journey of wrestling with these issues. While some chapters left me wishing for more concrete suggestions of what to do to pursue the social change I’d like to see, overall the material here will be of immense benefit to any and all Christians looking to strengthen their moral perspective. Highly recommended.

[Adam Curfman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid overview of pretty much every current ethical question we face in our society today. I appreciated how the book started with an overview of the foundations for which the conclusions were drawn and then dug into character traits of an ethical person before diving into the issues themselves.

I would have liked to have seen those first chapters on foundations and character traits take a bigger roll in the remainder of the book. While I found myself agreeing with the conclusions in most cases, I couldn’t always trace back the why.

[Grace Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe I am a little biased because I took a Christian Ethics course from Dr. Gushee, but this book makes Christian ethics so approachable and digestible for everyone. It is condensed, but explains each contemporary issue well. If you want to get into the nitty gritty of all of it, I would recommend Kingdom Ethics by Dr. Gushee and Dr. Stassen. I throughly enjoyed his use of personal stories to present the situations at hand and why we need a new Christian ethics.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

What does it mean to be an ethical person? What does Christianity have to do with ethics? These are questions that have been asked down through the ages. Among those who have sought to answer these questions is David Gushee. Having taught Christian ethics at colleges and seminaries over the course of a lifetime, he is to my mind one of the leading voices on such matters. I've read many of his books over the years, and even contributed a study guide to one -- Changing Our Mind: A call from America's leading evangelical ethics scholar for full acceptance of LGBT Christians in the Church.

In recent years, largely since the publication of Changing Our Mind, which signaled his change of mind on the full inclusion of LGBTQ folks in church and society, he has found himself needing to address what it means for him as one who had been seen as the leading evangelical ethicist to find himself as a post-evangelical. We saw this present in his recently published book After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity.

David, however, remains at heart and vocationally, a Christian ethicist. He is the co-author of a major ethics text -- Kingdom Ethics, which he co-authored with the late Glen Stassen. Now, he has written a completley new textbook on Christian ethics: Introducing Christian Ethics: Core Convictions for Christians Today, (Read the Spirit Books, an imprint of Front Edge Publishing). This is a textbook that is accessible and useful not only for the classroom but for the church. One of the unique elements of the book is that it offers video and audio versions. Each chapter provides QR codes, that will take you to the video/audio elements.

While I could write up a traditional review of the book, I had the opportunity to engage David in a fruitful conversation about the book and its context. My interview with David allows him to tell potential readers what's in the book, why he wrote it, and of course the context of our times. We covered a number of bases, including the nature of God's realm, the way of Jesus, important ethical concerns, as well as the question of truthfulness in a post-truth age.

I recorded the interview some time ago, which according to David, makes this the first interview he did regarding the book. Other interviews have been done since, but I think you will enjoy our conversation.

And whether you are an ethics professor or student, or more importantly a Christian who seeks to understand what it means to live an ethical life, you will want to check out David Gushee's Introducing Christian Ethics. Though this book is designed to be used in classrooms, it can also be used very fruitfully in congregational settings. That's where the video option will truly come in handy.

For my interview with David Gushee go to -- https://youtu.be/U6cUFTkks6Y

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Say to a pastor, “Let’s talk Christian ethics,” and they might groan. Most are inclined to outsource nettlesome ethical discernments to their institutions, sub-consciously careful not to jeopardize their jobs by breaking ranks on red-line issues. Enter a breath of fresh air—a guide who treats us like adults: David Gushee and his latest, Introducing Christian Ethics: Core Convictions for Christians Today (Front Edge, 2022).

As a new introduction to Christian ethics, this is a singularly engaging in its approach. I confess that reading it was an unexpectedly emotional experience. Gushee reveals himself, at times, with candor. As a reader, I responded by letting my own guard down, to notice how much emotion, how much anguish, how much fear attends the task of engaging in serious ethical reasoning within the contemporary religious-political-cultural context. Laypeople, let alone pastors who are engaged in this work, discover that where one lands on key ethical discernments can lead to increased tensions within families, destabiled friendships, and lost church connections.

In the first part of the book, Gushee lays out what the craft of ethical reflection involves, as if to say, Here are some things you need to consider to do justice to these subjects: What’s a basic vocabulary to help you examine and articulate your thoughts? What’s the history of reflection on whatever topic you are considering? What forms of moral logic are available? What big picture Scriptural themes might guide an intentionally Christian approach that moves beyond proof-texting?

Obviously, this is the work of someone who has taught his subject to beginners many times over and he’s come up with ways of presenting the material that are sticky, helpful, clarifying, and accessible. One method I especially appreciated: at the beginning of most chapters, he reminds us: here’s where we’ve been and here’s where we’re going next and why—it’s like watching a Netflix series drama that begins with key highlights of earlier episode. Throughout, including the early more technical chapters, Gushee introduces Christian ethics as a good storyteller who has honed his storytelling by previous audience reactions.

In an early and determinative chapter, “Jesus from Below” Gushee tells the story of Howard Thurman, whose work shaped him more than any other. But Gushee doesn’t just lay out Thurman’s thesis, he tells the gripping story of how Howard Thurman became the theological forerunner of the Civil Rights movement and the impact Thurman had in Gushee’s life, as a corrective for his coming to faith and rising to professional influence within Southern Baptist evangelicalism. Clearly, Howard Thurman changed Gushee’s life and work.

In a later chapter, “Repenting White Supremacy” Gushee tells the story of a year spent reading nothing but the novels of black writers like James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison and others. For several pages, he confronts us with what these writers tell us about white people under the shadow of white supremacy--knowing that their voices matter more than his in this incisive and humble chapter. Yes, Gushee speaks of his own experience, but I also appreciate how often he tells the stories of others who speak from the margins.

He’s not just another white guy citing other white guys in the white guy echo chamber that so much Christian scholarship has been for so long. He’s searching out other voices, learning from them, seeing, feeling, thinking, doing new things.

Then Gushee takes us on an introductory tour of five components of a Christian moral core with chapters on truthfulness, sacredness, justice, love, and forgiveness. Sounds a little ho-hum? Not so much. His chapter on truthfulness lays out the Judeo-Christian ethical tradition on this subject, the various ways people understand truthfulness, key terms in biblical Hebrew and Greek that pertain to truthfulness, along with the stunning abandonment of truth-telling norms in recent years. Then he addresses the elephant in the room, Donald Trump lying, mincing now words.

Our next stops? A chapter-by-chapter introduction to all the hot topics: Caring for creation, ending the rule of men over women, repenting White Christian Supremacism, economic ethics, contraception, abortion, sexual ethics, marriage, church and state, criminal justice, peace and war-waging, and end-of-life ethics, with two final chapters on ministerial ethics and why our moral vision is so easily corrupted by, well, ourselves.

AND TREATS US LIKE ADULTS

Throughout, there’s no argumentative bullying, no condescension, no displays of expertise for manipulative effect. In every case, Gushee is transparent about the pros and cons of differing perspectives, his sources and methods, and, crucially, the factors and concerns that weigh most heavily in his conclusions. That’s the treating-us-like-adults part of his book that I so appreciate: don’t just tell us your thinking, show us your thinking so we can discern its validity for ourselves and use it as a springboard for our own reflection.

There are plenty of gems to underline or mark with exclamation points. Here’s a favorite: “The Erroneous Split Between Jesus and Justice.” With the personal insight of a former insider to evangelicalism, Gushee traces several factors that led white, conservative Christianity to drive a wedge between Jesus and Justice(!)—something that has baffled me for years. This portion reads like a crime novel: the incipient anti-Judaism of early Christianity come to full bloom in the Protestant Reformation, framing justice as an inferior Old Testament concern (contrasted with grace, mis-identified as uniquely Christian) followed by translation decisions for key Hebrew and Greek words that effectively erased justice from many English Bibles, combined with hitching much national and global missions work to the colonizing horrors of empire in need of a religious cover-up story. It’s enough to make your skin crawl and renew your conviction that some mysterious power that Scripture calls the devil really does roam the earth.

Like I said, reading Introducing Christian Ethics: Core Convictions for Christians Today was a surprisingly emotional experience. I hope many pastors and lay people distressed by our religiously-charged and fear-driven debates will take some time with Dr. David Gushee--whose guiding wisdom will make possible fruitful ethical reflection and deeds of their own.

[Jason Kanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would love it if more Christians read this book. Good stuff.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book which addressed a very broad range of ethical topics. The author has unique insights into numerous topics. I am impressed with his sensitivity and understanding of the complexities and challenges of following Jesus.

Due to the broad nature of the book, the topics were not able to be covered in great depth, but there are other books for that.

I especially enjoyed the following chapters: love, ending patriarchy once and for all, repenting of white Christian, supremacism, the radical economic ethics of Jesus, the covenant of marriage and Christian ethics at the end of life.

[Magrey Devega · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great survey of Christian ethics. It is thoughtful, accessible, and quite comprehensive, beginning with a definitional/foundational framework of Christian ethics, followed by an exploration of most - if not all - of the major controversies we wrestle with today.

[Bobbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to Christian Ethics. Gushee provides examples from his own life, research, and that of others to provide a wholistic view of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find myself surprised by the poor argumentation in this book. There are many times — probably in most chapters — when the author says he provides reasoning below (ie, later in that chapter) for a particular point, but the reasoning doesn’t come. I understand the title of this book tells me it’s merely an introduction to the topic of Christian ethics, but I think it’s barely even that. I get the impression that the author believes he’s settling many ethical and moral arguments (in favor of the Christian perspective, no less) for good, but I don’t see it. I think the author fails to provide robust argumentation for his points on two levels: he doesn’t settle any individual points, and he doesn’t justify the overall Christian foundation on which he bases all of them. I return this book to the shelf confused as to what it actually accomplishes.