What does Jesus have to do with ethics? There are two brief answers given by believers: "everything" and "not much." While evangelical or fundamentalist Christians would find authoritative guidance in the words and commands of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament, many mainstream Christian ethicists would say that Jesus is too concrete or narrowly particular to have any direct import for ethics.In this book, Williams Spohn takes a middle way, showing how Jesus is the "concrete universal" of Christian ethics. By forming a bridge from the lives of contemporary Christians to the words and deeds of Jesus, Jesus’ story as a whole exemplifies moral perception, motivation and Christian identity. In addition, Spohn shows how the practices of Christian spirituality — specifically prayer, service, and community — train the imagination and reorient emotions to produce a character and a way of life consonant with Christian New Testament moral teaching. ~ Product Description

Table of Contents

• • Preface
  • Introduction    1
• Pt. 1    The Sources
  • 1    Ethics and the Word of God    9
  • 2    Virtues, Practices, and Discipleship    27
  • 3    The Analogical Imagination    50
• Pt. 2    Christian Transformation
  • 4    Perception    75
  • 5    Correcting Perception    100
  • 6    Emotions and Dispositions    120
  • 7    Dispositions and Discernment    142
  • 8    Identity and the Lord’s Supper    163
  • Conclusion    185
  • Notes    189
  • Index of Scripture References    217
  • Index of Names    219
  • Index of Subjects    223