T H E O LO GY
A Companion to the Theology of John Webster
Christian Ethics
Michael Allen and R. David Nelson, editors
Hak Joon Lee
Foreword by Kevin J. Vanhoozer
In this capacious and accessible introduction to Christian ethics, Hak Joon Lee advances a renewed vision of Christian life that is liberative, gracecentered, and justice- and peace-oriented in nature. Responding to key ethical questions of today, Lee applies the moral meaning and implications of the new covenant in Jesus Christ to twenty-first-century life, characterized by fluidity, fragmentation, division, and violence. Christian Ethics begins by introducing covenant as the central drama and storyline of Scripture that culminates in the new covenant of Jesus. It presents shalom (the wholeness and flourishing of creation) as God’s ultimate purpose and God’s covenant as “God’s organizing mechanism of community” that mediates God’s work of liberation and restoration. Lee proposes a creative model of Christian ethics based on the new covenant of Jesus and its organizing patterns, reconstructing the key categories of ethics (agency, norms, authority of Scripture, ethical discernment, etc.) and drawing out four practices—communicative engagement, just peacemaking, grassroots organizing, and nonviolence. The result is a new model of Christian ethics that is inclusive, egalitarian, ecological, and justice- and peace-oriented, which overcomes the limitations of traditional covenantal ethics. In the second part of the book, Lee systematically applies new covenant ethics to the most urgent and controversial social issues of our time: democratic politics, economic ethics, creation care, criminal justice, race, sex and marriage, medicine, and war and peace. Through his deep, pastoral, and irenic inquiries into these difficult topics, Lee demonstrates a pattern of covenantal moral reasoning that undercuts the dominant neoliberal ethos of individualism and transactional relationship that more and more influences Christian moral decisions. His conclusion is that as covenant has been at the heart of modern democracy, human rights, civil society, and civic formation, a renewed understanding of covenant centered in Jesus can help to heal our broken society and imperiled planet, and to reorganize the fragmented human life in the era of globalization and digitization.
An overview and analysis of John Webster’s seminal contributions to Christian theology “John Webster was probably the most creative and intellectually rigorous Protestant theologian in the English-speaking world in the last few decades, and his tragically early death robbed us of a uniquely joyful, insightful, and nourishing perspective on Christian revelation. This first-class collection of essays shows how his prolifically diverse writings converge toward a truly comprehensive and magisterial theological vision of apostolic faith for our generation.” — ROWAN WILLIAMS 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
“With contributions from some of today’s finest theologians, this volume is a labor of love that honors the rich legacy of John Webster’s theology and points towards ways to further it.”
— SUZANNE MCDONALD
Western Theological Seminary
“Helpfully ordered, crystal clear, yet also filled with appropriate detail, this volume will define the shape of future research on Webster and is indispensable for scholar and student alike.” — EPHRAIM RADNER Wycliffe College
CONTRIBUTORS
Michael Allen, Ivor J. Davidson, Christopher R. J. Holmes, Matthew Levering, Joseph L. Mangina, R. David Nelson, Paul T. Nimmo, Kenneth Oakes, Fred Sanders, Darren Sarisky, Katherine Sonderegger, Justin Stratis, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Martin Westerholm, and Tyler R. Wittman.
Michael Allen is the John Dyer Trimble Professor of Systematic Theology and academic dean at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. R. David Nelson is senior acquisitions editor at Baker Academic and Brazos Press and editor of Lutheran Forum. 978-0-8028-7674-4 | Jacketed Hardcover | 336 pages | $50.00 US | $67.99 CAN £40.99 UK | Available June 2021
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Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
www.eerdmans.com
A New Covenant Model
Hak Joon Lee is the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has published several books, including God and Community Organizing: A Covenantal Approach; Discerning Ethics: Diverse Christian Responses to Divisive Moral Issues; Intersecting Realities: Race, Identity, and Culture in the Spiritual Life of Young Asian Americans; and The Great World House: Martin Luther King, Jr., and Global Ethics. 978-0-8028-7687-4 | Hardcover | 550 pages | $47.99 US | $64.99 CAN | £38.99 UK Available November 2021
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