The Most Influential Christian Ethics Book I Have Read – A Symposium

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Christ and Culture These Rebellious Powers
"Of the many books which have shaped my thinking, few would rival Richard Niebuhr`s Christ and Culture. This old standby has kept me starkly aware of the cultural moorings of the faith, the faith moorings of the culture, and the inevitable tension between the two. I have never been able to read this book enough times to exhaust the thinking it stimulates." Dr. David Sapp, Pastor, Second Ponce De Leon Baptist, Atlanta [Note: See George Marsden`s article in this issue for an appraisal of this book]

"These Rebellious Powers by Albert van den Heuvel impacted my life because it clearly revealed to me how the Bible deals in a specific way with social structures. Van den Heuval communicates with clarity that political and economic systems ought to be listed as among the `principalities and powers` which St. Paul refers to in his epistles. The reading of this book provided a call for me to struggle against the principalities and powers and rulers of this age (Eph. 6:12) so that they might be brought into conformity with the Will of God. As a sociologist and a social activist, I became convinced upon reading this book that there was a mandate for those of us in the church to work for the structural changes in society that would insure justice for the oppressed and deliverance for the impoverished." Tony Campolo, Eastern College, St. Davids, Pennsylvania

"Like many graduates of Southwestern Seminary in the 1940s and 1950s, the answer to this question is simply to say—T. B. Maston! As a young embryonic preacher, Maston`s basic course in Christian Ethics was one of the most important exposures to new and fundamental truth I have ever experienced. This exposure led to taking a number of other courses Maston taught, as well as a lifelong interest in his writings. Some of his volumes which I treasure are: Christianity and World Issues and Biblical Ethics. After seminary I ministered in a time of racial warfare, social unrest, war and peace, and theological conflict. I cannot find words strong enough to express gratitude to the influence of T. B. Maston, who combined a humble Christian spirit with massive Christian teachings in the area of Christian ethics.
Darold Morgan, President Emeritus of the SBC Annuity Board, Richardson, Texas

"And the Poor Get Welfare: The Ethics of Poverty in the United States by Warren R. Copeland caused me to revise my understanding of who poor Americans are and of ways in which we as a society can assist them to escape poverty. The book is a wise and readable mix of Christian ethics, social theory, and statistics. If I were setting out to be of assistance to poor people in this country, I would want to know the things that are in this book. Copeland makes it clear that a number of ideas that are frequently labeled `politically correct` would be better labeled `prophetically true`." Fisher Humphreys, Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, Alabama

Note: Readers are invited to submit their own paragraph statement of "The Most Influential Christian Ethics Book I Have Read." Let us hear from you.