Abstract
Baker Academic’s new Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (hereafter DSE) provides a broadly evangelical perspective on the relationship between the Bible and Christian ethics. This volume compiles the expertise of more than two hundred different scholars on over five hundred topics. Green, the general editor, introduces the resources describing the need for such a work, given the relative lack of scholarly attention that ‘the Bible and ethics’ has received in the academy. Green also highlights the historical challenges of addressing the relationship between Christian Scripture and ethics. He explains that Christian interpreters throughout history have often addressed ethical questions from Scripture by overly harmonizing biblical voices. This volume aims to offer its readers answers to difficult questions without dodging the most challenging of issues.
DSE then provides three additional introductory sections dealing with larger questions surrounding biblical ethics. Allen Verhey first handles ‘Ethics in Scripture,’ defining ethics as ‘disciplined reflection concerning moral conduct and character.’ He adds, ‘In Scripture, such reflection is always disciplined by convictions about God’s will and way’ (p. 5). Verhey takes six pages to overview ethical approaches to Torah, the Prophets, Wisdom, the Gospels, Paul, and the later New Testament writings.
Charles Cosgrove writes the volume’s next introductory section, entitled ‘Scripture in Ethics: A History’ (pp. 13–25). Cosgrove tours the particular ethical approaches and concerns of believers in the first century, the Patristic period, the Medieval period, the Reformation, and the Modern/Postmodern era. Cosgrove’s survey aims to illustrate the complexity of the relationship between Christian Scripture and ethics. He also shows how varied are the conceptions of biblical authority, which is fundamental to modern debate.
In the final introductory section, Bruce Birch’s ‘Scripture in Ethics: Methodological Issues’ addresses the current state of ethical discussion in the life of individual Christians. That is, Birch contends that Christians use untested methods for drawing ethical conclusions from Scripture. He sets out to raise issues of perspective and methodological practice to help believers be more ‘self-conscious’ as they relate the Bible to their moral lives.
One typical article featured in this volume is Michael Gorman’s on ‘Abortion.’ Gorman even-handedly covers the ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ sides in the debate. He helpfully notes the main arguments of each and also includes common responses to these arguments. In the end, Gorman draws upon the opposition of early Jewish and Christian communities to abortion and discusses the non-canonical texts that clearly attest to this stance.
DSE is arranged alphabetically and, as with the above article, lives up to the goal(s) stated in the introductory matter. Treatments of stated topics seems fair and considers the complexity of the issues addressed. The wide range of topics includes: capitalism, artificial intelligence, ethics in the Additions to Daniel and Esther, concubinage, taxation, urbanization, ethics in the Dead Sea Scrolls, quality of life, reproductive technology, loans, Just-War Theory, individualism, hospice, and ecological ethics. The volume is recommended either as a starting place for further research or a ‘one-stop’ treatment on Christian ethics for pastors and lay people.