A Primer in Christian Ethics: Christ and the Struggle to Live Well

Luke Bretherton

Nov 2023 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

How does Christian belief and practice relate to living well amid the difficulties of everyday life and the catastrophes and injustices that afflict so many today? In his introduction to Christian ethics, Bretherton provides a new, constructive framework for addressing this question. Connecting the theory and practice of Christian moral thought to contemporary existential concerns, this book integrates classic approaches to the pursuit of wisdom with contemporary liberationist and critical voices. The relationship between human and nonhuman life provides a central focus to the work, foregrounding environmental justice. As well as addressing a broad range of ethical questions, Bretherton situates moral formation and the pursuit of human and nonhuman flourishing alongside a concern for spirituality, pastoral care, and political struggles to survive and thrive in the contemporary context. Written for those seeking a place to start, as well as those seasoned in the field, Bretherton's book provides an innovative ethical framework that moves beyond many of the impasses that shape current moral and political debates.

About the author

Luke Bretherton is the Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology at Duke University. He is the author of Christ and the Common Life (2019), Resurrecting Democracy (2014), Hospitality as Holiness (2010), and Christianity and Contemporary Politics (2010), winner of the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. Alongside his scholarship and teaching, he writes on topics related to religion and politics in the media, hosts the Listen, Organize, Act! Podcast, and is involved in forms of grassroots democratic politics, both the United Kingdom and the United States.