Understanding Religious Ethics

This accessible introduction to religious ethics focuses on themajor forms of ethical reasoning encompassing the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, andIslam. It examines the ethical dimensions of these faiths, bothindividually and comparatively, by exploring how and what theythink about a series of important issues such as friendship,marriage, homosexuality, lying, forgiveness and its limits, thedeath penalty, the environment, warfare, and the meaning of work,career, and vocation. In doing all of this, the book offers insightboth into these particular traditions and into the common moralchallenges confronting all people today.

The book pays serious attention not just to what each faith hasto say about an issue, but also to how each faith explains anddefends its moral viewpoints. Equal attention is given to eachfaith s deliberation and judgments on specific issues, thestyles and modes of reasoning by which those judgments are reached,and the ways in which those judgments reveal some of thesetraditions deepest convictions about God, the cosmos, andhumanity.

Timely and insightful, Understanding Religious Ethicsoffers a powerful model of how the traditions can be understood andengaged charitably and critically the sort of understandingand engagement that will be increasingly necessary in thetwenty–first century.

Introduction: Conviction and Argument.

Part I: Preliminaries.

1 God and Morality.

2 Jewish Ethics.

3 Christian Ethics.

4 Islamic Ethics.

Part II: Personal Matters.

5 Friendship.

6 Sexuality.

7 Marriage and Family.

8 Lying.

9 Forgiveness.

Part III: Social Matters.

10 Love and Justice.

11 Duty, Law, Conscience.

12 Capital Punishment.

13 War (I): Towards War.

14 War (II): In War.

15 Religion and the Environment.

Part IV: The Last Things.

16 Pursuits of Happiness: Labor, Leisure, and Life.

17 Good and Evil.

Conclusion: What′s So Funny bout Peace, Love, andUnderstanding?

Notes.

Index.

At 250 pages, the volume provides thoughtful theoreticalfoundations for comparative religious ethics balanced by attentionto both historical context and normative issues.  (Religious Studies Review, 11 June 2013)