Alluring yet frustrating. Charming yet maddening. Such is our reaction to the literary wonder called Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth), a “wisdom” book that has captured the fascination of readers everywhere for over two millennia with its mix of poetry and personal reflection, its probing of the human experience and its piercing assessment of human activity—especially human labor. Its “All is meaningless!” lament, which frames the document, is well known to all. But its message and the structure of the writer’s argument remain disputed, even among professional scholars. Often overlooked, when not ignored, is the relationship between joy or contentment and the fear of God. And almost universally ignored in standard commentary is the role that satisfaction in our work plays in the life of the God-fearer. Against the mainstream of biblical scholarship, Wisdom and Work argues for the presence of a double theme in Ecclesiastes. It argues that, based on the writer’s literary-rhetorical strategy, two diametrically opposed outlooks on life are being contrasted in Ecclesiastes, and that meaning and purpose, not “meaninglessness,” are by divine design to be the norm – a norm that infuses the daily, the ordinary, and perhaps most significantly, our work.
Pacifism. Jihad. Militarism. Are these our only alternatives for dealing with global injustice today? J. Daryl Charles leads us to reconsider a Christian view of the use of force to maintain or reestablish justice. He shows how love for a neighbor can warrant the just use of force. Reviewing and updating the widely recognized but not necessarily well-understood just-war teaching of the church through the ages, Charles shows how it captures many of the concerns of the pacifist position while deliberately avoiding, on the other side, the excesses of jihad and militarism. Aware of our contemporary global situation, Charles addresses the unique challenges of dealing with international terrorism.
How can some politicians, pundits, and scholars cite the principles of "just war" to defend military actions—and others to condemn those same interventions? Just what is the just war tradition, and why is it important today?Authors David D. Corey and J. Daryl Charles answer those questions in this fascinating and invaluable book. The Just War Tradition: An Introduction reintroduces the wisdom we desperately need in our foreign policy debates.
Every successive generation finds fresh reasons for the study of natural law. Current interest in the natural law may well be due to a pervasive moral pessimism in the Western cultural context and wider contemporary geopolitical challenges. Those geopolitical challenges result from two significant and worrisome global developments – unprecedented violent persecution of religious minorities on several continents and a growing climate of secular hostility toward religious faith in Western societies. Natural Law and Religious Freedom aims to address what is relatively absent from the literature by demonstrating the importance of natural law ethics in both establishing and preserving basic human rights, of which religious freedom has pride of place. Probing contemporary challenges to natural law thinking that are both internal and external to religious faith, and examining the character and constitution of natural law ethics, Natural Law and Religious Freedom will be of interest to theologians, ethicists and philosophers as well as policy analysts, politicians and activists who are concerned to anchor religious freedom and human rights policy considerations in an enduring way.
With issues of war and peace at the forefront of current events, an informed Christian response is needed. This timely volume answers 104 questions from a just-war perspective, offering thoughtful yet succinct answers. Ranging from the theoretical to the practical, the volume looks at how the just-war perspective relates to the philosopher, historian, statesman, theologian, combatant, and individual—with particular emphases on its historical development and application to contemporary geopolitical challenges. Forgoing ideological extremes, Charles and Demy give much attention to the biblical teaching on the subject as they provide moral guidance. A valuable resource for considering the ethical issues relating to war, Christians will find this book's user-friendly format a helpful starting point for discussion.
When the early Christian author Tertullian asked what Jerusalem has to do with Athens, he could not have anticipated the intellectual, cultural, and social challenges facing Christians in the twenty-first century. But his question is no less relevant today. What does life in Christ have to do with the stuff of our daily lives--our work, education, citizenship, and behavior? What are we on earth to do? In this wide-ranging collection, J. Daryl Charles shares insights from nearly thirty years of reflecting on these and related questions. Wisdom's Work explores the earthiness of the Christian life through essays on vocation, work, ethics, education, and the calling of believers to be salt and light in the world--the real world that we inhabit every day.
Should the cross be fused to the sword?Should Christianity be allied to the state and fight in its wars?Is such a marriage even possible?On March 28, 2014, four noted speakers, authors, and thinkers debated these questions in Boston, Massachusetts. Professors Peter Kreeft and J. Daryl Charles argued in favor of the Just War theory, proposing that it is the church's responsibility to demonstrate love of neighbor and preserve justice by participating in war to defend the weak from the strong. Attorney David Bercot and former U.S. soldier Dean Taylor defended the opposite position - that Jesus Christ, the Apostles, and the early church (pre-325 A.D.) all taught and held to a position of strict nonresistance, loving their enemies, beating their swords into ploughshares, and living crucified lives of selfless love - and that we should do the same.The debate had strong live attendance and generated intense interest. Thousands - perhaps tens of thousands - have now listened to the recorded debate or watched it on the Internet or DVD. This booklet contains a complete transcript of the debate. Read for yourself the arguments on both sides and weigh them against each other. A list of references for further reading, as well as a preface giving the background of the event, add to the book's value, and illustrations make it even more interesting to read or browse.
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