Ethics in the Presence of Jesus (Paperback)

'Muchof what passes for "Christian ethics" today fails to rise above the level ofasking "what would Jesus do?" Christopher Holmes's Ethics in the Presence ofChrist constitutes a frontal assault on this way of thinking. TakingJohn's gospel as his point of departure, Holmes would instead have usask "who is Jesus and what is he doing?" Writing in the tradition of KarlBarth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Paul Lehmann, he takes us into the deep waterswhere the Christian life is grounded in nothing but the grace of God. A workmarked by clarity and elegance, and full of surprises. ' - Joseph Mangina, Professor of Systematic Theology, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Canada--,
'This is an elegant and absorbing essay in moral theology, the fruit of sustained reflection on the presence of Jesus Christ as the principle of human life before God.' - Professor John Webster DD FRSE, University of Aberdeen, UK.--Sanford Lakoff
'Avoiding Pelagian views that assume we need to make Christ present by the way we act, Christopher Holmes here offers us a perceptive and persuasive vision of a scripturally rooted evangelical ethics that is shaped at every point by its dogmatic commitment to the fact that the risen, ascended and advent Lord has not left us to our own devices but is present in the power of his Spirit as prophet, priest and king enabling our actions as those who are part of the new creation. Informed by the thinking of Bonhoeffer, Barth and T. F. Torrance, this is a book of deep insight, a strictly theological ethics in the best sense that demonstrates how and why truth cannot be detached from the living Christ without making ethics a burden instead of a promising transformation of human action through Jesus' own inclusive contemporaneous actions as reconciler and redeemer. This book deserves to be widely read and discussed.' - Paul D. Molnar, Professor of Systematic Theology, St. John's University, Queens, New York, USA.--Sanford Lakoff
'Much of what passes for "Christian ethics" today fails to rise above the level of asking "what would Jesus do?" Christopher Holmes's Ethics in the Presence of Christ constitutes a frontal assault on this way of thinking. Taking John's gospel as his point of departure, Holmes would instead have us ask "who is Jesus and what is he doing?" Writing in the tradition of Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Paul Lehmann, he takes us into the deep waters where the Christian life is grounded in nothing but the grace of God. A work marked by clarity and elegance, and full of surprises. ' - Joseph Mangina, Professor of Systematic Theology, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Canada--Sanford Lakoff