Pregeant, Russell. Knowing Truth, Doing Good: Engaging New Testament Ethics. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

Abstract

As we face new, complex, and often controversial ethical issues, turning to the New Testament for guidance can be a bewildering experience. One reason, Russell Pregeant explains, is that those writings belong to a distant and very different cultural world, where many of our questions simply weren't imagined. We must approach each of these texts with care, sensitivity to that distance, and alertness to our own responsibilities in this complex task. Too often, however, books on "New Testament ethics" speak simply of "the New Testament viewpoint."

Pregeant offers a unique postmodern alternative. Recognizing the open-ended character of language and the possibility - and desirability - of "multiple, sometimes competing strands of meaning" in the New Testament, he attends to the literary character of each of the canonical writings, and to the sociopolitical environment of the Jesus movement as well, asking what knowing the truth and doing the good look like in each. At last he offers a social ethic grounded in concern for the common good.