The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creationa Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethic

Although not flawless, Richard Hay's Contemporary Introduction to NT Ethics offers readers a thorough, comprehensive and systematic picture of NT ethics that can be applied to various issues. Hays begins with the exegesis of the gospels, Acts, Pauline Letters and Revelation to interpret the ethical messages and challenges of these writings. He then leads readers into finding a coherence of the moral vision of the NT through the focal images of Community, Cross and New Creation. These images remain the lens through which he develops his ethics. Hays profiles the ethical approaches of five theologians: R. Niebuhr, Barth, Yoder, Hauerwas and Fiorenza. He discusses how they each use Scripture, reason and experience to define ethics. He concludes the book by walking readers through five case studies following his formula of exegesis, canonical synthesis, hermeneutic interpretation and pragmatic conclusion. The topics are violence and justice, divorce/remarriage, abortion, homosexuality and anti-Judaism/ethnic conflict. Hays approaches his subjects from a broad perspective and then narrows his focus. His chapters on the ethics of particular NT writings were helpful, as he demonstrates the exegetical and hermeutical process of determining Christian ethics from the texts and the whole of the canon. He followed these chapters with one on the influence of the "historical Jesus" on ethics. I didn't find this helpful and saw it as a concession to scholars who might object to presuming that the historical Jesus and the Biblical Jesus are the same. The profiles of the theologians were interesting; however, I think the section on Fiorenza was an anomaly among the others. She is a feminist theologian that seems to have a one-track ethical paradigm. The others are the giants in the field and I benefited from Hays' writing on them. He highlights their emphases and indicates their similarities and differences. The case studies are well done and helpful. Hays follows his systematic approach to developing pragmatic ethics for each case. It was helpful to see his exegesis and how he interprets the results to develop his conclusions in each case. Hays is compassionate and careful in his approach. He is theological and pragmatic while also maintaining a tone of humility in his writing. His section on homosexuality is enhanced by his use of a personal relationship and a friend's insights and writings to develop his thoughts and conclusions. Hays' writing is dense and verbose at times; however, in this book, readers can skim areas where he seems to write too much and move on to conclusions or other areas. This is a heavy, dense book that is full of references and citations. Hay's takes his task seriously and chooses to error on the side of writing too much on a topic rather than too little. I don't fault him for that but took that into consideration when reading it. Overall, I appreciate Hays' effort and this book.

Recently several important projects have emerged challenging the myth of secular reason that there is an autonomous realm of 'ethics' (eg Charles Taylor, Milbank, Oliver O'Donovan), seeking to show the constitutive moral and theological threads incorporated into the 'mainstream' narrative(s) of modernity, and so illuminating the theological forgetfulness of the secular mind. While these projects have a host of favourable outcomes, not the least of which is a new and confident engagement with modernity on Christian terms, before one becomes too enamoured of such projects, much more needs to be done biblically and theologically to show why Christian faith has a moral discourse that philosophers and social theorists etc ought to consider. Here (along with the obvious benefit such disciplined thinking can have in local churches) Richard Hays' impressive new work in NT ethics can help us. Hays' own project is concerned principally with the Christian community and its ability to live "under the Word", to hear Scripture speaking to us today. Such an aim is only controversial depending upon where one stands in the NT Studies guild. If one adopts the approach of Jack T. Sanders, for example, any appeals to the NT can only founder due to historical distance, alien contexts and questions - and can even be downright immoral! Otherwise, Hays can be seen to be engaging in a classical and necessary Christian practice, joining the many volumes written in Christian ethics, and complementing the experience and activity of Christians and their communities worldwide. In my 'evangelical' circles where the Bible is said to be "taken seriously", the 'Constantinian' mindset is sadly dominant (and there are too many superficial treatments mixed with the good). Hays' approach shares the same (or greater) biblical 'seriousness' but is radically *ecclesiocentric* like the NT - something that is possibly clearer to a NT professor than a professional 'ethicist' or systematic theologian. Alongside the work of James McClendon, Hays' book stands as a detailed, systematic challenge to a prevalent way that Christians--including my fellow evangelicals--'do ethics'. Hays sees Christian ethics as consisting of four interrelated, interpenetrating tasks (distinguishable for "heuristic purposes") - descriptive, synthetic, hermeneutical and pragmatic. The descriptive task is primarily exegetical, dealing with the texts without an immediate concern for harmonising, seeking the specific concerns and interests of each literary unit. He says: "Our descriptive work cannot be confined, however, to the explicit moral teachings of the NT texts; the church's moral world is manifest not only in didache but also in the stories, symbols, social structures, and practices that shape the community's ethos." Hays highlights that NT moral exhortations must be seen in connection with their theological warrants (and not as freestanding 'ethics' or 'values' desired by analytic philosophers).

This book is really a jewel, not only because it is filled with scholarship and beautifully written but, above all, because it provides a comprehensive and convincing account of the way the New Testament builds its own moral vision, in coherence with the life and death of Christ. This utterly honest presentation of the organic link beetwen Christian narrative and Christian ethics changes your vision of the field and makes you feel enriched. A book that will not quit your desk...

In this long-awaited volume, Richard Hays combines a close reading of the moral facets of multiple strands of the New Testament with hermeneutical conclusions for several pertinent issues for today. He combines this with a comparison between his approach and several other notable 20th C. theologians and ethicists, including a helpful list of diagnostic questions which readers can also apply to his own work. Though I differ with a few of his conclusions and even some of his methodological choices, there is no doubt of the incredible value of his work both on its own and as a classroom text. It is a real joy to wrestle and even, in places, to argue with a work of this scope and care.

This is an amazing book - solid scholarship and well thought-out interpretation delivered with a sense of urgency and sincerity. If you are at all interested in Ethics or the state of New Testament scholarship, this book is an absolute necessity.Hays sees distinct (though overlapping) tasks in the process of "doing ethics" and is able to explain and apply them clearly. His emphasis on seeing ethical questions through the "focal lenses" of Cross, Community and New Creation is a wonderful guidepost for anyone concerned with faithful, Spirit-driven scholarship. He stresses that an "integrative act of the imagination" is required to be able to apply the Scripture to our world and suggests methods for achieving it.Hays analyzes 5 theologian/ethicists in light of his approach (including Barth, Hauerwas, and Schussler-Fiorenza) and, in doing so, further clarifies how his approach can be used by others.The final section of the book applies Hays' approach to contemporary issues. Partly because of his obvious authority in Greek and New Testament scholarship, and partly because of his honest, passionate approach, his conclusions are bold and very persuasive. This book will likely be very influential in both the fields of Ethics and New Testament Studies. Students, professors and church communities alike will be dealing with (and indebted to) this book for years to come.