158 - Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction

Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction
By J. Philip Wogaman
Louisville, Westminster/John Knox, 1993. 340 pp. $19.99.

J. Philip Wogaman, long-time Professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary and now Senior Minister of the Foundry United Methodist Church, has written a very important book that directs the student of Christian ethics toward a rich and varied inheritance but not uncritically. For example, Wogaman notes that the tradition bears persistently distorted attitudes toward women and sexuality as well as frequent support for economic and political hierarchies. And yet, he also knows that any vibrant Christian ethic needs to be nourished by creative engagement with a longer past. His genuinely ecumenical interpretation places the reader in conversation with the works and concerns of Augustine of Hippo, Catherine of Siena, medieval monasticism, Thomas Aquinas, Marsilius of Padua, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, the social gospel, Pope Leo XIII, Paul Tillich, Martin Luther King, Jr., liberation theology, and much, much more.

In addition to movements and figures, Wogaman's account introduces basic themes in moral theology. For example, he discusses revelation and reason in the Bible, Thomas Aquinas's synthesis of Christian faith and Aristotle, and the place of appeals to reason and human nature in Bishop Joseph Butler's ethics of benevolence. The theme of grace and law comes in for heightened attention with reference to the New Testament, Augustine, Aquinas , and Protestant reformers. But that's not all. Wogaman's book also furnishes an historical introduction to important substantive issues in ethics. For example, he treats the question of war, peace, and justice in Augustine, Aquinas, John Calvin, Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth, and John Howard Yoder. He reviews questions concerning sex and gender in the Didache, Augustine, Aquinas, and recent papal encyclicals. He discusses the question of slavery in the early church as well as the struggle over abolition in the American churches during the nineteenth century.

What finally emerges, then, is nothing less than a contemporary re-appropriation of the heritage of Christian ethics. Wogarnan's interpretation spans the major Christian sub-traditions, and it combines attention to long-acknowledged classics with attention to long-neglected contributions, such as those of monastic women (Hildegard of Bingen), women mystics (Catherine of Siena), and American feminists (Mary Dodge, Sojourner Truth). As is perhaps inevitable, however, some things receive less attention than they may deserve. Wogaman fails to discuss Puritans in old and New England, such as William Perkins, Richard Baxter, John Cotton, Anne Hutchinson, and Roger Williams-an unusual omission for one so steeped in Ernst Troeltsch's Social Teachings. The short section on feminist theology appropriately discusses the question of theological

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language, although it might be expanded to include something about sex and gender in a contemporary feminist ethicist. There also may be more to say about ethics and Eastern Orthodoxy.

But these are suggestions for subsequent editions. To stick to the main point, this is a very fine book. It is the best one-volume history of Christian ethics available. It is also one of the best shorter surveys of Christian theology. It ought to be used in introductory courses, and it ought to be read by anyone interested in Christian theology and Christian ethics.

Douglas F. Ottati
Union Theological Seminary
Richmond, VA