The Early Church on Killing: A Comprehensive Sourcebook on War, Abortion, and Capital Punishment
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Overview
In this volume, noted theologian Ron Sider lets the testimony of the early church speak. It offers a thorough, comprehensive treatment on topics of perennial concern—war, abortion, and capital punishment—providing English translations for all extant data directly relevant to the treatment of these issues by the early church until Constantine. Primarily, it draws data from early church writings, but other evidence, such as archaeological finds and Roman writings, is included. The book contains brief introductions to every Christian writer cited and explanatory notes on many specific texts. The Early Church on Killing will be a helpful text in courses on ethics, theology, and church history.
In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
- Delves into the ideas surrounding the value of life for members of the early church
- Discusses the ethics of the early church and how they were derived
- Highlights issues that remain relevant today
- Christian Writers before Constantine
- Church Orders and Synods
- Miscellaneous Items
- Other Evidence of Christian Soldiers before Constantine
In this very important work, Ron Sider returns to his roots as a church historian to offer an exceedingly careful, measured study of the literary evidence left by the early church on the morality of killing. This volume is entirely free of propaganda or polemics, following the evidence where it leads. This deceptively brief, highly disciplined study should prove to be authoritative in this field.
—David P. Gushee, distinguished university professor of Christian ethics, Center for Theology and Public Life, Mercer University
In a most helpful way and with an evident knowledge of the primary sources, Ronald Sider presents in translation a comprehensive sourcebook of early Christian statements on the issues of abortion, capital punishment, and military service. . . . Sider confronts the reader with the relevant texts themselves and so allows us to make our own independent judgment on the important question of the early church’s position on these difficult and yet highly relevant themes. This book will be an asset in the libraries of pastors and laypeople alike and a welcome text in college and seminary classrooms.
—William C. Weinrich, professor of historical theology, Concordia Theological Seminary
The question of ‘killing’ has been a contested and debated issue from the earliest years of the church’s history. May Christians serve in the military? Is abortion ever justifiable? What of the question of capital punishment? Ron Sider has produced an invaluable handbook of primary source material from an ancient Christian perspective that can serve the entire church well as we continue to face these thorny and often heartrending questions in a modern context.
—Christopher A. Hall, chancellor, Eastern University
In a time when violent death is all too common and wars of choice are undertaken all too readily, it is bracing to be reminded by this cloud of witnesses from the early church of the value that early Christians placed on human life and the severe judgments they issued on those who took it without cause.
—Harold W. Attridge, Sterling Professor of Divinity, Yale Divinity School
Ronald J. Sider is a distinguished professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Palmer Theological Seminary. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.
Reviews
2 ratings
Dakota Sorenson
9/24/2022
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