Joining Creation's Praise - by Brian Brock (Hardcover)

About the Book

In this major statement, a leading Christian ethicist shows how confessing that we are creatures deeply reshapes every aspect of Christian thinking and living because we were made to embody Christ's image in the world--not as dominators but as conduits of divine life.

Book Synopsis

Christianity Today 2025 Book Award Finalist (Academic Theology)

"In the beginning, God created . . ." Thus begins the Bible's story of a long conversation between God and creatures, one in which humans are often the least edifying contributors. They need to learn what it means to confess themselves creatures if they are to begin to understand what it means to be human and how to live.

Joining Creation's Praise, a major statement by a leading Christian ethicist, shows how confessing that we are creatures deeply reshapes every aspect of Christian thinking and living. Human beings are made to embody Christ's image in the world--not as dominators but as conduits of divine life.

In this comprehensive yet clear volume of theological ethics, Brian Brock follows the first few chapters of Genesis in order to discover the things that the sages of Israel took to be crucial for the ethical life of human beings among other creatures in God's world. Informed by theological rigor and careful exegesis, the many ethical reflections in this volume allow an ancient wisdom to shed fresh light on very postmodern ethical questions about conversion, life with God, knowledge and wisdom, dominion, Sabbath, vocation, economics, human dignity, our relationship with the rest of creation, sexuality, marriage, family, sin, death, and politics.

From the Back Cover

"Magisterial"

In this major statement, leading Christian ethicist Brian Brock shows how confessing that we are creatures deeply reshapes every aspect of Christian thinking and living because we were made to embody Christ's image in the world--not as dominators but as conduits of divine life.

"Wise, insightful, judicious, faithful, comprehensive, clarifying--these are just a few apt descriptions of Brock's magisterial Joining Creation's Praise. As a leading theological ethicist in our post-Christendom era, Brock shows us how we might find ourselves at home. Without certainty, without moralism, without avoiding the difficulties we face, he successfully brings us to where we can and should be. This work deserves to be the standard Christian ethics text for the foreseeable future."
--D. Stephen Long, Southern Methodist University

"Here Brock undertakes nothing less than the conversion of common sense in our industrialized, militarized society. By locating creatureliness at the heart of a biblically grounded Christian ethos, he points to the only genuine possibility for human flourishing into the future. The creativity, breadth, and thoroughness of this study, as well as the gracefulness of its exposition, will reward those who accept his challenge to think deeply and live differently in this God-formed world."
--Ellen F. Davis, Duke Divinity School

"Brock argues that Christian ethics must be a thoroughly 'doxological' undertaking, formed from start to finish in the language of worship and imaginatively nourished from sacred texts. As a program this has been heard before, but I cannot think of another book that undertakes to implement that program with such thoroughness. Taking creatureliness as a privileged starting point, strongly in tension with the suppositions of the secular West, Brock explores the paths of practical thought that open out from it, while warning us away from the false trails he sees as barred off."
--Oliver O'Donovan, University of Edinburgh (emeritus)

"A monumental triumph, in that only a consummate scholar of Brock's reputation, tenacity, and skill could have created such a comprehensive piece of work. The challenge of 'How should we live?' is one that has concerned theological ethicists for centuries. This expansive appraisal of theological ethics is rooted in our creatureliness, as beings created for mutuality and relationship, by the ultimate, master Creator. Brock demonstrates that generosity is at the heart of what it means to be human. A must-read!"
--Anthony G. Reddie, Oxford University

About the Author

Brian Brock (PhD, King's College, London) is chair of moral and practical theology at the University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland. He has written scholarly works on the use of the Bible in Christian ethics, the ethics of technological development, and the theology of disability, including Singing the Ethos of God: On the Place of Christian Ethics in Scripture. He is managing editor of the Journal of Disability and Religion, founder and managing editor of the T&T Clark Enquiries in Theological Ethics, and president of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics.