What Would Jesus Really Do? - by Andrew Fiala (Hardcover)

About the Book

What Would Jesus Really Do? examines what Jesus says (and doesn't say) about complicated contemporary ethical issues including abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, war, homosexuality, and the family.

Book Synopsis

What Would Jesus Really Do? examines what Jesus says (and doesn't say) about complicated contemporary ethical issues including abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, war, homosexuality, and the family.

Review Quotes

Andrew Fiala faces openly and powerfully the limits of the Bible when dealing with contemporary ethical issues. He asserts the respect for scripture does not require the literalization of time-oriented ancient texts which we then apply to complex modern problems. The result is an exciting book designed to challenge traditionalists and modernists alike.

Fiala synthesizes years of teaching and debate into an objective ethics textbook. He carefully elaborates on Jesus's fundamental moral teachings, as articulated in the New Testament, and extrapolates from these principles a moral system extending to modern situations like abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, human sexuality, and social welfare-situations unfamiliar to the historical Jesus. He also incorporates the ethical reflections of great philosophers and psychologists like Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. His concisely written and succinctly argued survey of ethical studies is complete with chapter conclusions, notes, and a helpful index.

I avidly read this book in one sitting. It is a thoughtful and insightful appraisal of the ethics of Jesus in the light of contemporary humanism and rational inquiry.

I hope this book will be widely read by Christians, especially those who believe that so-called 'Christian Ethics' really is based on the sayings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament.

About the Author

Andrew Fiala is associate professor of philosophy at California State University-Fresno, and the author of The Just War Myth, Tolerance & the Ethical Life, Practical Pacifism, andThe Philosopher's Voice. He lives in Fresno, California.
You can visit his website here.