Creation and Christian Ethics: Understanding God’s Designs for Humanity and the World

Creation is a foundational pillar of the biblical storyline, yet it plays little role in contemporary evangelical ethics. Seeking to correct this oversight, Dennis Hollinger employs the creation story and creation themes throughout Scripture as a foundation for Christian ethics.

After demonstrating why creation is theologically significant and important for Christian ethics, Hollinger develops major creation paradigms that provide ethical guidance on a wide range of issues, including money, sex, power, racism, creation care, social institutions, and artificial intelligence, among many others. Creation and Christian Ethics shows throughout that the triune God creates from love, and in that creation are moral designs for humanity’s journey in God’s world.

Professors and students of Christian ethics will find this a valuable resource for the classroom, while pastors and church leaders will benefit from personal and small-group study.

Introduction: Why Creation for Ethics?
1. In the Beginning God: A Loving, Designing, Self-Disclosing Maker
2. It’s a Good World After All: Money, Sex, and Power
3. Made in the Image of God: Human Dignity in All Humans and the Whole of Human Life
4. Creation Care: Stewarding God’s Good Creation
5. Created for Relationship (1): Sexuality, Marriage, Sex, and Family
6. Created for Relationship (2): Major Institutions of Society
7. Created to Work: Connecting Sunday to Monday
8. Sabbath: God Institutes a Rhythm of Life for Worship, Self-Care, and Justice
9. Limited and Dependent: The Ethics of Human Finitude
10. Embodied Souls or Ensouled Bodies: The Meaning and Implications of Being Whole Beings
Conclusion: Living Out a Creation Ethic in a Pluralistic, Complex, Fallen World
Indexes

304 pages.

“Dennis Hollinger is a wise ethicist who has given us a book that is full of wisdom. He argues convincingly–and eloquently–that a biblical ethics that is genuinely biblical must be firmly grounded in the knowledge of God’s creating purposes in designing the marvelous world where he calls us to do his will. I learned much from this book, and I plan to return to it frequently to learn even more.”

Richard J. Mouw, president emeritus, Fuller Theological Seminary

“Hollinger’s fundamental instinct–which he consistently and ably applies throughout the book and across various subjects–is to make sure our ethics begin with the goodness of creation. It sounds easier than it often proves to be in practice: some downplay the goodness of creation because of a hyperemphasis on the fall, while others ignore creation by giving the spirit of this age too much unquestioned influence. I’m glad to see him push us toward the goodness and the faithful trajectory of God’s creation in the way he does.”

Kelly M. Kapic, professor of theological studies, Covenant College