The Reality and Ethics of Jesus: Issues and History

* Is it essential to proclaim that Jesus actually lived in history, or is history the enemy of faith? * How can we square Christianity's tolerance and inclusiveness with the reality of sectarian violence? * Are the aims and ethics of Jesus irrelevant in our current time of skepticism and confusion about moral obligation and action? What "authority" can be claimed for Holy Scripture? * What does the free exercise of religion, affirmed in the United States Constitution, really mean? * Are the American people accepting an "idol worship" of nationalism, abetted either by a "politics of radical religion," or, conversely, by an expanding ideology of secularism? In either case, are Christian congregations becoming "aliens in a foreign land"? * What constitutes an effective and driving Christian ethics for the twenty-first century? These are the fundamental questions that Christians in America should be debating today, rather than letting themselves be caricatured as translating "values" into partisan political agendas, thereby denigrating the ultimate truth and commitment of faith. Finding basic answers to these questions is what this book is all about.