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35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fine Contribution to Biblical Ethics, June 14, 2001
It may well be that the success or failure of Hays' book will boil down to whether or not one agrees with him that (1) Community, (2) Cross, and (3) New Creation are appropriate lenses through which one may view NT ethics. Hays does well to suggest reasons why these lenses are more appropriate than a more traditional lense such as "love":(1) Hays argues that any focal image needs to find a textual basis in all the canonical witness. "Love," according to Hays is not a central theme or ethical warrant in several important NT texts (Mark, Hebrews and Revelation, and Acts). According to Hays, the 3 metaphors he elevates well encapsulate essential claims in a much larger plurality of NT texts. (2) Love is itself not as much an image as it is the "interpretation of an image." "Love," in other words, is embodied concretely in the NT by the cross. Apart from the specific narrative context of the cross, "Love" loses any meaning. Thus, love in the NT is itself subsumed under the image of cross. (3) "Love" in contemporary ethics has become a fluid, debased concept that covers "all manners of vapid self-indulgence." From the perspective of contemporary culture, elevating love as a functional metaphor may do as much harm as it does good. My personal observation is that "kingdom" may be a more appropriate metaphor than "community," for Hays since "community" in many ways has becomed as distorted a concept as love. The notion of "kingdom" carries with it the idea of community united under the reign of God, embodied through the cruciform life of Christ. I find this a more helpful metaphor than "community," which today may carry the idea of a collection of self-interested individuals using the church to meet their own needs. Perhaps the greatest strenght of this book is the degree to which Hays struggles to allow scripture itself to take priority over other sources of authority (tradition, reason, and experience). The reason Hays comes out such an ardent pacificist is precisely because his exegesis of NT texts leads him to believe that the NT is nearly univocal in the ethical stance it takes regarding Christian non-violence. Jesus' teaching of his disciples (contra Niebuhr) in the Sermon on the Mount is intended as a real way of life to be embodied in faithful obedience, not an impossible ideal that must be dismissed by informed realists. According to Hays Jesus' own life of costly obedience to God functions as a paradigm for his own disciples, and the NT itself suggests that this is to be the case (this is a theme well-embodied in Paul's letters and in Mark's gospel). Even tradition would lead us to believe that the early church was consistently committed to non-violence at least until the time of Constantine; thus other sources of authority outside scripture seem to confirm Hays' argument that the church is to be a people committed to non-violent love of the enemy. The strength of Hays' pacifism is that he is attempting to root it firmly in his exegesis of the NT. Thus, one must do more than dismiss him as an unrealistic pacifist superimposing his views on the church. Rather, one must begin at the exegetical level to explain where Hays is mistaken, why his conclusion that the NT voice is univocal in advocating non-violence as the way of the church is incorrect. Or another way to deal with Hays' pacifism would be to say that other sources (tradition, reason, or experience) need to take precedence over scripture even if Hays is correct that the NT voice is consistently non-violent. This shifts the debate back to the hermeneutical level (and it is at this level where most theologians will conflict with Hays). There are two weaknesses of the book in my opinion. First, Hays does not spend enough time exploring the issue of how the OT is to function as a basis for Christian ethics. Admittedly, attention to this question would greatly expand an already large book. Still, the plurality of scripture is greatly expanded when one draws the OT into a discussion of Christian ethics. This makes an integrative study of OT and NT for Christian ethics all the more necessary. This becomes especially important for any non-violence reading of NT ethics. Second, I would have like Hays to give more attention to the general epistles and Hebrews. I'm afraid Hays brushes them off by saying that they essentially echo ethical themes he covers in his close reading of the gospels and Pauline literature. I think this case remains to be demonstrated.
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51 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy this first - other books can wait..., October 29, 1999
Recently several important projects have emerged challenging the myth of secular reason that there is an autonomous realm of 'ethics' (eg Charles Taylor, Milbank, Oliver O'Donovan), seeking to show the constitutive moral and theological threads incorporated into the 'mainstream' narrative(s) of modernity, and so illuminating the theological forgetfulness of the secular mind. While these projects have a host of favourable outcomes, not the least of which is a new and confident engagement with modernity on Christian terms, before one becomes too enamoured of such projects, much more needs to be done biblically and theologically to show why Christian faith has a moral discourse that philosophers and social theorists etc ought to consider. Here (along with the obvious benefit such disciplined thinking can have in local churches) Richard Hays' impressive new work in NT ethics can help us.
Hays' own project is concerned principally with the Christian community and its ability to live "under the Word", to hear Scripture speaking to us today. Such an aim is only controversial depending upon where one stands in the NT Studies guild. If one adopts the approach of Jack T. Sanders, for example, any appeals to the NT can only founder due to historical distance, alien contexts and questions - and can even be downright immoral! Otherwise, Hays can be seen to be engaging in a classical and necessary Christian practice, joining the many volumes written in Christian ethics, and complementing the experience and activity of Christians and their communities worldwide.
In my 'evangelical' circles where the Bible is said to be "taken seriously", the 'Constantinian' mindset is sadly dominant (and there are too many superficial treatments mixed with the good). Hays' approach shares the same (or greater) biblical 'seriousness' but is radically *ecclesiocentric* like the NT - something that is possibly clearer to a NT professor than a professional 'ethicist' or systematic theologian. Alongside the work of James McClendon, Hays' book stands as a detailed, systematic challenge to a prevalent way that Christians--including my fellow evangelicals--'do ethics'.
Hays sees Christian ethics as consisting of four interrelated, interpenetrating tasks (distinguishable for "heuristic purposes") - descriptive, synthetic, hermeneutical and pragmatic. The descriptive task is primarily exegetical, dealing with the texts without an immediate concern for harmonising, seeking the specific concerns and interests of each literary unit. He says: "Our descriptive work cannot be confined, however, to the explicit moral teachings of the NT texts; the church's moral world is manifest not only in didache but also in the stories, symbols, social structures, and practices that shape the community's ethos."
Hays highlights that NT moral exhortations must be seen in connection with their theological warrants (and not as freestanding 'ethics' or 'values' desired by analytic philosophers).
From these diverse materials, Hays moves (beyond Meeks) to the synthetic task. This broad harmony is not sought in some `ethical theme' such as `love' (which, once again, is more akin to the modern disjunction of fact and value, or, theologically, doctrine and ethics, than to the NT traditions); nor is a theological theme such as 'creation', 'eschaton' or 'covenant' considered suitable. This is due to Hays' (more than formal) appreciation of narrative; that the various traditions tell and re-tell the same basic story with different focuses on themes and events. Hays finds a continuity across the NT in three main themes; shorthand descriptions of vital elements of God's redemptive drama, not abstract ideas.
COMMUNITY: "The church is a countercultural community of discipleship, and this community is the primary addressee of God's imperatives."
CROSS: "Jesus death on a cross is the paradigm for faithfulness to God in this world."
NEW CREATION: "The church embodies the power of the resurrection in the midst of a not-yet-redeemed world."
Within these themes there are many tensions not `resolved' through some false harmonisation or balancing out. The diversity of the materials is respected while a strong narrative-thematic unity is maintained.
The hermeneutical task asks the familiar question: How do we use the NT in Christian ethics? He surveys five ethicists - Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr, Yoder, Hauerwas, and Elizabeth Shussler Fiorenza - summarising and analysing them through his four-fold description of the ethical task. Barth is criticised, for example, for his over-stress on God's commands that leads to an extraordinary statement seemingly denying the role of hermeneutics - apparently, an overworked Reformation theme damaging some old-fashioned common sense! Yoder is praised for exegetical sensitivity especially in his treatment of Romans 13 but is considered overreaching the mark in his "revolutionary subordination" interpretation of the household codes. An interesting comparison is also made between Yoder and Hauerwas on the relative priority of Scripture and/or community.
Hays' "... central point is this: the use of the NT in normative ethics requires an integrative act of the imagination, a discernment about how our lives, despite their historical dissimilarity to the lives narrated in the NT, might fitly answer to that narration and participate in the truth that it tells... [Whenever] we appeal to the authority of the NT, we are necessarily engaged in metaphor-making, placing our community's life imaginatively in the world articulated by the texts."
The pragmatic task is an exercise in discerning the NT moral vision in relation to five issues: Violence in Defence of Justice, Homosexuality, Divorce and Remarriage, Anti-Judaism, and Abortion. The choice of these is interesting as they range from explicit issues of Scripture, an issue that stems from Scripture itself (anti-Judaism) to those barely or not touched on. Although they may be marked as `positions' that Hays takes, the purpose of the exercise is to follow through the methodology. Any disagreement with Hays must follow through as carefully as he has done and he has set a high standard even if they are not the final word but that of one particularly skillful and persuasive voice in an ongoing conversation.
It is refreshing to read such a book which, while attentive to theoretical issues, is focused on the concrete and which is itself a concrete exemplification of Alasdair MacIntyre's description of a healthy moral tradition. The riches available in such a text and the community from which it arises would be, so you'd think, an attractive reality to explore in an age of ethical crises for those working in philosophical ethics and political theory, and not only in theology.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An almost overwhelming accomplishment..., December 8, 1998
This is an amazing book - solid scholarship and well thought-out interpretation delivered with a sense of urgency and sincerity. If you are at all interested in Ethics or the state of New Testament scholarship, this book is an absolute necessity.Hays sees distinct (though overlapping) tasks in the process of "doing ethics" and is able to explain and apply them clearly. His emphasis on seeing ethical questions through the "focal lenses" of Cross, Community and New Creation is a wonderful guidepost for anyone concerned with faithful, Spirit-driven scholarship. He stresses that an "integrative act of the imagination" is required to be able to apply the Scripture to our world and suggests methods for achieving it. Hays analyzes 5 theologian/ethicists in light of his approach (including Barth, Hauerwas, and Schussler-Fiorenza) and, in doing so, further clarifies how his approach can be used by others. The final section of the book applies Hays' approach to contemporary issues. Partly because of his obvious authority in Greek and New Testament scholarship, and partly because of his honest, passionate approach, his conclusions are bold and very persuasive. This book will likely be very influential in both the fields of Ethics and New Testament Studies. Students, professors and church communities alike will be dealing with (and indebted to) this book for years to come.
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