Wrestling with Life's Tough Issues

Sometimes Christians, faced with making ethical decisions informed by the Bible, are torn between "keeping the law" and "doing what love demands"---there is evidence in the Bible supporting both approaches. In this book Claire Disbrey suggests that in an effort to utilize both trends when making decisions, Christians should be guided by Virtue Ethics---the idea that we seek first to become virtuous people who value the right things and then express our values in the way we treat people. A good life is one lived in harmony with other people and the biblical truths and can determine what is trivial in life from what is serious and worthwhile.

This third way of virtue ethics heeds the Bible's challenging call to let God's Spirit change us so that we "live well" with the fruit of the Spirit manifest in our lives. The author provides helpful "case studies" of people caught in complex life situations. In these case studies the reader studies relevant passages from the New Testament and thinks through the sometimes difficult process of deciding how best to apply Biblical truths to specific personal decisions and painful ethical dilemmas. The author demonstrates how the ancient, rediscovered notion of Virtue Ethics can help us heed the Bible's challenging call to let God's Spirit change us, so that we learn to live well, with the fruit of the Spirit manifest in our lives.