Wealth as Peril and Obligation
The New Testament on Possessions
Author Sondra Ely Wheeler ISBN 9780802807335 Binding Trade Paper Publisher WM B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Publication Date June 27, 1995 Size 152 x 229 mm
This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. This timely study of the New Testament helps bring clarity to one of the great ethical dilemmas of the modern church —
This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable.
This timely study of the New Testament helps bring clarity to one of the great ethical dilemmas of the modern church — the moral status of wealth and the ownership of property and possessions in relation to Christian faith.
Sondra Ely Wheeler shows how Scripture can both form and inform contemporary moral discernment regarding wealth. After first developing a sound methodology for interpreting the New Testament's moral witness on this sticky ethical question, Wheeler gives a responsible exegesis of the key New Testament texts that deal with wealth and possessions. What results is a practical, biblically based statement regarding the ethics of wealth and ownership and a useful set of criteria for sound moral discernment concerning economic life within the contemporary Christian church.
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This timely study of the New Testament helps bring clarity to one of the great ethical dilemmas of the modern church — the moral status of wealth and the ownership of property and possessions in relation to Christian faith.
Sondra Ely Wheeler shows how Scripture can both form and inform contemporary moral discernment regarding wealth. After first developing a sound methodology for interpreting the New Testament's moral witness on this sticky ethical question, Wheeler gives a responsible exegesis of the key New Testament texts that deal with wealth and possessions. What results is a practical, biblically based statement regarding the ethics of wealth and ownership and a useful set of criteria for sound moral discernment concerning economic life within the contemporary Christian church.
America
"The New Testament provides various perspectives on possessions, and Wheeler shows that each one can give substantive ethical guidance to the church today."
Christian Ministry
"One of the hardest topics to explore in middle-class or affluent churches is the Bible's teaching on stewardship. Sondra Ely Wheeler helps with Wealth as Peril and Obligation. . . This is an impressive effort."
Expository Times
"The exegetical chapters are excellent and the overall thesis interesting."
Interpretation
"This is an important book which offers a clear and workable method for employing the New Testament in the church's ethical discourse. Neither dismissing the New Testament data as irrelevant nor turning it into a series of rules or ethical principles, Wheeler argues that once the data has been analyzed, it poses a series of questions to those who accept its moral authority. . . This is a clear, concise book that provides pastors and scholars alike a way to make moral sense of the New Testament."
Luke Timothy Johnson in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin
"A readable and remarkably mature contribution to one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary Christian ethics, namely, how moral discourse within the church can appropriately engage (and be engaged by) the writings of the New Testament. . . This book deserves careful and appreciative attention."
Provident Book Finder
"Wheeler shows keen awareness of past 'patterns of moral reasoning' but she chooses her own way, and moves on gently and convincingly. This book is a priceless gift to Christ's Church. Many readers should ponder it. God might use it to help his people to a new and sacred stewardship of their money!"
Review & Expositor
"This splendid study of relevant New Testament passages on wealth and ownership is written with a clear and dynamic prose that models good communication and leaves the reviewer slightly envious. Such readability keeps this work from being a specialized study suitable only for other academics, easily allowing it to be used in introductory courses in either Christian ethics or New Testament studies or even as a study resource for well informed adult church groups. . . Wealth as Peril and Obligation is not the last word on either the relation of biblical ethics and normatively Christian ethics, or on the Christian (or even biblical) attitude toward monetary concerns. . . Nevertheless, seldom have these two concerns been interwoven so seamlessly in one work of such great value."
The Bible Today
"This thoughtful study is as much a demonstration of method as it is an exploration of a major motif."
Theology Today
"A fresh and engaging approach to the moral value of possessions in the New Testament that has much to say about the primacy of our relationship with God. . . An admirable prototype for all those who are laboring to produce a biblically based ethic. . . This volume is beautifully constructed and represents a major contribution not only to New Testament ethics but also to that odd discipline that we have to keep on naming as biblical theology."
The Cresset
"A splendid book. It describes and displays how the New Testament can form and inform Christian dispositions toward wealth. It is a significant contribution to Christian communities which gather around Scripture in an effort to discern the shape of lives 'worthy of the gospel."
Allen Verhey
—Hope College
"A splendid book that describes and displays the relevance of the New Testament to contemporary Christian reflection about wealth. This book should make a significant contribution to churches gathered around Scripture in an effort to discern the shape of lives 'worthy of the gospel.' Wheeler brings important questions to the text, and to her great credit her reading of the New Testament allows the text to question us about our possessions."
Michael G. Cartwright
—Allegheny College
"Wheeler's work confirms the emergence of a new paradigm of interdisciplinary scholarship about the use of the New Testament in Christian ethics. . . . She shows us how to begin to read the Bible self-critically again. In fact, her approach opens the way for serious reengagement with the questions posed by the New Testament writings for the way we think about the moral significance of wealth and possessions. In the process, she points the way toward the kind of collective moral discernment about wealth and possessions that is much needed in contemporary
View Review quote
"The New Testament provides various perspectives on possessions, and Wheeler shows that each one can give substantive ethical guidance to the church today."
Christian Ministry
"One of the hardest topics to explore in middle-class or affluent churches is the Bible's teaching on stewardship. Sondra Ely Wheeler helps with Wealth as Peril and Obligation. . . This is an impressive effort."
Expository Times
"The exegetical chapters are excellent and the overall thesis interesting."
Interpretation
"This is an important book which offers a clear and workable method for employing the New Testament in the church's ethical discourse. Neither dismissing the New Testament data as irrelevant nor turning it into a series of rules or ethical principles, Wheeler argues that once the data has been analyzed, it poses a series of questions to those who accept its moral authority. . . This is a clear, concise book that provides pastors and scholars alike a way to make moral sense of the New Testament."
Luke Timothy Johnson in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin
"A readable and remarkably mature contribution to one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary Christian ethics, namely, how moral discourse within the church can appropriately engage (and be engaged by) the writings of the New Testament. . . This book deserves careful and appreciative attention."
Provident Book Finder
"Wheeler shows keen awareness of past 'patterns of moral reasoning' but she chooses her own way, and moves on gently and convincingly. This book is a priceless gift to Christ's Church. Many readers should ponder it. God might use it to help his people to a new and sacred stewardship of their money!"
Review & Expositor
"This splendid study of relevant New Testament passages on wealth and ownership is written with a clear and dynamic prose that models good communication and leaves the reviewer slightly envious. Such readability keeps this work from being a specialized study suitable only for other academics, easily allowing it to be used in introductory courses in either Christian ethics or New Testament studies or even as a study resource for well informed adult church groups. . . Wealth as Peril and Obligation is not the last word on either the relation of biblical ethics and normatively Christian ethics, or on the Christian (or even biblical) attitude toward monetary concerns. . . Nevertheless, seldom have these two concerns been interwoven so seamlessly in one work of such great value."
The Bible Today
"This thoughtful study is as much a demonstration of method as it is an exploration of a major motif."
Theology Today
"A fresh and engaging approach to the moral value of possessions in the New Testament that has much to say about the primacy of our relationship with God. . . An admirable prototype for all those who are laboring to produce a biblically based ethic. . . This volume is beautifully constructed and represents a major contribution not only to New Testament ethics but also to that odd discipline that we have to keep on naming as biblical theology."
The Cresset
"A splendid book. It describes and displays how the New Testament can form and inform Christian dispositions toward wealth. It is a significant contribution to Christian communities which gather around Scripture in an effort to discern the shape of lives 'worthy of the gospel."
Allen Verhey
—Hope College
"A splendid book that describes and displays the relevance of the New Testament to contemporary Christian reflection about wealth. This book should make a significant contribution to churches gathered around Scripture in an effort to discern the shape of lives 'worthy of the gospel.' Wheeler brings important questions to the text, and to her great credit her reading of the New Testament allows the text to question us about our possessions."
Michael G. Cartwright
—Allegheny College
"Wheeler's work confirms the emergence of a new paradigm of interdisciplinary scholarship about the use of the New Testament in Christian ethics. . . . She shows us how to begin to read the Bible self-critically again. In fact, her approach opens the way for serious reengagement with the questions posed by the New Testament writings for the way we think about the moral significance of wealth and possessions. In the process, she points the way toward the kind of collective moral discernment about wealth and possessions that is much needed in contemporary
Martha Ashby Carr Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.
View Biographical note