Understanding Religious Ethics

This accessible introduction to religious ethics focuses on the major forms of moral reasoning encompassing the three 'Abrahamic' religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

• Draws on a range of moral issues, such as examples arising from friendship, marriage, homosexuality, lying, forgiveness and its limits, the death penalty, the environment, warfare, and the meaning of work, career, and vocation
• Looks at both ethical reasoning and importantly, how that reasoning reveals insights into a religious tradition
• Investigates the resources available to address common problems confronting Abrahamic faiths, and how each faith explains and defends its moral viewpoints
• Offering concrete topics for interfaith discussions, this is a timely and insightful introduction to a fast-growing field of interest

Charles Mathewes is Associate Professor of Religious Ethics at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Evil and the Augustinian Tradition (2001), A Theology of Public Life (2007), and several edited volumes.