The Ten Commandments: A Handbook of Religious, Legal and Social Issues - Hardcover

Hester, Joseph P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786414197 ISBN 13: 9780786414192

Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc, 2002

Synopsis

This handbook helps bring understanding to the controversies that have arisen in present-day society over the application of the Ten Commandments to law and morality. Part One presents the versions found in the Old Testament, and explains their non-Israelite influences (the Hammurabi Code, for example). The moral thinking of the ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Hebrew cultures, and the modern Jewish tradition are examined, as are the different interpretations placed on the Ten Commandments by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans and other Protestants. Part Two focuses on the modern controversies, assessing the differing sides of each: government funding of faith-based charities, posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings, science versus religion in schools, prayer in public places, blue laws, racial profiling, covenant marriages, stem cell research, cloning, euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion and war.

About this title

Review:

"thorough notes are included...useful...recommended"--Choice; "commentary is balanced and well-researched"--C&RL News; "interesting information"--The Society for Old Testament Study; "useful"--ARBA; "discussion throughtout is comprehensive, lucid and serves in many ways as an introduction to general ethical theory. This is enhanced by extensive references to North American legal cases, bibliographies, references and a glossary"--Theological Book Review.

About the Author:

Now retired, Joseph P. Hester taught at the university level for ten years, at the public school level for ten years, and served as a public school administrator for seventeen years. He holds the Master in Theology from Southeastern Seminary, Wake Forest, and the Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Georgia, Athens. He has written extensively on ethics, philosophy and education and is also the author of Ethical Leadership for School Administrators and Teachers and Public School Safety: A Handbook, with a Resource Guide (both in 2003). He lives in Claremont, North Carolina.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786414197
• ISBN 13: 9780786414192
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352