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- Jubilee Manifesto: a framework, agenda and strategy for Christian social reform£12.99
- Asylum and immigration: a Christian perspective on a polarised debate£7.49
- Christianity, Climate Change, and Sustainable Living£8.99
- Christianity in a changing world£9.99
Euthanasia and assisted suicide
John Wyatt, June 2010 3 comments
Price: £0.99
The arguments in favour of the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia are no longer focussed on unbearable suffering. Instead there is a rising demand for choice and control over the time and manner of our death, coupled with fears about the social and economic consequences of increasing numbers of elderly and dependent individuals. But there are strong medical, legal, social and theological reasons to oppose this new drive for suicide and euthanasia. The potent modern myth of the autonomous individual fails to match with the inescapable reality of human dependence and relationality. The increasing public support for the legalisation of medical killing provides an urgent challenge to the medical and legal professions and to the Christian community as a whole. Are Christians capable of living out a practical and countercultural demonstration of the preciousness of human life expressed in human interdependence, personal commitment and burden-sharing?
Keywords: Health
Beyond Capitalism: Towards a Relational economy
Michael Schluter, March 2010 5 comments
Price: £0.99
Western societies face economic decline and political instability due in significant part to the five moral flaws of Capitalism and their severe social consequences. A radical new economic vision is urgently needed. This paper proposes a way forward through five strategies: embed relational values, strengthen household balance sheets, empower extended families, engage capital providers and entrust welfare to local communities. These changes are mutually reinforcing because they all reform economic life so as to strengthen personal bonds in the local and wider communities. They point towards the Christian vision of a ‘Relational economy’.
Keywords: Finance & the Economy
'To Release the Oppressed': Reclaiming a biblical theology of liberation
John Coffey, December 2009 5 comments
Price: £0.99
Liberation is one of the great slogans of modern politics and one of the major themes of the Bible. The Exodus from Egyptian bondage was the foundational narrative of the Jewish nation, and Jesus inaugurated his ministry by announcing that he had come ‘to release the oppressed’. Scripture teaches that Christ brings redemption from slavery to sin, but it also depicts deliverance from material forms of oppression. This paper explains how that biblical theme has inspired early modern revolutionaries and nineteenth-century abolitionists as well as modern liberation theologians. While highlighting the failings of Christian liberationists (old and new), the paper concludes that we need a holistic theology of liberation which addresses the diverse forms of spiritual, relational and material enslavement that are rife in the twenty-first century.
Keywords: Christianity & Religion
Is Capitalism Morally Bankrupt? Five moral flaws and their social consequences
Michael Schluter, September 2009 4 comments
Price: £0.99
Many Christians accept Capitalism as broadly in line with biblical teaching. Its economic success appears to vindicate attribution of its origins to Christian theology. This confidence in Capitalism as the best available economic system has meant that Christians have failed to recognise that it is one of the main drivers of social and moral breakdown in Western societies. This paper will highlight five failings in the philosophical foundations and institutions of Corporate Capitalism, pointing to their devastating impact on families and communities, and how they bring about the growth of giant corporations and centralised state power. Christians need to search urgently for a new economic order based on biblical revelation. One such alternative will be set out in a future issue of Cambridge Papers.
Keywords: Finance & the Economy
Enhancing humans or a new creation?
Denis Alexander, June 2009 1 comment
Price: FREE
Enhancement involves giving abilities integral to the body beyond those we would normally consider a human to possess. Transhumanism is an influential philosophy based on human autonomy in which enhancement technologies play a central role. This paper summarises transhumanism, describes the scope of current enhancing technologies, and provides a Christian critique, presenting the biblical strategy for human transformation as a compelling alternative to the transhumanist project.
Keywords: Science & Technology, Worldviews & Culture
Three principles for Christian citizens
Julian Rivers, March 2009 No comments
Price: FREE
Three basic types of argument have a proper place as Christians engage in public life. These are arguments from the common good, from institutional independence, and from conscientious witness. They are all authentic expressions of the Christian political tradition, well-grounded in Scripture. They express three principles for Christian citizens. However, all three are being stifled by a new political absolutism in the name of ‘equality and human rights’. This is ironic, because equality and human rights are a contemporary expression of the same Christian tradition. In response, Christians will want to reaffirm all three principles – not only for our own sake, but for the benefit of everyone.
Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Government & Foreign Affairs
Unity and diversity: the Church, race and ethnicity
Sujit Sivasundaram, December 2008 5 comments
Price: FREE
The affirmation of ethnic diversity can give the individual believer and the local congregation a sense of cohesion and belonging. Yet, if ethnicity becomes a primary criterion defining identity, we risk marginalising ethnic minorities. This paper brings the twin principles of unity and diversity to bear on four contexts: the individual Christian, the local congregation, the global church and the church in society. In each case, it advocates the celebration of both the unity of how being in Christ sees ethnic differences disappear and the diversity that emerges in understanding and respecting ethnic differences amongst believers.
Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Worldviews & Culture
Do we need a Christian university?
Nigel Paterson, September 2008 12 comments
Price: FREE
The concept of a university was substantially a Christian innovation, yet most modern universities are secular institutions. This paper surveys briefly the historical background which shows how this came about and the institutional landscape of higher education today. Next, biblical perspectives applicable to all Christians involved in higher education are explored. At the heart of the paper, there lies a discussion of the arguments for and against a Christian university, and the characteristics of such a new Christian university, as envisaged by the author, are presented. The paper is intended to provoke readers across the world to thought, discussion and a more informed response to the many possibilities for Christian service within higher education.
Keywords: Education
The law of love
David McIlroy, June 2008 No comments
Price: FREE
The Bible is clear that to love God involves seeking to be obedient to God. Being God’s people involves seeking to make wise decisions about the way in which God wants us to live. Jesus commands his followers to love God and our neighbours. In working out what that means, followers of Jesus need to take into account what God has revealed in the Torah about what it means to love him and to love another, as fulfilled, interpreted and modelled by Jesus. The Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to grow in love. In order to make wise decisions we need to have internalised God’s law and to meditate on it with the help of the Spirit. In heaven, doing what God wants will be second nature. Till then, reflection on God’s law is an indispensable part of discerning what it means in practice to love God and to love our neighbour. [Includes BONUS material not included in the printed version.]
Keywords: Christianity & Religion
By any other name? 'Fundamentalist' and 'evangelical' as terms of public discourse
Dr Christopher Watkin, March 2008 4 comments
Price: FREE
Whatever the words ‘fundamentalist’ and ‘evangelical’ may once have meant, their current use in public discourse is largely negative, save notable references to ‘evangelical social action’. Any adequate response to this situation must include a recognition of the different historical provenances of the two terms, and an understanding of their current public usage. If the term ‘evangelical’ is to be saved, evangelicals must act now, firstly, to reinforce public understanding of their positive contribution to society and, secondly, to re-articulate flexibly their beliefs in ways that communicate effectively in the public sphere.
Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Worldviews & Culture