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Albertz, Rainer. A History of Religion in the Old Testament Period. 2 vols. Translated by John Bowden. Louisville: Westminster, 1994. These two volumes analyze the socially conditioned religious pluralism in the religions of Israel and Mesopotamia. The resulting history of Israel extends from the beginning to the Maccabaean period. Focus is also placed on theology, archaeology, history, social history, and literary criticism.
Alt, Albrecht. The Origins of Israelite Law. Essays on Old Testament History and Religions. Trans. by R.A. Wilson. Oxford: Blackwell 1966. This work attempts to discern the religious inheritance of the tribes which paved the way for the future of Israel. It looks at the great power of assimilation of the Yahweh religion late in Israel's history and shows its existence in Israel's beginning.
Anderson, Norman. God's Law and God's Love. London: Collins, 1980. A comparative study of the role of divine law and love in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Bacchiocchi, Samuele. From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity. Rome: The Pontifical Gregorian University Press, 1977. The first non-Catholic to graduate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Bacchiocchi argues the "traditional" Seventh-Day Adventist line on the fourth commandment. Extremely erudite, if exegetically and historically flawed, this is one of the most important works on the subject.
Badenas, Robert. Christ the End of the Law: Romans 10:4 in Pauline Perspective. Sheffield: JSOT, 1985. Badenas provides the most comprehensive study of telos ("end") and argues it means "goal." He argues strongly for the continuing validity of the law.
Ball, Bryan W. The Seventh-day Men: Sabbatarians and Sabbatarianism in England and Wales, 1600-1800. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. A historical treatment of Seventh day Sabbatarians in Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Bauckham, Richard. The Bible in Politics: How to Read the Bible Politically. Louisville: West-minster/John Knox Press, 1989. An outstanding guide to applying scriptural teaching to modern political and ethical issues.
Berman, Harold J. Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993. This book explores these two aspects of our society, noting their simultaneous interdependence and tension. Berman explores the establishment of a harmony between these two dimensions in such a way as to restore vitality to each.
Berman, Harold J. The Interaction of Law and Religion. New York: Abingdon Press, 1974. A collection of lectures focusing on the interrelatedness of these "two dimensions of social experience." Berman addresses shared elements, the exploration of the religious foundations of law, and the legal dimensions of religion. He also explores the secularist severance of these two realms.
Birch, Bruce C. Let Justice Roll Down: the Old Testament, Ethics, and Christian Life. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1991. According to Birch, Israel's "story" is the crucial vehicle for OT ethics, with the narrative trajectory proceeding from the Pentateuch through the rest of the canon and, at least by hermeneutical intention, well beyond.
Bloesch, Donald G. Freedom for Obedience: Evangelical Ethics for Contemporary Times. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987. See especially Chapter 2, "Law and Grace in Ethics"; Chapter 8, "An Ethics of Law and Gospel"; and Chapter 11, "Discerning the Will of God."
Boecker, Hans Jochen. Law and the Administration of Justice in the Old Testament and Ancient East. Translated by Jeremy Moiser. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1980. This is a critical analysis of OT Law as it relates to and is connected with ancient oriental law. Boecker points out the peculiarities of the OT Law in comparison to that of the neighboring communities and attempts to draw conclusions as to their development.
Borowitz, Eugene B. Exploring Jewish Ethics: Papers on Covenant Responsibility. Detroit: Wayne State University, 1990. The essays collected here are informed, provocative, and often eloquent in articulating a post-Enlightenment (or, more pertinently, post-Kantian) Jewish perspective on key issues of social ethics, theological politics, and personal morality.
Brichto, Herbert Chanan. "The Hebrew Bible on Human Rights," Essays on Human Rights: Con-temporary Issues and Jewish Perspectives. Edited by David Sidorsky. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1979. This essay, somewhat apologetic in tone, concisely identifies core "values" of social justice and humaneness attested by or implied within traditions of biblical Law.
Brooks, Roger. The Spirit of the Ten Commandments: Shattering the Myth of Rabbinic Legalism. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990. This work addresses the approach of early rabbinic Judaism toward biblical Law, specifically the Ten Commandments. It demonstrates that the mercy-justice dichotomy is false.
Bruce, F. F. Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977. This book has served in many seminaries as a text on Paul's life and letters. Freedom is the underlying theme, although no specific treatment of the subject is given.
Bultmann, Rudolf. Theology of the New Testament. 2 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1951. As was typical for his time, Bultmann viewed Paul as reacting against Jewish legalism. He viewed law as having come to an end as the way to salvation, but so far as the law contains God's demands it retains its validity. Chapter five also has a major section on freedom. Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Library of Christian Classics. Edited by John T. McNeill. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1960. The relevant chapters are Book II, Chapter 7 on the Law; Book III, chapter l l on justification by faith; and Book III, chapter 19 on Christian freedom.
----- John Calvin's Sermons on the Ten Commandments. Edited and translated by Benjamin W. Farley. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980. This selection of sermons is based on a series Calvin preached on weekdays off and on from June 7, 1555 until July, 1556. They are expositions of Deuteronomy 4-6.
Carson, D. A., ed. From Sabbath to Lord's Day: a Biblical, Historical, and Theological Investigation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982. This collection of essays by British scholars is the most accessible and helpful biblical, historical, and theological treatment of the subject available.
Carter, Stephen L. The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law And Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion. New York: Basic Books, 1993. This book explores the possibility of recognizing, encouraging, and embracing the faith of the American people while simultaneously maintaining the crucial separation of church and state. It strongly attacks the false idea that the religiously devout are to be ignored or feared in the marketplace of ideas.
Cassidy, Richard J. Jesus, Politics, and Society: A Study of Luke's Gospel. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1978. A balanced survey of the religious, political, and economic background of NT times which shows that Jesus' attitude toward political and social questions made him a powerful threat to the existing structures of his time.
Childs, Brevard S. Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992. Childs offers a comprehensive treatment of scholarly work on both testaments and its relevance for theological topics. His treatment of law and gospel is a good overview of the issues. He is especially concerned with law as will of God and its relation to the will of God revealed in Christ. In part, he argues that a crucial function of canon is to dehistoricize particular traditions in order to effect a theological coherence that can nurture the ongoing community of faith.
Clements, Ronald E. Loving One's Neighbour: Old Testament Ethics in Context. London: University of London, 1992. In this work, morality is essentially a public rather than a private matter. Similarly, biblical Law emphasizes particular behavior rather than abstract or universal ethical principles. A concise statement of Clements' view is available in "Christian Ethics and the Old Testament," The Modern Churchman, 16 (1984), 13-26.
Conzelmann, Hans. An Outline of the Theology of the New Testament. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. The Law is still valid for Christians. The Law has come to an end as a way of salvation but not as a moral demand.
Cover, Robert M. "Obligation: a Jewish Jurisprudence of the Social Order," Journal of Law and Religion, 5 (1987), 65-74. This essay provides a clear, succinct description of the fundamentally heteronomous character of Jewish law, rooted as it is in the biblical account of God's commanding presence at Sinai. Rather than emphasizing individual autonomy or human rights, Jewish jurisprudence is based on the duties owed to God and neighbor.
Cranfield, C. E. B. "St. Paul and the Law,"JST, 17 (1964), 43-68. This is a classic article arguing for a continuing use of the law for ethical instruction of Christians. Cranfield argues Paul's dualistic view of the Law results from "law" being used with different meanings.
Croatto, J. Severino. Exodus: a Hermeneutics of Freedom. Translated by Salvator Attanasio. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1981. This liberation approach is not confined to Exodus. In addition the author treats the prophets, Jesus, and Paul.
Cullmann, Oscar. The State in the New Testament. New York: Scribners, 1956. A brief but provocative study of NT teaching about the relationship between church and state.
Deidun, T. J. New Covenant Morality in Paul. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1981. A technical discussion of the role of the OT teaching on the new covenant in Paul's ethical teaching. Deidun's treatment shows the relevance of Paul's "new covenant morality" for determining the place of love and of "external" norms in Paul's ethics.
Dempsey Douglass, Jane. Women, Freedom and Calvin. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985. Although a major concern of this study is to show Calvin's view of freedom in the role of women in church order, she also has chapters on "Freedom in God's Order," and "Freedom in Obedience."
Dodd, C. H. Gospel and Law: the Relation of Faith and Ethics in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1951. This book reviews Dodd's thesis that the earliest Christian preaching of the gospel and instruction in Christian living followed set patterns which can be detected in the NT records themselves. Building upon this thesis, Dodd argued that the earliest Christians viewed these two parts of the Christian message as the record of God's redemptive action and the description of the appropriate human response to it.
Douglas Moo, "Paul and the Law in the Last Ten Years," SJT, 40 (1987), 287-307. This work provides a convenient survey of recent scholarship on Paul and the Law.
Drane, John W. Paul: Libertine or Legalist? London: SPCK, 1975. This discussion of Paul's theologies of law and freedom confines its attention to Galatians and the Corinthian correspondence.
Dunn, James D. G. "The New Perspective on Paul," Jesus, Paul, and the Law. Westminster/John Knox, 1990, 183-214. Dunn argues that Paul's reference with "works of Law" is to Jewish ethnic identity markers such as circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and food laws. This would make the problem Paul faced to be ethnic particularism rather than legalism.
Ellul, Jacques. Ethics of Freedom. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976. Ellul's discussion of ethics insists on the responsibility of all Christians. Freedom should provide the platform for a constant prophetic criticism of the culture.
Eskenazi, Tamara C., Daniel J. Harrington, and William Shea, eds. The Sabbath in Jewish and Christian Tradition. New York: Crossroad, 1991. Essays by Jewish and Christian scholars on the significance of the fourth commandment in the respective traditions.
Fackenheim, Emil L. Quest for Past and Future: Essays in Jewish Theology. Bloomington & London: Indiana University, 1968. Especially notable among the essays collected here is "The Revealed Morality of Judaism and Modern Thought: A Confrontation with Kant" (204-228). As Borowitz's essays also indicate, the Kantian ideal of the autonomous, self-legislating will has functioned during the past century as an attractive nemesis to Judaism's classical tradition of heteronomous ethics.
Fee, Gordon D. God's Empowering Presence: the Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994. An encyclopedic discussion of all of the texts in Paul's letters that mention the Spirit, and a synthesis of the theology of the Spirit which they imply. The relationship of the Spirit to law, liberty, and Christian ethics generally receives frequent treatment.
Forde, Gerhard O. The Law-Gospel Debate: an Interpretation of its Historical Development. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1969. This study was prompted by Karl Barth's reversal of the usual law and gospel order in his monograph, "Gospel and Law," first published in 1935, and available in English in Barth, Community, State and Church, Anchor Books, 1960. This aroused the ire of many Lutherans, particularly on the continent.
Fuller, Daniel P. Gospel and Law: Contrast or Continuum? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980. Fuller contrasts the hermeneutics of dispensationalism and covenant theology in the way they treat law. Romans 10:5-8 and its parallel in Galatians 3:10-12 receive extensive treatment.
Furnish, Victor Paul. Theology and Ethics in Paul. Nashville: Abingdon, 1968. A discussion of the sources, content, and character of Paul's ethical teaching and a description of the relationship between Paul's theology and his ethics. The central portion of Furnish's book is a compact and complete theology of Paul's undisputed letters. An appendix usefully traces the history of scholarship on Pauline ethics from the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth.
Gammie, John G. Holiness in Israel. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989. This work traces the different understandings of holiness in various parts of the OT and some of the Apocrypha. This is a technical discussion of holiness with, admittedly, no treatment of the relevance of the study for modern spirituality.
Grant, Robert M. "The Decalogue in Early Christianity," HTR, 40 (1947), 1-17. Grant treats the place of the Decalogue in the NT, the Didache, the Epistle of Barnabas, Justin, Ptolemaeus, and Irenaeus.
Harrelson, Walter. The Ten Commandments and Human Rights. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980. This work discusses Israel's primary covenantal obligations to its divine liberator. It shows that the biblical text serves as an archetype and mandate for contemporary efforts to articulate universal human rights and civil liberties.
Hesselink, I. John. Calvin's Concept of the Law. Allison Park, PA: Pickwick Publications, 1992. A treatment of Calvin's three uses of the law and biblical laws that share characteristics of each of Calvin's uses. Especially relevant are the chapters entitled "Law and Gospel" and "The End and Use of the Law."
Hübner, Hans. Law in Paul's Thought. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1984. This work discusses Paul's dual view of the Law and sees it as thought which developed over time. Hübner believes that Paul changed his mind between Galatians and Romans.
Janzen, Waldemar. Old Testament Ethics: A Paradigmatic Approach. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1994. Janzen says the central paradigm that the OT commends for use in Christian ethics is familial-based upon ancient Israel's understanding of itself as a kin-group descended from Abraham. The Decalogue is treated as a summary of traditional Israelite family ethics; other pentateuchal sections on law are largely ignored, if not disparaged, as encouraging legalism.
Jones, Amos, Jr. Paul's Message of Freedom: What Does It Mean to the Black Church? Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1984. Jones charges that the black Church has neglected Paul's message. His book is not a detailed treatment of Paul, but an attempt to apply Paul's message so that freedom is claimed and lived. He has chapters on the discipline of freedom and on the practice of freedom in community.
Kaiser, Walter C., Jr. Toward Old Testament Ethics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983. The chief sections of pentateuchal law occupy the foreground in Kaiser's analysis of biblical ethics. As he sees it, the Christian hermeneutical task is still to sort out the permanent "moral law" from the civil and ceremonial statutes that were specific to ancient Israel's circumstances. He feels they are no longer practical or have otherwise been superseded by the gospel. For more recent and concise statements see his "God's Promise Plan and His Gracious Law," JETS, 33 (1990), 289-302; and "New Approaches to Old Testament Ethics," JETS, 35 (1992), 289-297.
Käsemann, Ernst. Commentary on Romans. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980. The treatment of the pertinent passages in Romans provides a strong statement of the Lutheran approach to Law. The Law is considered as no longer valid for Christians since Christ has brought it to an end. The presence of the risen Lord in the power of the Spirit takes the place of the Law of Moses.
----- Jesus Means Freedom. Translated by Frank Clarke. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968. This book is a defense by Käsemann against attacks on his theology. In the course of his defense he discusses freedom as an essential element of the Christian message. His treatment deals with material in various sections of the NT.
Katz, David S. Sabbath and Sectarianism in Seventeenth-Century England. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988. This is a historical treatment of Seventh-day Sabbatarianism in England and English America.
Kelly, Douglas F. The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World. The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments from the 16th through the 18th Centuries. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 1992. The subtitle indicates the nature of this book. It is about political liberty, not personal freedom.
Knight, Douglas A., and Carol Meyers (eds.). Ethics and Politics in the Hebrew Bible. Semeia, Volume 66. Atlanta: Scholars/Society of Biblical Literature, 1995. The contributions of Barton, Birch, and Knight are the most helpful in a discussion of biblical Law and liberty.
"Law," Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York: Double Day, 1992, IV, 242-265. A concise entry comprised of three articles examining the law as an Ancient Near East cultural phenomenon from which the Hebrew Bible developed, the forms of the law present therein, and a survey of religious law in early Judaism. Surprisingly the entry does not treat law in the NT.
Leibowitz, Nehama. Studies in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 5 vols. Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization, 1980. This stellar study of the Pentateuch examines the rabbinical Midrashic interpretation of the Torah, as well as modern rabbinical commentary. A reading of all of the volumes makes it clear that freedom is a central concept in Israel's faith.
Levenson, Jon D. "The Theologies of Commandment in Biblical Israel," HTR, 73 (1980), 17-33. This seminal essay calls attention to the cosmological dimension of Torah in some biblical witnesses, thus revealing the fallacy of critical and theological attempts to subordinate law entirely to the vicissitudes of Israel's salvation history.
Longenecker, Richard N. Paul, Apostle of Liberty. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. This is a major Pauline theology that focuses on freedom. The discussions of liberty in chapters seven and eight are extremely valuable.
Luther, Martin. "The Freedom of a Christian" (1520), Luther's Works, Volume 31, "Career of the Reformer," Volume 1, edited by Harold J. Grimm. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1957. This brief treatise is "a positive and unequivocal statement of Luther's evangelical theology as applied to the Christian life."
Martin, Brice L. Christ and the Law in Paul. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989. Martin provides a comprehensive overview of the relevant passages on the law in Paul's letters. In addition he surveys most of the modern NT scholars treating the topic. His own position is that the law is still valid and is to guide the conduct of Christians.
McKelway, Alexander J. The Freedom of God and Human Liberation. Philadelphia: Trinity Press, 1990. This is not a book about liberation theology, but about human freedom as a gift of God's grace which is at the same time a freedom in obedience for service.
Mott, Stephen Charles. A Christian Perspective on Political Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. An excellent assessment of Christian political options with insightful comments on liberty and justice.
Mouw, Richard J. Politics and the Biblical Drama. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976. Places politics within a four-stage model: creation, fall, redemption, and the future consummation of all things.
Niebuhr, Reinhold. Moral Man and Immoral Society. New York: Scribners, 1960 (originally published in 1932). This is the classic work on the role which individual morality can exercise in a collective human order marked by egoism and evil.
Nuesner, Jacob. The Wonder-Working Lawyers of Talmudic Babylon. New York: University Press of America, 1987. This book examines the interplay between the rabbinical lawyers of early Judaism and the law of the Torah, the influential and coercive roles of the rabbi as a figure of authority, and the roles of the rabbi as a holy man and political figure.
Parker, Kenneth L. The English Sabbath: A Study of Doctrine and Discipline from the Reformation to the Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. This is a historical study of Sunday Sabbatarian controversies in sixteenth and seventeenth century England.
Patrick, Dale. Old Testament Law. Atlanta: John Knox, 1985. This is still the most useful survey of the major sections and contents of pentateuchal Law; attention is given to theological as well as literary-historical issues.
Räisänen, Heikki. Paul and the Law. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1983. This technical work discusses Paul's dual attitude toward the Law and views it as contradictory. He repeatedly-though not convincingly-argues Paul is merely inconsistent.
Ratzinger, Cardinal Joseph. "The Meaning of Sunday," Communio, 21 (1994), 5-26. This is an elegant theological exposition of the Lord's Day, highly influenced by the biblical interpretation of the Fathers.
Richardson, Peter. Paul's Ethic of Freedom. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979. With special attention to Galatians 3:28, the author deals with freedom and its necessary tensions. The focus is on the adaptation of Paul's message of freedom for the Church today.
Rordorf, Willy. Sunday: the History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church. Trans. by A. A. K. Graham. London: SCM Press, 1968. With Bacchiocchi, this is one of the most important contemporary treatments of the subject. Rordorf argues that while the Sabbath began as a day of rest and became also a day of worship, Sunday began as a day of worship and became a day of rest.
Sanders, E. P. Paul and Palestinian Judaism. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977. This has been an extremely influential work and in some respects has shifted attitudes of NT scholars toward Judaism. Sanders describes the pattern of religion found in Judaism and in Paul. He analyzes why Paul was reacting against the Law. Judaism, he argues, was characterized not by legalism but by covenantal nomism. Paul rejected the Mosaic covenant because he started with Christ as solution and reasoned back to the Law's inadequacy.
----- Paul, the Law and the Jewish People. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983. This book extends the argument of Sanders' earlier work. Like Räisänen, Sanders views Paul's dual view of the Law as contradictory.
Schrage, Wolfgang. The Ethics of the New Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988. A comprehensive discussion of NT ethics. Schrage's section on Paul discusses the basis for Paul's ethics, the nature of the Christian life, the sources and influences which shaped Paul's ethical teaching, and Paul's position on specific ethical problems.
Schreiner, Thomas R. The Law and Its Fulfillment: a Pauline Theology of Law. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993. An exegetically rich study of the role of the Mosaic law in Paul's theology. Schreiner comes to traditional Protestant conclusions after a vigorous and well-informed debate with recent proposals that the Reformers misunderstood Paul.
-----"Works of Law in Paul," NovT, 33, (l991), 217-244. Schreiner argues Paul's expression "works of law" refers to the whole Law. On this assumption Schreiner then feels the issue is legalism versus grace.
Sloyan, Gerard S. Is Christ the End of the Law? Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978. Sloyan addresses the Church in asking the question of his title. As might be suspected, he argues the law properly understood still has a role. Surprisingly, no extensive treatment is given as to whether "end" in Romans 10:4 should be understood as "goal" or "cessation."
Snodgrass, Klyne. "Spheres of Influence: A Possible Solution to the Problem of Paul and the Law," JSNT, 32 (1988), 93-113. This work argues Paul's "spheres of influence" theology (in Christ or the Spirit versus in sin or in the flesh) provides a basis for understanding Paul's negative and positive statements about law. Law can be placed in either a positive or a negative sphere, but it was intended to be understood in covenant relation to God. Outside such a relation it is negative.
Strand, Kenneth A. "From Sabbath to Sunday in the Early Christian Church: a Review of Some Recent Literature," Part 1: AUSS, 16 (1978), 333-342; Part II: AUSS, 17 (1979), 85-104. This review of the literature pays special attention to Bacchiocchi and Rordorf.
Stuhlmacher, Peter. Paul's Letter to the Romans: A Commentary. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox. 1994. Like many of the better commentaries on Romans, Stuhlmacher provides theological treatments of important themes. His excursus on the law rightly emphasizes the necessity of combining both external and internal components.
Swartley, Willard M. (ed.) The Bible and Law. Elkhart, IN: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 1982. An interdisciplinary discussion of law by Mennonite scholars. Biblical, historical, cultural, and theological issues are treated.
Thielman, Frank. Paul and the Law: A Contextual Approach. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1994. A discussion of Paul's explicit statements and allusions to the Mosaic Law in each letter. This book concludes that whereas Paul considered the Mosaic Law obsolete, his own theology absorbed both the pattern of God's dealings with his people in the Mosaic Law and some specific norms of that Law's specific commands.
Vangemeren, Willem A. et al. The Law, the Gospel, and the Modern Christian. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993. Five different authors offer five approaches to law in the modern church.
Verhey, Allen. The Great Reversal: Ethics and the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984. An analysis of the ethical teaching of Jesus, the early Christian tradition, the synoptic gospels, the Pauline letters, and the later NT in light of contemporary ethical discussion. The book concludes with the provocative proposal that the NT cannot be used as a moral rule book, even when its authors intended to give moral rules to their communities.
Wallace, Ronald S. The Ten Commandments: a Study of Ethical Freedom. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965. Wallace is a masterful expositor and interprets the commandments in a way that shows how a proper use of the law leads to liberty, not bondage.
Walzer, Michael. Exodus and Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1985. This work examines the Exodus event as a model for major Western revolutions throughout history.
Welch, John W. A Biblical Law Bibliography. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990. This is an extremely helpful and extensive bibliography arranged both by author and by subject.
Wenham, David. Paul-Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. A detailed comparison of the theology of Jesus and the theology of Paul which devotes a substantial section to their ethical teaching. Wenham finds it "highly probable" that Paul knew some of the traditions about Jesus' ethical teaching and used them to formulate his own ethical approach.
Westerholm, Stephen. Israel's Law and the Church's Faith: Paul and His Recent Interpreters. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988. This book provides a very good survey of NT scholarly discussions of the law. In his own treatment of the relevant passages Westerholm defends the traditional Lutheran approach to law; the law is set aside. The assessment seeks to vindicate Paul as a practical theologian who is both conscientious and resolute in his commitment to integrate Jews and Gentiles into one community of Christ.
Wilson, Robert R. "Approaches to Old Testament Ethics," Canon, Theology, and Old Testament Interpretation: Essays in Honor of Brevard S. Childs. Edited by Gene M. Tucker, David L. Petersen, and Robert R. Wilson. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988. This essay gives particular attention to Kaiser's volume listed above and seeks hermeneutical guidelines that will reduce subjectivity in deciding on which laws are relevant.
Wogaman, J. Philip. Christian Perspectives on Politics. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988. A challenging discussion of alternative positions on basic political issues.
Wright, Christopher J. H. An Eye for an Eye. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983. A helpful study of OT social ethics designed for the general reader that focuses on the laws, institutions, and social customs of ancient Israel and draws applications for today.
-----"The Ethical Authority of the Old Testament: A Survey of Approaches," Tyndale Bulletin, 43 (1992), 101-120 and 203-231. This survey is broad, clear and helpful, reviewing classical Christian approaches to the authority and ethical utility of OT Law from the patristic period through the Reformation and in the current period.
-----God's People in God's Land: Family, Land, and Property in the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990. This is a further development of the author's views on OT social ethics.
Wyschogrod Michael. The Body of Faith: Judaism as Corporeal Election. New York: Seabury, 1983. In this work Wyschogrod feels that biblical Law was addressed to Israel as a corporeal community, an extended family that became a nation, rather than to a community of faith per se; loss of nationhood encouraged the reinterpretation of Mosaic law as "ethics."
Yoder, John Howard. The Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992. A seminal work that not only develops the theme of Christian pacifism, but also proclaims the full relevance of Jesus' incarnation for the social faithfulness of his disciples today.
Zachman, Randall C. The Assurance of Faith: Conscience in the Theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993. Although this detailed, but very readable, study deals with various aspects of the law (in both Luther and Calvin), the focus is on freedom of conscience.
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