This is the second monograph in the New Studies in Christian Ethics series. Fundamental to this series is the attempt to write about Christian ethics in an interdisciplinary context. Authors are encouraged to bring together recent discussions in philosophy, literary studies and the social sciences with the very best in Christian ethics. This is meant to be an intellectually challenging series and, as such, it inevitably makes heavy demands on contributors. In the first monograph Dr Kieran Cronin used his philosophical and theological skills in Rights and Christian Ethics. It is an admirable example of interdisciplinary study.

In this second monograph Dr Ian McDonald also adopts an interdisciplinary approach. He is already a well-established scholar with impressive qualifications and books in both biblical studies (specialising in the New Testament) and Christian ethics. He brought these two skills together most notably in the well received The Quest for Christian Ethics that he wrote with the philosopher Ian Fairweather. Now he brings them together again in this new study.

The approach that Dr McDonald adopts in this monograph is to view the last century of biblical interpretation in relation to Christian ethics as consisting of three phases. In the first phase liberal scholars responded to the new methods of biblical criticism and sought to make sense of biblical ethics from perspectives derived from the Enlightenment. In the second phase, a more radical disjunction between biblical culture and present-day culture was seen (for example on eschatology).