Doing Right Practicing Ethical Principles

Doing Right is a careful, thorough, readable introduction to a Christian ethics based on the Decalogue. Following the implications of Jesus’ double “Love Commandment,” ten chapter-length studies show how each of the commandments guides our love for God, our love for our neighbors, our search for justice/righteousness, and our quest for life/freedom. As such, Christian ethics is not, despite first impressions, a catalog of “thou shalt nots” but rather a roadmap for a lifelong adventure guided by “ten words” on life, freedom, love, and justice. Doing Right draws deeply on the best Jewish and Christian scholarship over the centuries and then follows the ten principles wherever they lead, even into the thorny controversies of the present time. Doing Right works as a stand-alone study (of the ethics of principles and practices) but is also the companion to Gill’s Becoming Good (on the ethics of character and virtue).

David W. Gill is a writer in Oakland, California (www.davidwgill.org). He served forty years as an ethics professor at New College Berkeley (1977-90), North Park University (1992-2001), St. Mary's College Graduate School of Business (2004-10), and Gordon-Conwell Seminary (2010-16). He was the founder (1977), dean (1979-86), and president (1986-90) of the graduate school of theology at New College Berkeley, equipping Christians with an organically biblical ethics.