The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes

Biblical Studies and Ethics for Real Life

By (author) Yiu Sing Lúcás Chan Foreword by Daniel J. Harrington, James F. Keenan, SJ Boston College

Publication date:

20 September 2012

Length of book:

284 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

235x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781442215535

The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes are often considered significant texts for the Christian moral life. However, most interpretations of these passages either focus on the original meaning of the text or how the texts should impact ordinary living today.

In The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes Yiu Sing Lúcás Chan brings together biblical studies and Christian ethics to look at these foundational texts in a new way. For each passage Chan asks both what the texts meant and what they mean today. He helps readers to carefully study the text’s original meaning, then interpret the text within a sound ethical framework.

The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes is an excellent introduction to key concepts in biblical studies and Christian ethics that combines sound study with warmth and wisdom.

Foreword
Abbreviations
Prologue: Ten to Eight
Acknowledgments

I: A Schema for Bridging Biblical Studies and Christian Ethics
1 Emerging Consensus
2 Reading Scripture through the Lens of Virtue

II: Exegeting and Interpreting the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:2-17 for Ethical Living
3 The Decalogue in History
4 Some Preliminary Questions
5The First Commandment in 20:2-6
6 The Second Commandment in 20:7
7 The Third Commandment in 20:8-11
8 The Fourth Commandment in 20:12
9 The Fifth Commandment in 20:1
10 The Sixth Commandment in 20:14
11 The Seventh Commandment in 20:15
12 The Eighth Commandment in 20:16
13 The Ninth Commandment in 20:17
14 The Tenth Commandment in 20:17

III: Exegeting and Interpreting the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12 for Ethical Living
15 The Beatitudes in History
16 Some Preliminary Questions
17 The First Beatitude in 5:3
18 The Second Beatitude in 5:4
19 The Third Beatitude in 5:5
20 The Fourth Beatitude in 5:6
21 The Fifth Beatitude in 5:7
22 The Sixth Beatitude in 5:8
23 The Seventh Beatitude in 5:9
24 The Eighth Beatitude in 5:10-12

Conclusion: A Radical Invitation to All
Epilogue: West to East
Glossary of Chinese Terms

Chan, a Jesuit from Hong Kong, seeks to bring together biblical studies and Christian ethics through the vehicle of Christian virtue ethics, and illustrates his approach with reference to the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. After an eleven-page prologue, Chan develops his schema for bridging biblical studies and Christian ethics. Then through the lens of virtue ethics, he examines each of the Ten Commandments according to Exod 20:2-17, and each of the Beatitudes in Mt 5:3-12. For each of the Commandments and the Beatitudes, he starts with the original meaning of the text and explores its significance for contemporary Christian moral living through a hermeneutics of virtue ethics. At the end of the book he discusses the possible reception of the core Christian virtues of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes for Confucian society out of his conviction that interfaith or cross-cultural ethics begins with very specific texts and needs to be both text-based and interpretive. J. F. Keenan and D. J. Harrington have provided a three-page foreword.