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      The Christian Moral Life

      Practices of Piety

      Timothy F. Sedgwick

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      Copyright © 1999, 2008 by Timothy F. Sedgwick

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      A catalog record of this book is available from the Library of Congress.

      First published in 1999 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 255 Jefferson Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503.

      Published in 2008 by

      Seabury Books

      445 Fifth Avenue

      New York, New York 10016

       www.seaburybooks.com

      An imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated

      5 4 3 2 1

       For Martha, Sarah, and Ellen

      “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

      HEBREWS 13:2

       Contents

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       Preface to the 2008 Edition

       Introduction

       1. Describing the Christian Life

       Changing Understandings

       A Life Given in Worship

       Roman Catholic and Protestant Perspectives

       2. An Anglican Perspective

       Faith as a Way of Life

       The Theological Tradition

       Theology and Ethics

       3. Incarnate Love

       The Transformation of Sexuality

       Idolatry and Moralism

       The Covenant of Hospitality

       4. Love and Justice

       The Transformation of Poverty

       The Nature of Justice

       Law and Gospel

       5. The Practices of Faith

       Disciplines of Mind and Body

       Worship and the Disciplines of Faith

       Hospitality and Forgiveness

       6. The Call of God

       The Nature of Calling

       The Faith of Piety

       Ethics and the Christian Life

       Appendix

       Theology as Grounded in Piety

       Narrative Theology and Practice

       Understandings of God

       Index

       Preface to the 2008 Edition

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      The Christian moral life seeks to offer an account of the Christian life. It is in this sense that the word “piety” is used. Practices of piety refer not narrowly to spiritual practices but—as the word “piety” originally meant—to our duties that bind us to God, to our neighbors, and to our true selves. Christian ethics as reflection on the Christian life are not then narrow and separate disciplines concerned with right action (whether in terms of ends, virtues, or principles), but are grounded in our encounter with God and the practices that witness, nurture, and shape our continuing relationship with God. In this sense, The Christian Moral Life is formed in conversation with theology and with what has been traditionally called ascetical theology and what is now referred to more frequently as Christian spirituality or Christian practices—hence the subtitle, Practices of Piety.

      In the Roman Catholic tradition moral theologies came to be more narrowly focused on offering direction to confessors in order that they might help penitents in the confession of sins and offer appropriate judgment and counsel. However, moral theologies from Thomas Aquinas to Barnard Haring have sought more comprehensively to ground moral principles and specific moral judgments in understandings of the end of human life in God, the nature of the human person, and human virtues grounded in relationship to God, all placed

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