An exploration of how the truth, love, and power of God revealed in Jesus Christ are contemporary to and transformative of human life.

This is an account of how the revealed truth, love, and power of God revealed in Jesus Christ are contemporary and transformative to human life. Christian ethics is a matter of grace, present to us in Jesus Christ. But so often Jesus is reduced to a kind of role model. He represents a way of being from the past that should be emulated and made relevant for today. What such an approach lacks, however, is consideration of Jesus as One who is savingly present and active today. Indeed, what if Jesus were not inert. What if his presence is constitutive of reality? Our task is to become participant in his work of making all things new. For by joining what he is doing, ethics fulfills its task, which it to become human. The purpose of this book is to account for the ways in which the revealed truth, love, and power of God revealed in Jesus Christ are contemporary to human life and transformative of human life. By learning to hear, obey, and serve, men and women become aligned to the ongoing and life-giving presence of the truth, love, and power of Jesus Christ.

"This is not simply another book on Christian ethical method. It strongly shows that theologians plowing in Barth's furrows are not simply tone-deaf to problems of human agency. It is that we are trying to re-think human agency christologically." - Texas Flood

"This book calls us back to the Trinitarian doctrines which lie at the heart of our faith. It outlines an approach to ethics which is at once demanding and refreshing. It is a challenging but very rewarding read, and I highly recommend it." - Available Light

"Christopher R. J. Holmes has written a wonderful book - Ethics in the Presence of Christ - in which he argues that "What would Jesus do?" is actually the wrong question to ask when considering the ethics of any decision." - The Thoughtful Christian

"Ethics is profound and provocative. I highly recommend it for those prepared to wrestle with a text thatis singularly focused on what the person of Christ means for ethics (life) today." - The Messenger

"[Ethics in the Presence of Christ] does make an important contribution to the literature on Christian ethics by reminding Christian ethicists that their proposals for ethical agency are not only formulated on the basis of scriptural reflection or philosophical study but also on the continuing power of the risen Christ at work in the world." - Religious Studies Review