Article April 4, 2005 Issue

DOING RIGHT: PRACTICING ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

by David W. Gill.—Downers Grove, Illinois.

InterVarsity Press

David Gill is a specialist in Christian ethics. He provides business ethics training and often leads workshops and seminars for church groups and professionals. He also loves the Ten Commandments. In this, his sixth book, Gill explores the Commandments in depth by drawing on the ideas of theologians such as Martin Luther, Karl Barth Jacques Ellul—to mention a few—as well as on his own. The first two chapters provide a kind of ethical roadmap for the rest of the book, and they are followed by individual chapters on each commandment and issues relating to practicing it in today's world.

The result is readable, sometimes challenging, and always interesting. It isn't abstract or theoretical. In the chapter on the commandment "You shall not murder," for example, Gill explores the roots of violence and the toll murder takes not just on the one killed but also on the murderer. Discussing the commandment "Remember the sabbath day," he does a lot more than just tell people to go to church. Instead, he explores the commandment's context and its relation to work. He writes, "God did not stop on the seventh day because he was tired ... but because it was good to stop. The time outside work could be a blessed and good time" (p. 154).

While Gill's personal theological views are those of a relatively conservative Christian, he doesn't let these views dominate. Each chapter in the section on the Commandments ends with questions for reflection and discussion, and the meaty ideas Gill offers up should leave readers with plenty to reflect on as they consider their own lives.

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