Christian Ethics in Secular Cultures

A central question in Christian ethics is the relationship between the moral principles we should follow within the Christian community and the ethics followed in the secular societies in which we live. Our dilemma is that we have received a revelation of God's moral will in the Bible and in creation which must shape the identity of believers over against unbelieving cultures, while our neighbors follow the ethics of other world views which concern us deeply. Remember the Holocaust, where the ethics of a secular ideology wreaked destruction in an entire society. How should we, as Christians whom God has called to a distinct identity, participate in the moral considerations that will shape our cultures and communicate some of our convictions in a way that brings moral light into our worlds? Johnson offers the insight gained by 20 years of teaching ethics in secular universities in Europe and North America. First he addresses questions of sex, marriage, and family; then questions of work and economics; and finally theological and philosophical foundations. Thomas K. Johnson received his Ph.D. in ethics from the University of Iowa (1987) after a research fellowship at Eberhard-Karls Universitat. He received his M.Div. (Magna Cum Laude) from Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis) and BA from Hope College (Michigan). After serving as a church planter in the Presbyterian Church in America, he became a visiting professor of philosophy at the European Humanities University (EHU) in Minsk, Belarus, 1994-1996. (EHU is a dissident, anti-Communist university, forced into exile by the Belarusian dictator in 2004.) Since 1996 Johnson and his wife have lived in Prague, where he taught philosophy at Anglo-American University (four years) and at Charles University (eight years). From 2004 to 2013 he was director of the Comenius Institute in Prague, which works to develop Czech Christian academic spokespeople. He began teaching for Martin Bucer Seminary in 2003 and has taught theology and philosophy in eleven universities or theological schools in nine countries. His wife, Leslie P. Johnson, was director of the Christian International School of Prague, 2004-2015. She is now an educational consultant for the Association of Christian Schools International. They have three married children and a growing number of grandchildren. Johnson is presently Vice President for Research, Martin Bucer Seminary; Special Advisor to the International Institute for Religious Freedom (WEA); Professor of Philosophy, Global Scholars; and Senior Advisor to the Theological Commission of the WEA. In 2016 he was appointed Religious Freedom Ambassador to the Vatican, representing the World Evangelical Alliance and its 600 million members.