Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

510 REVIEWS / RECENSIONESChapters three and four focus on Ramsey. Chapter three, “LoveJustice, and the Whole Idea of God” (pp. 33-50), shows that, forRamsey, “…the Christian moral life could not be understood apartfrom the divine activities of creation, preservation, and redemption”(p. 47). Chapter four, “Political and Medical Ethics” (pp. 51-71),demonstrates that Ramsey “…sought to interpret H. RichardNiebuhr’s thought away from moral relativism, which makes noplace for objectivity valid norms, and toward ‘relational objectivism’”(p. 67). In each chapter, the author points Niebuhr’s influence onRamsey’s thought as he forged his own unique contribution toChristian ethics.Chapters five and six contrast Niebuhr’s thought with that ofHauerwas. Chapter five, “Keeping Faith in Good Company” (pp. 72-94), shows how Hauerwas takes up the legacy of Niebuhr, especiallyin the way he stresses Christian community life and practices, andhis need to situate this life within the social context of the world (p.90). Chapter six, “Politics, Creation, and conversion” (pp. 95-118)points out some of Hauerwas’s sharp criticisms of Niebuhr’s conversionismand his preference for the “Christ transformer of culture”typos for the relationship between Christianity and the world.Chapters seven and eight look at Neibuhr’s thought in relation toGustafson. Chapter seven, “God Will Be God” (pp. 119-42), points outa number of resemblances between the two thinkers. Of all the fourwriters being compared with Niebuhr, Gustafson was the most closelyassociated with him. Like Niebuhr, he avoids theological one-sidedness,acknowledges the storied character of Christian life, insiststhat theology take scientific inquiry seriously, and resistsChristocentric theologies that attribute “ultimate status” to Jesus(pp. 137-38). Chapter eight, “Questions for Theocentric Ethics” (pp.143-63) identifies a significant difference in their respectiveapproaches to the confessional task of theology, i.e., Gustafson’s“…definite emphasis on the social and psychological over against theobjective (p. 149).Chapter nine and ten examine Neibuhr’s legacy through the eyesof Tanner. Chapter nine, “Transcendence, Culture, and Ethics” (pp.164-82), shows Tanner’s critical development of a number ofNeibuhr’s deepest convictions. These include: “the transcendenceand sovereignty of God, the relation between Creator and creation,Jesus as the manifestation of God’s total graciousness, the socialdimension of human existence, the equality of human creatures, and