According to the Apostle Paul, what can be known about God--and by extension, about ethics--is plain to people, so we are ""without excuse."" Romans 1:18-21 teaches that we will be ""without excuse"" when God confronts us for whatever beliefs and actions seemed good to us on the day, but weren't. In our time, this notion has come to seem at least unpalatable, and more likely unbelievable. Michael D. Russell's book is an extended meditation on the possibilities in this Pauline statement and a concerted effort to enable us to understand and accept it. Situated in Reformed Protestant discussion of this matter, he offers some clarifying proposals. Maintaining all the while that whoever we are we are indeed without excuse, Michael proposes how to understand that conclusion without accepting some of the usual routes to it.
According to the Apostle Paul, what can be known about God--and by extension, about ethics--is plain to people, so we are ""without excuse."" Romans 1:18-21 teaches that we will be ""without excuse"" when God confronts us for whatever beliefs and actions seemed good to us on the day, but weren't. In our time, this notion has come to seem at least unpalatable, and more likely unbelievable. Michael D. Russell's book is an extended meditation on the possibilities in this Pauline statement and a concerted effort to enable us to understand and accept it. Situated in Reformed Protestant discussion of this matter, he offers some clarifying proposals. Maintaining all the while that whoever we are we are indeed without excuse, Michael proposes how to understand that conclusion without accepting some of the usual routes to it.
Michael D. Russell is senior minister of St. George's Anglican Church, Magill, and campus director for the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students at the University of South Australia, Magill Campus, Adelaide.
"Michael's first book is a much-needed addition to the resource kit
for modern apologetic cultural engagement. He blends clear
exegesis, historical theology, and contemporary application with
profound insight. It will be a wonderful blessing for all who seek
to proclaim 'Christ crucified' to a world that has no hope."
--Geoff Lin, SA/NT Regional Director, Australian Fellowship of
Evangelical Students
"Michael Russell's book is a valuable resource for any thoughtful
Christian believer seeking to engage in apologetics and evangelism.
By clear and careful argumentation, and drawing on a variety of
disciplines, Russell demonstrates the plausibility of the view that
all humans are morally accountable to God, in a way that both
upholds the integrity of the Christian Scriptures and respects the
empirical testimony of those with whom we are seeking to
engage."
--Lionel J. Windsor, New Testament Lecturer, Moore College, Sydney,
Australia
"Straddling the disciplines of apologetics, Pauline exegesis,
ethics, systematic and practical theology, Russell effectively
argues that God's moral truth 'presses in' upon us all. Object
Relations theory supplies an effective device to explain how this
can be and at the same time be beyond the capacity of the
non-believer to articulate. This work brings a fresh defense of a
form of intuitionism through which both moral culpability and
imprecise knowing of God's law have their place."
--Jeffrey Pugh, former Postgraduate Dean and Research Director,
Melbourne School of Theology
"Seeing Good, Doing Evil is as impressive as it is valuable.
Michael Russell's integrated, multi-disciplinary study gives fresh
attention to one of the great conundrums of Christian theology--the
moral culpability of finite human beings before a fully sovereign
God--and arrives at a compelling new solution. While primarily a
work on practical ethics and apologetics, Russell also makes
contributions in New Testament exegesis, Pauline scholarship, and
theological anthropology, yet does so while remaining well-grounded
on the realities of human experience and practical Christian
ministry. Building a healthy case for intuitionism and being
unashamed in its recourse to Scripture, Seeing Good, Doing Evil is
a most welcome resource for honest, thinking, active Christian
believers."
--Tim Patrick, Principal, Bible College SA
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