Description: This painstaking study of the New Testament helps bring clarity to one of the great ethical dilemmas of the modern church--the moral status of wealth and possessions in relation to Christian faith.
Review Quotes: America
"The New Testament provides various perspectives on possessions, and Wheeler shows that each one can give substantive ethical guidance to the church today."
"One of the hardest topics to explore in middle-class or affluent churches is the Bible's teaching on stewardship. Sondra Ely Wheeler helps with Wealth as Peril and Obligation. . . This is an impressive effort." Expository Times
"The exegetical chapters are excellent and the overall thesis interesting." Interpretation
"This is an important book which offers a clear and workable method for employing the New Testament in the church's ethical discourse. Neither dismissing the New Testament data as irrelevant nor turning it into a series of rules or ethical principles, Wheeler argues that once the data has been analyzed, it poses a series of questions to those who accept its moral authority. . . This is a clear, concise book that provides pastors and scholars alike a way to make moral sense of the New Testament." Luke Timothy Johnson in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin
"A readable and remarkably mature contribution to one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary Christian ethics, namely, how moral discourse within the church can appropriately engage (and be engaged by) the writings of the New Testament. . . This book deserves careful and appreciative attention." Provident Book Finder
"Wheeler shows keen awareness of past 'patterns of moral reasoning' but she chooses her own way, and moves on gently and convincingly. This book is a priceless gift to Christ's Church. Many readers should ponder it. God might use it to help his people to a new and sacred stewardship of their money!" Review & Expositor
"This splendid study of relevant New Testament passages on wealth and ownership is written with a clear and dynamic prose that models good communication and leaves the reviewer slightly envious. Such readability keeps this work from being a specialized study suitable only for other academics, easily allowing it to be used in introductory courses in either Christian ethics or New Testament studies or even as a study resource for well informed adult church groups. . . Wealth as Peril and Obligation is not the last word on either the relation of biblical ethics and normatively Christian ethics, or on the Christian (or even biblical) attitude toward monetary concerns. . . Nevertheless, seldom have these two concerns been interwoven so seamlessly in one work of such great value." The Bible Today
"This thoughtful study is as much a demonstration of method as it is an exploration of a major motif." Theology Today
"A fresh and engaging approach to the moral value of possessions in the New Testament that has much to say about the primacy of our relationship with God. . . An admirable prototype for all those who are laboring to produce a biblically based ethic. . . This volume is beautifully constructed and represents a major contribution not only to New Testament ethics but also to that odd discipline that we have to keep on naming as biblical theology." The Cresset
"A splendid book. It describes and displays how the New Testament can form and inform Christian dispositions toward wealth. It is a significant contribution to Christian communities which gather around Scripture in an effort to discern the shape of lives 'worthy of the gospel." Allen Verhey
--Hope College
"A splendid book that describes and displays the relevance of the New Testament to contemporary Christian reflection about wealth. This book should make a significant contributio