Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T14:39:36.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Poverty and Morality in Christianity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

William A. Galston
Affiliation:
Brookings Institution, Washington DC
Peter H. Hoffenberg
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Get access

Summary

Christianity, with Judaism and Islam, is one of three Abrahamic faiths. Its roots and basic presuppositions derive from Judaism. The Jewish scriptures form the first or Old Testament of Christianity. The Old Testament together with the Christian New Testament forms the Christian Bible, the source of Christian revelation. Christianity’s Jewish origin is significant for this study inasmuch as Christian assumptions about anthropology, cosmology, and law are derived from Judaism.

Like Jews, Christians believe that humans are created in “the image and likeness” of God (Gen. 1:27). While Christian philosophers in ages past were fond of speculating on the metaphysical possibilities of this phrase, recent Jewish and Christian scholars recognize that this text does not set forth an ontological theory. Rather, being created in God’s image shows that all human persons are created in such a way that they can relate to other humans, to God, and to the physical world in love, hatred, or indifference.

Type
Chapter
Information
Poverty and Morality
Religious and Secular Perspectives
, pp. 62 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×