Читать книгу The Craft of Innovative Theology. Argument and Process онлайн

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Box 3.2

The author is making good use of subtitles. This is the first subtitle after the introduction. The focus is on how the Golden Rule is used in debates around slavery. The great advantage of the subtitle is that you know exactly where you are in the paper.

Some believed these Christian teachings applied universally and did everything possible to help African Americans overcome cultural and Christian barriers to equality. As they saw it, slavery was contrary to the teachings of Jesus, including the love of one’s neighbor and the Golden Rule. These teachings signaled a new order, the Kingdom of God. Jesus’s teaching, as found in Matthew 22:37–40 (NRSV), is:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

In John 13:34–35 (NRSV), Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The Golden Rule, found in Matthew 7:12 (NRSV), reads: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”