Richard B. Hays

Review: New Testament Ethics

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Cover image of "New Testament Ethics" edited by Cherryl Hunt, Nicholas J. Moore, and Timothy J. Murray

New Testament Ethics

New Testament Ethics, Cherryl Hunt, Nicholas J. Moore, and Timothy J. Murray, editors, foreword by Luke Timothy Johnson. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802884503) 2026.

Summary: Critical and constructive essays discussing Richard B. Hays “The Moral Vision of the New Testament” thirty years later.

Thirty years ago, Richard B. Hays published his landmark book, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (reviewed at https://bobonbooks.com/2026/07/28/review-the-moral-vision-of-the-new-testament/). Quoting from my review:

What Hays does in this book is establish a methodology of moving from the texts of the New Testament to applications to contemporary issues. He follows a four step process. He begins with describing the moral witness of the New Testament texts. Then, he synthesizes that material into three focal images he argues are foundational to New Testament ethics. From here, he engages the hermeneutical or interpretive task, drawing upon text as the “norming norm” but also weighing church tradition, reason, and experience. Finally, he addresses the pragmatic task of using this framework to address five “test cases” which vary in terms of the amount of textual material available.

In this book, a wide array of scholars engage Hays’ work thirty years later. Sadly, Richard Hays passed away in 2025, before this work’s publication. However, it honors his scholarship in the best way possible, carrying the conversation he began forward. The book is organized into three parts after an introductory essay by the editors.

Part 1: Hermeneutics: Approaching New Testament Ethics

This part addresses the methodological questions arising from Hays’ proposal. Andrew Cowan challenges Hays’ emphasis on narrative, asserting that other New Testament genres contribute paradigms for ethical decision making. Likewise, Andrew Goddard challenges his ideas about narrative, but from the perspective that scripture might better be understood as drama. Miles Tradewell focus upon, affirms, and extends Hays’ work on metaphor, incorporating recent scholarship.

Channing Crisler addresses Hays’ three focal images of community, cross, and new creation, proposing justification as a fourth. While justification is an important New Testament theme, I was not convinced that it spans the full New Testament corpus. Finally, Walter Moberly compares Moral Vision with The Widening of God’s Mercy, describing what changed for Richard in his views about LGBTQ sexuality. He observes that Hays does not change his reading of the texts but sets them within a widening trajectory of God’s mercy. He also notes the distinctive contributions of his son, Christopher.

Part 2: Exegesis: Mapping New Testament Ethics

The contributors in this section focus on the description of the contribution of particular texts or authors to New Testament ethics. The ethics of material possessions in Luke’s gospel is the focus of Carl-Magnus Carlstein and Rebekah Eklund. Specificallly, this advances Hays’ work in addressing at length a topic hays only briefly touched on in his conclusion. Then Kai Akagi considers the role of the fear of the Lord in moral motivation as it appears in Acts.

Richard B. Hays noted the inclusive focus of love in John’s Gospel. However, Elizabeth Corsar takes exception to that, arguing for a strong connection between love and mission, and that this is consistent with the rest of the New Testament. She considers it to be another focal image. Andrew Boakye explores the connection of the resurrection to ethics, arguing it is foundational to human equity. Finally, Amy Peeler discusses the theme of patient endurance in Hebrews and how it relates to his three focal images. She also suggests a fourth focal image, that of covenant. Given that Hays did not discuss Hebrews in his work, this essay makes a signal contribution.

Part 3: Themes: Practicing New Testament Ethics

The essays in this section focus on Hays’ “pragmatic” task, taking specific issues, offering examples of using the New Testament in ethical discernment. Annalisa Phillips Wilson discusses sex and celibacy in light of 1 Corinthians 7, avoiding either simplistic valorizing of marriage or exalting celibacy. Likewise, Elizabeth Hare and Nicholas Moore focus on relationality in Luke-Acts against the global health crisis of loneliness. They examine the narratives of Zacchaeus, Aquila and priscilla, and Apollos.

Yung Suk Kim takes Hays discussion of ethnic conflict further, looking at Paul’s body metaphor. Then Cherryl Hunt applies Hays’ methodology to the ecological crisis. Her essay underscored how little material in the New Testament directly addresses this theme, compared to the Old Testament. She gets at this by radically reinterpreting Hays’ focal images, extending them to the whole creation. Finally, John Barclay concludes in what is perhaps the most challenging of the essay in addressing wealth, and the New Testament warnings of its dangers.

Concluding Comments

I thought this volume a fitting tribute to Hays. Many of the essays emphasized the enduring value of his methodological framework as well as his focal images. I particularly appreciated the extension of his work on the topics of wealth and possessions, especially John Barclay’s concluding essay. Likewise, Hays did not utilize the full New Testament canon in his original work and so Amy Peeler’s work on Hebrews and the idea of patient endurance most helpful. And Kai Akagi and his essay on the fear of the Lord in Acts and its OT resonances of great value. I think, were Hays have been able to write an afterword, as was planned, he would have been deeply appreciative of both the critical and constructive work of these essays.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Moral Vision of the New Testament

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Cover image of "The Moral Vision of the New Testament" by Richard B. Hays

The Moral Vision of the New Testament

The Moral Vision of the New Testament, Richard B. Hays. HarperOne (ISBN: 9780060637965) 1996.

Summary: A methodology for New Testament ethics centered on community, the cross, and the new creation.

When I was in seminary in the 1980’s, I took a course on ethics that used a text titled Can Ethics Be Christian? by James M. Gustafson. While making the useful point that one did not need to be Christian to be ethical, it also cast doubt on whether there was such a thing as a Christian ethic and how one might arrive at that. We had no books from Richard B. Hays back then. Later, around the time of the publication of The Moral Vision of the New Testament in 1996, I acquired a copy. And perhaps because of its daunting size, it remained on a stack of unread books.

Recently, Eerdmans sent me a copy of New Testament Ethics for review, re-visiting Hays book thirty years later. I thought before I read that book, I ought read this one. I will be reviewing the new book in the near future.

What Hays does in this book is establish a methodology of moving from the texts of the New Testament to applications to contemporary issues. He follows a four step process. He begins with describing the moral witness of the New Testament texts. Then, he synthesizes that material into three focal images he argues are foundational to New Testament ethics. From here, he engages the hermeneutical or interpretive task, drawing upon text as the “norming norm” but also weighing church tradition, reason, and experience. Finally, he addresses the pragmatic task of using this framework to address five “test cases” which vary in terms of the amount of textual material available. I’ll elaborate each step in greater detail:

Part One: The Descriptive Task

Hays begins with Paul. He notes the theological grounding of Paul in the eschatology of new creation, the centrality of the cross as the basis of Christian faithfulness, and the life of the redeemed community as Christ’s body. Hays separately deals with the deutero-Pauline letters, focus on the cosmic ecclesiology of Ephesians and the idea of the household of God in 1 Timothy. Then Hays turns to the synoptic gospels, noting a distinctive ethical focus for each: Mark on taking up the cross, Matthew on training for the kingdom, and Luke on liberation through the Spirit’s power. John’s gospel and epistles focus on love for each other. Finally Revelation focuses on resisting the Beast in light of the victory of the lamb and the new creation.

It should be noted that Hays does not address the contribution of Hebrews and the non-Johannine general epistles. He also offers his own assessment of “historical Jesus research” notably asserting that the burden of proof lies with those claiming inauthenticity. He argues against dismissing John’s gospel, particularly in light of its claim to be eyewitness testimony. And he argues for the resurrection as a historical event–not a popular position in 1996.

Part Two: The Synthetic Task

Hays begins by establishing three procedural guidelines. First, any synthesis must confront the full range of canonical witnesses. Then, allow tensions to stand. Finally, give attention to literary genre. With these in mind, Hays argues for three focal images arising from his descriptive work.

The first of these is community. “The church is a countercultural community of discipleship, and this community is the primary addressee of God’s imperatives.” When asking questions of God’s will, we ought ask, not “what should I do” but “what shoud we do?”

The second is the cross. “Jesus death on the cross is the paradigm for faithfulness to God in this world.” Walking in the way of the cross is not just for some individuals but for the whole community.

And lastly, the third is new creation. “The church embodies the power of the resurrection in the midst of a not-yet-redeemed world.

Hays addresses why he does not include love as a focal image. He argues that the full range of canonical material does not incorporate it. Love can also mean a variety of things. Finally, for Hays, love is subsumed in the theme of the cross.

Part Three: The Hermeneutical Task

Hays lays the groundwork for his proposals by asking how ethicists use scripture. In ethical discussion, ethicists will appeal to rules, principles, paradigms, and symbolic worlds, each of which is in scripture. He also notes the role tradition, reason, and experience play in interpretation. He then surveys five models of New Testament ethicists and how they apply (or fail to apply) these criteria: Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, and Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza.

Hays then offers ten guidelines that build on his work to this point:

  1. Serious exegesis is a basic requirement. Texts used in ethical arguments should be understood as fully as possible in their historical and literary context.
    • New Testament texts must be read with careful attention to their Old Testament subtexts.
  2. We must seek to listen to the full range of canonical witnesses.
  3. Substantive tensions within the canon should be openly acknowledged.
  4. Our synthetic reading of the New Testament canon must be kept in balance by the sustained use of three focal images: community, cross, and new creation.
  5. New Testament texts must be granted authority (or not) in the mode in which they speak (i.e., rule, principle, paradigm, symbolic world).
    • All four modes are valid and necessary.
    • We should not override the witness of the New Testament in one mode by appealing to another mode.
  6. The New Testament is fundamentally the story of God’s redemptive action; thus, the paradigmatic mode has theological primacy, and narrative texts are fundamental resources for normative ethics.
  7. Extra-biblical sources (i.e. tradition, reason and experience) stand in a hermeneutical relation to the New Testament; they are not independent, counterbalancing sources of authority.
  8. It is impossible to distinguish “timeless truth” from “culturally conditioned elements” in the New Testament.
  9. The use of the New Testament in normative ethics requires an integrative act of the imagination; thus, whenever we appeal to the authority of the New Testament, we are necessarily engaged in metaphor-making.
  10. Right reading of the New Testament occurs only where the Word is embodied.

Part Four: The Pragmatic Task

In this last part of the book, Hays offers five “test cases” of reaching ethical conclusions on the basis of the methodology he has outlined. He states:

“As I take a stand on these five issues, some of which are bitterly controversial, it is impoirtant to emphasize that I do not presume to speak ex cathedra. Rather, I offer a series of discernments to the church in prayerful humility.”

The five issues he addresses are violence, divorce, homosexuality, anti-Judaism, and abortion. He notes at the outset the different ways the New Testament speaks to each. In the case of violence, the witness is both pervasive and univocal against it. On divorce, the passages share a common perspective, but differing casuistic developments that lead to diverse applications. The texts on homosexuality are univocal but few and not central to the gospel story. However, with anti-Judaism, the textual evidence is in tension, and the interpreter has to prioritize what will be the controlling texts. Finally, the New Testament does not directly address abortion.

While peoples discuss Hays on homosexuality the most (particularly in light of his changing views in a book he co-authored with his son Chris shortly before his death), the most challenging material in many ways is that on violence. He argues for pacifism as the only biblically defensible ethic, arguing Jesus epitomizes it in his own paradigmatic death.

On homosexuality, while arguing against same-sex intimacy for believers, he states that “insofar as the church fails to teach clearly about heterosexuality outside of marriage, its disapproval of homosexual coupling will appear arbitrary and biased.” He argues for inclusion of LGBTQ people in the church. I found the position both forthright and gracious and want to see how he has changed his view in The Widening of God’s Mercy. While not having read the book yet, I sense from other reviews that Hays has not changed his reading of the passages. Rather, he has changed in how he reads them in the light of the whole of scripture and in light of experience.

One striking observation is how Hays approaches abortion through the lens of community. He observes how often the church puts the burden of decision and responsibility on young women. Rather, what would happen if the community shared the burden and responsibility of raising a child?

Conclusion and Appraisal

In his conclusion Hays briefly but inadequately discusses the sharing of possessions in the church. I wish this had been one of the test cases, as it is especially an important issue among wealthy Western churches. I also wonder about his conclusions about love as a focal image. A stronger case could be made for this on a canonical basis.

Overall, I appreciated his careful elaboration of a methodology for arriving at ethical judgments on the basis of the New Testament. His three focal images offer a substantive foundation. The test cases model thorough application coupled with humility. While this work is the subject of much critique, that fact argues for its significance. Hays offers a thoroughgoing methodology that takes scripture seriously as the “norming norm.” At the same time, he also recognizes the tensions in that material and avoids reductive judgments. No wonder this book continues to be the subject of scholarly discussion thirty years later.

Review: Paul the Storyteller

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Cover image of "Paul the4 Storyteller" by Christoph Heilig

Paul the Storyteller: A Narratological Approach, Christoph Heilig. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802878953) 2024.

Summary: A narratological approach showing that Paul combines implicit and explicit narratives, making him a gifted storyteller.

In my biblical training, we learned to distinguish genres, with the gospels generally consisting of narrative, whereas the letters of Paul were examples of discourse. Of course, neither of this is strictly true. Furthermore, two key New Testament scholars, Richard B. Hays and N. T. Wright pioneered “narrative approaches” to Paul. However, they dismissed the idea of explicit narratives in Paul, observing “narrative substructures (Hayes) or “implicit worldview narratives” (Wright).

Christoph Heilig, while appreciating the pioneering work of these scholars, believes they are wrong in dismissing explicit narratives. He wrote a 600 page dissertation (in German) in 2018. This work follows the organization of the dissertation but is about half the length and in English. He takes the narrative approach a step further, engaging in narratological analysis at a linguistic, grammatological level. While he confirms the use of implicit narrative, he also demonstrates that Paul incorporates a number of explicit narratives.

He begins with a definition of narrative by Kindt and Köppe: “A text is a narrative if and only if it deals with at least two events that are ordered temporally and connected in at least one further meaningful way.” He shows different ways this may be done and discusses the interpretation of story, using biblical examples. Then in chapter two, he turns to the grammar of narration and all the ways events may be linguistically connected. This is not for the faint of heart, running to nearly 100 pages. Grammar nerds will love it, especially Greek grammar nerds.

Chapter three turns to narratives within the wider context of Paul’s works. Explicit narrative connects to a broader frame narrative of Paul’s letters, Chapter four then turns to implicit “protonarratives” in Paul, offering numerous examples of these. Then, in chapter five, he returns to Hays and Wright, confirming aspects of their proposals, and arguing for much closer attention to the way Paul implicitly and explicitly narrates. Particularly, he critiques Wright’s worldview narrative approach as focused more on overarching plot rather than building up from careful analysis of both explicit narrative and implicit protonarratives.

As you may deduce, this is a rigorously technical account, putting forth an argument for a narratological approach to Paul. In addition to contributing to a larger scholarly conversation, Heilig offers resources to enrich the exegesis of Paul’s writing, foundational work, first for commentators, and then for preachers. While it is not easy work, good exegetical work never is. I hope Heilig will build upon and model this work in a commentary (or two!) on one of the Pauline letters.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.