Joined-up life

Book excerpt: Finding our best humanity in Jesus Christ is the key theme of Andrew Cameron's fresh exploration, in which he seeks to understand ethi as springing from Jesus, and to show how identifying with Jesus Christ brings order and clarity to human life. "In a world where everyone is an expert on right and wrong, this book tries to show how Jesus unifies the best of what you hear. He joins up messy lives" Cameron's accessible, coherent, and innovative analysis is divided into seven parts. Each part contains several self-contained chapters that address some specific aspect of Christian thinking about ethi and life, and each chapter is cross-referenced to other key chapters. The chapters may be read in sequence, or dipped into in any order. Part 1 considers some common ways of thinking about ethi (e.g, rules, rights, values, and results). Part 2 considers some arenas we are unaware of, but that have a huge impact on how we live. Part 3 shows how Jesus Christ becomes a better main category than ethi for determining who we are and what we do. Part 4 builds a "unified field" shaped in response to Jesus Christ, by which we can orient ourselves to whatever is around us. Part 5 examines some means by which we approach the daily details of life within this overall orientation. Part 6 looks at some aspects of our life-package, or "vocation" to see how they are located within the "unified field" Part 7 visits some areas of discussion that cause great disagreement between Christians and others, and tries to show why. Cameron offers a stimulating reappraisal of our cluttered, tumultuous lives and encourages us to see life through a different lens.