Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction: The loss of human worth in modern life and the hope of its recovery in the zone of Christian redemption.

Section I: Speculative philosophy and the moral quest.
1. Naturalistic ethics and the animalization of the moral life :
I. Elemental naturalism :
A. Ancient: Sophism -- B. Ancient: Cyrenaicism -- C. Ancient: Cynicism -- D. Modern Reflections.
II. Systematic naturalism :
A. Hedonistic naturalism : 1. Ancient: epicureanism ; 2. Modern: utilitarianism ; 3. Modern: evolutionary ethics. --
B. Political naturalism : 1. Ancient: Thrasymachus ; 2. Modern: Machiavelli ; 3. Modern: Hobbes ; 4. Modern: Nietzsche ; 5. Modern: Marx. --
C. Religious naturalism : 1. Ancient: stoicism ; 2. Modern: Spinozism ; 3. Modern: humanism. --
III. Relativistic naturalism :
A. Pragmatism -- B. Logical positivism. --
IV. Irrational naturalism.

2. Idealistic ethics and the deification of the moral life :
I. Elemental idealism :
A. Ancient: Polemarchus -- B. Ancient: Glaucon -- C. Modern reflections.
II. Systematic idealism :
A. Rational idealism: Plato, Aristotle, Hegel -- B. Postulational idealism: Kant. personalism -- C. Irrational reaction.

3. Existential ethics and the intensification of the moral life :
I. Elemental existentialism --
II. Philosophical existentialism : A. Atheistic: Sartre, Heidegger --
B. Theistic: Jaspers.
III. Revelational existentialism: Kierkegaard, Barth, Brunner.

Section II: Christianity and the moral revelation: The redemption of the moral life.
4. The image of God created and sullied : Relation of speculative ethics and revealed ethics -- Hebrew-Christian ethics asserts a unique basis -- No fixed contact between secular and Christian systems -- Yet Imago Dei supplies a point of connection between persons -- The form and content of the Imago by creation and in sin.

5. Christian ethics and the anitheses of speculative morality : Love of God and man superior to mysticism or humanism -- Bondage to Christ superior to autonomy or necessity -- Revelational ethics superior to its speculative form and content -- Love for neighbor as for self superior to egoism or altruism -- Obedience to God superior to happiness or duty as motives.

6. The world of fallen morality : Progression of the rule and reign of God defeat of Satan and the demonic powers -- Christian triumph over death --
Abolition of the Law -- Rescue of man from the enslavement of sin --
Conquests of the Holy Spirit in human life.

7. Transcendent revelation as the source of Christian ethics : Christian ethics based on more than metaphysical speculation -- Christian ethics not anchored merely in religious supernaturalism -- Christian ethics as the morality of revealed religion -- Christian ethics as the morality of the Divine covenant -- Christian ethics as the morality of the believing Church.

8. The good as the will of God as Lord : The Hebrew-Christian identification of the good with God's will -- The modern dissatisfactions with duty and happiness as motives -- The will of God no mere philosophic postulation --
The glory of the Hebrews their knowledge of the will of God.

9. Love, the divine imperative in personal relations : The uniqueness of the Christian ethic of love -- The example of unrequited love in the life of Jesus --
The implications of the ethic of love for daily life.

10. The determination of the content of the moral life : The loss of biblical authority leads to nebulous views of the Divine will -- The appeal to love alone an inadequate guide -- The serviceability of the linago before the fall --
The serviceability of the imago after the fall -- The significance of special revelation in defining the content morality -- Love and commandments not antithetical.

11. The Biblical particularization of the moral life: The Old Testament : The content of morality defined by Scriptural revelation -- The Genesis narrative includes the essential ethical elements -- Distinction between perpetual and temporary obligations -- The Mosaic law reinforces the creation ordinances -- The prophets as forthtellers and foretellers.

12. The Biblical particularization of the will: The sermon on the mount : The humanistic evolutionary interpretation -- The liberal social-gospel interpretation -- The dispensational futuristic interpretation -- The "interim ethic" interpretation -- The existential interpretation -- The Sermon an exposition of the deeper implications of the moral Jaw -- Personal and official relations.

13. The Biblical particularization of the will of God: The larger New Testament : The reinforcement of the ethics of creation, of Sinai and of the Sermon -- New Testament obedience includes more than the commandments -- The acceptance of Christ and the following of His teaching and example -- The teaching of the Apostles -- The New Testament applies and illustrates the revealed ethic.

14. The law and the gospel : Older controversies over the relevance of the Law -- Recent controversies over the relevance of the Law -- The Law as a scripturally fixed nile of life -- The political purpose of the Law -- The pedagogic purpose of the Law -- The didactic purpose of the Law.

15. Christian ethics as predicated on the atonement : The atonement as the presupposition of Christian morality -- Rejection of atonement as a baleful influence misguided -- Concealment of atonement as an attack on objective morality.

16. Christian ethics as the morality of the regenerate man -- The Christian life a newly-given existence in Christ -- The crucifixion, not the improvement, of the old nature -- Human character as determinative of conduct.

17. Jesus as the ideal of Christian ethics : The propriety of Jesus as an example incarnation of obedience -- The incarnation of absolute perfection --
The incarnation of holy love.

18. New Testament principles of conduct : The believer's life one of Christian liberty in grace -- Liberty is to glorify God, not to pursue sin --
The defilement of conscience -- The stumbling-block in the path of weaker believers -- The reproach of unbelievers -- The avoidance of common cause with unbelievers -- Answerability to a temporary or local code.

19. The Holy Spirit, the Christian ethical dynamic : The Spirit as promoting a new tide of ethical vitality -- The Spirit as sustaining higher levels of morality -- The Spirit as enlisting the masses in moral earnestness -- The rule of the Spirit the decisive criterion of Christian living -- The Christian life as Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered -- The believer stands, in the Spirit, in an end-time relation to Christ -- The Spirit baptizes believers into one body -- The Spirit seals the believer --
The Spirit fills the believer -- The New Testament relating of the Spirit to moral power.

20. The Christian life as a possession : Modern assaults on the perseverance of the saints -- The Christian life abides in Christ -- A life not of perfection, but of growth in purity.

21. The distinctive New Testament virtues : Philosophical and theological virtues contrasted -- The virtues Jesus approbated --
The Pauline virtues.

22. Conscience as a Christian : Conscience in its biblical sense --
Conscience in relation to Christ -- The good and the bad conscience --
The education of conscience -- Freedom of conscience.

23. Motives and sanctions of the good life : The motives of Christian behavior -- The primacy of gratitude -- The necessity of responsive love --
The legitimacy of desire for reward -- The sanctions of Christian behavior.

24. Eschatological sanction for ethics : The detachment of the ethical from the eschatological -- The reassertion of a formal eschatological sanction -- The compromise of an essential eschatological sanction futile.

25. Christian morality and the life of prayer : The prayerless life not the good life -- The life of prayer no compensation for ethical living --
The indispensability of prayer for Christian life.