Toward a Culture of Freedom

"Thorwald Lorenzen presents an inspiring call to embrace freedom as a matter of spiritual inheritance and destiny. Pastors and prophets alike will use this text to sharpen their vision, and every reader will find in it a guide to break free from those chains that bind them."

--David Batstone, author, Professor of Ethics, University of San Francisco, and President, NOT For Sale



"Combining exegetical acumen with sharp theological insight, Lorenzen has produced a fresh and deeply profound meditation on the Ten Words of the Torah. Filled with historical and contemporary illustrations, Lorenzen proves that the Decalogue is as relevant, practical, challenging, and disturbing today as ever. Highly readable yet informed by a lifetime of scholarly study, Lorenzen's book will be immensely valuable to both pastors and laypersons and would make an excellent supplemental classroom text. The appendices on interpreting the Ten Commandments and on making ethical decisions make a book that is already well worth the price a bargain indeed."

--Kent Blevins, Professor, Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy, Gardner-Webb University





"Here is the most careful and relevant study of the Ten Commandments now available. Biblically grounded, theologically astute, Lorenzen's penetrating treatment of each of the commandments results in constructing a mature, global ethic for Christians. Far from a legalistic list of commands, Lorenzen shows how 'the Ten Words' function as a blueprint for connecting the dots between a private and social ethic in a pluralistic world."

--D. Dixon Sutherland, Professor of Religious Studies, Director, Christian Ethics Institute, Stetson University





"Toward a Culture of Freedom is a superb ethical treatise based on the Ten Commandments. Deeply grounded in scriptures and equipped with an expansive and compassionate experience of today's world, Professor Lorenzen will help you to discern some solid rocks to stand on in an era when all human foundations seem to be quivering. Though writing from a Christian perspective, he speaks to persons of all faiths and even no faith. Would that every American, nay, every human being, would glean the wisdom she or he will find here."

--E. Glenn Hinson, Professor Emeritus,

Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond