In Book 1 – Being Truly Human, Gooding and Lennox address issues surrounding the value of humans. They consider the nature and basis of morality, compare what morality means in different systems, and assess the dangerous way freedom is often devalued. What should guide our use of power? What should limit our choices? And to what extent can our choices keep us from fulfilling our potential?
In Book 2 – Finding Ultimate Reality, they remind us that the authority behind ethics cannot be separated from ultimate reality. Is there a Creator who stands behind his moral law? Are we the product of amoral forces, left to create moral consensus? Gooding and Lennox compare ultimate reality as understood in: Indian Pantheistic Monism, Greek Philosophy and Mysticism, Naturalism and Atheism, and Christian Theism.
In Book 3 – Questioning Our Knowledge, Gooding and Lennox discuss how we could know whether any of these competing worldviews is true. What is truth anyway, and is it absolute? How would we recognize truth if we encountered it? Underlying these questions is another that affects science, philosophy, ethics, literature and our everyday lives: how do we know anything at all?
In Book 4 – Doing What’s Right, Gooding and Lennox present particular ethical theories that claim to hold the basic principles everyone should follow. They compare the insights and potential weaknesses of each system by asking: what is its authority, its supreme goal, its specific rules, and its guidance for daily life? They then ask why even the best theories have proven to be impossible to follow consistently.
In Book 5 – Claiming to Answer, they argue it is not enough to have an ethical theory telling us what standards we ought to reach, because we often fail in our duties and do what we know is wrong. How can we overcome this universal weakness? Many religions claim to be able to help, but is the hope they offer true? Gooding and Lennox state why they think the claims of Jesus Christ are valid, and the help he offers is real.
In Book 6 – Suffering Life’s Pain, they acknowledge the problem with believing in a wise, loving and just God who does not stop natural disasters or human cruelty. Why does he permit congenital diseases, human trafficking and genocide? Is he unable to do anything? Or does he not care? Gooding and Lennox offer answers based on the Creator’s purpose for the human race, and his entry into his own creation.
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