This article deals with the book of Judges from an ethical perspective. The author writes from the conviction that Judges is rich in ethical insight even though there are not direct prescriptions by way of laws or rules of conduct. Judges deals with the community of faith as the place and context for moral formation. The concept of irony is worked with to indicate how life without God looks like.

The author was challenged by reading Nick Hornby's popular novel How to be Good into wondering what Anglicanism has to say about being good. A variety of contemporary views is surveyed. These suggest that goodness comes from worshipping with other Christians, by thinking, or by reading Scripture.