Wright surveys the way the early church viewed war. He demonstrates how complex the views were during the period of the early martyrs, i.e. the first three centuries. The prominence of idolatry in the Roman army complicated the attitudes of Christians. The church did not function with a worked-out public ethics.

Public policy and faith are often difficult to relate. This essay wants to help construct a biblically informed perspective on matters of public policy as it relates to labour, poverty, and wealth. It offers an analysis of the book of James with attention to passages that deal with the rich and the poor and examines the implications of these Christian public ethics.

This article reflects on the appropriateness of capital punishment for violent crimes in public ethics.

This article reflects on the place and function of Christian ethics in the public square. It contrasts Christian ethics with competing ethical visions of secular views in bioethics and points out the inherent difficulty in bringing Scripture (or scriptural values) into the ethical square. It concludes with an assessment of the future of Christian values within public ethics.