Is there a special relation between religious beliefs and moral behavior? In particular, is there a distinctive Christian moral character and how is this manifested in moral actions? The influential theologian James M. Gustafson probes these questions and offers an analysis of the distinctively religious reasons of the "heart and mind" which constitute the basis for a Christian ethics.
Professor Gustafson grounds his discussion in a concrete example of moral conduct which deeply impressed him. The incident narrated in detail at the start and referred to throughout concerns a nonreligious...

Despite its apparently peripheral location in the Qajar Empire, Kirman was frequently found at the centre of developments reshaping Iran in the 19th century. Over the Qajar period the region saw significant changes, as competition between Kirmani families rapidly developed commercial cotton and opium production and a world renowned carpet weaving industry, as well as giving strength to radical modernist and nationalist agitation in the years leading up to the 1906 Constitutional Revolution.

Kirman and the Qajar Empire explores how these Kirmani local elites mediated...