The distinction between clean and unclean animals, probably originating in tensions between shepherds and farmers, is in the biblical laws of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 transformed into an important theological principle. In this wide-ranging and elegantly written study, Houston argues that the avoidance of 'unclean' foods is a mark of the exclusive devotion of Israel to one god. In a concluding chapter, it is suggested that the abolition of the distinction in early Christianity corresponds to the universal horizon of the new faith.

In Justice: The Biblical Challenge, Walter Houston asks what the Bible has to say about justice, and what relevance that has for people, particularly Christians, at the present day. After brief sketches of the various social contexts of biblical times which governed how people thought about justice, the examples of justice presented by the biblical text are grouped under three headings, which Houston calls three narratives or stories: the story of creation (justice as cosmic order), the story of the Exodus (justice as faithfulness), and the story of Israel (justice as a community of equals)....