The Ten Commandments

This handbook helps bring understanding to the controversies that have arisen in present-day society over the application of the Ten Commandments to law and morality. Part One presents the versions found in the Old Testament, and explains their non-Israelite influences (the Hammurabi Code, for example). The moral thinking of the ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Hebrew cultures, and the modern Jewish tradition are examined, as are the different interpretations placed on the Ten Commandments by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans and other Protestants. Part Two focuses on the modern controversies, assessing the differing sides of each: government funding of faith-based charities, posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings, science versus religion in schools, prayer in public places, blue laws, racial profiling, covenant marriages, stem cell research, cloning, euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion and war.