Slavery as Moral Problem: In the Early Church and Today (Facets)

Slavery As Moral Problem: In Early Church and Today by Jennifer A. Glancy"Slavery As Moral Problem" is the insightful, brief book about the issue of slavery from early Christianity to today. Professor Glancy addresses difficult questions regarding the moral problems of slavery and does so with well-researched arguments and a sense of humanity. This brief 96-page book is broken out into the following four chapters: 1. Jesus and Slavery, 2. The First Christian Slaveholders, 3. Slaves in the Household of God, and 4. Slavery in the Christian Empire.Positives:1. Fascinating topic and treated with the utmost care and sensitivity.2. Well researched and well written book. The prose is direct and accessible.3. The author does a commendable job of staying on topic and giving it a fair treatment.4. Kudos to Professor Glancy for having the intellectual courage to provide the facts as best we know them at the expense of causing cognitive dissonance, bravo!5. Interesting look at how Christians in antiquity viewed slavery. Good stuff!6. What the Bible says about slavery. Good use of scripture to illustrate her points. Including questionable translations.7. A look at how slaves lived in antiquity.8. Did Jesus endorse or enforce the norms of slavery? Find out.9. Paul's record on slavery discussed.10. An interesting look at baptism and its impact on the slave and slaveholders relations.11. Many tough questions and even more interesting answers regarding slavery.12. Biblical passages about slavery discussed an analyzed. Some passages are truly eye opening.13. Slavery and violence.14. So do Christians from the first centuries leave any written condemnations of slavery? Did the growing influence of the church appreciably improve the lot of slaves? Find out.15. The repulsive notion that throughout antiquity slaves were the sexual property of their owners.16. The slavery views of well-known historical apologists.17. Christian critics of slavery.18. Good inclusion of Further Reading and Notes sections.19. Requires a little investment of time to complete this brief interesting book.20. A great Kindle value!Negatives:1. Links did not work on the Kindle.2. No visual aids to assist the reader. Illustrations, diagrams, maps would have added value. Even a chart illustrating the different types of slaves in antiquity.3. Not much discussion on how American slavery was justified.In summary, this is a surprisingly good book. I had reservations prior to purchasing the book because I was concerned about the agenda of a Christian author. Would she be able to present the facts as best we know them or would she defend her faith at the expense of the facts? I'm happy to state that not only does the author have integrity but the courage to convey the facts in a straightforward manner. Thank you. I highly recommend this book.Further suggestions: "Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery" by Stephen R. Haynes, "Not For Sale" by David Batstone, and "Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship" by Hector Avalos.