The Sermon on the Mount: A Theological Investigation

This revised edition of Carl Vaught's theological investigation of the Sermon on the Mount begins with the assumption that the text cannot be understood apart from a transformation of the human spirit. The stages of this transformation are outlined in the Beatitudes; and against this background, the book comes to focus on the perfection that Jesus demands from his followers. The perfection in question is not an abstract ideal, but points to our need to become mature, and by implication, to move toward the goal for which we are intended.

Vaught's study is a theological attempt to explore some of the ways in which perfection can be achieved. By contrast with this way of approaching the text, many interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount are atomistic, generating an interpretive standpoint that presupposes that the text is a collection of fragments. In this book, Vaught pays careful attention to the original language of the text, but also a ssumes that it has a unity that transcends the fragmentation it has often been thought to reflect.

The text moves from the Beatitudes, through simple illustrations about salt and light, to indications about the way in which Jesus fulfills and transcends the religious tradition from which he comes. In the Sermon on the Mount, we also find suggestions about how we can deal with the practical problems of murder and anger, adultery and divorce, the problem of retaliation, and the problem of learning how to respond to our enemies. Finally, just as the Lord's Prayer is at the center of the Sermon, it is at the center of Vaught's interpretation of it; and just as the text concludes by challenging us to build our lives upon a rock, this book concludes by focusing on the ways in which Jesus is the rock that makes divine perfection accessible.

About the Author:
Carl G. Vaught currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. A graduate of Baylor and Yale Universities, Vaught taught for more than thirty years at Penn State University. He is the author of Essays in Metaphysics, The Quest for Wholeness, and the forthcoming Augustine's Confessions: The Language of God and the Soul.