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This chapter analyzes the concept of religious knowledge. Knowledge informs us about the reality of existence, providing guidance for decision making. In Islam, such knowledge, based in scripture (Qur'an and sunna), exists to generate a moral order pleasing to God. Loss of such knowledge is a sign of the end times, ignorance being the cause of moral disarray. Knowledge is thus not simply a source of prestige for scholars but truth from God to guide society to prosperity in both this world and the next. Embodied in a corpus of laws known as shari'a, this knowledge is overseen by religious scholars with jurisprudential expertise to apply God's will with wisdom to life's situations. The chapter discusses the scope of religious knowledge, the religious value of secular reality, the political demands of religious knowledge, politics of religious diversity, religious knowledge and the modern state, and religious knowledge as guidance for society.

Children are not pure innocents, as every new parent quickly learns. They are vitally concerned with distinguishing good from evil and truth from falsehood. Children need guidance and more road maps and they benefit immensely from the example of adults who speak truthfully and act form moral strength. This chapter is concerned with children's upbringing, issues of moral guidance, the problems society is faced with in terms of morality, and the role of moral stories in this regard. C. S. Lewis's little book entitled The Abolition of Man discusses forces that starve the moral imagination and replace it with utilitarian rationality. It warns of a philosophy of education and childrearing that undermines confidence in moral certitudes and substitutes the dogma that morality is relative to individual desire and cultural context.

This chapter examines the moral purpose of Valerius' Memorable Words and Deeds. Most of his chapters are devoted to virtues, others to their practical exercise and to matters of moral ambiguity, but there are also those devoted to vices. The discussion covers instances where moral exhortation rather than moral guidance is needed; less clear-cut issues on which a reader might well require moral guidance; and chapters devoted to the subject of consolation.

This chapter draws upon the analyses of chapters 1 and 2 to describe a functional, philosophically precise account of compassion. This account runs against linguistic intuitions (at least in English) for it extends to sharing in happiness as well as sharing in suffering. The “passion” of compassion finds its root in the Latin patī (“to suffer” or “to submit”), but this in turn finds its root in the Greek paschein, which is not “to suffer” but “to feel.” The chapter also describes compassion's application in moral theory, specifically compassionate virtue ethics, and shows how this theory would provide constructive moral guidance.

This chapter discusses how the form of Valerius' Memorable Words and Deeds was aimed at providing the audience with moral guidance in as convenient a manner as possible. Materials were arranged into thematically titled chapters to ensure accessibility. The theme of brevity also recurs throughout the work as part of the author's technique of limiting his material to the most effective examples in order to put across his message briefly and effectively without boring the reader.

This chapter reviews Isocrates's To Nicocles. Nicocles had been his pupil, and the purpose of this address is to offer advice on the immediate problems facing a king in his own country: how to sustain his authority and make his reign acceptable to his subjects and tolerable for himself. The style of To Nicocles conforms to its fragmentary structure. After introducing his subject by remarking on the paradox that rulers, in spite of their enjoyment of great material wealth, are at a disadvantage in the crucial matter of education, Isocrates begins a careful portrayal of a ruler who avoids all the vices of tyranny as they had come to be recognised and abhorred by his time. The tyrants of the past had turned to poets and wise men for counsel and moral guidance: Nicocles should do the same, but, unlike them, follow their advice. His success will depend on the rigour he applies to his self-improvement. Isocrates then describes the ruler's general attitude to his subjects before proceeding to more detailed measures.

This chapter examines Valerius' decision to use historical examples as the vehicle of his moral message in Memorable Words and Deeds. He selected his examples according to the criteria of authority, plausibility, and entertainment.

This chapter speculates on the intended audience of Valerius' Memorable Words and Deeds and how he expected the work to be communicated to that audience. It suggests that Memorable Words and Deeds was intended for private study by members of a social elite. The popularity of morally instructive works at dinner-parties, particularly historical works, and the evidence of Plutarch and Suetonius — who state that the narration of historical anecdotes was an important part of the entertainment — indicates that such gatherings are a probable context in which to envisage the communication of the Memorable Words and Deeds to its audience.

This chapter details Isocrates' To Nicocles. He begins by stating that rulers, in spite of their enjoyment of great material wealth, are at a disadvantage in the crucial matter of education. Isocrates then provides a careful portrayal of a ruler who avoids all the vices of tyranny as they had come to be recognised and abhorred by his time. His function is to bring prosperity to his people, and his superiority to his people in intelligence must be matched by his superior qualities and accomplishments. These qualities can be acquired and cultivated. Isocrates advises Nicocles to turn to poets and wise men for counsel and moral guidance, claiming that his success will depend on his self-improvement. He describes the ruler's general attitude to his subjects before proceeding to more detailed measures. The advice which follows underlines the prince's absolute power: to make necessary changes and personally to dispense justice, to administer the city as his own estate, and to control foreign policy. All this power must be used with discretion, which should include the judicious choice of friends and others to help him in government.

This chapter examines Valerius' selection of examples. It considers his sensitivity for what his audience would find credible, generally choosing historical examples that would be the most convincing and inspiring for his audience. It also discusses how fable represents a kind of anecdote which does not appear in the Memorable Words and Deeds, but is relevant both to Valerius' criteria of belief and to the kind of audience for which he was writing.

Hermann von der Hardt’s exegetical work is extremely idiosyncratic and controversial. Yet it is important for at least two reasons. First, his reading of the Bible evinces a thorough philological approach that served to corroborate his view of the complicated, encoded structures of biblical history. Secondly, von der Hardt refused to present the Book of Jonah as a prediction of Christ’s coming, as was usually done before him. Instead, he adopted a strictly historical interpretation that avoided delving into the mysteries of divine providence and explained the book as series of practical, moral, and political recommendations. His exegesis shows a predilection for a historical-critical interpretation that fits in the tradition associated with La Peyrère, Spinoza, and Simon. For von der Hardt, the moral implications of the text were of overriding importance.