Few arrive in a first ethics class with a grip on the range of ideas and thinkers, perspectives and pitfalls that make up the conversation about what is good and right and moral. "The Pocket Dictionary of Ethics" is a convenient power-assist unit to help readers get up to speed.

Ethics is as old as the city-state and as new as cyberspace. Guided by the wagon tracks of moral tradition, it nevertheless rides the cutting edge of science and technology. Increasingly it is moving into the corner offices of law, business, medicine, science and technology.

But few of us arrive in our first ethics class--or take our seat on an ethics committee--with a grip on the range of ideas and thinkers, perspectives and pitfalls that make up this ancient conversation about what is good and right and moral. We may feel like college math students who slipped through high school without learning algebra.

The Pocket Dictionary of Ethics is a convenient boost to help you catch up.

Among the 300 definitions provided by Stanley J. Grenz and Jay T. Smith are

• terms, from altruism to virtue
• issues, from animal rights to war
• ethicists, from Saint Augustine to Peter Singer
• perspectives, from Aristotelianism to utilitarianism
• marketplace specialties, from advertising to technological ethics

Not only does this brief and convenient reference book take you where your desktop dictionary was not designed to go, it doubles as your basic A-to-Z survey or refresher course in ethics.

Designed for students and pastors alike, the short and accessible volumes in the IVP Pocket Reference Series will help you tackle the study of biblical languages, church history, apologetics, world religions, Christian spirituality, ethics, theology, and more.