The agony of affluence: to have wealth and a desire to please God by making responsible economic decisions and at the same time not to have the knowledge to respond wisely to a world full of human need.

Writers on the subject of wealth fall into two groups. The first group asserts that if Christians have wealth, they are guilty of injustice and should therefore give it all away. The second group points to the Old Testament promises of prosperity and suggests that the faithful have a divine right to enjoy it. However, most serious evangelicals find themselves dissatisfied with both of these extremes. The Agony of Affluence provides a balance William Wells examines what the Bible says about God's concern for the poor, as well as what the Bible says about God's promise of material blessings to believers. The author also looks at the implications of contempo-rary economic analysis for the questions raised by the biblical text and, finally, attempts to integrate the two perspectives without slighting either.

William W. Wells (Ph.D., Syracuse) has taught philosophy and religion at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and historical theology at both Regent College and Wheaton College Graduate School. In 1981 he left the academic world to pursue an MBA at the University of Chicago and a career in business. Currently he works as a business and data-processing consultant and also serves with Wycliffe Bible Translators.