Reflecting upon some problems of the moral life, Gilbert Meilaender considers their difficulties within a vision that accentuates not only the limits, but also the promise, of the Christian story. Created by God as finite beings, we make particular attachments. Redeemed by God for a community transcending nature and history, our love always carries us beyond the special bonds of time and place. We live, therefore, with a sense of permanent tension. If this tension heightens our sense of the perplexities of life, it should not free us from the obligation to probe, clarify, and (where we can) resolve some of those difficulties. The author holds that theological ethics must clarify the direction for growth and development within the Christian life. He undertakes such analysis, emphasizing throughout the limits of the human condition, the importance of our nature as embodied persons, and the danger and pretension in some of our attempts to take control of and master human life. This Christian vision is developed in chapters that explore a range of moral problems, such as abortion, artificial reproduction, euthanasia, care for defective infants, provision of artificial nutrition and hydration, and marital and political community. These are throughout, however, theological explorations. Taken together they illumine not only particular problems of the moral life but a vision of life--classically Christian in its conception, humane in its care for particular bonds of attachment, and modest in its recognition of moral limits on our ability to seek the good. Meilaender has developed a broad recognition both among scholars and students of ethics and among interested general readers. He has the capacity to throw fresh angles of vision on complex problems so as to help both the sophisticated and the uninitiated reader to think more penetratingly about moral questions.
In the face of rapid advances in medical research and treatment, bioethics has become a serious social concern. Originally published in 1996 and later chosen by World magazine as one of the top 100 books of the twentieth century, Gilbert Meilaender s Bioethics covers a wide range of pressing bioethical issues and offers discerning guidance on how Christians ought to think about them. In admirably clear language Meilaender discusses abortion, assisted reproduction, genetic advance and prenatal screening, care for the dying and euthanasia, human experimentation, and more. This new edition of his Bioethics features updated information throughout, a fuller discussion of human embryos — including stem cell research — and a thorough rewrite of the chapter on organ donation.
This short, accessible, but theologically substantive volume unfolds the significance of the Ten Commandments for the Christian life. Gilbert Meilaender, one of today's leading Christian ethicists, places the commandments in the larger context of the biblical history of redemption and invites readers to wrestle with how human loves should relate to the first commandment: to love God above all else. As he approaches the Decalogue from this perspective, Meilaender helps Christians learn what it means to say, "Thy will be done.
Christian vision -- Procreation versus reproduction -- Abortion -- Genetic advance -- Prenatal screening -- Suicide and euthanasia -- Refusing treatment -- Who decides? -- Gifts of the body: organ donation -- Gifts of the body: human experimentation -- Embryos: the smallest of research subjects -- Sickness and health.
In the essays collected here Gilbert Meilaender invites readers to reflect upon some of the bioethical issues that are important for all of us. The essays treat bioethics less as a discipline confined to a few experts than as a deeply humanistic set of concerns that inevitably draws us into religious and metaphysical issues. From reflections on his experience as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics to the way in which Christian trinitarian teaching has shaped what it means to be a person, from life’s beginning to its ending, these essays offer readers a chance to think about matters of fundamental human significance.
Working from within the contours of Christian faith, this book examines the relation between two ways of forming families—through nature (by procreation) and through history (by adoption). Christians honor the biological tie between parents and children, for it is the work of God in creation. Yet Christians cannot forget that it is adoption, and not simply natural descent, that is at the center of the New Testament’s depiction of God’s grace. Gilbert Meilaender takes up a range of issues raised by the practice of adoption, always seeking to do justice to both nature and history in the formation of families, while keeping at the center of our vision the truth that it is not by nature but by grace that we can become adopted children of the one whom Jesus called his Father. Meilaender begins with reflection on the puzzling relation of nature and history in forming families and proceeds to unpack the meaning of huiothesia, the word used in the New Testament to name the grace by which a follower of Jesus becomes an adopted child of God. That perspective is applied to a range of questions that regularly arise in Christian theological discussions of adoption: Is adoption only for the infertile? Should single persons adopt? Is it wise for adoption to take place across racial or national boundaries? Special attention is paid to the relation between adoption and new reproductive technologies and to what is called “embryo adoption.” Interspersed between the chapters are letters written by the author to his own son by adoption. But if the argument of the book is taken seriously, these letters are written not to one who falls within a special category of “adopted son or daughter,” but to one who is, simply and entirely, a son or daughter.
Appeals to ''human dignity'' are at the core of many of the most contentious social and political issues of our time. But these appeals suggest different and at times even contradictory ways of understanding the term. Is dignity something we all share equally therefore the reason we all ought to be treated as equals? Or is dignity what distinguishes some greater and more admirable human beings from the rest? What notion of human dignity should inform our private judgments and our public life? In Neither Beast Nor God, Gilbert Meilaender elaborates the philosophical, social, theological, and political implications of the question of dignity, and suggests a path through the thicket. A noted theologian and a prominent voice in America's bioethics debates, Meilaender traces the ways in which notions of dignity shape societies, families, and individual lives. He incisively cuts through some of the common confusions that cloud our thinking on kehy moral and ethical questions. The dignity of humanity and the dignity of the person, he argues, are distinct but deeply connected - and only by grasping them both can we find our way to a meaningful understanding of the human condition.
A deeply meditated study of C.S. Lewis as a social philosopher. It does him good service. Avoiding unnecesaary biographical data, Meilaender concentrates rigoursly on Lewis' writings in an attempt to 'get at the heart of [his] vision of human community and his understanding of morality' . . . A discriminating work with an intricate structure well suited to the subject." -Modern Language Review "Meilaender's first-class scholarly study of Lewis's social and ethical thought is also a fine commentary on his anthropology . . . A well-written interpretation of the man who has probably had more influence on the theology of thoughtful Christians in the twentieth century than all the church's professional theologians." -Choice "Meilaender is a master exegete and critic of Lewis' dialectical vision in all its rich concreteness . . . This work must now stand as our best guide to Lewis's thought." -Christian Century "A remarkably complete look at Lewis's thought." -New Oxford Review "Combining solid scholarship with literary imagination, Meilaender does what Lewis himself does: he fascinates readers and draws them unawares into serious thought and into reflection requiring a response. . . . A first-rate study of Lewis that can serve also as an introduction to a serious study of all of Lewis's works." -Religious Studies Review "A book that has been needed for a long time. Meilaender brings to his study not only an in-depth knowledge of philosophy and theology but also a keen literary awareness. . . . A gracefully readable, luminously clear book." -Christianity and Literature GILBERT MEILAENDER is the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Professor of Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University. His most recent book is Bioethics: A Primer for Christians (Eerdmans).
In Should We Live Forever? Christian ethicist Gilbert Meilaender puzzles over the implications of the medical advances that have lengthened the human life span, wrestling with what this quest for living longer means for our conception of living well and completely. As he points out in his introduction, "That we often desire, even greedily desire, longer life is clear; whether what we desire is truly desirable is harder to say." The six chapters of this book take multiple perspectives on issues surrounding aging and invite readers to consider whether "indefinitely more life" is something worth pursuing and, if humans are created for life with God, whether longer life will truly satisfy our underlying hunger.
Saint Augustine formulated the classic Christian understanding of desire, that "our hearts are restless until they rest in God." Gilbert Meilaender maintains that this frustrated desire lies at the heart of our existence. In The Way That Leads There he takes Augustine as a "conversation partner" for exploring subjects that human beings have wrestled with for centuries -- desire, duty, politics, sex, and grief. Meilaender's carefully reasoned, insightful work rescues Augustine from many of our misperceptions and interacts meaningfully with both C. S. Lewis and Catholic moral theology, generating insights on difficult topics. The picture of life that emerges in these pages is one of incompleteness, of our inability to perfect and unify our moral lives. Yet this inability is not a cause for despair; it is rather a call to look, with Augustine, to God as the source and object of our greatest desire.
Amid current arguments related to human life and dignity, Christians must be clear about how their faith speaks to such concerns and what other outlooks have to say. This book brings together noted ethicists--Russell DiSilvestro, David P. Gushee, Amy Laura Hall, John F. Kilner, Gilbert C. Meilaender, Scott B. Rae, and Patrick T. Smith--to make a Christian case for human dignity. It offers a robust critique of five influential alternative positions, including the emerging outlook of transhumanism, showing how a Christian view supports the crucial idea that people matter in a way other views cannot.
Sound yet gentle moral instruction for today's young adults is woven throughout this wonderful collection of twenty-four imaginary and imaginative letters from a mother to her daughter in college.
Saint Augustine formulated the classic Christian understanding of desire, that "our hearts are restless until they rest in God." Gilbert Meilaender maintains that this frustrated desire lies at the heart of our existence. In The Way That Leads There he takes Augustine as a "conversation partner" for exploring subjects that human beings have wrestled with for centuries -- desire, duty, politics, sex, and grief. Meilaender's carefully reasoned, insightful work rescues Augustine from many of our misperceptions and interacts meaningfully with both C. S. Lewis and Catholic moral theology, generating insights on difficult topics. The picture of life that emerges in these pages is one of incompleteness, of our inability to perfect and unify our moral lives. Yet this inability is not a cause for despair; it is rather a call to look, with Augustine, to God as the source and object of our greatest desire.
A deeply meditated study of C.S. Lewis as a social philosopher. It does him good service. Avoiding unnecesaary biographical data, Meilaender concentrates rigoursly on Lewis' writings in an attempt to 'get at the heart of [his] vision of human community and his understanding of morality' . . . A discriminating work with an intricate structure well suited to the subject." -Modern Language Review "Meilaender's first-class scholarly study of Lewis's social and ethical thought is also a fine commentary on his anthropology . . . A well-written interpretation of the man who has probably had more influence on the theology of thoughtful Christians in the twentieth century than all the church's professional theologians." -Choice "Meilaender is a master exegete and critic of Lewis' dialectical vision in all its rich concreteness . . . This work must now stand as our best guide to Lewis's thought." -Christian Century "A remarkably complete look at Lewis's thought." -New Oxford Review "Combining solid scholarship with literary imagination, Meilaender does what Lewis himself does: he fascinates readers and draws them unawares into serious thought and into reflection requiring a response. . . . A first-rate study of Lewis that can serve also as an introduction to a serious study of all of Lewis's works." -Religious Studies Review "A book that has been needed for a long time. Meilaender brings to his study not only an in-depth knowledge of philosophy and theology but also a keen literary awareness. . . . A gracefully readable, luminously clear book." -Christianity and Literature GILBERT MEILAENDER is the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Professor of Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University. His most recent book is Bioethics: A Primer for Christians (Eerdmans).
In the essays collected here Gilbert Meilaender invites readers to reflect upon some of the bioethical issues that are important for all of us. The essays treat bioethics less as a discipline confined to a few experts than as a deeply humanistic set of concerns that inevitably draws us into religious and metaphysical issues. From reflections on his experience as a member of the President's Council on Bioethics to the way in which Christian trinitarian teaching has shaped what it means to be a person, from life's beginning to its ending, these essays offer readers a chance to think about matters of fundamental human significance.
Appeals to ''human dignity'' are at the core of many of the most contentious social and political issues of our time. But these appeals suggest different and at times even contradictory ways of understanding the term. Is dignity something we all share equally therefore the reason we all ought to be treated as equals? Or is dignity what distinguishes some greater and more admirable human beings from the rest? What notion of human dignity should inform our private judgments and our public life? In Neither Beast Nor God, Gilbert Meilaender elaborates the philosophical, social, theological, and political implications of the question of dignity, and suggests a path through the thicket. A noted theologian and a prominent voice in America's bioethics debates, Meilaender traces the ways in which notions of dignity shape societies, families, and individual lives. He incisively cuts through some of the common confusions that cloud our thinking on kehy moral and ethical questions. The dignity of humanity and the dignity of the person, he argues, are distinct but deeply connected - and only by grasping them both can we find our way to a meaningful understanding of the human condition.
Jesus’s final command to his disciples at the Last Supper is a calling to an ethic of love. In Christian Ethics: A Short Companion, renowned ethicist Gilbert Meilaender makes the case that all Christian ethics are an outworking of this command to love one another. Meilaender accordingly lays out a vision for the spirit and structure of the Christian life, while drawing directly upon theologians from the early church to the Reformation to today. He begins by examining the concept of sin and its profound impact on human life before moving to grace as an agent of pardon and power. He then lays out a framework for a Christian life characterized by a spirit of love, bound by wise limits and fostered through the community of the church. Within this volume, Meilaender also includes excerpts from and commentary on: Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520) Josef Pieper, About Love (1974) H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (1951) Christian Ethics: A Short Companion is a concise and illuminating exploration of the foundational aspects of Christian ethics. Readers will be empowered to live out their faith with wisdom, grace, and moral clarity—but most of all, with love. The Essentials in Christian Ethics series is designed to illuminate the richness and centrality of ethics to all of Christian life. The series consists of short, introductory volumes written by renowned scholars in the fields of ethics, theology, and philosophy. Each volume explores a crucial element of Christian ethical reflection, approaching the subject from within the broader Protestant moral tradition.
In Should We Live Forever? Christian ethicist Gilbert Meilaender puzzles over the implications of the medical advances that have lengthened the human life span, wrestling with what this quest for living longer means for our conception of living well and completely. As he points out in his introduction, "That we often desire, even greedily desire, longer life is clear; whether what we desire is truly desirable is harder to say." The six chapters of this book take multiple perspectives on issues surrounding aging and invite readers to consider whether "indefinitely more life" is something worth pursuing and, if humans are created for life with God, whether longer life will truly satisfy our underlying hunger.
Amid continuing advances in medical research and treatment, Gilbert Meilaender’s Bioethics has long provided thoughtful guidance on many of society’s most difficult moral problems—including abortion, assisted reproduction, genetic experimentation, euthanasia, and much more. In this fourth edition, Meilaender updates much of the data referenced in the book and responds directly to recent developments, such as the CRISPR/Cas9 method of gene editing. Christians seeking discernment in this new decade will appreciate Meilaender’s circumspect writing and his ability to address the nuances of each issue while maintaining strong and clearly stated moral convictions.
Reflecting upon some problems of the moral life, Gilbert Meilaender considers their difficulties within a vision that accentuates not only the limits, but also the promise, of the Christian story. Created by God as finite beings, we make particular attachments. Redeemed by God for a community transcending nature and history, our love always carries us beyond the special bonds of time and place. We live, therefore, with a sense of permanent tension. If this tension heightens our sense of the perplexities of life, it should not free us from the obligation to probe, clarify, and (where we can) resolve some of those difficulties. The author holds that theological ethics must clarify the direction for growth and development within the Christian life. He undertakes such analysis, emphasizing throughout the limits of the human condition, the importance of our nature as embodied persons, and the danger and pretension in some of our attempts to take control of and master human life. This Christian vision is developed in chapters that explore a range of moral problems, such as abortion, artificial reproduction, euthanasia, care for defective infants, provision of artificial nutrition and hydration, and marital and political community. These are throughout, however, theological explorations. Taken together they illumine not only particular problems of the moral life but a vision of life--classically Christian in its conception, humane in its care for particular bonds of attachment, and modest in its recognition of moral limits on our ability to seek the good. Meilaender has developed a broad recognition both among scholars and students of ethics and among interested general readers. He has the capacity to throw fresh angles of vision on complex problems so as to help both the sophisticated and the uninitiated reader to think more penetratingly about moral questions.
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