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The Foundations of Christian Bioethics
This volume addresses the morality at the foundations of Christian bioethics. Drawing on the Christianity of the first millennium, Engelhardt provides the ontological and epistemological foundations for a Christian bioethics that can remedy the onesidedness of a secular bioethics.
- GenresPhilosophy
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 21, 2021
I never expected to find in a bioethics textbook the greatest summary and analysis of church history and western thought I have ever read.
I have never been more keenly aware of the realities of the pressures of living as a Christian in a post-Christian society. And I've never been more determined to seek first the Kingdom of God.
This book a slog, but a very worthwhile slog!
I have never been more keenly aware of the realities of the pressures of living as a Christian in a post-Christian society. And I've never been more determined to seek first the Kingdom of God.
This book a slog, but a very worthwhile slog!
August 18, 2023
An excellent deconstruction of contemporary secular bioethics and then reconstructing a bioethics in a Christian sense, though "construction" isn't the right word, as Engelhardt would adamantly point out, since it implies philosophical abstract theorizing of ethical concepts, instead of what he argues, a fully Christian ethics would be -- one fully incarnated as an experience of God and a striving toward union through holiness with Him.
In that sense, this bioethics is markedly different from all sense of bioethics with which we might be familiar -- gone are the arguments over strict "guiltiness" or "permission" or "good vs. bad acts." What instead is the focus is how every act around bioethical issues, nay around all of life, are viewed as ascetic struggles toward God or self-centered deviations from Him. In this sense, even small steps in the right direction, even if they are not the "perfect" choice for every situation, are still laudable as incremental progress toward the proper goal.
But this is accompanied by continual and profound repentance over bioethical decisions, even if they were arguably the right ones to make. Repentance is not seen as a punishment for having done something "wrong" but rather as a reorienting oneself after involvement in actions that are not the paradisiacal ideal, even when those are unavoidable in this fallen world.
This book is unabashedly Christian, unabashedly Traditional Christian even. As such, many of the same conclusions are reached through the different lens of bioethical decision-making as one would be familiar with in contemporary Conservative Christian Culture. But they are arrived at with a different ethos and telos (goal), thus propelling the decision not only to exoneration of guilt from making bad decisions, but toward an ultimate transforming of the persons affected and through them to their surrounding society and then the world.
If the reader is not interested in such a project, a fully secular analysis of bioethical considerations, with quite different conclusions, can be found in the author's previous "The Foundations of Ethics" (20th ed.).
This present volume could have used a subsequent edition, as it can be quite repetitive in many places, and its extreme over-use of endnotes could have been restructured to allow a clearly continuous line of thought through the author's arguments.
Highly recommended for those interested in ministry, chaplaincy, ethical boards, or analyses of contemporary secular culture, the direction it will like take, and the direction it could take if transformed by God's grace.
In that sense, this bioethics is markedly different from all sense of bioethics with which we might be familiar -- gone are the arguments over strict "guiltiness" or "permission" or "good vs. bad acts." What instead is the focus is how every act around bioethical issues, nay around all of life, are viewed as ascetic struggles toward God or self-centered deviations from Him. In this sense, even small steps in the right direction, even if they are not the "perfect" choice for every situation, are still laudable as incremental progress toward the proper goal.
But this is accompanied by continual and profound repentance over bioethical decisions, even if they were arguably the right ones to make. Repentance is not seen as a punishment for having done something "wrong" but rather as a reorienting oneself after involvement in actions that are not the paradisiacal ideal, even when those are unavoidable in this fallen world.
This book is unabashedly Christian, unabashedly Traditional Christian even. As such, many of the same conclusions are reached through the different lens of bioethical decision-making as one would be familiar with in contemporary Conservative Christian Culture. But they are arrived at with a different ethos and telos (goal), thus propelling the decision not only to exoneration of guilt from making bad decisions, but toward an ultimate transforming of the persons affected and through them to their surrounding society and then the world.
If the reader is not interested in such a project, a fully secular analysis of bioethical considerations, with quite different conclusions, can be found in the author's previous "The Foundations of Ethics" (20th ed.).
This present volume could have used a subsequent edition, as it can be quite repetitive in many places, and its extreme over-use of endnotes could have been restructured to allow a clearly continuous line of thought through the author's arguments.
Highly recommended for those interested in ministry, chaplaincy, ethical boards, or analyses of contemporary secular culture, the direction it will like take, and the direction it could take if transformed by God's grace.
September 10, 2020
An enchiridion of what is to be expected of a medical practitioner in a Christian country.
January 8, 2017
In regards to the first edition. Apparently the second is very different as he had a Philosophica and Theological change of mind. The first one is pretty out there.. He's an unfortunate example one of those converts who adopt an unbearable arrogance to any who haven't 'seen the light'.
In this work, which should be focused on a properly Christian Ethics he constantly exhibits a frankly ludicrous pseudo-Patristic mindset and proffers a most fanciful ecclesiology; When he actually gets to talking about what he should be talking about there are then so many straw men arguments and unsubstantiated claims it's painful to read..very lacking in nuance.
Unfortunately i've had to mention these points about ecclesiology because he drifts from what he should be talking about so much in this work to make his crude points that it has an enormous effect on the content of the book.
I would suggest to look elsewhere for an insight into Christian Ethics- Dr Vigen Guroian, Harakas, Hauerwas, Richard A McCormick, Salzman, Kelly, even Curran etc. are much more insightful and reliable. (Than the first edition anyway).
In this work, which should be focused on a properly Christian Ethics he constantly exhibits a frankly ludicrous pseudo-Patristic mindset and proffers a most fanciful ecclesiology; When he actually gets to talking about what he should be talking about there are then so many straw men arguments and unsubstantiated claims it's painful to read..very lacking in nuance.
Unfortunately i've had to mention these points about ecclesiology because he drifts from what he should be talking about so much in this work to make his crude points that it has an enormous effect on the content of the book.
I would suggest to look elsewhere for an insight into Christian Ethics- Dr Vigen Guroian, Harakas, Hauerwas, Richard A McCormick, Salzman, Kelly, even Curran etc. are much more insightful and reliable. (Than the first edition anyway).
February 25, 2024
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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